Letter Meme
Mar. 27th, 2012 08:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocusPost the names of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies, or TV shows. Comment,"Letter me" and I'll give you a letter! ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flydye8 gave me the letter P, and it took me a while to come up with 5, but here they are:
Pacey Witter from Dawson’s Creek. I first met Pacey Witter when I was recovering from knee surgery. I never watched this teen soap when it was on the air, but when you’re stuck on bed rest for six weeks and on meds so strong you can’t read, there is little else to do but watch television. So I bumped my Netflix up to 8 out at a time and I devoured this show like it was my last supper. I didn’t set out to like Pacey. Dawson was clearly the hero of this piece. And Dawson was just as clearly an idiot and quite often a jackass. It was easier to focus on the anti-hero, as he became the hero. Coming to adore Pacey was a slow burn. I didn’t care for the teacher/student romance that kicked off Pacey’s first major storyline. I usually don’t go for that sort of thing because it’s never done right. Only Pretty Little Liars has done it well enough for me to get past the intrinsic ick factor and that was only because when the characters met, neither one knew it was an illicit relationship. Here it was clear from the start. Yet I didn’t dislike Pacey for it.
I began to get invested in Pacey more when he was paired up with Andi and he played the supportive boyfriend as she went through the breakdown of her mental health. But it wasn’t until he fell in love with Joey Potter, the love of his life, and the girl who was completely wrong and yet oh, so right for him, that I fell in love with Pacey. Here he was, minding his own business, never intending to fall for the girl who was supposed to be Dawson’s soul mate, always intending to do the right thing, and of course following his heart and becoming one half of the biggest ship DC had ever seen. I don’t think anyone was really supposed to fall for these two, but almost everyone did, and it shifted the focus of the show, made it more even, and brought Pacey out from his underdog shadow, to true hero status.
Peter Bishop from Fringe. You might be thinking, didn’t I just see this guy? LOL Peter is probably my favorite onscreen boyfriend right now and as different from Pacey Witter as you can get, but when it comes right down to it, there’s still just something about him I adore. It might be Joshua Jackson, but seriously, the character is just really well written. Stolen from his home universe when he was just a boy by his alternate universe father and cured of an otherwise fatal illness, Peter had always known that there was something not quite right about how he fit into the world. It damaged his relationship with his father to the point of estrangement and left him running, living the life of a con artist and thief. But Olivia Dunham changes all that when she hunts him down and brings him back home to wrangle his mentally altered father.
Slowly Peter changes from a distant, angry, moody man, an individual who was clearly damaged by his father’s actions, to a warm, loving, and finally accepting son. Only to have his newfound loyalty ripped to shreds when he discovers the truth, that he was kidnapped as a boy from his real universe and from his actual father. His anger sends him on the run, but slowly, and with Olivia’s help, he works his way back to his father again, and they begin to mend their relationship. Peter’s capacity for forgiveness is amazing. So is his capacity for love, not only for his father, but for his partner at the FBI, Olivia. Their romance is slow and careful and beautifully built during the second season, only to be pulled completely apart by two universes colliding when his real father kidnaps and tortures the real Olivia and replaces her with an alternate. A bunch or crazy alternate universe stuff happens, everything finally gets resolved, and then Peter gets written out of time altogether and must find his way back to reality, any reality. He does, but it’s not the right one, either of them. And it’s upsetting the balance. Hopefully soon we will see an end to the crap he’s being put through and he will be back with the right Olivia permanently. (Don’t spoil me, I haven’t seen last Friday’s episode yet!) Because although Peter struggling on his own is good, Peter with his Olivia is better.
Piemur of Pern. The (sort of) hero of the second and third books of Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall trilogy, Piemur is the youngest apprentice ever taken into the Harper Hall on account of his angelic voice. He sings high and true and has more talent in his little finger than nearly anyone there, except perhaps young Menolly, the sea holder’s daughter, who he befriends when she arrives at the Hall. Piemur constantly gets into mischief through no fault of his own, but he is loyal and true, smart and clever, he knows all that is going on, but he doesn’t spread gossip, a fact that brings him firmly to the Master Harper’s attention when his voice changes.
Sent to the drum towers to learn the coded messages that keep hold and hall and weyr connected while his voice settles, he becomes the Master’s secret apprentice, known only to a few, and goes along to dragon hatchings and gatherings (like a fair/festival). He gains the jealousy and enmity of the other drum apprentices, who play a nasty practical joke that ends with his near fall to his death and a damaging concussion. Half healed he is sent to another gather to keep his eyes and ears open, which he does. He also steals a fire lizard from the Lord Holder’s hearth, a creature he has always wanted since Menolly arrived at the Hall with 9 of the newly discovered creatures that had bonded to her. He hides with the egg in what turns out to be an illegal shipment to the Southern Continent and the outcast dragonriders. He manages to secure himself and his egg and survive the dangerous threadfall until it hatches and he finds himself impressing a young queen.
Eventually her returns to civilization, is made a journeyman harper, and begins the next stage of his life, exploring and mapping the unknown portions of the Southern Continent and eventually becoming a student scholar in the race to end the threat of threadfall forever.
Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games Trilogy. Peeta is a new hero to me. He’s so quiet and unassuming that it took me by surprise just how much I really enjoyed his character. From the moment I found out that he burned a loaf of bread on purpose, and grabbed it from the fire, and endured his mother’s abuse, just so he could give it to the starving Katniss and her family after her father died, he won my heart. Again, there is my heart going to the side of the underdog, as the story slowly played out and I realized how much he loved Katniss, how much he was willing to give up and sacrifice to save her life. It was never about Gale for me, probably because he was too poorly detailed for me to ever see him as more than a roughly unfinished person.
I knew from the beginning that there could never be any endgame but Peeta and Katniss, assuming he survived and I was happy about that. Though I don’t think Katniss is the best of people, she is so badly damaged by her past and the games, I think in many ways she was what he needed to survive and she knew it, so she became that. I like that he inspired that kind of loyalty in her. I’ve not obsessed over Peeta like over the others, only having read the books one time through and not having seen the movie, but everything about him makes me want to root for him, to be on his side, to be his friend. What more could I want?
Princess Bride, The--Okay, this is cheating, but seriously, you try to come up with five P names. And Buttercup’s name at least has a P in it as well. I wasn’t really sure I liked Buttercup at first, she was kind of mean to Wesley, but when it was finally revealed that she was in love with him, it was somewhat understood. Her heartbreak when he goes off the seek his fortune and she thinks he has died is palpable. She no longer cares what becomes of her, which I don't quite like as a choice for a young girl or a role model, but it's still nowhere near as mopey as Bella in Eclipse who gives up any semblance of leaving her room even over a boy, so I guess it can be forgiven as Buttercup doesn't give up on life, just happiness. Anyway, when the prince of the land chooses her to be his bride, she accepts, and then she is kidnapped. Then, to make matters worse, the Dread Pirate Roberts comes for her and complains that she has no loyalty.
She proves herself steadfast and true, shows him that she still loves Wesley and is only marrying the prince because he demands it. Roberts reveals himself to be Wesley and the rest of the movie is spent fighting bad guys to prove that true love will conquer all. She never gives up on that fact and her tenaciousness makes her one of my favorite characters because of it.
flydye8 gave me the letter P, and it took me a while to come up with 5, but here they are:
Pacey Witter from Dawson’s Creek. I first met Pacey Witter when I was recovering from knee surgery. I never watched this teen soap when it was on the air, but when you’re stuck on bed rest for six weeks and on meds so strong you can’t read, there is little else to do but watch television. So I bumped my Netflix up to 8 out at a time and I devoured this show like it was my last supper. I didn’t set out to like Pacey. Dawson was clearly the hero of this piece. And Dawson was just as clearly an idiot and quite often a jackass. It was easier to focus on the anti-hero, as he became the hero. Coming to adore Pacey was a slow burn. I didn’t care for the teacher/student romance that kicked off Pacey’s first major storyline. I usually don’t go for that sort of thing because it’s never done right. Only Pretty Little Liars has done it well enough for me to get past the intrinsic ick factor and that was only because when the characters met, neither one knew it was an illicit relationship. Here it was clear from the start. Yet I didn’t dislike Pacey for it.
I began to get invested in Pacey more when he was paired up with Andi and he played the supportive boyfriend as she went through the breakdown of her mental health. But it wasn’t until he fell in love with Joey Potter, the love of his life, and the girl who was completely wrong and yet oh, so right for him, that I fell in love with Pacey. Here he was, minding his own business, never intending to fall for the girl who was supposed to be Dawson’s soul mate, always intending to do the right thing, and of course following his heart and becoming one half of the biggest ship DC had ever seen. I don’t think anyone was really supposed to fall for these two, but almost everyone did, and it shifted the focus of the show, made it more even, and brought Pacey out from his underdog shadow, to true hero status.
Peter Bishop from Fringe. You might be thinking, didn’t I just see this guy? LOL Peter is probably my favorite onscreen boyfriend right now and as different from Pacey Witter as you can get, but when it comes right down to it, there’s still just something about him I adore. It might be Joshua Jackson, but seriously, the character is just really well written. Stolen from his home universe when he was just a boy by his alternate universe father and cured of an otherwise fatal illness, Peter had always known that there was something not quite right about how he fit into the world. It damaged his relationship with his father to the point of estrangement and left him running, living the life of a con artist and thief. But Olivia Dunham changes all that when she hunts him down and brings him back home to wrangle his mentally altered father.
Slowly Peter changes from a distant, angry, moody man, an individual who was clearly damaged by his father’s actions, to a warm, loving, and finally accepting son. Only to have his newfound loyalty ripped to shreds when he discovers the truth, that he was kidnapped as a boy from his real universe and from his actual father. His anger sends him on the run, but slowly, and with Olivia’s help, he works his way back to his father again, and they begin to mend their relationship. Peter’s capacity for forgiveness is amazing. So is his capacity for love, not only for his father, but for his partner at the FBI, Olivia. Their romance is slow and careful and beautifully built during the second season, only to be pulled completely apart by two universes colliding when his real father kidnaps and tortures the real Olivia and replaces her with an alternate. A bunch or crazy alternate universe stuff happens, everything finally gets resolved, and then Peter gets written out of time altogether and must find his way back to reality, any reality. He does, but it’s not the right one, either of them. And it’s upsetting the balance. Hopefully soon we will see an end to the crap he’s being put through and he will be back with the right Olivia permanently. (Don’t spoil me, I haven’t seen last Friday’s episode yet!) Because although Peter struggling on his own is good, Peter with his Olivia is better.
Piemur of Pern. The (sort of) hero of the second and third books of Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall trilogy, Piemur is the youngest apprentice ever taken into the Harper Hall on account of his angelic voice. He sings high and true and has more talent in his little finger than nearly anyone there, except perhaps young Menolly, the sea holder’s daughter, who he befriends when she arrives at the Hall. Piemur constantly gets into mischief through no fault of his own, but he is loyal and true, smart and clever, he knows all that is going on, but he doesn’t spread gossip, a fact that brings him firmly to the Master Harper’s attention when his voice changes.
Sent to the drum towers to learn the coded messages that keep hold and hall and weyr connected while his voice settles, he becomes the Master’s secret apprentice, known only to a few, and goes along to dragon hatchings and gatherings (like a fair/festival). He gains the jealousy and enmity of the other drum apprentices, who play a nasty practical joke that ends with his near fall to his death and a damaging concussion. Half healed he is sent to another gather to keep his eyes and ears open, which he does. He also steals a fire lizard from the Lord Holder’s hearth, a creature he has always wanted since Menolly arrived at the Hall with 9 of the newly discovered creatures that had bonded to her. He hides with the egg in what turns out to be an illegal shipment to the Southern Continent and the outcast dragonriders. He manages to secure himself and his egg and survive the dangerous threadfall until it hatches and he finds himself impressing a young queen.
Eventually her returns to civilization, is made a journeyman harper, and begins the next stage of his life, exploring and mapping the unknown portions of the Southern Continent and eventually becoming a student scholar in the race to end the threat of threadfall forever.
Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games Trilogy. Peeta is a new hero to me. He’s so quiet and unassuming that it took me by surprise just how much I really enjoyed his character. From the moment I found out that he burned a loaf of bread on purpose, and grabbed it from the fire, and endured his mother’s abuse, just so he could give it to the starving Katniss and her family after her father died, he won my heart. Again, there is my heart going to the side of the underdog, as the story slowly played out and I realized how much he loved Katniss, how much he was willing to give up and sacrifice to save her life. It was never about Gale for me, probably because he was too poorly detailed for me to ever see him as more than a roughly unfinished person.
I knew from the beginning that there could never be any endgame but Peeta and Katniss, assuming he survived and I was happy about that. Though I don’t think Katniss is the best of people, she is so badly damaged by her past and the games, I think in many ways she was what he needed to survive and she knew it, so she became that. I like that he inspired that kind of loyalty in her. I’ve not obsessed over Peeta like over the others, only having read the books one time through and not having seen the movie, but everything about him makes me want to root for him, to be on his side, to be his friend. What more could I want?
Princess Bride, The--Okay, this is cheating, but seriously, you try to come up with five P names. And Buttercup’s name at least has a P in it as well. I wasn’t really sure I liked Buttercup at first, she was kind of mean to Wesley, but when it was finally revealed that she was in love with him, it was somewhat understood. Her heartbreak when he goes off the seek his fortune and she thinks he has died is palpable. She no longer cares what becomes of her, which I don't quite like as a choice for a young girl or a role model, but it's still nowhere near as mopey as Bella in Eclipse who gives up any semblance of leaving her room even over a boy, so I guess it can be forgiven as Buttercup doesn't give up on life, just happiness. Anyway, when the prince of the land chooses her to be his bride, she accepts, and then she is kidnapped. Then, to make matters worse, the Dread Pirate Roberts comes for her and complains that she has no loyalty.
She proves herself steadfast and true, shows him that she still loves Wesley and is only marrying the prince because he demands it. Roberts reveals himself to be Wesley and the rest of the movie is spent fighting bad guys to prove that true love will conquer all. She never gives up on that fact and her tenaciousness makes her one of my favorite characters because of it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-03-28 12:38 am (UTC)Great choices in Peeta Mellark and Princess Bride too! Like you, Peeta stole the show for me as far as Hunger Games was concerned (I had some serious issues with Katniss as a female character), and along with Haymitch, he was one of the only really redeeming characters in the books. I couldn't help but root for him, and as much as I usually love my battle ready boys (like Gale), I agree there wasn't anyone else to really connect with in the books but Peeta because he was the only genuinely good, kind person in the trilogy.
And Princess Bride is one of my favourite films of all time, and you described why perfectly.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-29 01:34 am (UTC)I am interested now, even more, to read the "Hunger Games" my daughter is reading it now because I insisted she read the book before we watch the movie. She seems very taken with the story. I will be reading it once she is done. I will take note of Peeta Mellark and see what I think about the charecter.
Your other choices where such a joy to read about because I really don't know anything about them. Thanks for playing along, now I know you just a bit better.