#character critique

[wtv-i-feel-like-saying-atm]

isn’t it interesting that the two characters gooseworx relates to most either doesn’t understand consent or intentionally wants to bulldoze over it, specifically when you’re a non-man and especially when you’re a woman?

[clairv6yance]

Okay so I just finished watching the movie ‘Obsession’ since it’s gaining popularity right now and looking back at the TikToks of men SWEARING that Bear was not the villain genuinely pisses me off right now. Sure, he killed himself at the end to stop the chaos he created, but I HIGHLY doubt he did that for Nikki mainly because he knew she’d be in so much more anguish after she snapped back?? All of her friends dead because her guy best friend wanted her to love him. The scene where she was speaking through her subconscious while the entity was asleep said a lot about how selfish Bear really was. She begs him to free her while being in god knows what kind of agony and the only thing he replies with is “How bad is it to be with me.” IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU. Genuinely the creepiest thing about this is her independence and liveliness being stripped away and guys finding a reason to criticise her. Them laughing at the SA scene doesn’t surprise me tbh.

[real-total-drama-takes]

I'm rewatching some Island material again, and... I genuinely forgot howich they flanderized Owen. Like, REALLY flanderized him.

I don't know if i'm way too dirty minded or whatever, but he was pretty much a voyeur back then or had some kind of kink for getting naked and everyone watching him. And on the later seasons, they treat either that as an joke because he's dumb and doesn't realize getting publicly naked is wrong or whatever. No, on island, you can literally see him making a smug face as he showed his ass to his team, you can see how he did that either because he wanted to or because he wanted to get a reaction out of them.

He pretty much a bissexual pervert tho? C'mon, he picked on Lindsay's chest on Action, you saw him showing interest in women who remind himself of him, you can see him most definitely having a thing for Justin, till the point that got so obvious that they had to stop.

He was a fucking coward back then tho. Like, one of the main things about me thinking like that is him throwing Izzy to the slasher killer wannabe and immediately running away as far as he can, keep that in mind that he DID NOT know that was chef. If that was an actual slasher killer, he would've leave Izzy to death and wouldn't care.

Okay, so gather all that, he's a self conscious douche bag sometimes, he's a coward, has a thing for both men and women, has some kind of exhibition kink, since he got naked Alot of times in Island & Action and seemed to enjoy doing it, he cursed and had the capacity of getting angry or disappointed at people...

And rn, he's literally a fat dude™ who so happens to be so silly and goobersome that you forget he once won a season because of his bastardness instead of him being a cutie or something... Not gonna lie, i love both Owen's, but god he should've stayed the same.

[warsamongthestars]

I've been thinking about Compelling Characters, and of course, I gots to go back to my punching bag for it.

Hunter...

... 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.

Tech...

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.

Wrecker...

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.

Crosshair...

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...

But its wrong.

Echo...

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.

Omega...

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.

Emerie Karr...

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.

[snakeredbirdbatkatana]

So the last couple months, I feel like I've been doing a hell of a lot of critiques about a lot of characters specifically some Jason, Tim, Bruce, Stephanie etc and I just wanna make it clear that I do not discriminate I guess from critiquing absolutely any of them.

The only ones who have not actually had like a whole post where I kind of bitch in a way about something is Dick and Duke, maybe Damian but Damian I did do something kind of funny but the reason I wanted to kind of talk about this little bit is I wanna make it very clear that as a fan of all of these characters I also want to discuss them.

If a character does not have a critique in someway, I'm not gonna be interested in that character. Any character that is so one dimensional that there's not a single thing that you kind of question about them they're not interesting enough. In the same realm if a critique on a character seems like a personal attack that I feel like it's a problem in a whole other way because you should never be so obsessed with a character that you can't see their wrongs. In that same breath if you see the wrongs, but you're still ok with them I totally respect that because that's exactly how I feel.

I love Jason. I love Bruce. I love every single bat, but I still see where they're kind of shitty and that's what makes them so fucking interesting.

I even like Superman, but I am going to drag out his issue with the Kon until I'm dead. Death bed, I will be bitching about them.

[missing-sanity]

Its funny being around more power scaling side of fandom because I thought your post will defend shanks on completely different fandom issues. Like him being this ultra alpha man in most peoples eyes? Also I was shocked some people blame shanks as I only saw people blaming buggy for them parting ways? Crazy how people minds work and no side got the message here. Just interesting to see other people take on fandom discourse I have never experienced myself

oh i’m sorry to disappoint. genuinely. i just don’t really engage with the powerscaling side of the one piece fandom. actually i never engage with the powerscaling side of any fandom. agenda piece is something i Hate with every fiber in my body. it just goes against everything i like. i love media analysis. i love media literacy. i’m very pro media literacy actually. agenda piece is just. the opposite of that. that’s why i dislike character slander because it’s often baseless. i like character criticism, because all authors are human and therefore all fiction is subjective. every story will inevitably have the author’s interal biases. that’s why it’s important to engage with media critically. characters are never going to be perfectly written, and well written characters are usually flawed. because flaws are an important part of human nature. so it’s important to criticise characters, both them as a ‘character’ and their writing.

about shanks being seen as a ‘ultra alpha man’ anyone with an ounce of media literacy can see that’s not the case. it’s completely inaccurate to his character. though what else would i expect from dudebros. (no offence to anon, i don’t mean you. if you can see that it isn’t the case, then this clearly doesn’t apply to you.) then again i am Not touching one piece reddit with even with a ten foot pole. i think the amount of mischaracterization would actually kill me. not to say all analysis on one piece reddit is bad, of course. i’ve read some pretty good analysis posts there.

i tend to be on the shipping side of fandom. and both shuggy and mishanks shippers tend to blame shanks for the fallouts he had with buggy and mihawk. which. annoys me. it annoys a Lot actually. both parties have their flaws and issues. but shanks ends up taking the blame for most of it. with mishanks, it’s like some people think shanks needs to make up to mihawk. for losing his arm? apparently? which i know i know, for mihawk, shanks was the only one able to rival him, in a world where his swordsmanship skills remains undefeated. mihawk is Lonely. he’s lonely at the top, and he’s Bored. bored with life, he has already achieved his Ambition and now there’s no one who’s been able to challenge him yet. shanks was the only one who could, but he went and lost his arm in a bet for the New Generation. and now he’s Gone and they’re Unequal. but like. and? mihawk has Issues, but that’s not shanks’s fault or responsibility. he lost his arm to save luffy. like that’s His arm. he doesn’t owe mihawk anything for choosing to do so. like they’re both at fault for Miscommunication (seriously they’re Grown Ass Adults but they can’t handle Feelings and Communication? really? i’m pretty sure my autistic ass could do better and i can’t even talk to people properly due to sheer anxiety half the time) but if we really had to Blame someone (which is stupid as hell because relationships don’t Work like that) it would probably be more mihawk’s fault that shanks. i mean, again the only thing the man’s guilty of is losing his own arm. (yes yes i know their relationship crumbled due to a Lack of communication as well as mihawk and shanks’s individual Issues, that’s why we don’t Point Fingers people. relationships are two sided. [looking at you, Those shuggy fans] i’m just simplifying things) of course i’m not saying shanks is Perfect and absolutely Faultless. he’s definitely a Flawed character with his own Problems. but like, he doesn’t owe mihawk Anything.

and shuggy. oh Holy Shit shuggy. like i can see why people ship them and they do have a really solid basis and canon content for shipping. shanks and buggy still so very much Care for each other in canon. however i have So Much to pick about how Some shuggy fans view their relationship and how they treat shanks as a result. and it makes me so Mad. but. this post is getting long so i’ll put my grievances in another one.

[tacolover427]

Can we please go back to the days when villains actually enjoyed being evil? Why does everyone have to have a sad backstory and an event that broke them? That's cool, of course, but can I see someone who LOVES doing what they do?

[mad-not-disappointed]

i will never understand when there’s a fictional character who is so unlikeable but is somehow beloved by everyone in the story.

don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying characters HAVE to be likeable in order to be good. there are plenty of protagonists who are unlikeable or even straight up villainous, but they make for very compelling characters.

what i don’t get is when the writers wants us to believe that these type of characters are perfectly acceptable and loved by everyone. not even as a façade, it’s not like people are pretending to like them. they just do, for whatever reason.

the thing is that you can like an annoying character if they’re interesting enough to impact the plot in unique ways. but the same wouldn’t apply to real people. you might like a character who is snobby or self-centered or manipulative, but you absolutely would NOT like them if you knew them irl.

so it’s just absurd to me when that kind of character is canonically beloved by all. even worse when anyone who doesn’t like that character is treated as the villain. it just immediately turns me off. if you’re gonna write a heavily flawed and unlikeable character, you have to commit to that and make everyone else react to them in a realistic manner.

even when the character is good and not terribly flawed, i find it unrealistic when EVERYONE (except the villain maybe) just loves them. this is the problem i had with Kipo from Kipo And The Age Of Wonderbeasts. she was your archetypical protagonist - the adorkable main character.

but the thing that annoyed me the most about her is just how much EVERY SINGLE PERSON liked her and had to mention how kind or nice she is every two seconds. and the only person who hates her is the villain because obviously only evil people are allowed to dislike Kipo.

it just comes off as forced and unrealistic because let's be real, no matter how good you are, there will always be people who hate you or don't particularly like you.

but yeah, it's worse when the character is straight up an asshole and everyone else just ignores it or treats it as a cute little quirk.