Companions, Ranked

Misogyny, brutality, torture, Porco Rosso still hasn’t come to my mailbox, the rest of the world appears to be falling apart, and it’s nearly premiere day, time to lighten up again, and you know what that means. But this time, it means something a little different.

The Top Tier Team of Badassery

The other day, a slightly buzzed textual conversation led to me considering which recent and semi-recent TV and semi-TV characters might be regarded as all-time badasses. This further led me to play that most beloved of geeky pastimes, Zombie Survival Team, which I modified to Survival Team or Shit Going Down Team. Who made the cut, and why? Read on.

In Sea, Plain, and Sky: Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

“A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.”

In Sea, Plain, and Sky: My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

“When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby.”

In Sea, Plain, and Sky: Castle in the Sky (1986)

“A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.”

In Sea, Plain, and Sky: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

“In the far future, man has destroyed the Earth in the 'Seven Days of Fire'. Now, there are small pockets of humanity that survive. One pocket is the Valley of Wind where a princess named Nausicaä tries to understand, rather than destroy the Toxic Jungle.”

"Evil is Dumb"

            While obviously the cast of character in Game of Thrones can’t be handily divided between Good and Evil, it is still a moral series, with a clear sense of and ideas about what is right and what is wrong. It may have its fair share of amoral characters, but the show is not amoral itself. Each character in the complicated ethical landscape of the series has something to say. But my favorite statement has always come from Tywin Lannister.