Discussion: Favourite Characters

Every person who reads has a favourite character or characters.  There are just some characters that you remember years and years after finishing a book.  They speak to you because you can see a part of yourself in them or they have such strong personalities that you can’t forget them.

Harry Potter is, of course, quite a popular favourite and he remains one of my favourites to this day.  I say ‘one of’ because there is no way I can just choose one favourite character when I’ve read quite literally hundreds of books.  One of my most recent favourite characters would have to be Isherwood Williams from Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.  Ish isn’t a perfect person, but he’s resourceful and intelligent.  He makes mistakes and tries to be a good leader of his group while rebuilding civilization in his own manner.  Things don’t turn out quite how he wants them to, but he’s just one of those characters that believably shapes the world he lives in through sheer force of will.

Keeping with the depressing post-apocalyptic theme, Marco of The Return Man is another of my absolute favourites.  Tortured, cynical and at the same time full of hope, he’s a mess of contradictions that in the hands of any other writer would be a terrible character.  But V. M Zito made him believable by giving him an unique backstory that explained his cynical attitude as well as why his past continues to haunt him.  Opposite him at first is Wu, also one of my favourite characters.  Wu isn’t perfect and neither is Marco, but the two of them formed one of those unlikely friendships that just worked well.

I’ve rambled on enough about my favourite characters, so now it’s your turn.  Who is/are your favourite character(s)?  Why?

[As a side note, there are no rules for Discussion posts other than the usual ones from my Commenting Policy.  Feel free to engage myself and other commenters!]

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