anghara

aeriedraconia just posted something about characters - how they make you respond. She asked for characters that you-the-reader "absolutely loathed... really loved... empathised with...brought you to tears".

Here's what I wrote in a comment to her entry:


a character…

…you absolutely loathed.
No contest. Thomas Covenant. He makes me want to shriek and tear my hair out. By the roots. By the handful.

…you really loved.
Does it have to be human? And can I be REALLY cute?... Draco, from "Dragonheart". (It didn't hurt that he had Sean Connery's voice - but really - you gotta love a dragon that says "YIKE!" when he gets stuck...)

…you empathized with.
I empathise with EVERYONE, what do you mean? (well, except Covenant.)

…that brought you to tears.
Dianora, from "Tigana".

If I were to pick my own characters, from my own books, then, in order:

1) can't answer that - I may have written dislikeable characters but I "loathed" none of mine, else I couldn't have written them - but the closest I come is Ansen from "The Hidden Queen". And yet even he returns to pity in the final reckoning, the little shit. I do that to my villains - I don't so much *redeem* them as make them pitiable, rather than loathed...

2) Amais, from "Embers of Heaven"

3) In a strange but very strong way, Xaforn from "Jin Shei"

4) Sasha, from "letters from the fire"


I'd be interested to see what characters others pick.