Fannish Friday (early): Favorite Non-human characters

[lirazel]

Who are your favorite characters that aren't human? For the purposes of this discussion, this rules out ghosts, too, and also characters who were once human but became something human adjacent (say, vampires or angels or werewolves) or were something else but became human (Anya from BtVS).

Let's talk about cool characters who were never human in the first place! With an emphasis on those that feel actually other or whose lack of humanity is a central characteristic.

There are characters I love that aren't technically human but that pretty much are at least in how they act (Vulcans and Bajorans from ST and Lorne from AtS all come to mind). But

Here are some of mine:

+ Data is my favorite ST: TNG character. I know he acts very human, but his otherness is built into his story--I really think that all the most moving moments, especially from the first few seasons, were built around him and his attempts to understand his own humanity or lack thereof. We love an android!

+ And speaking of ST, everyone's weird boyfriend Doug Jones does a fantastic job of making Saru on DSC feel like something other than a human. Frankly, any Doug Jones character feels otherworldly!

+ I won't spoil it by going into detail, but I really love the alien character in Some Desperate Glory

+ The faerie characters in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell feel super other to me

+ All of the animal characters in Robin McKinley's books are very lovable

+ Selver from The Word for World Is Forest is totally emotionally understandable and yet still feels very alien to me

What about y'all?

Comments

[theseatheseatheopensea]

My first thought was the cat in "Hangover Square", who makes the ending be even sadder! This photo from the movie adaptation was my desktop image for years (and one of my old LJ/DJ icons, too!):

[lirazel]

I've gotta watch this one!

[dollsome]

My answer when I skimmed your post was that I recently really enjoyed the aliens on the sci-fi sitcom People of Earth while rewatching, but they're definitely very Human Coded, so they don't quite fit the prompt. But also: I love them. Silly guys!

Also: Cheddar the dog from B99. A legend forever!

This post reminded me of how I deeply want to do a Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell reread, but will I ever find the time and focus? That is the question! Someday ...

[lirazel]

Hahaha icon!

Cheddar was indeed a legend!

but will I ever find the time and focus?

IT'S SO LONG, HANNAH.

[chestnut_pod]

+ The JSMN faeries ARE so inhuman. She has more in the Ladies of Grace Adieu which are even more chilling than the Gentleman, imo.

+ I love the griffins in Diana Wynne Jones' The Dark Lord of Derkholm. They're so charming and realistic and specific.

[lirazel]

I don't remember Grace Adieu very clearly--I should revisit it!

Oh that sounds fun! I haven't read that one, but charming and specific griffins sound up my alley.

[genarti]

Oh yes, the griffins are great! Raised by and alongside humans, but they still feel very anchored in their own bodies and instincts rather than being humans who happen to have plot-relevant flight abilities, to me, which is a tricky line to walk.

[dolorosa_12]

As someone who loves stories about relationships (romantic or otherwise) between human and non-human characters, this post/question feels almost designed with me in mind! I only enjoy these kinds of characters and relationships if the non-human characters are completely alien and inhuman (or if their emotions are like extreme versions of the human equivalent). The JS&MN faeries are the perfect example of this — they're so eerie and uncanny, with nothing human about them.

I'm not sure I'd agree with you that vampires should be excluded from this category due to having previously been human — I think sometimes you get vampires that were turned so long ago that they've become something other by virtue of the distance of time from their human lives.

Some other non-human characters I enjoy:

The sentient spaceship 'mindships' in Aliette de Bodard's far-future Vietnamese history/mythology-inspired Xuya space opera universe;

The terminator Cameron Phillips in Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles;

Pretty much every supernatural being in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence — they're similar in a lot of ways to the faeries in JS&MN;

All the pagan gods and supernatural beings in Katherine Arden's Winternight trilogy (Morozko in particular is just my ideal fictional non-human character in terms of how he's written);

(Spoilers for a fifteen-year-old book) Nick Ryves from Sarah Rees Brennan's Demon's Lexicon trilogy — he's just such a great deconstruction of the 'my dark, mysterious, demon boyfriend' YA character, written by someone who obviously has a lot of affection for all the clichés in relation to this type of character;

I could go on — I have such a long list of answers to this question!

[lirazel]

I think sometimes you get vampires that were turned so long ago that they've become something other by virtue of the distance of time from their human lives.

This is true--I do feel Ysidro from the James Asher books feel appropriately not-human, and the monk vampire character in the first book provided my favorite vampire scene in fiction for this exact reason. But in general, vampire characters seem to be me to be written like "people with over the top emotions" and not "something that is Other," which is what I was going for in this particular post.

The sentient spaceship 'mindships' in Aliette de Bodard's far-future Vietnamese history/mythology-inspired Xuya space opera universe;

COOL!

I could go on — I have such a long list of answers to this question!

Feel free! I love your answers!

[dolorosa_12]

The vampires in the James Asher books are exactly what I was thinking of — and Con from McKinley's Sunshine as well. (She's so good at using subtle hints to indicate his inhumanity — the way he moves, his facial expressions, the fact that he never uses a single contraction when speaking, etc.)

'People with over the top emotions' is probably a good description of most vampire characters, though — you're so right!

A lot of my other answers here are from medieval literature, which doesn't have characters so much as tropes and archetypes (it's very fanfiction-y in that way, actually, although of course fic does very much dig into the characters' psychology).

One such character I love is Suibne from Buile Shuibne ('The Frenzy/Madness of Suibne'), who starts out as human, but then gets cursed by a Christian saint, experiences what I can only describe as PTSD from battlefield trauma, and becomes what the text describes as a birdlike person — he grows feathers, he flees in terror from human beings and human habitation, he leaps from treetop to treetop, all the while spouting the most beautiful, heartbreaking poetry about the wild beauty of the natural world, simultaneously lamenting the loss of his human life and celebrating the strange, painful freedom of his new existence.

Another text of this nature that I love is Immacaldam Choluim Chille ocus ind Óclaig oc Carraic Eolairg ('The Colloquy of Colum Cille and the Youth at Carraic Eorlag'), which is really, really weird, even by medieval Irish standards. It involves a saint (Colum Cille) encountering a supernatural youth, and separating from his travelling companions to converse with the youth. When he returns, his companions ask him what they discussed, and Colum Cille refrains from answering, saying instead that 'it is better for mortals not to know it.' So the implication is either that his saintliness makes him somehow not mortal, or, the act of moving apart from his companions and discussing whatever he discussed with the otherworldly youth rendered him inhuman. I'm not sure if this was the original medieval authorial intention, but the effect on a modern reader (or on me at least) is haunting, unnerving, and uncanny.

Other nonhuman characters that I love (that don't require paragraphs of contextualisation re: medieval Irish literature) include the titular golem and djinni from Helene Wecker's novel, the dragons in Rachel Hartman's books, and a lot of the characters in various Victor Kelleher novels that aren't technically human, but to explain why would constitute a spoiler (since most of his novels are science fiction books grappling with the question 'what does it mean to be human?' in very concrete, literal ways).

I think you would like de Bodard's Xuya universe — and a lot of it is available for free as short stories online, so you would be able to get a sense for it before committing to paying any money. Most works in the universe are standalone.

[lirazel]

YES! McKinley and Hambly both do a magnificent job of conveying Otherness to their vampires. I was thinking more like, say, BtVS or IwtV, which feel much less Other to me.

THIS WAS SO INTERESTING! Thank you for sharing! I know very little about medieval lit, so I wasn't familiar with most of these, but it was fun to read about them!

Orma! <3

I think you would like de Bodard's Xuya universe — and a lot of it is available for free as short stories online, so you would be able to get a sense for it before committing to paying any money. Most works in the universe are standalone.

Interesting! I'll check them out--thank you for the rec!

[sobsister]

Have you ever heard of Julie Czerneda? She has a series around a shapeshifter character called Esen, whose species (there's a handful of individuals, who are all sort of blobs that separated from an eldest) is/are kind of archivists/anthropologists/spies - they can consume the dna of other species and take on their form and modes of thought. There's a lot of fun stuff about how bodily form shapes how people/cultures interpret and interact with the world (Czerneda is a former biologist and it shows in the range of alien species Esen meets and sometimes transforms into). Each time Esen shifts into a different species, her personality shifts somewhat too, so you have this really interesting exploration of the continuity of the self in different environments and when different people know her as particular versions of herself. It's also a very fun on take on the 'Horrifying Space Blob that Eats You' trope, because Esen really does have to consume living tissue, and from some perspectives she would be/is terrifying. On her first solo 'mission' embedding in a culture, she accidentally reveals herself to a Human scientist, whose response is less fear and more OH THIS IS SO COOL. And they become best friends and have to hide from other humans whose response is way more OH NO SHAPESHIFTING KILLER BLOB FROM OUTER SPACE and eventually they create a library of cultures together. I really love Esen.

[lirazel]

I have not heard of her, but that sounds SO interesting! I am putting that on my to-read list right away because it sounds incredible! Thank you for the rec!

[genarti]

Diane Duane is often very good at this; I particularly love the cats in The Book of Night With Moon.

The aliens in The Color of Distance -- the novel is all about the first contact between them and a human who comes to live with them for a time (and has to be biochemically altered to survive it), and it's fascinating and really compelling.

[lirazel]

I adore a good cat character!

I'm not familiar with that novel but it sounds great! I'm getting great recs in this post!

[thisbluespirit]

The 'elements' or whatever they are from Sapphire & Steel! By nothing more than writing, atmosphere and acting they are the most other characters I've ever come across and the whole show provides an outsider POV on humanity. They exist, they come from somewhere, they go somewhere, they had beginnings of some kind, they do what they do and they're fascinating, but a mystery to humans and to each other. They say they're not alien as such, though, either. ("Only in the non-terrestrial sense.") They are probably anthropomorphised metals, alloys and minerals in some sense, maybe? Steel says his origins are postive but inexpressible. Sapphire can't imagine him having origins. Steel can't imagine Silver having a beginning, either. They all seem to be telepathic, and they each have abilities that relate to the metal/alloy/mineral they call themselves. They exist to fix time when it breaks. They have probably existed for centuries. Probably. They have freedom, of a sort, but are sent by something or someone. They have feelings and relationships (whatever form that takes) and even gossip sometimes, but they are the most beautifully other and mysterious characters I've ever come across. When they do more human things, they almost 'play' at it & seem amused, making them never more alien. My biggest regret about the series ending is that we didn't get more Elements, which we probably would have done if it had even one more serial, which is why I love OC element fic. (OCs are Ok in this fandom! XD)

Sapphire:

Sapphire senses and sees things.

Steel:

(Steel does not: eat, sleep, drink.)

Silver:


(He makes things sparkle and glow. It comes naturally.)

There's also Lead, but I haven't made gifs of Lead. Assignment 1 is very green and brown, lol. I must tho.

Lead:

Steel is not allowed to take his temperature to below freezing without Lead around to warm him up after!

I'm also very fond of D84 from the Doctor Who serial "The Robots of Death" who is Best Robot. ("Please do not throw hands at me!")

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Yay Elements and Best Robot! <3

[thisbluespirit]

♥

[lirazel]

I never had any sense of what that show was about but that is SO interesting! Thank you for sharing!

[thisbluespirit]

It is such a weird old little show, so strange and so unique! You wouldn't really. Before I watched it, I'd kind of assumed it was The Avengers but possibly with some sort of sff or supernatural aspect to it.

Given some of the things you look for in fiction and characters/relationships, I think you'd adore Elements, but obviously, it was made 1978-81, so it does require the patience to watch ancient TV. (In technical means alone; off the top of my head I can think of pretty much nothing in it that's not aged well otherwise.) They're so... other and strange it finally made me work out what my sexuality was. XD But there's not much of it, it's completely unique in TV SF and it's generally quite available via streaming services at the moment, so it's well worth a look if you ever fancy it.

It sort of grew out of the genre of 1970s nightmare fuel kids' TV, but they snagged Joanna Lumley and David McCallum for the leads, upgraded it to adult early evening TV, and turned lack of any remaining budget into some sort of weird beige, brown and green art form. It's claustrophobic, minimal, static and never deigns to explain itself, somehow genuinely still creepy, and I adored it to pieces.

(It's comprised of six serials, like classic Who serials, from 4-8 x 25 min episodes each. They're just known as Assignment 1, 2 etc. A1 is a good intro, although some people rec skipping it because it still has some of the trappings of its original concept as children's TV. I don't - I like Lead and it contains pretty much the only explanation of elements and what they do that we ever get! A2, we'd probably all have to agree is peak. My fave ones though, are the two serials with Silver, because I am all about the weird elemental OT3. ♥)

A long time ago, when I was deeply ill and had just watched it, I made this vid, which I do think is a reasonable look at what it has to offer and exactly how much static brown, beige and green TV you would have to sit through to get it, if you're curious. :-)

Sorry about the pitch! I love it a lot, in short. And if nothing else, there is some really cool fic if you want things that appeal to those of us on the grey & asexual side of the spectrum as well as being plain awesome.

[greenwoodside]

Adrian Tchaikovsky has a pretty good, playful line in non-human characters. My favourites of his are probably the ravens from Children of Memory, who aren't called Thought and Memory, but could be.

As with his cetaceans from Children of Ruin, they have a split consciousness. In the birds' case, one bird in a pair has something like the executive function, while the other has the power of noticing. They can only function by working together. In the case of the cetaceans, the brain/head does the emotions and executive stuff. The tentacles have mechanical intelligence and follow through on the wishes of the being at their centre.

[lirazel]

My favourites of his are probably the ravens from Children of Memory, who aren't called Thought and Memory, but could be.

Love this!

In the birds' case, one bird in a pair has something like the executive function, while the other has the power of noticing. They can only function by working together. In the case of the cetaceans, the brain/head does the emotions and executive stuff. The tentacles have mechanical intelligence and follow through on the wishes of the being at their centre.

That's so interesting!

[greenwoodside]

Interesting, though thankfully also with the bonus of being well-written and playful! Not just a concept sketched out on the back of an envelope, as that kind of thing runs the risk of being.

Thanks for the thread, by the way. Really enjoyed reading it.