OK, Zoggie, this one’s for you. Who is your favorite Stephen King character, be it villain or hero? Let’s cover least favorites, just to see who gets named.
OK, one of my favorites is Oy from the Dark Tower. (I’m only half-kidding. i really do get a kick out of Oy, and often wish there were a stuffed animal version of him that I could own.)
More seriously, I’ll take Roland the Gunslinger. He is more than just an archetype, he actually grows and changes between DT: GS and Wizard and Glass. A man with an incredible will, a belief in doing what’s right, and an obsession which has already cost him dearly and shaped the majority of his life, and who knows what may lie ahead for him?
Best villain goes to Flagg. He’s just so utterly cool, infuriatingly hard to get rid of, an embodiment of all that can go wrong in the heart of a human being (not that he’s human…)
Least favorite character goes to Jessie from Gerald’s Game. King wnet on an odd feminist streak, giving us three books: Gerald’s game, dolores claiborne, and rose madder. dolores claiborne is a wonderful book, RM is tolerable, but gerald’s Game is just awful. the other two books have protagonists who are very sympathetic, and Dolores has her own distinct voice that is also very funny. But Jessie has nothing at all goin for her; not funny, not terribly smart, no chance to interact wiuth anyone other than the “villain” (don’t get me started on him); jessie is King’s version of eleamor from Jackson’s Hill House the book, not any of the movies); totally absorbed in herself. I liked the poor woman from The regulators ( the one who acts as a mother to Seth) better; she wasn’t the brightest person, but she was at least insighful. I would have liked it better if she’d died in that room, I think.
OK, it’s y’all’s turn now…
–There must be some way out of here, said the black mage to the thief.
