What characters in media do you personally find relatable?
This shifts with age and different stages of life of course. But in modern Media where have been two cases which stick out to me and I found consistently relatable.
The demons from Frieren! The anime itself - apart fromt he beautiful looks - is a bit whatever, but I love the portrayal of the demons! Not just their overall attitude, but some scenes I could swear they were taken from my life.
The interaction between Yoon and Divine Revolte, reminded me of one of the few eye-level interactions I had with my father. He was puzzled why I so often tend to care for trivial things rather than focusing what benefits me. I, on the other hand, have been curious about the emotional value in social interactions. For my father, it was a tool, to me it was curiosity - fascination. A little bit like when Divine Revolte frowns when Yoon asks about why and how humans do feel the way they do.
But even more relatable is the Unnamed Demon Girl we see in the memories. I don't know what exactly it was about, but I do remember taking pride in resorting to extortion to get what I needed. I don't even remember what it was, and I don't know if it was an object or a human involved. Back then, it certainly didn't matter to me. But also this entire "well, I didn't want to but now you leave me no choice" - 1 to 1 my words.
Today I know this is interpreted by most people as means of extortion, but I viewed this from a more logical lense: If you remove the reason why I am proposing the threat, I do not have to pose it in the first place. Pretty sure, if the village had listened to her and just chased her away, she would have dropped the girl. At least, thats how I would have acted.
And if we go a step back further, the confusion when you really try to do your best, but somehow everyone is still angry at you, something you did wrong, is pretty much my experience as a child and maybe even teenager. As a solution, I began to take people by their word, and if that is not what they mean, you can turn that against them. It will piss them off, but it is often a great second chance if you mess something up and shifts the blame. Only works a few times, but thats the time of escape you need to leave the sitaution.
The other relatable character is Tomura Shigaraki from My Hero Academia. As you my have taken from my previous paragraphs, I actually wanted to be good with people. I wanted to enjoy the boring games we played, care for the trivial stuff others cared, seeing more than sex in an intimate interaction. I wanted to help people, even though I am pretty confident nowadays, that I should not be a politician.
In my view, I would be a great leader. But then, on a second thought, my lead would probably end up like Thanos in End Game. Creating an objectively better world, but being oblivious at the costs. I won't get into the details, but I realized I have a blind spot at certain things, many people hold dear and thats why they would not appreciate my way of solving things anyways.
Back to Tomura, this desire to be a nice and kind person often conflicts with a literally Anti-Social Personality disoder. Similar to Tomura, who wanted to be a hero, but circumstances forced us to be the villain. His original quirk would have been "flying", an expression of freedom, something I value a lot too. Instead, he got "decay", everything he touches just breaks. He does not want to, but he does. He messes up everything! Except for when he killed his abuser. Sometimes, the disorder just conveniently alligns with what you want. And at times, you truly feel the most free when you find pleasure in your flaws and turn them into strengths. Yes, another reference to the dialogue in the show!
But the parallels do not end here. Tomura also gets saved by someone who would abuse him. This person cares for Tomura, but only because he views him as an extention of himself. In the end, All for One just cares for Tomura because he can cheat death through him. Similar, I always felt like my father just views me as an extention of himself and a chance to succeed where he failed.
I did not even care. Because this view on people is not so unfamiliar - something I want to explain in detail in another anonymous question. And also, in the end it helped me. He shaped me to success. Of course I slip - that is inevitable - but despite suffering, I actually managed to surpass him. There are some secrets up his sleeve he of course never revealed to me, but since ever I escaped his influence, I am sure I outgrew him. Just as Tomura vowed to surpass All For One. At this point, he did not care for being a hero anymore. He knew the world has no place for him, so he did the best what he could do under his circumstances.
Tomura also grew up emotionally isolated, showed high impulsivity, and pain resistance. However, he always drew a line when it comes to his own people. His ambition to reset society was limited by not destroying what his friends care about. He also avenges his people. The way he handles it was also interesting. When he notices that he cannot get his way through sheer force, he resorts to manipulation, even willing to degrade himself temporarily just to backstab Overhaul. He also cares for fitting punishment. Rather than just unleashing anger, he chooses something what fits. That's how I did it as well. But don't worry, I never cut anyone's limbs off.
It was also a nice touch to see how Tomura got all emotional, when his opponent - those name I forgot - mentioned that "noone likes him".He interupts his fight, disagrees and counts a few friends we have never seen in the show. And mentions evidence for their friendship such as "taking a walk together". Maybe he too is aware that his friendships and relationships are not as deep as he hoped they are. Nevertheless, he tried to keep his promise to the Lizard Guy to the very end, even instructed to Deku would tell him that he kept his promise until the bitter end, so at least one friendship can be considered real. At least for one person, he could be the hero he aspired to be.
There are of course more characters I occassonally relate to. There is Susie from DeltaRune. She often acts before she thinks, but is not actually stupid, just impulsive. She also breaks laws, as evident when she casually drops lines like "it is free if you steal it", while respecting boundaries for people she cares about. But Susie's Conduct Disorder deserves it's own post. I love that she is not actually a villain, even though she takes on the role out of spite for a short time in Chapter 1.
A former good friend also compared me to the Emperor from Baldur's Gate 3 and even sent me a plushi to my birthday. The line about "if the contract sucks, we don't have to honor it" brought a smile to my face. In Records of Ragnarok, there was the character Jack the Ripper - yeh a villain again sadly - whom I found relatable in his persuit of the admiration of emotions. He can see them, but he does not experience the whole range. He remains emotionally detached, even though he can perceive them and appreciate their beauty. Feels a bit like when you are hanging out with friends, but it just does not mean anything to you.
These are the characters I can recall as relatable so far. Maybe some of them deserve a deeper analysis and maybe there are more characters worth mentioning. Ironically, this question came when I considered making a little ASPD-relatable characters series. maybe I will do one some day. Some of them deserve a post on their own.
