10, 9. Artie Abrams, Brittany S. Pierce (Kevin McHale, Heather Morris, Glee)
Even before they were a unit, I’d have chosen the two of them the ones I wanted to hug. Artie because, aw, he’s just adorable and in my opinion the most fierce of the guys vocally and he wears glasses and sweatervests and he’s all awkward and dorky and stuff. Brittany because, well, she’s just the most lovable ditzy idiot on the planet. Last week’s business with Santana was beautiful. And she may be kind of a flirt sometimes, but she’s a really sweet flirt.
8. Anne of Cleves (Joss Stone, The Tudors)
Now, of Henry VIII’s wives, she’s totally the one I would be. (Yes, I am so lame and into casting things that I ACTUALLY assigned people I know to his wives. I have no life, okay?) I get that business of being the sweet, awkward one in the corner with breasts. I kind of just want to hug her because I feel downright bad for her. No, Henry didn’t divorce her for some bogus religious reason, she just wasn’t Jane, and she wasn’t up to his pretty standards or whatever. (Which I get in real life, but at least in Tudorscanon, when it’s Joss Stone, uhm, what? She’s adorable.) Poor poor baby.
7. Sofia Metz (Bree Seanna Wall, Deadwood)
The only child on my list, actually. A lot of kids get the “aw, you’re so tiny and cute” hug, but a hug for Sofia would be more detailed. She’s a freaking trouper. See your entire family get murdered? Get shuffled around between whores and drunks and finally end up with a laudanum-imbibing widow? Manage to go through your formative school years while getting over these traumas and learning English and spending a while sleeping on said widow’s chaise lounge? And still have a sweet disposition? Hero. (And there is the “aw, you’re so tiny and cute” part of it, too.)
6, 5, 4. Oz Osbourne, Willow Rosenberg, Tara Maclay (Seth Green, Alyson Hannigan, Amber Benson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Okay, these three do make up a quasi-triangle of heartwrenchingest season four moments ever, but I don’t even want to hug them in a group. That group hug could actually be sorta of the weird. I legitimately want to hug them separately for separate reasons. Oz, because he’s just always laid back and chill and yet he totally cares about people and he’s probably underrated. Willow, because she is RIDICULOUSLY PRECIOUS and her character arc is amazing and she’s nerdy and talks too much and I love that. Tara, because she starts out shy and she grows, too, and she’s just a sweetheart. I don’t know, all three of them are endearing for different reasons. Oz makes me smile ’cause he’s funny in a not-quite-obvious way. Willow makes me smile ’cause she’s honestly one of the most adorable people on television ever and when she smiles I can’t help but match it. Tara makes me smile ’cause she’s just — well, she’s sort of an amazing girlfriend and friend and so-on, and she’s there when she’s needed without expecting anything, and she deserves spontaneous affection.
3, 2. Hoban “Wash” Washburne, Kaylee Frye (Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite, Firefly)
Not that I wouldn’t relish the chance to give the entire crew a hug for whatever reason. (Mal, for example, would be so awkward about it. And that would be hilarious.) But these two get my vote for most adorable on the ship, and therefore are huggable. Wash ’cause I’ve just… got a soft spot. I love that he worries, I love that he’s funny, I love how much he cares about everyone, I love his freakin’ dinosaurs. Kaylee ’cause I’ve got a massive I-relate-to-you soft spot and, well, I think Kaylee needs more hugs. She’s the kind of person who would give them all the time if everyone else wouldn’t be so weird about it, and she deserves some in return. She’s just too sweet and she doesn’t get nearly enough overt, crazysweet affection. She’s also another of those faces where she smiles and I smile with her. (Or she frowns and I frown with her, too.) I’d group-hug these two, mostly because (though we don’t get a whole lot of the two of them just hanging together) I’m pretty sure they’re like… bestie ship-running buddies. And that is precious, too.
1. Topher Brink (Fran Kranz, Dollhouse)
Not just because I’m way more in love with him than a person has any right to be with a fictional character. Though that helps. Even before my crush kicked in full-swing (I didn’t actually crush too hard till season 2), I wanted to hug him. Especially, as I have said before, Epitaph!Topher. All crazy in his pod of books and random Buddha statues and knickknacks and games and stuff. All desperately sad because he enabled the apocalypse even though he didn’t mean to, and anyway it’s not inventing something that makes you evil, it’s the people who do evil with that something that are evil, and, oh dear God, I love him so much. “Haunted” in season 1 where he makes his buddyfriend for his birthday and he and Sierra run around all night playing laser tag and stuff? SO SO SWEET. His awkward just makes me want to full-on bearhug him.
–your fangirl heroine.
