Hero(ine)s
Jul. 17th, 2010 02:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowSFX is running a poll of favorite f/sf heroes and heroines. The following names made the cut:
Heroes: Miles Vorkosigan (Bujold), Han Solo (Star Wars), Sam Vimes (Discworld), Number Six (The Prisoner), Jean-Luc Picard (ST:TNG), Sam Beckett (Quantum Leap), Wesley Wyndham-Pryce (BtVS/Angel), John Crichton (Farscape), Sam Tyler (Life on Mars), Indiana Jones, James T. Kirk (ST:TOS), Mal Reynolds (Firefly), Ianto Jones (Torchwood), Bill Adama (BSG), Dean Winchester (Supernatural), Jack Harkness (Doctor Who), Fox Mulder (X-Files), Leonard McCoy (ST:TOS), The Doctor (Doctor Who)
Heroines: Aeryn Sun (Farscape), Buffy Summers (BtVS), Dana Scully (X-Files), Donna Noble (Doctor Who), Ellen Ripley (Alien), Emma Peel (Avengers), Faith (BtVS), Kara Thrace (BSG), Kaylee Frye (Firefly), Laura Roslin (BSG), Olivia Dunham (Fringe), River Tam (Firefly), Rose Tyler (Doctor Who), Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel), Sarah Connor (Terminator), Sarah Jane Smith (Doctor Who), Susan Ivanova (B5), Willow Rosenberg (BtVS), Xena
Whatever. Those are their lists of candidates. I want to talk about my nominees. Among heroes, I'd put Sam Vimes at the top, with Lupe dy Cazaril (Curse of Chalion) a close second; and my favorite heroine - and this surprised me, but it's the name that leaped to mind - is Pyanfar Chanur.
There are some similarities among them. All three of them began their rise to greatness in middle age - psychologically, if not physically. Pyanfar was a modestly successful captain of a small starship (crew of six) - and there were undoubtedly dozens like her, at least, in hani space alone. Caz and Vimes both climbed out of the gutter - in Vimes' case, literally. All three are characterized by integrity and intelligence. (I once praised the historical figure Sakamoto Ryoma for his fixity of end and flexibility of means, and I think I was describing the same traits that these three share.) Each of them has more than one of what TVTropes calls a "Crowning Moment of Awesome". (Vimes has several, ranging from facing down Wolfgang the werewolf in The Fifth Elephant to arresting two entire armies for disturbing the peace in Jingo. For Caz, there's his confrontation with the duellist in the hallway, and - more subtly - his resistance to The Fox's attempted bribe. Pyanfar? Facing down Sikkukkut by threatening to cycle The Pride's vanes, and then her actions immediately after Tahar's, um, late arrival at the party.)
Those are my picks. Aeryn Sun, Susan Ivanova, Emma Peel, Miles Vorkosigan - great characters all (and why isn't Xander Harris on the list?), but they don't quite match those three, to my mind.
Heroes: Miles Vorkosigan (Bujold), Han Solo (Star Wars), Sam Vimes (Discworld), Number Six (The Prisoner), Jean-Luc Picard (ST:TNG), Sam Beckett (Quantum Leap), Wesley Wyndham-Pryce (BtVS/Angel), John Crichton (Farscape), Sam Tyler (Life on Mars), Indiana Jones, James T. Kirk (ST:TOS), Mal Reynolds (Firefly), Ianto Jones (Torchwood), Bill Adama (BSG), Dean Winchester (Supernatural), Jack Harkness (Doctor Who), Fox Mulder (X-Files), Leonard McCoy (ST:TOS), The Doctor (Doctor Who)
Heroines: Aeryn Sun (Farscape), Buffy Summers (BtVS), Dana Scully (X-Files), Donna Noble (Doctor Who), Ellen Ripley (Alien), Emma Peel (Avengers), Faith (BtVS), Kara Thrace (BSG), Kaylee Frye (Firefly), Laura Roslin (BSG), Olivia Dunham (Fringe), River Tam (Firefly), Rose Tyler (Doctor Who), Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel), Sarah Connor (Terminator), Sarah Jane Smith (Doctor Who), Susan Ivanova (B5), Willow Rosenberg (BtVS), Xena
Whatever. Those are their lists of candidates. I want to talk about my nominees. Among heroes, I'd put Sam Vimes at the top, with Lupe dy Cazaril (Curse of Chalion) a close second; and my favorite heroine - and this surprised me, but it's the name that leaped to mind - is Pyanfar Chanur.
There are some similarities among them. All three of them began their rise to greatness in middle age - psychologically, if not physically. Pyanfar was a modestly successful captain of a small starship (crew of six) - and there were undoubtedly dozens like her, at least, in hani space alone. Caz and Vimes both climbed out of the gutter - in Vimes' case, literally. All three are characterized by integrity and intelligence. (I once praised the historical figure Sakamoto Ryoma for his fixity of end and flexibility of means, and I think I was describing the same traits that these three share.) Each of them has more than one of what TVTropes calls a "Crowning Moment of Awesome". (Vimes has several, ranging from facing down Wolfgang the werewolf in The Fifth Elephant to arresting two entire armies for disturbing the peace in Jingo. For Caz, there's his confrontation with the duellist in the hallway, and - more subtly - his resistance to The Fox's attempted bribe. Pyanfar? Facing down Sikkukkut by threatening to cycle The Pride's vanes, and then her actions immediately after Tahar's, um, late arrival at the party.)
Those are my picks. Aeryn Sun, Susan Ivanova, Emma Peel, Miles Vorkosigan - great characters all (and why isn't Xander Harris on the list?), but they don't quite match those three, to my mind.
