Top 5 Wednesday: Problematic Faves

Top 5 Problematic Favorites

These are characters I don’t want to love, but can’t help but do.  Top five Wednesday is a Goodreads group that was created by Ginger Reads Lainey and is currently run by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes.  I tried my best on this topic, but I don’t know if I did it right.  Just like the other topic, I wanted to do, so I tried my best.  I will film a video for this tomorrow when I get home from work.  Time got away from me and I was thinking about how my dad was going to take me to BAM, so I could get some X-mas shopping down and buy The Lunar Chronicles.  Here are the links to the Goodreads group for topics if you want to participate and the link to Sam’s account: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpnjp7mgeQGdtesz5v6xY_A

1.     Scarlet O’Hara from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  Scarlet is a selfish, vain, spoiled brat who has to always get her way, but she is also confident and ambitious.  She has a rebellious streak where she won’t let herself be controlled by societal rules, but at the cost of being shunned and judged by her peers.   When she loves, she loves with her whole, but she also treats those who love her badly, taking them for granted.  She often uses people for her ambitions.  Scarlet is such a complex female character for when the novel takes place and was written.  I get pissed off at her, but also love reading her story and she is such a rich personality.

2.     Sophie from The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.  Sophie like Scarlet is a selfish brat who is used to having things her way, and she also takes those who love her for granted.  When she ends up in the School for Evil instead of the School for Good like she thought she tries to force her best friend Agatha to switch, even though Agatha seems to fit the Good school better, and demeans Agatha constantly calling her “evil”.  At the same time, like Scarlet she is so complex and frustration you feel when reading about her makes her more real. 

3.     Queen Levana from The Lunar Chronicles.  Again, another selfish character, but a character that I actually pity.  I’m fascinated by her and her delusions of grandeur.  She’s psychotic and just evil making her such an awesome villain to read, especially with how scary she truly is with her mind powers.

4.     The Wicked Witch of the West aka Elphaba from Wizard of Oz and Wicked by Frank L. Baum and Gregory McGuire.  In Wicked she is given redemption as we learn her story, but in Wizard of Oz she is an evil who wants revenge on Dorothy for dropping a house on her.  I can’t really blame her, but she kidnaps and tries to kill Dorothy and her friends.  Wicked adds so much more to her character, making her super interesting.

5.     Dorothy from Dorothy Must Die by Danielle.  Now, I didn’t have the urge to continue this series, but it was still fun.  This series is about after Dorothy from Wizard of the Oz when she dies her life is too boring in Kansas and decides to go back to Oz and become the Queen.  Dorothy is a tyrannical leader, but it is an awesome twist on Baum’s story.  It’s a kid’s story so Dorothy is very sweet and innocent, but this adds a fun new layer showing how power corrupts and perverts.  She is horrible and a selfish brat that I’m very entertained. 

As you can see there is a pattern here.  I enjoy reading about selfish bratty females more than the whiny good girls.  LOL