Do we like them?

Do we like Sophie Hatter?

A character from Howl's Moving Castle (1986 (novel), 2004 ()

Our score: 9 out of 10. Yes. She's stubborn, kind and endlessly practical, and she gives the people around her a reason to be better. We'd happily follow her.

Sophie is the eldest of three sisters in a hat shop in the town of Market Chipping. She is sure she is destined for a dull life and has resigned herself to it. Then the Witch of the Waste curses her into the body of a 90-year-old woman. Unable to tell anyone, she leaves town and finds shelter in the moving castle of the feared wizard Howl.

Sophie turns out to be tougher than she thinks. She barges in as the castle's cleaning lady, takes on the household's mess and moods, and quickly becomes the glue that holds a strange found family together. Being old frees her to say what she thinks, and she is blunt, funny and brave.

Her flaws are real: she is self-doubting, quick to assume the worst of herself, and can be bossy. But she acts out of loyalty and care, and she grows more confident as the story goes on. That's why she scores so high: she's a warm, capable, quietly heroic person, and she does almost no harm.