Top Ten Secondary Characters Who Stole the Show

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Warning: This list will include fangirling, more than 10 characters, disorder, and spoil a couple of character deaths, but only ones you should know by now. The sneaky ones will remain in wait.

Humanoid Companions

This category consists of humans. Well, mostly. Humanoid because of that one pesky robot. Otherwise I would have had to make a FIFTH section, and that would just be silly.

Colonel Fitzwilliam from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Colonel Fitzwilliam is just the best, and I would totally ship him with Lizzie if she and Darcy were not MTB and everything. He's a great friend to Lizzie and Darcy both. P&P would not end happily were it not for his existence, I feel. And Lady Catherine's. Mwahaha. Oh, also, I approve of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries version where he's gay. That SO works. Anyway, just love him.
Finnick from Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: Here's the beginning of them breaking my heart. A lot of my favorites die. HOW DO THE AUTHORS KNOW? HOW? *coughs* Excuse me. Also, before you yell at me, you should have read the books and not waited for the movies. This is your own fault.
Miss Honey from Matilda by Roald Dahl: Do not even pretend that after you read this book you didn't sort of wish you had evil parents so that Miss Honey would adopt you.
Uncle Mort from the Croak trilogy by Gina Damico: I can has? Uncle Mort is hilarious, incredibly brilliant, sarcastic, hot and totally of an age where I am legitimately allowed to give him book boyfriend status. He has a sort of long distance girlfriend, but I'm sure I can take care of that.
Hamlet from Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde: Now, he MAY be a main character somewhere else, but who cares about that? Hamlet, the fictional character, is all meta and running around London. He's basically hilarious. He does things like going to critique all performances of Hamlet and having a meltdown trying to order a coffee because there are SO. MANY. CHOICES. As we all know, Hamlet and decisive do not go hand-in-hand.
Mahir from the Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant: Okay, so I basically love Shaun and Georgia's whole team, but I have a special spot in my heart for Mahir. He's just so classy and intelligent. I basically picture him like THIS.
Michi from Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff: Badass lady who is awesome. Would have a lady crush on her, except that Kat Kennedy totally called it first, and I am NOT getting in Kat's way. She is Australian and would no doubt sic spiders and kangaroos on me.
Nehemia from Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas: A YA best friend who does not hate the heroine for being more beautiful? A friendship based on shared interests and mutual respect? WHUH. Basically, I friendship Celaena and Nehemia really hard.
Tom from Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry: Hot Asian. With abs. And not a teen. Also, he is awesome at zombie-killing, which comes in handy. Basically, Tom's a really good guy, and he takes great care of his brother even though Benny's sort of a snot for much of the beginning of the series.
Iko and Captain Thorne from Scarlet by Marissa Meyer: THESE TWO ARE THE BEST. I ship them a lot. Even though Iko's a robot and currently a spaceship, and Thorne is human. DETAILS.
Elend from Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson: Okay, so, I'm cheating a little (Does this surprise you? If so, REALLY?), but Elend really isn't a major player in the first book. He's OBVIOUSLY going to be the love interest/a main character later, but in Mistborn he's secondary, but PRIMARY IN MY HEART.

Animal Companions

Furry creatures (or sometimes scaly) are some of my favorite characters in fiction. I mean, when a person dies in my book, I'm like OOOH. When an animal dies, I weep and yell at the book and it's a whole emotional mess of a thing.

Rex from the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich: Rex is Stephanie's hamster, and he is adorable. He's super chill and loves all food ever and lives in a tomato soup can. I think once he was in danger and I was SO CONCERNED.
Buruu and Daken from Stormdancer and Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff: BURUU MADE ALL CAPS AWESOME AGAIN. Daken is a cat and he is awesome.
Igor from The Year of Shadows by Claire Legrand: Another cat. This one might talk like Cary Grant.
Wolf from Winter Omens by Trisha Leigh: Such a wonderful doggy companion. Warm and snuggly and sweet and catches food for youuuu.
Ramoth from Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey: How much did I want to live on Pern and have a dragon best friend? SO MUCH. (Also, you get to have strange but really hot our-dragons-are-into-each-other sex. This could get problematic fast, but whatevs ignore that.)
Manchee from The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: MANCHEEEEE! This puppy has such a rough life, but he is so sweet and determined and would never leave your side.
Hedwig from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling: I loved a lot of the animals, but Hedwig has been with you for seven books. I cried BUCKETS of tears when she died. ROWLING, HOW COULD YOU? (Again, if you haven't seen the movies OR read the books, you deserve this spoiler. OWN IT.)
A-Through-L from The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente: A dragon who is also half of an encyclopedia. He's part library. I mean, come on. Clearly, he is the best companion ever.
Ampersand from Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan: Generally, monkeys aren't my favorite animals, but Ampersand is fabulous.

Best of Both Worlds

Can't decide between a human companion and one of some other sort of animal variety? I have you covered. You may also choose one of the rare shifter models. With them at your side, you're ready for anything!

Rory from the Spiritwalker trilogy by Kate Elliott: Rory is the main character's brother and he's half cougar. Also, he's a HUGE flirt and acts like such a cat even as a human. He's hilarious and ridiculous and I love him.

Orma from Seraphina by Rachel Hartman: Orma is a grumpy old man/dragon, and it's fantastic. One of my favorite quotes was one where he was talking about how much he hates kids. Love it!

Hatsuharu and Kureno Sohma from Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya: Since I couldn't just be like EVERY CHARACTER FROM FRUITS BASKET, I limited myself to my two favorite non-MC Sohmas. Hatsuharu is, honestly, just kinda hot, but, on top of that, he's very loving and devoted. Kureno has a really compelling story ARC and he's this really nice, selfless guy, which I usually do not go for, but love here.

Sassy Grandmas

Finally, I noticed a trend in fiction that grandmothers are often the best. Thus, I want to highlight some books with wonderful, sassy grandmothers. Since these are mostly YA and the MC isn't going to call grandma by her first name, they're pretty much all Gram or Grandma, so I'm just putting the book. Sorry, Gram. I also won't break these out individually, but these are the grandmas who are bossy, say hilariously inappropriate things, and always have your back. I know I'm forgetting some but still, a respectable showing!

Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe by Shelley Coriell
Famous Last Words by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
The Bookie's Son by Andrew Goldstein
The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Delcroix Academy series by Inara Scott

That was closer to thirty than ten, but I have no regrets. Do you love any of these characters? If so, FLAIL WITH ME!