Top ten characters who would make great leaders

So, I happened across this post at Rambling Writer: Characters Who Can Lead and Characters Who Just Can’t

This was a post inspired by The Broke and the Bookish recent theme: Ten Characters Who Would Make Great Leaders.

I liked the twist — five who can lead and five who can’t — and I think there are some good choices for both categories, but I do think it’s hard to think of characters who Could Be But Are Not Yet Great Leaders, which is what the theme actually seems to call for.

Characters who are great leaders right now — there are plenty of those. I mean, off the top of my head:

Kaoren Ruuel, though he might lighten up a little.

though he might be just a tiny bit less secretive.

Maia, though he could stand to be a little more experienced.

Torin Kerr, though all of her experience is as a sergeant, not a general or whatever.

Vidranric Rensalaeus, Marquis of Sheviaeth, though … no, no quibbles. He’d just be a great commander. So would Inda, obviously.

But who would be a great commander, but hasn’t already had a chance to play that role?

I can think of a handful of candidates, and I’m sure there are plenty of others I’m missing:

1) Jade. She’s still subordinate to Pearl, but Jade will clearly be a superior leader when she becomes the senior queen. I mean, Pearl’s improved a lot, but Jade strikes me as intrinsically more emotionally stable. Malachite — I love Malachite — is totally scary and tends to be a tiny bit obsessive about some things. I’m betting Jade will mature into a better queen than either.

2. Tremaine. She is ruthlessly practical. I could see her becoming a leader as viciously competent (and nearly as secretive) as Janus bet Vhalnich.

3. Alan from The Demon’s Lexicon. Alan also has that practical ruthlessness combined with the total commitment to his people that I appreciate for in a really good commander.

4. Lilith . I’m not sure how she would do as a military commander, but as the leader of a community, she would do very well indeed. I think she’d be able to handle a much larger community than she’s ever had a chance to lead so far.

5. I’m not sure. Who’s another character who would step up and do a great job as leader, who hasn’t already held a high-level leadership role?

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