sunlit_music | On Beautiful Characters

So.

Beautiful characters.

Do any of you write about them? How do you make them interesting, and realistic? And which beautiful characters do you like?

My favourite beautiful characters are:

- Aseena, from Daniel's Forgotten Streets. Tough, smart, caring. She's hilarious! One of those larger than life characters. You know. The ones that make everyone stop what they're doing to watch them. I actually knew a woman like Aseena. The whole world seemed to stop just to pay attention to her! And she can make people fall in love with her just by focusing all her attention on them like they're fascinating or important.

- Seras Victoria and Integral Hellsing. Tough ladies steal my heart. Seras is a sweetie, and I love how she grows into a more confident woman. Integra is just AMAZING. She never says die. She refuses to give in, even when she's helpless and outnumbered. There's a great dignity about her, and a frightening ruthlessness too. She's practically made of iron. Her relationship with Alucard of twisted love and mutual respect is fascinating. It takes a strong woman to handle Alucard.

- The Queen of France, from Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas. Flawed, passionate, vulnerable. Brave. Compassionate because she cared about her maid at an age when few nobles cared about their servants. She was also generous in giving alms to beggars, and saw her lover (a servant) as an equal.

- Kitten Avignon/Katerina Deserov, the Duke's courtesan from Jane Routley's Mage Heart. Clever, witty, and so, so wickedly fun. She's a woman of contrasts, too - one minute she 'll be giving alms. Setting up a free health clinic for struggling people. The next minute, she'd say harsh, cynical things about men in power.

- Mina Harker. She may look sweet and harmless...but this is one lady you do *not* want to mess with. Fiendishly clever (she was the REAL brains of the operation. While most of the other men bumbled and faffed around (with the exception of Van Helsing), she came up with ideas on how to defeat Dracula. Very sweet and brave too...I love how she comforts her friends and husband. And it is moving how she is the only person who urges her friends to have pity for Dracula, after everything he's done to her.

Worst beautiful characters:

- Arya, from Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle. Dreadful, dreadful series. Dreadful love interest. Dreadful protagonist. Dreadful...look, nearly everything was dreadful about that series, OK? Arya was rude, insulting to the religious dwarves, smug about her atheism (I hate how she makes other atheists look bad). And why does she wear leather if she's a vegetarian? o_O I never really got that.

- Princess Josiane, and Princess Imajane from Tamora Pierce's novels. 2D cut out villains. I find it really annoying how Tamora Pierce often portrays flirty women, women who wear make up/fine clothes or blonde women in pink as being evil, stupid or unlikeable. At least Uline of Hannalof was flirty and likeable. Is it just me, or is Imajane is the same as Josiane, but with a different name?

- Ginny Weasley. Likeable in the first 4 books. Rude in the 5th book (made fun of Umbridge's fear of centaurs, when centaurs are known for raping women). AWFUL in the 6th book (insulted Fleur constantly, hexed Zachariah Smith, insulted Ron's lack of sexual experience, defended Harry's use of Sectumsempra (which slashed open a student's face). She never apologised to Fleur for her rudeness - it was Molly who apologised to Fleur).

Next post will be on sympathetic ugly or plain characters!