The Fantasy Geek Valentine: Heroes I Fell in Love With

French author Daniel Pennac listed 10 Rights of the Reader :

• The right not to read
• The right to skip
• The right not to finish a book
• The right to read it again
• The right to read anything
• The right to mistake a book for real life
• The right to read anywhere
• The right to dip in
• The right to read out loud
• The right to be quiet

They’re wonderful rights I hope all of you know, teach and enjoy. But that’s not my point today. My point is Pennac forgot a right. The right every Geek Girl knows for sure: to fall in love with a character.

Even if we’re Geek Moms now, we still have that damn right. Even if some of us have the chance to live with the geek love of our life and father of our geeklings… well, we’re not cheating on him, are we? They’re fictional, after all.

So there are my own loves escaped from geek books’ pages. I won’t give them ranks. You don’t rate love.

Sirius Black from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series

Every HP fan girl has her dreamboy in the series. Having a crush on Sirius Black is such a stereotype, isn’t it? I mean, he’s so dark, and scarred by life in an oh-so-handsome way. He’s a mysterious figure in the night, the innocent convict on-the-run, the daring fighter enclosed in the hated walls of his own past. He even gets a motorbike!

I’m aware of all that, as I was aware that he was meant to die as soon as I finished Book 3. I love him anyway. And he has such a wonderful name. I care for names, and the ones of the Black family are worthy of a Sky Chart.

So I used to visit him in the blackest of night, trying to comfort him against Azkaban’s nightmares, as I used to dance with his ghost.

Valentines for him could be tagged on his cell’s walls. Or, more poetically, written in the stars.

Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars

I cannot really understand why. He’s neither sexy like Han Solo, nor young and heroic like Luke, nor dark and tormented like Anakin. However it’s Obi-Wan I’m in love with.

Perhaps I’ve got a thing for ghosts?

Or is that because of the way he combines juvenile and mature sides?

Or because of his delicious British features, as he was portrayed by Sir Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor?

You could write your valentine in haiku (that’s what I did, actually) and whisper it through the Force (or through a telescope).

Armand from Anne Rice’s Chronicles of the Vampires

That’s where you see I am a Geek Mom and not a Geek Girl anymore, since I read Anne Rice instead of Stephenie Meyer.

Anyway, most of you probably had a crush on Lestat or Louis rather than Armand. Louis is a bit too whiny for my tastes, but I admit Lestat is wonderful. So strong and sunny and bigger-than-world. But I fell for Armand. The slender, beautiful, mysterious one. Subtle and elegant. With the face of an Angel from some Italian Renaissance painting. Fascinated and terrified by death. And more than a bit gay, actually. But, well, they’re imaginary valentines, aren’t they? So who cares if they’re straight or gay?

Valentines written in blood would be really vulgar. Prefer a painted one, or something played on a scene like a medieval mystery.

(You notice I haven’t even mentioned the Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise issue. That’s not my point, anyway.)

Morpheus from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman
One you simply have to love.

Dark-featured and dark-mooded, hopelessly lonely and longing for company, sometimes so fragile you’d want to hug him very tightly (or shake him very strongly, especially if you’re His sister), sometimes distant and cruel and other-worldly, reminding you he’s among the Endless.

The Lord Dream: the most faithful of all your lovers, Geek Girls. You might be certain you’ll come to him every night, and every night His realm will wait for you.

You won’t have any problem delivering your valentines. If ever, you might leave one in His wonderful library, Lucien will take care of it.

Corwin of Amber from Roger Zelazny’s Amber series

This one is very, very, special to me, probably because I actually played his loving step-daughter in the Amber RPG.

Handsome, black-haired and green-eyed, stronger than any mortal man, quite handy with a sword, quite sarcastic with words, desperate with women and, above all, resilient. Gone through every fire, through amnesia and exile, through blindness and prison, through the end of his own dreams. What a hero. One that modeled most of them, according to the Amber’s cosmogony. And indeed he has something of redeemed Oedipus, of tragic Celtic and Norse heroes with crows on their shoulders, of King Arthur, and perhaps even to the other Heroes of that list.

I’m not sure I will allow you girls to write him any valentine.

But if you do, as he’s also a musician and composer, you should opt for a Ballad.

Aragorn from… oh, seriously, is there anyone here who doesn’t know where he comes from?

You probably met him at a very young age, as I did. He first appeared through the deep smokes of an inn, some mysterious fellow you were not sure to trust.

But then he became this man you have to love: a lonely Ranger, his dark features softened by a gaze too old for his face, and the sweet Elvish accent of his words. Heir of Ancient Kings, crowned with Seven Stars, born to reforge a Sword, revive a Silver Tree, refound a Kingdom.

And promised to another, one with whom you cannot compete.

You can still send him a valentine. He’s a gentleman, and will treat you gently, as he did with Eowyn.

Write it in Tengwar, that’s the least you can do.

Of course, there are many others enclosed in my girly heart. As I’m sure you have, too. So, Geek Moms who used to be Geek Girls, and still are, for that one special day… close your eyes and remember them.

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