My absolute favourite charatcer type is the genuinely loving matriarch who doesn't suffer fools, such as Alice (DAYS), Sheila Grant (Brookside) and Pauline Fowler (EastEnders).

After thinking about it, I realized that I don't have a "type." I have loved a diverse group of characters on a variety of soaps over the years; good guys/girls, bad guys/girls and in between. Plus, I can go from loving to hating a character and vice versa in a heartbeat.

Reformed Bad Girls

Smart, Strong women

Grey Villains

Vixens, vixens, vixens.

This.

And I tend to root for sociopathic male characters like TSTodd(OLTL) and Ric(GH).

Tough roaded flawed ingenues are probably my faves for the most part, I loved Babe (All My Children) for instance, I was a huge fan of Brenda (General Hospital) and Bianca (All My Children) too and in hindsight I miss Emily Quartermain (General Hospital) a ton and also really cared for Lulu (General Hospital) initially and Georgie (General Hospital) as well. In general I like good people who have a tough time being good all the time because I think that's generally real. I guess that's one of the reasons I liked Hope (Bold and The Beautiful) and Marty Saybrooke (OLTL) for most of their runs. For instance I really like Johnny (GH), Zander (GH) and Luke (ATWT) for who they were as characters just because I can see where they all came from. So I guess I go mostly for flawed hero characters and anti-villains.

Edited February 25, 201312 yr by Skin

*Naughty, but lovable young men. (Cutter from OLTL comes to mind. In fact he's my fave male OLTL character ever...as well as early Kevin from Y&R pre-MAB era)

*Working class girls with spunk who get into trouble, but claw their way out: (OLTL's Kim, Aubrey, and Stacy, GH's Maxie, AMC's Annie, and Lauren from Y&R).

*Misunderstood guys who just want to be loved (Adam from Y&R is the prime example. AMC's JR too. Reid from ATWT especially.)

My least favourite types:

*Vapid young ingenues made out to be heroines, when they have no personality whatsoever (Gigi from OLTL comes to mind, GH's Lulu; Hope from B&B as well.)

*Stale pieces of cardboard hailed as leading men. (OLTL's John and GH's Jason Morgan.)

Edited February 25, 201312 yr by Winchester91

The sexy heroic doctor. Dr. Jeff Martin, Dr. Cliff Warner, Dr. Frankie Hubbard, etc.

I do love a glamorous bitch. Think B&B's Steffy, circa 2010.

I also dig the complicated/flawed hero/heroine type. Think Y&R's Phyllis and Michael.

The "judgemental" types. 9 times out of 10, they're usually on the money when it comes to others who fall short.

I wonder who you consider the judgemental on soaps. That's like GH's Liz, OLTL's Nora, or Carlota and for the most part can't stand those types

There were times when Carlotta did bug me a bit though I found her fine in general, but I did love Nora and Liz (ca. 1997-2003) precisely because they suffered no fools and refused to coddle folks like the other weak-minded folks did.

I find that some characters (and viewers) tend to pin the "sanctimonious" and "judgemental" label on characters who have a strong moral compass and have no qualms about living by it. More times than not, that accusation is thrown out of there by said characters because they're jealous of the fact that they will never measure up.

To me it just makes them very hypocritical as they judge others for stuff they have gone themselves and hold their loved ones to a different set of moral standards. Nora was especially the worst when it came to the latter

I like a judgmental type like Julie on Days, because even now when she's telling Sami to back off Gabi and Nick, she's acknowledging that she and Sami are very much alike.

My favorite overall type is the wounded bad girl, I love when they go toe to toe with equal adversaries and when they rip apart less ones. They always have some emotional core that keeps me rooting for them and loving it when they go after someone. DAYS' Sami will always be one of my favorites (more so recently, because the heroine bull they were pushing on her was a mess). Also OLTL's Blair.

I was often drawn to the female character who was put into a traditionally male profession and was able to be tough (either physically, mentally, emotionally or all of the above) without being a beyatch.

GH's Anna Devane of the 1980s was always my #1 favorite female character for this reason. The total kick-ass heroine.

GL's Harley...better suited as a cop than a rich boy's wife.

RH's Jillian...whether or not you agreed with her choices and morality, she was pretty strong-minded...kind of old-world elegant and bohemian at the same time.

Edited March 1, 201312 yr by applcin

That's such a wonderful description of Jill. It's funny, Jill is normally the soap "type" I hate, but at times I loved her so much. I miss her even now.