(no subject)

[mllelaurel]

fannish5: Name five characters that you identify with the most.

[Disclaimer: They're fictional. I'm not. Already, that's a coolness mark in their favor.]


1. Tenjou Utena (Shoujo Kakumei Utena): Her strong protective streak. Her desire to make a difference - to be someone better - conflicted with an underlying current of wanting to be normal and have a normal life. I've also got the negative side of her character. In trying to 'save' someone, I may attempt to change them into what I view as the 'better' option for them. Which, really? So not my place to decide. I'd say I'm more cynical than she is, but some of the idealism is still there. Don't ask me how.

2. Andrew Wells (BtVS): The geekiness is a given, but I also find myself using a lot of his coping mechanisms. Life gets too tough? I retreat into fiction. Or even treat start treating life itself as a grand ol' fandom. It feels better to think the trauma is just some author ratcheting up the plot - makes you an interesting protagonist, rather than just pathetic. And ok, I admit it, both of us share having a thing for eeevil men. There's a reason Ohtori Akio was on my 'fictional characters I'd do [bad idea]' list.

3. Jack Harkness (Doctor Who/Torchwood): This man is proof that you can be compassionate without having an ounce of sentimentality in you. He listens to what his heart has to say - then follows his head, instead. But he does listen. (In the later points of his life) He loves the people he's around dearly, but still maintains a tangible distance between them and himself. Some of it is professional and intended; some of it is his losing the ability to connect. You know what he hasn't lost, though? His open-mindedness. That's number one on my list of 'if I lose this trait, shoot me, please.'

4. Susan Ivanova (Babylon 5): JMS didn't just make up 'Russian optimism,' you know. To that, I can testify. I also note that she likes people and has decent social skills, but at the end of the day, she needs her alone time. That's what I call introvert shock. Have I ever been there! (The degrees of introvert shock are generally higher on my end, that I'll admit.)

5. Claire Bennett (Heroes): In the beginning of the series, her family dynamic reminded me strongly of my own (though with the parent roles reversed, interestingly enough.) Things have gotten more complicated since then in the Bennett household, but the roots of it are still there. I love how the show focuses on her search for identity without ever erasing that family bond. When I really started to love and identify with Claire, though, is when she crashed the car with herself and Brody in it. It's an utterly ruthless act, and were I in the same situation (i.e. this was someone who tried to hurt me and I knew I could walk away unscathed, myself), I would *unquestionably have done the same thing*. Just because someone's a good person, that doesn't make them a doormat or incapable of truly nasty (yet strangely satisfying) revenge.

[I may also have a thing about otherwise sweet female characters showing that ruthless streak. "Supersymetry" was when I first really started to dig Fred, on Angel.]

Conclusion: This is harder than it looks. Most characters I identify with, I don't actually have much in common with. I just get them/bond with them/etc. And even if I do have things in common, articulating those things can be a dicey experience.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love what you said about Captain Jack Harkness. May I quote you?

I have come to really love Claire Bennet - she's not one I identify with, but I love the way her character has learned and developed, and she has gone from being 'regular teenager' - not that we ever saw her at that stage, but it wasn't far behind her - to a complex hero in a difficult position.

even if I do have things in common, articulating those things can be a dicey experience.

I found that too. I ended up thinking about why I admired them, but that doesn't answer the question, because I admire many characters I don't identify with. It's just that sometimes there's a factor in a character in which I see myself, however elusively - often it's seeing my own emotional reactions manifesting in fictional storylines.

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

I love what you said about Captain Jack Harkness. May I quote you?

*blushes* Thank you! Of course you may. (Catlike curiosity impels me to ask 'quote where?')

I think you've hit the point head-on, with 'emotional reactions.' Personality may or may not be similar, but when you go 'hey, I know what that feels like,' you know the authors have done something right. Especially when the emotion in question is not an obvious one.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Catlike curiosity impels me to ask 'quote where?'

Heh - just on my livejournal. You can see it here (http://fajrdrako.livejournal.com/618006.html), with my comments.

Yes, the ones I identify with are the ones who act in a certain way in certain circumstances - and it may not be the way other people would react, but I know it's the way I would react, or something like it. And it makes me feel that emotionally speaking, my thought patterns and worldview resembles the headspace of that character even if I am not a galactic time traveller, a superhero, or a wealthy Californian surfer.

[baffledking.livejournal.com]

...I need to rewatch the episode where Claire crashed the car. Because I didn't get that she did it because he hurt her, but because he had hurt others and was promising to do it again. I guess that's the difference that made her a hero to me? It wasn't revenge- she had been prepared to walk away from him after terrifying him by being alive, but that he had done it to others was something Claire wouldn't deal with. And I liked that, a lot.

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

The way I saw it was a bit of both. The fact that he was a repeat offender pushed her over the brink, but she would have to have been close to it already.