who is your favourite fictional character

[Sesto]

also why. that's the important part

the more genuine your answer the more i will like your post (i can detect if you are being a jokester very easily so don't even try it)

[pinetree]

Lancelot du Lac from T.H. White's The Once and Future King.
I mean, you read it Sesto. He's too good.

The tragedy of his innate cruelty in the face of his adimiration for Arthur, his struggle to supress that nature and do everything to live up to his childish ideas of an ideal knight, the insecurity that consumes him even after achieving everything one could ask of the greatest knight. Having those achievements then be corrupted by a pure and prohibited love born from sadism and then again by someone else's obsession for him intruding on his own for the knightly vows. The descent into madness when confronted by that, and his return.
And all that without ever putting aside his arrogance and stubborness that are at the root of every problem he causes.

I legitimately cried when he and Arthur confronted each other in the war, and then almost did it again during his meeting with Galahad.

[Mattias]

Sesto. He's a maudlin drunk that only exists in my computer, but you can't help but root for him.

[Ideofago]

I'll think about it a bit to try and find an actual top favorite character but like

any of the main cast in undertale because they exemplify everything that is amazing about the game(hint: everything) by just existing

I really like medusa because she ticks enough of the boxes as far as dateable goes, I guess

any of the really wise men of the mountain type characters when written well
there's something about the wisdom resulting in a delightful person aspect that just feels so

[TomPen94]

Really hard to say tbh.

Tohsaka Rin would be one to consider, she might've been the main catalyst in getting me embroiled in this TM rabbit hole. Though I don't usually like tsunderes there's something with how Rin is handled, in FSN specifically, that just works. I don't really relate to her. There's just something satisfying about the way she carries herself and reacts to others in that story.

Another consideration might be Hanekawa Tsubasa from Monogatari. Specifically the juxtaposition of her angel-like presentation in regards to what she gets in return for it. The fact that the reason she has a shitty home life isn't just because her relatives are the worst but also because she never asked for anything herself is something I identify with at some level. That aversion to being selfish, I've had that, only with her it's brought to a point that it breaks her as a person. And the resolution to that, when she realizes all she had to do was start asking, was a bit of an eye-opener for me.

And the jury is still out on this one as it is a very recent addition, and I wanna make sure if it isn't just the recency bias speaking, but maybe... just maybe... Anya Forger from Spy x Family. This one is down almost entirely to relatability. Though my situation isn't exactly the same as hers I did grow up with a step parent whom I love very much. And Anya is always doing something with her step parents that I either did with my parents, or I wish I could've done with them. Like shipping her parents into getting married. I did that... sorta... The subject matter of Spy x Family is something that hit really close to home for me and Anya is the main conduit for that. I'm discovering shit about myself because of this show/manga.

Oof... that got kinda heavy there... uhh...
Honorable Mention: Ciel from Tsukihime, she's cute and I love her and her route in the remake probably got the biggest reaction out of me from reading Nasu's works.

kbye

[Sesto]

Lancelot du Lac from T.H. White's The Once and Future King.
I mean, you read it Sesto. He's too good.

The tragedy of his innate cruelty in the face of his adimiration for Arthur, his struggle to supress that nature and do everything to live up to his childish ideas of an ideal knight, the insecurity that consumes him even after achieving everything one could ask of the greatest knight. Having those achievements then be corrupted by a pure and prohibited love born from sadism and then again by someone else's obsession for him intruding on his own for the knightly vows. The descent into madness when confronted by that, and his return.
And all that without ever putting aside his arrogance and stubborness that are at the root of every problem he causes.

I legitimately cried when he and Arthur confronted each other in the war, and then almost did it again during his meeting with Galahad.

I never really did think about it but yeah, Lancelot was a really great character. His conflicting love for Arthur and Guinevere was overall just very tragic given how things turned out.

Gawain (near the end) and Arthur himself were also great. I really liked their friendship in the latter half, and Gawain's conflict with trying to be a good knight for Arthur and the kingdom while still wanting to uphold his family's honour (and basically failing to do so) was just sad. And Arthur's overall thoughts on how the Round Table developed despite constantly trying to maintain the ideal he originally sought really hit hard. The last scene with Arthur and the Page is still probably my favourite scene in the book. It's funny how a large portion of the novel is basically comedic in tone yet the overall story is just a very tragic tale of so many people failing to be their ideal selves.

[Walnut Sparks]

If you'd asked five or ten years ago, I'd have said Gollum, but last time I reread the books I started to find his style of speech kind of annoying.

Right now I have some difficulty answering. I'm a fan of Rincewind, possibly because he's very obstinate in pursuit of his goals, and he's a low-power-level character at the center of worldshaking events. But I'm not sure he's my favorite.

[Spartacus]

My favorite is Spider-Man.

When I was a small kid watching Spider-Man 2, the story of how he tried to balance himself between his need and his responsibility, just touched my heart. He is clearly hurt from his heroism as it destroys his life, and he wanted to cry because of that as he realized that the idealistic can't be done, but ultimately choose to be a good person. Spider-Man become my role model in how I should dealt with my life, with strength of one's heart and continue to move forward without harming no one both physically, mentally, and emotionally.

[Kamera]

It unironically used to be Archer from the hit VN Fate/Stay Night. Can't take him seriously now that he has been reduced solely to cooking mom jokes and a blackface caricature though.

[Sesto]

For me, it's Akari Mizunashi from the Aria series. And although I'm generally a "this anime girl is my wife" person, this is definitely not the reasoning I like Akari whatsoever.

Akari summarized is essentially just a ditsy, air-headed girl you often see in slice of life anime. But that isn't really all she is. She's cheerful, she's goofy, she's fun. She's the type of person who can make friends with anyone just by being herself, making people open up and feel comfortable with her presence. She inspires people to be better and happy not by giving long-winded speeches or asking them to change themselves, but just by being who she is. She's able to see the beauty in every day life and somehow naturally just spreads her happiness to other people. In many ways she's essentially captures everything that makes the Aria series what it is: a show focused on appreciating the little moments and people you meet every single day. Many people get lost in the idea of the Neo-Venezia presented in Aria not understanding it's not really about showing this idealistic society where everyone is happy, but rather about teaching you it's perfectly possible to appreciate insignificant things like talking to strangers, exploring your city, or other minor things we all take for granted. And Akari is the lens in which this is all presented.

It's pretty cringe to be this genuine and say this but Akari is the type of person I've always wanted to be. I'm very far from becoming someone like her but she's part of the reason I like to make people laugh in the first place, it feels good to make people smile even if you have to look like a fool to do so. I have never, ever been an optimistic person but over the years I've gravitated to characters like her (like Marie!) exactly because I wish I was like that, someone capable of always seeing the bright side of things and being able to spread that joy to others. Being happy and making others happy every day is the ideal.

[Skull]

Hmm...a tough one. If I had to pick anybody, I suppose I'd go with Brandon Heat - specifically from the anime adaptation of the Gungrave franchise. To explain why, I'll have to run through the story as quick as I can...

Gungrave Spoilers

In order to fully appreciate Brandon, you can't not mention his eternal foil - Harry MacDowell. The two boys grew up in an orphanage and became as close as brothers, despite being polar opposites - Brandon being quiet yet very strong, while Harry is the life of the party but deceptively smart. After a run in with some gang members in a local turf war winds up killing some of their fellow orphans, Harry decides he's not gonna die in some ditch powerless and aspires to join the Mafia group "Millennium" in the city. Coincidentally, Brandon has fallen in love with the daughter of said Mafia group's boss, Maria but you can't get anywhere near her without being a trusted elite member of Millennium so together the two lads join up and aim to climb the ranks of the crime family.

Thus we get to the crux of Brandon's character as during his time in Millennium he gets the Iron Code hard-pressed into his core - "To Protect is to never Betray. There are three people you must always protect: your family, your friends and The Family." Therefore the struggle of Brandon's character is what happens when your ideals are conflicting with your actions that are taken to uphold those ideals. Since despite rising to the top as Millennium's best "Sweeper" (think Golgo 13 levels of insane hitman skill) and eliminating all threats to the Boss in order to keep Maria safe, Brandon becomes disgusted with himself for both lying to Maria about his occupation and the thought that a killer like him doesn't deserve her. So in order to protect her, he reveals himself to her and drives her tearfully into the arms of another man despite having reciprocated Brandon's love. It gets worse for Brandon as right after that heartbreak, Harry reveals that he's got everything in place to overthrow the Boss and take Millennium for them. But having come to see the Boss as a father figure, Brandon can't betray him...but he also can't bring himself to shoot his brother figure Harry, so in the dramatic elevator scene Brandon loses a quickdraw he should of easily won and dies at the hands of his best friend.

However, all of that was just backstory as the present day within the anime revolves around Brandon's resurrection as the Deadman "Grave" 13 years later who was called forth to protect the daughter of Maria, Mika who is being targeted by Millennium run by Harry. Once again Brandon must suffer as to protect an innocent girl, he must fight against his former comrades and destroy the place he used to call home. I'll spare you the play-by-play of each boss fight and instead just focus on two specific scenes. The first being the reunion of Brandon and his old mentor, Bear Walken. If Harry is Brandon's opposite, then Bear is the mirror showing what Brandon could have been as they're both stoic mafia hitmen who dearly love women who exist outside of the Mafia and their conflict arises when protecting them goes against the Iron Code. In Bear's case it was his daughter Sherry who despite her father's warning ends up falling in love with Harry and in order to protect her, Bear goes against The Boss (someone he's been friends with for decades) and joins Harry's insurrection in contrast to Brandon. Thus Brandon is more sympathetic to Bear than most of his former friends and they clash in an honourable one-on-one duel. When the smoke clears, Brandon has bested his old mentor who took a fatal hit but is too weak to seppuku. Thus he apologies but Brandon is like "it's no problem" and the pair share a moment of silent manly tears before he gives Bear a mercy kill.

The other major scene has to be the climax confrontation with "Bloody Harry" himself. Despite introducing the Deadman surgery into Millennium, Harry was the only major player who selfishly opted not to undergo it so you'd assume that the climax wouldn't be engaging but you'd be wrong. With all of his loyal members dead, the fair-weather friends in Millennium once again turn on their Boss and Harry finds himself on the run from his own organisation when he stumbles into Brandon outside of the café that they used to hang out at as kids. Brandon is also in dire straits as he destroyed the Deadman factory to stop the tech being misused but without the Necrolyze (or "Necro-rise" depending on the translation) drug he's slowly reverting back to a corpse. So the pair head inside the Café and have a talk for old times sake and the directing is masterful here as the two are talking during a lengthy part of the final episode, the audience sees the ghostly phantoms of the cast who are virtually all dead because of the ambitions of Harry and Brandon, quietly judging the pair as they watch from the Café windows. The duo lament how despite their efforts, everything was in vain as everyone they care about is dead. Before long Millennium goons show up and shoot at the Café, Harry and Brandon clear them off but Harry being a sub-par gunslinger takes a hit and is bleeding out whilst rigor mortis is kicking in hard for Brandon. Thus the pair look at each other and say "let's go home Brandon", "yeah Harry." So they draw their pistols and take aim at each other before firing and the scene cuts to the sky as gunshots ring out and the life of Brandon Heat once again ends.

...Or did it? Because the actual final scene of the anime is of Mika running to the Café in the aftermath - she knows she cannot save Brandon but decided as the daughter of Maria, she should be with him in his final moments, with the final shot of the anime being her standing in the broken doorway of the Café and giving a tearful smile. The anime is super ambiguous as to what that was supposed to mean, but fans have noted something very interesting. During the prior gunfight against Millennium goons, Brandon gets hit in the shoulder or something and drops his gun, so Harry tosses his own gun to Brandon whilst doing a barrel roll to pickup Brandon's gun to use. Thus they end up doing the final double suicide using each other's guns. But Harry had seemingly used up the maximum amount of shots possible given Brandon's gun's known ammo limit and is not shown to have reloaded so theoretically only Harry would have died since only the gun in Brandon's hands would have had a bullet remaining. Thus hypothetically karma would have allowed Brandon a few spare minutes to say goodbye to Mika - now knowing he kept his promise to protect Maria's happiness. That theory is how I choose to interpret the ending as to make it slightly less of a downer anyways.

So yeah, an overly long and detailed explanation of why I love Gungrave and its protagonist. I barely scratched the surface in regards to the antagonist who likewise is one of the best written characters I find in anime, but then this essay would have been twice as long and ain't nobody got time for that.

[ThompsonContender]

Jia Baoyu from Dream In A Red Chamber, I find him humorous because the author literally names him fake in order to prevent punishment for his writings while also compelling as a character in the novel.

[Snow]

I am a character appreciator and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about many but right now, Maid Fatamoru and Kanon Umineko.

spoilers, naturally

Giselle is just...The Woman. Both her and Michel are apples of mine eye, but her being just an imperfect and nuanced person who still ends up being such a major force of good is important to me because she's so buried under defense mechanisms and the story tells you that you don't have to be that way. And her design being beautiful.

Kanon is in part similar. I love when characters are allowed to express and experience 'negative' emotions and still be allowed to be noble and kind people. Kanon's qualities shine not despite but because he's allowed to also be angry, and resentful, and resigned. With him there's also the aspect of Big Gender, navigating masculinity, self worth, expectations and interpersonal relationships as someone who also doesn't want to miss 100% of the shots I don't take, is important to me.

All in all they're my beloved bisexuals whom I would trust with my life.

[SpoonyViking]

Geez, that's a tough one. There's Don Camillo, a belligerent priest who's more than a bit set in his ways, and Peppone, a hard-headed mayor who has a habit of letting his party do the thinking for him, but both of whom are good and compassionate men who fight injustice; there's Captain Carrot, who could easily be his world's King Arthur, but chooses not to because he doesn't want people to be good because they believe in him, he wants them to be good because it's the right thing to do; there's Philip the Handsome and Philip the Tall, both of whom are objectively evil people who still strive to be good rulers (though it's always worth asking - good rulers for *whom*?); there's Kormákr Ögmundarson, who's smart and clever and witty and proud, but is so stubborn and hot-headed that he keeps messing up his own life; and there's Solomon Kane, who's strong and resolute and never compromises with evil, but also struggles with natural abilities and temperament that make him unfit to co-exist with others.

[Petrikow]

It's hard to delineate between those which I enjoy as characters (i.e. the role a character plays in a story) and those which I enjoy as representations of people (i.e. the characteristics which define the characters as people).
For example, partially I am a great fan of a lot of the classic TYPE-MOON villains (Kotomine, Roa, Araya, Twice, Touko...) not because of how they act, but because of how their role interacts with the story as a whole.
Of course that's not to say I don't enjoy them in the other way as well, but I think that's more incidental in a lot of cases.

What about Caren then?
Ye be yet not worthy of knowing.

But I can bring a glimpse of what I like in 'characters as people' by talking a little bit about C.C. from Code Geass, which is one of the first anime I ever really enjoyed:
The level of calm she brings into any situation is very comforting.
This is a person who has a lot of confidence in herself, yet expresses that confidence in a very low-key manner.
Yet at the same time, they're some who are vulnerable at heart, despite the aforementioned trait.
In normal circumstances she appears enigmatic and aloof, conversations with her seeming like a maze unto themselves, a game of sort.
But when the chips are down on the table, she goes to great lengths in order to make sure that those she care about are safe, even if it never seemed she cared.
Some perhaps would interpret her behavior as obtuse and infuriating, but I find the teasing and incorrigible unknowability of her actions to be refreshing and exciting.
Her characterization exists in contrast to Lelouch, whose obsession with control and constant knowability makes her a consistent source of frustrations (at least when it comes to his interpersonal relationships).
I think even to this day, a lot of the traits I enjoy out of her are reflected in the kind of characters I like.

[Five_X]

I think my favourite character in fiction is Yang Wen-li, and probably not for the obvious reasons. He's a rare kind of person who still persists in carrying on ideals in a society that's stopped believing in anything. Rather than making him some archetypal genius-tactician out of a Romance of the Three Kingdoms spinoff, his knowledge of history paralyzes him as often as it aids him, because he's constantly aware of the ways things have gone wrong in the past. Even though the world constantly fucks him - and more than almost anyone in the show he gets it good and hard - he continues to believe the future can be better. Legend of the Galactic Heroes spends maybe a bit too much time on its Alexandrian romanticisation of Reinhard, but with Yang it always feels very real and very close to home. LoGH is very conscious and deliberate in its portrayal and philosophy of history, and maybe someday I'll write something about it.

I like Petri's point about characters-as-roles vs. characters-as-people. There are other characters I might consider my favourites, but I can't separate my appreciation of them as characters from the broader story they inhabit.

[Asagami]

I don't have a clear favourite. Favourite female character might be Senjougahara Hitagi and male character Araragi Koyomi from the Monogatari Series. Zaregoto's protagonist used to be my clear favourite

[Mattias]

Probably Magneto. The old 90's cartoon was my first experience with a villain who can actually realize that his actions are running counter productive to his goals. That bit where he almost kills Shadowcat and has a "What have I done?" moment? That's something you never see as a five year old. It turns the villains from just something the heroes have to punch, to heroes of their own story. Then later I learned his best friend is also his greatest enemy and despite that, hasn't let it completely destroy their relationship. They both want the same thing, they just have wildly different paths to achieve it.