Meme: With favorites and without

[brightknightie]

I'm adapting a meme that I saw several days ago, which has followed me all week. It made me ponder the difference between stories that inspire me to take one character more to heart than any of the others (as much as I may love the others), versus stories in which no one character claims that position (as much as I love the source material).

Sometimes, the difference is inherent in the source storytelling! But often, I suspect, the emergence of a singular favorite may have as much to do with my interactions with others about the source material. For example, I remember exactly when I felt an outraged need to defend EQ's Strongbow against a disrespectful dismissal in a published letter (this was back in the days of letter pages). Before that, I didn't have a favorite EQ character; ever since, I have. And I didn't join FKdom knowing that I was a Knightie; I sincerely considered other affiliations (even the Natpack, believe it or not!) before I knew myself and the fandom well enough to recognize my fundamental Knightieness. :-)

10 fandoms in which I have a singular favorite character

• Forever Knight : Nick
• Highlander : Duncan
• Marvel (all) : Wanda
• Beauty and the Beast (CBS) : Vincent
• ElfQuest : Strongbow
• Harry Potter : Luna
• Star Trek: Deep Space 9 : Jadzia
• Robotech : Lisa
• Forever : Henry
• Once Upon a Time : Mulan

10 fandoms in which I have no singular favorite character

• Young Blades
• Battlestar Galactica (1978)
• Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman
• Buffyverse
• Monarch of the Glen
• Ballykissangel
• Star Trek : The Next Generation
• Star Trek (TOS/AOS)
• Grimm
• Person of Interest

What about you? When and why do you have singular favorite characters?

Comments

[senmut]

I would have had a harder time choosing a singular character for DS9 than you did.

I believe it is a mental perception issue on my part, that if I cannot see the show as less than an ensemble effort, I cannot usually choose one character that is my favorite. Those shows where if you take just one piece of it away, the whole suffers, or becomes something different.

Also, YAY for another Strongbow fan. While Skywise stole my heart when I was but 3 years old (Dad didn't pay attention to which comics I was looking at on our weekly trips to the BX), I have a deep love for Strongbow as well.

[brightknightie]

Oh, yes, Strongbow is terribly important to the relationships and action inside the story, as well as to constructing the culture and society so as to enable metaphorical resonance to the real world, as well as appealing in his own right for his motivations and struggles.

We cannot well do without Strongbow and what he represents, including when he seems to be standing in the way of developments. I doubt I'll ever forget that letter, dismissing Strongbow... the letter-writer actually said, as if it were an insult that proved his dismissal, that Strongbow was a "Republican" -- which could have prompted a genuine insight, if the letter-writer had been more conscious. Strongbow's traditionalism is not blind; it is just, fair and cautious from experience -- rules are made by survivors to pass on how to avoid the fates of the fallen -- and is a necessary and appropriate challenge to untested new ideas.

:-) I do love EQ. I hardly play in it anymore, but oh! there were days. And years. :-)