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Best Fictional Characters – EVER!!!

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I was browsing the magazines in a supermarket today and saw another one of those £9.99 genre bookazine/magbook things – “100 Greatest Sci-Fi Characters Of All Time”. Nice idea, I thought, but I was a little dismayed by the upper reaches of the top 10 – Batman not even in there, Doctor Who only number two behind – WTF – Han Solo?!?! Get out the front door!! I just don’t understand that.

Anyway, it got me thinking – wouldn’t it be marvellous to ask you lot for your greatest fictional characters ever, no specific genre, no specific medium. Give me your top five and if there’s a big enough response I’ll compile a top 20 or top fifty or, heaven forfend, a top 100. There’s literally millions to choose from – see my tags for a little taster.

Go on, you know you want to.

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Comments

  5. Scout Finch is up there at present – we’ll have to see what impact Go Set A Watchman has (it seems Atticus has taken a change for the worse).

    Sherlock Holmes is a creation of absolute genius.

    Tom Sawyer.

    Tom Joad (The Grapes of Wrath)

    And can I cheat and have the Swallows and Amazons.

  8. Atticus Finch
    Sebastian Flyte
    The Man With No Name (Clint in the Leone films)
    Spinal Tap
    Eric Cartman

    (bubbling under: Jay Gatsby, Holden Caulfield, Keyser Soze, Tyler Durden, Judith Chalmers)

  11. Sherlock Holmes ( the original and Benedict are my favorites)
    Scarlett O’Hara
    Holden Caulfield
    Atticus Finch (the Mockingbird version)
    Sydney Carton (Tis a far far better thing I do…….)

    This is hard. I might do a completely different list tomorrow. But a fun idea!

    And it’s strange: everyone of these characters is from a book I read as a child and that was a long, long time ago.

  16. By a country mile Harry Flashman is the clear winner. (see Sniffity above). An extraordinarily flawed and profoundly shallow accidental hero. If only his adventures could get the HBO treatment.

    Other notable also-rans…

    Johnny Alpha – Strontium Dog, the most rounded character in 2000AD.
    Zaphod Beeblebrox especially for his reaction to the Total Perspective Vortex.
    Sherlock Holmes in his many forms.
    Raffles the Gentleman Thug – My favourite Viz character.
    Samurai Jack
    Bugs Bunny
    Dirty Harry Callaghan
    Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly – an Irish comedy character.
    Kratos from the God of War games – my favourite computer game character.
    Sgt. Ernie Bilko – the best sitcom character ever.

    • An excellent list Comrade Little. The word going round the clubs was “Where is Psmith in this thread? Could he be so neglected? Forgotten? A footnote in literary history? But no, there he stands, admiring his new silver comrade’s surfboard. All is right.”

  24. All this talk of Harrys has reminded me of Prime Minister Harry Perkins (A Very British Coup). He was a lovely fictional man.
    I also forgot Ignatius J. Reilly (A Confederacy of Dunces). My favourite comic character in al of literature.

  25. Judge Dredd
    Sherlock Holmes
    Beowulf
    Superman
    Harry Potter, like it or loathe it
    Ethan Edwards

    This can’t be limited to 5. Whither Swallows and Amazons? Johnny Kreelman or Judge Dredd? Can’t pick. Ferris Bueller or Maverick? Moriarty…

    You’re killing me here

  26. Super response so far. Rebus is an unexpected front-runner, I reckon. My money’s on Holmes, though. He was the first name I placed among my tags, although the system alphabeticised them.

    By the way, the top 10 in the sci-fi mag were [from memory] Princess Leia, Spider-Man, Ripley, The Terminator, Capt James T Kirk, Superman, Darth Vader, Spock, The Doctor, Han Solo. Batman was at 11.

      • I guess it depends how you define sci-fi.

        Batman exists in a world of giant man-crocodiles, space gods, Amazonian queens, and super villains with freeze rays and exo-skeletons. He, himself, is human, but then so are Kirk and Ripley.

        You can make an argument for any old bollocks, can’t you?

        • I wish Batman still lived in that world, but as far as I can see these days he is just Dark and Brooding and Serious, with a Deep Voice and a Scowl. And it’s always raining. The last twenty years of Batman, in any media I’ve seen in him, have been a joyless trudge. And not even a sciencefictional one.

          • For the last few years DC have published a comic called ‘batman 66’ set in the world of the old TV show and the recent Batman: Brave and the Bold cartoon was set in a bright and colourful Batman world.

            So your not looking very hard.

            • WellBatman 66 does sound like what I’m looking for, so I’ll have a look for a trade. Thanks for the tip. I was put off the recentish Batman comics when I read the Court Of Owls stuff, which I found pretty bad despite the love it seems to get.

              Brave And The Bold is one of the cartoons aimed at younger kids, isn’t it? Probably a bit too childish for me, although I am fully aware I am making this point in a discussion about a man in tights who pretends to be a bat.

    • Technically speaking, no, there’s no science involved in his genesis or his modus operandi. But they had him in there. Maybe that explains why he wasn’t top 10. Perhaps they explained that in the text, but I didn’t have time to read the whole thing. Said supermarket’s general merchandise staff have moved me on in the past for hogging Total Carp magazine, so my time was strictly limited. Plus, I had dry shampoo and flapjacks to buy.

  30. Satan, he’s got the best tunes and his nemesis is way too preachy.
    Captain Louis Renault from Casablanca
    Milo Minderbinder from Catch 22
    Al Swerengen from Deadwood (perhaps cheating as he is based on a real person of that name)

  32. Five before I change my mind

    HAL 9000
    Sterling Archer
    Don Logan (Sexy Beast)
    The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
    I want to say Jim from Taxi but I feel I should nominate a woman and that would have to be Eleanor Shaw (The Manchurian Candidate).

  36. This morning ( only) the definitive 5 are:
    Jeeves
    Walter White
    Dr. Benway
    Ripley
    Billy The Fish

    this afternoon it could well be
    Macbeth
    Billericay Dickie
    Easy Rawlins ( Walter Moseley)
    Sam Spade
    Zaphod Beeblebrox

  37. oh lordy, how about

    Odysseus

    Maggie Chascarillo (and Esperanza “Hopey” Glass, of course. You can’t have Holmes without Watson)

    Ignatius J Reilly

    Sam Vimes

    Slippery Jim diGriz

    honourable mentions for Owen Meaney, Dream (and Death!), Lyra Belacqua, Lara Croft, Gordon Freeman…

  39. Kenneth Widmerpool (surely there must be more Widmerpool fans among the Afterword crew?)
    Reginald I. Perrin
    Gustavo Fring
    Jane Eyre
    Dr Jock McCannon (A Very peculiar Practice)

    • Yes, great call on Major-General Wynne-Candy.

      I only started watching Powell and Pressburger’s films about a year ago, after one of the great “Favourite Films” threads on the old site.
      They are, of course, terrific, and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is the jewel in the crown.

      So far in my box set I’ve seen:

      The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
      A Matter of Life and Death
      I Know Where I’m Going!
      A Canterbury Tale
      Black Narcissus

      What should I see next?

  44. Contemporary TV characters:

    Tim Riggins (Friday Night Lights)
    Joey Lucas (The West Wing)
    Crazy Eyes (Orange is the New Black)
    Eli Gold (The Good Wife)
    Stringer Bell (The Wire)

  48. Tom Ripley (from Patricia Highsmith books)
    Sherlock Holmes
    Walter White
    George Costanza
    Arya Stark (Game of Thrones)

    I would add Norm from Cheers if we could have six but we can’t so I won’t.

  52. Sid the Sexist
    Cosmo Smallpiece
    Merv the Perv
    Uncle Ernie
    Jimmy Saville
    (If only he’d been fictitious, which let’s face it, would have made much more sense.)

      • Recall vote – Jeeves for Huck Finn, please.
        Loved the Jennings books also, but Richmal Crompton was on another level as regards writing skill; wonderfully humourous and used an extensive vocabulary which helped expand mine.

  57. Dr Walter Bishop (Fringe)
    Monty Bodkin (Wodehouse)
    Falstaff, fakir (Swedish fakir, professor, gentleman, model farmer, benefactor)
    Misse Möghe (Matador)
    Snagglepuss (exit stage left)

  58. A bit comics-biased, but there y’go

    Kaylee Frye (from Firefly)
    Buddy “Animal Man” Baker (Everyman superhero taking it all in his stride with an air of baffled amusement, solid family who’ve not been killed off)
    Nemesis the Warlock (guess where my ID – partly – came from)
    Luther Arkwright
    Death (of the Endless, from Sandman)

  69. Vim Fuego – for being totally delusional about his “genius”
    Colin Grigson – for being an utter prat

    (Like all great sit-com characters, there is more than an ounce of truth – and you just know you ahve met people like that)

    • @rigid-digit

      All bass players are like Colin Grigson. Unfounded sense of self importance and always insecure in the 200% truth that, deep down, they know the lead guitarist could play it better.

      And I’m a bass player

  74. Good grief, really had. Ones I’ve had endless pleasure from…

    William Brown
    James Bond
    Spiderman
    Tom and Jerry (sorry I know that’s two but this is too hard)
    John Rebus

    I could come up with another too five very easily.

    • What a piece of work is Moz!
      Something that struck me thinking about this was how much more of an impression tv and movie characters had made on me than those in books. Although this could be put down to a failure of imagination on my part it occurs to me – for the first time – that there is no character in any book I have read who I actually like.
      In contrast writers for TV and movies go to great lengths to make us like, admire or at least identify with individuals who are often utter sh*ts.
      The flip side of this is that strong performances form powerful characters. Like a lot of others, one of the first people the OP brought to mind was Ernie Bilko, but then I thought it was Phil Silvers’ performance that made him an unforgettable character..

  89. All the characters in the opening sequence

    Beany
    Cecil the seasick sea serpent
    Captain Horatio Huffenpuff
    Dishonest John
    Crowy

    Sadly missing is Mouth-Full-of-Teeth Keith

  90. Oh, folks – here’s what we’ve got so far.

    It’s been difficult, because some contributors have listedmany more than five or changed their minds, etc. Anyway, this is what I’ve come up with at around the 100 mark.

    13 SHERLOCK HOLMES

    7 JOHN REBUS

    4 ATTICUS FINCH, BASIL FAWLTY, EDMUND BLACKADDER, HARRY FLASHMAN, HOMER SIMPSON

    3 DOCTOR WHO, FALSTAFF, GEORGE COSTANZA, GEORGE SMILEY, JEEVES, MALCOLM TUCKER, NILES CRANE, TINTIN, TONY SOPRANO, WILLIAM BROWN

    2 ALAN PARTRIDGE, BATMAN, BERTIE WOOSTER, BUGS BUNNY, CALVIN, CAPTAIN HADDOCK, DEL BOY TROTTER, ERIC CARTMAN, FERRIS BUELLER, HUCKLEBERRY FINN, JAMES BOND, JENNINGS, NIGEL MOLESWORTH, PSMITH, ROGER MELLIE, ROY OF THE ROVERS, SUPERMAN, TYRION LANNISTER, WALTER WHITE

    • Sorry @madfox – I may have confused you…Falstaff (of Shakespear fame) has only gotten two votes, the one I voted for was “Falstaff, fakir”.
      You wouldn’t know him, he is the granddaddy of all Swedish humour; the pseudonym of Axel Wallengren (1865 – 1896) and a spectacular character (like I said: fakir, professor, gentleman, model farmer and benefactor).
      I like Falstaff as well, but he’s no fakir!

      • Yes, I did suspect it might be some esoteric Scandinavian choice and meant to google it, but then forgot. Cheers for the clarification.

        Still, a runaway win for Mr Holmes in his many guises and a surprise silver for Rebus.

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