The Character Book Tag!

In which I share a bunch of opinions about characters in a super fun tag! 

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Hello dears! I am pretty excited to do this because I was reading Anuska Anand’s post and thought it looked like a really fun tag. I was like, “If she leaves this tag open, I’m doing it!” Then I got to the nominees and she’d nominated me! Absolutely made my day, thank you so much, Anushka! (And people: definitely check out her blog.)

So this is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s a bunch of character-related questions. And since I really love characters, it should be fun!

1. Who is the most tough and awesome character?

Shh. I censor things. Whadya gonna do ’bout it? Huh?

*Pulls out a list*

I know I can’t list them all, but can I do two? Anuska Anand did two, so it’s not without precedent. I’m doing two.

I’m going with Miss Pross from A Tale of Two Cities and Eponine Thenardier from Les Miserables.

Miss Pross, though. She’s amazing. A lot of “strong” female characters these days are all: “I act like I don’t have emotions and that’s what makes me tough.” I don’t mind these characters (I mean, I tend to be that way myself). It’s just that by promoting that image of a strong female character, we can start to think that’s the only way of being strong. Miss Pross is not like that at all.

It was in vain for Madame Defarge to struggle and to strike; Miss Pross, with the vigorous tenacity of love, always so much stronger than hate, clasped her tight, and even lifted her from the floor in the struggle that they had.

Yeah just. The whole showdown between her and Madame Defarge, her absolute devotion to Lucie…

(If you never read any other Dickens novel in your life, read A Tale of Two Cities.)

And then we’ve got Eponine-casually-stares-down-a-gang-of-six-armed-men-Thenardier.

“There are six of you, but what do I care? You are men. Well, I am a woman. You don’t frighten me, not for a second. I’m telling you, you won’t be going in that house, because I don’t want you to. If you go near it, I’ll bark. I told you, the mutt is me. I don’t care what happens to you. On your way, you’re boring me! Go wherever you like, but don’t come here, I forbid you to! You’ve got your knives, I’ve got my fists, we’re even. Come on, what are you waiting for!”

I’m ready to fight anyone who thinks “strong female characters” are a 21st century invention.

2. Which character do you most dislike?

I’m going to take this to not mean characters we’re supposed to dislike, so villains are out.

Romeo. From Romeo and Juliet. I just…

Romeo: MY LIFE IS OVER!!! ROSALINE WON’T MARRY ME!!! EVERYTHING IS HORRIBLE AND I WILL NEVER BE HAPPY AGAIN!!!!

(Two hours later)

Romeo: YOU ARE SO PERFECT GIRL I JUST MET I HAVE NEVER SEEN A BEAUTIFUL GIRL UNTIL TONIGHT IN FACT YOU KNOW WHAT LET’S JUST GO AHEAD AND GET MARRIED

(a little while after that)

Romeo: JULIET IS DEAD BUT HUH SHE LOOKS REALLY GOOD BUT SHE’S DEAAADDDD HEH SHE REALLY DOES NOT LOOK DEAD THOUGH THAT’S AMAZING LOOK HOW PINK HER CHEEKS ARE BUT MY LIFE IS OVER WOAH IT ALMOST LOOKS LIKE SHE’S BREATHING OH WELL BETTER KILL MYSELF BECAUSE I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT THIS GIRL I JUST MET

Those are all actual quotes from Shakespeare’s text, by the way.

3. If you could date a fictional character,whom would it be?

Hmm. Not gonna tell you. 😀 Gotta have some secrets.

4. If you could change a character in any way what would it be?

I had to think about this one. I feel like there have been a lot of books lately that I started reading, was intrigued by the plot, and then couldn’t finish because the protagonist was too bland. So really any of those.

5.What character made all the wrong choices which didn’t add anything to the story?

Intriguing question. Um…yeah that’s tough because usually you’re like “NO! DON’T DO IT!” but you understand why they had to. If not plot-wise, then at least thematically. Hmm…No. I don’t have an answer.

6. Which Character do you love to hate?

*calculates risk of mentioning Les Mis twice in one post* Looks like I’ll lose approximately 32 followers (Heh. As in 1832. Darn, I’ve just lost even more of you, haven’t I?) It’ll hurt, but not enough to prevent me.

Monsier and Madame Thenardier, so much! (I mean technically that’s two characters but what are you gonna do?)

All the characters in Les Mis are pretty complex—like real life people, neither all good nor all bad. But not these two. They are pure, unadulterated evil. They are the kind of criminals who rob dead people, and they are also good contenders for the “Worst Parents in Literature” award.

The pavement was not as hard to him as his mother’s heart.

(The mother being Madame T.)

“Well, I don’t know, but it seems to me that that’s your son.”

“Bah!” said Thenardier. “D’you think so?”

And off he went.

7. Favorite sidekick character with the most heart.

This one was easy. Rudy Steiner all the way!

8. What is your favorite fictional romantic relationship?

Oh, there are too many! And if non-canon ones count, we’ll be here all night. A small sad fact about me is that probably the majority of my ships will never be canon.

But to list a few (all canon ones):

• Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe
• Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters
• Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy
• Marius Pontmercy and Cosette Fauchelevent
• Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester

9. Who do you think is the strongest character?

Bit broad, isn’t it? How on earth am I supposed to pick just like the strongest character in all of literature? That’s just…that just isn’t possible. I can think of so many that would qualify, but they’re too different to compare.

10. Best protagonist?

I’m sorry but once again I just can’t. It’s not gonna happen. No way I’d be able to begin to decide.

11. Whom do you tag?

I’ve been having a lot of success with leaving tags open lately. I was afraid at first that no one would actually end up doing it if I didn’t tag them, but that hasn’t been the case. So I’m leaving this open, and I’d really like you guys to do it (and link  in the comments if you do!) I’d love to hear your choices! (That is, if anyone is still even here at this point. I may be talking to an empty internet page if enough of you pressed your back buttons when I wouldn’t shut up about Les Mis. Ah well.)

I hope you guys appreciate that, with the exception of Romeo and Juliet, I own all of the books in this post but unless I happened to already have a picture of my copy, I found pictures on google because I am just that lazy.

Have a lovely day!