# Assassins, Bounty Hunters, and Sell-swords



## Philip Overby (Feb 21, 2012)

I've always been interested in these type of characters.  Those who are paid for either killing, hunting, or fighting.  Who have no allegiance really except to whoever gives them the most money.  Who are some of your favorite characters such as these?

Including vampire hunters, witch hunters, and the like.


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## Kelise (Feb 21, 2012)

Fitz, in Robin Hobb's 'The Farseer Trilogy' and 'The Tawny Man Trilogy'.

Oh, except I guess he has allegiance. Drat. Either way, he's still my favourite assassin.


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## Reaver (Feb 21, 2012)

Jango & Boba Fett.  Oh, wait...I guess technically they're one character.


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## SlimShady (Feb 21, 2012)

Bronn and Geralt of Rivia.


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## Elder the Dwarf (Feb 21, 2012)

Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle are probably my favorite; they are from the Drizz't books by R.A. Salvatore, and Jarlaxle may be the most intriguing character I've ever read about.  Everything about him is interesting.  They went on to have their own series, entitled Sellswords.

Raistlin and Caramon Majere from Dragonlance were mercenaries, if only for one or two books.

Waylander from Gemmel's books Waylander and In the Realm of the Wolf (there's one more, but I can't remember it) is pretty badass as well.


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## Reaver (Feb 21, 2012)

Elder the Dwarf is one of my favorite mercs.  Did you see his guest appearance in that one movie?  He's awesome!


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## Janga (Feb 21, 2012)

Bronn from the ASoIaF series and of course Fitz from the Farseer trilogy.


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## Phoenix (Feb 21, 2012)

Guts from the Berserk series, Bronn from A Game of Thrones, Boba and Jango Fett from Star Wars, Van Hellsing from Van Hellsing, and Predator from Predator. And my favorite duo bounty hunters Royce and Hardian from the Theft of Swords.


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## trix (Feb 21, 2012)

Janga said:


> Bronn from the ASoIaF series and of course Fitz from the Farseer trilogy.



I agree, Bronn is definitely the man.


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## Philip Overby (Feb 22, 2012)

I love me some Bronn as well.  I also love the casting of him in TV show.  Pretty much perfect.

As for some of mine, I'll list them like so:

Assassin:  Szeth-son-son-Vallano from a Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.  An awesome character as far as I'm concerned.  Has a great introduction as well.

Bounty Hunter:  The Man with No Name as portrayed by Clint Eastwood.  Also Boba Fett for piquing my curiosity on mysterious guys with jet-packs.  

Vampire Hunter:  Vampire Hunter D from the manga and books.  The Buffy TV show was a favorite of mine for a while too.  

Sell-swords:  Probably Bronn from ASoFaI and Guts (Gatsu) from Berserk is also a favorite.  Also Conan was a sort of sell-sword on some occasions and he's one of my favorite characters of all time.  Pretty sure Fafrd and the Grey Mouser were mercs of some sort as well, and they're pretty cool too (from Fritz Lieber's series.)

I'll have to check out the Farseer Trilogy again.  I've tried to read it several times and just couldn't get past the first part.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Feb 22, 2012)

Yeah, I'm gonna have to hop on the Bronn train. He's a little hairier in the show than I envisioned.


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## Reaver (Feb 22, 2012)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> Yeah, I'm gonna have to hop on the Bronn train. He's a little hairier in the show than I envisioned.



There's just so many things wrong with this statement that I don't even know where to begin...

On a different note, a few friends recommended a movie that apparently came out quite a while ago. It's called Sling Blade.  I never saw it, but he sounds like a pretty wicked assassin to me.


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## Legendary Sidekick (Feb 22, 2012)

You never saw "Sling Blade?"

Rever's Things-to-Do List
See "Sling Blade."
Fill the rest of this list later.

It's not what you think it is... it's _better._


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## Reaver (Feb 22, 2012)

Legendary Sidekick said:


> You never saw "Sling Blade?"
> 
> Rever's Things-to-Do List
> See "Sling Blade."
> ...



Umm...who in the name of THE ANDROID'S SHINING RED FEATHER is REVER?


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## Elder the Dwarf (Feb 23, 2012)

Reaver said:


> Elder the Dwarf is one of my favorite mercs.  Did you see his guest appearance in that one movie?  He's awesome!



I'll kill anything for some coin!  Except the durned elves.  I kill them for free.


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## Caged Maiden (Mar 1, 2012)

I have a question relating to this thread.  I have never subscribed to the belief that a character; assassin, mercenary or otherwise, is only motivated by money.  I always envisioned that they were men of talent, jacks-of-all-trades who found success in a field where competition was high and the stakes higher.  

Could anyone elaborate on exactly what makes these men so memorable?  I haven't read these particular books, though I have read Salvatore's Cleric Quintet, which I liked very much.


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## Elder the Dwarf (Mar 1, 2012)

I'm not sure if you're asking about mercenaries in general or these specific characters.  As far as mercenaries in genetal go, though, I think they are extremely interesting.  When I read about them I constantly wonder whether this is jus a shallow, selfish man or whether there are deeper motives to every thing they do.  Mercenaries run the gamut from nobles in debt to peasant trying to move up in society to power seekers looking to make major moves and shake the political structure up.  The better question is what about them isn't interesting?


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## Reaver (Mar 1, 2012)

Elder the Dwarf said:


> I'm not sure if you're asking about mercenaries in general or these specific characters. As far as mercenaries in _*genetal*_...




Heh-heh...genetal.

You kick ass, Elder!


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## Elder the Dwarf (Mar 1, 2012)

I would edit it, but its waaaaay too funny.  Thanks for pointing that out.


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## Caged Maiden (Mar 2, 2012)

Yeah, I have written several assassins, spies and mercenaries, and I sort of gave them each their own motivations, but they are deep characters with complicated histories and lives  I was specifically asking what made the aforementioned characters so memorable, because I haven't read the books mentioned.  Since so many people were in agreement over those particular characters' awesomeness, I just wondered why.


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## Philip Overby (Mar 2, 2012)

I'll pick out some of the people I listed and name why:

Bronn is interesting because he really does seem to be only motivated by money, but he also isn't a fickle employee.  He knows a cash cow when he sees one and sticks by them with loyalty.  That's something that makes him stand out to me is that he's a bastard but he has a sense of companionship with Tyrion anyway.

I think a lot of bounty hunters seem to be solely motivated by money but also have an air of mystery about them that makes you wonder about their history.  Boba Fett for instance is a rather mysterious character in Star Wars.  However, he's iconic in that he looks cool and has that air of mystery about him.  Of course the prequels sort of ruined that...

I always like that air of mystery in my own bounty hunters.  They have some tragic past that the reader only gets glimpses of.  Or maybe they just get joy in capturing people.  Their motivation to hunt people down for money may stem from other purposes:  feeding a family, paying off a debt, self-preservation, etc.


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## Elder the Dwarf (Mar 2, 2012)

Bronn is the one that seems to be repeated the most, and Phil gave a pretty good summary of his character.  He really does seem like he's motivated purely by money.  At least until he's still nice to Tyrion when the Imp is pretty much screwed.  I think that what Phil said, in combination with his skills and very matter-of-fact tone makes him interesting.  And he's pretty funny.

Fitz was also repeated but I can't say much for him as I only read about ten pages of the first book.  I'll try again some day.

As for mine:

Entreri is an extremely skilled assassin that at first appears to be completely devoid of emotion, a cold killer, really until he gets his own books and turns into a slightly less cold killer.    He is really the only worthy enemy Drizzt has for a while, which makes him fascinating all by itself.  Also, he is connected to this moblike city of different crime guilds.  That's awesome.  His partnership with the next member of my list is extremely interesting, and brings out more of his personality.

Jarlaxle is an extremely charismatic and clever dark elf leader of the mercenary band Bregan D'aerthe.  He is one of two dark elves to ever really escape from the Underdark and be successful, although he doesn't consider himself as "truly" escaping.  He provides a connection to a vast city of mystery and intrigue, and his motivations are always far beneath the surface.  He obviously loves riches, but he has other motivations as well, and I'm not even sure Salvatore knows his true personality.  Jarlaxle is one of the most unpredictable characters you could write, which also makes him the most interesting.

Caramon and Raistlin are awesome, but I wouldn't really think of them as mercenaries even though they were in the line of work for a time.

Waylander is another master assassin who ends up saving the country because of the remorse he feels after killing the king.  He becomes a really good guy and kind of makes up for the wrong he has done.  I won't spoil the plot, but the three books Gemmel wrote about waylander are awesome.


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## Stephyn Blackwood (Mar 21, 2015)

I have to point out the no one seems to have noted Nicomo Cosca from Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy and two of his 3 standalone novels. Possibly one of my favourite mercenary/sell-swords characters in any novel I've ever read. The best bit about the character is that no matter how many times he tells the protagonists that he is a treacherous scoundrel, as a reader, I always had faith in him and wanted to trust him. A very excellently written dark character


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## Ronald T. (Aug 2, 2015)

The best assassin/hired-killer story I've ever read is Brent Weeks' THE NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY. In that particular series, Weeks has a gift for grabbing you by the throat at the begging and never letting go until the last page. And while he's doing that, he tells a fantastic story of love, sacrifice, and heroism. The power of these characters blew my mind. I absolutely loved it.


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## L M Rush (Aug 2, 2015)

I love this forum, proper appreciation for the legend that is Fitz! Even though, I kinda begrudge him being seen as an assassin (Despite being in the Assassin trilogy haha), as he never really does it for the reasons an Assassin might, well except a royal assassin, which he is. Who am I kidding, he's the perfect assassin. Nighteyes is amazing.


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## ThinkerX (Aug 3, 2015)

> I have a question relating to this thread. I have never subscribed to the belief that a character; assassin, mercenary or otherwise, is only motivated by money. I always envisioned that they were men of talent, jacks-of-all-trades who found success in a field where competition was high and the stakes higher.
> 
> Could anyone elaborate on exactly what makes these men so memorable? I haven't read these particular books, though I have read Salvatore's Cleric Quintet, which I liked very much.



Not so much 'memorable' as 'dangerous and untrustworthy.'  Quite a few would be peasants turned soldiers who decided the farm wasn't worth returning to.  

That said, Fahferd and the Grey Mouser (From Fritz Lieber) and Conan from Howard.


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## Cambra (Aug 20, 2015)

As for assassins in Robin Hobbs's books I actually prefer Chade Fallstar Fitz's great uncle... A true pro and a great dry-witted character... "Lady Thyme" anybody?


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