I have a feeling that a top X blog post has been overdue for me for a while. Well, I guess this must be the equivalent of me going to return that library book I couldn't find until I managed to locate it under the couch cushions.   All I can say is it got there somehow and really I have no idea how it would be possible for a book to be in that position.

Anyways, I've been waiting to do this for a while. Cartoons have been a great source for inspiration for some people, me even included in my line of 'work' (if you somehow didn't know, I'm sort of in the works for creating a tabletop game that I hope will hit its mark and see ample success) if you want to call it that. Heck, they can even inspire people to adopt a whole different look on life. Some of these characters have done just that for me, though most of them on this list have really just been characters that I find appealing, well-written, relatable, or a mix thereof. This WILL also include characters from upcoming cartoons, so you know that you should expect them on this list.

Honorable Mentions:

Rawhide- I really like the sort of wide-eyed, but a little gritty concept of what Rawhide's character seems to be like, and how it contrasts with the setting of the show. 

Panda Bear- I honestly think he's adorable, and very hard not to like in some way considering his mannerisms as well as just how sweet he can be.

Sandy Cheeks- Well, yeah she did become a sort of 2-dimensional after season 3 or 4, in her glory days it felt like she had a real identity, and it was a likeable one.

Samurai Jack- I feel like his character design was actually rather intuitive and a great contrast to Aku, who will be in the list if you don't already know.

Craig (South Park)- I feel like he's really the only actual voice of reason in South Park, and it's made him my favorite character in the show.

15. Gir- Honestly, Gir is the entire reason this is a top 15 and not a top 10 instead. I couldn't not mention him on the list. I feel like he needed to be mentioned here because of just how freaking adorable he is, with his little green dog costume and his mannerisms and everything else. He also serves as a pretty obvious contrast to the rest of the show's tone.

14. Rarity- Rarity to me seems like one of those characters that's a lot more complicated than she seems. She does have this sort of detail-orientation that really helps her in her line of work, but she is also (usually) able to see the bigger picture. She also seems dainty, but as has been shown throughout the series she can be quite brutal as well. Those are just two examples of that.

13. Morty C137- Or was it Marty McFly...? Oh whatever. Morty is written quite well as a sort of awkward teenage boy with a lot of, erm, puberty-related issues. I find him relatable in the sense that he's an anxious, nervous wreck with self-esteem issues like myself. Though unlike me he's still naïve enough to just go along with stuff.

12. Fluttershy- Yes, another MLP character, and she's not the only one. I like Fluttershy because of a few things. She goes out of her way to be very kind to others even when it serves her no purpose, she has a relatable lack of social skills, and she retains this sort of personality without feeling two-dimensional with her occasional anger and assertion.

11. Toffee- I think there really need to be more villains like Toffee in animation. He's a great and evil schemer, with a lack of empathy and more intelligence than any of the other villains that have been in the show thus far. I also like him because of how his name conflicts so blatantly with what kind of character he actually is being that in real life it is actually a dessert.

10. Pearl- In the show's long and horrendous first season, I found Pearl to be bossy and overly obsessive-compulsive. Though, like most of the cast, her depth was tapped into later. It turns out she has a side of her that lacks confidence, a side of her that shows genuine concern for the people of Earth, and even a side of her that's even a little edgy. And that's only three of many.

09. Discord- The MLP equivalent of Star Trek's Q. I think he's not been treated quite the way I would wish for him to be receiving from the writers, but nonetheless Discord is a shining example of a trickster. He does whatever he wants, however and whenever he wants. It makes him a bit of a wild card, even after being reformed. He still plays tricks on the mane six from time to time.

08. Angel Dust- Is it wrong to say that I want to be a little (and I do mean a little) more like a gay prostitute spider demon that gets high on, well, ANGEL DUST? Well, it probably is, but I legitimately feel that way about Angel Dust. I wish I had his sass, and his freaking getup. Nonetheless, I do like him for other reasons as well. I like his generally nonchalant and sarcastic attitude towards bettering himself. He really just doesn't give a f*** about becoming a better and less morally questionable spider demon. Though he really has this attitude in general.

07. Steven Universe- Steven in the first season was, admittedly, an immature and obnoxious specimen. But afterwards as time went on and on, he matured and gained a lot more compassion for everything and everyone. Aside from of course things that do hurt everything including flies, he really wouldn't hurt a fly. I also find him to have become a very mature character, maturing even beyond his father's years. Honestly, I'd think from what I've seen Steven would actually make a great therapist. I'm not kidding, he's talked people out of a lot of the show's conflicts.

06. Squidward- Squidward, in my opinion, is what made SpongeBob the great cartoon it once was before he took the path of just becoming a grouch. Before that, Squidward seemed to be a rather well-written and designed character that a lot of us SpongeBob fans who are adults now can really relate to. I bet you've encountered plenty of kids that act like SpongeBob all the time. I know I have and more. He counter-acted the silliness of the show by being the more serious of the characters in the show, but nonetheless, engages in some of it himself.

05. Aku- Aku is basically one step up from Discord. Another fun-loving master of chaos, Aku spends his time tormenting Samurai Jack in his playfully malevolent manner and ordering EXTRA THICC henchmen (to do what with, I'm honestly not sure). I mostly just like him for the same reasons I like Discord, being that he's a trickster that does what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants to do it. He's also a great villain in the sense that he took control of the world for thousands of years, until Ashi and Jack went back in time to finish him off.

04. Ice Bear- Polar Bear... I mean, Ice Bear is sort of a bad@$$. He can engineer, cook, fight, sneak... Really, he's a jack of all trades. But his ability to converse with other people is so stunted that he only speaks in simple sentences and in the third person and even then he only does so when really necessary. He also has a relatable aversion to coffee, albeit for different reasons... Like he becomes a violent, hyperactive maniac when he drinks even a little bit of coffee (I just find it a wee bit too strong, and I could start bouncing off of walls, but nothing like that). 

03. Moondancer AND Twilight Sparkle- I put them both in the same spot, because I like them for very similar reasons. They're both the nerdy/geeky types with plenty of anxiety to boot. I mean sure I don't read books like they do, but I can definitely relate to how they geek out about things. If it were just this, than Moondancer would be better to me than Twilight, but I like what Twilight has become. She's become less of a bookish geek and more of a teacher, as well as more of a . She even does this without losing a ton of what made her likable in the first place, with all of her twilighting that she does and all, she's still just as relatable as ever in her personality and feels not even remotely close to a Mary Sue. But, that only makes it a tie I can't decide between.

02. Rick C137- Or was it Doc Brown...? ANYWAYS... Rick is a character I also find to be well-written with a lot of nuances that really lead to what kind of person he is. His nihilism can be attributed to his ability to travel to multiple different worlds in different parts of space and even different timelines altogether (but the latter is rarely utilized) and realize how insignificant even he is in the grand scheme of things, his occasional playfulness can be attributed to his own attempts to counteract a long-seeded depression, and his depression stems from well, his nihilism as well as his past traumatic experiences. I also like Rick because I find his attitude towards the universe at large rather relatable, and his seeming insincerity to me is actually charming in it's own way.

01. Garnet- Garnet is my favorite cartoon character of all time. Why? Well, she's went from just being like an overprotective and overly strict parent to being a powerful, compelling character with more nuance than you could have ever imagined back in season one of the show. I think it probably wasn't a secret that she's actually a fusion, but she's one of the few fusions that occurred because the two gems were in love. She's also proven herself to be a total bad@$$ in combat with the mental capacity to do things, like, PREDICT THE FUTURE. She's also developed her own personality as a fusion, that really allows her to be the roundest character I've ever seen in animation. It also helps her that the love fusion was of a lesbian couple, considering my own sexuality.

Well, I suppose that's it for that. Not good at endings.