Most Favorite Characters

[JeNeal Olsen]

We have a least favorite character topic. Where is the love? I have my list of favorites. Topping that list is Cadsuane. She is awesome, and interesting, and I can easily visualize Katherine Hepburn in the role of my beloved green sister. Just because of her sheer awesomeness, I would be more likely to choose green ajah over the rest, though brown is more suited to my personality.

 

What character made the series come to life for the rest of you?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Moiraine probably way above any other characters. I liked mat in the beginning. I loved Asmodean. And Moridin.

[Vince Black]

So far Moiraine is my favourite, not just because i like older women, but she doesnt seem as 2 dimensional as some of the other main characters. Padan Fain is a close second simply because he is deliciously evil.

[Sabio]

Overall I would say Mat even though BS admits he  did a bad job with Mat.  Mat for the most part was a good combo of humor, dedication, and just wanting to be left alone.

[JeNeal Olsen]

A good villain is fun. Without them, there would be no reason to have a hero to kick around. For that reason, I am fond of Asmodean and even Padan Fain. Mat is awesome just by the way he reacted to Tuon. "She's my wife!"

 

I am only at book 10, though. I truly hope that Mat and his Daughter of the Nine Moons turns out to be a tempestuous relationship more interesting than Perrin and Faile's.

[jack of shadows]

@mrs. cindy gill,

"i liked mat in the beginning".

when did you stop liking mat?was it prior to brandon sanderson's arrival?

rand has been hands-down my favorite character, when crossroads  of twilight was 

released in 2003 it took me almost a year to finish that piece of garbage and

the sole reason why i kept on buying and reading the later books is rand.

lanfear is my favorite female character.

[mb]

I have no particular favorite.

For the most part, I have liked the Light-sided characters.

[Sabio]

I think for me there just wasn't enough POV's from the bad guys for me to really get into them.

[DemandredFO]

I liked Mat most. I think demandred could've been interesting but he only got 3 povs because no one could tell RJ his 400th repetition of Perrin whining about his destiny wasn't needed

[JeNeal Olsen]

Moraine was interesting because she was a mystery to me. She was a female version of Allanon from the Shannara series by Terry Brooks, albeit prettier and more petite.

[JeNeal Olsen]

As of now, Galad has officialy been added to my list of favorites, as well as Tuon (the real Tuon).

[Elsalvador]

For me it's a tie between Siuan and Lanfear. I hated Mat for the longest time but was won over by the end. Perrin I was the opposite; liked him early and hated him pretty much since Ghealdan.

[JeNeal Olsen]

I am so glad to know I am not the only one who felt that way about Mat and Perrin. I started out hating Galad, too, until he killed Eamon Valda. I am at book eleven, now if you can't tell. I must admit that I am tearing up as I read this book, knowing that RJ is no longer with us. I will make it to TG, though.

[Sabio]

Book one I liked Perin and hated Mat, found Mat just too immature.  But from book 2 on my views of each started to change. 

[Cosmic Champion]

For me, my favorite parts of TWoT series are the characters, RJ's prose and humor. Though his world does have fantastic cities and places along with very interesting cultures, it's the people and their interactions with each other that really draw me into this amazing world, and keeps me coming back to reread it constantly. Over and over again.

 

And regarding it's great many characters....it's the numerous females in this series that I adore. A lot more than the male ones.

 

My favorite characters in The Wheel of Time universe in current order-

 

Faile:  
Well, it appears that I am one of the rare readers that actually understands this enigma of a great Robert Jordan fantasy character. Of how she fits into TWoT, her intended place in Perrin's narrative and the main story as a whole as Robert Jordan intended her to be.  She is exotic, mysterious, crazy  with multiple personalities(seems like she's reinvented in almost every book). But also, intelligent, clever, devoted, bad-ass and fascinating, making her a very complex character with considerable gray area in her that you have to read between the lines sometimes to understand. Definitely NOT black and white, or prefect either. But most importantly......not a Mary Sue or a stainless Snow White. This mix of characterization makes for me a very entertaining fantasy read perfectly suited for Jordan's bizarre and great world.

 

More importantly for me though, is that early on she saved me from giving up on this series completely. I was about halfway through the third book, and I felt that this story was just not ringing my bells, so to speak. I was ready to give it up and move on to something else. However, I noticed that near the end of it, BOTH Jordan's prose and the characters started getting much much better(Perrin's story line being of note). So I decided to give book four a go, and when I read the Faile/Berelain Tear confrontation at the beginning, boy, was I then permanently HOOKED!  RJ's writing had definitely improved. Considerably. Plus, I feel that she has many of the best scenes and quotes of the series, though, they happen to be crammed into a certain part of the early story.

 

"Quicksilver. A kingfisher flashing by faster than thought." - Perrin observation

 

Nynaeve:
I had a bit of trouble with her at first, but as RJ's writing improved(noting humor in this specific case) she became another favorite of mine in book 5: tFoH, along with the book also(2nd favorite after tSR). She ended up being the funniest personality of series for me beating out Mat considerably(though Mat is much more constant in this regard). I can just picture her, dancing and singing atop the table in Salidar while wearing a lampshade on her head after getting smashed out of her mind by the block removing booze(which did not work).

 

"What he[Rand] needs is what he always needed. Somebody to box his ears once a week on general principles and keep him on the straight and narrow" - Nynaeve quote

 

Berelain:
Despite the awful things she does, she is still interesting to read. A testament to Jordan's great writing skills that when part of her story comes up, I greatly look forward to take it in. Though I do feel that her character is wasted in the second half of the story line being stuck with Perrin; I feel that it would have been better to replace her with Tenobia to give her character greater freedom elsewhere in the story. Rand could have instead sent Perrin to Saldea to help out there, and then Tenobia could have ended up being Perrin's hawk, which could have been more interesting considering the Faile/Tenobia competition that is hinted at in tSR. Plus, that would have also saved us from that bizarre Boarderlander Randland escapade that is never really satisfyingly explained.

 

"...she saw Berelain ahead of her, gliding along in that dress that left nothing to the imagination, swaying along as if that walk of hers was not deliberately calculated to make male eyes pop." - Faile observation

 

Leane:
Kind of a diluted Berelain here, regarding a female using her feminine wiles on some of the male characters of the series. Interesting in tFoH, but she peters out as the story winds down. Favorite part was when she was in the red light district of Lugard.

 

"Taking a deep breath, she glided forward in that startling sinuous way, leading her archnecked gray and already smiling at Logain. Siuan could not see how she did that; it was as if some of her bones were no longer rigid." - Siuan observation

 

Sulin the maid:
Loved the idea of her meeting her toh by being a maid in the Royal Palace for her gaf, and the ensuing hilarity. I can just picture her short sheeting Perrin/Faile's bed.

 

“Tell Sulin to prepare rooms for Perrin and Faile and obey them as she would me.” The two Aiel women took that as some sort of great joke, from the way they laughed and slapped thighs," - Perrin observation

 

As for the male characters, two that are my favs-

 

Rand:
Pretty obvious choice.

"His[Rand] belt had a new buckle, an elaborate thing shaped like a Dragon. He really was beginning to think a great deal of himself, that was clear." - Egwene observation (the belt buckle was a gift from Aviendha that Egwene had no knowledge about)

Perrin:
Even though he is mentally shaky at certain times in the story, I like that 'everyday average Joe character'  that he is through most of the series; after all, just how many Conans do you need to have running around all over the bloody place(Lan, Rand, Mat, ect)?

 

"she displayed only two scars, one slanting across her left cheek. The other, on her forehead, had taken part of her right eyebrow. Some people thought scars a sign of toughness. It seemed to Perrin that fewer scars meant that you knew what you were doing." - Perrin quote

Also-

 

The Forsaken:
Pretty much all of them. I always enjoyed and looked forward to their sections in the story, but like mentioned above, there could have been much more.

 

"...she[Graendal] lounged in a chair of ivory worked so it appeared made of naked acrobats. Four carved men held it aloft, and her arms rested along the backs of kneeling women; two men and two women held a white silk cushion behind her head, while above more were contorted into shapes Nynaeve did not believe a human body could attain. She blushed when she realized that some were performing more than acrobatic tricks." - Nynaeve obsevation

[bigdoug1971]

I think all of the characters had their moments.  For me, Egwene's didn't happen until the Last Battle, but we're talking about favorites here.  Mat is my very favorite.  I'm not on the bandwagon to bash Mr. Sanderson, but Mat was a lot cooler before he took over.  I still liked him the best.  His whole arc was great.  Lan was probably by 2nd followed closely by Rand. 

[dexterryu]

Rand - He's the main character in the series and doesn't get enough attention. Guy that wants to do his best, goes through a fantastic arc through the series.

 

Moirianne - Mysterious, smart, and completely dedicated to her cause.

 

Nyneave - Hated her at first, but as the series went on (and re-reading as an adult) I find her much more likeable. Also went through a great arc.

 

Mat - Just pure fun.

[Finnssss22]

My favourite villain was Semirhage. She just oozed nastiness and for me, just seemed to be the most capable of all the Forsaken.

 

One of my favourite Mat lines was from WH-17.

 

When Mat enters Tylin's chambers after the Gholam attack in the street.

He barges in on Tylin, Tuon, Suroth and Anath (Semirhage)

 

 

 

The dice had stopped. Landing with a thunder that made his skull ring. That had never happened before. He stood there waiting for one of the Forsaken to leap out of the flames in the marble fireplace or the Earth to swallow the Palace beneath him.

[Moggy]

Moiraine, Demandred, Ishy/Moridin (more so as Moridin), Rand, Logain, Siuan, Verin, Moghedien, Asmodean, Graendal, Mat.

 

To a slightly lesser extent, Mesaana, Elaida, Pevara, Galad, Liandrin.

[Enia]

From the beginning of the series my favorite character were Perrin. And he has been through all the books! I just love the way he's so careful and afraid of hurting others, he just seems like a really nice guy. But there are a lot of characters I like, and that was growing on me through the books. Mat for example. It took some books before I started to like him, but then I liked him a lot. And Egwene, Min, Moiraine, Loial, Faile. And for some reason that I don't quite understand, Demandred is my favorite among the Forsaken. I wish he had more time in the books.

[Guest jimbobcbb]

I loved Verin, think Dianne Wiest would be perfect for the part - if ever they made a movie :)

[bigdoug1971]

I forgot to mention Cadsuane in my earlier post.  I know there are a lot of people that don't like her, but the same people seem to like Egwene, so we can all agree to disagree. 

I would like to point out my reason:  For me, Cadsuane is everything an Aes Sedai should be.  She is powerful, she is legendary, she means what she says and says what she means.  Cadsuane is not afraid of the Forsaken and I think she could have went toe to toe with most of them, even though she does have the best ter'angreal of the whole books.  She don't waste her time with the politics of the Tower and gets out and does stuff with her life, position, and power.  She is knowledgeable, intelligent, mysterious in her own way, and other people are not only wary of her, but some are flat out afraid of her and that includes other Aes Sedai.  Cadsuane shows her skills as not only powerful, but as a battle leader and planner at the Cleansing while she alone stays on the hill with Rand and protects him and Nyneave and not only has enough strength to hold up that shield above them, but to throw waves of Power at the Forsaken along with washing away the fatigue from Nyneave.  She is what other Aes Sedai, especially of the Green Ajah use as the measure of what they want to be and accomplish.  I liked her from the 1st time she walked in the room when Rand was holding court and threw him off his game and shocked everyone in the room from the moment she appeared.  "I thought you were dead".  I loved it!!!  She was definitely one of my favorite characters in the entire series. 

[mb]

I am one that have liked both characters.

 

about Wheel of Time movie, the people making it might have already chosen cast members; or if they have not, not sure if they would take suggestions on that.

[Jacew]

Mat is easily best character in the series. And Lanfear might be the best antagonist in fiction I know about.

 

For top three I'd also raise Egwene, after first three books she started to get increasingly more interesting, and stole the show in last three.

[jack of shadows]

@jacew,

"lanfear might be the best antagonist in fiction.."

funnily enough,i never considered lanfear  an antagonist character,nor a protagonist

for that matter,she didn't give a rat's arse about either side,her agenda was always personal.