Humans are imperfect, and gross, and any normal body function can give them complexes. Sometimes it feels so very lonely to like these characters – they have the fictional character kind of perfection, where we only see them in the best light. In an effort to bridge that gap, here’s some headcanons about their flaws.
Not only do you have my permission, but I also encourage you to reblog this with your own headcanons ! Add some or create some for characters that I didn’t explore !
A big thank you to those who answered my post asking if you would be interested in these headcanons and encouraged me to write it : @hircines-hunter, @if-dreams-do-come-true, @doriancmajor, @fauna-stray, @wannabe-rotten-sunflower !
WARNING : I didn’t hold back or romanticize this. Some of these are straight up gross. But I think we all do gross things.
Characters: Leon, Chris, Albert, Ethan, Carlos, Luis, Krauser, Heisenberg.
Leon S. Kennedy
Stinky feet. Has to spray his shoes twice a day.
Doesn’t change the sheets nearly as often as he should. He hates doing it and he doesn’t care, and he rationalizes that he doesn’t sleep there often enough to warrant the effort.
Used to have terrible acne as a teenager and still has acne scars on his face and back. Used to wear foundation to hide them when he was younger ; the stubble in Requiem is his new way to do so.
Picks at his nails (sometimes with his combat knife).
Honestly terrible at small talk. He relies a lot on witty one-liners because he has no idea how to be casually genuine. He feels insanely awkward every time. Weather talk at the bus stop is his worst nightmare.
Looks for his phone when it’s in his hand. This happens a lot, with mutliple objects.
Completely clueless about any internet culture. Doesn’t actually care. Your unimpressed grandpa. He does feel lonely when surrounded by people talking in memes.
Greasy hair. Needs to wash it almost every day, with special shampoo.
Chris Redfield
Sweats like a sinner in church. Like full on drenched. He has a big wardrobe, only because he needs to change shirts all the time.
Pees in the shower. He thinks it’s just more efficient and the soap’s going to wash it all away anyway.
If he lives alone, he also pees in the sink in the middle of the night when he’s smoking at his window and too tired to go to the toilet. Will sigh contentedly while doing so.
A little insecure about cigarette breath, so he always has tic-tacs with him. Doesn’t realize that it just makes a very strong mixed smell of menthol and nicotine.
Bad case of RBF. Scares children and old ladies. Will not admit it, but he is a bit sad about that.
Bad short-term memory outside of life and death situations. Needs to write everything down. His notes app is full and his google calendar is stuffed.
Falls asleep in front of the tv, full dad mode. We’re talking neck fully bent over the back of the couch, mouth open, loud snoring and maybe even drool.
Thinks only PS1/PS2 era games are good, everything else is trash.
Suggested by @wannabe-rotten-sunflower and I agree : his colon can’t handle spicy food very well, even if he likes spicy. Will regularly drop bombs in your toilet.
Albert Wesker
Thinks he has a small dick and is angry-insecure about it. If you talk about it you get punished.
The glasses aren’t for show. He has bad eyesight – astygmatism. He won’t admit it.
Huge fan of garlic, to the point that sometimes his sweat smells garlic-y.
Stress-induced psoriasis. He has to slather himself in lotion every time he takes a shower or washes his hands.
Anger issues even before Umbrella – he got kicked out by roomates for putting his fist through the walls one too many times in college.
Only listens to instrumentals, no singing whatsoever. Feels very excluded from every discussion about music because of that.
Talks during movies/tv shows/theater/whatever.
Genuinely terrible at video games.
Bad circulation : cold hands, cold feet, varicosed veins. Has to wear socks in bed during winter, otherwise his feet will stay ice cold through the night.
Carlos Oliveira
Stretch marks. He hit a sudden growth spurth in his teenage years. Doesn’t like to show them much. Would rather you didn’t look at them for too long.
Family trait has his hair going white fairly young. He’s very insecure about that and colors his hair. He doesn’t feel like he has lived enough to be « old » yet.
Rinses the dishes with water and deems them good enough to eat with again, unless the water isn’t enough to remove all the food.
A bit of a fratboy diet. He has a physical enough job that he’s always famished and also too tired to cook.
The kind of man who lets the dog lick his mouth and kisses you right after.
Lactose intolerant + can’t give up pizza = this man will destroy your bathroom once a week.
Needs to do 2 things at once to be focused, otherwise his mind will wander.
Can’t read an analog clock to save his life.
Chronic oversharer. You’ve known him for half a day and he’s already telling you about his childhood trauma.
Luis Serra
Abandonment issues that he deals with by being suave. If he attracts people like flies but also doesn’t open himself to an actual, deep, emotional relationship, he’ll be safe. He’s actually completely terrified of being in love and honest and vulnerable with someone.
Literal ugly duckling. He used to be the kid bullied for his appearance, but then puberty turned him into a swan. When he looks in the mirror, he alternates between feeling like an incubus and seeing all of his flaws from childhood that didn’t completely disappear.
Still has acne spurts from time to time, and he can’t help but pop all of his pimples.
Don’t ask him for his last bill. It’s in the growing pile of papers that he swears is organized.
Mental health dependant on cigarettes.
Acid reflux – he has dead rat breath in the morning.
Throws away the manual because « he doesn’t need it ». Fumes about how they don’t give manuals anymore when he ends up needing it.
Has too much meme knowledge. Will go 6-7.
Ethan Winters
Patchy beard, which is why he doesn’t grow it. Of course, he had an awkward beard phase where he tried to force it to happen at one point that he would rather not talk about.
Receeding hairline. Complexed as fuck about it. Sees it so much more than anyone around him does. Doesn’t realize that if he didn’t bring it up, people genuinely wouldn’t know.
Gets sunburnt in minutes. Has to carry sunscreen everywhere. He feels very silly when he has to be slathered in white just to enjoy a beach day, but he forgets about it soon enough.
Gassy but ashamed about it.
Has been known to sniff already worn pieces of clothing to assess their wearability.
Has a stuffed animal from his childhood in his bedroom. He doesn’t sleep with it but it’s there and it needs to be there. You can take it from his cold, dead hands (except for Rose, who gets borrowing privileges).
Has trouble falling asleep. Will stay up reading or doing something soothing until 3 am frequently. Is very worried that he might disrupt his partner’s sleep.
Cringe in an « uncle trying to relate to the teenagers at the family function » way. Half-awkward half-cute.
Dyslexic.
Panic attacks since the games’ events.
Jack Krauser
Hairy as a bear. He hates it and he spends hours in the shower shaving everything, but he can’t reach his back.
Burps loud. Stays impassible. Simply doesn’t give a shit.
His own stink is comforting to him. Will take good whiffs of his own sweat. Will also sniff you when you finish your workout. Unashamed about it.
Has sleep apnea : snores like a lumberjack until he stops breathing, then jolts awake so violently he smacks/kicks you.
Messy af but can always find what he’s looking for. If you clean up he can’t find anything anymore and gets frustrated.
Only watches historical stuff and thinks all fiction is for children.
Bad with technology in general. Doesn’t have a smartphone but if he did, he’d be the kind of man to type with his index finger.
Will forget to eat when focused on something. Thinks eating/sleeping is a waste of time.
Drinks until he throws up. Then does it again. He somehow looks sober even when he’s blackout drunk.
Karl Heisenberg
Has the biggest eyebags you’ve ever seen. Dark and deep and sinking. The glasses help hide them, even if he says it’s only to protect his eyes from flying sparks when he works.
Doesn’t wash his hands after peeing, unless he really got some on them.
Smoker’s teeth.
Picks his nose sometimes. Also the kind of person to finger-catapult his boogers.
Leaves his trash laying around in the factory, and would do it at home too. Don’t count on him to pick up his underwear off the floor, darling.
Will take a piss through one of the factory windows and laugh while doing it.
Rough, broken hands. Between the tinkering and the cigars, he started wearing gloves too late.
Terrible reading comprehension (he’s too impatient). Pisses on the poor frequently.
Thinks he can assemble ikea furniture without the instructions. He can’t.
Awful sense of style. Do not introduce him to hawaian shirts.
Touch starved but also scared of gentle touch. He feels sick when he’s being cared for.
I was just reading a book where both POV characters spent much of the time making understandable bad, self-destructive, sometimes unkind decisions, and it got me thinking about how there is a real impulse that a lot of writers have to make their protagonists be good. The writing reassures us that the protagonist really is kind and generous and smart and witty, and if they are selfish it's only in the sort of acceptable "I can't stand to see others hurt" sort of way.
Your characters don't need to go to the extremes that the book I was reading went to (I did find myself yearning for literally anyone to make a good choice), but before you find yourself writing something with the purpose of convincing the reader that the character really is good or smart or selfless, it may be worth pausing and asking whether your character needs to be all of those things, or whether it might serve your story to have them be something else.
All characters can have flaws; that's what makes them feel more real and gives them more room to grow. This time, I wanted to analyze some of the flaws within the Kratt crew based on what we've seen in the canon. Which, by the way, might be useful if someone wants to write something based on these qualities, lmao. This is my terribly long analysis - I hope you like it
Chris: "Science and Glory"
Chris is deeply passionate about his profession as a field biologist. Faced with any mystery, he's willing to give his all to bring knowledge to the world. He's studious, tenacious, and dedicated. But all this passion can take a very different turn.On several occasions, he's been willing to risk his life to gain knowledge about certain animal species. To the point that his brother Martin, who knows him best, has had to physically restrain him to prevent him from pursuing danger.
This same passion has also led him to conduct potentially risky experiments, involving himself and Martin, and even neglecting some of his personal relationships, as seen in Fossa Palloza.
This is where we arrive at what he perceives as his greatest dream: discovering a new species and the implicit glory that this entails, not only for him but for his entire team.
This dream has been evident in multiple episodes, and it also comes with a price to pay. There have been times when he has faced the dilemma of "Discovering a new species" versus "Ensuring the well-being of friends, family, or other species," and.... he ends up hesitating. What should be a simple decision for the "hero" of the story makes him hesitate.
But that's when his true character and morals emerge. Beyond any doubt, beyond his own dreams, he always ends up choosing to support those in need. That's why he gives up on finding a fossa despite his sadness, that's why he chooses to leave mysteries for later or unsolved (even though the plot takes care of it), and that's why he even gave up the possibility of fulfilling his greatest dream when they were at the bottom of the ocean.
Chris Kratt is passionate about biology. He can be stubborn and become careless once something captures his attention, but at the end of the day, his heart is always beating to keep him on the right side, caring for the people and animals around him.
Martin: "Courage or Impulsiveness"
Martin is a cheerful, playful man, terribly committed to his duty not only as an adventurer but also as a rescuer. However, there is another characteristic that defines him, and that is impulsiveness. Impulsiveness is a tendency to act quickly, unexpectedly, and without prior reflection, generally in response to internal or external stimuli without considering the long-term consequences.
Martin displays these behaviors in different episodes, whether it's giving answers without much prior thought or secretly using technology that wasn't ready for use, exposing himself to danger, even though it only took a couple of hours for Aviva to finish building it.
We can see this impulsiveness more explicitly in the firefly rescue, where his determination to save them from Donita's clutches proved useless due to the lack of a solid strategy. It is through this example that we can also denote the positive side of this behavior of his.
Impulsiveness can also be extremely useful in emergencies, where there is no room for thought. Their courage, their ability to act under pressure and improvise, especially considering that in many of these scenarios the lives of animals are often in danger, are invaluable. These characteristics are clearly a double-edged sword, but for this very reason they can be useful in certain situations.
Aviva Corcovado: "Ego vs. Confidence"
Aviva Corcovado is undoubtedly the most talented engineer on the entire show. She's the one who has created inventions capable of defying not only biology, but also time and space themselves. Her life is marked by repeated success in academic and competitive settings, whether science camps or sporting events. She has always been a "winner," so there's no doubt why she has such high self-esteem and confidence in her abilities.
This is of great importance given that it's not uncommon for series to portray girls as insecure about their abilities or only able to act humbly and timidly in the face of their achievements. Aviva's confidence and pride in her talent are important not only for her character development but also for the role model she is for the audience. (And let's be honest, if I had a QUARTER of this woman's talent, I'd also think I was greater than the sun itself.)
But it's this same confidence that sometimes leads her astray. Especially in the early seasons, you can see how she comes to believe that her technology can easily surpass nature, how she continues to compete against Zach even though it brings her no benefit beyond the satisfaction of winning, in the Cheetah Race, and even in the way she emphasizes the superiority of her work in certain episodes.
However, these behaviors are part of her narrative construction. Throughout the series, Aviva often acknowledges her mistakes, learns from them, and with each passing episode, she gains a greater appreciation for nature and its role as the engineer of all living species.
All of this proves that character flaws are what truly make them promising, not only as examples of growth and change but also as well-rounded, multidimensional characters.
One of the most important aspects when writing a character are flaws since flaws increase reader immersion, reader investment, and the overall compelling energy of a story.
Flaws are necessary in creating character arcs where either these initial problems are improved or exacerbated.
Despite the fact that flaws are important, writers can struggle with how to seemlessly incorperate flaws within their characters in an interesting and natural way without just feeling like they're throwing bad traits in randomly.
Here we go!
A) All Character Traits Are Both Flaws And Strengths
Flaws are often dark reflections of the positive qualities identified in an individual.
If your lover is a strong and determined person then you are also likely dating someone who is stubborn.
If your friend is emotional and caring then they're also overly sensitive.
This is due to the fact that flaws are really just character strengths taken to their logical extreme. As the saying goes "the dose makes the poison". An excessive amount of carelessness, curiousity, love, emotion, confidence, and every single virtue inevitably results in personality defects.
You most likely have your character's strengths somewhat laid out whether these strengths be open-mindedness, kindness, determined, and anything else.
Taking these strengths to their logical extreme, you will often find flaws such as naivety, savior complex, stubborness, and other such flaws.
B) Whether Something Is A Strength Or A Flaw Depends On Context
Character A is trusting and Character B is distrusting.
Let's put them in the situation of meeting someone in order to illustrate how both character's defining traits could be their downfall depending on who this character is.
If this "someone" is a helpful individual, then Character B's flaw of distrust create unnecessary discorse within the group and could drive away this positive influence.
If this "someone" is a manipulative someone, then Character A's trusting nature harms the group as it allows someone harmful to enter.
Whether or not a character's actions are perceived as beneficial or harmful depends on if the result is good or bad for the character's goal.
This means that when you are presented with a character who seemingly has no flaws, what you can do is create situations where these good actions result in bad results.
An open-minded character might accidentally walk face first into a cult because they were too accepting of the weird activities
A kind character might cause their allies to become overly dependent on the individual's generosity
A determined character might be so obsessed with succeeding at this specific task that they fail to see the bigger picture and the more effective solution
Me: (body-checks speaker off the stage and grabs the microphone)
Caring to the point of destruction. Caring to the point of obsession. Caring to the point of collapse. Caring as an toxic coping mechanism brought to its extreme.
Caring too much about others and destroying or erasing yourself in the process.
Caring too much and going to illogical, harmful extremes as a result.
Caring like a spider in its web and not even realizing you're doing it.
Care that goes past all reasonable bounds and turns you monstrous.
