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Jan. 7th, 2011 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsBack to Top Fives - ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ojuzu asked me for my top five non-heteronormative characters. She also specifically excluded Utena characters from the running, which does make narrowing the list easier, given that pretty much every Utena character would count for this. Still hard, though!
5. Justin Suarez, Ugly Betty
I feel a bit guilty putting Justin here seeing as I have not yet gotten around to seeing his actual coming-out arc . . . but anyway, Justin is Betty's tiny fabulous nephew on Ugly Betty - mystery fashion elf, budding performing artist, and somehow one of the most grounded characters on the show - and getting to watch him grow up is one of the best parts of the story.
4. Kevin, Guardian of the Dead
Even though Kevin doesn't get as much pagetime in Guardian of the Dead as I would like, I still want to list him here just because I was really happy to see a clearly, explicitly asexual character appear in the pages of YA at all. Kevin's life is extremely awkward because a mythological figure is trying to lure him away and sleep with him, and he is just not interested. He's happy to be your friend, mythological creature!
3. Arakune, Angel Sanctuary
I've already talked about Kurai in one of these posts; now I'm going to talk about my other favorite character from Angel Sanctuary, Kurai's cousin (. . . ish; it's Angel Sanctuary, so of course it's complicated) and protector Arakune. Arakune was born male but identifies as female; on the one hand I have some issues with her eventual plotline and fate, but on the other hand she goes out so fabulous.
2. Eugenie Danglars, The Count of Monte Cristo
I'm kind of sad that the only images I can find for Eugenie Danglars come from Gankutsuou, which had its points as an anime, but was significantly less kinder to Eugenie than the book. Anyway: we're going old-school here with a nineteenth-century lesbian who escaped a DIRE FATE by saying "screw it" and eloping with a lady opera singer instead. The Count has a complicated incest-filled revenge scheme planned for Eugenie and her parents? Sorry, Count, Eugenie has an actual real life to get on with, involving cross-dressing and an awesome girlfriend, she has no time for you!
1. Miranda Callendar, Jekyll
Sorry, Sherlock fans - I'm sure Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are great, but I'm always going to be kind of bitter that Stephen Moffat did not decide to make a detective show about Min and Miranda, ACTUAL MARRIED LESBIAN DETECTIVES, instead. Meera Syal/Fenella Woolgar canon OTP! Miranda is a side character in Moffat's Jekyll; she's a private detective, her wife Min is her assistant, and she gets drawn into events when modern-day-Jekyll hires her to investigate his origins. Miranda is basically my favorite character in the miniseries; she's intelligent and brave and funny and, sorry, can I just come back to Meera Syal/Fenella Woolgar canon OTP?
Honorable mentions, who almost made it into my top five and who I am going to talk about anyway:
Taumad Whatever-his-last-name-is-today, Inda
Tau's one of my favorite characters in Inda. On the one hand, he's kind of hilariously bishounen, beautiful and blonde and bi - women want him! Men want him! Sex is way up there in his repertoire of solutions to exciting interpersonal problems! (On at least one notable occasion, Tau attempts to solve the issues in a friend's marriage by swooping in and sleeping with everyone involved. Sadly, it doesn't work as well as could be hoped.) He's also extremely intelligent, witty, and intensely loyal to the people he loves; an inveterate wanderer and not-exactly-accidental diplomat, he goes where people need him, and his open-true-love-relationship with Jeje is one of my favorite in the books.
Jenny Gluckstein, Tamsin
Tamsin is a book about a lot of things, but among other things it's about an awkward teenager who develops a giant crush on the beautiful ghost who lives in her new house. It's not a love story, at least not for Jenny and Tamsin - and the reason that this is an honorable mention is because it's ambiguous how non-heteronormative Jenny actually is; in her narrative, at least, she tries to pass off her crush on an older girl as something pretty much every girl goes through, so it's up for interpretation - but I love Jenny a lot, flawed and gawky and prone to temper tantrums as she is, and I love her relationship with Tamsin, and how she grows over the course of the story.
Also as per usual: if you want to chime in with your own favorite, please do!
ojuzu asked me for my top five non-heteronormative characters. She also specifically excluded Utena characters from the running, which does make narrowing the list easier, given that pretty much every Utena character would count for this. Still hard, though!5. Justin Suarez, Ugly Betty
I feel a bit guilty putting Justin here seeing as I have not yet gotten around to seeing his actual coming-out arc . . . but anyway, Justin is Betty's tiny fabulous nephew on Ugly Betty - mystery fashion elf, budding performing artist, and somehow one of the most grounded characters on the show - and getting to watch him grow up is one of the best parts of the story.
4. Kevin, Guardian of the Dead
Even though Kevin doesn't get as much pagetime in Guardian of the Dead as I would like, I still want to list him here just because I was really happy to see a clearly, explicitly asexual character appear in the pages of YA at all. Kevin's life is extremely awkward because a mythological figure is trying to lure him away and sleep with him, and he is just not interested. He's happy to be your friend, mythological creature!
3. Arakune, Angel Sanctuary
I've already talked about Kurai in one of these posts; now I'm going to talk about my other favorite character from Angel Sanctuary, Kurai's cousin (. . . ish; it's Angel Sanctuary, so of course it's complicated) and protector Arakune. Arakune was born male but identifies as female; on the one hand I have some issues with her eventual plotline and fate, but on the other hand she goes out so fabulous.
2. Eugenie Danglars, The Count of Monte Cristo
I'm kind of sad that the only images I can find for Eugenie Danglars come from Gankutsuou, which had its points as an anime, but was significantly less kinder to Eugenie than the book. Anyway: we're going old-school here with a nineteenth-century lesbian who escaped a DIRE FATE by saying "screw it" and eloping with a lady opera singer instead. The Count has a complicated incest-filled revenge scheme planned for Eugenie and her parents? Sorry, Count, Eugenie has an actual real life to get on with, involving cross-dressing and an awesome girlfriend, she has no time for you!
1. Miranda Callendar, Jekyll
Sorry, Sherlock fans - I'm sure Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are great, but I'm always going to be kind of bitter that Stephen Moffat did not decide to make a detective show about Min and Miranda, ACTUAL MARRIED LESBIAN DETECTIVES, instead. Meera Syal/Fenella Woolgar canon OTP! Miranda is a side character in Moffat's Jekyll; she's a private detective, her wife Min is her assistant, and she gets drawn into events when modern-day-Jekyll hires her to investigate his origins. Miranda is basically my favorite character in the miniseries; she's intelligent and brave and funny and, sorry, can I just come back to Meera Syal/Fenella Woolgar canon OTP?
Honorable mentions, who almost made it into my top five and who I am going to talk about anyway:
Taumad Whatever-his-last-name-is-today, Inda
Tau's one of my favorite characters in Inda. On the one hand, he's kind of hilariously bishounen, beautiful and blonde and bi - women want him! Men want him! Sex is way up there in his repertoire of solutions to exciting interpersonal problems! (On at least one notable occasion, Tau attempts to solve the issues in a friend's marriage by swooping in and sleeping with everyone involved. Sadly, it doesn't work as well as could be hoped.) He's also extremely intelligent, witty, and intensely loyal to the people he loves; an inveterate wanderer and not-exactly-accidental diplomat, he goes where people need him, and his open-true-love-relationship with Jeje is one of my favorite in the books.
Jenny Gluckstein, Tamsin
Tamsin is a book about a lot of things, but among other things it's about an awkward teenager who develops a giant crush on the beautiful ghost who lives in her new house. It's not a love story, at least not for Jenny and Tamsin - and the reason that this is an honorable mention is because it's ambiguous how non-heteronormative Jenny actually is; in her narrative, at least, she tries to pass off her crush on an older girl as something pretty much every girl goes through, so it's up for interpretation - but I love Jenny a lot, flawed and gawky and prone to temper tantrums as she is, and I love her relationship with Tamsin, and how she grows over the course of the story.
Also as per usual: if you want to chime in with your own favorite, please do!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 05:19 pm (UTC)Um. Needs more comics! Renee Montoya, Batwoman, Scandal Savage. I KNOW YOU DON'T READ IT, SHUSH.
...Renfield?
no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 05:22 pm (UTC)*chokes*
WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT RENFIELD. *dignity* Just because he's fabulous doesn't mean he's not heterosexually fabulous.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 05:22 pm (UTC)