Fictional Characters I Would Date, Part 2

See Part 1 for a housekeeping note regarding this post.

Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, Firefly
Truth? My reasons for including Mal on this list have less to do with the actual character than with the actor playing the character. Don't get me wrong—I like Mal. But I adore Nathan Fillion. He's got charisma and je ne sais quoi in spades. And the Captain is by far my favorite of his onscreen alter egos—Mal is brave, loyal, resilient, steadfast in his beliefs, and straight-forward about everything except his emotions, which is ideal for a commitment-phobe like myself. My only concern is the fact that he and his crew seem to find themselves in life-threatening situations pretty much wherever they go. But, you know, other than that, he's great.

Uncle Jesse, Full House
That hair, those eyes, this video...


Cappie, Greek
Cappie is Peter Pan, Van Wilder, and Zack Morris all rolled into one. He needs a baby-sitter, not a girlfriend. And yet...there's something about him that's just kind of irresistible. He reminds me a little of this guy I know/adore. (You know who you are.)

Pacey Witter, Dawson's Creek
Long before Edward and Jacob battled it out for Bella's affections in Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series, another rivalry divided the angsty adolescent masses in two. Leading the charge on one side was Dawson Leery, a self-proclaimed eternal optimist who fell for his longtime best friend, Josephine "Joey" Potter. His competitor in the quest for her heart was notorious screw-up Pacey Witter. It should have been an easy fight. But Pacey pulled off one of the greatest upsets in love-triangle history. For the record, though, I was always in his corner. I liked him even in Season 1, when he was fooling around with his English teacher and making a mess of everyone's lives. He's just so...charming, you know?

Dylan McKay, Beverly Hills, 90210
Dylan has a lot of strikes against him—alcoholism, drug addiction, a brief obsession with guns, a prostitute half-sister, a murdered wife whose mobster family ordered a hit on his embezzling ex-con father—but he's the kind of player who always comes through in a clutch. And in spite of all the bad in his life, he has more good in him than a lot of real people I know. Plus, that James Dean, rebel-without-a-cause thing he's got going on is, like, absurdly attractive.

Seth Cohen, The OC
Seth is the perfect combination of geek and chic. He likes anime and video games, has a plastic horse named Captain Oats, and watches IMAX nature films—but he also reads Kerouac, listens to indie music, and has his own comic book. (Some might file that last item under the "geek" column, but I think it's kind of awesome.) Plus, he's not cool enough to run game on a girl, but he's also not so socially inept that he can't carry on a decent conversation while, say, waiting in line for Death Cab tickets. Win.

Kirby Atwood, Lipstick Jungle
Robert Buckley is hot. Ergo, Kirby Atwood is hot. I don't usually start relationships based solely on physical attraction—I don't usually start relationships at all, actually—but I'd make an exception (on both counts) in this case.


Still to come: Fictional Characters I Would Date in Real Life, Parts 3 and On (it's an embarrassingly long list), plus A Few I Wouldn't Touch With a 10-Foot Pole