Avaitor's Top 10 Fictional Characters (And Yours, Too?)

[Goldstar]

Pretty cool lists! I'm not too surprised to see you both have Daffy top your lists.

And you remind me that I need to watch more Night Court, Goldstar.

Yeah, we're both definitely more Daffy than Bugs.

Night Court was 1 of my shows back in the day (up until the last couple of seasons, anyway), but I haven't seen it since the show's brief run on TV Land. Perhaps I should either check out the DVDs or see if the episodes are on Netflix.

[Avaitor]

8-


Death (Sandman's incarnation)

C'mon guys, it's not hard to write a good female character. At least, it shouldn't be. There are ultimately more males on my list, probably because I am one, but I will gladly name drop a few women that I admire greatly.

Like this little lady here. Death, or the Reaper, is a character that has been used in multiple different perceptions over the years, from a stock-looking take with a uniquely Swedish sense of humor and admiration of chess, to a wacky little guy with a Jamaican accent, but in Neil Gaiman's beloved comic series, the angel of death is portrayed as a Gothic-prone girl with her own wit, yet a heart and thirst for understand that makes her stand out among not just other takes on the myth, but comic characters as a whole during this period.

What makes me so fascinated with Death in Sandman comes from her actions. She will act out her job, as to take those whose time on earth is up into the afterlife, but she also makes it a habit to visit said person as they are born to make it all a bookend. This method is both morbid and heartfelt at the same time, as this use of her power gives Death a greater insight into whose life she is taking away. You can usually even see her talking to her subjects, as she escorts them to their eternal future.

Death's fashion sense and personal interests are also important for her character, as they should be. While wearing the typical garb of a young Gothic woman, this seems to be more out of obligation than by personal choice. Death is shown to be interested in the mortal world, as she's even a huge fan of Mary Poppins, which is always a plus in my eyes. With this, it's obvious that she is aware of modern fashions, and anyone with even the slightest awareness of dressing tastes can tell that darker clothing and ankh necklaces tend to bring out the look of the occult. Death's acceptance of this trend shows her willingness to  maintain her duties, while keeping up with the present day.

There's a lot to love in Sandman. If you haven't read any of Gaiman's great comic series, for the love of all that's good, please do. Death's appeal alone is worth the price of admission.

[Silverstar]

Good list so far, Aviator. You've clearly put a lot of thought into these. Kind of wish I had put Scrooge McDuck on my list.

@Goldstar: yeah, Night Court used to be the shiz. It kind of petered out in its' last couple of seasons, but when it was good, it was really good. My favorite characters on NC were always the acerbic bailiff ladies: Selma (Selma Diamond), Florence (Florence Halop) and finally Roz (Marsha Warfield). They often said what I would've said if I had been thrust into those kinds of wacky situations.

[gunswordfist]

Dale Gribel (sp?)

It's Gribble. And I love JL's take on Shayera too.

Thanks. Shayera became my favorite before I started really appreciating all the things that makes her a great character. It started out from how she acts during (Yeah, the screaming  But it's cool.) Meanwhile there's dry ass JL Wonder Woman and the fact there aren't that many good superheroines which made Hawkgirl stick out to me. Seriously, while watching cartoons as a teen, there was pretty much just WW, TT Starfire and Raven...and Shebang to choose from.

1. Yusuke Urameshi (Possibly my favorite fictional character period.)

Call it Justin Cook's version of Yusuke Urameshi, and I agree with you. That's not to say that Nozomu Sasaki doesn't do a great job in the role among the Japanese voice cast, but as far as I'm concerned, Justin Cook just brings SO much more personality to the character. I don't care if its added dialogue and changes some of the original Japanese meanings of some of the lines. It just sounds so damn natural that in many cases you would swear that this show was originally written for an English audience, even if its just FUNi's old bad-habit of heavily Americanizing the script dialogue. Either way, we still got a very intelligent and entertaining script, all the same, and Justin Cook did a (mostly) great job with his delivery, with maybe just a few stumbles and hiccups here or there.

Also, I always loved that Yusuke, unlike most other shonen protagonists, generally never came off as some moral goodie-two-shoes who had to have everything add up to some impossibly perfect ideals. The dude was actually more stone-hearted than Sensui when it came down to it. I mean, when he fought Doctor he had some hesitation at taking a human life, but showed that he was clearly willing to go through with it if he had to, and then after fighting Sensui he downright admitted that he didn't care if some evil people had to die. There are good people in the world and then their are scum-bags, so as far as Yusuke was concerned, just let the evil fuckers die.

Now, I have to admit, he isn't exactly a deep or complex character, but I admire his personality and attitude towards life. He's the type of character, though, that you could only really appreciate to his fullest if you both have a liking for shonen, but also hate the typical generic protagonist who are treated like complete saints when it comes to their morals. Togashi is good at making his characters more morally grey than pure light-hearted. That said, Yusuke at the end of the day was unquestionably a good guy. Gon from HXH, on the other hand, once you get to know more about him is actually far more morally grey than any other shonen protagonist that I have ever seen.

Oh yeah, Cook's Urameshi is what I meant. He brings so much personality to the character.

[Avaitor]

7-


Daenerys Targaryen

I brought up my point about how some writers have trouble with writing women in my last entry because it's a fair point. A lot of writers do struggle, and tend to either needlessly glorify, or shame, their female characters. I like what George R.R. Martin has to say, though- "you know, I've always considered women to be people".

Many like Tyrion Lannister, and so do I. Doug even put him in his own top 10 list, but my two favorite characters in A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones are female- Arya (who might make my top 20), and our Khalessi. Here's a character with a lot on her plate. A rich family history full of leaders, but plagued by inbreeding and plotting to keep them down. By the end of the first book and season, Dany ends up as one of the last survivors of her house, and keeps her quest for family dominance going over the rest of the series.

Daenerys has a lot on her plate besides keeping her family name strong. In the first book and season, she loses her unborn child as well as her husband, a pain that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Even early on, Dany shows her willing strength to expand and act upon her duty, even resulting in her giving her douchebag brother the crown he deserves.

Actions like these lead to her quest to buy and train an entire soldier to keep her reign and maintain her duties as a queen, adding such rules as turning any rapists into eunuchs as part of her command. At various points in the series, Dany will remember losing her love and family, but still moves forward regardless, all but confirming her strength and integrity.

There's plenty to love about Dany as she keeps her best face forward during her struggles. She's pretty much all that's left for House Targaryen, and while the other houses do end up losing important members, Daenerys remains as powerful as ever throughout. This just gives me plenty to admire for the character, easily one of the strongest on my list.

Also, she's a mother of three dragons, the last living in Westeros. I love dragons, and Dany owns the last remaining ones. Can't say that doesn't give her major points in my book.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

For some reason I've never really liked the portrayal of Death as someone whose perky. Can't really say why.

[Spark Of Spirit]

His #1 will be Michelle Tanner from Full House.

For some reason I've never really liked the portrayal of Death as someone whose perky. Can't really say why.

Kind of agree. It might be because it's so common and there isn't a lot of wiggle room for characterization beyond winking or nodding.

[Avaitor]

Not perky per say, but definitely not traditional.

[Pharass]

I'd say my favorite version of Death is either Pratchett's or Bergman's. Love the scene in The Seventh Seal when the actor decides to spend the night in a tree so that the wild animals in the forest can't get to him, only for Death to appear and saw the tree down.
"I've got a performance."
"It's canceled. Because of Death."

Daeny's fine, but there are some female characters in Thrones that I like more than her: Arya for example and both of the Tyrell ladies (Margery and her grandmother). Let's see; Brienne's pretty good too and Cersei is fun in a "love-to-hate" sort of way. I heartily disliked Sansa in the first books, but she started to grow on me in A Feast For Crows. That said, were I to rank the women of the series in order of preference, I'd probably put Daeny above both Sansa and Cersei.

[Avaitor]

I couldn't deal with Sansa in the first book and season, but the more she realizes how awful Joffrey is and adapts into her own person, the more I've grown to appreciate her. She's moving up towards my favorites. Cersei isn't awful either, but I can't forgive her for allowing Joffrey to grow up to be the royal brat he is.

Brienne and the Tyrell's are fine as well, yes. And last week's episode has even helped Ygritte to climb up higher on my list ("Girls see more blood than boys").

[Avaitor]

#6


Captain Nemo

James Mason. The end.

yes, I will go this lazy for now. But my top 5 is coming up, so you know that I'll go crazy there.

[Pharass]

Verne's greatest character. One of fiction's greatest characters.

[Avaitor]

#5-


Silver Surfer

Of all of Stan Lee's characters, the Surfer is among his very favorites, one of the ones he loved to write for the most. And he's definitely up there for me, as well.

His story is pretty simple. Norrin Radd, a distinct inhabitant of the crime-free planet Zenn-La, is bored of being handed everything to him in his utopia. And why not? If you have nothing to fight for to gain, life can be dull. All of this is wont to change, though, as Galactus...

Fuck it. Y'no what? I don't feel like writing. I like the Surfer, and that's all you need to know.

[Foggle]

I hope the rest of this is coming soon.

[gunswordfist]

And you better write more next time.