What? O.o Not sure what you're talking about, never seen that. Rabid Luigi fans? I mostly just see people appreciate the little things he gets like Luigi Death stare or Weegee memes but how can one even become rabid about that lol
EternaMidnight Because they get to a point where they like Luigi so much, they completely hate and shit on Mario. Which just creates another character hate problem.
I like to link flaws to positive traits, if you have a passionate character then their flaw could be having a short temper, or a character who is always calm could have a difficult time expressing their emotions or even come off as cold. Just some ideas
Having not seen the video yet and just browsing the comments, this lines up with a philosophy I've had since I decided to analyze bits and pieces of My Hero Academia, a philosophy that has led me to better character writing, or at least I think so: a motto of "Rules are meant to be broken." Everything needs context. If you see someone lash out, whatever. If you see the composed and collected character lash out, it's a shocking and effective way to communicate that they've broken. An amoral dick saving someone or having a heartfelt moment is a MAJOR "holup" moment for the audience, as they re-contextualize and try to comprehend how that works. I truly believe that almost any character can be pushed to any point by circumstances and hardships, no matter how they deal with it or bounce back. Even a character with an indomitable will like Spider-Man for instance can be pushed to the absolute edge by things going on; we've seen Spider-Man lose faith in the good fight and cry and break down several times over the decades, but it's who he is that allows him to rise back up and continue the fight until the fight is won. Play Spider-Man on PS4 for a bunch of that in the endgame. It can easily communicate how bad a situation is for its characters, which raises the stakes and investment of the audience, and rounds out the character by giving them more ways to react to more scenarios.
Honestly, my favourite ways to find flaws in characters is to look at how their strengths may be their hinderences. For example, a character that is very loyal and confident in their judgement may follow someone who is not aligning with their goals, and they might distrust anyone trying to warn them. They miss the signs because initially, nothing was amiss, and now they fully believe in this person. They don't necessarily have to be gullible, as anyone capable of believably covering their trail has a greater room for future discrepencies with this character as opposed to others because the character is loyal to them, and to distrust the one they thought was good is to question their own judgement. It challenges their own core trait. People without such a strong sense of loyalty or confidence in their judgement may be more likely to accept and believe that their initial judgements were wrong. Both notice. One just denies stacking evidence until it's undeniable. Or a character with a strong will that never gives up. They may push themself beyond what they can handle without a break, whereas someone who stopped before them might get the mental/physical rest and outsider perspective needed to see the solution that the relentlessly persistent one didn't. Likewise, looking at things I first saw as weaknesses, I like to find the way they are strengths. Like a character that is easily emotionally affected by tragedy learning to overcome the urge to let it weigh them down and instead using their strong empathy to motivate and connect with people during hardship, helping heal the emotional wounds of others. Finally, if your character tends to feel the ends don't justify the means, figure out what circumstances would make them say the ends do justify the means, and reverse this for characters who tend to say the ends justify the means. Even if they never reach this point in story, it'll show you a lot, and this is a great way to understand their full character, not just who they want to act as. To me, the best weaknesses are just positive traits in a situation where they blindside or otherwise hinder the character, and the best strengths are those negative traits in situations where they provide the character with an angle or ability that someone without such a trait wouldn't have. Usually, weaknesses are only truly thought of as weaknesses when a character doesn't know how to utilise it or doesn't know how to put things in perspective. Apologies for the long rant though.
"No matter if a character is an alien, a robot, a creature, a personified inanimate object, all of these characters are humans, no matter what skin they're wearing." By Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge. Best quote I've seen in a while.
I hate when I make an OC that looks a bit like someone else's OC, because then people will accuse me of stealing even though it was a 100% coincidence.
Lord Mushroom I've never really had that trouble but I always feel paranoid of being attacked for my artwork whenever I post it online. There's always that one guy who hates everything about you
As I've created many Original characters, developing a whole original world, i totally get that. I even remember talking about generator rex and someone got crushed because they realized they just copied and paste the character, by complete coincidence
All this Darth Vader talk about Darth Vader being reminded that darth vader makes me realize that once I recognized darth vader in a comic about darth vader where darth vader talks.
Speaking of Darth Vader that reminds me of the one time I saw Darth Vader cosplaying as Darth Vader with his friend Darth Vader dressed up as Darth Vader at Darth Vader con and the Darth Vader’s we’re eating Darth Vader at darth Vader while talking on the phone with Darth Vader about Darth Vader and I saw this while dressed up as Darth Vader while also eating Darth Vader and Darth Vader at Darth Vader con while reading a comic called Darth Vader by Darth Vader
Ham on the bone "My character is so flawed, i mean everyone wants to kill her and i won't say why" "So it's not the character that's flawed... it's you"
The three main protagonists of a story I´m writing and uploading on DeviantArt (new parts each sunday, check it out) have some nice flaws. 1. Haphephobia (fear of being touched). This is pretty bad for him, because he can generate electricity and tends to zap people into a coma if things get too bad. Also, noone must know that he can generate electricity. 2. Tendency to abuse her powers. Like, seriously, give a girl the abbility to control people with sounds on an ultra high frequent level and you´ve got a fun character to put into situations where this kind of power doesn´t work, since she has to make actual morally acceptable decisions. 3. Over-protective mother. Honestly, when your mom makes sure you´re out of trouble at all times, you don´t know if you should fail miserably at judging danger or being afraid of anything new and unknown.
***** sounds interesting, I have been turning over a story idea for a while and thinking of writing it. To give a very vague description its basically about the journey of questioning whether you are really a good person, in particular one of the characters who is trying to find out whether her actions are justified by her conditioning or whether she is a freak beyond redemption.
One important point about flaws. A character's flaw has to actually hinder them in some way. "Plays by their own rules," "Has a problem with authority," and "is overconfident" are not good flaws unless they actually get in the way. If the character rushes in and succeeds anyway, they're not overconfident, they're rightly confident.
Yes. This. Thank you. There are so many people in improv style RPs (i.e., just collaborative writing, not an RPG, so there's no ruleset to curb their power trip) who miss this entirely. And also fanfic writers, needless to say. "My character's flaws are that he always feels responsible for everyone and wants to help and save people all the time, which he's super good at by the way, but it's a flaw because it means he has no time left for himself and puts himself in unnecessary danger, so he's also got a bunch of sexy scars from all the self-sacrifice he constantly engages in." Yeah, no, that's not a flaw, Einstein.
Brandon Fedie True, but it's less of a problem in gaming usually, if we're talking about the protagonist. Because a lot of gaming is escapist power fantasy, so by necessity the player character is going to be like this a lot of the time. Otherwise you end up with some pretty major mismatches between the way the character is portrayed in cutscenes/lore, versus the way they act in the game. If the character is an insecure, weepy, artistic romantic in cutscenes, but is mowing down zombies or whatever by the dozen during the game, then that's just weird. The character and gameplay have to match, and most games are combat-oriented, therefore most player characters are gung-ho and simplistic. There's also a school of thought that says that the player character must be a blank slate for the player to project themselves onto. None of this is a recipe for good conventional character stuff. Fortunately, outside of RPGs, characters are somewhat besides the point of most games anyway.
That's a gameplay-narrative conflict problem (i think 'ludonarrative dissonance' is the decided upon term) , not a character flaw problem. Giving a video game character flaws is necessary to create interesting characters when you don't want to just have a blank slate--and even if you do, a flaw can add gameplay challenge and make you actually invested, rather than simply going through the motions. Spec Ops: The Line and Crysis 2 have good examples of character flaws that make the games more interesting. Captain Walker (Spec Ops) mowing down legions of men fits into the narrative. I won't spoil it, but he goes down a dark path that ends up screwing things over big-time--permanently. And the main character of Crysis is barely being held together by his nano-suit. So he's a super-soldier that mows people down because of his suit, but when he overextends and runs out of power, he's completely screwed. That's a flaw that adds to gameplay and makes the character more interesting. A lot of games don't do this, and you end up with boring characters you don't care about.
Brandon Fedie Which, as I said, is not always a problem. There's a perception going around currently that games need to tell stories, but they really don't. It's a legitimate goal to have for a game if that's your goal, but if it isn't and the game is fun regardless, then so what? Neither chess nor poker have any compelling characters and nobody cares. The fact that it's a game adds other dimensions that can and often do override character-related concerns.
As a person with a disability, I really dislike when disability/physical imperfection is used as a way to convey some kind of character trait, positive or negative. In reality, we're just like anyone else.
@@yourehereforthatarentyou Even Toph's blindness was handled well. In fact, instead of something bad, it made her a better earthbender than anyone else in the show.
I’m very careful about that, it’s hard to describe what I do, but my physically and/or mentally disabled OCs are never made exclusively for their disability.
A disability is never a personality trait, but it can spawn some. A character might be insecure and bitter, or very determined to succeed, based on how they were treated.
Everyone knows the best character is a 13-year old girl who is the God of Death, Dark and Fire who is also a nekogirl with a split personality and one of the personalities is a cute innocent girl and the other is a murderous yandere psychopath. She also has no friends and is abused by her parents who she obviously can't kill or stop with her aforementioned God powers. She is also immortal, but never used her immortality to benefit anyone in any way and she just sits in the corner complaining about how difficult her life is and how no one likes her.
WRONG! One. Make him ignorant of everything happening. Two. Make him Arrogant and over confident. Three. Doesn't like Sand. Four. Make him suddenly kinda a good guy but not really. Five. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
A tip that I think is really neat is giving a character some traits that act like a double-edged sword. For example: A character is stubborn. This character is very frustrating to deal with at times, and can get into hot water because of it. However, they don't back down from a challenge and could even motivate other characters with their determination.
Now that’s some nice stuff! Thanks, I’m re-analysing my characters to see if there are things worth changing and it’ll be cool to see if any of them have this kind of things in their traits, because I often don’t think about them that much, they just pop in my mind and I try to develop them as they grow kinda without much effort
This is my process: 1. Decide on theme. All good stories are just essays written in emotion. A story has to present a worldview, a lesson, a piece of understanding that you can use to better survive in this world. To use a random example, let's say your theme is "No matter how hard you try, some things will remain impossible. And that's okay." 2. Character design. Now you have something to say, you need a person to carry that lesson. Most stories show us their theme by having the character need to learn it (If it's a lesson type of theme.) In our case, our character has to be unable to do something, but above all, they will need to *want* to do that thing. Exactly the thing they cannot do. Otherwise, you aren't exactly telling the story you set out to tell. 3. Know the ending now. In my case, because I know the theme, I know the ending. The character is going to fail at doing the thing they want to do, and at the end they will find happiness by doing something else, a thing which they can do, and do well. 4. Fill in the spots between. You have a before and after shot of your character. Great. Now you need to ask yourself how you get from the beginning to the end. This is where I suggest you research a lot about story structure. Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat" is a great read for that. But I'll tell you about three important things now: The inciting incident, the midpoint, and the point of all-is-lost. You can structure your story however, you want, but this is a classic set up that so many people use, you may as well consider it. The inciting incident is the thing that sets your character off on their journey. In the Wizard of Oz, it's the tornado. In Jurassic Park it's when they go to the park. In Little Shop of Horrors, it's when the guy gets the plant. Now, the midpoint is something I still don't understand perfectly myself (I'm no story guru) but a lot of the time people make it a false victory. The heroes won! Or so they think. Then, the all-is-lost point is where everything has gone to shit and your character feels their worst. In my case, it would be when my character has undeniable proof that she can't do the thing. To make things even more poignant, have her either give up the dream or die. Death is always useful in this moment. The most important thing to remember about these is that they have. to happen. on. time. The inciting incident happens 1/4 of the way through the story, the midpoint is at the middle, and the point of all is lost happens 3/4 through. You can give or take a bit, but if you don't keep those times, you don't have the same chances for emotional build up. Deadlines are deadlines. Unless you decide you want to do five act structure instead in which case you have different deadlines, but whatever. My main point here is you need to know how your character gets from point a to point b. What happens to make them change? Usually the all is lost point is the most important for that. 5. Congratulations, you have a story. Now write/draw/animate it, fool.
Thanks. It kinda already is. I learned a lot from "Save the Cat", but I combined its wisdom on story structure with the wisdom I heard from an interview with Brian McDonald on Chris Oatley's site, another great screenwriter who wrote books on the subject of theme, and the guy who teaches writing classes at Pixar. It's amazing how much you can learn just scouring the internet. I found a blog by the Mike DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar the Last Airbender, on story. It even has a three part series on how the writing process for Legend of Korra was, with "Beginnings, Part 1" as an example episode. It's cool to see it transform as it progresses from Premise to Outline to Script. Some people don't work that way though. Apparently the creators of Phineas and Ferb ditched having a script, and go straight to storyboard. Dan Povenmire said they worked like that on Rocko's Modern Life as well, so I guess it must be pretty common. I'm still missing a fair amount of resources on storyboarding though. I suppose it's mainly composition, but hey, if you ever find any sources that specifically detail composition for animation and film, send 'em my way.
Michael Offner I just wanted to tell you that I learned a lot from your comment; things that I knew I knew, but just didn't understand it fully. You gave an excellent explanation, and it helped me loads. Have a nice day :)
People say that having a character with a tragic backstory is Mary/Gary Sue/Stu but Sometimes I feel as though you can have a character with a bad back story as long as you right in it properly and use it as a proper way to carve your character. I myself have a character with a tragic back story that I use to help form him in some way, as Psychology says what happens in your childhood can affect the way you grow up. But I also have to be careful not to make it not self centered around it. More like an obstacle rather than a trait.
Exactly. You just need to know how to write those characters properly. For instance, I have this character who grew up in a dysfunctional household. His dad used to beat on him and his mom when he was a kid. His mom used to do drugs to help cope with the pain, and she got addicted to them. He saw his mom doing it once, and tried it himself, eventually getting addicted too, even though he was only 11 years old. When he turned 15, he finally stood up to his dad, and beat that bastard up as hard as he could, only stopping when his mom pleaded him to. He then moved out, became roommates with a friend of his from school, and slowly but surely (thanks to his friend) got rid of his addiction. Because of his past, he still has nightmares about his dad beating him. But his new friends (his old roommate had to go back to his home country), help him cope with his pain anytime he needs it. And it's because of them that he's able to smile more again, and stop treating the whole world like it's their fault. Of course, I don't make that one flaw define his whole character.
Viva La Juan Peace! That's exactly how I see it yes!! Its a chapter in a characters life that gave them experience and using the environment and people around them also helped him grow. I think you made your character's back story pretty well and made it fit him nicely too.
No, that is not a Mary Sue. A Mary Sue is a character who is perfect in every way possible (appearance, intelligence, personality, skills, etc.) and generally liked/adored by the other characters within the work. A tragic backstory can just get very cliché very quickly.
I absolutely loathe it when i put a lot of work into an original character, and someone tells me "Ohh that totally looks like *insert character from tv show/anime/game that i most likely don't know here*!" like no, this is a different person
Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge Someone knows my pain ; - ; Literally someone told me one of my characters looked like Hinata from Haikyuu because he had red hair like excuse you, does Hinata from Haikyuu have green eyes and a mermaid's tail? Didn't think so...
I made an alien character with blue skin and short indigo hair and someone thought I was drawing Lapis Lazuli in a sweater. I changed the hair a few days after that.
I based a character's backstory based on my mom's childhood (which is super traumatic) and now he acts like a child because he never grew up properly (just like my mom)
Don't mean to sound mean, but that is amazing. It's a great way to channel experience and feelings into fiction. It's a great idea, and I wish you luck on your story. Any intentions on sharing it or something?
+Aydarus Hassan Hm, I originally made him for a role play, but I'm happy to make a story if you would like one where he's the main character ^^ (Side note: his name is Brian, who was coincidentally one of my mom's friend's name! I didn't know that until I told her about my character)
trash for mystic messager Haha, another great thing. If you didn't make a story about him, I wouldn't tell you to make one "just" for me, but if you would care to bother, I would greatly appreciate it. Sharing stories is a great thing to do imo, I also got a lot of criticism on my story that I am writing (and am serious about). If you were to get in on the fun, I would gladly be one of the people to read it :D
+Aydarus Hassan That would be so amazing of you! I'll gladly go on imo. Thank you for sharing the platform to me. Although, if you'd like, I already have a Wattpad with a few stories on it. It would be amazing if you checked them out, although all but one are unfinished and all but two of them are gay fanfiction; so if you're not into that type of thing, I understand. I'd really appreciate it ^^
I have this side character for a story who is a sentient hologram that wants to act human-- so he's essentially a Gary Stu who wants to have flaws, --and throughout the story (because his programming constantly gets damaged) he manages to act quite human but still has the robot part of him that occasionally over interprets slang and everyone gets pissed at him for it. I just wanted to add in that you can make "perfect" characters work if you intentionally make them as a joke character and/or manage to reasonably develop them into an imperfect human throughout the story. It's really fun to do so, as well.
Mimzy Ah I see. Yes, you can do these things if they are played ironically or as a joke on a common trope. A great example would be One Punch Man on shounen series.
Hermaeus Mora When I first created the idea of him two years ago, he was far more "perfect" to the point where he almost seemed more important than the main character. However, over the years I starting limiting his abilities with damaging his programming and his knack for over interpreting slang and such. I mainly labeled him as a Gary Stu because everyone loved him and he was overpowered despite being a hologram; not to mention he was a deus ex machina for the main character most of the time. So as a resolution, I kept most of his perfect traits and added a few quirks, then slowly made his personality grow throughout the story from being a convenience robot who knew everything to a more sentient being who didn't function properly in hopes of acting human.
Mimzy I have a question when it comes to my oc. She has mood ring eyes,but they're kinda different from the ones you would be expecting. She actually has orange eyes and Fire powers and depending on her mood,they'll turn either Red-anger,Orange-normal color(glow bright when happy or interested in something) and yellow-when nervous ,scared,stressed or worried. Also my character when she's first introduced goes through survivor's guilt where she sacrifices herself for another character but that other character actually sacrifices them self for her. And she growing up had to put up this happy go lucky facade and when latter revealed,she has a sad past of being bullied but by bit and only wanting to make friends and people around her happy and even has social anxiety. This all isn't discovered until she's triggered by something(don't know what to put yet). Also I was wondering if it was a useless sacrifice because it's later found out that the weapon that shot the girl that sacrificed herself, was made to kill her friend(now motherly figure that inserted her DNA making her a half human hybrid.) is this a Mary Sue character? Cause I'm just checking
How to make a likeable hero: 1. Make them hot 2. Make them an anti-hero 3. Tragic backstory How to make a likeable Villain 1. Make them hot 2. Give them a tragic backstory. 3.Make them arguably good or have some sweet moments with other characters, even if they're in the process of hurting them. 4. Make sure they're hotter then the hero How to make a likeable minor character: 1. Good design 2. Make hints so that the viewer can psychoanalyze them even though there's nothing there 3.Make them more competent then everyone else
@@pyrelynx I feel like you're hinting at Yato from Noragami, or someone from that series, but then again that's the only anime I've watched that has to do with gods
Stevey2578 the anime itself was rushed, so it was intentionally bad. If you've watched Erased (anime, not the manga), then you'll know that it was amazing, and it was done by the same creators of SAO. so yeah, the prior was rushed, sadly.
1. Make him british. 2. Make him vampire. 3. Make him throw a steamroller at a Japanese high school student. 4. WRRRYYYYYYYYY Better fact? I'm not wrong!
No, no, no. THIS is how you create a character: -Make him/her loved by everyone -Give them super powers. Make them invincible! -Give them a tragic backstory. Like abused/orphan/never loved. And make them insane or evil because of their childhood -A LOT OF VIBRANT COLORS MAKE SURE THEY STAND OUT WITH LOTS OF NEON AND GRADIENTS AND ACCESSOIRES -Make them perfect in every way possible There you go. Best character. 10/10
Blossom Wish NO NO NO!!! ALL OF YOU HAVE IT WRONG. THIS is how you make characters. -recolor of an exsisting character -make them have fire powers -alicorn -physical deformity there you go, best character.
okAy liek I made my character and his name is Cimba and he is a green lion and toTALLY does not look like that one lion from the Lion King. he is completely original and has super flaming ultra nut busting kickass poWers that can kill anyone. but also his mom aND dad died and everyone hates him but everyone loves him at the same time and he is really amazing liek omg 10/10 my character is the best
KoolredfoxPlays Ah yes that's why you don't know about SAO 😂 to sum it up Kirito almost anytime he gets beaten gets plot armor or becomes OP out of no where with no flaws in his character
1 - Japanese name; 2 - colorful clothes and weird hair cut (if the hair is white, better); 3 - swordmaster/katana user; 4 - have some power helps him/her in any situation; 5 - is "the chosen one"; 6 - Gary Stu/Mary Sue 7 - every girl/boy wants him/her; 8 - too cool for school; 9 - literally invencible Good job, you created the best character ever!
Okay, lemme see... I only used a Japanese name for some unimportant characters, but all the last names are Japanese... All my characters are colorful in some way None of my characters use weapons. Actually, two of the main characters are known for being somewhat weak. No one is special. (Except Dove uwu) All my characters are imperfect in some way Actually, my main character has two people crushing on her. Nah, they ain’t cool. Unless you count plot armor, they’re extremely vulnerable. wELP, I guess I have terribly made characters :P
It gets on my nerves when people do the character bio and the likes and dislikes are like Likes: cats and rainbows Dislikes: bullies and rude people. I get there are people that genuinely like/dislike these things but it's not interesting.
Yeah definitely, I like what my hero academia does where their character bio has favorite food, likes, one thing they like to do on their off time, and one random fact.
Yeah. I think that characters with more unusual likes/dislikes are more interesting. (i.e. Likes: despite wearing mostly jeans and t shirts, [character] really likes 1840s fashion, and she would love to wear dresses like the women wore back then Dislikes: science and the smell of cheese).
I honestly don’t get mad when people say “Your stuff reminds me of (so and so)!”, I totally understand why it bothers some people, but even artists do it to other artists. We all think stuff like that internally. It’s human nature. Why shame people for it?
Leo Channel 512 of course, man. (Some folks leave the most terrible comments as if I don't read them.) I actually tweeted a pic of your comment, I was cracking up.
Nathalie Knoff This comment gave me an idea. A character that thinks they are perfect, but, in reality, are deeply flawed and unlikable could be interesting.
@@hoodieninja4983 honey that's called being a narcissist and YES please, let's write more narcissists that are DISLIKABLE because it has been romanticized so much while it's so toxic
i don’t like when the character/persona that they use to represent themselves is immortal, and looks like they’re just shoved into the story. this usually happens in gacha videos, and the creator usually just gives themself some “turbo-hot boyfriend”, and it makes me so uncomfortable. they also say “hey, my design has flaws! she turns evil and unbeatable when angered!” which ISN’T a flaw (in the way they think it is), it’s just, well, almost a gift.
I created a girl with my features and age who just looks like she’s some years younger than she actually is (as I would like to be, but I’m actually the opposite) aaaand made her basically a small immortal dudette with death powers that also exists to annoy every character. Buuut then she became a character on her own with a story and such and oop
If you have an immortal character they need to be handled carefully, like not understanding human nature depending on how long they lived, or losing care for others. There's a lot that you can play around with immortal characters.
@@susiiajwnendnsnsn That is exactly the reason why my main OC thinks to this day, that CD players and DVD players are the same thing and that you can only give a hug to your siblings with the only exception being when you are in a relationship
Wrong. 1- make a very lazy charakter 2- let him tell very bad jokes nobody likes 3- let him rarely appaer in the game 4- make him the ultimate overpowered hyperhyper endboss of the game 5- call him Sans boom 10/10 perfect character
The main hero of my story is named Alexander Holystone. He's not exactly an alien, but a star, like the stars you see in the night sky. However, he's in a human form, as are other stars that appear in my story. His main goal is that he wants to become human after he discovers what other stars had done to people all over the world. He's probably one of the best main characters I ever came up with. ^^
So I'm looking through these comments and I'm loving them like all these jokes are hilarious even to someone outside the random and I can really get into these discussions, like good job, people! This is exactly the kinds of fans someone awesome like this RU-vidr deserves.
Grounding your character in reality is something that's really helped me out a lot. When I was trying to design the main character for a show I had planned, I kept getting frustrated that some of the side characters had more appealing designs than what I was coming up with. Eventually I ditched the idea and rewrote it around a character who is unsatisfied with their job as a "delivery adventurer" constantly being sent on FedEx quests. (It's set in an RPG-ish world. Not like SAO, more like Order of the Stick.)
Michael Offner That sounds cool. I was making an OC that delivers different types of meat to people through out different universes but dropped it eventually. I think im going to pick it back up again and see how she'll stand.
Thanks! I'm just beginning to make characters and I got stuck thinking, " How is my character gonna act?". So I found your video and it really helped me! :D
Pokey cat546 animationz Not sure if you'll ever use these, but I do like to suggest my methods in case they end up helping anyone. My first tip is to look at your character, and no joke, give them an archetype. I know, that sounds counterproductive. By doing this, you can pick out traits that you like and ones you dislike, and you can shape your character accordingly. My most developed and in depth character started out with a nerd archetype, and I kept things like a good work ethic and organisation, but I made him calmer in general as I found traits I thought would fit him. My second one is a bit more work, but I love doing it, and that's to make a diary of your character. Write one from their perspective and show how they deal with situations that might never even come up in your writing. My character is nineteen, but I started from when he was just six, writing everything from his perspective. It helps show how you feel they might deal with romance, tragedy, stress, or even just mundane day to day life.
You could try some OC memes. I know it sounds ridiculous and most of them suck, but I think it's a good exercise because forcing your character to react to a mundane situation (e.g. ordering food) or even a silly one (e.g. performing a puppet show) can help further develop their flaws and traits.
I love making a character’s strength their eventual weakness. For example, I have a character who is very level headed and approaches everything rationally and free of emotion. This also means he is utter shit at anything involving socialisation. Having those two sides is a really great way of giving your character more dimension. Also, when creating a character, try to think of why they wear this, have that, or express themselves in a certain way. Thinking backwards really helps for coming up with background!
There's a reason why flaws are number one on the list. (No. A tragic past does not count as a flaw). ;3 This video was great and immensely helpful to the revision of my OC. Danke.
Waluigi is perfect, too perfect. Toad is the right balance. He balances his bups and his tolerance to the eye. I want to love Waluigi, but I drown in the hate of macaroni and treasure tracking. Help. Hup.. BUP...
People like Waluigi because he just wants to be noticed. It's a very relatable struggle. He never gets a game, everyone in the Mario universe hates his guts just because of his attitude, which by the way, is because he is sick of being in the shadows and just wants to win something, anything. When he wins, he gloats because he cherishes being noticed. When he loses, he is a sore loser because he feels cheated out of his moment. He is the literal embodiment of "Throw me a frickin bone here!"
I loved this video and I'm subscribing but here's some constructive criticism: I think it would be easier to understand what you mean if you put examples of what you're saying while you talk.
The Lightners from Deltarune feel even more grounded in reality than anything in Undertale. Also, in general, Toby Fox makes deep, 3D characters, even whilst setting rules for his characters that he doesn't break for any reason.
You also have to keep im mind a lot of fan fictions are written up by girls and boys in their teens or as kids..so like puberty, there's bound to be some cringe xD
If you want to create a character that is unlikable, you need to find a blend of tolerable to the audience but absolutely hatable to the characters. It's not fun when a character is annoying to the audience.
@@jamiep.7044 Exactly. If it's annyoing then people will just not like to see, read or play the parts where that character appears, which isn't the intention.
I’ve been doing a webcomic for a year, and the characters have always been the most important to me. I made a lot of mistakes at the beginning, but I’ve improved a lot in the art and writing category, but it’s always good to surf RU-vid and watch videos like this to refresh my memory or learn something new that I can implement into my work. Thanks for making these videos, I watch them with my brother. ♥️
There's also giving the audience a reason to care. Anyone can see a flawed character, but if that character isn't in any way likeable, say, if they're not charming or they respond irrationally, then they are way harder to like in the first place.
Alright, here's something that really helped me. It's a little wordy, but it's pretty simple: Your character should have 3 things: A Want, a Need, and a Struggle. The Want is their goal, what does your character want? Why do they want it? Can you show how much it means to them? The Need is their development arc, or the second goal that the character doesn't know they have. What do they need to become to get what they want? What about them makes their life harder? The Struggle is the reason they don't have their life together yet. What's stopping them from getting their goal? If you can make the Struggle and the Need the same reason, that'll be much more interesting. For example, Character A wants to enter a race. They need to get good at driving. They struggle with driving because they have road rage. Character B wants to become a singer and perform on stage with a friend. They need to build confidence. They struggle with being in front of crowds. If it helps, try making characters like this in the real world. I just made a racecar driver and a singer, see what you can make before you get confident enough to add it into your own work. Best of luck to you!
all I could think of when watching this was how PERFECTLY imperfect Pearl from Steven Universe is, I just LOVE her and every flaw she has, it makes her who she is. This video was very informative and cool
I hate pearl....even her most famous song "it's over isn't it?" shows everything I hate about that character but I see you're point & respect you're opinion
That's fair. She does linger on the past, but that's due to being so close to Rose for thousands of years, so it would only makes sense if she was still sad, since it takes normal humans some time to heal, it takes gems time as well. A few human years are like nothing to the gems in a sense. Although she did go about things the wrong way with Greg, he is a good father and a chille dude. :> Sorry I tend to type a bit when my mind wants to.
Literally_Melvin If I connected more emotionally to her then I would personally think of her, she is DEFINITELY an amazing character, I like how she eats things in general, cooking oil, food, water bottle, plates, I like that she is unique. Amethyst is definitely an amazing character with flaws. tbh I like alot of Steven Universe characters because of their flaws :)
The weird thing about Lapis is that I think that's all she really is: the sad character with trust issues and a tragic past. I mean, I love Lapis, her snark is amazing, but it feels like all she's really there for is to be the hardened tragic Gem. We never really see her by herself so most of the interesting things about her are either from someone playing off of her, her being trapped in a mirror, or things that haven't been explained yet. Lapis really isn't all that complex; just tragic (at least that's what I think).
I feel like the biggest thing to think of when making a character in my opinion is don’t overpower them. Don’t make them amazing at everything, 50 million super powers, everyone’s friend, always happy, etc. People don’t connect as well when your character is over powered. Struggles makes them realistic. Flaws allow for us to relate. I personally find I dont really like characters with way too much power because it’s one kinda hard to keep up with and two, I don’t understand them. Life isn’t perfect. People aren’t perfect and characters can’t be perfect. Let them have flaws because flaws make them beautiful. Another thing is if you can relate to your character personally, your character is wonderful. They have a connection and most likely, someone out there will too. I hope this comment didn’t upset anyone or anything it was just something I’ve really been wanting to say.
The opposite is also a bad thing. You can't make a character that's just bad at everything, no friends, or no emotion. As flawed as everything is, there are somethings that are beautiful.
An interesting counter to that would be to actually _allow_ them to be overpowered/loved by all/always happy but have those, ironically, be the flaws. If those traits actually create struggles as opposed to "mary sue-ism" then it would make for a pretty good story, maybe funny maybe dramatic or a mix of both. Something like that would 100% work imo since realistically, the world is not perfect, other people are not perfect, so perfectionism has no place in a nowhere-near-perfect world, causing struggles and issues to develop naturally.
Think on the flaws you're giving the character though and don't just shoehorn something in out of nowhere. If the flaw serves no other purpose than to make them more appealing then it won't work, I.e clumsiness. I think the best way to avoid this is to use less obvious flaws and more thematic flaws, especially if you can tie them into a theme of the story. An example of a character I made for a D&D campaign is my Human Wizard Alastair(or just Al, as he prefers). Originally he sought out magic purely for the sake of power, he would push the limits of his knowledge and experiment for no other reason than curiosity. He wasn't evil, on a personal level he was constantly inebriated, cursed like a sailor, cocky and always willing to get in a fight but these qualities never really changed. When he lost people important to him as a result of his curiosity that is when he changed his character, he became very protective and developed a "with great power" mentality. However he switched one flaw out for another, because of his protectiveness he would always take on all the responsibility, he didn't accept help from others even when he was hopelessly outmatched and began driving people away in his attempt to protect them. Now he's old and grey haired and has developed past that flaw, though he's still a loud, boisterous drunkard. Don't know if any of that helped or if it was too rambly but TL;DR there is a difference between quirks and flaws.
Clumsiness can be used well as a flaw though. For example, Prince Callum from The Dragon Prince is a klutz, and it actually affects him. He's expected to be all princely, but has no skill in swordfighting, riding horses, etc. due to his clumsiness. This means he's not good at melee combat. Also, this is one of many of his insecurities about his stance as a royal (technically he's only a step-prince, so he isn't the heir to the throne and many people don't consider him fit to be a royal). These insecurities are a major part of his character as well, leading into a need to prove himself. All this characterization, starting from clumsiness :)
Beautiful metaphor use with the foodholds on a rock face akin to imperfections in one's personality. Imperfections enable growth, just as traction enables progress. This whole thing was beautiful written! Thanks for that! ^_^
Whenever I'm in the active process of making a character, I'm always ultra worried I'm falling into these same flaws because the character is either succeeding too much or there are too many people who genuinely enjoy the character ya know, *living* and all that (basically friends). Then like a year passes and it's like, "Man, I think I at least avoided the common common pitfalls. Maybe not the subtle ones, but definitely the obvious."
This make remember when I was a kid and played for the first time D&D with a friend and other of his cousins, the elder brother was the one telling the story and when I made a character was a human turned into a Gryphon due to a curse and was in a quest to revert that. For the start was an OP character but then he said one thing that I will always going to remember: "No matter how strong your character is, it needs some kind of penalization, otherwise it will be boring." Then we decided that my character can't fly because humans have no wings and it's unable to control them, and second he can't enter towns because it might freak out everyone and get attacked. That D&D campaign taught me how to make a good and believable character.
UPDATE: Dang, we've come a long way since this video! Biko, the main character of my animated series, (who I like to think is fairly likable) is available to give you healing as a plush, only until 11/6/22! Grab it to directly support the development of my animated series Stormfellers! www.makeship.com/products/biko-plush
I've made a character that seems to be perfect and happy all the time and when I put them into my story I noticed people started to dislike them but when the character finally broke mentally the readers most of the time warmed up to them slightly
>Give your characters flaws "My OC has a dozen legit and bastard children." >Make your character's flaws genuine "My OC has a dozen legit and bastard children with multiple partners."
Most OP characters I've seen for flaws are mental/emotional. Or even making characters who start out unlikable then slowly become more relatable toward the end are fun. This is a great vid.
It's nice hearing the talk about pandering vs honesty - while I like to explore topics & scenarios with my characters that are new to me, I always put something of myself in a character and have been called out for it a lot in the past as being "unoriginal" or "just making self inserts". It's nice to see someone say you can create a character with some similarity to yourself, and that it's not only OKAY but a GOOD thing to keep your characters feeling honest or real - that was my whole point, after all! Thanks for the positivity, in that sense c:
In my series The Star Covers, the main characters are embodiments of different aspects of my personality and some of them are experiencing different struggles I’m dealing with in real life. For example, my main character Katherine is the leader of The Star Covers however she doesn’t see herself as a leader and is often questioning if she is doing the right thing. Since it’s a fantasy show, she has magic and the rest of the characters do too but she has a hard time getting used to the fact that she isn’t normal and that the worlds safety is on her shoulders. After season 6 of my series, she starts developing anger problems because she’s blaming herself on the near destruction of the earth. Despite that, she acts optimistic and confident because she is trying to put her doubts behind and focus on keeping her and others futures safe. So I’m hoping that she and most of the characters are relatable in some sort of way because I relate with Katherine so much
Every character I make has a little piece of me in them. This not only makes them more human and believable but also easier to write because you just need to ask "what would I do in this situation"
I'm really pleased to find this channel out, it really brings out a willingness to be creative, as someone who has made characters themself. Thanks for this video in particular. It serves as a good reminder when creating a new character, instead of rushing and making something generic, lifeless or pointless, applying time to their qualities helps to balance them in an existing environment.
What I like about characters with tragic back stories or struggles is that depending on their flaws, it grows to make them who they are now in either a Good or Bad way.
I have a character that acts all snarky and over confident but gets extremely worried and apologetic when they actually upset or offend someone. They act all cool and all, but in reality they're a sweetheart that just wants people to be happy.
It's amazing to see such a perfect video still get good traction after almost 4 years. A character's way of overcoming their shortcomings and flaws shouldn't be handed to them for free, they must learn it over time and in struggles.
Something I feel people can sometimes be too afraid of is making characters like themselves. You know your strengths and weaknesses better than anyone, and experience makes it easier to write a character. As long as your self insert isn’t a power fantasy or some other easy pit to fall in you can make interesting characters with a lot of your traits.
I'd add a cool way to "ground your character into reality" (#5), it is to show the character doing things that the spectator does in real life (regardless of whether it is useful narratively). Then to a certain degree, the spectator can't help but feel "he's like me". For example, Quentin Tarentino uses it wonderfully in Pulp Fiction, in which you can actually see the characters brushing their teeth or going to the toilet.
Awesome video and awesome character design tips, Brookes! It's way too easy to create a character that's so out there with lots of cool abilities. But the most important things like you said are that they need to have flaws we can relate to, and they need to be grounded in reality. Love that you pointed those out! After your daily series I'd love to see you dive more into the stories, specific characteristics, or even world building of those characters. When you make an awesome character, how can you build a world that compliments them? Possibly for another video? 😄
One of my charecters has aspugers and misaphonia. I have both of those . it helps me express myself and i think these disorders (mainly Misaphonia) need some sort of representation . I got more but i guess thats the one i can explain the easiest. I think these tips are good, they help balance a charecter, make them more relatable, and more believable. Thank you for the advice =)
Hey! You appeared on my Recommended feed! I can see why. Your content is just what the doctor ordered. Can't wait to watch more videos from you Yours truly, Your new subscriber
I'd like to correct something in the begining that I think is pretty interesting. You mentioned that "characters are innately human", but they're not, they're sumbols of what writters interpret as human. That's why it's important to give them flaws, not just because it's makes a character, or the ideas associated with them, more layered, but also to help us interrogate what we can learn from the character in question. A character who has flaws and changes because of them helps us change ourselves. That's why Mary Sues are repugnant, because they have nothing to teach us, they are just pure endulgent.
This was a great video. I write Sonic the Hedgehog fan fiction, have for a long time. What drew me to write was the fact that I could have my own special interpretation of a character, and develop them as a real person, having flaws and struggles. I think it’s beautiful and it’s something I love doing. I especially love your point about how these characters are human, no matter what skin they where.
In fifth grade, I made an OC, Rebbecca Lunae, who has red hair and is good at fighting. She is very cocky and bossy, but tries her hardest to be nicer and more caring for her sisters. Three years after making her( and before I actually gave Rebbecca a personality), I watched Fairy tail, and I realized I had just made Erza, without knowing she existed.
To be fair, non-human characters are more recognizable than human characters... ESPECIALLY if you're comparing them to anime humans. Making your characters based off of plants, animals, or aliens is a good way to make their appearance stand out.
I like the way you put this. Making a character is far more involved than people realize. But also I believe we shouldn't be bogged down. I think the best way is to make a simple character and a simple archetype and from there evolve that character. Adding something that either enhances or differentiates that archetype and slowly evolve it from there. That way you're not trying to make it too complicated but at the same time, you pull away from being too simplistic. There's nothing wrong with making an OP character, so long as that OP prowess has it's own set of flaws or conditions that help enhance the character instead of just defining the character.
Thank you so much, this really helped me out. I was really stuck on the plot that my characters will face and now my head is exploding with ideas. Thank you!
