# Favorite fictional hero **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 30, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262 "2004-11-30T02:11:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lord\_Vega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a9adbd/32.png) [@Lord\_Vega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Vega)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/21 "2004-12-03T03:56:35Z")
From my younger days, Doc Savage. Travel the world with your best pals and fight the good fight. Here recently, Dirk Pit. Travel the world with your best pal and fight the good fight. And get the girl in the end. 🆒 Cheers, Vega ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/22 "2004-12-03T04:47:30Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > The Saint. > > By which I mean the \*real \*Simon Templar, the antihero of the books. Not the wishy-washy hero of the black and white movies. Not the awful Val Kilmer, not Ian Ogilvy and most especially not Roger Moore. (Simon Dutton at least understood what the character was about.) He took mine!! Well, I do like Roger Moore. Soft spot from when I was a teenage girl. But mostly I adore the Saint of the very early books. All lean and cool and dangerous and suave and… oh! Patent leather hair, anyone? Funny, I just picked up one of my Saint books for light reading today! ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/23 "2004-12-03T07:02:44Z")
I forgot John Clark. I always pictured him as a very, very typical guy played by Dick Van Patten. Very ordinary , except he will kill in the blink of an eye. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/24 "2004-12-03T11:11:57Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Harry Pagget Flashman from the Flashman series by Whathisname. I have rarely seen a series of books that taught history so painlessly. Harry Paget Flashman, as extrapolated from Tom Brown’s School Days by the one and only George MacDonald Fraser. My all time favourite, too. A shame the only movie made of his exploits {Royal Flash, dir. Richard Lester} was a balls-up: Malcolm McDowell makes a good villain, but Flashman he ain’t. {BTW, a quick thread search should turn up a recent Flashman and GMF thread started by yours truly} Another vote for James Bolivar DiGriz {The Stainless Steel Rat}, and God knows why this hasn’t been filmed - George Clooney as the hero, Angelina Jolie as, well, Angelina, a cameo by Sean Connery as Inskipp, a few special effects, and hell, the book’s practically a screenplay by itself. {It and a few others in the series were very successfully adapted to comic format by Alan Grant and Carlos Ezquerra in 2000 AD comic, long ago - as far as I know never republished, so you’ll need to buy the originals at exorbitant prices if you want to read them. I have them all - N’yah, n’yah, n’yah} A personal vote goes to Steerpike, from Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy: like Flashman, not strictly a hero - actually, he’s downright evil - but cunning, resourceful, complex, and downright fascinating. Mind you, hardly anyone but me’s ever read the books, let alone heard of him {this is a cue for other Gormenghast fans to respond - c’mon, I know you’re out there…}. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/25 "2004-12-03T16:44:10Z")
Frodo is my favorite fictional hero. Has been for a long time. The mother in the book The Dollmaker is quite a heroine in her own way and a favorite of mine As for more traditional suave, swashbuckly, not-really-my-genre-anyway types, you guys have already named many of the greats. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/26 "2004-12-03T17:27:22Z")
Severian the Lame from Gene Wolfe’s **Book of the New Sun** series. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/27 "2004-12-03T19:51:26Z")
Candidia Foster, from **Emergence** , written by David R. Palmer. Plucky would-be world savior, supergenius, black belt who can kick all kinds of ass, _homo post-hominem_. Oh, and she’s 11 years old. ---
**Author:** ![dare\_devil007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@dare\_devil007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dare_devil007)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/28 "2004-12-04T00:27:38Z")
My favourite fictional hero: Harry Potter - He’s just so awesome. He’s so brave and funny and wicked. And he’s not like other heros where they do some heroic deed and bask in the glory of it all. Harry doesn’t want all the glory. He just wants to be a normal guy. Of course, there’s nothing normal about being a wizard, but you get my drift. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/29 "2004-12-04T00:31:43Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Severian the Lame from Gene Wolfe’s **Book of the New Sun** series. I’ll second this. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/30 "2004-12-04T00:35:30Z")
Lestat, the vampire. He does everything I want to do, and then some. Plus he’s hot. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/31 "2004-12-04T06:42:29Z")
Bilbo Baggins, esq. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/32 "2004-12-04T07:08:48Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > The Saint. > > By which I mean the \*real \*Simon Templar, the antihero of the books. Not the wishy-washy hero of the black and white movies. Not the awful Val Kilmer, not Ian Ogilvy and most especially not Roger Moore. (Simon Dutton at least understood what the character was about.) You mean the one who thought that death the appropriate cure for blaclmail… YES!! ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262/33 "2004-12-04T07:35:54Z")
-Indiana Jones -Tyrion Lannister from\* A Song of Fire and Ice\* -Curly [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-hero/277262.md?page=1)