In our family, we have avid readers, some even harbour a loyalty that many readers save for people who don't exist. They let their own friends off for far less than they do for a beloved character.
Know this kind of person?
And whoa, if you say something unkind about their much-loved hero. Watch them go quiet, then defensive, then genuinely offended on someone else's behalf.
We all get like that at some point in our lives when we've met a fictional character that drives a stake into our hearts.
It's not really strange when you think about it.
Why Defend a Fictional Character?
We spend hundreds of pages inside these fictional people's heads, watching them make mistakes and choices so bad that no real friend would want to know them again.
By the time the book ends, we know their reasoning, their fears, the thing they'd never say out loud. Of course, we take it personally when someone judges them on the surface alone.
Perhaps we even know things about the character that the writer themselves don't know.
So there, writers! Readers learn things about your characters just from spending time with them between the pages.
Some of us have gone further than a raised eyebrow at a dinner party. Genuine arguments have been had, friendships have wobbled, more than one book club has gone quiet after somebody called a beloved brooding hero "just a bit too dramatic for my reading tastes".
That's the sign of a character who's stopped being a character and started being someone you'd defend, no matter the arguments around the dinner table.
Who Would You Defend?
So go on then. Who's the fictional person you'd defend without hesitation, no matter what anyone else says about them?
Tell us who, and why you'd go to bat for them, then tag the friend who'll know exactly why you picked them.