Favorite Character in Elantris

[Chimera]

Wow, this is the first time I've started a new topic. Look at me, all grown up and starting discussions...

*Chimera experiences a moment of excitement and apprehension as she is on the brink of TWG maturity*

Anyways, moment over and on to business. I was reading EUOL's annotations to Chapter Three on his website here, and was surprised by this comment:

There is some division among readers regarding their favorite viewpoint character. One group chooses Raoden, but I think the majority go with Hrathen.

I was surprised because I disagree. I got caught up in Raoden and Sarene's stories, particularly in the chapters where they were meeting each other and their relationship was developing. (Hey, I'm a girl, what can you expect--I try to resist being a hopeless romantic, but I can't seem to help it ). Hrathen was my least favorite character. At least, I kept skipping Hrathen's chapters because I *couldn't wait* to see what happened next between Raoden and Sarene. After I did this three times, I realized that I was probably missing vital information, since every chapter is important to the plotting in EUOL's books. So I went back, and I was glad I did, or I would completely have missed the significance of the potion that Hrathen takes.

So I thought I'd ask the rest of you here on TWG. Which of the three main characters in Elantris is your favorite, and why?

[Jelly_Belly]

I agree with a lot of what Chimera said. I was very tempted to skip Hrathen's chapters because I was excited to find out what was going to happen with Sarene and Raoden. I didn't because although they weren't as entertaining, I knew they were important. As for my favorite, I am not sure I had a "favorite," especially once I finished the book. I really liked both Raoden and Sarene. I guess I am a hopeless romantic too. If I had to choose, though, I guess I would choose Raoden.

I wanted to say also that I think it really helped the pacing of the book when towards the end the points of view were interspersed within the same chapter. It really helped build the tension, I thought.

[stacer]

I agree with both of you, though I did identify most strongly with Sarene. I remember reading the part where she thought the dress might cut her off at the knees that she could have been me--not to mention we'd just talked on the boards earlier about women's dresses and I'd told EUOL the exact same thing. But that was when he was working on Mistborn, and he said Sarene's thing wasn't based on my comment, but rather on another friend, who's even taller than me (I'm 5'8", so not *extremely* tall, but enough--and I'm not as willowy as Sarene's description, but I've always *wanted* to be  ).

At any rate, I really connected with her as a character emotionally.

[Spriggan]

Harathen was the best of the main three with Sarene being so freaking annoying and arrogent that I almost ripped out every chapter with her in it.  Of course I don't care about the romance aspect and I'm sure if that wasn't in it the three girls here wouldn't be fawning over those characters.

However the most intresting characters were many of the minor ones like Raoden's sidekick, Sarene's uncle and a few of the other nobles.

[Chimera]

Thanks for replying Spriggan. I suspected we'd get a different opinion from a male, but they weren't any takers yet. I think that being of a certain gender makes you gravitate toward that viewpoint character (which makes sense, of course). But not always so. I'm sure there are plenty of girls who wouldn't pick Sarene as their favorite. I, however, liked her viewpoint very much.

There were some interesting minor characters. I think my favorite was Shuden. He was always composed and thoughtful, but then he had his super ninja dance that just took people down.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Yeah, I would have to say Roial, followed by Galloden were my favorite characters.

I think if he had wanted to focus on romance as a major conflict in the plot, he could have had Sarene actually fall in love with either Shuden or Roial, and THEN they discover that Raoden is still alive. Wait, wipe your mind of that idea. I'm goign to use it...

[Spriggan]

The reason I like the people I mentioned previously is that the seam more like real people, they're not perfect and make mistakes while Sarene is too perfect and most of the plot around her feels unnatural and forced.  As for the Romance it's just a trivial part of the overall story that is just there to get everyone into the city but after the first few chapters has nothing of importance to add to the book overall so I don't care much about it.

[Skar]

I was mildly interested in the romance between Raoden and Sarene.  But my favorite characters by far were Hrathen and Kiin, followed closely by Lukel.

Having not commented elsewhere, I'll say I really enjoyed the book overall and am really looking forward to the violence fest to follow when all those magic systems collide in a fate of the world battle between the forces of good (led by a not-really-dead Hrathen caught up in an uneasy partnership with Raoden) and the forces of evil led by Wyrn.

Yeah!

[Spriggan]

Suck up

[Peter Ahlstrom]

He's quite dead.

[Fellfrosch]

I find the concept of TWG maturity quite amusing.

[Chimera]

Then I have accomplished one of my goals in life--to amuse Fellfrosch.  

[Tage]

I'm a Raoden guy, myself. Boring, I know, but I really found his story more interesting.

[CinderEllie]

Well, I'm happy to be the dissenting female who liked Hrathen and Raoden more than Sarene. Sure, I got into the romance between the undead prince and the sassy Sarene.
But I really liked Hrathen's character because he sincerely believed in what he was doing. Plus, he eventually fell in love with his "enemy"! Gotta love that irony. Besides, I felt like he was more conflicted than Raoden, so that made him more interesting to me. Given this, I cheered at the irony in the Epilogue where Sarene posthumously dubs Hrathen the city's savior. *Sigh* I guess I have too much sympathy for victims of unrequited love.

[EUOL]

I'm glad that the women liked Sarene and her plot so much.  As I've mentioned in my annotations, I think she's my favorite character.  (Though, of course, I like all three quite a bit.)

As I've said before, the big problem with a book with such differing viewpoints is alienating part of your audience.  If someone comes to like a certain viewpoint too much, they will naturally come to resent the other viewpoints because they're taking up space that could have been devoted to the favorite character.  That is why, I think, Sprig and Chimera had such strong reactions AGAINST some of the characters.