The faces we can never forget...

I've been thinking a lot about putting faces to characters lately. I can partly blame the lovely Marlene, who decided to post a bunch of pictures of her beloved Doctor Rawlings and gush about how utterly wonderful he is. (I am still Team Edward II. However handsome the good doctor might be.) I also blame this post on character boards from Go Teen Writers. I don't know why this post has been stuck in my head (it's rather old), but I think what struck me was how utterly recognizable the majority of the people on her character board are. *shrug*

One of the best things about books is that everyone "sees" the book in a totally different way. I remember the first time I saw Harry Potter on the big screen (which was loooong after I read the books). I was in a state of shock because everything was DIFFERENT. Wildly, wildly different. I still get that same sense whenever I see an adaptation of one of my favorite books. For example...

A TALE OF TWO CITIES. (I just finished this wondrous book in school today. I nearly cried. It was so beautiful, I wanted to stand on top of my desk and shout it out to the world. Of course, everyone in my English class already thinks I'm crazy, so that probably wouldn't have helped my case.) We watched parts of the mini series (1989) in class and it practically ruined everything for me. Want to know why? Well, I shall enlighten you!

I was only a little ways into the book when we started. It took all of 0.000001 seconds to realize that Lucie Manette was ALL WRONG. Don't even try to argue with me --- this isn't even up for debate. Please excuse me, but Lucie Manette is supposed to be noticeably pretty. Not dog ugly!!! See for yourself.

Love the hair. You should see the back. It's this big straight thing that goes down to her waist. And she's totally a blonde. Yup. Just like Lucie Manette.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

I barely knew the characters when we watched the mini series, and I was soon tricked into thinking that Darnay is/was more awesome than he really is/was (no spoilers, promise). See, during the trial, he does this adorable little smile thing and... Gah, my heart seriously melted. Not to mention he is undeniably attractive. So yes, I was swooning in the middle of class. It was kind of hard for Sydney Carton to follow up. It took me quite a few chapters to realize that nowhere in the text does Charles Dickens mention Darnay's swoon-worthy smile.

As there are no YouTube clips of the series except for this one here, I cannot prove to you how adorable Darnay was. But I can give you a video of Carton being awesome, Lucie being ugly, and photographic evidence of Darnay's general attractiveness. I would recommend renting the series and skipping to the initial trial. Just wait for the smile. A part of you will die along with it.

(Way more attractive when moving and smiling adorably.)

ANYWAYS.

My point is, characters tend to look a little different in our heads than in other people's heads. That's why there are, like, 20 different movie adaptations of every Jane Austen book known to man out there. Everyone has a different vision. But some people's vision just happen to be better than others...

In relation to my writing, I always picture my one hero like Liam Hemsworth in The Hunger Games as Gale. When I saw him in the trailer for the movie, I squealed. If one were to slap a cap on him, make him frown a lot, and get him to keep quiet, he'd be a dead ringer. Here's a picture just so you can see what I see:

(I love the awkward kid right next to Gale, who is totally and completely in focus. ^_^)

Speaking of The Hunger Games...

You're welcome.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

*dies inside*