Plus size protagonists in SFF?

[Tamahome]

What plus size protagonists can you think of in SFF? This was mentioned in the slow burns thread. I can only think of the Shi Quiang the cop from Three Body Problem, and Troblum the fanboy from Peter F. Hamilton's Void series. The Cannon tv show doesn't count. There was a boy Harold Lauder in The Stand...

[John (Taloni)]

This may be a first...my offshoot thread has an offshoot thread!

I'm'a go with Chunky Thor from Avengers Endgame. Still muscular but demonstrably fat. SFF-adjacent, God of War's "Ragnarok Thor" who is big all over, both muscles and gut.

[Seth]

Good call to start a new thread. Body-positivity seems to have come a long way in a short time in the romance genre, but I was struggling to think of any fat protagonists in SFF books. Some of Terry Pratchett's witches and watchmen have interesting body-shapes and at least they aren't shamed for it, though it is played a bit for fun. Gail Carragher's heroine Alexia is curvy, as I recall, if that counts. But I've scrolled through a couple years of my reading and that's all I found.

[Iain]

Matrick in Kings of the Wyld is chunky but isn't the protagonist.

T. Kingfisher has a lot of female characters who would be considered fat if they appeared on TV. But then anyone who isn't size zero is considered fat.

[Tamahome]

That's right. I don't think the cover of Kings of the Wyld quite matches the descriptions.

[Trike]

My first thought was Haviland Tuf from George R.R. Martin’s Tuf Voyaging. Tuf is 2.5 meters (8’2”) tall and obese. I re-read the book earlier this year and loved it all over: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Also Samwell Tarly from Martin’s Game of Thrones. Not exactly a full protagonist perhaps, but a main character.

You can’t mention Thor without his besties, the Warriors Three: Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg. Volstagg is 6’8” and fat. He’s also a player, with numerous children.




Also in comics we have Atom Eve from the Invincible: Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 who gains weight and stops starving herself once she gains self-confidence and fully accepts herself. Which is a pretty awesome message, (And there’s a little depression-eating in there, but Mark thinks she looks hot, so yeah.)

Then there’s the superhero comic Faith, Vol. 1: Hollywood and Vine, which I didn’t think was very well-written, but it certainly has a body-positive image underlying it.



I’m pretty sure the protagonist of Soulless by Gail Carriger is a “sturdy girl”. Certainly more on the Rubenesque end of the spectrum.

Secondary characters:

Miles Vorkosigan’s clone Mark is fat in Bujold’s books.

Voltan in Flash Gordon.

Nick Frost’s character in the TV series Into the Badlands is a badass.
https://youtu.be/h7thGbK2Y3A?si=on_ff...

…I feel sure I’m forgetting a bunch.

[Ruth]

One of the main characters in the ensemble cast of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is a plus-size lady who is confident and sexy. In the TV show she was cast as “Hollywood chubby”.

The Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks, starting with The Black Prism, has a chubby teenage boy as one of the main characters.

Also, as anyone who’s read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency knows, we don’t say “fat”, we say “of traditional build”.

[John (Nevets)]

Most of the hobbits aren’t known to be too slender. Only Samwise was really portrayed that way on screen, but in earlier images just about all have at least a little gut. Along with the dwarves.

[Phil]

Big Bertha (Ashley Crawford) of the Great Lake Avengers is a mutant who can alter her size and mass by hundreds of pounds. When she is larger she gains super strength and durability.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Mr. Incredible

[Steve]

The main character of the eponymous Thraxas series is a detective/wizard/swordsman who is very comfortable in his comfortableness.

[Silvana]

Haviland Tuf Tuf Voyaging
Jean Tannen from the gentleman bastard series.

An SFWA article has a list focusing on female centric stories https://www.sfwa.org/2017/11/28/small...

[Tamahome]

I believe Dreyfus in Alastair Reynolds' The Prefect (the new title is dead to me) is heavy set, but the book doesn't go into a lot of description, which I like. The term "neck fat" was used.

AR: What does Dreyfus look like to you https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

By the way, Forest Whitaker has lost weight too.