The Five Most Interesting Imaginary Men

I'm more random than usual today. Who knows what backwash of energy in the neurons prompted this list, but here you have it, the official Dancing Fool List of the Top Five Most Interesting Imaginary Men, in no particular rank order:

*) Mr. Darcy -- Any literary chick worth her salt would have to include Darcy. He has probably ruined more women for real men than any other imaginary man out there. I wonder if he smirks smugly about this to himself. Probably not. He is, of course, above such things. The traits that put Darcy on this list for me are the fact that he does have such deep feelings that he fights so hard to contain, channel, and figure out. He's not a perfect man, Lord knows. He's arrogant, stubborn, and sarcastic. When he realizes that he is in love, though, he genuinely examines himself and while he remains much the same man he always was (nobody wants a doormat), he is willing to bend some when Lizzy does, too. It's a beautiful thing.

*) Dr. Who -- Sheer, raw intelligence and knowledge of worlds and more worlds coupled with madcap humour and adventure, and in the later regenerations, good looks that will absolutely melt your eyes out. If you're curious like me, could you resist the lure of the 900-year-old man in the blue box who could take you to worlds you've never seen or back to see the pyramids being built? Of course, don't do what all his companions lately seem to do and fall in love because there are some fairly nasty commitment issues at hand, the abjectly broken heart of a soldier who is the last of his kind because of his own actions, and there is always the risk that you will be possessed, kidnapped, or killed, but hey, every relationship has its little pitfalls, right? As long as you are just along for the ride, "What could possibly go wrong?"

*) Marshal Marshall Mann -- Rock steady, strong, funny, and smart, but you know, you just know that if it were necessary, this guy would be able to destroy anything put in his path. It's in his eyes behind the gentleness and the sparkle of the humor and in the angle of his body in certain situations, even when he's not holding a gun. He's a man who enjoys knowing things for the sheer joy of turning over the information in his head and playing with it. He can hold his own verbally and physically even with the best of them, and it's always fun to watch him give at least as good as he gets. He's not a sidekick; he's a balancing force, equal and opposite to his partner, and although he is not as loud and flashy as she, it would be a real mistake to assume that he's the lesser because of that.

*) Harry Dresden -- Complex layers of power, lack of self-awareness, self-deprecating humor and intelligence make Harry one of my favorite imaginary men. Those around him see him so much more clearly than he sees himself. He has power to break open creation in his hands, and he constantly tempers that power with restraint, goodness, and dry wit, much more than he ever manages to give himself credit for. Although it seems he is always put in situations that have no solutions without wounds, he strives for resolutions that will only wound himself and the ones who started the trouble orignally. Of all the series I read regularly, The Dresden Files are ones I will buy in hardback and pre-order just to see how he's going to make me laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time, in his next adventure.

*) Det. Robert Goren -- Quirky brilliance, the ability to analyze any set of information given and find connections, a passion that simmers almost always under control, and a seemingly endless base of background experiences and interests make Goren fascinating to me. There is an air of the feline to Goren, both in the way that he deals with interactions with other people and in the way that he sets traps for unwary criminals. The rare explosions of temper are feline, too, big-cat-feline-pushed-too-far dangerous. He's been a favorite of mine since the very first time I watched Law and Order: CI for both his inability to be just like everybody else and the fact that he just doesn't need to be like them, either. As the seasons have gone by, the darkness that hovered in him has blossomed, and Goren has had to deal with things that would destroy most people. And maybe, just maybe, he's been destroyed, too. That's part of the appeal, part of what breaks my heart in some episodes even while I'm shaking my head in others trying to figure it all out.

Here they are, then, my favorite fictional fellows. If you have some of your own, you might post a comment and let me know.