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What a Character Means to Me
12 years ago
To me, whenever I see a character, their entire appearance is only a fraction of what I actually look at. It doesn't matter who beautiful or how ugly a character looks, because it's only a small part of that character.
What REALLY matters to me is how the character is developed.
Because I'm an English major, most of my attention is on the characters that are in the stories that I read rather than on the sole adventure that the characters are questing on. To me, it doesn't matter if the quest they're on has been beaten to death or is something new and unique, if the characters are not well rounded or don't develop over the story, then what's the point of it all if it doesn't keep my attention?
When I see a character, I look at their strengths and their weaknesses, not their appearance alone. Characters are supposed to be able to develop and grow as time passes, and if they don't learn anything, they might as well be considered nothing more than a flat character that won't ever change.
Take Beowulf for example (and I'm not just referring to the movie they made). He was considered a great warrior and king because he was able to fight and kill all sorts of monsters by himself--even in the buff. Well good for him! But what about his men? They grew to rely on him so much to defeat the monsters, that when he was an old man in his seventies and having a dragon attack his kingdom, his men that were supposed to have his back and fight for their king were hesitant to take up their swords while an outsider that just arrived in their midst was the only one that stepped up to the plate. Beowulf is a flat character that didn't learn a single thing even as he lay dying. He didn't learn that he was the one that was making his men weak, as a true leader would have given his men a chance to prove their mettle and show that they can fight monsters too even if they die trying. Because he constantly wanted to kill these monsters and end these conflicts himself, he never truly learned how to be modest or humble enough to say that he himself is just another man--not an immortal god.
Another thing that I find that I pay attention to when it comes to characters and their appearance is their abilities and what they do. If a character is a boxer or a soldier that has seen combat, yet they do not have any scarring or look weary from seeing death, then what sense does that make? Sure, each person is different when it comes to how they respond to different situations, but at the same time, you have to do research on these things in order to make sure that the character is more round--or "realistic" if you haven't figured it out by now. If you're making a soldier who has seen combat, perhaps they developed PTSD, which affects their daily lives as they react to simple everyday sounds as though they were back on the fields of combat. Or perhaps they may have developed a taste for blood and enjoyed combat a little too much. Or maybe they lost a limb in an accident and had to get a prosthetic replacement in order to compensate and somehow they never fully recovered from the fact they lost that arm or leg.
You see? There are endless things that you can do simply by either asking from a direct source or doing good--and reliable--research.
My honest opinion on one thing? I do not like characters that are given the title of "god/goddess". It is HIGHLY rare for me to find a character that's given such a title that actually wasn't bad, and even then that is incredibly rare because it is so easy for a character to be considered a Mary Sue or Gary Stu that way. It is extremely difficult to come up with a god/goddess character without making it to where they have absolutely no weaknesses to name and therefore making them flat characters--unrealistic characters.
This does not just affect characters for stories such as Harry Potter or Twilight (which I abhor). This also affects OCs that I've come across from fellow artists, along with myself. When I create my characters, I always try to ensure that they have a good balance of strengths and weaknesses. If they have powers like say control over fire, then I try and make sure to compensate for that strength by giving them weaknesses. Like perhaps their temper gets out of hand and their power over fire can get out of control, or they can't use it if they're in a cold environment.
There HAS to be a weakness, or the character just won't be interesting. I know I've stated that multiple times, but I'm afraid that it's the sad truth. Looks on a character do not matter if their bio and what their abilities and such does not match their appearance. If a character was formerly ugly and made beautiful, the way it happened would have to sound logical. A simple and relatively small thing such as doing a good deed does not sound logical at all, as it would mean that anyone would be able to do that by doing the exact same thing! That's not very unique at all, it sounds bland. HOWEVER. The good deed could result in the character getting a hint to something that would allow them to become beautiful and end up learning that true beauty lies within. Now THAT sounds like something interesting I would want to read about, and I'm not always interested in things such as that!
I could go on and on about this sort of topic, but I think I may have touched up on a good bit of what usually bugs me. There is much, much more that continue to bug the hell out of me, but this should suffice for now.
What do you guys think? What are your thoughts on what a character should actually mean and how they should be done? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. c:
What REALLY matters to me is how the character is developed.
Because I'm an English major, most of my attention is on the characters that are in the stories that I read rather than on the sole adventure that the characters are questing on. To me, it doesn't matter if the quest they're on has been beaten to death or is something new and unique, if the characters are not well rounded or don't develop over the story, then what's the point of it all if it doesn't keep my attention?
When I see a character, I look at their strengths and their weaknesses, not their appearance alone. Characters are supposed to be able to develop and grow as time passes, and if they don't learn anything, they might as well be considered nothing more than a flat character that won't ever change.
Take Beowulf for example (and I'm not just referring to the movie they made). He was considered a great warrior and king because he was able to fight and kill all sorts of monsters by himself--even in the buff. Well good for him! But what about his men? They grew to rely on him so much to defeat the monsters, that when he was an old man in his seventies and having a dragon attack his kingdom, his men that were supposed to have his back and fight for their king were hesitant to take up their swords while an outsider that just arrived in their midst was the only one that stepped up to the plate. Beowulf is a flat character that didn't learn a single thing even as he lay dying. He didn't learn that he was the one that was making his men weak, as a true leader would have given his men a chance to prove their mettle and show that they can fight monsters too even if they die trying. Because he constantly wanted to kill these monsters and end these conflicts himself, he never truly learned how to be modest or humble enough to say that he himself is just another man--not an immortal god.
Another thing that I find that I pay attention to when it comes to characters and their appearance is their abilities and what they do. If a character is a boxer or a soldier that has seen combat, yet they do not have any scarring or look weary from seeing death, then what sense does that make? Sure, each person is different when it comes to how they respond to different situations, but at the same time, you have to do research on these things in order to make sure that the character is more round--or "realistic" if you haven't figured it out by now. If you're making a soldier who has seen combat, perhaps they developed PTSD, which affects their daily lives as they react to simple everyday sounds as though they were back on the fields of combat. Or perhaps they may have developed a taste for blood and enjoyed combat a little too much. Or maybe they lost a limb in an accident and had to get a prosthetic replacement in order to compensate and somehow they never fully recovered from the fact they lost that arm or leg.
You see? There are endless things that you can do simply by either asking from a direct source or doing good--and reliable--research.
My honest opinion on one thing? I do not like characters that are given the title of "god/goddess". It is HIGHLY rare for me to find a character that's given such a title that actually wasn't bad, and even then that is incredibly rare because it is so easy for a character to be considered a Mary Sue or Gary Stu that way. It is extremely difficult to come up with a god/goddess character without making it to where they have absolutely no weaknesses to name and therefore making them flat characters--unrealistic characters.
This does not just affect characters for stories such as Harry Potter or Twilight (which I abhor). This also affects OCs that I've come across from fellow artists, along with myself. When I create my characters, I always try to ensure that they have a good balance of strengths and weaknesses. If they have powers like say control over fire, then I try and make sure to compensate for that strength by giving them weaknesses. Like perhaps their temper gets out of hand and their power over fire can get out of control, or they can't use it if they're in a cold environment.
There HAS to be a weakness, or the character just won't be interesting. I know I've stated that multiple times, but I'm afraid that it's the sad truth. Looks on a character do not matter if their bio and what their abilities and such does not match their appearance. If a character was formerly ugly and made beautiful, the way it happened would have to sound logical. A simple and relatively small thing such as doing a good deed does not sound logical at all, as it would mean that anyone would be able to do that by doing the exact same thing! That's not very unique at all, it sounds bland. HOWEVER. The good deed could result in the character getting a hint to something that would allow them to become beautiful and end up learning that true beauty lies within. Now THAT sounds like something interesting I would want to read about, and I'm not always interested in things such as that!
I could go on and on about this sort of topic, but I think I may have touched up on a good bit of what usually bugs me. There is much, much more that continue to bug the hell out of me, but this should suffice for now.
What do you guys think? What are your thoughts on what a character should actually mean and how they should be done? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. c:
