I've been thinking about what makes a character “relatable” and that made me think about how Fullmetal Alchemist is always praised for its female characters (and I agree, they're great!) but I don’t know if any of them could be considered “relatable”. Do you think any of them are? Besides Sheska
I actually think the reason I connected to Winry so much back when I read the manga was because I do relate to her quite a bit. Her geeky passion for automail reminded me of my own passions (and that why I’m scared that I feel so disconnected from my passion lately, off topic...), and I think what I especially related to was that her struggle revolved around feeling helpless. Around feeling she could do nothing more than wait and be locked out of the loop. It’s a struggle that comes up for me quite a lot, and I think it’s a struggle a lot of people share. It’s hard and scary, feeling like you’re powerless. It’s hard to endure tragedy and keep getting up every day. Winry didn’t have a life that was wrapped up in the bigger action scenes, and helped people in ways that weren’t always noticed, and a lot of times she felt like she didn’t make a difference, and I think that’s a big reason why I connected with her. Plus there was the fact she was very emotionally driven, and cried easily, and so on. I’m not like her in a lot of other ways, but there was something expressed with her character that resonated strongly with me (especially at that time) otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to ramble about her so much.
I dunno if that’s the specific kind of “relatable” you’re talking about, but those are my two cents. If I do strongly connect with characters, I often do have some kind of common ground with them, even if they’re not like me in a lot of other ways. I would agree characters like Izumi or Olivier could be hard to relate to, but I can also see people relating to like, May’s goofiness when it comes to love or Riza’s self loathing.
