McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Overused Types of Characters
Nickeris86:
I find any character that hinges on destiny, or fate in order to work is a comp out. I also dislike deisex characters who are so awesome that the laws of nature bend in their favor. its boring when characters are so utterly perfect.
I also get tired of characters that are good/evil for no other reason other than because the author said so. Orcs are often portrayed like this, being evil scum simply because they are orcs and all orcs are scum with little to no exception. But its not just inhuman creatures either, humans are a real popular target for these types of characters, just look at the movie Avatar.
I also get sick of characters that suffer from Drizzits syndrome, or characters from some kind of evil society and forsake it to become hero's. It would be ok except these guy usually never shut up about how miserable their lot in life is and how lonely they are, even when they have scores of friends and allies that love them and the even the few begets out their grudgingly respect them even if they don't like them.
As for the dislike in vampires and werewolves. I agree they are a little over done but what i am sick of is the twit-light vampires and werewolves (sorry to any fans but the movie made me want to hurt myself. . . a lot.) I have no problems with creatures that are stereotypically villains being the good guy, heck my own novel focuses on that. But what I don't like is when they completely pervert what said character has been for hundred of years.
Vampires and werewolves are predators by their very nature and should be written as such. They can struggle with their nature but that doesn't mean they have to bitch about it every ten seconds.
"oh i am cursed and must suffer on alone never knowing love or kindness" bull you have super powers and a continence use them and maybe oh i don't know help people.
LizW65:
@ Nickeris: What is a deisex character? ???
Also, check out Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals for a very well-rounded portrayal of an orc.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: 1eyedjack on July 29, 2011, 08:14:53 PM ---I really don't like characters with too much power. There's a point in a story where things become too much, and the "scale" of power is obliterated.
--- End quote ---
That's a relative issue. I mean, it's the bedevilling problem of many Superman comics, but there are still good stories about Superman, and Mike Carey's Lucifer got a mostly totally awesome 75-issue story arc out of a central character who is the second most powerful in all of Creation and has both the ability and the temperament to set the world on fire if he wants to light a cigarette. Partly by giving him a great supporting cast and partly by giving him pride enough to insist on playing your game by your rules and winning anyway.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Nickeris86 on July 30, 2011, 09:13:00 PM ---I also get tired of characters that are good/evil for no other reason other than because the author said so. Orcs are often portrayed like this, being evil scum simply because they are orcs and all orcs are scum with little to no exception.
--- End quote ---
Tolkien was doing something specific with orcs that seems to me to be worth doing, in that direction; his orcs are Fallen elves, and his elves are very much like Miltonic angels, with what that entails in terms of free will.
--- Quote ---Vampires and werewolves are predators by their very nature and should be written as such.
--- End quote ---
That connects to one I am very fed up with, actually. Not thinking through the contradictions in making a character or a being predators "by their very nature" and also a thinking being, having which bits the character can control and which not vary for plot reasons and for giving them overly human-like emotional conflict rather than following through on genuinely alien thinking.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: LizW65 on July 31, 2011, 07:50:20 PM ---@ Nickeris: What is a deisex character? ???
--- End quote ---
I'm presuming that was meant as "deus ex", as in machina.
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