30 Days of Pride Challenge - Day 12

On a lighter note (because I need it) let's continue the 30 Days of Pride Challenge. #30DaysOfPride

12. Name your favorite fictional LGBTQ character.
That moment when you try to force yourself not to be totally shameless and name your own characters. XD

(Please note, this answer WILL contain spoilers for various shows/games.)

Seriously though, I'm often drawn to stories (shows/movies/games/books/etc) that happen to feature a prominent queer and/or trans character.  And in truth, I'm
more likely to get into a terrible story that happens to have a queer character than and a great story with all cis het characters.  The catch is that terrible stories tend to be terrible.  And a lot of popular media does an awful job of representing LGBTQ characters.  For instance, I love anime.  But so help me, if I see one more storyline with a seemingly well-written trans character who grows as a person only by "getting over" their transness, I'll f***ing scream.  

That vent aside, there ARE some good representations in media.  Pearl from Steven Universe is a fairly recent favorite queer character of mine.  She's just super real, and well-written (far better than I'd ever have expected from a kid show).  And in terms of pairings, I've got nothing but love for Alphys and Undyne from Undertale.  It suffers a little from my pet peeve of "nothing really happens between them until the story is over", but their blushing crushes on each other are presented several times before then... and it's adorable.  What makes both of these examples so much better is that no one questions any of it in their respective stories.  They simply are what they are, and there doesn't need to be any pomp and circumstance about it.

Also, it's purely crackpot fangirl shipping on my part, but I'll be so disappointed if Ruby x Weiss (from RWBY) never becomes a thing.  

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As for trans characters, unfortunately, I tend to have a harder time with their depictions.  I'm sure I've seen examples that didn't make me want to tear my hair out, but there are so many bad examples, I struggle to think of any of any of the good ones at the moment.  All I can really think of are my headcanons for silent protagonists in games I've talked about in the past.  Like:
Dragon Warrior 3 (NES)
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and oddly, South Park: The Stick of Truth
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Obviously, there's no basis, and these were certainly not intended by their respective creators.  Yet somehow, unintentional headcanons like these end up feeling better written to me than 99% of intentional trans characters who are probably in the story as some kind of novelty.  :/

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I would like to close by adding that all of my stories feature several queer and especially trans characters.  I remember when Rain was still really new, reading a comment (I can't remember where or why) where someone said something to the tune of, "I don't think you really see trans characters in a lot of media because the idea is always the same with only minor variation.  There's not much room to build on it."  I couldn't disagree more!  And since then, it's been kind of a mission of mine to write at least one trans character into every new story I have (and of course, make it feel natural and not forced).  And moreover, to distinguish each one as a wholly unique character portrayed differently than the last.  I believe there's a LOT of room to build on this, and as a trans person, I want to see it built upon.  I want a revolution of well-written, unique transgender characters.  ^_^