Meme Answers (with Commentary Where Appropriate)

[alixtii]

Here are twenty-five favorite characters from twenty-five different shows, in no particular order.

1. Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenbeg) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Fred Burkle (Amy Acker) from Angel
Bonus! Drusilla (Juliet Landau) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
3. River Tam (Summer Glau) from Firefly

Is there really anything else to be said about the above?

4. Player (Justin Shenkarow, Jeffrey Tucker, Joanie Pleasant) from Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

This 90's cartoon was framed by a pair of live-action (if you can call it that) sequences in which a deliberately-adrogynous child seen only from the back (whom I always assumed was female until just now when I looked up the actors on IMDb) would exchange some barbs with Carmen (represented by white words appearing on a blue screen) over the computer. ("Come and get me, Player." "I'll catch you next time, Carmen!") The actual cartoon was thus presumably the computer game that "Player" (that was how Carmen always addressed hir) was playing, attempting (and always failing) to capture Carmen. Ivy and Zach, the brother-and-sister agents whose exploits were documented by the cartoon, were "chosen" by Player to work together (much to Ivy's frustration) to capture Carmen, and they would even speak to hir directly. ("Player! Do this now!") Not that the show ever went all that far down that route, but the metafictional possibilities were just so intriguing, and Carmen and Player really did seem to have some really great and entertaining chemistry/tension (but in a gen way, I swear!--to quote Ari). It's sort of like Logan/Veronica, if Logan were an artificial intelligence and Veronica were twelve.

5. Dr. Olga Vukavitch (Justina Vail) from Seven Days

One of the few female characters on a very testosterone-heavy show, the male lead's canon love interest (watched in a time before I had discovered unconventional shipping), and a kick-ass geek-girl scientist in glasses. Think of her as a less-bubbly Fred with an accent. (Well, a different accent.)

6. Morgan Matthews (Lily Nicksay, Lindsay Ridgeway) from Boy Meets World

I think this one might be exaggerated a little by time, as my love of minor characters has developed. But I've always been interested in the third Matthews child, who so often was somewhat lost in all the emphasis on Erik and Cory, and who once had a very, very long time-out.

7. Capt. Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) from Star Trek: Voyager

Capt. Janeway was a starship captain, and she acted like it. You could see the fire of command burn in her eyes, even if she was brainwashed into thinking she was a French pub owner during World War II. She held power, and she liked having power, and if on occasion she might have abused, well a few eggs need to be broken to make an omelette. (Which ethically speaking I don't believe at all, but the allure of the will-to-poweriness of the mythos is powerful; yes, Janeway probably qualifies as a monster, although since Voyager is by default under military rule the standards are a little different.

The woman went a step up over Jim Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard; she not only broke the Prime Directive, she rescinded it. Now if that's not a display of the will-to-power, I don't know what is. (Again, ethically I don't quite approve, but it's good fantasy fodder.)

Also, before I began to be attracted to women in a, you know, physical way, I had a thing for redheads. (I don't really understand it; nowadays I prefer brunettes.) Which reminds me that Dana Scully really should have been on this list.

Second place would be a tie between Naomi Wildman (Samantha Pomers) and the EMH (Robert Picardo).

8. Cindy Mackenzie (Tina Majorino) from Veronica Mars

Tina Majorino is teh awesome. The more I think about Mac, the more I reallize how much Mac's awesomeness should be credited to Tina and not, say, to the writers. Mac isn't a geek, not really, and if she's supposed to be a geek (I'm still not sure how to construct the author-function for that one), then the writers aren't nearly geeky enough to write a geek character convincingly. (I miss Joss. And his staff.) But that doesn't change the fact that Mac is intelligent and will-to-powery and spunky and pretty and fun and vulnerable and femslashy and on occasion morally ambiguous, and Tina plays her just perfect.

9. President Mackenzie Allen (Geena Davis) in Commander-in-Chief

I only managed to catch a couple episodes of this show, but Mac kicked ass. So very will-to-powery.

Second place goes to Mac's teenaged daughter(s), for being adolescent and female.

10. Donna Moss (Janel Moloney) from The West Wing

The female (and thus, more interesting) half of the Josh/Donna relationship, which was of course a thing of beauty.

11A. Tess Doerner (Summer Glau) from The 4400

It's Summer! With Superpowers! And being awesome, because she's Summer! (With superpowers!) And Kevin/Tess is just so adorable....

11B. Maia Skouris née Rutlidge (Conchita Campbell) from The 4400

There's something about having a child as a POV character that just works for me. (See above re: Naomi Wildman.) Maia represnts the sort of childhood I desperately wished I had had but never did: one with superpowers.

12. Clarissa Darling (Melissa Joan Hart) from Clarissa Explains It All

Clarissa was intelligent and witty and wasn't afraid of breaking the fourth wall. There was something will-to-powery in that that I can't quite put my finger on, something in how she had an audience and reveled in the fact.

13. Alex Mack (Larissa Oleynik) from The Secret World of Alex Mack

I saw a clip from Alex Mack recently, and I was shocked at how young she looked. I remembered her as looking more like Larissa did when she made 10 Things I Hate About You. Of course what attracted me to Alex wasn't physical at all; to continue what is quickly becoming a theme, it was the superpowers. Also the way Alex yearned and desired and willed and required Annie to rein her in; if my id were a physical manifestation, it would look a lot like Alex Mack. (Will to power! Adolescent fantasy!)

14. Fred Rogers (Himself) from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood

This may be very much the lens of retrospection; I know when I'd watch the show I'd get frustrated by Fred's scenes and want to go straight to the Land of Make Believe, but I don't remember any particular Make Believe characer capturing my interest more than the others. And nowadays all of my goodwill and affection towards the show, which I really really loved as a kid, is directed at Fred Rogers himself. What a wonderful way to live out his ministry. Rest in Peace, Mr. Rogers.

15. Nona Mecklenberg (Michelle Trachtenberg) from The Adventures of Pete and Pete

My memories of this series aren't all that vivid, but I remember very clearly that Nona was awesome, and that Michelle did an amazing job. I've often said that it feels like I've grown up with Michelle Trachtenberg, and this is where that relationship started.

16. Rogue (Lenora Zann) from X-Men (90's cartoon)

Rogue was cool. It really was as simple as that; it had nothing to do with her angst, or her appearance, or anything else of any real relevance to her character. She was just cool. I'm not 100% sure why she was cool; party it was her confident demeanor, and maybe her dialogue was all spunky? I don't remember. She said "sugar" a lot. I wish Anna Paquin had said "sugar" at least once.

Rogue was cool.

17. Kitty Pryde (Maggie Blue O'Hara) from X-Men Evolution

I haven't seen as many episodes of X-Men Evolution as I'd like, but Shadowcat immediately pinged me as the character that would be my favorite. She's coded by the animators clearly enough that I recognize her as the sort of girl I would be interested in in real life.

A note about Kitty across media: the first introduction to Kitty I ever had was in "Pryde of the X-Men" where she functions as an audience-insert (akin to the function that Jubilation Lee plays in "Night of the Sentinels"). As always, having a teenaged girl as a POV character really worked for me (even if Wolverine was inexplicably Scottish). Finding out from likeadeuce the ways in which she functions as a self-insert for Chris Claremont and Joss Whedon only make me like Kitty even more, because what are superhero comics about if not wish-fulfillment?

And I love how the first two X-Men are simply scattered with references to Kitty even though she has about fifteen seconds of screen time in each one. And I don't understand why she needed to be recast for each movie.

18. Jan Brady (Eve Plumb) from The Brady Bunch

The idea of Marcia Brady is a trope which I've come to enjoy, but as always it's an image lacking substance. It was Jan with whom I, geekdom, and I think really all of America (the world?) could identify and whom we all learned to love. Also, Jan's prettier.

19. Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family

I've never seen the original live-action show, which is why I don't list an actress for this one, but whether it is the Charles Addams cartoon, the Christina Ricci movies, or the Fox Family remake, Wednesday Addams is a character made to hit my kinks--both physically (short, slender, and brunette) and mythologically (adolescent, will-to-powery like whoa). Always calm and in control, Wednesday does what she wants when she wants, breaking the rules of not only society and ethics, but nature and logic as well.

20. The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant) from Doctor Who

I see all incarnations of the Doctor as a single character, although if pressed I'd probably give Ten as my favorite. (I've only seen One, Eight, Nine, and Ten so far, though.) He's just . . . off, you know. Nine and Ten in particular have that quirky eccentricity which is so wonderful to experience; you really can feel how the Doctor can swoop into your life and be, despite it all, worth the monsters, because he is just so alive, even when he is brooding.

And that's not to mention Ten's spectacles!

21. Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelly) from Star Trek: The Original Series

I'm not sure how to theorize this one. But Bones is the best. He was just, I don't know, very likeable. Kirk's emotion was always over the top, but Bones was real and friendly and reliable.

22. Col. Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) from Battlestar Galactica (2003)

I've only caught a few episodes, but Col. Tigh is always compelling. He's a mass of contradictions, and yeah, he's a monster.

President Roslin doesn't work for me so well, because seeing a president as a monster hits too close to home for me. I want a different type of escapist fantasy with my TV Presidents, wise and benevolent and never ever overstepping their bounds, even if defending the Constitution (or whatever the BSG equivalent would be) puts their nation (or fleet, as the case may be) in danger. (Yes, I was very upset by some of Jed's actions on TWW, because I hold him to a higher standard. I don't want a complex fully-realized character as President.) Saul, on the other hand, is far enough removed from my own experience that I can enjoy his flaws...

Although, unlike with Dawn or Janeway, I'm never unaware of Saul's flaws. They're always there, distancing me, always-already keeping me from identify with his character (not that I'd find it easy to identify with a military personel to begin with, unless they were written to be Alixtii's ideal military personel, the way I write Samantha Finn) and my enjoyment is less fannish and more aesthetic. Which fits in with my engagement to Battlestar Galactica as a whole; despite being science-fiction it's not really will-to-powery.

23. Rita Repulsa (Barbara Goodson, Carla Pérez, Machiko Soga) from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

Villians are awesome. When I was young and would play-act with my brother, I always played the villain, and when we played Power Rangers I was always Rita. (Later, I'd play Zed too, but I liked Rita better.) "Make my monster grow!" I'd shout and throw a plastic wiffle-ball bat from our back deck.

24. Ezri Dax (Nicole de Boer) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 7 was the only season of DS9 I watched with any regularity, so I've seen a lot of Ezri eps. By the time I reached DS9, the way I interacted with the text had changed; I was more invested in relationships, and so instead of just wanting to be awesome female characters like Alex Mack or Clarissa Darling, I began to begin to see them through the het male lens, and Bashir was a character I also liked and with whom I identified. While Doc/7 on Voyager unfortunately never became requited, Ezri/Bashir did, and it was awesome (especially since Nicole de Boer hits my physical kinks better than Jeri Ryan does). (I'm aware that this is a minority opinion, and that not everyone loves Ezri/Bashir as much as I do.)

25. Rory Gilmore (Alexis Beidel) from Gilmore Girls

Alexis Beidel is hot. Yeah, by this time my engagement with the fannish text had pretty much moved to "shallow." But she is really, really hot.


Ari wondered what it meant that she guessed that most of my favorites were female. It means that she knows me well, because most of my favorites--all but four, plus the ambiguously-gendered Player--are female. Which is interesting, because many of these relate to early childhood, when my heterosexuality wouldn't have been a factor (right?). I'm not sure what it says that I've always found it easier to identify with (or at least be interested in) female characters than male ones, but I think it's pretty clearly true.

Comments

[wisdomeagle]

I was pretty sure I was guessing in the wrong 'verse in MRN, but constructing Fred Rogers as charater is... not problematic so much as just difficult? I mean, I lovedlovedloved Mister Rogers, quite a lot, but thought-think of him as real. Which... performance, life is performance, life as text, et al, but he's not quite a *character* the way even the other people inhabiting his life -- like Mr. McFeely -- are.

re: Mac. World of yes. I always construct her as a geek in my head and then watch the actual show and am all, "Oh, wait, she's not." And I don't think it's a failure on the part of the writers -- at least, not a failure to execute their intented character concept -- it's just that... they aren't geeks, they don't like geeks, and they don't symapthize with geeks. (Or, at the very least, the hero they've written doesn't.) Which. Sigh. Jossssss!

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Everything you say re: characters is true, but at the same time, it's not as if the term were doing weighty theoretical work in this post; there's no niche for non-characters (or less-characters) to inhabit. So if you'd rather replace it in your mind with "person from the show who is cool" feel free to do so. It's not that I don't think he is real (although of course he is performing, playing himself), I just never saw a need to set him aside for that reason.

And yes, sigh. Joss.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

4. Huh. I remember watching that cartoon but don't remember "Player" at all.

7. Your "monster" tag is broken. I think you meant "http://alixtii.livejournal.com/tag/monsters"

22. seeing a president as a monster hits too close to home for me. I want a different type of escapist fantasy with my TV Presidents

I can certainly understand that first sentence, but the second one makes me go "Wow!" because I suspect that is the complete opposite of what I want in President-type figures in my tv shows (I don't think I would separate out Presidents and, say, Starfleet Captains, and want different things in them -- though never having seen The West Wing or anything like it I can't actually say for sure).

Then in (23) we get the interesting contrast where I never was and still never am especially into the villainous characters except in rare instances (and those usually -- always? -- when there is a lot more to the character than their villainousness).

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

4. All s/he ever did was sit in front of hir computer and snark with Carmen, so I can how s/he could be forgettable, but yeah s/he was there.

22. I definitely draw a line between presidents and starship captains. A maverick starship captain is by nature of their position operating under a certain anti-establishment position, as they act with autonomy while on their missions. So they can step outside of the system (feeding my adolescent fantasy) without really threatening it (and upsetting my politics). I can be thrilled by the sheer display of power inherent in a captain breaking the Prime Directive without really needing to approve of their action or questioning the directive as a general principle.

But a president is the establishment personified, so when they overstep their bounds they are in doing so revealing the entire establishment to be inherently oppressive (and to that degree illegitimate), because if we don't have the rule of law, what do we have? The exception would be a case in which the President is clearly being coded as a villain and needs to be brought down--because then while I can have a will-to-powery thrill at they way are beyond good and evil, good and evil are still firmly codified by the text, and I don't have to be uncomfortable by the way the text can be taken to imply that Presidents should break the law (or step away from their own principles) in extreme cases.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

As always, having a teenaged girl as a POV character really worked for me (even if Wolverine was inexplicably Scottish).

OK, I'm dying of curiosity about whether you mean that "Wolverine behaved the way one would expect Scott Summers to behave" or "Wolverine walked around crying, 'ach me poor bairns!' (James Doohan style)."

Joss has confessed the self-insert thing re: Kitty (though he's also said similar things about identifying with Scott, and there are very few superficial similiarities b/t those characters).

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm dying of curiosity about whether you mean that "Wolverine behaved the way one would expect Scott Summers to behave" or "Wolverine walked around crying, 'ach me poor bairns!' (James Doohan style)."

The second one.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

. . .

Somebody just reminded me that the actor Dougray Scott was originally supposed to play Wolverine, and it would have been damn confusing to figure out who was meant when someone talked about what "Scott" did in the movie. Maybe he would have gone all one-name. Like Logan. There can't be that many Dougrays out there.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

According to Wikipedia, Wolverine's accent was actually Australian, not Scottish. (It's been a while.) Still, it was very inexplicable.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

so very awesome, thanks!