I've been thinking about Compelling Characters, and of course, I gots to go back to my punching bag for it.
... Isn't compelling because his goal set is generally unknown beyond "avoid all direct action". If we were to judge his character values by his writing, he's an "avoid all confrontation" type unless he's the one doing the confronting (and that's not a good look for someone we're supposed to be rooting for).
He doesn't have any character development. He A) hasn't changed as a character, and B) we haven't learned anything new from him.
And in fact may have lost development, because his supposed abilities never show up in TBB.
At best he is second fiddle to Omega.
Is fairly compelling in that he has values as a character; but what he lacks is a forward self driven goal for a main character, and mostly relied on as the "solve it" guy.
Sadly, much of his episode gags do lack substance.
He has one piece of character development, A) he is a thrill seeker and daredevil, in contrast to his rather formal personage. A positive development that strengthens his character, as contrasts are compelling.
However, he has lost development in that he is no longer a knowledge seeker and instead is the deus ex machina of solving episode problems. He's that close to being the techno-babble guy.
Any further development and compelling ended with his death. His death also shattered the narrative and the characters, due to its shock value and not for its emotional impact.
Isn't a compelling character because he lacks in-story direction beyond a third wheel on everyone else, along side character values and goals.
Much of his character is used for gags over time, or are given to the Worf Effect (defeated simply make the other guy look good, at the cost of Wrecker becoming the weakest character).
He lacks character development; we learn nothing new of him and he doesn't seem to change beyond what can be explained as the story shelfing him.
Is seemingly a compelling character given the emotional charge of the narrative he is given. But this compelling fails because the character A) lacks significant self fulling goal, B) lacks internal values beyond a goal forced upon his character.
Most of his story is born out of the fact that his current character was forced onto him by an outside force, and was not brought upon by internal self driven change.
The narrative repeatedly attempts to claim that its self-fullfilling, but repeatedly defeats itself each and every time as it A) doesn't give the visual development to make that happen, B) doesn't give enough character development or visual evidence that its characters are not plot-driven tools.
AKA, Crosshair is one of the main definitions of Railroading. How the hell they achieved that outside of a video game is both confusing and commendable and cute...
Was fairly compelling as a former TCWs tertiary character, the one who introduced much of the character for Clone Troopers as a whole, and has a slew of history behind him.
However. Throughout much of TBB, he lacks forwarding goals, and what forwarding goals he was written with, lacks character values.
This results in a unique instance where he abandons his brothers for his brothers, that we never see the fruits of, ultimately damaging or destroying any compelling relationships he had with the main cast as well as removing him entirely from character development.
What character development we know he has had, because we saw it, was flushed out upon a lack of writting around it. He is not given screen time for any talk or outlet about what happened with the 501st, he was not given screen time or writing for a character he had a close relationship with (FIves).
And much of his personality between TBB and TCWs has been so drastically changed that we appear to have two different Echos. While this change can be theorized in-narrative, the only confirmation had is that he had different writers who didn't put any focus on him for either TBB or his TCWs self.
And as any fanfic writer can show you, anyone can write a character as they are known.
TBB Echo is non-compelling for a lack of development, lack of viable character values, and for a goal that takes him off the main cast.
Is seemingly the only compelling character, for a totally original donut steel.
She plays the part of "Child falls into adventure"; it should be noted, however, that in such scenarios, the child-character involved is often an everyman that shows off how odd, magical, adventurous or unique the world around them is, and how out of place they themselves are.
Omega flips this on its head by being more special than everyone around her, and not allowing the strength of characters to shine by bouncing off of her--instead, they are written to cater purely to her, becoming the singular character goal that all strive to care for.
This is what makes Donut Steels--when a character, without putting in plot effort or character effort, earns the relationship and goals of all around them and only achieves this by either A) shaving off the goals, values and character development of the characters around them, or B) they weren't developed enough to begin.
Is not compelling for the fact that she is a Aesthetic Copy-paste, except for a female model change and the fact that she's a doctor (if using syringes and looking at an ipad is enough to make you a doctor).
While she is developed in that, A) we learn some of her past; it comes off as more as a quick two sentence summary.
She falls into a 2-D character category in that her only primary character is her relations with the characters around her, and not for any action she herself has performed, nor any goal or values she has (which she hasn't), her near total lack of any character development, and the simple fact that she is boring on presentation.
The rest of the BBs are interesting to look at, even if they're not interesting to interact with.
