Writing Tips and Reviews

How Characters Grow

I've been watching a lot of Twisted Wonderland and it makes me want to go back through my work and rewrite character interactions. But for now, I'll talk about the characters in the game. I won't get into specifics so you don't need to know any terms.

Riddle:

From the beginning, we know that Riddle sticks to the rules, he'll collar anyone who breaks even one and he'll lecture them for days. This all changes when we learn about his past and how strict his mother is. She put strict rules down and he thinks that's the only way to teach people. Riddle learns to lessen up with his rules and lets people off the hook more, and this stays consistent in future chapters. While many shows will forget character development and revert someone to their original state to cause more trouble, Riddle doesn't. He'll state the rule then let someone off with a warning or make them write him an apology.

He's more forgiving and sometimes makes excuses for why a person doesn't need to follow a rule. For example, he told Yuu that dressing formerly was important for a dorm head, but because there were only two people in the dorm, it didn't matter as much.

Leona:

It's a little harder to tell with Leona. But he has changed. His introduction is someone who has great ideas but doesn't apply himself to achieving them, either having someone else do it or letting it go. After his arc, he starts giving in more. He'll go along with stupid plans, and while they're not his, he does it if begged enough or if he's getting something out of it.

Azul:

The term "some people never change" applies here... in the most part. Azul remains a man who makes deals with people, but doesn't do them under shady practices. His first major deal was giving students a special book to study from and if they got into the top 50, he would continue to help them, if they didn't, they'd serve him. After his arc, he still does deals, but more business type. If a student gets enough points in his restaurant, he helps them with their problems. He's also shown to help people more just to have fun.

Jamil:

If you know me, you know I'm going to write a massive essay on Jamil because I love the backstabbing bastard. Jamil and Kalim are a team that have issues, major issues. Jamil serves Kalim as a servant and hates it, he wants to be free and in order to do that, his "perfect" plan is to destroy Kalim's reputation. The entire thing is a mess, so I'll summarize it. He brainwashed Kalim to become a dictator and tries to get Yuu to help throw Kalim out, his plan massively fails because Azul's group gets involved and they aren't full of morons, and he goes nuts.

The core of his problems is that he hates being second fiddle to Kalim, doesn't want to be a servant, and Kalim is a dense moron who can't figure out how people feel or doing anything himself. Two of those get fixed slowly. After the arc, Jamil starts being more vocal about his problems with Kalim and does things he likes to do, he has fun dancing in parties and is more open to engaging in his hobbies. In Chapter 5, he freely dances and does not care what Kalim thinks.

As for Kalim, he's more independent, going out on his own, sees people are distressed more often, and tries to praise Jamil whenever he can. The two are stuck together since Jamil wants to repair his reputation (and people think he likes hanging out with Kalim) so we don't see them apart often, but when they are, they try to independent. Emphasis on TRY. Jamil checks his phone often and spies on Kalim, while Kalim is too stupid to do anything by himself.

It's quite interesting to see how they grow. Their relationship remains master and servant, but it's become much more. They're starting to act as real friends, picking on each other, being worried when one is gone for too long, and letting the other have alone time when they need it. Sure, it's a VERY SLOW process compared to the others, but they're a pair. They have personal and relationship problems where both sides were in the wrong.

Vil:

As of Chapter 6-16, Vil hasn't gotten much in terms of screen time since we're busy dealing with Idia and Ortho, but I hope to see him care less about his status on the internet. In Chapter 5, he checked his phone regularly to see who was trending and made comments about how his team needed to be the most spectacular. Seeing as the rest of the cast has learned their lessons and become better people, I don't doubt the same will be done for Vil. And for Idia, as I believe he's the next target for development. 

Consistency in growth:

As I said, I've found many shows will forget about a character's growth so they can cause more trouble. Character A would learn a lesson then forget about it in the next episode so the show doesn't need a new character to cause trouble. Even if it was a school environment like Twisted Wonderland, the writers would default to a few characters as the bad guys and leave it at that.   Here, Riddle is the antagonist of Chapter 1 then after he learns his lesson, becomes a side character who helps the protagonists.

Getting to the know the characters:

Characters who we see once or twice have so much personality to them that we can understand them immediately. The first time we see Riddle, he's shown to be strict and a follower of rules within two sentences. We only get a brief conversation with Jamil and Kalim and we already know they're close. Then seeing these characters continue to show up and remember what they learned is fascinating.

I watched a 5 hour video about the new Doctor Who, and I found that it was lacking in character growth. We barely got to know who the characters were when we met them and they didn't do much except for take up space in missions. In Twisted Wonderland, everyone seems like they belong and they all have distinct personalities from one another. This is something I strive for in writing. No one wants a story where one character is the focus and the others exist just to praise them or do whatever Mary Sue wants. And no one cares about characters who get one line of detail then do nothing for the rest of the story.

What I like is how the characters don't change immediately, it's a slow process. Riddle doesn't suddenly throw away all rules and become the opposite of who he is. He becomes less strict over time and only pays attention to bigger rule breakers. He'll allow a party set up to be messy but won't allow someone to be home at midnight.

Sympathy:

I'd like to put this as a small side note since I love it when stories make a villain who is also sympathetic. Not one antagonist has been left without a backstory that makes you feel for them. Riddle with his strict mother, Leona being demeaned just for being the second born, Azul for his looks, Jamil for being a servant, and Vil for always being the villain in plays. Each one has a story that you can understand and makes you want to see them improve.

There's also the fact that the characters who are negatively affected forgive them. Kalim is told, to his face, that Jamil sucks and he still wants to be Jamil's friend. There is no "pure" good or evil, because they're high school kids who grew up in a bad environment. And any media that can avoid the idea of "pure" good or evil gets a star from me.

These characters are so lovable:

Despite how some start off as evil or seem nice and turn out to be evil, they are written so that you fall in love with them. And I like seeing how the character that causes problems in one chapter comes back to help solve the new problems in the next chapter. Riddle helps us Leona, Leona helps us with Azul, Azul helps us with Jamil, and Jamil helps us with Vil. Again, this is written when all we have is 6-16, so I don't know what happens next, but I suspect Vil will help us with Idia.

I love it when works show us characters growing. A character sitting at home and whining about everything isn't as interesting as one who learns a lesson and slowly grows. Nothing is exciting about one character always being right and everyone who disagrees with them is always wrong.