S. W. Raine

I’ve known for a long time that I have a type.

(I mean, I have a type in real life too—guys with long hair. Apparently my brain has preferences and sees no reason to be subtle about them. But I have a very definite type when it comes to fictional characters.)

And when I look at some of my favorites across books, movies, television, video games, anime/cartoons, and comics, there’s a pretty consistent pattern.

Give me a complicated man with questionable morals, emotional baggage, hidden depths, and at least a chance that he might make everything worse? I’m probably going to love him.

And apparently, I’ve been doing this for a very long time.

It Definitely Isn’t Just One Medium

In books, there’s Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance series (yeah, I’m old). Brilliant, ambitious, sarcastic, incredibly powerful, and definitely not winning any awards for being the nicest person in the room. He’s complicated. Deeply flawed. And I’ve loved him for years.

Then in movies, we have Loki from Thor and The Avengers.

He’s a villain. A trickster. Unpredictable. Sometimes he’s helping. Sometimes he’s betraying everyone. And sometimes he’s doing both almost at the same time. But underneath all of that arrogance, mischief, and questionable decision-making are layers that make him so much more interesting than simply “the bad guy.”

Television gave me Mr. Gold—a.k.a. Rumplestiltskin—from Once Upon a Time, and this one was particularly funny because I fell for him almost immediately for a very specific reason: He was EXACTLY like one of the villains in one of my WIPs.

Apparently, I’d already been writing my type before I ever met him.

Then we get to video games. I actually love Edward Kenway from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag more, but Haytham Kenway from Assassin’s Creed III might be the better example of what works on me because of how his character is introduced.

The story is about Connor Kenway, but you start the game playing as Haytham. You get to know him. You follow his story. And then you get further into the game… and find out he’s a Templar.

That reveal completely changed what I thought I knew about the character, and apparently that’s exactly the sort of thing that works on me. I want the surprise. I want to discover that there’s more going on than I initially realized.

Also, I loved Haytham’s name so much that I eventually named my son after him, so I think it’s safe to say the character made an impression.

Anime and cartoons certainly haven’t spared me from this pattern either. Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender starts as an antagonist hunting Aang and eventually gives us one of my favorite redemption arcs.

The more we learn about him, the more our understanding of who he is changes. The angry villain chasing our heroes isn’t all there is to him. Not even close.

And then there are comic books… and Jackie Estacado from The Darkness. I mean, come on. A violent, morally questionable mafia hitman possessed by an ancient supernatural power who nevertheless has people he loves fiercely? Apparently someone had my number.

So What Exactly Is My Type?

Looking at all of these characters, the obvious answer would be that I like villains and morally gray characters. And I do. Very much. But I don’t think that’s quite the whole answer.

Take Finnick Atlas from Cassidy Clarke’s The Blood & Water Saga. He’s one of my favorite book characters because he’s a true trickster. He’s smarter than he lets on, calculating, and perfectly willing to let other people underestimate him while he hides what he’s really capable of behind the person he presents to the world. And I LOVE him for it.

Because apparently what really gets me isn’t simply whether a character is a villain, hero, antihero, or somewhere in between. It’s characters I have to figure out.

I love meeting someone and gradually discovering that my first impression of them wasn’t the whole story. I want layers. History. I want to know why they make the choices they make and what they’re hiding underneath whatever they show the rest of the world.

Give me the villain who might not be completely villainous. A hero who’s capable of doing terrible things. The trickster who’s always three steps ahead while pretending he isn’t. An antagonist who might still change. The dangerous person who loves a select few people with absolutely everything they have.

I want to wonder what they’re going to do next. Curiosity doesn’t just send me down research rabbit holes—it determines my favorite fictional characters too.

Of Course I Write Them Too

Naturally, this particular character type shows up in my own stories, and that’s not exactly a surprise. I love complicated, layered characters, so when I’m creating my own fictional people, those are the characters I’m drawn to writing too.

Benedict Keenan is probably the best example. Keenan wasn’t originally the protagonist of my steampunk series. When I wrote The Techno Mage, he was a side character simply meant to get the main characters from point A to point B, and then he was done.

And I fell in love with him.

Keenan’s a sky pirate captain. A drunkard. A criminal. He’s sarcastic, reckless, fiercely loyal to the people he considers his, and perfectly willing to do some pretty terrible things when he thinks they’re necessary.

And after I finished The Techno Mage, I wanted to know more about him.

How did he become a notorious sky pirate? Where did his crew come from? Who was he before The Techno Mage? What happened to turn that man into the Keenan I already knew?

Basically, I wanted to figure him out. And that’s why Rise of the Sky Pirate exists. Keenan got an entire book because apparently even when I created the character, I still couldn’t resist finding out who he really was.

And Keenan certainly isn’t the only one. Moses is my favorite character in my contemporary fantasy trilogy, and plenty of my other works in progress are populated by morally gray characters, villains, antiheroes, and people whose motivations aren’t always immediately obvious.

Apparently, the characters I most enjoy spending time with as a reader and viewer are also the characters I most enjoy creating.

Apparently, I Just Really Love Complicated People

I’ve known for years that I gravitate toward villains, antiheroes, tricksters, and morally gray characters. What I find interesting is looking beyond those labels and realizing what so many of my favorites actually have in common.

I want characters who make me curious. Characters who can surprise me, frustrate me, make terrible decisions, make incredible ones, and occasionally make me yell at the screen because WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! I want to peel back the layers and discover the history beneath the choices they’re making now.

And apparently, I love those characters just as much when I’m the one creating them.

So yes. I have a fictional-character type. And judging by the number of assassins, pirates, villains, antiheroes, tricksters, and generally questionable men on my favorites list, I don’t think that’s changing anytime soon.

Now I want to know about yours. Do you have a fictional-character type? Give me some of your favorites in the comments, and let’s see if we can figure out your pattern too.

Raine