Most annoying character in literature?

Post by **JewelSong** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:48 pm

Maria, it WAS pretty dark. But I thought it was really well done. And Katniss WAS only a teenager, so of course she's conflicted between two guys! ALL teenagers are conflicted.

Gale was a huge ego-maniac, though!

Post by **Maria** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:53 pm

You want annoying? How about Effie Trinkett? (Since I don't have a print copy, I don't know how her name was spelled.) You should have heard the accent and voice the reader gave her! *shudder* THAT was annoying. Gale was almost ... insiginificant.

Post by **Frelga** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:56 pm

I liked the books well enough, but I don't think I can watch the movie. The premise - it's no spoiler, since it's in the trailer - is that all these children are killing each other in gladiator-style games.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:09 am

I won't be there. Real life is bleak enough (I mean in general, and how the world works, and where it all seems to be headed). I don't want to subject myself to invented horrors, particularly if children are being hurt.

Post by **vison** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:24 am

There are many YA books I would never read, even if stranded on a desert island with no other reading material.

Any book with vampires, zombies, or a bleak dystopian future is out, too.

I look at the TV guide and wonder: what the hell is this all about? The "supernatural" rules and IT SUX.

Post by **WampusCat** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:36 am

Ioreth always annoyed me. Although she did come up with that great "hands of a king are the hands of a healer" line.

Post by **River** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 8:20 am

Post by **Aravar** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:32 am

vison wrote:There are many YA books I would never read, even if stranded on a desert island with no other reading material.

Any book with vampires, zombies, or a bleak dystopian future is out, too.

I look at the TV guide and wonder: what the hell is this all about? The "supernatural" rules and IT SUX.

Then you'll have deprived yourself of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is a work of singular genius. I love Pride and Prejudice, but found the juxtaposition of a horror story very funny.

Maria, I don't tihnk the literary establishment in the UK looks kindly on fantasy. JK Rowling something about not writing fantasy which drew a sharp response from Sir Terry. I tihnk his books are both literature and Literature, if you see what I mean.

The Nac Mac Feegle remind me of an act by 80s UK comic Russ Abbot, See You Jimmy, who was a redheaded scot in a Kilt who spoke unintligbly and has a propensity to head butt. The joke wore of pretty soon and it's the same with the pictsies. The only Pratchett book I haven't yet started is Wintersmith and I have liekd the witches part, but the feegles put me off.

Post by **Pearly Di** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:23 pm

Quite a few characters in the Harry Potter books annoy me.

And I don't mean the obvious villains, like Umbridge or Bellatrix. I mean some of the characters the author wants us to like.

And I most certainly don't mean Snape. He's my fave.

- I loathe Peter Pettigrew, even more so because JKR never gave him an actual personality.
- I detest James Potter, the worst bully in the entire series.

(OK, Umbridge was the worst, but that still doesn't pacify me.

)
- I'm afraid I find Hagrid rather annoying, but that's because JKR insists on making the guy a teacher. No, just no. A loving surrogate father to Harry - yes. But a teacher - are you kidding me?!

- Dobby annoys me. I will never find House-elves cute. Weird little gobliny things. Ew.

But my most irritating character is the heroine of Aussie fantasy The Bitterbynde Trilogy, Rohain-Tahquil-Ashalind 'she who is more awesome/beautiful/amazing than Lúthien Tinúviel'.

That series began so well but the final book was a crashing, awful disappointment. I began to get twitchy half way through the second book, as Tahquil became ever more Mary-Sueish, snagging the Perfect Man to boot (yawn). Oh yeah, if I remember correctly, her hair keeps changing colour: from perfect daffodil-blonde to raven-black and then to red.

Or something! Mind you, I should have got a clue about Mary Sue in the first book, when the beleaguered heroine (who has lost her memory due to an ancient curse) doesn't seem to notice that she is not, in fact, a boy.

While I'm a-hatin', here's much hate for the insufferable Faeran of Bitterbynde, that world's version of the Elves or lios alfar. What a bunch of cold, haughty, self-absorbed ... !!!! Rohain lost even more brownie points with me for wanting to join these unpleasant immortals.

I hated Edward Rochester as portrayed by Jean Rhys in her troubling and brilliant novel Wide Sargasso Sea. (And I love him in Jane Eyre! Sob!)

I can't hate Emma Woodbridge. Emma learns from her stupid mistakes.

Post by **axordil** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:06 pm

Perhaps the most annoying characters are those we identify with at some level even though we'd rather not.

Post by **Aravar** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:38 pm

I'm not short, not blue, and not in any way Scottish?

Post by **Maria** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:51 pm

I nominate Esmeralda in "Tarzan of the Apes".

ERB wrote:"Esmeralda! Esmeralda!" she cried. "Help me, or we are lost."

Esmeralda opened her eyes. The first object they encountered was the dripping fangs of the hungry lioness.

With a horrified scream the poor woman rose to her hands and knees, and in this position scurried across the room, shrieking: "O Gaberelle! O Gaberelle!" at the top of her lungs.

Esmeralda weighed some two hundred and eighty pounds, and her extreme haste, added to her extreme corpulency, produced a most amazing result when Esmeralda elected to travel on all fours.

For a moment the lioness remained quiet with intense gaze directed upon the flitting Esmeralda, whose goal appeared to be the cupboard, into which she attempted to propel her huge bulk; but as the shelves were but nine or ten inches apart, she only succeeded in getting her head in; whereupon, with a final screech, which paled the jungle noises into insignificance, she fainted once again.

Post by **CosmicBob** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 4:12 pm

Thomas Covenant is one of the most annoying characters I know of. Literature or not.

Also, nearly every single character in George RR Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series is annoying. The trick there is to find the ones that aren't.

And then there's Sauron, who could be more annoying than him, with his Eye and his general evilty?

Post by **Pearly Di** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 4:19 pm

CosmicBob wrote:And then there's Sauron, who could be more annoying than him, with his Eye and his general evilty?

Sauron is kewl.

Seriously. If you're going to have a truly ev0l villain, make him a mysterious figure that others speak of with dread.

(I think he's even more scary in The Silmarillion, though, with his werewolf disguise).

Now, Voldemort is annoying.

He does this classic stupid thing that Dark Lords should never do, i.e. make a Big Speech once he's captured his nemesis, and then go on speechifying for ten minutes, which gives young Harry Potter plenty of time in which to hatch a Plan.

Post by **vison** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 4:44 pm

I have read only the first Harry Potter book but I have endured all the movies.

If that Voldemort dude was SUCH a powerful wizard? Why the blankety-blankety-blank couldn't he make himself a nose?

He could have been handsome and just wear a sign saying, "I'm The Evil Lord Voldemort!"

He basically did, anyway.

Post by **axordil** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 4:47 pm

Aravar wrote:I'm not short, not blue, and not in any way Scottish?

I should have limited my statement to "protagonists."

Annoying supporting characters, you can simply skip over, like pages of descriptions of the flora of a valley. Yeah, it's got flowers, we get it.

Post by **Aravar** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:04 pm

axordil wrote: Annoying supporting characters, you can simply skip over, like pages of descriptions of the flora of a valley. Yeah, it's got flowers, we get it.

Skip? With the Feegles trampling would be better.

I don't find most of the Song of Ice and Fire characters annoying, only Sansa Stark. She cannot, really, be related to any of the others. It's some of the pointless plot meanderings that annoy me.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:11 pm

Say, is there any reason why this thread needs to be in Bag End? Would anyone object if it was moved to the Library of Rivendell?

vison, would that be OK with you? It's not mandatory; if you'd rather leave it here, that's fine. But people looking for discussions about books would look there (and nonmembers can read threads there but not here).

I won't do anything today in any case.

Post by **CosmicBob** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:33 pm

Aravar wrote:I don't find most of the Song of Ice and Fire characters annoying, only Sansa Stark. She cannot, really, be related to any of the others. It's some of the pointless plot meanderings that annoy me.

Maybe to me the annoying characters blend in to the annoying meanderings to annoy me beyond endurance.

And I used to find Sansa really annoying, now (A Dance With Dragons) she is beginning to become non-annoying. One of the few that is happening to.

Post by **Pearly Di** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:36 pm

vison wrote:I have read only the first Harry Potter book but I have endured all the movies.

The films are fun.

If that Voldemort dude was SUCH a powerful wizard? Why the blankety-blankety-blank couldn't he make himself a nose?

Cuz he liked snakes!