More fave characters meme

[kelliem]

So I *had* to do this one:

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Sister Numchuku of Warm Humanitarianism.
Get yours.

And now on to fannish things... I know you are all (well 3 of you anyway) waiting to hear what my answers are on the 10 Shows/10 Characters meme, so :

1 - NCIS: Everyone got this one right. :-) Ducky. Sexy Geezer. A gentleman and a scholar with delightful ideas about first dates. Damned smart. Great sense of humor. Fascinating life. And very good at sleight-of-mouth... distracting people who might get close by bombarding them with a sea of verbosity.

2 - House: At least one person got this one right. House himself. Because under that snarky exterior beats a heart of pure... snark. :) No, not really. You can tell he really does care. He just doesn't want anyone to know it. It's a mask he wears to protect himself. Damned smart.

3 - Stargate: Atlantis: None of you got this one, but I forgive you because I do love McKay and Beckett too, but they're not my favorite. My favorite is drumroll please Radek Zelenka! Minor character. Scientist. Engineer. Kinda dumpy-looking (cleans up nice, though, see icon!) but able to go toe-to-toe with McKay in snark, geekishness, and smarts. Surprisingly sensitive. Will work his ass off to save the day. And he has an actual real Czech accent and drops his articles all the time which I find massively endearing. :-)

4 - Man from UNCLE: Surprisingly to me, not everyone got this right. I am pretty even-handed in my love for the guys, but I do tip just slightly to the Illya side of the scale, and I figured everyone knew that. What can I say? I imprinted on Illya when I was six, when Napoleon was still 'Dad's Scary Friend' in my eyes. :-) Illya's smart (are you sensing a theme?), tough, snarky (another theme!), has a great sense of humor (theme #3!). Sadly, despite supposedly being Russian, he does not drop his articles except for a few brief moments in The Return Movie. :)

5 - due South: Most people got this one. RayK. Hides his vulnerable side behind a tough-guy mask. Patient. Smart (in many ways, though maybe not school-smart), and loyal. He sounds like a dog, but he's a prince in wolf's clothing.

6 - Smallville (seasons 1/2): Lex. Bald is beautiful, baby. Smart (again), vulnerability hidden behind a mask of invulnerability (masks!), passionate, loyal to a fault, generous. It doesn't get much better than that.

7 - Space: Above & Beyond: T.C. McQueen. McQueen's intensity is amazing, his focus laser sharp. He's another one who never lets anyone see what's really going on inside him. He's also hot as hell, and the immense control he maintains over himself makes you long to see it broken. Preferably with pleasure. :) He's got a subtle sense of humor but it's definitely there. Loyal.

8 - Babylon 5: No one got this one right, but I'm not really too surprised, because I don't think most people think I would like a female character. It's Susan Ivanova. Because Ivanova is God. That's all there is to it. She kicks ASS and takes names. Ivanova is the most believable strong female character I have ever seen. I adore her. I also seem to have a thing for characters of Eastern European extraction. I blame Illya for starting that. It was probably reinforced by Dr. Zhivago.

9 - Highlander: Methos, of course. Because a 5000 year old man who is still humbly, deliciously human and fallible is irresistible. Not to mention those cheekbones. The sense of humor. The intelligence. The vulnerability. The hiding-behind masks. The humor. (There are those pesky themes again!)

10 - X-Files: Mulder. The icon of masculine radiant vulnerability. The most interesting thing to me about Mulder is that he has all of the classic 'feminine' qualities in the Mulder/Scully partnership. He's sensitive, intuitive, and self-effacing. I loved the inversion of standard tropes he represented. He's also another smart, snarky one with a sense of humor that rarely quits. (Note: I am told I should qualify this by stating that my preferred Mulder was the one from seasons 1-3. After that he was... different.)

So that's it. As you can see, I do have a type. It's just not a physical one. :) Oh, and there's one other thing most of these guys have in common. They're all in some way alienated. They stand outside the mainstream, either as literal aliens (Illya, Zelenka, McQueen and Methos are all aliens in their settings) or figurative ones alienated by their intelligence or social condition (Ducky, House, RayK, Lex, Ivanova, Mulder).

Comments

[bluster.livejournal.com]

Susan Ivanova totally kicks ass. She's like a lot of the male characters we love so much. Crusty exterior hiding a more sensitive side. Good with the snark. Does not suffer fools gladly. When she left the show it was pretty hard for me to maintain my interest.

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Yes, she really is. And I was so bummed when she left the show. It really did lose a lot of its appeal whe she did.

[ardent-muses.livejournal.com]

Good choices, IMHO. I don't know the Babylon 5 character and I've never seen Methos, but I like all the others. :)

I like your observation that several of them hide behind something -- humor (RayK, maybe Mulder), loquaciousness *G* (Ducky), snark (House, RayK, Zelenka?), etc.

Add in Fraser (Mountie Mask) and Napoleon (ladykiller *G*) and you're really seeing a pattern, eh?

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Definitely a pattern. (And sometime I will have to show you some Methos. I think you'd like him. He was the best thing about Highlander.) You have seen the actor's nekkid ass, though. He was in an ep of Bliss. Not one of my favorites, unfortunately. (Actually I think he was in 2 but I only saw one of the two.)

[ardent-muses.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah -- I remember the Bliss ep. It's difficult for me to see the appeal, but I know it exists. Thousands of rabid slashers can't be wrong. *G*

I like the new name for your journal BTW.

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

He's much more appealing as Methos than as a smarmy jerk of a married guy. :-)

And thanks. I sorta stole it from bluster because we were having a conversation on email earlier and she said something along those lines and I so loved it I had to use it. :-)

[m-butterfly.livejournal.com]

Because it had to be shared:

(By amergina)

[shiningmoon.livejournal.com]

*heart aflutter*

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Oh! Ivanova! <3! Are you just tantalizing me with it or is it a sharable icon? :-)

[m-butterfly.livejournal.com]

It's sharable, to the best of my knowledge. It was also made for babylon5contest, where many other delightful icons lurk.

[meris-mfu.livejournal.com]

You got it so right with Ivanova. The only reason to watch some of the Bab5 eps. My icon for strong women everywhere.

Send picture of tractor.

Meris