Favorite Literary Characters

So, my plan was to make a top 10 list of my favorite characters from books that I have read. Either chalking it up to laziness or indecisiveness, I'll just post them all in no particular order.

• Legolas Greenleaf, Gimli son of Gloin, and Peregrin Took: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien

These are my favorite characters from The Lord of the Rings. While I do admit that my opinion of these three men is slightly influenced by the movies, I already liked them before the movies even came out. I like Legolas and Gimli for their sheer awesomeness and cool fight scenes together. I like Pippin for his comedic relief, of course.

• Achilles: The Iliad, Homer

Achilles is one of the first and best bad-asses around in literature and mythology. Although I didn't particularly care for his cockiness, he technically had the right and could back it up. He was also pretty whiney about Briseis, but I think Homer was trying to convey great emotion and just missed the mark a bit. I still like his character though. Odysseus was a close second after Achilles.

• Uhtred of Bebbanburg: The Saxon series, Bernard Cornwell

I really like this book series, mainly because of the time period, but Cornwell puts a ton of great content in there too. I like Uhtred because he is a very realistic character. He's not just the invincible hero, he's not infallible, he makes mistakes and has to deal with the consequences.

• Thomas of Hookton- Grail Quest trilogy, Bernard Cornwell

I like Thomas for pretty much the same reasons as I do Uhtred. I just like seeing historical characters (whether real or made up) being portrayed in realistic ways...well, as realistically as possible- we only know so much about history.

• Marvin: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Marvin is a freaking hilarious character. I mean come on, he's a depressed robot! I also love the fact that his character in the movie was voiced by Alan Rickman.

• Zeddicus "Zed" Zu'l Zorander: The Sword of Truth series, Terry Goodkind

I like Zed as a character because he is so interesting and well-rounded. You don't see a whole lot of older characters like this much anymore, it seems. Zed is powerful and wise, but is also funny and is a child at heart, and isn't too old to get some lovin'. I honestly like Zed more than I do the main characters of this series, Kahlan and Richard.

• Perrin Aybara and Matrim Cauthon: The Wheel of Time series, Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan (RIP) was very very good at crafting wonderful characters. All of them are interesting, but overall, I like Perrin and Mat the most. I feel like I connect the most with Perrin, and the wolf parts of the stories are cool. Mat is one of the very few male characters who has the cahones to stand up to the very strong female characters in this series, especially Nynaeve. I also like the plot developments that are added to his character in later books quite a bit (which I won't spoil for you).

• Calvin and Hobbes: Revenge of the Baby-Sat (etc.), Bill Watterson

These two are pretty much my favorite duo ever. I love the Calvin and Hobbes comics so much. I like Calvin's high vocabulary for only being in 1st grade, and the pranks Hobbes pulls on Calvin. Even though they originally appeared in the Sunday newspaper and not in a graphic novel, Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite comic series of all time.