WARNING: YOU WILL PROBABLY THINK LESS OF ME AFTER READING THIS!
I was talking to a friend the other day and we discussed how you can fall in love with literary characters. Me, being the complete dork I am, fell head over heels for Anakin Solo. Not to be confused with Anakin Skywalker, Anakin Solo is the third child of Han and Leia Solo, after their twins Jacen and Jaina. The Solo children obviously weren’t in the movies and therefore have no representation in real life. But the way Anakin Solo was writen, you just knew he was the most gorgeous Jedi to ever have lived.
Not only was he gorgeous, but he was the most powerful of the young Knights of the New Jedi Order that was established after the fall of the Empire. In the books, Jacen was the intellectual child, Jaina was the amazing pilot, and Anakin was the most powerful in the Force, not to mention bravest.
In the books, Anakin dated another Jedi named Tahiri. I wanted to hate Tahiri for stealing my man, but she was adorable, so it was damn near impossible.
Then came the book “Star by Star“. By this time, Anakin had stepped into a leadership position. Did I mention he was only 17 at the time? Laws are different in the Galaxy Far Far Away, so my complete and utter admiriation is completely within the legal parameters of the Galactic Alliance. I was also 19 at the time the book was published, making the age difference less icky.
Anyway, they had definitely set him up to be the next Luke Skywalker. He lead a mission to destroy a base where an intruding species from another galaxy had set up a colony of Jedi-hunting creatures known as Voxyn.
During this mission, the team of Jedi are overrun, and Anakin sacrifices himself to allow everyone else the time they need to get free. Right before he dies, while he is fighting back the overwhelming number of enemies, he sends a telepathic message to his brother Jacen: “Kiss Tahiri for me”.
How fucking romantic is that? If I’m lucky, I get a slap on the ass, and Tahiri has romantic wishes telepathically sent about her from the most powerful Jedi in the Galaxy DURING HIS DEATH!
Seriously, I had to put the book down for a good while before I was able to continue reading. Sad I know, but tis the life of a lovelorn gay science fiction dork.
So now I turn to you, dear reader, have you ever been in love with a literary character without the aid of a movie representation? And don’t pick Mr. Darcy. We all know that only stemmed from the Colin Firth wet shirt scene in the A&E version of “Pride and Prejudice“.
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Hank Rearden from Atlas Shrugged. But that’s because I like rough sex and he liked to slap Dagny around.
Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. I’m completely in love with him. Seriously, what the hell was Daisy thinking!? Tom was a jerk, Gatsby was a rich hot, loving, rich, hot, loving, so hot, so rich, party throwing fantastic chunk of a hot man. God I love him.
First of all, you could be my boyfriend, but you’re gay. Second of all, because my actual boyfriend is a straight Asian version of you, I already knew all about Anakin Solo. That’s awesome.
As for the literary character, Neal Cassidy from On the Road. I think everyone is in love with this guy. He’s crazy, he’s completely wild and uninhibited and FREE. Yeah man, I’d go on the road with him.
Since I’m like wicked rabid when it comes to Jane Austen (really she’s the thinking woman’s Harlequin) and Craig VICIOUSLY forbade the suggestion of Mr. Darcy, I will go with Captain Frederick Wenthworth from Persuaion…. mmmm… devotion is SUCH a turn on.
Jewel from “As I Lay Dying”. When he rescues the coffin from the burning barn — hot mama!
Chalk me up to the geek thing. I was totally in love with Vanyel from Mercedes Lackey’s “The Last Herald-Mage” series. It’s such a gay soap opera trilogy, but both loved and wanted to be the most powerful herald-mage to walk the earth. …and who happened to be gay and to know who is soulmate was. Bitch.
Wil Ladislaw from Middlemarch. Hated the book but loved him.
Larry Underwood from THE STAND…
oh and Cedric Diggory (if you don’t know where he’s from then there is something wrong with you)
all of this was before the movies!
Michael Tyler from “Winter Dreams, Christmas Love”. It’s a dumb book I read when I was in middle school, and then bought off eBay as an adult and have read while drunk several times. He was the BMOC in a fictional high school that fell for a girl who seemed pretty normal (i.e. didn’t get drunk and receive a gang-banging from the whole football team while passed out). Be still my middle school dork heart.
I remember “Winter Dreams, Christmas Love” from middle school too. I think it was assigned reading. And for the record, the girl, I think her name was Kami, did in fact get gangbanged by the entire football team. But Michael Tyler loved her inspite of this. Ahhhh.
But who did I love? Delaney from some smooshy romance novel, and Moose from Archie’s Double Digest. I used to wish I was Midge, watching Betty and Veronica go at it over Archie while I was part of a loving, albeit cartooned, love affair.
Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables. I spent a summer completely obsessed with him (the book version, although the movie version is very nice too).
Tell Me What a Dork I Am!