Character Theory What Ruins a Character?

[Dark lord steel]

*cough* Rey from Star Wars described perfectly well in the bold *cough*

I honestly hate the 'forced connection to a canon' type for one. Like for example if we're doing a fandom RP and you want to include OCs, that's fine and all so long as the canons get their spotlight..but when you make it out like 'Oh I'm Edward Elric's long lost cousin's uncle'. It's a hard pass for me.

I've yet to ever see that type of OC done well where they're related to a canon. It ALWAYS is a disaster from my experience.

Another one I hate is the 'edgy tragic backstory just for edginess sake'. We get it, you're angsty...but making a character mopey and traumatized just for the sake of it has always been annoying to me. Tragic backstories are sooo overdone imo.

Granted I've just lately got up the courage to forge my own OCs and feel like they're my own and not just knockoffs of some canon I like. Constantly comparing my OCs to canons and thinking I'm ripping them off was preventing me from flourishing as an RPer I feel.

One of my OCs is basically related to a famous wizard terrorist, and I like to think she's done fairly well. I find it interesting how different people react to her in the story, and how this helps shape her character and the conflict this causes with her family. It also creates interesting dilemmas in the story and it leaves a lot of room for character growth with both people. In some cases they've convinced her that her parents are wrong and she betrays them (although that doesn't always go to plan), in other ones she convinces the other character she's right and they slowly turn darker. There was even one where the two main characters ran away together and she had to kill her father to stop him from hunting them down. So I think Canon related characters can work, as long as they aren't just knock offs of the original Canon characters, or done in a really stupid way, like: I'm the eighteenth cousin of the great warrior from three hundred years ago so I'm super awesome at everything.

 

[Zachy1993]

One of my OCs is basically related to a famous wizard terrorist, and I like to think she's done fairly well. I find it interesting how different people react to her in the story, and how this helps shape her character and the conflict this causes with her family. It also creates interesting dilemmas in the story and it leaves a lot of room for character growth with both people. In some cases they've convinced her that her parents are wrong and she betrays them (although that doesn't always go to plan), in other ones she convinces the other character she's right and they slowly turn darker. There was even one where the two main characters ran away together and she had to kill her father to stop him from hunting them down. So I think Canon related characters can work, as long as they aren't just knock offs of the original Canon characters, or done in a really stupid way, like: I'm the eighteenth cousin of the great warrior from three hundred years ago so I'm super awesome at everything.

See, that sounds great and well thought out! I've just never experienced it done well..

 

[Dark lord steel]

See, that sounds great and well thought out! I've just never experienced it done well..

Thanks! I think it can heavily depend on the maturity of the person playing, and what fandom it is, as I have little doubt some are more notorious for this then others. An understanding of the related character also helps, but I find that having someone as your "distant relative" is mainly just a cop-out. I find it this way as your character doesn't have to live up to any expectations for that character, they don't have to have any simular traits or go through any struggles, but they reap in all the benefits.

 

[Idea]

While I have a lot of characters that really irk me, they generally aren't enough to get me to really "break" so to speak. I am usually patient towards those kinds of characters in other people's RPs (mostly trying to avoid interacting with those I have bigger issues with), however there are a handful that really make me want to jump off the boat.

1.Self-inserts
Self-insert are usually very badly written, but if that was the only issue I wouldn't necessarily have this big a bone to pick with them. Rather, it's the priorities inherent to building this type of character which not only irk me, but are strikingly obvious in most CSs of a character of this nature. It is difficult for any roleplayer to prioritize the story over their own character, however, self-insert types take this notion to a whole other level, their entire purpose is to be part of the story or to insert this ideal version of themselves into the story. Where this falls as an issue is that the story will not, by design, be a field of roses for the character, and it's certainly not all about their character, however a person who writes self-inserts rarely manages to grasp this. Instead they tend to insert their character into every situation, to make them as "cool" as they can (with a complete lack of self-awareness or cohesion by my experience) and what's possibly the worst part, they add intimate and detailed bits of themselves, things they are EXTREMELY sensitive about, into the characters themselves, often disorders and/or personal family experiences.

Now, this issue of sensitivity is one which I will adress more when I talk about another type of character, but I'll just say it is a horrifying sight, especially for a more light-hearted and comedic writer like myself, because suddenly attempting to do humor will be taken as a personal attack or worse.

I do get the idea of adding a part of yourself to the character, and exploring yourself through them. A lot of my characters deal with regrets induced by their own hand, not just because it is something which I find to be good background crafting in general, but also because regret is something which I have a very deep resonance for. Similarly with envy, and the weight of being an older sibling. I fundamentlaly believe everyone puts at least a little of themselves into their characters and their writing. However, to fully expose yourself in it, to put yourself in it, is indicative of forgetting the roleplay is ultimately supposed to be a narrative where your personal fantasies aren't in any way the only thing to matter.


2.No Interactivity Characters
Now, this kind is a very broad category, which I will attempt to summarize by splitting it into two groups. The first group is "characters which have to be pushed for any sliver of cooperation" and the second "characters which don't let me be involved".

The first group is far more common. I can tolerate a lot of shitty loner characters. I can't tolerate a character that does nothing but argue with others and has no intention of even going along with whatever the plot is. If your character has the same mobility and participation as a brain in a jar, I can't work with you- though that's unfair to brains in jars, because those can at least conceivably make for decent characters if the player using them knows how to write a dialogue-only character.

The second group is characters that don't let me interact, and it often is a GM character or a Mary Sue character (heck, both even). The problem here is exacly as the name would suggest, that I don't get to be involved because this character is around. They tend to solve every problem or overshadow the others at every corner, in fact one of the worst offenders of this archetype is the kind which shuts down all character arcs and mystery by seemingly having hunches and just "knowing" everything. One of the primary things I want out of any roleplay is involvement. I don't need to be useful or powerful or loved by everyone...but I do need to have my presence in the roleplay be aknowledged and mean something, offer something. If there is a character that syphons this out, I'm out too.

3.Political/Messenger Characters
Whenever I see one of these types, I know I am dealing with a ticking time bomb. This kind of character is obsessed with an ideology or with a particular pretty much meaningless trait as far as regular character goes, and are typically built around it and promoting it. The most blatant forms of this have the character possess a particular ideology, and then make things good or bad depending on how that ideology views it. However, the most common form of this type of character tends to be one which is obsessively built around something like the character's race (as in black, white, ....), gender identity, sexual orientation or the like.

While these characters tend to be very poorly written and Mary-suey as f*ck when they even match up with the setting at all, the biggest problem is less the character and more what it says about the player. Players that use this type of character are usually extremely sensitive to anything remotely aproximating the topic around which the character was built. The great issue with that is that this means negativity and reduced options. It means humor is greatly cut depending on how far into this whole political business the person is. It means that the central focus of their character will not only also be an obsession OOC AND IC, it will also be a factor you will have to treat as important just because, but a strictly POSITIVE kind of important.

It may seem like I'm exagerating, but my experience with this is that of dealing with ticking time bombs. I prefer to remove myself from the roleplay before that happens.

4."Incomplete" types
I am a planner by nature. I am someone who sees characters as existing as they are written, and character development as moving past an established state, not as starting to exist in a mildly different manner. I am someone who works best with more information, and who can go marbles if crucial info is hidden.

This is the type of character that "incomplete" characters are. Characters which simply put are missing pieces, especially important pieces. It is more tolerable for something like say, a fate RP, because in those that information being hidden is the point. However, for the general roleplay hidding such information comes across as lazy to me: Instead of writing to make something impressive, you write to hide this "meh" thing. The build up is for a mystery that hardly ever actually pays off, and locks scenarios instead of allowing you to explore unique directions through the explorations and consequences of the reveal. And this is my optimistic way of looking at it. Because I know a lot of them didn't write that stuff down because they didn't actually think about it, and just ignore it or make it up as they, creating a trail of plot contrivances...

Long story short, I can't stand even the thought of these types of characters. I need order and solid bases and they rip the carpet from under me. Same with contradictory or vague characters.

5.Characters that "steal my spot"
Now this one is...admitedly a little petty on my part. There are times when there are legitimate reasons- if someone straight up copies you and nobody does anything about it, then that's a reason to feel upset I feel, that said when this happens its often much less on the nose. Nonetheless, it is something that has driven me out of roleplays before and even recently has nearly driven me out of a particular roleplay.

So, this type of character is a character which is either makes my character irrelevant or occupies what would otherwise be my character's role. I am too uncompetitive a person to appreciate having to compete with someone for my position in a group, especially if because of the characters I play I already am hanging by a thread in usefulness. It feels terrible, especially when those characters come at a later date when you've already nested and now suddenly someone sat on your comfy spot on the couch while you were out for a bathroom break (or they just pushed you out).

Not only is it frustrating though, it also is cummulative. When I see that character, I am already anticipating having to play second fiddle to them. What was once unique to me having to be shared. It makes me feel like a kid whose first little sibling has just been born, facing the shock of no longer having the attention. It's a childish and petty feeling to have, but also one which I seldom manage to avoid when this kind of thing happens, and which can entirely kill my willingness to post for an RP.

For all the bad there is though, it's not like there is no good, and characters I love. I will be specifically talking of characters I love to interact with of course, rather than characters I love to play myself, given the general topic of this thread. I will also probably describe them in less detail, mostly cause I am tired after writing that much already...

1.Directly Consistent Characters
It's a hard concept to explain. I like when a character is not obsessed but heavily built around a consistent theme that isn't charged. A theme which is direct, sometimes even tropish. A character that is solidly built this way tends to be very fun to play with. There is more I'd like to say, but I'm not finding the words, so I'll leave this at that.

2.Impressionable Types and Normal Joes
First of all, it tends to take quite a bit of courage to even do this type of character. In a superpowered setting, an average Joe may feel completely useless and like they will be stting out of the fun. However, in their status this way gives them something pretty incredible: truly being able to appreciate the awesomeness in the other characters. This both average Joes and impressionable characters share, the way in which they often take it and react with a sincerity that I find mostly lacking in the other characters and posts which are more concerned with exhibiting than taking in, often including my own. It makes one really feel appreciated to have these people around, and plus it also contributes to one's sense of importance.

3.Kind and Understanding Types
I love characters that can really show warmth towards the suffering of my characters. I guess there is an element of me that connects that warmth almost to myself still, it feels so vindicative.

4.Prankster and Energetic Types
Honestly, the only reason I even group these two together is because the reason why I like them is pretty similar: they take an interest in and directly push interactions with others. If the impressionable type is great at reaction, then this type of character is the pinnacle of taking the innitiative and taking a direct interest in interacting with you. Prankster love to mess with your character, which I like cause I like seeing my characters embarassed and one can find very creative ways of achieving that XD Energetic types are ebtter the more intrusive and bubbly, not only bringing some cheers to the RP but also help bring the group together.

 

[Lethargic Yuki Co.]

I like writing tricksters but I like to give them a reason as to why they lie, manipulate, and find joy in making others suffer for no good reason. As for edgelords, they can be fun comic relief if you have a twisted sense of humor. I’ll occasionally write in an edgelord as a side character in RP. I never flesh them out but I play them like early 2000s cartoon goths with an over the top "woe is me" schtick and jokes about the macabre.

 

[BackSet]

Me playing them.

Kidding.

I'll be serious now.

Nothing really ruins a character. Anything can be a good character if done right. The problem is doing it right.

 

[Metty]

Overcoming their fatal physical/supernatural weaknesses.

 

[BackSet]

Overcoming their fatal physical/supernatural weaknesses.

I would think that would be a cool important character develop-y thing to do.

 

[PhoenixMire]

I would think that would be a cool important character develop-y thing to do.

I agree, but only if it's done right. If someone overcomes all their weaknesses, then they end up feeling "perfect" and it's just annoying. But focusing your character's arc on them trying to overcome a big weakness of theirs could be cool.

I like writing tricksters but I like to give them a reason as to why they lie, manipulate, and find joy in making others suffer for no good reason.

I feel like I have a huge soft spot for those kinds of characters too? I love villains, as long as I think they're interesting. They don't even have to be "relatable"; as long as I think they're interesting and not edgy just for the sake of being edgy, then I like them.

As for what breaks a character for me... playboy types (or a female equivalent). I know they can be written well, I know they can be developed interestingly, and I know some people like them... and that's fine. They're just not for me. I can't stand them.