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Old 02-02-2005, 04:50 PM   #159
Encaitare
Bittersweet Symphony
 
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: On the jolly starship Enterprise
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When I think of a flawed character, I think of most characters, since most are not perfect in every single way. They can be good people and still have a few things about them that are not ideal: little idiosyncrasies or problems that may arise and sometimes get in their way.

Or perhaps I used the word "flawed" incorrectly in the first place...

You were talking about Mary-Sues, Nuru, and in the fanfiction realm we see the same story time and time again. A beautiful, talented-at-everything young woman who just isn't appreciated by anyone at home and leads a tragic life magically meets handsome hero from a fandom of the author's choice. Extra points if she's got naturally purple hair in a world where everyone else has brown. This does not necessarily mean that a beautiful female lead is this type of character, or that there aren't quintessential sorts of people in the world on which she could be based. The character, in the end, is what the author makes of it. The seemingly perfect woman can either be annoying in her perfection, or a deep and genuinely good person.

Now about being flawed or not, I think that maybe "flawed" is not always the best word for what I meant. What I meant was more along the lines of a character not always having all the answers, or not always being sure of exactly what to do, or not always getting along with certain other characters, or being a bit snappish at times, etc. The characters I would prefer to write about would be more realistic (except if they are purposely meant to be a personification or embodiment of something, some virtue, vice, or what have you). We all have things about ourselves that we wouldn't mind changing but sometimes can't help. Maybe we'd like to be nicer or more sure of ourselves. Still, this doesn't make us bad people.

Hope this made some sense!

Quote:
And if you have a bad character that you really want to show up as mean and selfish, put at least one very good character alongside him who will show, just by being the opposite, how bad this character really is.
An interesting concept... must think about that one!
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