secondary characters

Y is for Ho Yinsen

When you look back on the MCU, one minor character that really has had a lasting effect on a hero is Ho Yinsen. He is such an important character!

Yinsen was held captive with Tony Stark in Afghanistan and it was Yinsen who saved Tony’s life. He’s the one who put an electromagnet in Tony’s chest, stopping the pieces of shrapnel getting to his heart. Yes, Yinsen’s version was with a car battery and once Tony was on his feet, he figured out how to make the system better with a miniaturised arc reactor, but Yinsen came up with the way to save Tony’s life first.

Yinsen was intelligent, he was a scientist and surgeon and he could speak multiple languages, so he was more than capable to help Tony build the first Iron Man armour. He helped motivate Tony to resist their captors and do something about the terrorists having so many of Tony’s weapons. “Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?” was just the sort of no-nonsense pep talk Tony needed. Yinsen was also incredibly brave as he willingly sacrificed his life so Tony could escape.

Tony went and saved the villagers of Gulmira, Yinsen’s village, once he’d made the Iron Man suit. I’m not saying Tony wouldn’t have saved any village he heard about on the news, but there were definitely more of a personal stake there for him. Yinsen’s last words to Tony was not to waste his life and I like to think Tony took that to heart.

O is for Okoye

Near enough all of the characters in Black Panther are pretty badass but Okoye is perhaps the most badass.

She’s the general of the Dora Milaje, Wakanda’s elite female bodyguards, and is a trusted advisor to King T’Challa. While she is T’Challa’s friend and will question him when she feels it’s necessary, she is also loyal to the throne of Wakanda, no matter who sits in it. She loves her country and its people and will do just about anything to protect it, even going against the man she loves.

Okoye is a fierce and skilled fighter. I loved watching her fight whether it was when she’s undercover in a casino, or when it’s on the plains of Wakanda. She’s elegant yet lethal and with her fighting style being a combination of martial arts and spear mastery.

I love Okoye’s sense of humour. She’s seemingly very stoic and serious, but she can also have a wicked sense of humour. It’s just that she knows when she needs to be professional and be the face of the Dora Milaje, but when she’s with friends or not in a serious meeting, she can be funny and approachable.

Okoye’s incredible and I’m sure she, along with M’Baku, are keeping Wakanda together and I can’t wait to see her again in Endgame.

M is for Maria Rambeau

*Vague Captain Marvel spoilers*

I won’t lie, when I was planning out what character I’d have for each day of this A-Z in April Challenge, M was going to be all about Maria Hill. But then I saw Captain Marvel and a different Maria just had to be the one I talked about.

Maria Rambeau is pretty darn great. She’s an Air Force pilot and a single mother and to be honest, if she wasn’t around, the heroes wouldn’t have done nearly so well. I think that’s one of the reasons Maria is such a well-written and interesting character. She’s not just Carol’s best friend who helps Carol figure out who she is, but she’s her own person who is important to the plot.

Maria is a fantastic pilot but because she’s a woman has had to sit on the sidelines a lot of the time. However, when she gets the chance to fly, she’s amazing and can even out fly alien ships. I also love Maria’s relationship with her daughter Monica. They’re like a little partnership whilst never losing the mother/daughter boundaries. Maria is definitely a great movie mum.

I really liked Maria’s attitude as well. Her best friend who she presumed was dead turns up with superpowers and there’s aliens in her kitchen, but she takes it all in her stride. She’s strong-willed, smart and caring but that doesn’t mean she won’t tell people what she thinks and gives some home truths if needed.

I’m sad that with the likely time difference between Captain Marvel and any future films featuring Carol Danvers, that if she and Monica do meet again it’s likely that a different actor will play Monica. It’s a shame because I thought Lashana Lynch was great and she had a lot of chemistry with Brie Larson.

L is for Luis

Who didn’t come out of the first Ant-Man film not loving Luis?! He is funny, caring (he makes food for his friends as they’re working), and loyal.

Luis is a criminal, but he’s a loveable criminal who got arrested for a petty crime but from being in jail he met Scott and got a best friend. Luis is the kind of guy who looks at the positives in life even when there’s a lot of things going against him.

Luis’s monologues/story telling are the best! I like how they’re all filmed anyway with the different actors mouthing the lines, but I also like how Luis can go off on a tangent, giving minor details that are nothing to do with the main point of the story but instead show what some of his interests are. He needs people to help him focus otherwise he might not ever stop talking.

Luis is great fun. I like how in Ant-Man and the Wasp he is now the boss of a security company with Scott, Kurt and Dave and he tries to be a good boss and wants to have a successful company. That doesn’t stop him doing perhaps less than legal things to help Scott out though. Their friendship is wonderful and supportive.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters I Wish Would Get Their OWN Book

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature run by BrokeAndBookish each week – I’m thinking I might not take part every week but just see if a week takes my fancy. I love secondary characters, sometimes more than the main character, so this was the perfect Top Ten Tuesday for me as I always want to know more about minor or secondary characters.

Angela – The Inheritance Cycle – Christopher Paolini
I quite like not knowing much about Angela’s past but I think it would be cool to have a story about what she did after Galbatorix is defeated. I’d love to see her go on more adventures and get involved in other rebellions and excitements.

Robin Goodfellow – Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman
Robin Goodfellow is a very old puck so I’d love to read about his adventures before he met Cal and Nico in the twenty-first century.

Murtagh – The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
Murtagh is such a tragic character. I’d love to have a book from his point of view about when he is captured by Galbatorix and how he came to be bounded with Thorn, his dragon. It wouldn’t be a fun story but I’d like to see what was done to him to make him turn against Eragon, but at the same time what made him stay strong and try to protect Nasuada.

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S is for: Secondary Characters

I really like secondary characters, whether they’re in film, TV shows or books I’m probably going to be more interested in in the secondary character(s) or at least like them quicker than the main characters. I think it’s because the secondary characters sometimes say what we’re all thinking, or that they’re funny, or that because their secondary characters you don’t know that much about them so you can make up your own backstory for them.

So here are some of my favourite secondary characters:

Angela from the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
I love how mysterious Angela is, and while you do get some hints to what her background is in the final book, I love how you never know everything about her. I think if you did she’d lose something that makes her so special. Angela is a healer and witch and has the uncanny ability to turn up wherever significant events are happening.

Jonathan Carnahan from The Mummy and The Mummy Returns
(I feel as if I’m forever mentioning The Mummy and Jonathan Carnahan in these blog posts – oh well! Just shows home much I love him)
Jonathan is funny, loyal but slightly useless. He’d do anything to help his family but he’s also a bit of a scaredy-cat that being said when he needs to step up the plate he does so.