Cast Your Champion: 8 Characters for Tough Times
I’ll be frank: I’m very obsessed with the characters I watch on my favorite TV shows. Being isolated during the pandemic only amplified that obsession. In the past two years, I’ve binged and re-binged my go-to comfort shows more times than I care to admit. But I notice I’ve started to gravitate towards certain characters for specific reasons. Their narrative arcs offer a framework for motivation and reflection.
Stories are powerful tools in unprecedented times. Below, I profile the characters whose stories have helped me navigate the upside-down. Think of them as personal character champions in times of stress and uncertainty.
Midge Maisel | The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Quote: “One year ago today, my old life ended and my new life began.”
When her life turned upside down, Midge had a choice: Return to the security of the world she knew and bury her potential, or leave it behind and create a path that she’d have to build herself. She has specific limitations as woman in the 1950s (albeit she still has tons of privilege working in her favor), but the way she navigates the corners she gets backed into feels really authentic. She makes rash decisions, mistakes and missteps. She gets angry, she disappoints people, and she has remorse. (Sidebar: If anyone needs a definition on character complexity as a vehicle for agency, that’s it.) Midge knows her life choices will be polarizing but she believes in them regardless and pursues them anyway. I love that the show keeps throwing her curve balls that threaten her progress. That’s life, after all — a series of curve balls — and each time, she keeps stepping back up.
Chidi Anagonye | The Good Place
Quote: “What do you have to lose by treating people with kindness and respect?”
Over and over and over again (literally), The Good Place characters are forced to examine their identities and choices while their very existence in the universe is at stake. Chidi may torture himself in pursuit of doing the right thing with every choice he makes, but at the root of it all is empathy. How do his actions impact the lives around him and even the lives of people he’s never met? What is the point of power and privilege if cruelty and inequality are the result? He endlessly searches for answers to questions like these, and he tends to arrive at the same conclusion: Just do your best to be a good human to other humans, and keep doing it over and over. That’s a good philosophy to have when the world seems harsh and contentious.
Yvie Oddly | RuPaul’s Drag Race, Season 11
Quote: “Follow your oddities and fly your freak flag.”
It’s never easy being a little bit different — but that’s no reason to change who you are. During her season, Yvie refused to compromise who she was and what her drag is all about, even when others gave her pushback or didn’t respect it. I get the impression that she’s always had an unwavering sense of identity, and years of building it and defending it have given her a special superpower. I’ve gotten my husband, Brandon, hooked on this show, and Yvie is his favorite drag queen. When I asked him why, he said, “Because I love people who are unapologetically themselves.” Same.
Ginger Minj | RuPaul’s Drag Race, Season 7, All-Stars 2 and 6
Quote: “People always tell me, ‘Why do you take drag so seriously? You’re not curing cancer.’ No, but I’m making it easier to live with.”
Aside from her iconic quotes about flooding basements, this is my favorite Ginger moment. She says it early on in her original season while she’s getting runway-ready with her sisters. She segues into a story about performing a show and meeting a woman who had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. One of her bucket-list items was to see a drag show. She bonded with the drag queens and returned to see shows on a regular basis. When she stopped showing up, Ginger found out she’d been moved to hospice. The queens took their entire performance to where she was and gave her one last drag show. Talk about using your powers for good — it’s such a beautiful gesture that shows how entertainment and performance can be acts of service for others.
Lady Danbury | Bridgerton
Quote: “I will help you to overcome this stammer of yours. But in exchange, you must promise me that when you step into the light, you will be worthy of the attention you command.”
I pretty much fell in love with Lady Danbury the moment she graced the screen, but the speech she makes to young Simon cemented it. Simon is her late sister’s son (she died giving birth to him), and he’s been disowned by his father, the Duke of Hastings, because he has a stammer. Lady Danbury explains to him that, yes, people can be unkind and unjust — especially when the world operates like a caste system — but it’s possible to conquer that with a courageous strength of character. The way Lady Danbury maneuvers the time period she’s in is mesmerizing. She’s good-natured, savvy and formidable. She’s kinda who I want to be when I grow up…
Cristina Yang | Grey’s Anatomy
Quote: “If you want crappy things to stop happening to you, then stop accepting crap and demand something more.”
Nobody has quite the laser focus on their goals quite like Cristina, even if that focus challenges others. Cristina was one of the first characters I really loved watching because she’s so different from me. She’s logical, blunt, clinical and incredibly competitive. But I always rooted for her as a character and enjoyed watching her nuances develop over the course of 10 seasons. When her counterparts can’t see their way out of hazy, ambiguous situations, Cristina utilizes her cool and rational mind to make hard choices that others simply can’t. She’s not afraid to make a tough call, and I always admired her character for that. Sometimes the only solution is a scary and difficult one.
Sansa Stark | Game of Thrones
Quote: “If we don’t take back the North, we’ll never be safe. I want you to help me…but I’ll do it myself if I have to.”
I will go to battle with anyone who hates Sansa for being the lady she was trained to be in the horrific world she had to live in. I’ve heard so many people call her a whiny young girl in the first season and a victimized young woman in later seasons. (To be fair, the showrunners didn’t give her many opportunities to prove otherwise, but that’s a rant for another post.) Yet Tyrion’s statement to Sansa in the final season says it all: “Many people underestimated you. Most of them are dead now.” She’s the smartest character on the show whose captivity at court taught her how powerful people really run the game — with fear, cunning, self-interest and violence. When she escapes King’s Landing and flees from the Boltons, she uses every lesson she’s had to learn the hard way in order to protect herself, her family, her home and her people. #QueenOfTheNorth
Kimmy Schmidt | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Quote: “Life beats you up. You can either curl up in a ball and die, or you can stand up and say, ‘We're different and you can't break us!’”
Females are strong as hell! As wacky and wonderful as the show is, it doesn’t shy away from issues and realities that are pretty dark and twisty (as Cristina Yang would say). Kimmy is a survivor, and she encourages the people she loves to survive their own traumas in their own ways. What I also find impossibly endearing is that Kimmy doesn’t ever lose her love of teen books, cute and happy animals, flowers, scrunchies and tiny, wholesome things. They’re bright and cheerful aesthetic details, but they also carry a reminder of her kidnapping as an adolescent — it’s something she can’t erase, but it’s something she can embrace and overcome. She always retains her identity and sense of self despite the reality she’s faced.
