Fandom meme [orichalcum]

From

contrariety, expanded to other media and genres cuz wow do I not watch as much TV as they do...

I will list 10 TV shows/books/etc... which I particularly like. For each work, please comment with guesses as to my favorite character; when correctly guessed, I'll bold the show and write in why I love that character. Beyond the obvious common ones, I tried to pick works where my favorite character is a bit atypical. Posting now on the maybe guesses:

1. Chronicles of Prydain: Gurgi! Not because he's cute, but because he makes the tough choices when Taran's a wuss. And he's a beautiful exploration of what it means to try and be human and good.

2. Rulers of England (I've read multiple books about multiple of them - therefore, is too a fandom!) Elizabeth I is certainly one of the top two or three, though I don't know if she'd be first. I mean - she wore pants, and peacefully reconciled a 50-year religious crisis, and helped establish the modern English governmental system!

3. Star Trek: DS9 Jadzia Dax, with Contrariety right again. Competent, confident about her sexuality, and fun-loving, without all of Kira's neuroses. Plus the symbiont thing is really neat.

4. Six Feet Under:

5. Harry Potter: It used to be Hermione, but isn't really anymore.

6. Firefly: Nah, Inara's who I'd like to play if we were doing an RPG, but the actress isn't good enough to make her actually my favorite character on the show. I'm a big Shepherd Book fan - righteous, tough, and with awesome hair.

7. LOTR : Yep, Merry. I like the common sense and bravery. (tho Sam is close.)

8. Dark is Rising:

9. Little Women Yep, I'm the only woman our age I know who likes Meg best. I always admired her quiet courage and resourcefulness; she's much more practically helpful to the family when their dad is away than Jo is, and the section of her learning to deal with the early trials of marriage is really insightful and accurate.

10. Chronicles of Narnia

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Eliwony, Henry VIII (though unless there's a show called Rulers of England, this is not an area of fandom. I don't care what the History buffs say), Odo, Casey McCall, Hermione Granger, Wash (maybe Book), Merry, Meriman Lyon, Winona Ryder's character, The Wolf

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I'm surprised. This is fun!

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Haha! A victory for free association! One is infinitely better than I ever expected to do!

(off topic)

(cue outraged English major)

Winona Ryder's character???

Julian!! It was a book before they made a more-or-less-adequate adapation starring Winona! Jeez! We're gonna take your literature-major card away! ;)

(/outraged English major)

(back on topic)

Ori, I'm actually surprised you read it, given what you told me about your childhood prejudice against "girl books." Does it get any more girly than LW, where the girls are rewarded by fate when they learn the "womanly virtues" of quietness, gratitude, compliance, etc.? Jo (the one spunky tomboy) is explicitly rewarded when she learns to act "motherly" towards her ill sister... and her reward to trade her writing career for marriage, motherhood (of sons!) and the running of a boy's school. I liked LW when I was eight; it started pissing me off when I was twelve.

Anne of Green Gables at least went to college.

(I'm not attacking - sorry for the vehemence - I'm just really surprised.)

Yeah, I thought about ragging on Julian for that one, but decided I had already gotten myself in enough trouble with this set of posts.

So, partially, it was that my mom gave me her copy of Little Women and told me how much she had loved it, so it was very much a bonding experience (and at a time when my mom was working very hard so we didn't have that much contact.)

But also - this sounds cheesy - but I really liked the values expressed in it. Yes, there are womanly virtues, but there's also a lot of emphasis on loyalty, and caring, and creativity, and charity, and avoiding snobbery and cliquishness. I like "Rose in Bloom" even better.

Another way to express it, with regard to the whole "girl" books thing, is that Little Women always seemed to me to be more the story of a family and of growing up and being women, and I think, for whatever reason, I wasn't as interested in reading about girls who were the same age as I was. But mostly, I suspect, it's that my mom gave it to me when I was 7, and told me it was important, and thus it had the parallel status of LOTR, which was the series my dad wanted to share with me.

I already gave Jules grief over the "Winona Ryder" comment.

He has been drilled in Meg (the oldest one), Jo (the writer), Beth (the dead one), and Amy (the snotnosed brat) and now can converse with females everywhere.

Poor Beth deserves such a better epithet - but you're right that that's how we all think of her. Does he know the Bennet sisters? (That one, of course, is not fair for favorites, cuz, really, who's a Kitty fan?)

That's not how I think of her - in my mind she's "the one who plays the piano."

-MJNH, who was as annoyed with how boring Anne (formerly of Green Gables) became once she was a mom as with Jo.

Yeah, I was annoyed with that too. Although Rilla turned out to be pretty cool, which partly made up for it. (And I admit - I liked Beth!)

And one final guess, for Narnia - is it Reepicheep?

though unless there's a show called Rulers of England, this is not an area of fandom

Good heavens, why not? What about Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy stories?

1. Fflewdur Fflam
2. This is not an area of fandom, dear. (muahaha! Pejorative 'dear'!)
3. hmm. Bashir's hot.
4.
5. Dumbledore
6. Simon
7. Sam Gamgee
8. Bran
9. Jo
10. Lucy

Humph. Not all of us base our favorite characters on who we'd like to sleep with. :) And you clearly just aren't enough of a history buff...

In which universe do I think you want to sleep with Ffflewdur Fflam?
sheesh.

(um...or Dumbledore... or Jo, Lucy, Sam Gamgee, Bran (hello, 13?)...)

It was the Bashir comment, mainly - and your own answers to some of your postings...And I note you're not denying Simon...

I'm also amused cuz Simon and Bashir are two characters I associate strongly with Julian...

Sure, well, I already admitted had a crush on Bashir. But that's one out of nine guesses. Gimme a little credit here.
(Not Simon, actually, that was pure guessage. But you finding him attractive wasn't outside the realm of possibility, so I wasn't going to include him in the "in what universe..." clause.)

*thinks about her own favorites game*
Hm. It's more a case that when I like a character, they become more fuckworthy. Fuckworthiness is not the original criterion. *shrugs*

I'm actually... genuinely a little insulted. Sure, I like hot guys. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate good characters for other reasons. I'm not some bimbo. Please watch your publically stated implications more carefully.

I'm sorry. I meant it to be lighthearted teasing, something that doesn't come across well in written contexts, and I think I was reacting a little strongly to the pejorative "dear" about the rulers of England, cuz I felt that was a judgement about my interests. It was also late at night, and I wasn't as tactful as I should have been.

#5: Hermione (for reasons that were explained to me a while back...)

#4: I'm going to guess and say David? Because he's one of the most likeably characters on the show, IMO.

6: Hhhmmmm...Inara?

Hmm.

1. Taran
2. Elizabeth 1
3. Jadzia Dax
4. Not a clue.
5. Lupin
6. Mal
7. --
8. Rrrrgh... Will. The only character I can remember who isn't Merriman or Bran.
9. um... the writer guy that Jo marries. I don't know.
10. There are so many of them! I say Edmund.

And I don't watch that much TV. I mean, that's pretty much a list of all the shows I've ever deliberately watched more than five or six episodes of, that I can remember anything about (ie, not counting She-ra and suchlike when I was eight.) (also not counting the Simpson, I watched a fair amount of that.)

I, on the other hand, do base my favorite characters in great part on who I think is hot, as I think can be seen from my previous entry. Why not? Life is short! :)

I think it's mostly just that, though there was plenty of more TV I could have put up, my "fandom" instincts are much more strongly in other media, and I do have less tolerance than you and apintrix for blitzing shows (and a much less tolerant TV-sharer). I don't really have a favorite character in Scrubs, say - well, maybe Perry lately, but not in a "fan" kinda way.

Nothing wrong with hot characters. I think - and this is what I was failing to state tactfully due to tiredness - that I tend to pick more often characters that I personally identify with than that I find attractive. This is probably particularly true for books that I read in the pre-puberty stage, cuz, well, not thinking so much about their intrinsic sexiness at their stage. I think the other problem for me is that most characters are sharply enough drawn that it's hard to imagine a relationship with them ever working out well...
Willow and Scully, though - both definitely one-night-standable.

The ones I know for sure or almost-sure:

5. Hermione.
6. Inara (With Zoe a close second)
9. Meg

I might get other ideas later...

And I might take this meme for myself. This is fun :)

OK, I try with some of my own offcolor favorites, to see if your taste here is as odd as mine:

1)Ellidyr

5)SNNNAPE!!! (Well, that's not *that* unusual, I guess.)
6)Jayne
7)Not a guess, just a note that my favorite was Merry too, for years and years. He's very Black-Breath-Durable.
8)The Walker

Ellidyr, Ellidyr--

who the heck was Ellidyr? The name sounds familiar but the first to characters I attempted to attach to it were, I realized upon reflection, actually Prince Rhun and Pryderi.

Ellidyr pen-Llarcu (spelling optional). The Black Cauldron. Youngest son of impoverished northern minor monarch. Signature line: "Pig-boy!" Signature characteristics: obnoxiety and physical strength. Plot points: self-hatred, moral disintegration, and (this is Lloyd Alexander we're talking about, after all) eventual redemption.

And his only friend was a horse as obnoxious and strong as he was.

Ellidyr's very Boromir-like, if that helps. And he is a neat character, if not my fav.

Hey, I forgot about Prince Rhun!

hee hee.

Wow...I may be being out-Prydained here. :)

Sadly for Anthony, it is also not Gwydion, Son of Don.

Aslan.

Taran himself? Just thought I'd try. Gurgi seems too cute for your taste, but...

And...Lucy? (Wouldn't be Susan, she who grew up and became pre-occupied with stockings, definitely not. ^-^;;)

orichalcum

Fandom meme

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Only one right...

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Pure guessage!

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Fair enough...

Off the top of my head...

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Debrett's Peerage says...

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Which one is Pryderi?

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April