Welcome back to another Top Ten Tuesday! This week’s prompt is “Book Characters I Wish Were Real People – And feel free to tell us why! Would you date them, be friends with them, etc.?” (Yes, I’m Cheating With Video Games)
Now, here’s the thing: when I sat down to make this list, I realized something about myself. The characters who feel most real to me, the ones I’d genuinely want to grab coffee with (or, in some cases, hide behind during an apocalypse), almost all come from video games. So I’m bending the rules today. The spirit of the prompt is “characters who feel like they could walk off the screen and into your life,” and these guys absolutely qualify.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Go check out everyone else’s (probably actual book) lists!
So here it is: my top ten characters I wish were real
— and whether I’d date them, befriend them, or politely run the other way.
1. Raiden / “Jack the Ripper” — Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Let’s start strong. Raiden is a cyborg ninja with a tragic past, a government-issued body, and a suppressed alter ego literally named after a Victorian serial killer. Is that healthy? Absolutely not. Is he interesting? Immensely. What I love about him is the arc: he spends the whole game pretending to be a normal family man in a killing machine’s body, and the story is really about him deciding who he wants to be when the mask comes off. Also, the man fights metal gear while surfing on missiles. Real people do not do that. He’d be exhausting at parties, but fascinating.
Verdict: Friend. Firmly friend. Dating someone with literal combat knives in his arms is a home insurance nightmare.
2. Dante — DmC: Devil May Cry (the black-haired one)
Yes, the reboot Dante. The one half the internet got mad about in 2013. I will defend him forever: sardonic, effortlessly cool, allergic to authority, and secretly (very secretly) carrying more damage than he ever lets on. He’s got that “laughs in the face of danger” energy that makes him irresistible on screen — and completely undateable in real life, because you know he wouldn’t text back unless hell was literally freezing over.
Verdict: I’d date him, fully aware it would end in tears. Or friend? Honestly he seems like the type who refuses to admit he has friends, so dating it is.
3. War — Darksiders
An apocalyptic horseman framed for starting the end of the world, who spends an entire game tearing through heaven and hell to clear his name. War is stoic, honorable in his own grim way, and has the best shoulder width in gaming. Talking to him would be like talking to a very large, very serious mountain — but a mountain that takes loyalty seriously. If War decided you were worth protecting, you would simply never need to worry about anything again.
Verdict: Friend. Imagine having THAT guy as your friend when your landlord tries to raise the rent.
4. My Guild Wars 2 characters (yes, all of them, as one entry)
Look, I have a problem. I don’t have a character in GW2, I have a roster. Each one has their own backstory, personality, and fashion crisis that I’ve spent far too long curating. Since I made them, I obviously think they’re great — but the point of this prompt is characters you’d want in your life, and mine feel real to me because I’ve lived their stories. Commander of the Pact, savior of Tyria, owner of far too many dye kits. If even one of them were real, I’d have accomplished more than most fantasy protagonists.
Verdict: Friends. Obviously. I created them; I know where the bodies are buried.
5. Connor — Detroit: Become Human
Connor, the android sent by CyberLife. The polymath deviant hunter who licks blood off the floor for investigative purposes and cannot understand why this alarms everyone. He’s earnest, endlessly competent, and his whole arc about choosing between the mission he was built for and the person he’s becoming is genuinely one of the best character journeys in gaming. Also he does that little coin-flip thing. Immediately iconic.
Verdict: Best friend. He’d remember my birthday down to the minute, and honestly, after some deviancy, he’d probably bring cake.
6. Markus — Detroit: Become Human
The leader, the poet, the one carrying the weight of an entire species’ freedom on his shoulders and somehow still finding time to paint. Markus is the kind of character who makes you want to be better — patient, principled, willing to fight for what’s right but always asking whether violence is truly necessary. Every fandom has one “morally upright character everyone loves,” and Markus earns it.
Verdict: Date. Or marry. I’m not fussy. He does chores (he’s literally programmed for housework), he sings, and he’d organize peaceful protests for my rights. Green flag in android form.
7. Kara — Detroit: Become Human
The heart of Detroit, honestly. Kara isn’t the smartest or the strongest android in the game — she’s just a caretaker who looked at a frightened child and decided that protecting her mattered more than anything else in the world, including her own survival. Her story is quiet, devastating, and brave in the way ordinary people are brave. If Kara existed, the world would be a measurably softer place.
Verdict: Friend. And I’d help her look after Alice in a heartbeat. She’s family-material, not date-material — she’s busy being a mom.
8. Steph Gingrich — Life is Strange: True Colors
Steph is the coolest person in Haven Springs, fight me. Radio DJ, D&D enthusiast, drummer, snarky in exactly the right doses, and openly, comfortably herself. She brings warmth and humor to every scene she’s in, and the LARP date quest is one of the most charming things ever put in a video game. Everyone deserves a Steph in their corner hyping them up on air.
Verdict: Date. 100%. We’d play D&D together. She’s the whole package.
9. Arthur Morgan — Red Dead Redemption 2
If you’ve played RDR2, you knew someone like Arthur was going to show up on a list like this eventually. He starts the game as a gruff outlaw doing terrible things for a man he calls his brother, and ends it as one of the most quietly moving redemption stories ever told. Arthur is rough around every edge, but underneath there’s a man who saves strangers because he couldn’t save himself, keeps a journal full of sketches, and slowly decides — with the clock running out — to leave the world a little kinder than he found it. I tear up just thinking about that last ride.
Verdict: Friend. In another life I’d like to be the person Arthur Morgan sat by a campfire with. (Would I date him? Realistically? Have you met his life expectancy?)
10. Marcus Holloway — Watch Dogs 2
The youngest entry on this list, and the most fun. Marcus is a brilliant young hacker who joins DedSec to take on a corrupt surveillance state — and unlike most dystopian vigilantes, he actually seems to enjoy it. He parksours across San Francisco, hacks entire city blocks with his phone, and pulls pranks on corrupt CEOs with the enthusiasm of someone who genuinely believes the world can be fixed. He’s tech-smart, socially conscious, and refreshingly optimistic in a genre full of brooding antiheroes.
Verdict: Date. He’s clever, funny, believes in a better world, and could literally fix my laptop from across town with a drone. Where do I sign up?
So that’s my list — half robots, half gunslingers and warriors, one hacker, and one radio DJ. What does that say about me? Probably that I like characters with conviction. Whether they’re fighting for their souls (sometimes literally), their freedom, or just trying to protect one person, these are the fictional people I’d want in my corner. Altough, they’re not all but I had to limit them somehow. I’m so glad, I’ll do a series on a similar thing.
💬 What about you? Who are the characters — book or otherwise — you wish were real? And more importantly: date or friend? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to link up your own TTT posts!