#beartown characters

[fuckyeah-bears]

it'd be really fucking nice to just feel and like things a normal amount. but nooooo my neurodivergent ass really gotta just fall madly and obsessively in love with fictional characters and then have unhealthy levels of emotions over them and how fucked up and sad their lives are

[fairyfantasma]

i'm on a mission to read the 70+ books/series on my tbr so this list will probably change and evolve but here are some of my current favorite characters of all time ! (lmk what some of yours are !)

part 1: book characters

Lucie Herondale (Official Art by Charlie Bowater, The Last Hours series by Cassandra Clare): she's so me, she's silly, she's a writer, she writes borderline erotic fanfiction about her best friend, she sees and controls ghosts, she's the daughter of my favorite characters so she is my favorite character ^3 (cubed) (herongraystairs) <3.

Princess Leia (Art from Star Wars #12 by Stuart Immonen. "Leia, Princess of Alderaan" by Claudia Gray): i love leia in general but in this book my love for her grew x10000. she was 16 and so so angry at everything and the way she grew into her role as a rebel was >>> plus her dynamic with amilyn holdo was delightful. hot take: they should have kissed...

Xie Lian (Image from Heaven Official's Blessing Donghua Adaptation, TGCF aka "Heaven Official's Blessing" by MXTX): The only male character i've ever said HES SO MEEE to, largely cause he's a cancer zodiac like me <3 ascended at 17, went from a crown prince to the god of misfortune and scraps :'(, a virgin for 800+ years, abandoned by everyone except his 1 believer, was banished from the heavens TWICE but ascended three times, cursed, hit rock bottom and then hit it again and then hit it again, nevertheless he chooses to be kind, just wants to help people, he never knows whether to laugh or cry, he's suffered more than jesus, he's so tragic i love him.

Inej Ghafa (Official art for SDCC by Kevin Wada, Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo) : also a cancer zodiac like me hehe (automatically if a character's sign is cancer they get promoted in my brain it seems...) she endured unspeakable horrors and survived, she's a spy, skilled with knives aka the best weapon, she still has faith despite it all and she's so determined to live the best life she can, she's kind !! but also deadly!! so in conclusion, thee best character in the grishaverse + she's called "wraith" aka ghost and ghosts are kinda my thing <3

NEIL JOSTEN (Art from Dazzlingbookishshop special edition cover for The Foxhole Court by @polartss, AFTG series by Nora Sakavic): *SCREAMS* he's my everything. another character who has suffered more than jesus. no one gets him like i get him. most main character to ever main character. i love you paranoid characters who are always running but find a reason to stay <\3. i love his selflessness and his intelligence and his cockiness and his desperation. i love a bunch of aftg characters (most recently jean) but neil is neil. best thing to ever happen to me. no further comment. i can't think of anything else to say i just LOVE him. (and yes him and andrew are the epitome of love)

Annabeth Chase (Fan Art of Annabeth Chase by @madicanart, PJO series by Rick Riordon): ANOTHER ONE (cancer zodiac) my first love. i wanted to be her so bad as a kid. she had curly hair and i have curly hair so i was like YES she's me (she + hermione were my idols). i wore owl-themed jewelry for years cause of her. another smart, kind, and not to be messed with character <3 she was afraid of spiders, and often too prideful, and was always wanting to make her mom proud, and had a complicated relationship with her father. all of that hit a little too close to home :') + her wanting to be an architect in order to build something permanent .. shatters my heart to this day.

Citra Terranova (Scythe Official Bookmark art created for @milleetunlivres_box by @kat_adara, Arc of a Scythe series by Neal Shusterman): her character arc is probably my favorite character arc to this day, she went from a somewhat bratty girl with low empathy to the most empathetic scythe. smart, kind, and strong-willed, she said "i vow to become the change that could have been" and then she did !! seeing how much she grew as a person from book 1 to book 2 was incredible. book 3 was a bit of a letdown but citra's character was still the highlight for me.

Blue Sargent AND Ronan Lynch (Official Art from The Raven Cycle Graphic Novel Adaptation Art by Sas Milledge, The Raven Cycle Series by Maggie Stiefvater): i tried to only pick one character per fandom but they're a package deal for me !!! I LOVE THEM SO MUCHHHHHH !!! they're the most characters to ever character, where else can i find an amplifying half-tree manic pixie alt girl from a family of psychics and a eldrich horror gay catholic farmer. don't get me wrong, i love all of the raven cycle gang but these two spoke to me deep in my soul. like i need to be their friend so badly, i would give anything !!

Benji Ovich (Fanart of Benji Ovich by painacotta, Beartown by Fredrik Backman): the newest edition to my fav characters list. beartown made me cry so much my tearducts no longer produced tears and i got a dehydration headache. i'm not yet done with the series but he's the tragic type of character that i know is going to wreak my psyche and destroy my spirit. raised by women, has a bear tattoo, described as "the boy with the most handsome face, saddest eyes, and the wildest heart they've ever seen". my heart is already broken for him.

sidenote: MORE PEOPLE NEED TO READ BEARTOWN AND DRAW FANART, WE'RE STARVING

runner ups: julian blackthorn from the dark artifices series, PERCY JACKSON !!!, tarisai from raybearer, & zoya nazyalensky from the king of scars duology

& special mention for my resident insane girls: pip fitz-amobi from agggtm, mara dyer from the mara dyer series, lissa dragomir from the vampire academy books, & juliette ferrars from shatter me

[kazbiter]

already said this in the discord but I'm just not over it KEVIN ERDAHL HOW COULD U I WAS ROOTING FOR U WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR U

[captainlexapro]

“Finally: To you who have read the whole of this saga, I’d just like to say that I hope it gave you something, because I gave it absolutely everything I had. Thank you for coming along for the ride.”

-Fredrik Backman, The Winners acknowledgements

[cup-noodle]

As a fellow chaotic baby sibling of much older sisters from a slavic country I honestly feel like Benji Ovich was made in a lab to devastate me

[shallanspren]

the problem with adapting beartown (and the other two books) is that so much is lost when translated to film. there is so much internal dialogue and conflict. anyone adapting it needs to be willing to put in the extra work of showing how deep the different relationships go.

and tbh, the hbo adaptation did not do that. maya and ana barely interact. kevin and benji are perhaps the most deeply bonded characters in that first book. it's why benji choosing to side with maya (which he does without having to hear amat confess to what he saw i might add) feels like such a betrayal.

benji and kevin are best friends. soulmate level, one might say. benji is in love with kevin. but benji sides with kevin's accuser without question. he believes maya.

it's because benji knows kevin best that he knows that kevin is capable of rape.

you need all the internal drama, the deep facets of every relationship to fully get the story. it fails in its messaging without it

[titsthedamnseason]

i can’t even tell you how many times my jaw literally dropped reading us against you and stayed that way for entire chapters. backman always manages to write stuff that i don’t expect and totally floors me

[bookishjules]

why am I getting lost in benji feels. I have things to do

[contagiousrhythminmybrain]

“He always thought he was the bad guy in all stories, the real heroes always do, that’s why stories about boys like him never end with them growing old. Stories about boys like him only end with us no longer dreaming of time machines, because if one was ever invented in the distant future, it would have already been used to travel back here by someone who loved him.

There are so many of us.”

The Winners, Fredrik Backman

[moonlight-fawn]

I am to start the winners guys ! Wish me luck !

[heyitswolfman]

Thank God my library had the beartown sequel ready to check out

[jelloia]

just uncontrollably cried my way through the last quarter of Beartown’s sequel.

[jeanmoreaux]

I AM IN A WORLD OF PAIN FUCK YOU FREDRIK BACKMAN FUCK YOU VERY MUCH I AM SOBBING I CANNOT DEAL WTFFFFFF ITS UGLY CRYING HOUR

[seoafin]

I get really nervous talking to you on your other blog for some reason 😓 but that book you've been posting about seems really interesting! I've been looking to start a new book

don't be nervous!!!! it's still me :)

[star2fishmeg]

I wanna know how fredrick backman would write me. what adventures will he put me through🤔 probably harrowing ones

[pastlivesandpurplepuppets]

I would have loved to know what Kevin thought/felt about Benji's *****. What he thought about him in general, over the years after the Beartown aftermath, after his actions, and did he ever realise just how much he lost when he lost Benji. And I hope that for the rest of his life Kevin suffers. Suffers with the knowledge just how badly he fu*ked up in every way possible, least of all because his actions cost him his best friend.