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<blockquote data-quote="King_Stannis" data-source="post: 642604" data-attributes="member: 324">Over the recent past I've heard given, as a weakness in Martin's &quot;A Song of Ice &amp; Fire&quot; series, the fact that there are no true heroes or people to root for. I think it's time to set the record straight, as it were, on that issue. I'm going to give my list of &quot;good guys&quot; from the series, and I'll stack them up against any pollyana &quot;black and white&quot; - &quot;good vs. evil&quot; fantasy story. Please note that there could very well be SPOILERS ahead...Jon Snow - Obviously, he is about as good as they come. At times he's shown as being conflicted, but show me anytime he's done something that could be called &quot;evil&quot;? And, for the most part, you are meant to be rooting for him as the &quot;underdog&quot; hero. He serves faithfully and is a credit to his upbringing by the Starks.Ser Davos - There's hardly any shades of gray with Davos. He is about as honest and as loyal as they come. He desires only to give good counsel to Stannis and is the driving force behind what happened at the end of Book 3.&nbsp; Again, show me anything &quot;evil&quot; that this guy has done and it'll be the first I've heard of it. Barristan Selmy - While not a POV character, this guy is the epitome of honor and loyalty. He's about as pure an archetypical &quot;old and honorable hero&quot; as they come. Catelyn - Much of the disaffection with Catelyn comes because of her estrangement with Jon. Still, how can you blame her? Ned couldn't or wouldn't shed any light on who is mother was (*cough* Lyanna), and here she is, supposed to welcome him with open arms. It's a little petty, yes, but you can hardly even say that Jon hates her for it. So why then should the reader?Aside from that, she called her sister's madness for what it was. She counseled against going to war with the Lannisters in the first place, even to &quot;avenge Ned&quot;. When war came she served Robb faithfully as counselor and mother. She tried to bring peace between Renly and Stannis as well. While it's a harder sell than the others, I'll go out on a limb and say that Catelyn, while at times is irritating, for the most part acts quite heroically. I'd be interested to hear of any other characters I might have missed. There are some that I would personally include, like Stannis and Dany, but I can kind of see where people would not view them in the same light as the ones I mentioned. Also, I'd like to hear any rebuttals of the characters I listed. Are there any reasons you can think of that they would not be considered, on the whole, particualry heroic?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="King_Stannis, post: 642604, member: 324"] Over the recent past I've heard given, as a weakness in Martin's "A Song of Ice & Fire" series, the fact that there are no true heroes or people to root for. I think it's time to set the record straight, as it were, on that issue. I'm going to give my list of "good guys" from the series, and I'll stack them up against any pollyana "black and white" - "good vs. evil" fantasy story. Please note that there could very well be SPOILERS ahead... Jon Snow - Obviously, he is about as good as they come. At times he's shown as being conflicted, but show me anytime he's done something that could be called "evil"? And, for the most part, you are meant to be rooting for him as the "underdog" hero. He serves faithfully and is a credit to his upbringing by the Starks. Ser Davos - There's hardly any shades of gray with Davos. He is about as honest and as loyal as they come. He desires only to give good counsel to Stannis and is the driving force behind what happened at the end of Book 3. Again, show me anything "evil" that this guy has done and it'll be the first I've heard of it. Barristan Selmy - While not a POV character, this guy is the epitome of honor and loyalty. He's about as pure an archetypical "old and honorable hero" as they come. Catelyn - Much of the disaffection with Catelyn comes because of her estrangement with Jon. Still, how can you blame her? Ned couldn't or wouldn't shed any light on who is mother was (*cough* Lyanna), and here she is, supposed to welcome him with open arms. It's a little petty, yes, but you can hardly even say that Jon hates her for it. So why then should the reader? Aside from that, she called her sister's madness for what it was. She counseled against going to war with the Lannisters in the first place, even to "avenge Ned". When war came she served Robb faithfully as counselor and mother. She tried to bring peace between Renly and Stannis as well. While it's a harder sell than the others, I'll go out on a limb and say that Catelyn, while at times is irritating, for the most part acts quite heroically. I'd be interested to hear of any other characters I might have missed. There are some that I would personally include, like Stannis and Dany, but I can kind of see where people would not view them in the same light as the ones I mentioned. Also, I'd like to hear any rebuttals of the characters I listed. Are there any reasons you can think of that they would not be considered, on the whole, particualry heroic? [/QUOTE]

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