So since last time I talked about some of my favourite villains, I thought I’d dedicate this post to some of my other favourite characters who aren’t total assholes. Looking through my list, however, I discovered that not one person on there was without flaw or shade of darkness in any form, and I decided that perhaps devoting a post simply to “good” characters would be too blasé.
I mean, where’s the depth and intrigue? I would rather talk about something I noticed while reviewing my favourite fictional persons, which is that a lot of them seem to change a lot over the course of their respective stories. So maybe I’m interested less in their characters and more in their character development.
This is something that is so very, very good when done well and so very, very sad when… not. Some writers are just flat-out afraid to change the mould of their characters, maybe, I don’t know, in fear of an audience’s negative reaction to the “new” them? But that’s what people do, they grow and change, especially when faced with epic adventures and other, you know, life-changing stuff that fiction often throws unceremoniously into the faces of its patrons. And it’s always a gradual process; change of character cannot simply happen overnight and be chucked to the audience.
So this is a post dedicated to some of my favourite characters, not necessarily all good but all interesting, and all the product of well-done character development. Continue reading
The Afictionado 