My favorite characters (And how they're predictable)

I'm a predictable person when it comes to what I like. If you know me you can pretty much pick up any book at all and pick out my favorite character. If it's the right type of book. Generally it has to be fantasy, dystopian or adventure based in some way. Not realistic fiction. That's a bit more complex. But with those other genres it's pretty easy.

Basically most of my favorite characters are complex, sarcastic, middle aged men. Which is weird. Because I'm not at middle age yet so you'd think I'd still like the younger love interest.

I do not.

Not that I don't like those characters. I do. I just don't ever find myself as interested in them. Maybe it's because I'm a writer and I'm drawn to a more mysterious character I don't know as much about. If I don't know as much about them then I can fill in the gaps for myself and have a ton of fun thinking what might be their back story before the author themselves reveal it. Maybe it's because I have a very dry wit and you usually don't find that kind of humor in younger characters. Maybe I just like characters with a dark streak or a dark brooding past. Younger characters haven't had much time to have a dark brooding past. They're not even two decades old.

So let's dive into my psyche shall we, and find out why I like the characters I do.

1. I like bad guys

I'm not going to deny it. I have a soft spot for villains. In almost every book, move or anime I have a villain that I just enjoy the hell out of every time they make an appearance. 

I blame this on events deeply rooted in my childhood (Though that makes it sound really dramatic doesn't it?). My main playmate when I was a kid (Four or five) was my brother. My brother was the type of person who loved to stage epic battles between his action figures. Battles between good and evil that involved death and triumph. It's a lot for a five year old to absorb. Especially when said five year old's brother tried to make the battles complex. Like the bad guys sometimes won. Or if the bad guy didn't win and died, he had a son that he left behind. Or he had a tortured past. Or he and the main good guy used to be best friends.

Yep. Guess that explains my dark side. My brother instilled it in me at a young and impressible age.

But I'd like to clarify that my favorite character isn't usually the main bad guy. Like Voldemort wasn't my favorite character in Harry Potter. Sauron wasn't my favorite character in Lord of the Rings. And Lord Citius wasn't my favorite character in Star Wars. I like the side villains because they're generally less evil and more complex. And I can hypothesize a lot more about their fall from grace.

Really villains are just some of the most interesting characters because we want to know, as readers, where they went wrong. How did they fall so far and reach this point? What terrible things brought them to this state? Is there any humanity left in them? Is their hope for redemption?

With the main character and love interest, we nearly always know the good guy is going to make the right decision in the end, even if there are challenges and they are tempted by the bad side. Unless the book or movie is some character study about a fall from grace. Or a Shakespeare play. In YA in particular, the main good guys usually overcome the challenges. It's the side villains who are less predictable. We want to see if maybe there is more to them or if they'll do something good in the end.

And even if they don't we can always write alternate endings.

2. If they aren't a straight villain: They're still screwed up.

Even if my favorite character is on the "Good side", they still are very messed up. They still have done something bad in the past or make a huge mistake over the course of the book, they've had something horrible happen to them and they're jaded because of it, or it's just hard to get a read on them.

Or in my ideal character: All four.

Let's take a look at some of my favorite characters shall we?

Snape (Harry Potter): He's done something bad in the past, he's had horrible things happen to him, he's jaded, he's hard to get a read on and he switches sides about fifty thousand times (Or not really. We just think he does. I LOVE SNAPE!)

Darth Vadar (Like I need to tell you): He's screwed up, has made mistakes but was ultimately redeemed. My favorite kind of villain!

Basta (Inkheart): He's a villain, it is implied that he has had terrible things happen to him and he's not a nice guy over the course of the book. We also never find out in detail what happened to him so gues who's imagination got to go wild!

Joe Solomon (Gallagher Girl's series): He worked for an evil organization in the past, he's made mistakes, it's hard to get a read on him, and he's bad ass (Like James Bond if he wasn't a sexist pig and was actually an interesting character)

Boromir (Lord of the Rings): He was tempted by the ring and almost killed Frodo to get it. That's a pretty big mistake. (Also my second favorite character is Golum so... yeah, do I even need to list what's wrong with him?)

Haymitch (The Hunger Games): Horrible things have happened to him, he's made mistakes, he's jaded and he's a sarcastic drunk as an extra plus!

Spotting the trend now? I could list a lot of others and honestly the only reason that a sarcastic, mysterious, middle aged man with a bad streak isn't my favorite character in every single book I read is because sometimes there isn't one of those in the book.

Funny enough, they aren't my favorite characters because I'm attracted to them or anything like that. I would not want to date these guys. They would be trouble. I do feel like this kind of character is often liked by women who really want a project. Someone to fix. That's fine for them but I'm just that nerdy writer who likes characters because they're good characters.

It's a concept that a lot of people fail to understand when I say: My favorite character is Haymitch. They reply "You like him? Peeta is the hottest."

Since when did your favorite character have to be the one you're attracted to? Thank God I didn't say Effie.

-Authoress Anonymous

Villainesses (And what makes them fall short)

Here's a fun talk: Villains. I love villains. If anyone is to ask me who my favorite character in a book or movie is, it is almost always: A) a villain, B) someone with a dry wit or C) A really tortured character

Or D) All of the above. LOOKING AT YOU SEVERUS SNAPE!

But besides that, my favorite villain usually isn't... a woman. And this is not because I don't the women can't be completely awesome villain because I think they can. But the problem is the angle directors, writers or actors often take with a villainess.

And that is: They make their main weapon their sexuality. Yeah. You know who I'm talking about. I call this Poison Ivy Syndrome, named after a villain from Batman who charms men by her use of her beauty and poisonous plants which usually make men fall in love with her so that she can horribly kill them. But that's all that special about her.

And there's the problem. Her main weapon is the fact that she is attractive and can manipulate men. Which makes her completely nonthreatening to women. I often don't find female villains as threatening as male villain because A) I am a woman and B) I am a straight woman. Why should I be intimidated by someone who's power doesn't really affect me?

This is probably only a woman's standpoint because I'm sure men find them very intimidating. But characters like poison Ivy also give woman a bit of a bad name: That we're manipulative and evil and crazy. Now, this is true with some women but certainly not the majority.

That being said, their are certainly villains who are women and are done right so lets look at a few of them:

Bellatrix: Oh yes, everyone knows this one. This woman's weapon wasn't that she was beautiful (Though Helena Bonham Carter certainly is). It was that she was bat. shit. crazy. insane. Honestly, this woman was as terrifying and powerful as she was oddly hilarious. When ever I read about her I enjoyed her presence even if my heart was pounding. This especially holds true to her portrayal on screen (Which is phenomenal). There's a certain scene in the sixth movie right after Dumbledore is killed. The death eaters are marching through the forest to escape. But Bella isn't marching. She's skipping. And giggling. And singing. Then she sets Hagrid's hut on fire while jumping up and down, squealing like an excited school girl.

I was laughing at her antics but yet there was still a feeling of discomfort at how crazy she was. And even though I was laughing I think my face was frozen into a WTF face. Because, Dumbledore just died and I should be sobbing.

But I just can't because of Bellatrix.

That's the trick with her character. She has an edge to her that makes her both funny, uncomfortable and terrifying which is something you really need from a villainess.

Lust: Ok so first off: I doubt most of you know who this is. Second off: I know the title makes it seem like she's the exact opposite of what I like in a villainess. Because her name is Lust. Lust is a character from a little anime known as Fullmetal Alchemist, which happens to be my all time favorite. Lust is one of the first villains introduced in the series, though she isn't the main villain.

Yes, she is beautiful and this does come in handy. But half the time she isn't even using her beauty to her advantage. It just kind of works for her. And besides being beautiful: Lust is scary and intimidating. Maybe it's the voice, maybe it's her mysterious presence or maybe it's her sharp finger nails which can grow to any length and pierce through anything at will, but she is a deadly combination of charm and scary.

This combo still could have failed (And it did in an alternate telling of Fullmetal Alchemist known as Brotherhood) but Lust was an incredibly interesting character at her core. So though she was beautiful, she still seemed like a real person with her own problems and flaws and you really grow to like her throughout the series. When she seems more real, she also seems more scary. Whereas Poison Ivy got little to no development and just wanted to take over the world.

Alphard: Again, probably none of you have heard of this. She's from an anime called CANAAN which is much more underground than Fullmetal Alchemist. My explanation of this one is short:

1. The main character and Alphard's rival is a woman and therefore there isn't much exploitation of sexuality needed as the main character wouldn't be affected by it.

2. Alphard is a complete bad-ass with great aim with a gun and superb skill in hand to hand combat. Why charm the guys when you can kick them to kingdom come?

3. She also has the "interesting character" factor going for her.

4. She's the head of a terrorist organization and she's only in her early twenties

And that's about all I need to say.

Disney Princess Villianesses: The funny thing is, I think kids films handle villains who are women the best. Because they can't be overtly sexual in anything. It's Disney. Their villains actually have to be intimidating and scary.

And boy are they! Some of Disney's best villains are women. Everyone remembers Maleficent, Ursula and the Evil Stepmother because they were just so cruel, hateful and honestly more interesting than whatever Disney princess they were up against. They could turn into monsters, they had evil minions and they didn't need men for their evil schemes.

Usually they worked for something like revenge rather than taking over the world. Ursula wanted revenge for being shunned by the mermaids, the evil queen wanted revenge because she was no longer the prettiest in the land, Maleficent wanted revenge because she didn't get a birthday invitation (That's got to be my favorite. What, you didn't try to kill the daughter of a king when he snubbed you? Clearly you aren't having a sensible reaction).

If there's one thing Disney did well, it was definitely villains and the women are no exception.

So that's all for the villains talk today. And while I know most of you think Bella Swan is a villain she was not in this post (But it is coming. Dear God it is coming)

Tommorow I'm talking about a bit more obscure stereotype that irritates me. See you then!

-Authoress Anonymous

PS: I also got my first rejection yesterday! Woohoo! Let it begin!