What makes a good character?

[Xortberg]

To me, characters are one of the most important parts of anything I take interest in. I despised season 4 of Digimon because the characters made me want to kill something, despite a decent plot; inversely, the plot of Tales of Vesperia was intensely convoluted and difficult to follow, yet I loved it due, in very large part, to the characters involved and their interactions. So I ask you, SF-O: What makes a character good, in your opinion?

For me, there's several things:

Appearance - Moderately important. Doesn't really make or break a character very often, but a great example of a character who was made awesome in part due to his appearance was Ryu from Shaman King. I loved the look of the guy, with every hairdo he sported.

Voice acting, if applicable: Again, not all that important, but it can help. I freaking love Ansem from Kingdom Hearts, mostly because <3 Billy Zane. Axel, too, since Quinton Flynn has an awesome voice. I absolutely hated Tommy from Digimon Frontier, because he had the most annoying little-kid voice I've ever heard and wouldn't shut up.

Complexity: Very important, but it depends on the role of the character. Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho was, for the most part, horribly simplistic. I loved him to death, since his role as sidekick warranted it and it was well executed. On the other side of the coin, Zelgius from Fire Emblem 9-10 was amazing to me for his complexity. Duke from Vesperia sits in the same boat, wanting [spoilerS] the destruction of the human race - including himself - because of his cynical views regarding humans. He represented a nihilistic view in order to obtain a greater good. [/spoilerS]

Beliefs: This is where it gets really fun. The beliefs of a character don't have to be evident in everything they do; this usually just makes them annoying. But religion, lack thereof, a set of philosophies, certain world-views, etc. can really affect how a character behaves. A rather obvious example is Axel from Kingdom Hearts. I don't think it was ever explicitly stated, but his actions hint heavily at the fact that he believes Nobodies have hearts. Another example is a character of my own making, who follows Taoism. I haven't ever explicitly stated this fact, but I do let it influence her greatly in her actions and the choices she makes.

Weapon of choice: Much more important than it should be. Although I hate to say it, a weapon toting character will automatically be docked points of they're carrying a katana. It's cliched, in my opinion, and many a good character have become the butt of jokes for using a weapon I found overused/ridiculous. Lightning Farron from FFXIII is an overall decent character, but the very idea of a Gunblade is just ridiculous to me. I absolutely love spears or staffs, though, so Fang from FFXIII or any Dragoon character in the series (I'm looking at you, Kain) is auto-badass.

That's all I can really think of right now. You don't have to be as specific as me, or you can you even more in-depth than I chose to. I only ask that you keep Krystal worship to a bare minimum. A mention or two is fine, since it would be really douchey of me to ban her outright, but don't let this topic become "Why Krystal is great." This also goes for the other side; Milky, Robert and I will not step in to argue Krystal unless the topic starts to center around her. There's already a topic for that.

[ballisticwaffles]

For me, a charecter has to be imperfect. its great that they can do things, but i want to see them fail. I want to ee them on the ground cursing as they see the consequences of their failure. Then I want to see them rise from deafet like a phoenix and better themselves so that the failure cannot happen again. I:f a writer can pull that off in a brilliant way, then the charecter wwilll beforever immortallized as a total badass.

[Kursed]

now failing ina  silly way and not  in a combat situation is critical.

*trips down stairs*

To me a character must have a  good appearance ( you know not fat not ugly a equally proportioned body at least)

A good weakness even if it has to be something silly.

a good strength. so  you likez mudkips?

a decent back ground . it's not like I appeared out of no where.

I think that's pretty much it and Jokes aside I'm just bored so sorry.

Being a person who doesn't play alot of games I don't see alot of overused stuff.

[Kid_Cortet]

1. Someone who fails sometimes. I hate it when the hero wins nearly every time and it seems like they do it with ease. This is what probably annoyed me the most about the Yu-Gi-Oh series....was the main characters kept winning. I loved the original show, and lost track during "Waking the Dragons" but when my friend told me Yugi actually lost a duel, I HAD to watch it.

2. Someone who can be silly, and serious at the same time. one PRIME example, Edward Elric. That boy can get goofy as f*** sometimes, but he can also be very serious. I like it best when he does both, like in the battle against 48 (The Slasher Brothers), he cracks a few jokes, but still keeps his edge. In some shows, there are characters that are always funny now matter how hard they try....and it gets annoying at times.

3. Leadership. John Sheridan of Babylon 5 makes an awesome candidate for this. As he fought so hard to bring the League of Non-aligned Worlds together when they needed to be the most in the War against the Shadows. For a while, Members of the League were starting to doubt that their world s would ever be attacked, since they seen the Shadows going for planets nowhere near their homeworlds. They also did not believe that they could beat the Shadows, until Sheridan himself commanded a White Star (A small battle cruiser) and destroyed a Shadow vessel. But that did not last long, as the League started to fight again. When Sheridan finally went to Z' Ha' Dum, (Pronounced Za-Ha-Doom), everyone KNEW he would die, since no one ever came back alive from the Shadow's homeworld. After a series of events, he did return, restoring the faith he needed to have everyone ban together to fight alongside each other.

I have more...just cant think of them at this current time.

[Sabre]

Impossable to tell. For every one of those listed I cant think of an example that doesnt break one of those rules at some point.

[Fire Yoshi]

What makes a good character?

A "good" creator.  Simple as that.

[Vulvokunvrii]

good qualities or taits, what they do (like save everyone or whatever) i guess.....

[Guest DRL]

Visual Traits: Important to some extent. Generally we want something that

fits our purposes, however. If we want an idiot, he will generally not look like

a uber-bad-a**, but will have a funny look. Similary, when we want an evil villain,

we want him to have to have either bad*** looks, or horrendous visual traits (depends

on the type of villain, too. Pigma style = ugly, for example). As "Visual traits", I classify:

Name, physical appearance, voice, ect.

Character: In the sense of behavior & attitude. Can be complemented by the above, but not

necesary. Generally we want to have this delevoped, but not to the point emotions and such

are overused (exagerated romance escenes, being super-emotional, ect).

Backstory: This is really important. Generally, there are two ways to do it: 1] we know most

of it from the start - or - 2] we know little and, as the story progresses, so does the backstory.

We also want to not leave many plotholes. Some are fine in certain cases, but make too many

and you will have something like Starfox. Only superficial information and little or nothing about

how characters behave to each other, their past, how they grew up... ect.

Theme & extras: Not really necesary. But can be quite cool if the music *somehow* reflects

the character's personality... Or past/present situation. Extras are special traits (i.e: has a

special power nobody else does, or knowledge that everyone is after but nobody knows that

he/she/it has, ect... Things that may or may not contribute to the plot, but add a little seasoning.)

Consistency: Generally needs to be keep stable, unless the story is generally being retconned,

and/or the character experiences a change in attitude/behavior. Usually, too much retconning creates

too much inconsistencies, and too little change means the character does not progresses.

Other traits: Could be classified as Extras. Not really necesary, either, but interesting to have (in some

cases). Reffered to character, perhaps a facet of a character we have not see, or that we see usually

but is not important to the story.

[Xortberg]

Impossable to tell. For every one of those listed I cant think of an example that doesnt break one of those rules at some point.

Of course the rules will be broken occasionally. If you could provide more specific examples, I might be able to address you more completely.

A "good" creator.  Simple as that.

Way to interpret my post differently than everyone else! Points for originality. 

So, what does a "good" creator have to do to make their character good?

2. Someone who can be silly, and serious at the same time. one PRIME example, Edward Elric. That boy can get goofy as f*** sometimes, but he can also be very serious. I like it best when he does both, like in the battle against 48 (The Slasher Brothers), he cracks a few jokes, but still keeps his edge. In some shows, there are characters that are always funny now matter how hard they try....and it gets annoying at times.

Couldn't agree more, and I'm ashamed I didn't think of Edward beforehand.

[Fire Yoshi]

So, what does a "good" creator have to do to make their character good?

That should be pretty obvious.

Every character has a creator, weather it be a video game character, movie character, or your OWN character trait in rl.  The character's "good"ness is determined by how creative the creator is.  If you have a "good," creative creator, then you will get a "good" character. 

Simple as pie, my friend.

[Xortberg]

That should be pretty obvious.

Every character has a creator, weather it be a video game character, movie character, or your OWN character trait in rl.  The character's "good"ness is determined by how creative the creator is.  If you have a "good," creative creator, then you will get a "good" character. 

Simple as pie, my friend.

Maybe to you, but I need more detail myself. Even in my opening thread, I didn't even come close to hitting on all of the possible scenarios and how each one might change my opinion of a character, or how each individual category could possibly interact. I wish I could have as simple a view on it as you. /jealousy

Not 'insulting' simple, either. The good kind of simple :P

[Guest Senshi]

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[Sabre]

level headedness and strength

You obviously haven't seen this film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_9

[Xortberg]

You obviously haven't seen this film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_9

Perhaps you could explain yourself in more detail? You know, tell us what you're trying to say here?

[Vy'drach]

That the main character of District 9 was neither level-headed nor strong. I didn't have a problem with him other than his being a complete idiot most of the time.

[Sabre]

He's a panicy cowardly buracrat, and he's amazing for that reason. He's a normal guy in over his head.

[Guest Senshi]

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