Luke's Favorite Fictional Characters
BY LUKE DROESE '24
From Sherlock Holmes to Thanos, thousands of characters have been created since the inception of humanity. For the media’s consumer, these characters, among countless others, provide an escape. People form strong bonds with characters, whether they are from pre-established IPs or one’s own fictional worlds. Characters can often be a way to express imagination or simply be someone to relate to— a comfort character. For myself, I have grown up on a lot of movies, TV shows, and video games and have sound characters who I like based on personality, the character's outfit, or personal connection. Without further ado, here is my official ranking of my comfort characters.
Questions for each character: Who is this character? What franchise are they from? Why do I like them so much? 5. Katie Mitchell (The Mitchells Vs. The Machines) Katie Mitchell is probably my only favorite character that only appears once in media form. She is nearly college bound teenager who has a tenuous relationship with her dad. They are an outdoorsy woodsman versus a teenager who wants to major in film, when suddenly a robot apocalypse kidnaps everyone except for the Mitchells, who now have to save the world. I empathize with Katie’s enamorment with making her own films. Another aspect that touched my heart is how she wants to properly thank her family for everything they have done for her while also looking forward to college offerings. She is the first LGBTQ+ main character in an animated movie. Overall, great movie and even greater character. 4. Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen/Ghost Spider (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) Gwen is a part of the Marvel universe but, like most people, I got introduced to her through Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (ITSV). First, I like the idea of reversing the roles of Peter Parker being Spider-Man. Rather, Gwen becomes Spider-Woman and Peter is an Uncle Ben sort of figure in her life. In the first installment of the Spider-Verse trilogy, she greatly exemplifies what Miles should aspire to be as a Spider-Man by setting it up for him to realize he has to be his own hero. She enjoys great chemistry with the rest of the team. Then, the second installment of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (ATSV) shows more of Gwen’s life of battling loneliness as she can’t contact Miles. She and her father have also had minimal time together since he believes that Spider-Gwen killed Peter Parker and is tirelessly going after her and does not realize that his suspect is under his roof. In the end, she realizes that following the Spider-Society, a group of fellow Spider-People, was a bad move. Instead, she leads her own group of friends that she met from both. As teased at the end of ATSV, I think Gwen will go out to save Miles from Earth 42, but Miles will reject the help. After making up for her actions, they will eventually create a stronger-than-ever relationship, and Miles will return to his world with some sort of Macguffin being created to help Miles, Gwen, and other Spider-People visit each other’s worlds. 3. Lightning McQueen (Cars, Cars 2, Cars 3, Cars Toons, and Cars on the Road) This is blinded by nostalgia, but man, I loved Lightning McQueen as a kid. With a sleek red and yellow design, he is made to be the fan-favorite for three year olds. Unfortunately, although he changes from arrogant to kind, the second movie removes that progress in favor of a story that doesn’t even focus on McQueen very much. Nevertheless, I still love him and have lots of memories watching the movies. 2. Luke Skywalker (Revenge of the Sith, the original trilogy, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, the sequel trilogy) My dad introduced me to the original Star Wars movies when I was five. Instantly, I fell in love with the world, holding a cast of driven characters within cool settings. My main memory is the enamorment of sharing a name with a character. That commonality between the two of us follows me to present day, as most introductions include a joke about Luke Skywalker. Typically, it goes like this: Person: What’s your name? Me: My name is Luke. Person: Oh just like Luke Skywalker. I’m not joking when I say I’ve had six interactions go like this since September. Not only do we share a name, but also he’s the main character, he’s sympathetic, and he’s skilled in using the Force. Although a hermit by The Last Jedi’s release, Luke is the same character I knew and loved for all of these years. His journey in Star Wars is so profound, and watching new Star Wars projects with my dad is something I will always have fond memories of.
The amount of love I have for these characters is inexpressible. Are you interested in checking out these shows and movies? After all, these characters are fantastic and deserve to have their praises sung by the masses. |