Everyone knows that characters can make or break a story. Even if a novel has the best plot imaginable, if the main characters get on my nerves, it’s an instant DNF.

I like reading about characters that I can connect with. Finding that bond between the real world and the written one is one of the things I like best about reading. When I find characters like, if I can make that connection with them, I’ll hold their story in my heart forever.

I have mentioned in earlier posts about characters who feel like family to me. I don’t know if that’s a me thing or if every reader feels that way, but I’ve definitely had some… surprised reactions when I tell people who aren’t readers this. But there are certain characters that I will always hold in my heart. People I know even better than I know myself. After seeing the world with their eyes, living in their heads for a few hundred pages, it would be strange not to have made some kind of connection with them.

So, let’s get to it: my top 3 favorite character types, and why I love them

1: the antihero

DEFINITION: a character (generally a protagonist) who lacks typically heroic qualities like selflessness or honour. Antiheroes exist in a morally grey area, making decisions that would be considered unethical to achieve their goal

EXAMPLES: Murtagh (World of Eragon), Severus Snape (Harry Potter), Jude Duarte (The Folk of the Air), Shrek (what!?! It’s true!)

Ok, so maybe I put this one first just because of Murtagh. He honestly might be one of my favorite characters EVER. In ANY book I have EVER read. And I have read a lot of books. And it might also be one of my favorite books ever too.

I just love the complexity of an antihero’s personality. The untruth that they believe about the world that makes them act the way they do brings about a much better character arc than somebody who already believes that the world is all sunshine and rainbows.

I think that the antihero is so much more human than any other character type. They feel more realistic, more relatable. For me, it can feel hard to really connect to a character that feels, well, inhuman. For example, in the Folk of the Air, Jude spends most of the Cruel Prince and the Wicked King doing bad things for power. She makes immoral choices for an end goal that benefits only her. She spies and murders and lies and cheats her way to power, and yet we love her for it. We love her ruthlessness and wit. We love her cruel plans and her limitless greed. Sure, maybe she isn’t the best role mode out there. I have to admit that the first time I read the Cruel Prince, I was frankly quite disturbed by Jude. Her mind was dark and ruthless and I feared it. But now, I feel a kind of admiration for her. She suffered so much at the hands of the Fey, and yet she found strength in the darkness inside her.

” I am what you made me “

Jude’s history has molded her into the person she is today, but instead of memories of her much-missed childhood, she’s been created by hardship and suffering. Sharpened instead of rounded. I find the backstory element particularly interesting. We are all who we are because of how our past has shaped us, so an antihero is bound to have a good backstory. Whether they were thieves on the streets or bullied as a child, there is always something that has made them the person they are now. I love watching how a character is shaped and changed over a story,and the antihero always brings a kind of satisfaction to the ending of a novel. They don’t always live happily ever after. But happy or not, they learn so much more throughout the story than any other character.

Maybe it isn’t their personality I like best after all. Maybe it’s watching them grow.

2. the outlaw

DEFINITION- a rebel or criminal archetype operating outside of established law

EXAMPLES- Tessa and Weston ( Defy the Night), Robin Hood (surely you all know who he is), Marian (Sherwood by Meagan Spooner).

Right. Let’s get something straight. There are two main types of outlaws- noble outlaws and, well, non noble outlaws? (I dunno what the opposite would be).

Noble outlaws are…noble. Robin Hood figures who act against an unjust justice system (wow an oxymoron ), or any negative things in a community that involves breaking the law to fight. Ok, so maybe they steal stuff and occasionally kill people and sometimes commit breaking and entering crimes, but overall they are working towards a positive goal.

Non noble outlaws are the opposite of this. They steal stuff and occasionally kill people and sometimes commit breaking and entering crimes, only they are working towards gold, or power or other generally un-positive things.

But wait. There’s another.

I call these types of outlaws the outlaws-because-they-have-no-choice-kind-of-outlaws-who-do-bad-things-to-survive-but-we-forgive-them-because-they’re-just-trying-to-live-e.g.-people-who-steal-to-feed-their-families-because-their-children-are-starving. I don’t know if they have an official name. I don’t want to type that all over again. We’ll just call them desperate outlaws. I guess they’re in the middle of the noble and non noble outlaws. It really just depends on your moral compass whether you class these guys as good or not, so I’m just going to leave it there with this subtype.

I kind of like all three kinds, but my favorite definitely has to be the noble outlaw. More than anything, I like the element of fun this character type brings to a story. Even if they’re fighting against something that is far from fun, the secrecy and camaraderie between members of a band of outlaws always makes me smile.

The found family aspect of a band of outlaws is perhaps my favorite part. I always love this trope and the relationships built between characters by it. I also like how, with a group of outlaws, there’s generally an element of no other choice when it comes to finding said family. I know it kind of goes against the very idea of a found family if you don’t really choose the members, but I kind of see it as the same thing, because even if they didn’t choose their found family directly, they did accept them as family.

The relationships they build between other members of their band feel special, more so than relationships they have with other characters. The feeling of many people working towards a common goal -especially with noble outlaws- always brings a kind of tone to a story that cannot really be found anywhere else. I find a book more meaningful if more people are involved and more people are affected by the conflict. A group or team of characters always brings a little more depth to a story than just one.

Solitary outlaws don’t- for me- bring the same kind of feeling, but it isn’t altogether a negative one. While the dynamic and relationships of solitary outlaws will be different to a group of them, I do also like this subtype. They generally tend to be a little more dark and brooding than a band would be, preferring isolation to the company of others. While they can still be noble outlaws, I tend to find that the solitary outlaw does kind of tie back to the antihero- my number one character type. I really like the atmosphere of a solitary outlaw, that kind of brooding, shadowy person that sits in the corner of the tavern making deals with slightly sketchy people and sneaks around a castle at night reading the king’s private correspondence. Again, the secrecy and mystery of this character is what draws me to them.

3. the jester/the trickster

DEFINITION- a humorous, often chaotic figure who uses wit to achieve their goal, often causing chaos and undermining authority

EXAMPLES- Loki (in any adaptation), Fred and George Weasley (Harry Potter), Leo Valdez (the heroes of Olympus)

I’ll be honest. I may have put this one on the list because the jester archetype is funny. They make me laugh. Laughing is good.

I will be honest a second time. I have sort of combined two characters together for this one but hey. We’ll live. The jester and the trickster have very subtle differences anyway ( a trickster is a more chaotic force with sometimes malicious intentions, while a jester operates within a structured environment like a court to provide humour and playfully undermine authority).

As I said before, I did choose the jester/trickster to be my final character type for this list for the sole reason that they make me laugh. Personally, I think a good book is defined by how much it can make you feel, and I’m not just talking about deep emotions. If it can make me laugh, it’s good. And there’s no better way to lighten up a novel than with a witty character. And yes, I am aware that tricksters can be darker forces, but they’re still funny, no matter what their intentions might be.

” “What sombre words,” said Arturin. “I thought jesters where supposed to make people happy.”

“Jesters merely confront people with the truth,” said Tirillo, “and usually it sounds so improbable that they can’t help but laugh” ”

This quote, from The Secrets of the Wild Wood by Tonke Dragt, highlights the role that the jester archetype (though here they are talking about a literal jester) takes in community: using humor to present people with a hard truth about life.

And…well that’s kind of all I have to say about them. I’m not going to go very deep into what about their personalities I like, because there’s only really one reason why they’re on this list at all- humour.

And that concludes my top three favorite character types.