A Character Meme
OK, here's a meme:
1. Comment on this post with I VOLUNTEER!
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your journal.
One assumes that the characters' names ought to have some relationship to the letter in question, although, bizarrely, the rules don't seem to specify this. I'm going to figure that either a first or last name that starts with the letter in question qualifies.
So, sallymn gave me an R.
1. Mr. Raines (The Pretender): Now, here is a guy who gives mad scientists a bad name. He's no doubt been involved in all kinds of horrible, horrible things, but the worst of it is his penchant for experimenting on little kids: kidnapping them and enslaving them for their brainpower, raising them to be psychopathic assassins, zapping them or shooting them up with drugs or running various other kinds of cruel and unusual experiments to try to give them mental superpowers, or to just see what'll happen if he pokes their brains. And let's not even mention the incredibly disturbing human breeding programs. This guy was just freaking creepy. Talk about a character you love to hate! And then, of course, there was the period where he apparently got religion, and started smiling beatifically at people and telling them he loved them and wanted their forgiveness and stuff. Somehow, that just made him six thousand times creepier.
2. Arnold J. Rimmer (Red Dwarf): A perpetual loser who, among other things, managed to kill an entire ship full of people, including himself, in a massive industrial accident, which is kind of impressive, when you consider that his job only involved servicing vending machines. And, really, he just got even less competent and lucky from there. But it's nice to have characters like Rimmer in the universe. On your very worst day, you can always think, "Hey, at least I'm not him!" And then you can laugh at him and cheer yourself up.
3. Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): There was no way I could fail to like Giles. Possibly the only thing I find more appealing, I think, than a bookish, socially awkward smart guy is a bookish, socially awkward smart guy who's also a surprising badass with a dark, angsty backstory. I am apparently also a massive sucker for a certain kind of parent/child dynamic between people are aren't actually related by blood, something that he and Buffy definitely have. And a British accent never hurts, either. In conclusion: Awww, Giles.
4. Rose Tyler (Doctor Who): I quite liked the Rose at first. She had spunk, and enthusiasm, and proved capable of saving the day when necessary, all of which are generally good things in a companion. I wasn't thrilled with the romantic subtext, to say the least, but I could mostly ignore it, for a while. Then Nine became Ten, the dynamic between the characters changed for the worse, and both canon and fandom seemed far too intent on selling me on some kind of OTPishness I was not going to buy. Meaning that by the time she left, I was damned glad to see her go. Which is just sad. Much more so, I think, than if I hadn't ever liked her in the first place.
5. Roj Blake (Blake's 7): The question with Blake often seems to be: was he a heroic freedom fighter, admirable for his idealism, his refusal to give up, and his ability to inspire others, or was he a manipulative egotist whose delusional belief that he could all but single-handedly topple a galactic empire ultimately doomed everyone around him? Me, I think I'm gonna go with "yes."
1. Comment on this post with I VOLUNTEER!
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your journal.
One assumes that the characters' names ought to have some relationship to the letter in question, although, bizarrely, the rules don't seem to specify this. I'm going to figure that either a first or last name that starts with the letter in question qualifies.
So, sallymn gave me an R.
1. Mr. Raines (The Pretender): Now, here is a guy who gives mad scientists a bad name. He's no doubt been involved in all kinds of horrible, horrible things, but the worst of it is his penchant for experimenting on little kids: kidnapping them and enslaving them for their brainpower, raising them to be psychopathic assassins, zapping them or shooting them up with drugs or running various other kinds of cruel and unusual experiments to try to give them mental superpowers, or to just see what'll happen if he pokes their brains. And let's not even mention the incredibly disturbing human breeding programs. This guy was just freaking creepy. Talk about a character you love to hate! And then, of course, there was the period where he apparently got religion, and started smiling beatifically at people and telling them he loved them and wanted their forgiveness and stuff. Somehow, that just made him six thousand times creepier.
2. Arnold J. Rimmer (Red Dwarf): A perpetual loser who, among other things, managed to kill an entire ship full of people, including himself, in a massive industrial accident, which is kind of impressive, when you consider that his job only involved servicing vending machines. And, really, he just got even less competent and lucky from there. But it's nice to have characters like Rimmer in the universe. On your very worst day, you can always think, "Hey, at least I'm not him!" And then you can laugh at him and cheer yourself up.
3. Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): There was no way I could fail to like Giles. Possibly the only thing I find more appealing, I think, than a bookish, socially awkward smart guy is a bookish, socially awkward smart guy who's also a surprising badass with a dark, angsty backstory. I am apparently also a massive sucker for a certain kind of parent/child dynamic between people are aren't actually related by blood, something that he and Buffy definitely have. And a British accent never hurts, either. In conclusion: Awww, Giles.
4. Rose Tyler (Doctor Who): I quite liked the Rose at first. She had spunk, and enthusiasm, and proved capable of saving the day when necessary, all of which are generally good things in a companion. I wasn't thrilled with the romantic subtext, to say the least, but I could mostly ignore it, for a while. Then Nine became Ten, the dynamic between the characters changed for the worse, and both canon and fandom seemed far too intent on selling me on some kind of OTPishness I was not going to buy. Meaning that by the time she left, I was damned glad to see her go. Which is just sad. Much more so, I think, than if I hadn't ever liked her in the first place.
5. Roj Blake (Blake's 7): The question with Blake often seems to be: was he a heroic freedom fighter, admirable for his idealism, his refusal to give up, and his ability to inspire others, or was he a manipulative egotist whose delusional belief that he could all but single-handedly topple a galactic empire ultimately doomed everyone around him? Me, I think I'm gonna go with "yes."