The Top 10 Secondary Characters Who Need Their Own Story

Top Ten Tuesday topic is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is a freebie!

When this idea popped into my mind, I was worried I had already done a topic like this one once, but the closest I found was My Top 10 Most Memorable Secondary Characters, which I wrote in 2013 and was a list comprised primarily of secondary characters from The Hunger Games. Since then I have read a lot of great books with interesting characters and feel I could create a more varied list, PLUS, make the focus be about the story they could tell. This week’s list is in no particular order.

1. Carswell Thorne from The Lunar Chronicles

throne-cressSource for Thorne art here

Marissa Meyer gifted us all with a short story about Thorne (that I still have not read!), but seriously, all Thorne fans know only a novel would suffice our desire for more Thorne.

2. Sturmhond from The Grisha Trilogy

sturmhond-grisha2

Sturmhond is basically the same person as Thorne, and again, we all want more. I would love to know what happens to him after the Grisha trilogy, but I would also love to know more about his life before!

3. Kiggs from Seraphina

kiggs-seraphinaI love Kiggs, and I would like to know how he grew up and what made him the way he is.

4. Elend from Mistborn

elend-mistbornOK, so I’ve only read book one, and I imagine there’s more of him in the next two books, but I would love to know the details of his royal upbringing, his antics growing up, and what got him started reading those forbidden books.

5. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley from The Harry Potter Series

weasleysAgain, I haven’t finished all these books either, but I just love Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and I’d love to know their backstory. Did they meet and fall in love at Hogwarts? How did Mr. Weasley end up at the Ministry of Magic? Did they always want a large family?

6. Finnick from The Hunger Games Trilogy

finnick-odairOf course, this list would not be complete without someone from The Hunger Games, and like many fans, I’d love details on Finnick’s backstory!

7. Gemma from The Young Elites

gemma-youngelitesImage on left found on Marie Lu’s The Young Elites Pinterest board

I find the whole thing about Gemma being from an aristocratic family and a malfetto, but not condemned like Enzo, really interesting within the world of The Young Elites, and I want more of her story!

8. Harriet from Emma

harriet-emma2I know this ship has sailed, at least for Jane Austen’s perspective, but I would love to know more about Harriet’s life after she married Robert Martin. I was a little surprised when, while watching Emma Approved, I became way more excited about Emma and B-Mart hooking up at the end than Emma and Knightley! It was just really cute! (Those paper cranes!) But when I read Emma, I also found myself really endeared to Harriet there. More please!

9. Caleb from The Divergent Trilogy

caleb-divergentI have some unanswered questions about Caleb, and I honestly found him so much more interesting and complex than Tris or Four. I need more!

10. Marguerite St. Just in The Scarlet Pimpernel

Marguerite-scarletpimpernelI know there are more of these books so there might be more about Marguerite, but I found her really interesting when I read The Scarlet Pimpernel, and my favorite chapter in the book is when she’s at home discovering who her husband actually is.

I was surprised to see this list was mostly guys! But I guess that’s because most of these books focus on a female character. In YA it’s a little more rare to get the guy’s POV, but sometimes I wish I could read their story too!

Which secondary characters would you like to see get their own story? 

24 Responses to The Top 10 Secondary Characters Who Need Their Own Story

  1. I haven’t read the rest of the Mistborn series either, but I’m hoping that there’s more of Elend, hopefully. AND I ALSO NEED MORE CARSWELL. He probably got most of his “book time” in Cress already though 😛

  2. STURMHOND DEFINITELY NEEDS HIS OWN STORY.

    I don’t just want a short story about him; I want an entire book about him and his adventures. Like, his time in the palace, and then his time as Sturmhond, and then his story after helping Alina and saving Ravka. It would be epic. As it is, I’m already praying for at least a cameo of him in Leigh’s upcoming book, Six of Crows, since it’ll take place in the Grishaverse. <3

    But what's this?! Another character who resembles Sturmhond?? GOSH, YES. Now that I have both Scarlet and Cress, I really have no excuse of not catching up with The Lunar Chronicles series, haha. And wow, those green eyes…

    Ahaha, it would be awesome if we got to see Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's story, especially their time in Hogwarts and how they came to fall in love! Plus, we'd get to see the Weasley kids as babies! The cuteness will be unbearable. xD They're such a sweet couple, too, and definitely deserve more attention. Oh, and I want to know how Arthur came to have such a fascination with Muggles. (Was that explained in the book? I can't really remember, oops.)

    Finnick — probably one of the most tragic characters in THG. Even more so than Katniss. Even though a bit of his past was revealed in the series, I don't think it's enough either, and I'd love to read more about him pre-Hunger Games era.

    Great list, Amy! The rest of the books I haven't read yet, so I can't really comment, but yup, I definitely agree with the bulk of the characters here. 😀

    • OMG yes, you definitely need to read Scarlet and Cress soon! You’ll love Thorne!

      I’m reading Goblet of Fire and I haven’t come across any explanation for Arthur’s love for Muggles yet, but that would be interesting to know as well!

  3. I saw the art of Carswell and I just knew I had to read this post!! I just got to read the short story a few days ago (I can forward it to you if you need it) and it was lovely. It was *so* Thorne and it really gives you insight into why he is the way he is, which I’m pretty sure is the definition of backstory. I think it takes place when he was in middle school, which is cute — and he’s already quite the ladies man, haha.

    • I do have it; I got in an email newsletter Meyer sends out and copy and pasted it onto a Word document, I’m just terrible about reading short stories on my computer for some reason! So glad to know it was just as cute as you expected!

  4. Strumhond! Yes. But that’s kind of a given for anyone who has read these books. If Thorne is like him, I may need to read Cress just for that.

    Sometimes I think a story about a secondary character would remove some of the mystery about them and make them – like ordinary or something. Like Jack Woodcutter in the Woodcutter Sisters series. I TOTALLY want to know about Jack but am not sure I want him to have his own story.

    • Cress is amazing, you need to read it! And you’ll love Thorne!

      I do agree that getting to know secondary characters would take out some of the fun/mystery, but there’s still part of me who wants those stories anyway!

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