Five Answers part 3- Big Damn Heroes
Protaginists today for meltedpeep ! This one was very fun to put together, I hope you enjoy it.
5. Katara
(Avatar: The Last Airbender)
'You can't knock me down!'
Katara was something of a last-minute addition to this list- she's not a main protagonist, she's headstrong and bossy and doesn't really know when to quit- but I looked at the rest of my favourite protagonists and I thought 'whoa, sausage party'. So here she is. And the truth is I do like Katara a lot. She's bossy, yes, but she's strong and loving, too. In The Desert Katara manages to keep the group moving when it's in serious danger of falling apart completely (Aang is freaking out over the loss of Appa, Toph can't 'see' in the sand, and Sokka is high on peyote). She doesn't give second chances but when she does trust someone she trusts them completely- after all, she's the only one who doesn't get scared off by Aang in the Avatar State. And if she is headstrong, well, she's a teenage girl. You try telling a teenager that they're wrong. Entertainment needs more female protagonists like Katara.
4. The Eleventh Doctor
(Doctor Who)
'There's something that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke it with a stick.'
I really wanted to hate Eleven. I had fallen hard for Ten (well, more accurately I had fallen hard for David Tennant) and I sobbed solidly through the final ten minutes of his last episode. So of course, when Eleven turned up, I ended up loving him more than I ever loved Ten (and it had nothing to do with Matt Smith's looks. Trust me). Why? Because Eleven is actually a nicer person than Ten. I hate to admit it, but Ten was kind of a dick. Eleven, on the other hand, actually seems to genuinely care about what happens to people he isn't in love with. With the Doctor in general, I always like heroes who fight smart rather than hard, and the Doctor is the epitome of this trope. He has no armour and hardly ever carries weapons, and yet he's managed to take on every aggressive alien threat from here to the end of the galaxy almost single-handedly. That includes enemies like the Daleks and the Sontarans- violent warrior cultures who only value conquest. That's right, a madman in a box is the most feared thing in a galaxy that contains homicidal space Spartans.
3. Wonder Woman
(Wonder Woman)
This is the reason that I love Wonder Woman:
'Nuff said, really.
(scans from scans_daily)
2. Jaime Reyes
(Blue Beetle)
'I didn't choose this power. But I can choose what to do with it.'
More people seriously need to have heard of Jaime. He's a legacy hero for the DC comics character Blue Beetle (the guy Nite Owl was originally going to be in Watchmen), and he is totally awesome. Jaime is a teenage superhero whose parents both know his secret identity and are totally okay with it, has the support of his friends and family, and shows more emotional maturity than some characters twice his age. He's also clever (remember what I said about loving heroes who fight smart? Jaime manages to bring down an alien fleet on his own through trickery and clever application of short-range time travel) and, out of the bug suit, kind of hot. He's the perfect example of a legacy character done right.
1. Avatar Aang
(Avatar: The Last Airbender)
'Please listen to me! We don't have to fight. You have the power to end it here and stop what you are doing'
The only thing I like more than heroes who fight smart are heroes who try not to fight at all. Yeah, it's cool to see people being awesome and badass, but it's more emotionally satisfying to see a proper conclusion. Aang is a pacifist to his core, and he doesn't compromise his beliefs for one second, even when, in The Old Masters, it seems like the whole world is telling him to. But Aang isn't just a serious hero- he's also a goofy kid who doesn't let his mission stop him from enjoying life. he's got this great irrepressible spirit that stops the show from getting too dark and serious. People go on about how Zuko is a more complex character (and he's a good character, don't get me wrong) but it takes a stronger person to stop their darker feelings from overwhelming them.
Tomorrow, the one I'm sure will be entertaining: Crossovers I haven't done yet and What I Look For In Fanfic. Should be good!