Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

What is your favorite fictional character in sci-fi and fantasy?

GANDALF!!!!!!!!

You came up with some good topics Xdyj.

I really like Faramir (in the books). He avoided the corruption of the ring and respects Smeagol.

Not in the movies!!! In the movies, he almost takes the ring and lets everyone hurt Slinker as much as they want! Then he chokes him for a little while and then throws him on the ground!!! >:( dumb movies.

I like Bigwig in Watership Down.

Richard Cypher/Rahl from The Sword of Truth series. Cara is pretty good too.

Some of my favs:

Croaker from The Black Company
Conan from Conan of Cimmeria
The Gray Mouser from Swords Against Wizardry
Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings

Just to be different: Sam in LotR - I think he's the real hero...

And I also like Fafhrd and Grey Mouser

percy jackson

Sffgeek wrote: "Just to be different: Sam in LotR - I think he's the real hero...

And I also like Fafhrd and Grey Mouser"

Agreed.

Gully Foyle
Binabik
Joe Chip

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games!

Pickle wrote: "Gully Foyle from The Stars My Destination; Binabik from The Dragonbone Chair; Joe Chip from Ubik"
Carli wrote: "Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games!"

I haven't even read those books and yet they're your favourites - I've got sooo much reading to do!...

Terry wrote: "Richard Cypher/Rahl from The Sword of Truth series. Cara is pretty good too."

That is so true.
Richard Rahl is definitely my favorite character, so is Kahlan Amnell from The Sword of Truth series.

Right now I really like Tememraire from Naomi Novik's series, but if I were to choose an all time favorite sci-fi or fantasy character, I'd split it down into the top five...because I can't really choose:
1.Toa Vakama Metru (Bionicle Adventures series by Greg Farshtey)
2.Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien)
3.R. Daneel Olivaw (Asimov's Robot Series by Isaac Asimov)
4.Caliban (The Caliban Trilogy by Roger Mcbride Allen)
5.All the Republic Commandoes (Star Wars: Republic Commando by Karen Travis).

That's how I roll!

Gandalf. He was super powerful and cool...enigmatic also

Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in LotR. Especially the three of them together in "The Two Towers".

I didn't like Katniss! I preferred Prim!
I like Gandalf, but there was one thing LOTR did that made me mad. Okay, so Frodo has one job and he's at the volcano and you think that yes, if you're confident enough in yourself, then anything is possible! But he dashes those beliefs when Frodo decides meh, he wants to keep it. The only reason it was finally destroyed was by accident because Smeagol/Golem bit his f-ing finger off and the ring eventually fell into the lava.

EJ Luv Zombie wrote: "I didn't like Katniss! I preferred Prim!
I like Gandalf, but there was one thing LOTR did that made me mad. Okay, so Frodo has one job and he's at the volcano and you think that yes, if you're conf..."

I like that part though because it shows that even "the chosen one" is fallible and makes their quest for the destruction of the ring not only heroic but also traumatizing.

Caren wrote: "I Love Legolis (Books) and Saphira. Yes I know she's a dragon, but she's a great charachter!"

Agreed on the Saphira!

Xdyj wrote: "EJ Luv Zombie wrote: "I didn't like Katniss! I preferred Prim!
I like Gandalf, but there was one thing LOTR did that made me mad. Okay, so Frodo has one job and he's at the volcano and you think t..."

But it gets rid of the only part of the story where a kid could draw some sort of lesson out of it: "If you believe hard enough, you can do anything!"

EJ Luv Zombie wrote: "Xdyj wrote: "EJ Luv Zombie wrote: "I didn't like Katniss! I preferred Prim!
I like Gandalf, but there was one thing LOTR did that made me mad. Okay, so Frodo has one job and he's at the volcano and..."

I don't know, but I personally don't quite believe that anything is possible if you try hard enough, and maybe the lesson can be changed to "you should try hard even when you are not sure whether or not you can succeed in the end" :)

That's too long... the true lesson we got from the real story is: "No matter how hard you try, you'll always need a little help."

EJ Luv Zombie wrote: "I didn't like Katniss! I preferred Prim!
I like Gandalf, but there was one thing LOTR did that made me mad. Okay, so Frodo has one job and he's at the volcano and you think that yes, if you're conf..."

The reason Tolkien chose to do that I thought was brilliant. Because basically it showed that the power of the ring wasn't able to be resisted by sheer human strength. And basically it was the mercy of Bilbo when in the Hobbit he chose not to kill Gollum that basically resulted in saving Middle Earth. The point was a subtle moral lesson in that: 1. Actions we take have later consequences. And 2. An observation of the power of mercy.

And I've always loved Gandalf. I just love characters in books and TV shows that stride into a story and help everyone out and help minor characters find the strength to perform heroic deeds. There's a Doctor Who episode where he refers to himself as a space Gandalf...

Oh and recently I've encountered Matrim Cauthon or Mat. He's a fascinating character from the Wheel of Time series. Although unlike Gandalf he becomes more interesting. Gandalf simply always is intriguing.

Its difficult to pick a favorite fantasy character for me because their are so many and their all so different you can't really compare them. But all of my favorite characters do develop from Lord of the Rings. The characters in Lord of the Rings are so deep and interesting its difficult to pick on over the other. They all go together. I really can't pick, lol.

Jonathan wrote: "EJ Luv Zombie wrote: "I didn't like Katniss! I preferred Prim!
I like Gandalf, but there was one thing LOTR did that made me mad. Okay, so Frodo has one job and he's at the volcano and you think th..."

Yeah, Gandalf said pretty early in this series that "the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many".

Xdyj wrote: Yeah, Gandalf said pretty early in this series that "the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many".

And that's one of my favorite things about it. Tolkien brilliant as he is builds the story to look like its all going to be a happy ending. But no one sees Gollum ending up in the lava. And the best stories end with a twist but still along the lines of what you could see coming.

I liked the wizard and Richard of the sword of truth.

I did also like katniss everdeen and gale thought peeta is just alittle and number 4,6,7,9,and10 from the power of six!

There are a lot of great comments here about characters from LOTR. I particularly like the one about Faramir. Peter Jackson totally blew the character in the movie (like so many other aspects of the books), but his character in the books was key to one of the central themes, that mankind was worthy of saving because there were still those that could resist the temptation of evil.

I only saw one character from Glen Cook's Chronicles of The Black Company books which is a shame because there are a lot of great characters in them. Croaker was called out by Jon, but Soul Catcher and Silent were among my favorites as well.

No one mentioned any characters from Feist's The Riftwar Saga (which began with Magician), so I'd like to add Longsword and Arutha to the list from these books.

I really agree with Emily, that was the worst part of the movie for me. I was mad at the director for practically making Faramir Boromir's clone.
Me and my sister have an ongoing debate about whether Legolas or Aragorn is better. Aragorn is definitely my favorite character.

That seems to have upset a lot of people. Everyone is upset that Faramir was just as bad as everyone else. My dad said that Tolkien made Faramir that good in the book because he wanted to express that even some men could resist the power of the ring. I think he's right.

It's interesting that people focus either on the wizards, or the Men in LOTR. The true protagonist, from the plot/character point of view, is Sam Gamgee. Note that the book starts and ends with him; he sets out on a quest and achieves it. Frodo, the second-most-important character, is actually not at the true center. And all the flashy kings, elves, wizards, and so forth are simply the support team, the chorus boys at the back. The movie, with its SFX and hunky actors, distorts our perception (not that there is any problem with perception being distorted by Sean Bean or Orlando Bloom -- carry on, fellas).

I can hardly begin to decide on my favourite LOTR characters, and they would include Tom Bombadil who didn't even make it into the movie except in a few touches where he was blended into Treebeard. However, I completely understand the reasons he was left out of the film.
But one of my favourite characters in sci-fi fantasy, other than in LOTR, is Henry in "The Time Traveller's Wife." He is such a tortured soul with his difficulties and his inexplicable ride, but he just loves Clare no matter what.
To others in the story he appears aggressive and unreliable,because they have no idea of his difficulties.

Brenda wrote: "It's interesting that people focus either on the wizards, or the Men in LOTR. The true protagonist, from the plot/character point of view, is Sam Gamgee. Note that the book starts and ends with h..."

Yeah, I never noticed that about it being in Sam's veiw-point. I always thought of it as Frodo's. That's cool. I did notice that the story mainly centered around Aragorn, etc. and the secret part seemed more like a side-quest.

Tui wrote: "I can hardly begin to decide on my favourite LOTR characters, and they would include Tom Bombadil who didn't even make it into the movie except in a few touches where he was blended into Treebeard...."

Yeah, I like Tom Bombadil, but he didn't really have much to do with the rest of the story and they only have so much time in the movies.

I've never read The Time Traveler's Wife. I think I plan to, but haven't gotten round to it yet.

The Time Traveller's Wife is often marketed as romance but is also fairly good from a sf viewpoint. I don't exactly like any specific character in it but do enjoy the writing esp. the literally references & allusions.

Alright, I'll read it sometime.

Faramir was a brilliant interrogator in the book. That hardly came over in the movie.
The most serious omission in the movie was one that could almost have taken a fourth movie to show (and of course they couldn't have afforded that I suppose)- the scouring of the Shire at the end. But speaking of characters it was vital to demonstrate the growth of Merry, Pippin and Sam. At the beginning of LOTR, Merry and Pippin were no more that wastrel fun-seeking party boys. But by the time of the scouring they'd grown to become great leaders and formidable foes. You could see plainly then just how far they'd come in their personal development. It was magic and then you got to see Sam restoring and enhancing the entire Shire with his gardening skill after the devastation that had occurred there while they'd all been away. The scouring was a highlight of the story for me - hope they make a separate movie of it one day.

I doubt they will -- but there's no way you could get everything from the book into the movie anyway. I am looking forward to the first HOBBIT movie, however.

Yeah, I really liked the scouring of the shire as well, but I don't think they'd make a movie. That would be cool though.

If there was another Middle Earth based movie, I would hope it would be The Children of Hurin. I don't think they'd do that either though.

Brenda wrote: "I doubt they will -- but there's no way you could get everything from the book into the movie anyway. I am looking forward to the first HOBBIT movie, however."

Yeah! Me too!

And the second hobbit movie! they're making them just down the road from here.

Oh yeah, I forgot they're making two Hobbit movies...

Tell you what, if the two Hobbit movies make another boatload of money, then there will be more JRRT movies. I don't think the Children of Hurin or anything Silmarillion has a chance. What else could they do?

Why not the Silmarillion? Fantastic stories in there.

There are fantastic stories in there, but the Silmarillion couldn't really make a good movie because there would be pieces and parts of stuff and it skips a lot of time, and it would be a mess. It would be like making The Bible a movie. You could take some of the major stories I guess.

I think it would be cool to have a movie on Farmer Giles of Ham. ;)

Connor - that is a good idea too. FGH is great. Also "Leaf by Niggle" contains enough to make a complete movie.

I haven't read Leaf by Niggle yet... I think my dad liked it.