# Most Interesting Fictional Characters **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 4, 2000, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349 "2000-06-04T05:23:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d78d45/32.png) [@Kiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiva)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/21 "2000-06-04T22:53:10Z")
Goose wrote: > [@](#): > > \*\* > I thought it was Indy Jones until it said Sci-Fi writer. I don’t know but I want to add Indy Jones on my list now. 🙂 > \*\* I can’t believe I forgot Indiana Jones! as\_u\_wish wrote: > [@](#): > > \*\* My top pick–Lord Peter Wimsey is already taken.\*\* You can have him on alternate weekends, Easter, and Guy Fawkes Day. ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/22 "2000-06-04T23:18:51Z")
Havelock Vetinary, the Patrician of Anhk-Morpork. One of the great manipulators of fiction. He adapts everything to his plans…that is if he hadn’t already planned it to happen that way. Sealemon88, Paks did get broken in the second book…she got better though. 🙂 Drzzt might be interesting to meet and talk to. Cadfael…He is one whom I’d love to meet, especially since Nero Wolfe isn’t available anymore. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/23 "2000-06-04T23:22:13Z")
_Thwap to the forehead._ Forgot another - Lord D’Arcy. How would you like to be a detective in a world of magic? Others have done the idea also, but Randal Garret did it first and best. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SarumanRex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@SarumanRex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SarumanRex)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/24 "2000-06-04T23:30:59Z")
In case it isn’t obvious from my username, I think the evil wizard Saruman from Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is a great character. He begins his life as the single greatest force for good in all of Middle Earth but before it’s over he becomes infected with the evil of the world and is consumed by it. By the end he is a withered husk of what he once was, but still capable of evil “in a small mean way” as Gandalf put it. Most people admire the good wizard Gandalf (or the embodiment of all that is evil Sauron) but these characters are pure fiction like Santa Claus or the boogey man with no basis in reality. When you’re a kid they drive your imagination but as you get older you realize how one dimensional they are. The real hero of the story is, of course, Frodo and the real villain IMHO is Saruman. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/25 "2000-06-05T00:40:58Z")
I think villians make the most interesting heroes. The willingness for an amoral person to stand up for something or somebody is a lot more powerful than for a person for whom morality is not even an issue. Take, for example: **The Continental Op** , as he is at the end of Dashiel Hammett’s _The Dain Curse_. **Phillip Marlowe** , Raymond Chandler’s drunken misanthrope who time and time again busts his ass to help out people who can’t pay what his services are worth. **Leon** from the movie _The Professional_, who kills without remorse, but is somehow enobled by his humility and his capacity for caring. **Mr. White** from _Resorvoir Dogs_ who sacrifices himself for a fellow thief, who turns out . **Jimmy** from _Laws of Gravity_ who gets in trouble because he won’t turn his back on a friend just because he’s an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![labdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5fc32e/32.png) [@labdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labdude)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/26 "2000-06-05T04:14:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > The winner, hands down, is Gus from Lonesome Dove. A cowboy. Funny, clever, a man’s man. I’ll never forgive Larry McMurtry for killing him off. Cretin. > \*\* You took my pick, and I was so sure noone would pick Agustus. We must be soulmates. Meet me at the church tommrow. michael ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/27 "2000-06-05T04:20:51Z")
**Kilgore Trout**. **Alex** , Our Humble Narrator. **Cecil Adams**. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/28 "2000-06-05T05:56:20Z")
I thought of a few more that I wanted to talk to as well. [ul][li] **Veralidaine Sarrasri** Or Daine for short from The Immortals series by Tamora Pierce. I’d like to talk to her learn what its like to be the child of a god and a woman who was made a goddess and what its like to have wild magick and talk with the animals etc[/li] [li]**Alanna of Trebond and Olau (sp?)** from the Lioness Rampant series by Tamora Pierce I’d like to know what it was like to learn to be a knight and a mage and maybe talk with Jonathan and George while I’m there. (The King and ex prince of thieves respectively)[/li] [li] **Masterharper Robinton** I can’t believe I forgot about him I mean look at him a wonderful guy, singer, greatest man on Pern. (At least according to some people) It would be wonderful to sit down with him for some Benden White and talk the night away about whatever comes to mind. (Was I the only one who cried when he died? Please tell me not.)[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/29 "2000-06-05T11:36:06Z")
labdude, you didn’t say WHICH church. Lisa, waiting a bolt of lightning to strike Kilgore Trout… ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/30 "2000-06-05T11:47:04Z")
Travis McGee Inspector Frost ---
**Author:** ![Rosebud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rosebud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rosebud)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/31 "2000-06-05T13:12:10Z")
Igraine, from Marion Zimmer Bradley’s _The Mists of Avalon_. Her lineage, her choices, the fact that she lived in a castle (Tintagel)… other characters get more attention in that book, but she’s a key figure. I’d like to spend a day with any of the women in Richard Adams’s book _Maia_. And, of course, I’d love to meet Harry Potter 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/32 "2000-06-05T14:09:20Z")
I’m gonna go with The Bellman, from Lewis Carroll’s great verse epic _The Hunting of the Snark._ One can see he is wise the moment one looks in his face. Also, he’s the guy I’d want at my elbow if the Snark is a Boojum. True, he wasn’t much good to The Baker, but the Baker had driven the poor Bellman half-mad due to his limited abilities (he could only bake bride-cake, for which we may state no materials were to be had). Plus he keeps a Beaver, who had often (the Bellman said) saved them from wreck, though none of the sailors knew how. – Uke, charming with smiles and soap ---
**Author:** ![annalamerino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@annalamerino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annalamerino)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/33 "2000-06-05T14:34:03Z")
Sherlock Holmes. Smarter than Cecil, and sometimes carries a gun. ---
**Author:** ![labdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5fc32e/32.png) [@labdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labdude)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/34 "2000-06-05T14:48:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > labdude, you didn’t say WHICH church. > Lisa, waiting a bolt of lightning to strike Kilgore Trout… > \*\* de one at da end of de street. I waited and waited all day. I just wanna be loved. Is that so wrong. michael ---
**Author:** ![Dumbguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dumbguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dumbguy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/35 "2000-06-05T17:33:52Z")
I was going to say Gus and Phillip Marlowe, both of which have already been mentioned. I hate being average. I just read the sequel to Lonesome Dove, and it was not nearly as good, mostly because of it’s pronounced Guslessness. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/36 "2000-06-05T22:32:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > I’m gonna go with The Bellman, from Lewis Carroll’s great verse epic _The Hunting of the Snark._ > > One can see he is wise the moment one looks in his face. > > Also, he’s the guy I’d want at my elbow if the Snark is a Boojum. True, he wasn’t much good to The Baker, but the Baker had driven the poor Bellman half-mad due to his limited abilities (he could only bake bride-cake, for which we may state no materials were to be had). Plus he keeps a Beaver, who had often (the Bellman said) saved them from wreck, though none of the sailors knew how. > > – Uke, charming with smiles and soap > \*\* …he had only one notion for crossing the ocean, and that was to tinkle his bell. And there’s that business of the bowsprit getting mixed with the rudder sometimes. Not exactly the sort of flexible responsiveness to circumstances one might wish for from one in his position. ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/37 "2000-06-05T23:01:06Z")
Here is the list that immediately comes to mind… [ul] [li] **John Clark** - Leader of Rainbox Six team in Tom Clancy’s novel, _Rainbox Six_.[/li] [li] **John Connor** - Leader of the human resistance in the _Terminator_ series.[/li] [li] **Jules Winnfield** - Samuel L. Jackson in _Pulp Fiction_. So did he go on that “mission” or what?[/li] [li] **Lt. James Curran** - Michael Biehn in _Navy Seals_. What a freakin genius.[/li][/ul] Hopefully, more to come later. ---
**Author:** ![Eposia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Eposia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eposia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2000, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/38 "2000-06-06T00:49:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > [li] **Masterharper Robinton** I can’t believe I forgot about him I mean look at him a wonderful guy, singer, greatest man on Pern. (At least according to some people) It would be wonderful to sit down with him for some Benden White and talk the night away about whatever comes to mind. (Was I the only one who cried when he died? Please tell me not.)[/li][/list] > \*\* Not. 😉 There are too many favorite characters to list them all, but I’ll try to name a few… Lady Sally McGee , from Callahan’s Lady and Lady Slings the Booze, by Spider Robinson. Not a famous author, but quite good. Heris Serrano, from the series by Elizabeth Moon which includes Winning Colors (can’t remember the rest right now…) The Rowan, from the Talent series by Anne McCaffrey. Also Tirla, same series, different book. Mrs Murphy, the cat detective in the mystery series by Rita Mae Brown (also a great author – her fiction stuff is better than the mysteries…)…(first book was Wish You Were Here) Also, going with the felines, the cat in the book Summon The Keeper, by Tanya Huff (one of the funniest books I have ever read) Skandranon, from the Black Gryphon series by Mercedes Lackey. Vlad Taltos, from the Jhereg series by Steven Brust. Also Sethra Lavode, same series. In addition, some great ones have already been listed, like Jules, Paksennarion, Lessa, Killa, Robinton, Corwin, Indy, etc. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kakkerlak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@Kakkerlak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kakkerlak)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2000, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/39 "2000-06-06T01:10:14Z")
Guess I’ve been laying off the fantasy for too long; I don’t recognize 70% of these characters or books. Last winter I couldn’t get Owen Meany out of my head. The hero of John Irving’s “A Prayer for Owen Meany” is a remarkable intepretation of the apostle Paul. And then there’s John Galt. My whole engineering career, though not exactly earth-shattering, has been because I picked up a copy of Atlas Shrugged when I was seventeen. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2000, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349/40 "2000-06-06T07:32:10Z")
Gee, I thought I’d be the only one to mention Rocketman (AKA Tyrone Slothrop) And also Neil Gaiman’s Death. And Dream. Delirium I’ve already met. And while we’re on comics, John Constantine (Hellblazers), and King Mob (Invisibles) And… Dr. Benway Kilgore Trout Humbert Humbert Sr. Stephen and Gregor Samsa (after) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-interesting-fictional-characters/21349.md?page=3)