Ten Favourite Characters, Part Two.
Here's the second of three entries running through my ten favourite characters of all the time! Caveats: I'm only including characters I've loved for at least ten years, and I've almost certainly forgotten someone essential. I'm going to kick myself when I remember them.
In case you missed it and you're curious, here's the first entry, featuring Elena Fisher, Joshua Kiryu, Squall Leonhart and Light Yagami.
Ellie, The Last of Us
Who is this character and why do you love them? 'Angry disaster' has always been one of my favourite character types. Ellie is an angry, traumatised mess. She's prickly and struggles with letting people get close, but she loves hard when someone slips past her defences. She makes terrible decisions and even worse puns. I became so attached to her while escorting her in The Last of Us; her curiosity, determination and rebellious streak were such a bright spot in a world full of people who'd given up.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I don't think I passionately ship Ellie with anyone, but Ellie/Riley is very cute, Ellie/Abby has interesting potential, and I like the idea of Ellie, Dina and Jesse working out some sort of tentative, awkward polyamorous arrangement.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Huh, hard to decide! I've written a lot about Ellie. Maybe In Fainter Ink, in which Ellie, Dina and Jesse struggle to settle into a V-shaped polyamorous relationship. A lot of the commenters hated this fic, but it was a fic I wanted to exist; I'm glad I wrote it, even if it wasn't for everyone. I don't know if it's the best fic I've ever written about Ellie, but the negative reactions made me strangely protective of it.
Are there any similar characters you love? Ellie and Abby are very much presented as two sides of the same coin in The Last of Us, Part II, and I'm fond of Abby as well. I could list all the angry disasters I love, but we'd be here all day!
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? I remember being really nervous that The Last of Us, Part II might damage my love of Ellie! I'm pleased to report that I absolutely still love her after playing it. She makes some truly atrocious decisions and does a lot of murdering, but, let's be honest, that's not the sort of thing that's ever made me like a character less.
James Sunderland, Silent Hill 2
Who is this character and why do you love them? I spoiled myself pretty thoroughly for Silent Hill 2 before I actually played it. I read analyses, transcripts, fanfiction. None of it told me how fond of James Sunderland I'd end up becoming. But, when I was playing the game myself - when I was personally trapped and terrified in the town - the character I was playing as felt like my only ally. James and I went through Silent Hill together, and it turns out that that's a pretty intense bonding experience! It helps that the inside of his head is an absolute mess in ways I find really interesting. (I've just remembered that Silent Hill 2 is being remade! I have no idea how to feel about that! Maybe I should at least check it out.)
Do you ship this character with anyone? The relationship between James and his wife Mary is unbearably tragic and makes me very emotional. It was one of the first pairings I ever passionately shipped.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? I've written a ludicrous number of ficlets about James Sunderland, but most of them were written when I was sixteen, so, I'll be honest, they're not my best work. I'm going to say my favourite fic about James is like nails in my feet, one of my more recent Silent Hill 2 fics, in which I attempted to express all my intense feelings about James and Mary.
Are there any similar characters you love? Silent Hill 2 was a very formative game for me, and I think a lot of my favourite character types can be traced back to James Sunderland. I love characters who make terrible mistakes and are overcome by self-loathing; I love characters who are trying to atone for things that can't ever be undone; I love characters who undergo horrible experiences they'll never recover from or be believed about; I love characters who can't trust their own perception of reality. Mike Munroe of Until Dawn is very different from James in demeanour, but he hits three of these four points. Macbeth of the BBC ShakespeaRe-Told adaptation I got weirdly obsessed with in my teens, in which Macbeth is a chef who murders his way into restaurant ownership, also has a lot of overlap.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? In a surprising parallel to Light Yagami, who is otherwise a very different character, James Sunderland is a person who fucked up unbelievably, couldn't handle it, and ended up rewriting his own reality to create a world in which he hadn't actually fucked up. As they're both on this list of my favourites, that's apparently what I'm into in a character! Denial remains a theme I'm interested in to this day, and it crops up in a lot of my fanfiction.
Jeff Winger, Community
Who is this character and why do you love them? Jeff is charming, cocky, sarcastic, self-obsessed, soft-hearted, low in self-control and an absolute psychological disaster, and it's an extremely fun combination. He wants to be a cool, selfish, uncaring loner, and I love watching that desire clash against his conscience, his fear of abandonment and his intense love for everyone in his study group.
Do you ship this character with anyone? 'It's called chemistry; I have it with everyone,' Jeff said once, and he's right. I ship Jeff with pretty much everyone in the study group, himself included. But I have a particular weakness for Jeff/Annie; the two of them have absolutely ludicrous chemistry. The pairing hadn't occurred to me until 'Debate 109' raised the possibility of them kissing, and suddenly I had never wanted anything more.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Maybe Despair 101, an incredibly ill-advised Community/Danganronpa crossover. I really enjoyed writing Jeff's reaction when Annie tried to stab him. Sorry, Jeff.
Are there any similar characters you love? I said once that Jeff Winger is the character Jack Shephard of Lost would be if Jack had been written for a sitcom, and I stand by that. They're both a mess of father issues and bad decisions. They both have intense feelings for the people they've somehow ended up a leader to, and they don't entirely know how to deal with those feelings. I'm... not going to write Jack Shephard/Annie Edison, but I'm forced to admit that it crossed my mind while I was thinking about this.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? I mentioned previously that only one character on this list of my ten favourites had never intentionally killed anyone. If you were wondering, it's Jeff. He's not the most moral character on the list, but he's definitely the character with the lowest bodycount.
In case you missed it and you're curious, here's the first entry, featuring Elena Fisher, Joshua Kiryu, Squall Leonhart and Light Yagami.
Ellie, The Last of Us
Who is this character and why do you love them? 'Angry disaster' has always been one of my favourite character types. Ellie is an angry, traumatised mess. She's prickly and struggles with letting people get close, but she loves hard when someone slips past her defences. She makes terrible decisions and even worse puns. I became so attached to her while escorting her in The Last of Us; her curiosity, determination and rebellious streak were such a bright spot in a world full of people who'd given up.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I don't think I passionately ship Ellie with anyone, but Ellie/Riley is very cute, Ellie/Abby has interesting potential, and I like the idea of Ellie, Dina and Jesse working out some sort of tentative, awkward polyamorous arrangement.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Huh, hard to decide! I've written a lot about Ellie. Maybe In Fainter Ink, in which Ellie, Dina and Jesse struggle to settle into a V-shaped polyamorous relationship. A lot of the commenters hated this fic, but it was a fic I wanted to exist; I'm glad I wrote it, even if it wasn't for everyone. I don't know if it's the best fic I've ever written about Ellie, but the negative reactions made me strangely protective of it.
Are there any similar characters you love? Ellie and Abby are very much presented as two sides of the same coin in The Last of Us, Part II, and I'm fond of Abby as well. I could list all the angry disasters I love, but we'd be here all day!
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? I remember being really nervous that The Last of Us, Part II might damage my love of Ellie! I'm pleased to report that I absolutely still love her after playing it. She makes some truly atrocious decisions and does a lot of murdering, but, let's be honest, that's not the sort of thing that's ever made me like a character less.
James Sunderland, Silent Hill 2
Who is this character and why do you love them? I spoiled myself pretty thoroughly for Silent Hill 2 before I actually played it. I read analyses, transcripts, fanfiction. None of it told me how fond of James Sunderland I'd end up becoming. But, when I was playing the game myself - when I was personally trapped and terrified in the town - the character I was playing as felt like my only ally. James and I went through Silent Hill together, and it turns out that that's a pretty intense bonding experience! It helps that the inside of his head is an absolute mess in ways I find really interesting. (I've just remembered that Silent Hill 2 is being remade! I have no idea how to feel about that! Maybe I should at least check it out.)
Do you ship this character with anyone? The relationship between James and his wife Mary is unbearably tragic and makes me very emotional. It was one of the first pairings I ever passionately shipped.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? I've written a ludicrous number of ficlets about James Sunderland, but most of them were written when I was sixteen, so, I'll be honest, they're not my best work. I'm going to say my favourite fic about James is like nails in my feet, one of my more recent Silent Hill 2 fics, in which I attempted to express all my intense feelings about James and Mary.
Are there any similar characters you love? Silent Hill 2 was a very formative game for me, and I think a lot of my favourite character types can be traced back to James Sunderland. I love characters who make terrible mistakes and are overcome by self-loathing; I love characters who are trying to atone for things that can't ever be undone; I love characters who undergo horrible experiences they'll never recover from or be believed about; I love characters who can't trust their own perception of reality. Mike Munroe of Until Dawn is very different from James in demeanour, but he hits three of these four points. Macbeth of the BBC ShakespeaRe-Told adaptation I got weirdly obsessed with in my teens, in which Macbeth is a chef who murders his way into restaurant ownership, also has a lot of overlap.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? In a surprising parallel to Light Yagami, who is otherwise a very different character, James Sunderland is a person who fucked up unbelievably, couldn't handle it, and ended up rewriting his own reality to create a world in which he hadn't actually fucked up. As they're both on this list of my favourites, that's apparently what I'm into in a character! Denial remains a theme I'm interested in to this day, and it crops up in a lot of my fanfiction.
Jeff Winger, Community
Who is this character and why do you love them? Jeff is charming, cocky, sarcastic, self-obsessed, soft-hearted, low in self-control and an absolute psychological disaster, and it's an extremely fun combination. He wants to be a cool, selfish, uncaring loner, and I love watching that desire clash against his conscience, his fear of abandonment and his intense love for everyone in his study group.
Do you ship this character with anyone? 'It's called chemistry; I have it with everyone,' Jeff said once, and he's right. I ship Jeff with pretty much everyone in the study group, himself included. But I have a particular weakness for Jeff/Annie; the two of them have absolutely ludicrous chemistry. The pairing hadn't occurred to me until 'Debate 109' raised the possibility of them kissing, and suddenly I had never wanted anything more.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Maybe Despair 101, an incredibly ill-advised Community/Danganronpa crossover. I really enjoyed writing Jeff's reaction when Annie tried to stab him. Sorry, Jeff.
Are there any similar characters you love? I said once that Jeff Winger is the character Jack Shephard of Lost would be if Jack had been written for a sitcom, and I stand by that. They're both a mess of father issues and bad decisions. They both have intense feelings for the people they've somehow ended up a leader to, and they don't entirely know how to deal with those feelings. I'm... not going to write Jack Shephard/Annie Edison, but I'm forced to admit that it crossed my mind while I was thinking about this.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? I mentioned previously that only one character on this list of my ten favourites had never intentionally killed anyone. If you were wondering, it's Jeff. He's not the most moral character on the list, but he's definitely the character with the lowest bodycount.