As many of you know (or have read on my ol’ blog), I was pretty upset when J.K. Rowling decided to kill off one of the Weasley twins (FRED!) in her seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Fred and George are among my favorite characters. I seriously felt betrayed by Rowling and upset over Fred’s death for weeks. Then I was upset about being sad over something so trivial. I soon discovered that I could simply deny it ever happened and go on with my life. Problem solved.
One night my best friend Sarah and I were chatting about the silly rumors of Fred’s death and I asked her why I got so upset about it. She said this to me: “I read a book and I think, ‘That’s a nice story.’ You read a book and the characters become part of your family.” She was dead-on! I get terribly attached to fictional characters and I’m willing to bet some of you out there feel the same way.
Why else would grown men wear the logos of comic book characters across their chests? (Think Superman or Batman t-shirts!) Why do women still want to meet Cinderella and visit her castle at Disney World? We do find ourselves terribly connected to these characters. Who wouldn’t want to grab a coffee with Harry Potter and talk about the whole Voldemort problem or go bowling with Jack Bauer from “24”? (Although something action-packed is bound to happen if you’re with Jack!)
When I get bored in any given situation, I think—what would this be like if ________ was here? It’s actually a pretty fun game. Suddenly waiting in line at Wal-Mart is tons more fun if Spiderman is trying to catch Hobgoblin through the chaotic aisles of the store. Pointing out “little blue cars” during my traffic jams makes me think of Shawn and Gus from “Psych” out trying to solve some new case.
I always tell people that a well-crafted character is one that you can imagine inviting over for dinner and conversation. It just so happens that I like to pretend it actually happens once in a while.
Here’s a question for you. If you could have any fictional character from literature, movies, comics, whatever, over for dinner who would it be and why? Please post your answers in the comments section.
She is Beloved 
I think maybe i would want Aslan from Chronicles of Narnia over for dinner. It would be very interesting to get his side of the story and besides, what wouldn’t be cool about having a talking lion come for dinner? 🙂
When I read War & Peace, I was literally grieved when Prince Andrei passed away. It’s almost painful to admit that he is a fiction, he was so fully realized in the novel, as well as many of Tolstoy’s characters.
Reminds me vaguely of the ethical issues regarding hypothetical, lifelike robots, a la the movie “A.I.” and the holographic doctor on Star Trek. I would like to give a shout out to the future to remind you that robots and AI are not real lifeforms and do not have any kind of rights. Life is more than appearances of life, and even animal life is not worthy of the same rights and considerations as human life.
This is a topic worthy of Dinosaur Comics (qwantz.com).
Anyhow, when I was a kid, I totally wanted to visit the Addams family as they appeared in the 1990s movies.
I think it would be Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter, because I usually play with my little brother (he always wants to be Draco) and I would be Ginny. I always like acting out characters of books because I feel attached to them…
good blog, btw. I really loved it!
I would want to invite Glinda the Good over for dinner and aske her if she does infact know if Elphaba is still alive, I feel like she’s suspicious but I wanna know. Also I would ask about the end of The Wizard, and the whereabouts of the ruby slippers. I look at Glinda as a heroine, and would like to ask those questions. It would be interesting to know the answer
@Tony Oooo, I want to come to dinner with you guys. Maybe we could sing all the songs from WICKED…you know, just for fun. 🙂