Top Five Tuesday – Characters That Sort Into Ravenclaw

Welcome back for week two of Bionic Book Worm’s Hogwarts Top Five Tuesday!  This week, it’s all about Ravenclaws.  For those who need a refresher, Ravenclaws can be defined as:

They are analytical, intelligent, logical yet impractical, curious, inquisitive, creative, witty, wise, interested in understanding things, cynics, fond of  intellectual discussion, introspective, independent, wordy, and self entertaining. They observe rather than participate, are fond of learning for the sake of learning, and good at school (or really anything that they have an interest in!)

Thrawn – HEIR TO THE EMPIRE and/or THRAWN by Timothy Zahn
New canon or old canon, Thrawn is the most Ravenclaw character that ever analyzed a star chart. Thrawn is driven purely by calculations and analysis, always questing for answers, always deconstructing his enemies and his allies alike. This is not a character driven by grudges or by petty vendettas, but for a need for order and efficiency. One of my favorite things about him was how he considered Darth Vader wasteful in the way he would kill underlings for a single failure. Thrawn also lacks the emotional aptitude for political maneuverings, something that has occasionally frustrated him during his rise through the Imperial ranks (and makes him firmly outside the realm of Slytherin).

Shallan – THE WAY OF KINGS by Brandon Sanderson
When I read THE WAY OF KINGS last year, I quickly fell in love with Shallan.  Studying is as natural as breathing to her.  Shallan manages to snag an apprenticeship to one of the greatest scholars in the land through an incredibly well-crafted argument.  Although she sought out the position with an underhanded motive, the happiness she derives from her studies causes her to waver in her path.  Shallan is also a paragon of observation, filling up journals with sketches of natural life and taking notes about things that befuddle her.

Binti – BINTI by Nnedi Okorafor
Binti is a character with a deep love of family and tradition, but that love is superseded by her drive for knowledge.  So much so that she is willing to run away from home and board a space ship bound for an academy on the other side of the galaxy, rather than abide at home carrying on the family business.  And when faced with an unknown and terrifying enemy, it is only her wits that save her and help her avert an intergalactic incident.

David Charleston – STEELHEART  by Brandon Sanderson
This character is a more active example of a Ravenclaw.  David lives on an alternate Earth where superpowered individuals known as Epics rule the land.  David is determined to end the reign of the Epics, in part because one killed his father years ago.  David’s contributions are through years of careful study and documentation.  Every Epic has one fatal weakness, and David chases after every scrap of information that might lead him to figure out how to kill them. When he joins the non-powered Reckoners, that information is key to their efforts to free humanity from the Epics’ rule.

Shara Thivani – CITY OF STAIRS by Robert Jackson Bennett
Shara is a spy, but one uniquely skilled at the art of tracking down the use of forbidden “miracles” – magic leftover after her people killed the gods that sponsored the nation they conquered.  Sharah is sent by her government to investigate a murder, and her knowledge and powers of deduction lead her to a conspiracy that threatens the city of Bulikov.