Katie tagged me over at I am Charles Baker Harris (but she nabbed it from Eva), so here we go! (It’s worth saying that I procrastinated for weeks about doing this, but here I am a last. Better late than never, right?) Because I am a personality typing nerd, I will link them all to their character profiles over on Funky MBTI.

~The rules~

  • Compile a list of up to ten of your favorite fandoms. Books, movies, TV shows—you name it!
  • Tell us about your favorite character in each of those fandoms, along with an explanation of why that character is your favorite. (Your reasoning can be however long or short you’d like it to be.)
  • Tag however many (or few) friends you’d like to participate.

I don’t abide by rules, so I am tagging no one. If, however, you would like to fill this out, please do so and spread around the love!

Jurassic Park

I still remember the hype around this movie in the 90s, when I was too young to watch it – but there were huge promotional VHS towers in K-Mart covered in fold-up dinosaurs and so much hype about the incredible new technology, that my dad brought home a copy. We watched it and I loved it, but my parents deemed it too scary for their little girl, and the copy vanished into the void. Years later, I still love it, I now watch it on high def Blu Ray, and it STILL scares me half to death. I enjoy the entire franchise (Dominion was a bit of a letdown yesterday, just saying), but my favorite character is Ian Malcolm. He edges out Alan Grant by a hair, merely because I understand him the most, and a friend once paid me the compliment of saying “You and Ian are so much alike!” Why thank you, he’s an ENTP 7w6 and I’m an ENFP 6w7 and we would have beautiful, intelligent, skeptical and contrarian babies. Hah! [ENTP 7w6]

Smallville

I got into this show because a friend said, “You need to watch this.” I went meh, because I was a book nerd and a costume drama nerd, and not a sci-fi nerd at that time, and comic books were not on my radar. But I got season one, watched it, and then bought the next two seasons, one of them sight-unseen, because I couldn’t stand to wait weeks for the library copies. I still watch this show almost religiously through to season seven, when my favorite character leaves, now (to my shock and awe) also on Blu Ray! (All my dreams have come true.) Why do I like it? It’s cute, it’s funny, it has great, memorable characters, it’s full of amazing songs, and it tells an unusual story—of Clark Kent, the farm boy. Before his powers, before Lois Lane (until season four), before he can fly. He’s just a teenage boy who wants to do right by people and gives them limitless chances to redeem themselves.

But my favorite character is Lex Luthor. He’s not yet the villain in the first few seasons, but an arrogant, rich young man whose father attempts to crush his spirit (he’s often told that he is too emotional and cares too much). He envies Clark his wonderful parents and his humble roots, while trying to do the right thing even though his predisposition is for deceit. He eventually loses his war against his inner evil and becomes a villain, but it’s a long road there and I wanted him to find redemption. His friendship with Clark is, as Lex puts it, “legendary.” He’s educated and intelligent, strategic and clever, but never completely “good.” His best episode is Onyx, in which he is split into two separate people — his good side and his evil side, in a tribute to Jekyll & Hyde. There’s also a fun nod to The Man in the Iron Mask in that episode. It’s a turning point for the series, since more and more, as time goes on, we start seeing Alexander more, and Lex less. Plus, Michael Rosenbaum is hands down the best actor on the show — soulful but terrifying. [INFJ 3w2]

The Vampire Diaries/The Originals

I mashed these two together, because it’s part of the same “world.” If I divided it, I’d need two favorite characters (one of them being Damon, who has a fantastic redemption arc without ever losing his ‘bite’), but since I’m treating them as an extension of each other, let’s praise Elijah. He’s everything that the other vampiric characters are not—moralistic, full of ideals, loyal almost to a fault, and considerate of others. He also happens to be a ruthless vampire older than anyone else in existence. They introduced him as an antagonist and a threat to the main trio, but he won me over within five episodes, and was the only reason I watched The Originals to the end. At first, I liked him because he was so powerful and no one could kill him, and then I liked him for his unapologetic compassion and loyalty. I like characters that are brave, and ruthless, but have a conscience. When Elijah was more concerned with Elena’s loss in one episode than his own, even though she deprived him of one of his kin, I knew I loved him. [ISFJ 1w2]

The Lord of the Rings

Prior to seeing the first movie on the big screen, I had no clue who Tolkien was. I just went to the movie because a friend asked me to, and it looked cool. It blew my freaking mind, and I turned into the biggest instant Tolkien nerd. I read the books, I ran a website about the religious symbolism in the series, I hosted a forum full of other movie nerds where we rehashed the movie. And there’s a ton of fabulous characters here, but my favorite will always be Gandalf. I love Sam for his loyalty, and Aragon for how relatable he is, but Gandalf is just… wonderful. So wise and shrewd and funny, so mischievous, powerful, soft hearted, and entertaining. Ian McKellen brought him alive in a way that makes him so likable, even when he’s shouting, “Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!” He does so much with just his eyes that it is a privilege to watch him play Gandalf. [INFJ 6w7]

Harry Potter

Nobody needs an introduction to this franchise, since it’s the biggest fandom on earth. I came into it late, in my teens, after a friend said, “You need to read these books.” So I did. And I love Hermione Granger. She is the most sensible one of the bunch – Ron and Harry are too emotional in their decisions, but Hermione had smarts (an absolute must, I’ve figured out, when it comes to ranking characters – I never like “stupid” ones), she was loyal, courageous, and even lightened up over the course of the series to become less of a goody-two-shoes. She annoys me from time to time (SPEW?) but always comes out on the side of good by trying to do the right thing. She’s epic in the books, she’s epic in the movies, and I will never forget her classic line: “Now, I’m going to bed, before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us all killed—or worse, EXPELLED!!” [ESTJ 1w2]

Narnia

I don’t remember when I first got into this series, but I’ve loved it for as long as I have been a book reader. And I love Edmund the most, because he changes the most. But I also kind of love spoiled brat Edmund, who is especially salty in the movies (his line about there being air inside cracks me up). I love redemption arcs. I love seeing someone change. Edmund knows he deserves punishment, and accepts grace, and that transforms his life. It’s meaningful to me as a Christian, but I would love it even if I weren’t. I also like Eustace. C.S. Lewis had a real knack for writing spoiled brats! Peter is just good, Lucy is just sweet, and Susan is super rational, but Edmund… is a brat who becomes a king. [ISFP 4w3]

Stranger Things

It’s really, really hard to pick a favorite character off this show, because there are so many great ones – Hopper, Joyce, Eleven, Lucas, Nancy, etc. But it comes down to between Dustin and Steve. Dustin is just an adorable little ENTP (I have a pattern, ahem) who says things like, “I am on a knowledge journey, and I need my paddle! Dont’ take away my paddle!” But Steve… let’s talk about Steve. Steve starts out an absolute a-hole in season one, where he pushes Nancy to ignore her schoolwork and make out with him, he hangs out with absolute losers, and he breaks Jonathan’s camera for taking photos of them together (this is also Valid, because Jonathan is kind of a creep). But Steve redeems himself by working with Nancy and Jonathan to take out the demigorgon. He buys Jonathan a new camera. He apologizes to Nancy for letting his friends call her a slut. By season two, he has become a ‘big brother’ to Dustin and is his mentor. He complains all the time about ‘taking care of the kids,’ but he risks his life to protect them, again and again. By the time Nancy is eyeing him again in season four, I am here for it. If anything happens to Steve before the end of the series, I riot. [ESFP 3w2]

Doctor Who

I am not gonna lie, I love almost all the main characters in this franchises, especially the Doctors. I love Ten for his insanity, Eleven for his childlike wonder, and Twelve for being a grouch. But Amy Pond holds a special place in my heart. She is everything I am not and wish I could be — bold, confrontational, and courageous. I love her scrappy, aggressive attitude, how she takes no crap from nobody, how she is compassionate but also hard-headed. She’s my girl. (My runner up is Donna Noble. I love her season of Who so much, there’s not a single episode I skip whenever I do a re-watch… and I can’t say that for any other season.) [ESFP 7w8]

X-Men

Smallville lead me to watch X-Men, but let’s make one thing clear: I am here for the original franchise, not the prequels. I couldn’t even make it through the last couple of them. I am all about Patrick Stewart’s Xavier, and Ian McKellen’s Magneto – his is my favorite character. Why do I love Magneto? Because he’s a villain who has been broken; a Holocaust survivor whose fear and paranoia drives him. I also get him, because he’s a fellow Enneagram 6. I understand fear. But I also understand strategic thinking and detachment. I love how unapologetic he is in his villainy (“Let the pawns go first”), and I love how my heart broke when his powers went away, and how happy it made me when he moved that chess piece, an indication that they would return. It’s just good stuff. [INTJ 6w5]

Teen Wolf

I saved the best for last. I like most of the characters on this show. Scott is a moral, upstanding young man. Allison is a girl who overcomes her fears. Lydia is a genius. And Maia owns people with her brutal logic. But the entire show pivots around Stiles, and I don’t bother to watch episodes where he isn’t front and center. He needs no real explanation. Stiles is just… Stiles. He is the comic relief. He brings the hilarity, the sarcasm, the insults, the one-liners. He has the crazy ideas, the far-fetched theories (most of which turn out to be true), and the lovesick pup yearning for Lydia. Stiles launched a thousand internet memes, a billion hilarious gifs, and has about ten thousand classic quotes that nobody will ever forget. He is unashamed of being a selfish jerk sometimes, and I love him for it. [ENTP 6w7]