"Walk boldly into the unknown"!
This is why my forehead slopes.....wouldn't change a moment of my life! Adversity forces growth.

He is my 2nd favorite character. One of these days I will find him.

I wish Ayn had spent a bit more time on Ragnar's character. Had she, I'm certain I'd have found much more in common with him as a soldier and as a civilian. As it is I have to place him second to Hank Reardon.

Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastian d'Anconia.

Dashing, brilliant, passionate, animated, mysterious, romantic, accomplished, dedicated, and masterful.

Did you notice perhaps that most of us are choosing characters out of AS?

This is my choice too. And for those exact reasons. Knowing (as Reardon) that my employees were the real strength of the steel poured is a very Reardon instinct. His men, in the end, were more important than the plant they worked in. That if you have "men of ability" you can always make the steel you need. While Hanks journey was a journey of self exploration, beyond individual research, it takes more than one man to build a railroad, a factory or a skyscraper. Those men, each on their own journey, when working together can build great things.

Tem;

From the perspective of dramatics either Dagny or Hank is our hero precisely because, as you say, they embark on personal voyages of discovery and discover not only the truth about the world in which they live, but the truth about themselves.

I'm partial to Hank because he's honorable, he fights on and fulfills his obligations, even though (don't tell JBrenner) this makes him look a bit of a dolt for not catching on as quickly as the others.

But, because he struggled on so long, his shrug seemed more important than the others, as though, if he'd kept struggling on, so would the counterfeit reality of the takers have continued.

He was Boxer, not the smartest animal on the farm but, without whom the others' counterfeit life could not go on.

I am sure that he would have under different circumstances. Still, he had no choice. If he had done that he would have just turned himself into a new loot supply for the people who were actually destroying the world. As such it became a moral choice. To either provide loot for the looters, or not. A lot of time is spent saying that he was destroying the world. I would disagree. He didn't destroy the world. He simply didn't do anything to slow down the ones who were destroying the world. He accelerated their progress by showing others that they didn't need to sacrifice themselves trying to slow the progress and prevent the inevitable. As for creating a Silicon Valley of energy.. If their had been a next book, that would have no doubt been in there. We spend a lot of time thinking about what happens in the book. I kind of like to imagine the world that was born out of the ashes of the looter states and what would need to be done to rebuild on a solid foundation.