What?
Well I know alot of people who look up to someone in real life to inspire them. Perhaps it's a relative ( mom, dad, aunt, grandpa etc) and sometimes it's someone famous ( like Einstein or Mozart). My question here is, who in the realm of fiction influenced you and how?
Sometimes those "make pretend" characters have as much impact ( if not more in some cases) on us as the real life ones ( dead or alive I suppose) that are around us or available.
So......
Name your person (thing, hero, villain, alien life form, etc ) and it's source please.

For me ( in no particular order) :

Spiderman. Yeah I know cheeeeeseeey as all get out but still. Uncle Ben's little speech to Peter ( "With great power comes great responsibility) sticks with me and the way that Spiderman fumbles through everything all the while trying to balance things out gets to me. At least he tries to do the right thing eh?

Cara - A Mord Sith from the Sword of Truth series. This is a woman who was captured when young and tortured until she was formed into a part of an awesome elite team of torturee masters. In the series what really touched me is how she slowly found and won back the parts of her self and humanity she thought she had lost.

Count D - A strange character from Pet Shop of Horrors ( an anime but a much better manga series) who has as much disdain for humans as he does a curious like for them. Just when it seems that they don't learn, one of them teaches him a thing or two.....

Nicci - Another Sword of Truth series character. She was a Sister of the Light. Then a Sister of the Dark. Emperor Jagang's favorite slave.....and yet she served no one. She was a force unto herself. Even without herself until she learned the true meaning of self sacrifice.

The Gillygoofang - from the children's book The Gillygoofang. A crazy fish who doesn't do ANYTHING by the rules. The Gillygoofang confuses everything in it's path and eventually boggles itself by it's foolishness.

Charlotte - everyone's favorite arachnid from Charlotte's Web. She was a tiny spider with a big golden heart and her message of self sacrifice makes me tear up to this day.

So how did these fictional characters influence me?

The Gillygoofang was my earliest influence in life ( my favorite book at age 5 and my grandmother read it to me all the time). That silly fish was as unconventional as unconventional could be and didn't care what others thought of it ( even if it did swim backwards to keep the water out of it's eyes, or sleep with one eye open or whistle to scare the little fish away when there was a fisherman around or lay square eggs.......). There was an okayness about being different which I find still to be refreshing because me and that fish have a lot in common ( okay so I don't lay square eggs....).

Charlotte taught me about sacrificing myself in friendships. Of course as I've gotten older I'm better at discerning when enough is enough and who would do the same for me.

Spiderman reminds me of my responsibility. Not just as a parent or a friend but as a person. If I speak and I know people listen I need to watch my words. I should watch them regardless because someone may be listening when I'm not even aware. Everything we do impacts something or someone else and we should be more aware and conscious of our actions.

Cara and Nicci were women I could identify with as I have had a lot of painful experiences and like these two women sought to make myself stronger in similar ways instead of becoming a victim. However by becoming cold ( like Nicci) or dangerous ( like Cara) I too lost prescious parts of myself without even realizing it. These two fictional women helped to remind me of the softer caring parts of myself.

So who are your fictional influences?

 

 

 

Reply

I am glad you did mention Charlotte's Web, since I have never heard of Sword of Truth or Gillygoofang. Maybe it's the generation gap thing?

At any rate, my fictional influences would have to be Kia Chang Cane. (I'm not sure how you even spell it, but that's hopefully close) from Kung Foo the Legend Continues. I love how he can remain COMPLETELY calm under the most dire circumstance, never gets flustered, never wastes any motion, and yet can put somebody in the dirt in the blink of an eye almost without moving himself. He makes it look effortless and never breaks a sweat. He seems to always be able to "read" people and know's just how to deal with them. He has a tremendous amount of patience, understanding, and this wonderful calm sense of serenity that I wish I could muster up sometimes. But he can still kick butt when it needs to be done.

Reply

wow i didnt know other people had fictional heroes as well!

Well my heroes are William Kane - A character from the book 'Kane and Abel' by Jeffrey Archer. I love him
And then there's Artemis Fowl...I love his amazing intellect and cool demeanor
and last but not least..Perry Mason!!! what a guy! Brilliant lawyer....

Reply

TO me, a heor isn't necessarily a strong, powerful person who accomplishes great feats but a typical, everyday person who manages to do the things others struggle with. A strong sense of integrity, for example, is something I consider very heroic.

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird has been one of my heroes since I've read the book. I find that he is such a good role model, taking on a touch case even when there's little chance he'll win. I've always admired his courage and strong sense of morality.

Another one of my heros is Andy from The Shawshank Redemption. His persistance and determination to have his freedom is truly admirable, and I find it inspiring that in the end, he earned the freedom he struggled for.

Reply

i have one but not really a hero but has important meaning to my life. And its from an anime "Gensomaden saiyuki"

and this one quote from this anime has some sense to my life

"If you see the Buddha; kill the Buddha
If you meet your father; kill your father
Bound by nothing
Live the life that was given to you"

Reply

"If you see the Buddha; kill the Buddha
If you meet your father; kill your father
Bound by nothing
Live the life that was given to you"

I like that phrase a lot its because I can relate to it I don't know about the part with killing the buddha or the father but bound by nothing and to live life that was given to you is good way to say life has no limits if you can pursue and acheive your goals you've accomplished one of the greatest things in life and that is to write your own path and make your own chapters in your life, no one decides for you, you decide and make it happen.

i don't really have a fictional hero but I watched this anime called beck and its inspired me to make music not for the public and what producers want but to be able to have the freedom to make music to capture peoples attention in ways it hasn't happened before. Trying to get into the industry today is hard and especially if you've made enmies within the business it almost seems impossible to try anything. But with enough effort and courage hard work pays off

 

 

 

Reply

I think I like Viggo Mortensen from "EASTERN PROMISES".

It's about a Russian girl who goes abroad to make her
wildest millionaire dreams come true. But in the process,
she was almost raped by a spoilt brat (Russian mafia's son).

In comes the brats' father......who raped her! But Russian
girl keeps diary. She wanted to kill herself as she became
pregnant. Only 14, her diary ended up with a friend (nurse).
Actually the nurse only knew the girl when she saw her dead
body.

The story unfolds of an ok-looking undercover officer who
goes to the culprits' home to work as their chauffeur. Would
he be able to lie his way through these maffia?

I like the part where the undercover was spit in his face and
how he handled it. He was very calm (and that's qoool!)

And also how he handed a piece of address to the poor girl's
friend, when she least expects it.

This movie is moving and although Viggo isn't Brad Pitt,
I like him! lol I like "OLDER-LOOKING" men!! >,<

Reply

For some reason i always find myself rooting for support characters rather then heroes in both books and movies. Since my favorite book is Lord of the rings my favorite fictional hero is Boromir (actually Silmarilion is my favorite book, but it has way to many characters for this topic). Unlike most other characters in the book he is neither 100% good nor 100% bad guy, he is just human. He makes a very human mistake, but he pays ultimate price in order to redeem himself. I think that gray characters like Boromir, Turin Turambar, Feanor etc. while few in comparison to villains and heroes give Toliken's world all the depth it needs, in that department

Reply