Tuesday, August 27, 2013

My Top Ten Most Memorable Secondary Characters

I had a teensy bit of a problem narrowing down exactly what defines a secondary character. Not a love interest like Mr. Rochester; not an antagonist, like the Darkling. Do team characters count as secondary characters?  I mean, would you really call Han Solo secondary to Luke Skywalker? Or Gandalf secondary to Bilbo or Frodo?  Is Minnie a secondary character in the Help or one of three main characters?

Hey, look at that, I totally cheated. I just named some favorite "sort of" secondary characters in addition to my actual top ten list, below.

 Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish blog with a different top ten list theme (all related to books) every Tuesday (see the full list here).

I couldn't rank this list by number, just so you know.

Orma from Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman. Because he's like a medieval version of Spock. And he's a dragon.

Brimstone from Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Because he's scary and secretive and mysterious and compassionate and hopeful. Here's a great deviant art picture of him.

Puck and Grimalkin from The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. A smug know-it-all fairy cat and an irreverent fairy prankster. They go together so well.

Tumnus the Faun, from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  I would have tea with him any day.

Gollum, from the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. He's such a despicable, slimy, nasty little character that he's almost endearing in a twisted way. I also really like Smaug the Dragon, even though he only has one conversation, it's so wickedly conceited.

Mogget and the Disreputable Dog from The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix.

Buruu from Stormdancer, by Jay Kristoff.  The ultimate mythical creature, with attitude to boot.

Hagrid from the Harry Potter series.

Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert from the Anne of Green Gables series. Because all the others were mythical creatures/persons of sorts, I had to throw in two real people just for fun.

Oh, and one more real person: Grandfather from Heidi, by Joanna Spyri

Who's your favorite secondary character?


15 comments:

  1. Love all of these! And I LOVE that you like Garth Nix and Laini Taylor. Nix somehow doesn't get the wide recognition, and Imcamt understand why. Abhorsem is such a fantastic series. And yay, there's a new Garth Nix release!

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    1. Oh yay another Garth Nix fan! YEs I can't understand why this series isn't more popular.

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  2. Of course, I can't think of any right now. But, usually secondary characters are so much fun. I like the ones that add a little bit of comic relief. :)

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    1. Yes I love it when they provide some laughs, and when they're eccentric and especially when they become more important the story than you initially expected!

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  3. Are Mr Spock and Dr McCoy secondary characters? I vote for them! Yay! take care
    x

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  4. Great list! Love that you threw in Marilla and Matthew, I put Aunt Josephine on my list. Orma's pretty neat but I liked Princess Glisselda better (especially in The Audition).
    Here's my TTT.

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    1. Oh so happy when I run across another Seraphina fan. And thanks for reminding me of Aunt Josephine!

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  5. I too would have tea with Mr. Tumnus any time! I named my pet hamster after him many long years ago :)

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    1. I would love to have tea with so many beloved characters, but he'd be up there at the top!

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  6. Wow, I haven't actually read most of those. The list just got longer. Yeah, this is something I'm going to have to think about. Hmmm, Ian Sr from the Outlander series is the first one to mind, though I'm sure there are more.

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    1. I haven't read the whole series but surprised at how many characters stuck in my head from the first Outlander book

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  7. I totally agree with you about ORMA and GOLLUM. :)

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    1. Thrilled to hear you've read Seraphina! It's one of my all time favorites!

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  8. Garth Nix is definitely awesome! There's no way I could narrow it down to a favorite secondary character: pretty much anyone from Harry Potter, LOTR or the Dresden Files. :)

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