I have no plans to have kids, but if I ever change my mind and have a daughter, I want to name her Zoe Delenn.
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Well now, that depends on the father's taste in entertainment, doesn't it? I'm not sure I could procreate with someone who disliked Firefly or Bab5.
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On second thought, you may be right. I just put the question to a male friend who loves those series as much as I do, and he said he'd be okay with one or the other but not both. The reason given was that he needs to be able to talk to his kids with a straight face, and if his daughter were named Zoe Delenn he'd be unable to refrain from grinning like a huge geek whenever he called her by her full name.
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You know, mph, Buffy was the character I disliked the most while watching the show originally. But I was just listening to the Once More With Feeling soundtrack this weekend, and realized that through way too many rewatchings I've gotten to the point where Buffy is my favorite character. Please don't take the following hideously long post as an attack on you. I spent the two hour drive home yesterday thinking about just this subject, hence the long post.
I know this speech from Selfless demonstrates perfectly why most people don't like Buffy:
quote:Buffy: It is always different! It's always complicated. And at some point, someone has to draw the line, and that is always going to be me! You get down on me for cutting myself off, but in the end the Slayer is always cut off. There's no mystical guidebook, no all-knowing council. Human rules don't apply! There's only me. I am the law.
But to me, every line in that speech reflects a point we have seen Buffy come to through her experiences in previous seasons. And maybe she's wrong to have come to these conclusions, but can you blame her for them? And I love the evolution of the girl who is terrified of death in "Prophecy Girl" and faces it anyway, to the girl who embraces death in "The Gift", to the girl who laments life in "Once More With Feeling", to the girl who accepts it in "Grave", and finally, to the girl who is freed in "Chosen". And no, I don't always agree with the choices Buffy makes, but I could also never do the job Buffy does. If I had to deal with 1/10th of what Buffy deals with daily, I would not survive.
I've heard people complain that Buffy is too whiny, but Buffy goes through Hell, literally, a hundred times over. For her to come out unscathed every time would make the show meaningless. What moves me and inspires me are stories about people placed in impossible situations who persevere. If those impossible situations don't hurt, if they don't make the character doubt, if they don't make the character hate the world for putting them there, then that perseverance is empty. Every day that Buffy lives, every vampire that Buffy stakes is evidence of that perseverance. I admire that.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote: I am always amazed when somebody says that they actually liked her. While I loved that show, I always disliked her.
Oh dont get me wrong, there were times when I just wanted to yell at her or chastize her for doing something incredibly stupid. But it really is a journey with her, one that as Blacwolve so eloquently pointed out, is one that involves so much pain and suffering that its not surprising that sometimes she acts the way she does. And yet, everytime a big bad came up against her, everytime something horrible happened, she beat them back, picked herself up off the mat, and got back in the game.
Ive heard alot of people say that Willow was the one on that show that grew the most, and while she did change immensely, Buffy's story is the most fascinating, most complex, and most evolving story on that show, in my eyes. The Gift probably contains the five greatest minutes in television because her death is so incredibly deep and brilliantly poignant.
And ill be quite honest, the character that I like the least is Spike. Ive never understood the fascination with Spike because to me he is just a poor-man's Angel, and I never really liked Angel either. Its certainly personal preference, but I could write a paper on how Spike and Angel were the antithesis of each other, and yet, the same. While the tertiary characters of Buffy were great characters, this is one of the few shows where the lead was always one of my favorites (the only other show I can think of like that is House).
But like I said, no hero compares to the depth of Batman.
Posts: 457 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Arthur Stuart - Alvin Maker Simon - Firefly Atreyu - The Neverending Story Nikolai - Ender's Shadow
Posts: 464 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Eponine from Les Miserables (the musical, I can't read the book until later this year) Eowyn from LOTR. I always fell in love with men who loved someone else.
Anne Elliot from Persuasion...I finally got my man!
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Mar 2001
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Enoch Root is super cool, but many of Neal Stephenson's characters I feel that I can identify with more. Bob Shaftoe, Randy Waterhouse, Hiro Protagonist (how much gumption do you have to have to name a character that?) I think my father secretly is Atticus Finch. MacGuyver is amazing. And although they're not actually fictional, there's part of my that thinks both Muhammad Ali and Johnny Cash lived lives that are somehow outside of reality.
Posts: 26 | Registered: Apr 2003
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This may be the most true statement in the universe. Anyone who is looking for the truth need look no further.
Also, I just skimmed the thread, and I may have missed it, but I am shocked, shocked, that no one has mentioned Yossarian. He has got to be my favorite character of any kind of all time. So I'm gonna say:
Yossarian - Catch 22 MacGuyver - MacGuyver MacGuyver - Stargate SG1 ( ) Maniac McGee - Maniac McGee The Chink - Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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Atrus from the Myst series (comes out more in the books) Jean-Luc Picard, of course John Criton - Farscape Daniel Jackson - Stargate Simon - Firefly Elijah Baley - various Asimov novels
Posts: 187 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Gecko: Someone who spoke to you more than any real human being. Someone who you identified with. Someone who you felt captured a perfect snapshot of the human psyche. Or, simply, someone you felt was really, really cool.
For me, it would have to be a toss up between Holden Caufield and Hamlet. Both are such deep characters that it's scary.
Humbert Humbert and Lolita. Although their story is not by any means a good one, it captured a part of humanity that everybody should realize exists and made me very aware of child abuse, mental illness, and obsession, which I think are good things to be aware of and wary of in this world.
Otherwise...Bigwig. Yes, he's a rabbit, but I've always identified with his "sensitive tough guy" attitude since I was a wee kiddie.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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