Liam, Head Phil wrote about his five favorite characters from literature on his blog and the idea was cool so I decided to steal it. This post was actually quite difficult to write because it’s not easy to condense all the things you love about a character into five or six sentences.
![kiki[1]](https://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/kiki1.jpg)
- Kiki Strike from the Kiki Strike series by Kirsten Miller. Kiki is a tiny teenage girl who leads a group of “delinquent Girl Scouts” to fight crime in New York City. I find her fascinating, and so do the other girls, because she’s mysterious. No one knows (at first) who she really is or even whose side she’s actually on. Plus, she kicks butt. She can fight, speaks several languages, is a spy, etc. What more could you want?
- Sandy McSouthers from The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Here’s another character who isn’t what he seems. Sandy’s just the goofy doorman at the Sunset Towers apartments. Or is he? He’s quite a bit smarter than anyone realizes; I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you if you haven’t read the book but he manages to completely fool people. His last scene makes me cry so much.
- Miriam Isaacs from All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen. Miriam is smart and loyal, but what I love most about her is that’s she very independent and doesn’t take any nonsense from people. She’s Persian and lives in London so experiences plenty of prejudice but she doesn’t let that get her down. She just doesn’t care about it. I also love that she has a serious boyfriend but isn’t overly attached to him like, well, like Bella Swan.
- Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I think Lupin is underappreciated. My friends all like Hermione or the Weasleys or Snape and I’m the oddball blabbering on about Lupin. But what’s there not to like? He’s kind, smart, brave, loyal, and probably the best Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher Harry ever had. Lupin is a great father figure for Harry because Sirius is too reckless and obviously James is dead. He’s quite quiet, definitely not a “Look at me!” character and so I think a lot of people don’t really notice him. When I finally convinced my dad to read Harry Potter I was thrilled when he told me that Lupin was one of his favorites. Score!
- Faramir from the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. No wonder I
![ftttsteward23[1]](https://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ftttsteward231.jpg?w=300&h=218)
like Faramir; he reminds me of Lupin. Faramir is just as brave and kind, just as good a leader and fighter as his older brother Boromir. What makes Faramir better? He’s less – reckless, I think is the right word. In a confrontation Boromir will pull out his sword and be like, “FOR GONDOOOOOOR!” but Faramir would try every other possible approach so that he wouldn’t have to fight. It’s not that he isn’t brave, but he doesn’t fight for fighting’s sake like Boromir does. I admire that. His story makes me sad, too. His dad hates him, tells him he wishes Faramir had died instead of his brother, sends him to his death, and when he comes back wounded but alive, tries to burn him to death. And-
![ftttsteward23[1]](https://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ftttsteward231.jpg)
Nevillegirl, stop writing about Faramir already.
I feel like this post was a bit of a fail. I feel like I couldn’t really convey how great these guys (and girls) are.
What do you think about these characters?
Musings From Neville's Navel 
I love that you chose Lupin and Faramir – underdog characters who end up being more than heroic. I respected how Lupin, knowing of his dark side, fights his love for Tonks – he doesn’t want to drag her down. And the way Faramir marches out to sudden death – brings tears to my eyes to think about it. Have you ever read any of the Dragon Lance books by Weiss and Hickman – I feel sure that if you had maybe one of them would have made your favorite list. They are dated now in the field of fantasy – but still so good. I often think that the fellow who played Faramir could have done a good job with the tortured hero, Tanis – halfeleven – struggling with all the issues that any half anything must face. OK – enough – I loved this post.
I’m glad that people also think that Lupin and Faramir are a lot alike. Actually I was thinking about Lupin/Sirius and Faramir/Boromir and those other two are very similar too. More reckless than my favorite guys.
I haven’t even heard of those books, but I’ll look for them at the library!
Lupin’s one of my favorite characters, too! I just feel he’s so underappreciated. He easily fades into the background and you just forget about him. I think JK added to Lupin’s detachment from the Trio by calling him ‘Lupin’ every single time he’s talked about. With Sirius, Harry and the others are always calling him by his first name, but Lupin always stays Lupin. No Moony, no Remus, no nothing. I wonder how he feels about this.
I do think, though, that they (Remus, Harry, and Sirius) were closer to each other than Jo depicted. Remus was one of James’ best friends. I think Harry would want to know more about him.
*happy about the amount of Lupin love in the comments*
I never thought of that, but you’re right…
If J.K. Rowling wrote more books in the HP universe, I wouldn’t want it to be Next Generation-era or Dumbledore-era. I’d want to read more about the Marauders!
It’s one of the things I don’t like. Remus is so detached. *sniff*
And how they wreak havoc upon Filch, McGonagall, and the Hogwarts population!
Detached in terms of his personality, or that JKR doesn’t treat him the same as Sirius?
It must have been weird for McGonagall after the Battle of Hogwarts. She was still alive, but loads of her students were dead.
Detached as in he’s so far away from Harry. One would think he’d want to get to know the kid. After all, Harry’s dad was his best friend. Or one of them at least.
I have to disagree there; I don’t think Lupin was detached from Harry. If anything Harry was detached from Lupin and that’s all you see because the series is from his point of view.
I guess what I’m saying is that Harry’s all “OOH, SIRIUS” but Lupin’s also there for him and a much better role model.
(Sorry for jumping in. I just can’t help myself when it comes to HP)! 😉
I guess Harry was much closer to Sirius because Sirius was so much like James and Harry (thought considerably more reckless). Plus, Sirius was his godfather, and since Harry never had any parents, Sirius was as close as he could get.
Just my take on things.
Hmm. I feel like adding something to this, but by this point everyone’s added so much there isn’t much left to say! xD
(Has your dad let you read AMoG yet? :D)
I’ve never heard of these first three books and I need to read them immediately! This blogpost was very helpful for me for that reason. Is Kiki Strike a graphic novel?
No, it’s a regular book.
It looks so graphic! Glad it’s a real book though. I like graphic novels but they read too fast, if you know what I mean. I like a good, long read. Thanks for sharing these characters! Maybe I’ll do my favorite characters from literature as a post too.
Yeah, the original cover illustrations are fantastic. But what with the third book recently being published, they’ve redone the covers and I don’t like them.
Glad you liked the psot!
Faramir and Lupin are, definitely, seriously under-rated. Probably because it’s the characters who bang about and make more noise that get noticed more easily. It’s the quieter ones who just get on with saving the world in the back that get overlooked, sadly. But that’s possibly all the more reason to love them – they don’t want the attention, they just want to go home and curl up under the bed and pretend the whole horrible business never happened.
That is a very, very good description of them, better than the stuff that I wrote. 😀
Heh heh, no it wasn’t. Namely because it follows on from the stuff you wrote!
Wait. Sandy’s a boy? I’ve never heard that name on a boy before. And last scene as in–gulp–a DEATH scene?!?! (Don’t seriously tell me. I’ll probably end up reading the book someday).
I told my library that they should get “All Men of Genius.” I really need to read it now.
I LOVE Lupin! I think I loved him best in the third book, though, since he was really the best DADA teacher there was. I was really sad when he died.
(Am I really the first commenter now)?
It’s short for Alexander. And it wouldn’t have to be a death scene. I mean, it could be, but also just the last time the character appears.
I think there’s an ebook for All Men of Genius, if you can’t get it from the library.
I think a huge reason PoA is my favorite book is Lupin. (And Sirus. Marauders in general.) I was quite mad at J.K. Rowling when he died, not because she killed him (I hoped he wouldn’t die, but suspected he would) but because you don’t really learn about it. He’s just lying there dead with Tonks when Harry next sees him.
(Uh. No. Good try, though! :P)
Ah. That’s cool!
Yeah, there is. My parents thought it’d be best to try and get it from the library first, though. I WILL read it either way. 😉
The Marauders are awesome. The Marauders’ Map is one of my favorite magical items, besides a wand, an invisibility cloak, a broomstick, and the Room of Requirement, though I’m not sure that last one counts as an item. ;P And I’d love to hear more about Lupin’s childhood, especially as a werewolf. That goes for Sirius and Harry’s parents, too. And Dumbledore, though you already end up learning a lot about his childhood. I really hope that Harry Potter Encyclopedia rumor that’s been going around is true. 😀
Dang it!
If you want to see if you’d like it, I think the author has the link to a preview somewhere on his blog… levacrosen.com
You’ve read Lord of the Rings, right? Do you Faramir?
(EDIT: Do you LIKE Faramir? What does to Faramir even mean? xD)
Thanks! 😀 I’ll look around for it.
I read the abridged audio with my dad and brother a while back, so not TECHNICALLY, and I don’t even really remember Faramir that much.
Sorry. I’m going to read the ACTUAL books soon, so I’ll get back to you on that one! XD
LOL. I have no idea. Maybe some dance we don’t know. Like a medieval boogie? XD
Hmmm, I was going to be way more morbid, like almost dying or, well – almost dying. Faramir does a lot of almost dying.
Ha ha. Maybe it can be both. 😉
About these ones? Well. I’ve only read the last two, and I didn’t like Lupin (though he was slightly more tolerable than Harry). Faramir was interesting, but he wasn’t as cool in the books as in the movie– in the books, I constantly compared him to Aragorn, which isn’t at all fair.
I SHALL SMITE YOU NOW.
I think he’s cool in the books, just overshadowed.