{"id":28036,"date":"2015-02-05T06:30:53","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T17:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=28036"},"modified":"2015-02-04T23:04:25","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T10:04:25","slug":"fictional-favourites-the-pressure-of-choosing-only-one-hero-or-heroine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/02\/05\/fictional-favourites-the-pressure-of-choosing-only-one-hero-or-heroine\/","title":{"rendered":"Fictional Favourites: The Pressure Of Choosing Only One Hero or Heroine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I talk a lot about books and stories here on da blog and I do lists as well, but I don&#8217;t focus so often on a <em>single<\/em> favourite character or book.<\/p>\n<p>But a question on t&#8217;interwebs prompted thought as to whether I could narrow those lists down, for example to the one book I&#8217;d snatch up if fleeing the house in a fire (the closest to hand, I suspect!), or whether I had one favourite fictional hero or heroine.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2011\/07\/10\/six-great-heroes-of-epic-fantasy-part-2\/lotr-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6679\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6679\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/LoTR.jpg\" alt=\"LoTR\" width=\"93\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a>The pressure of &#8220;only one&#8221; when here are so many great fictional heroes and heroines out there is really tough, but in the end I reflected that I have always really liked Faramir in <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em> novel (I didn\u2019t really care for the film portrayal of his character.) In the novel Faramir is actually a really strong character, but in a quiet way through \u201cknowing himself\u201d, rather than flamboyant show\u2014although in fact, when the chips are down he does everything he needs to do, and more. And although he is just a \u201cnormal man\u201d, as opposed to a more remote,\u00a0 almost superhuman hero like Aragorn, Faramir nonetheless refuses the temptation of the ring. So for all these reasons he has always been one of my favorite fictional heroes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/12\/13\/my-favourite-epic-fantasy-series\/gardens_of_the_moon\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17623\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-17623\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Gardens_of_the_Moon-88x150.jpg\" alt=\"Gardens_of_the_Moon\" width=\"88\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Gardens_of_the_Moon-88x150.jpg 88w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Gardens_of_the_Moon-177x300.jpg 177w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Gardens_of_the_Moon.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 88px) 100vw, 88px\" \/><\/a>With respect to heroines, I am a great admirer of the mage Tattersail in Steven Erikson\u2019s first Malazan novel, <em>Gardens of the Moon. <\/em>One thing I <em>really<\/em> like about her is that she is literally a big woman, but she is seen as desirable by men and has lovers who are desirable men. And although Tattersail is a powerful mage in a cadre of fighting mages, she always travels with her \u201cwardrobe chest\u201d (the soldiers make jokes about it)\u2014and is proven to be both brave and smart. I would have liked to see a lot more of her, but the series didn&#8217;t progress that way, alas.<\/p>\n<p>What about you? Who would you put forward as your favourite fictional hero and\/or heroine, and why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I talk a lot about books and stories here on da blog and I do lists as well, but I don&#8217;t focus so often on a single favourite character or book. But a question on t&#8217;interwebs prompted thought as to whether I could narrow those lists down, for example to the one book I&#8217;d snatch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epicfantasy","category-funstuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28036"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28039,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28036\/revisions\/28039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}