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moodyblues β NEVER WRONG
Published: 2010-09-05 19:33:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 2133; Favourites: 64; Downloads: 10
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Too many powers and abilities? Inhuman beauty? Constant wangst? These Sue-ish tendencies are small potatoes compared to moral or intellectual perfection.There is nothing more annoying than a writer's darling. This is the kind of character who never does something immoral and knows it's wrong. Oh sure, he might do something that "seems wrong on the surface" for the sake of badassery, but the author always swoops in and saves him from culpability. For example, he slaughters a small village, but the author later explains that "they deserved it" because of something they did to him. Or the author excuses it because of the character's past trauma. It doesn't really matter what the explanation is as long as it justifies (at least in the author's mind) the character's horrific actions.
Heck, these darlings don't even make honest mistakes. Sure, they make decisions that are apparently boneheaded to anyone with half a brain, but it later turns out (through plot contrivances or retcons) that the character was right all along and that other characters were stupid/prejudiced/cowardly/stubborn to question the darling's actions. And, of course, even the most competent character in the group has to admit (at least grudgingly) that the darling is a tactical genius rather than see him as the lucky son-of-a-gun that he is.
People. Let your characters make mistakes. Let them hurt people without excusing them. Even if they're not human, make them human. And maybe they'll grow from that.
Whew. Nice to get that off my chest.
(Excuse me for using the masculine pronoun here. Female characters are guilty of this, too.)
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Comments: 76
My favourite OC is somewhere near autistic, is super ugly, sometimes ridiculously slow, and is pretty much a stuck-up twit.
How many more flaws does she need? D;
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I totally agree, I can't stand the "never wrong" characters JUST OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD in cannon I can name three, Orihime from Bleach, never fucking wrong. Itachi from Naruto, he slaughtered a whole village, BUT HE WAS A VICTIM REALLY 8D I SWEARZ~ Pretty much every single shojo protagonist in the history of ever. SUPERMAN. That's all I could think of on the spot, also because saying shojo in general really narrowed the list down XD GOD it's so annoying! "Why did you kill that girl?" "She stole my boyfriend so it makes it ok for me to kill her because CLEARLY I'm the victim here!"
It's annoying when a character is ALWAYS wrong too though, just about every villain ever has NO REASON FOR BEING EVIL!
Why does he want to destroy the world? BECAUSE HE CAN!
Does he have a reason for this? Um, no? Oh, ok so he's just kinda an asshole? Alrighty then.
Or characters who don't ever act petty and jealous. " She just punched me in the face but it's ok because she'll get killed off later because she's such a heinous human being~ teehee~" yeah let the minions do the dirty work D< Tohru from Fruitsbasket is guilty of this in pretty much every single episode of Fruitsbasket. ALWAYS the victim and EVERYONE fucking loves her. No. She's never mad, she's never petty. Why? BECAUSE SHE'S AN ORPHAN AND NOBODY LOVED HER AND BOOHOO EVERYONE PROTECT HER!
It's unrealistic! Human beings are petty by nature and it takes a strong person to not let that overcome them! And nobody is such a strong person that they NEVER feel anything aside from happiness, sadness and slight annoyance.
Like the saying goes "Saints have a past, sinners have a future." I'll explain what this means because apparently it's not as obvious as I thought >_>
Nobodies perfect, everyone no matter how kind and caring and nice they are is going to make mistakes. No matter how bad somebody is, they have a future and a chance to redeem themselves. Nothings perfect and nothings written in stone.
Nice stamp
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I've never read/watched Naruto, but UGHGHGHGH, I hate that kind of anti-hero. At least when Anakin did that in Episode 2, the film made it clear that what he did was very wrong.
In Superman's defense, he's more fallible in recent comics. Or at least that's what I've heard.
But yeah, I hate it when characters don't react negatively to a darling's foolish or malicious actions. It's as if the writer worries that the character doesn't have any flaws, so they have him make a mistake. That's a step in the right direction, but the mistake MUST have consequences beyond characters brushing it off. This is especially true if the character makes the mistake more than once.
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lol aw, your not really missing out it's ok but it's not stupendous or anything XD
SERIOUSLY! ARGH! Anakin did a bad bad thing and it was clear to the audience and everyone else he went dark side and I loved that. He was a good anti-hero, a fallen hero? It was sad but I think that's why people love Starwars~
Nahhh~ He's the same golden boy XD They make him funnier now though~ I don't pay much attention to him though. One thing I give him credit for though, he can't help it, he's SUPERMAN.
lol "you just killed an innocent child, you did it because thats the child of a person who you hate so it's ok~" It's mostly a nooby writer and a shojo writer problem though, they forget that a more realistic character is better than the perfect character they want. I remember when I made kinda marysues they made mistakes but I felt guilty for them doing it so it was either forgotten or given good reason XD IF ONLY I COULD SMACK MY YOUNGER SELF~ But alas, that's why I know why people do things. It feels...icky when your favorite does something bad. It's like when your dog/cat bites someone. Even though shit happens you still want to pretend it didn't happen and justify their actions.
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I don't mind Superman's moral perfection too much because he's meant to be an ideal hero and a role model. In a genre where a lot of the "heroes" do pretty morally questionable things, it's nice to have him around to give a dose of old-fashioned idealism every now and then. (Of course, it helps if Superman isn't written by a preachy writer.)
Yeah. I think almost everybody has an author's darling when they start writing. I know I did! Don't feel too bad; just think of those characters as stepping stones.
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This. This so hard.
One reason why I think it's so difficult for people to give their characters flaws, be it some random creation on the internet, in a film, or a book, the creator is usually emotionally connected to said character. Having it be that way, they naturally want to make it a pretty pretty fru fru perfect crystal clear nothing wrong with me character, that or it's a typical character/persona that the creator wished they were. Funny thing is, a character I had ages ago that was pretty much a persona but I never said she was, went through several phases and/or designs was a batshit murderer. She had a ton of flaws ( such as I didn't give her gigantic tits bigger than her head, hell she was flat chested a good majority of the time ) , and when she reached the peak of most sadistic and ridiculously unsympathetic was when violence terrified me.
It also explains why people flip shit and/or godmod when their character ends up dying in a roleplay. I mean if you don't want your character to die or get injured, don't roleplay. Hell, don't even make one, because even in their development they're going to have to get hurt somehow, whether it be emotionally or physically. But if you hurt them, don't make your character pull a Sasuke Uchiha or Shadow the Hedgehog. Shit's been done way too many times.
tl;dr, characters who aren't flawed in a good way are terrible.
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YES. Thank you for saying this. I agree- nothing can be more annoying than a character that gets away with everything scott-free. Playing favorites. Sheesh. I mean sure, I have trouble hurting my characters sometimes, but it's important. To make someone human, they have to go through some pain and make mistakes they will regret. These influence personalities and development.
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Yeah, I can't stand it when authors protect their characters too much. I'm a little guilty of that, but I've realized that it can be really interesting to see how characters handle their past mistakes and sins. Do they try to forget they did anything wrong? Do they deny it completely? Do they try to make things right? That can be a lot of fun to write, and authors who don't let their characters fail miss out on that.
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Man, all what you said is true. It takes some courage, and it opens up so many possibilities for a very relatable, human character.
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WHAT BUT I HAVE BAD PAST SO IT OKAY THAT I BIG JERK -KICKS A CHILD-
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Yes, you're a jerk and you probably severely injured that child, but we wouldn't want you to change. Just be yourself!
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HOOLAY -KICKS THE KID'S HEAD OFF-
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Oh, Dragon! You're such a lovable nut!
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GET OUT OF MY FACE OR I KICK YOU IN FACE
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I KICK YOUR CAN ALL OVER THE PLACE
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YOU NOT SO....ACE?
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I SPACE ACE YOU DRAGON'S LAIR
...YEAH, MEDITATE ON THAT.
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HOW CAN ANYONE MAKE A HUGE MISTAKE LIKE THAT? Most people instinctively give their characters flaws without even realizing that that's a good thing.
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I think people get so attached to their characters that they can't bear to make them look bad. I'm guilty of it sometimes, so I can understand it. But still, characters who are never blameworthy cheese me off.
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Characters who're never blameworthy are pretty annoying.
There are some people who are so sadistic to their characters, that they enjoy making them look bad all the time. We're all guilty of it. If it's reasonable, then it's okay to justify a character's actions. A character can't always look bad, or they'd turn into an Anti-Sue, like Meg Griffin. It's about finding the right balance, and knowing when to make a character right or wrong.
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Meg's an anti-Sue? I'd heard she gets the short end of the stick a lot, but I didn't know it was that bad.
Good points. I think being reasonable is the key to avoiding extremes.
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It got bad enough that even I was starting to dislike Meg. There's one episode she's finally given the time to shine, so that's good.
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Was that the episode where she FINALLY beats up Peter? I seriously wanna see that.
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I heard about it, but I haven't seen it yet!
I was thinking about the pop singer one where everyone FINALLY thought she was pretty.
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I can't even stand canon characters who are like this. Despite what people think, canon ones do exist and they are no better than fanon ones. A character who's never wrong is a character who's never fun in my opinion.
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Oh my gosh, that's very true. Just because an author/artist is published doesn't mean they can't make characters like that. And you're right; those characters aren't much fun.
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Yeah. Character that are never wrong or can do no wrong == Character that is a big yawn.
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Characters who are never wrong or make no honest mistakes are boring, extreamly boring. What's the point? Arent you supposed to make mistakes? Arent you supposed to be wrong? Isnt that half the fun of writing/reading?
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Exactly! Most stories are character-driven. If the character never changes, then nothing meaningful will happen plot-wise. Sure, things may happen to the characters, but if the character always does the right thing and never has to develop, then who cares?
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And it gives no suspince, say the character was presented with a huge moral choice, we already know that they'll make the good choice because someone who has no flaws and never makes mistakes cant be evil.
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Right! And often, a character is presented with a moral choice, but it's a bogus one - a choice that almost no moral person would choose. An example: "Join me, and we will rule together! (Um, ignore the fact that I killed your parents, threatened your friends, and made your country a living hell.)"
I'm not expecting every character to be an anti-hero, but I would like to see them face at least genuine temptation.
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We come to a fork in the road with moral choices almost every day and there's no clear answer.
Another one of my points is that in books, movies, videogames the character is presented with a choice like "Save the kid, get worshiped and get all the money you could wish for" you never see "Kill this innocent child in cold blood and get alot of money"
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That's true, especially if you're living in dangerous times.
Another good point. It'd be interesting to see someone do one horrible thing for some long-term benefit: money, security, peace, or even to save someone else's life. I'd like to see more stories explore a character who is at least tempted to do bad things for good ends.
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I dont know about you, but I personally would love to read a book where the main character is evil
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I think there are books like that, like Darkly Dreaming Dexter. (I'm not sure, though; I haven't read it myself.) Usually, though, the characters in these books do objectively evil things but genuinely believe (either through ignorance or mental illness) that their actions are good.
I'd like to read a book where the main character is evil, knows that what they're doing is wrong, but has to fool themselves into believing that they're good. Through the story, you would gradually see (though the character wouldn't, at least not entirely) how morally blind they become.
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(Sorry for jumping in like this)
There is a book written by Niklas Krog here where the main character is evil and she knows that she is doing wrong but always convince herself that what she do is right.
It's actually not until the end that she realize what she have done and go to give herself her punishment.
It actually was one of my favorite books when I was younger.
Just figured I would mention it. I guess I should hid in my corner again.
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YEAH GET OUT OF THE CHICKEN
That sounds like a good book. What was the title? (It's probably not available in the U. S., but who knows?)
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Hehehe, chicken....
In Swedish the title is "En HΓ€rskares SjΓ€l" I'm not sure if it is available in English but a wild guess it you translate the title would be something like "Soul of a Leader" or something like that.
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Thanks. I might look it up and see if it's in English. Or I might just learn Swedish. XD
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Well, good luck finding it.^^
Hehe, it would be kinda cool if you suddenly learned Swedish XD It would shock me if nothing else XD
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Well, according to people in other Scandinavian countries, all I have to do is talk with my mouth full. XD
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That is if you want to speak Danish XD To speak Swedish you have to be drunk too XD And for Norwegian you have to have your mouth full, be drunk and sing XD
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And to speak German, you have to yell at the top of your lungs and spit a lot. And yet make it sound sexy.
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I sure have XD And I know the danish part is kinda true XD at least you have to talk like you're about to vomit if nothing else. XD
Hahaha, that is kinda true XD I didn't study German in School, but I did study French and when it comes to that, me and some friends realize you just have to sound like different animals and have a cold to make it sound perfect XD
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Man. When you put it that way, accents sound a lot less cute. O_O
You studied French, too? 
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Hahaha, I know, but that's just the sound we do here to make it sound Danish. The local accent here is a mix between Norwegian and Swedish so trust me, it can be more weird.
Yeah, I did from when I was 12 till I was 16. Don't remember much from it however XD
That is correct.^^
I remember that I had a lot of pronouncing training... Kinda had to when we were only 2 students in that class my last year XD
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That would make an extreamly good book.
I also wouldnt mind reading a book where the character knows they're evil, and does evil things for evil reasions and manipulates others using an exquisit choice of words into thinking what they're doing is good. Like what most people do now days but people are too blind to realize, but thats another subject
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