Ten Favourite Characters, Part Three.
And here's the final instalment of these posts listing my ten favourite characters, in no particular order!
For anyone who missed them, here are the previous instalments: one (Elena Fisher, Joshua Kiryu, Squall Leonhart, Light Yagami), two (Ellie of The Last of Us, James Sunderland, Jeff Winger).
Hajime Hinata, Danganronpa 2
Who is this character and why do you love them? A lot of my favourite characters are ordinary people struggling to cope with a bizarre and terrible situation, and Hajime Hinata is a great example. He's a very normal person in the midst of a colourful cast, but his relative groundedness means he interacts well with everyone else, without those interactions becoming overwhelming. He could easily have felt bland, but I don't think he does at all. Hinata has enough personality to feel real and present; he's compassionate, he's sarcastic, he's insecure but unafraid to speak his mind. He genuinely likes and cares about most of the people he's trapped with, but he's naturally struggling with the paranoia of the situation, which is a fun internal conflict. He also seems like he has a mild crush on everyone he interacts with, which is a trait that always delights me.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I ship Hinata with pretty much everyone, but particularly Komaeda, Koizumi and Kuzuryuu. Hinata and Koizumi, both strong-willed and relatively level-headed, would probably have the occasional argument, but I think they could ultimately work out well and be very cute. Kuzuryuu is short-tempered and clashes with everyone else at first, but he and Hinata build a mutual respect over the course of the game, which I think could form a strong foundation for a relationship. Hinata and Komaeda would work absolutely terribly, but that's the fun of it. Komaeda adores Hinata and expresses it in horrifying ways; Hinata, appropriately horrified, spends every second he's forced to be around Komaeda wishing he were anywhere else. It's great.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Probably Humanity's Hope, an AU inspired by The Last of Us. Hinata has to deal with zombies and Komaeda, and frankly Komaeda might be worse. Their dynamic is always a lot of fun to write; I love the way Hinata finds Komaeda simultaneously repellent and fascinating.
Are there any similar characters you love? Danganronpa protagonists tend to come from a similar mould, and I love all of them. I've also generally got a weakness for ordinary, good-hearted, slightly sarcastic teenage boys who love their friends and go through absolutely horrific experiences. Bonus points if they cry. Other examples include Sean Diaz of Life Is Strange 2 and Keiichi Maebara of Higurashi: When They Cry.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? Some of the characters on my favourites list are more-or-less unique characters who won me over as individuals; some are just great examples of character types I have a particular weakness for, and Hinata falls into the latter category. He'd be slightly wounded to hear that, given that he has a lot of issues about being ordinary and not really standing out. Sorry, Hinata. You're still a standout character in my heart; you don't have to be unique for me to like you enormously. I realise that this probably isn't making you feel any better.
Patrick Jane, The Mentalist
Who is this character and why do you love them? Patrick Jane is a cheerful, playful, affable façade stretched thinly over a terrifying void. Sometimes he's brightly arranging a picnic. Sometimes he buries a man alive. Sometimes he's just being cheerfully obnoxious. Sometimes he kills someone in cold blood. He sleeps in the room where his family was murdered, under the calling card of the murderer, drawn in their blood, which he's never had cleaned off the wall. He's fucked up. I think he's fascinating.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I firmly believe that Jane is in love with his entire team - Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby, Van Pelt - and also with Hightower, for good measure. But he'll never admit it to himself. If he accepts that he's in love with them, that also means he's forced to face the fact that Red John could hurt him by taking them away.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Compass Points, a fic exploring my conviction that Jane is in love with all of his colleagues. This fic still gets a handful of kudos every month, even five years later; I was pleased to realise there are a lot of Jane/everyone fans out there!
Are there any similar characters you love? The Ninth Doctor of Doctor Who. Externally playful and cheerful, deeply traumatised, scarily ruthless, kind of dead inside. Develops very intense attachments to specific people and is prepared to go to alarming lengths for them.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? I think Patrick Jane was a more interesting character than The Mentalist was prepared to handle. I ended up dropping The Mentalist at the end of season six, when it became clear to me that the show was set on maintaining the tone 'oh, Patrick Jane, what a scamp' and I wanted 'oh, Patrick Jane, what an absolutely horrifying man'.
Yuna, Final Fantasy X
Who is this character and why do you love them? Yuna is one of the few characters on this list who isn't a complete psychological disaster, although she's on a quest to sacrifice herself for the good of the world, so she's still got a fair few issues to deal with. I'm often drawn to weakness in characters, but I really admire Yuna's strength. She's a little awkward, but she's brave; she's determined; she's prepared to fight against everything she believed in when she finds that it was founded on false principles. She wavers sometimes (which is a good thing; wavering is interesting!), but she's always prepared to grit her teeth and push past her doubt and her fear. And, below all the impossibly heavy responsibilities, she's just a teenager; she wants to have fun, she wants to spend time with her friends, she wants to live. She's been my default icon on here for fourteen years.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I like Tidus/Yuna a solid amount - I think they work well together - but I wouldn't say I actively ship them. The character I ship Yuna with most might actually be Squall Leonhart of Final Fantasy VIII; I once saw someone mention that Noel of Final Fantasy X-2 looked like he could be Squall and Yuna's kid, and I found the idea deeply intriguing. They aren't from the same world, of course, but I think Squall and Yuna would interact interestingly. Squall's afraid of relying on others because he thinks it's a weakness; Yuna, who travels with guardians and fights by summoning, has always viewed others as her strength.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Binding Contract, a Final Fantasy VIII/Final Fantasy X crossover in which Squall is Yuna's guardian-for-hire.
Are there any similar characters you love? Possibly Utena Tenjou of Revolutionary Girl Utena? They're different in demeanour, but they're both compassionate and brave and unshakeably determined; they both have a tendency to take more responsibility upon themselves than they should; they're both prepared to throw themselves away for the sake of others.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? Of all the characters on this list, Yuna's the only one who didn't establish herself as my favourite the first time I experienced the canon. At first, my favourite Final Fantasy X character was Auron, but I came to appreciate Yuna more and more on later playthroughs.
And that's it! My ten favourite characters of all time, or at least the closest I've ever managed to get to a definitive list. I've enjoyed talking about them!
A couple of people have asked if they can borrow this format to talk about their own favourite characters. Borrowing this format is welcome and encouraged! I'd love to hear other people talk about characters they love.
For anyone who missed them, here are the previous instalments: one (Elena Fisher, Joshua Kiryu, Squall Leonhart, Light Yagami), two (Ellie of The Last of Us, James Sunderland, Jeff Winger).
Hajime Hinata, Danganronpa 2
Who is this character and why do you love them? A lot of my favourite characters are ordinary people struggling to cope with a bizarre and terrible situation, and Hajime Hinata is a great example. He's a very normal person in the midst of a colourful cast, but his relative groundedness means he interacts well with everyone else, without those interactions becoming overwhelming. He could easily have felt bland, but I don't think he does at all. Hinata has enough personality to feel real and present; he's compassionate, he's sarcastic, he's insecure but unafraid to speak his mind. He genuinely likes and cares about most of the people he's trapped with, but he's naturally struggling with the paranoia of the situation, which is a fun internal conflict. He also seems like he has a mild crush on everyone he interacts with, which is a trait that always delights me.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I ship Hinata with pretty much everyone, but particularly Komaeda, Koizumi and Kuzuryuu. Hinata and Koizumi, both strong-willed and relatively level-headed, would probably have the occasional argument, but I think they could ultimately work out well and be very cute. Kuzuryuu is short-tempered and clashes with everyone else at first, but he and Hinata build a mutual respect over the course of the game, which I think could form a strong foundation for a relationship. Hinata and Komaeda would work absolutely terribly, but that's the fun of it. Komaeda adores Hinata and expresses it in horrifying ways; Hinata, appropriately horrified, spends every second he's forced to be around Komaeda wishing he were anywhere else. It's great.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Probably Humanity's Hope, an AU inspired by The Last of Us. Hinata has to deal with zombies and Komaeda, and frankly Komaeda might be worse. Their dynamic is always a lot of fun to write; I love the way Hinata finds Komaeda simultaneously repellent and fascinating.
Are there any similar characters you love? Danganronpa protagonists tend to come from a similar mould, and I love all of them. I've also generally got a weakness for ordinary, good-hearted, slightly sarcastic teenage boys who love their friends and go through absolutely horrific experiences. Bonus points if they cry. Other examples include Sean Diaz of Life Is Strange 2 and Keiichi Maebara of Higurashi: When They Cry.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? Some of the characters on my favourites list are more-or-less unique characters who won me over as individuals; some are just great examples of character types I have a particular weakness for, and Hinata falls into the latter category. He'd be slightly wounded to hear that, given that he has a lot of issues about being ordinary and not really standing out. Sorry, Hinata. You're still a standout character in my heart; you don't have to be unique for me to like you enormously. I realise that this probably isn't making you feel any better.
Patrick Jane, The Mentalist
Who is this character and why do you love them? Patrick Jane is a cheerful, playful, affable façade stretched thinly over a terrifying void. Sometimes he's brightly arranging a picnic. Sometimes he buries a man alive. Sometimes he's just being cheerfully obnoxious. Sometimes he kills someone in cold blood. He sleeps in the room where his family was murdered, under the calling card of the murderer, drawn in their blood, which he's never had cleaned off the wall. He's fucked up. I think he's fascinating.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I firmly believe that Jane is in love with his entire team - Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby, Van Pelt - and also with Hightower, for good measure. But he'll never admit it to himself. If he accepts that he's in love with them, that also means he's forced to face the fact that Red John could hurt him by taking them away.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Compass Points, a fic exploring my conviction that Jane is in love with all of his colleagues. This fic still gets a handful of kudos every month, even five years later; I was pleased to realise there are a lot of Jane/everyone fans out there!
Are there any similar characters you love? The Ninth Doctor of Doctor Who. Externally playful and cheerful, deeply traumatised, scarily ruthless, kind of dead inside. Develops very intense attachments to specific people and is prepared to go to alarming lengths for them.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? I think Patrick Jane was a more interesting character than The Mentalist was prepared to handle. I ended up dropping The Mentalist at the end of season six, when it became clear to me that the show was set on maintaining the tone 'oh, Patrick Jane, what a scamp' and I wanted 'oh, Patrick Jane, what an absolutely horrifying man'.
Yuna, Final Fantasy X
Who is this character and why do you love them? Yuna is one of the few characters on this list who isn't a complete psychological disaster, although she's on a quest to sacrifice herself for the good of the world, so she's still got a fair few issues to deal with. I'm often drawn to weakness in characters, but I really admire Yuna's strength. She's a little awkward, but she's brave; she's determined; she's prepared to fight against everything she believed in when she finds that it was founded on false principles. She wavers sometimes (which is a good thing; wavering is interesting!), but she's always prepared to grit her teeth and push past her doubt and her fear. And, below all the impossibly heavy responsibilities, she's just a teenager; she wants to have fun, she wants to spend time with her friends, she wants to live. She's been my default icon on here for fourteen years.
Do you ship this character with anyone? I like Tidus/Yuna a solid amount - I think they work well together - but I wouldn't say I actively ship them. The character I ship Yuna with most might actually be Squall Leonhart of Final Fantasy VIII; I once saw someone mention that Noel of Final Fantasy X-2 looked like he could be Squall and Yuna's kid, and I found the idea deeply intriguing. They aren't from the same world, of course, but I think Squall and Yuna would interact interestingly. Squall's afraid of relying on others because he thinks it's a weakness; Yuna, who travels with guardians and fights by summoning, has always viewed others as her strength.
What's your favourite fic you've written about this character? Binding Contract, a Final Fantasy VIII/Final Fantasy X crossover in which Squall is Yuna's guardian-for-hire.
Are there any similar characters you love? Possibly Utena Tenjou of Revolutionary Girl Utena? They're different in demeanour, but they're both compassionate and brave and unshakeably determined; they both have a tendency to take more responsibility upon themselves than they should; they're both prepared to throw themselves away for the sake of others.
Anything else you'd like to say about this character? Of all the characters on this list, Yuna's the only one who didn't establish herself as my favourite the first time I experienced the canon. At first, my favourite Final Fantasy X character was Auron, but I came to appreciate Yuna more and more on later playthroughs.
And that's it! My ten favourite characters of all time, or at least the closest I've ever managed to get to a definitive list. I've enjoyed talking about them!
A couple of people have asked if they can borrow this format to talk about their own favourite characters. Borrowing this format is welcome and encouraged! I'd love to hear other people talk about characters they love.