posted
Who's your favorite character in the entire series and why? Give an example of your favorite scene.
Mine is Peter.
He changes in a realistic way. I especially love the way he acts in book 2 of the shadow series (can't remember name offhand) where he "mans up" and quietly takes responsibility for everything he's done by walking into the compound with Bean to face Achilles. I thought that was a beautiful scene, which demonstrated his maturity and greatness.
There is a real wonder to this character. It might be because Peter is not flawed by nurture - his parents are actually fantastic people. Rather, his nature is flawed. By nature, he is a dominating, manipulative and ruthless man.
But by nurture, as well as by his own free willed choices, he becomes, not just a good, but a great man.
And I love how we see both - both the nurturing of his parents, and his own free willed decisions, leading him to becoming so beautiful in personality.
I think there is a lot of truth in this. That it's not so much an "evil" personality that determine the outcome. But it's a combination. Of the environment, the genes, as well as the free willed choices that make a man what he becomes.
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Olhado. The best part of the Speaker arc is when Olhado talks about his wife and kids. By a mile.
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From the Shadow series, mine is Petra. She's just so... real feeling. Actually, Nikolai is probably my REAL favorite, but we don't really know enough about him.
From the Speaker series my favorite is Elenora.
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The part where he cries and hugs both Anton and Petra when they corner him and make him admit that he has tremendous love in his heart. That was a classic "big guy" moment.
I find it very amusing that he can't stand Peter. He never gives him a break, because Peter is so full of it, and he can see right through him. Poor Peter.
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I'm torn between Olhado and Quim. I guess what I like in each one is that they've found what they're looking for in life and live exactly as they think is best. It really resonates with me as true peace. I'll pick Quim and I'll pretend it's because his position in the stories was more dramatic (not more influential, I recognize) but really it's because everyone else picked Olhado.
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Han Fei-Tzu. He's like a too perfect father, but you only get such a father by losing your mother, I think.
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Such a tough question, so I'm going to go with the character I would be most likely to quote, Val.
quote:My needs are simple and few, thought Valentine. Food. Clothing. A comfortable place to sleep. And no idiots.
I think I like EG Bean better because it was more 'fun' wondering what the kid was thinking as opposed to getting his every thought. That's just me, though.
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I like Ender and Valentine. Posts: 496 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I don't particularily have a favorite character, I know I have a character I utterly HATE and thats Novihina but "favorite"? I care about Ender, but doesnt mean I like him more then say Bean, I also like Bean, but favorite? I think this is an interesting point about Card's writing that I can to somewhat respect, or be interested in any or all of his characters but none really stand out to me.
If forced to choose ild push you off a cliff, but if no cliffs availiable I'ld put it as Graff, Cortana Er I mean Jane, Peter, Ender.
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I give a vote for bean. But all the characters came to life from OSC. To do that he must have recognised the "a priori" sense that gives birth to common sense as well as conscience. In the case of Bean, not being nurtured resulted in a disconnect. Through experience he grew to have one. Peter though had no such excuse. Achilles was simply a psyhopath.
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quote:Originally posted by tickletik: Who's your favorite character in the entire series and why? Give an example of your favorite scene.
Mine is Peter.
He changes in a realistic way. I especially love the way he acts in book 2 of the shadow series (can't remember name offhand) where he "mans up" and quietly takes responsibility for everything he's done by walking into the compound with Bean to face Achilles. I thought that was a beautiful scene, which demonstrated his maturity and greatness.
There is a real wonder to this character. It might be because Peter is not flawed by nurture - his parents are actually fantastic people. Rather, his nature is flawed. By nature, he is a dominating, manipulative and ruthless man.
But by nurture, as well as by his own free willed choices, he becomes, not just a good, but a great man.
And I love how we see both - both the nurturing of his parents, and his own free willed decisions, leading him to becoming so beautiful in personality.
I think there is a lot of truth in this. That it's not so much an "evil" personality that determine the outcome. But it's a combination. Of the environment, the genes, as well as the free willed choices that make a man what he becomes.
I agree with you here in that Peter does change in a realistic way, and he is by far my favorite character because he's far more complex than any other character, but I disagree that Peter was bad by nature.
At the end of Ender's Game, you hear Peter explain himself, that he was jealous that Ender loved Valentine so much, and just from the fact that Peter was such a bully, you can see that all his actions were out of jealousy towards Ender and Valentine. Also, a feeling of not being good enough, as he was the first born, but he was rejected from Battle school because he was too aggressive or violent. This made him insecure, and always guess himself. The fact that they deemed him violent made him violent.
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Good call on Planter! But how can you forget Graff?! I loved to hate that guy lol (edit) Noticed someone above has actually posted Graff as one of their choices but my choice still stands!
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I'd go with Peter or Bean - probably Peter. He's more of an ethically complex character - and I guess that this makes him more human, in my eyes. Or that I relate more to him, I don't know.
Anyway, the thing I like the most about him is his struggle to channel his overwhelming thirst for power into something that will end up being *good* for mankind. Instead of fighting it pointlessly (and thus, of risking to follow Alai's example and to become a slave to that thirst) or to indulge it (like Achilles), he tries to shape it into something that goes beyond his own benefit. And god, does he succeeds - Peace on Earth... now THAT's something to brag about. He ends up becoming a good person and winning the fight against his darker side the way Ender wins against his enemies: not by loathing it, but by embracing it, by loving it. The only difference is that he doesn't kill it. But he changes it deeply over the course of time - and change is some kind of death, right ?
Now, for a specific scene... The one that comes to mind is the question that Peter asks at the end of Shadow Puppets: "Am I the only one here who sees something of himself in the man who's lying in thix box ?". In order not to risk spoiling anybody (although there's little risk), I'll restrain fom any further comment on that passage - but since most of you read it already, I think you'll see what I'm referring too.
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I like Suri! Not sure why. I just like him. All the other's are cool too, but I loathe Nova... She makes me mad.
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posted
it is really hard to chose a favorite character. I agree with all the reasons stated for peter,but I think a lot can be said for Beans ethical complexity being just a bout up their. I want to say that my favorite is either Nicholai or Dink. one of my favorite scenes is when Nicholai told Graff that him and bean were brothers, and that was what graff had called him in to tell him. the other scene that rivals for my favorite is the scene when Dink and the rest of rat army are talking about the exigencies and logistics of their plan to celebrate Christmas and Dink and Zeck's argument .very very moving scene.
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I like Achilles, maybe its the fact that I relate so strongly to him due to the fact that I was born with a club foot. Your world gets a lil differant when your physically inferior from birth.
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My favorite character in the Ender books in Peter, the old and new one. They show Ender's perspective of him, a cruel, heartless, killer, and Peter's own view of himself, unsure, and just wanting some love.
In the Shadow series, I love Bean because as he says in either Ender's Shadow or Shadow of the Giant, he was the only one of Ender's jeesh that didn't wish he was Ender.
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quote:Originally posted by tickletik: Who's your favorite character in the entire series and why? Give an example of your favorite scene.
Mine is Peter.
He changes in a realistic way. I especially love the way he acts in book 2 of the shadow series (can't remember name offhand) where he "mans up" and quietly takes responsibility for everything he's done by walking into the compound with Bean to face Achilles. I thought that was a beautiful scene, which demonstrated his maturity and greatness.
There is a real wonder to this character. It might be because Peter is not flawed by nurture - his parents are actually fantastic people. Rather, his nature is flawed. By nature, he is a dominating, manipulative and ruthless man.
But by nurture, as well as by his own free willed choices, he becomes, not just a good, but a great man.
And I love how we see both - both the nurturing of his parents, and his own free willed decisions, leading him to becoming so beautiful in personality.
I think there is a lot of truth in this. That it's not so much an "evil" personality that determine the outcome. But it's a combination. Of the environment, the genes, as well as the free willed choices that make a man what he becomes.
I agree with you here in that Peter does change in a realistic way, and he is by far my favorite character because he's far more complex than any other character, but I disagree that Peter was bad by nature.
At the end of Ender's Game, you hear Peter explain himself, that he was jealous that Ender loved Valentine so much, and just from the fact that Peter was such a bully, you can see that all his actions were out of jealousy towards Ender and Valentine. Also, a feeling of not being good enough, as he was the first born, but he was rejected from Battle school because he was too aggressive or violent. This made him insecure, and always guess himself. The fact that they deemed him violent made him violent.
I agree. Peter >> Elemak
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I like Bean. You are introduced to him in Ender's Game. Before I read the Shadow series, I thought, "What more can Card tell us about Bean? What was I thinking? You re-meet him as a little waif and learn about his childhood. He is hard to like at first, (for a long time actually) and then he begins to soften and you begin to let him in. As the series progresses, he softens more, and grows up (both physically and mentally). He actually becomes very mature and develops adult love and emotions at a young age. I like Bean.
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posted
Ender and Bean of course, but Hyrum Graff and Mazer Rackham are fascinating and favorite characters. Within the IF, they are uniquely situated to see the Big Picture. Not only do they save Earth in the short term, but work diligently to save the human race in the long term. Few truly understand what they have accomplished and what they have sacrificed. They are excellent commanders because they also have compassion. They are not perfect people, but they are true heroes.
"Mazer in Prison" and the scene at the end of Ender in Exile where elderly Graff reads Valentine's letter alone with his tea kettle are very moving.
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OMG, as I read the books and re-meet the characters, they each could easily have their own spin off series, like Bean. Sister Carlotta, Graff, Rackam, Ender's Jeesh... Their descriptions are all rich
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quote:Originally posted by umberhulk: I agree. Peter >> Elemak
Agreed. I'm not familiar with the Book of Mormon, so I don't know if the Elemak in the Earthborn series is an accurate representation of the Elemak in the BOM, but a person who repeatedly makes the same mistakes and never grows at all just seems unrealistic to me.
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One of my favorites is Bean. Even when I initially read Enders game in the early 90's, I loved Bean as a character. I enjoy the character of Peter as well, and I like the fact that OSC took the Shadow series to show Peter as a real person, and not the childhood demon of Enders nightmares.
Lately Miro has become one of my favorites. I just finished listening to Speaker/Xenocide/Children ... definitely Miro!
I haven't listened to the Shadow series for a while, but I'm going to start on that this week. But you know something? Petra always really got on my nerves, for some reason. And Novinha a bit, too. I find it just a little unreasonable that she didn't seem to change much in her 30 years of marriage to Ender.
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I have to say my favorite character is Olhado. He's the voice of sanity in that whole crazy family.
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Ender, but I feel silly picking the obvious choice so I'll pick Valentine instead. I related alot to Valentine throughout the books.
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Lol, I think most people were trying not to pick the obvious one... Until the end here there are only two mentions of Ender! Ender is my favorite because his grasp of human character is so incredible Posts: 11 | Registered: May 2009
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quote:Originally posted by tickletik: It might be because Peter is not flawed by nurture
Are you kidding?? I think the Wiggins meant well, but it became apparent in the Shadow books how the family's web of secrecy was incredibly damaging to the unit as a whole. How was it good for the Wiggins to withold their knowledge of the identities of Locke and Demosthenes and cultivate their children's disdain so that they could manipulate them?? Once they started down that road, they couldn't get out of it until Peter finally admitted that he was Locke.
Anyway, sorry, I do agree with you that Peter turned out well I especially enjoyed when Peter came back as Ender (or vice versa) in Xenocide and CotM, that was particularly interesting.
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I adore Bean... The way he relates to others in all the books about him by far make him my favorite.
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Scott: I think he related on a very specific level with Sister Carlotta. Also we've yet to have an opportunity to see him with his children (beyond basic infancy that is), that could be very interesting.
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It's been quite a while since I read Ender's Series, I've just recently re-read Ender's Shadow and am in the middle of a second helping of Shadow Puppets. I did, however just read Ender in Exile. Though none of the new characters were close to my list of favorites.
I'd say I'm partial to Bean, Ender and Graff.
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posted
Bean. Without a doubt. His character has changed my life, and I don't even feel silly for saying that, because it is completely true. He opens his mind and trusts his instincts. Bean truly knows himself. He's always 2 steps ahead. I really feel that we are ALL smarter then we let ourselves be. We are so caught up with LIFE(struggles for supremacy, prejudices, wasteful relationships and diversions), that we don't stop long enough to think about what's really going on. Most people can't even shut their spewing mouths long enough to learn something.
Bean never wanted to be the master. He knew that he would never be Peter or Ender. At first this was because he cared only about survival, and then because he knew that he was going to die young. We all die eventually. We don't know when, and neither did he really, but he still chose to make the absolute most of the time that he had. It seems like he saw life as a series of choices. You observe, analyze, decide, and act.
I started actually thinking about every little thing I do and say, and realized that I was absentmindedly drudging through my days. I changed all of this at once. It was like I had been sleeping this whole time, and suddenly I woke up. I changed careers, my marriage improved, my quality of life improved, and life is just easy and happy now. All just from reading the Ender/Shadow series. I think there are important things we can learn from ALL of the characters and situations. (But on a lighter note, I named my GPS Jane)
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My favorite is, by far, Valentine, mainly because I like foils who are foils by choice and who manage to do great things independently of their main characters. I also like her sharp wit and insightfulness and the fact that she is such a constant in the universe. Really, even after she and Jakt marry, Ender can rely on her.
But as far as choosing obscure characters as favorites because it shows off your knowledge of the stories (and I'm in no way defaming the practice: the orphan Cartwright is my favorite character in the Sherlock Holmes stories), I have to say that I like Ivan...actually, for much the same reasons that I like Valentine...I really should broaden my horizons.
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Does he relate to anyone besides Petra, Niko, and Suryawong?
Actually yes he did, and more than just Sister Carlotta... Bean related to the members of his jeesh and the men in his army. There was a general whom he was close to in Shadow of the Hegemon, only I have forgotton his name momentarily.
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I like Peter because he exceeds all expectations. He was denied entrance to Battle School because he wasn't lovable enough to be a leader, yet in the end, HE unites humanity, and is forced to stay Hegemon even though he didn't want it because he was loved for his skills in leadership. It's truly amazing how he took the worthless title of Hegemon and turned it into THE leader of Earth, and possibly all of Humanity.
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