Writing Tips and Reviews

Let's Look at Yuri Lowell

Yuri Lowell, who is he? Well, he's the main protagonist of Tales of Vesperia and I don't know a single Tales fan who doesn't at least know of Yuri's existence. But what makes him one of the most beloved and popular characters? Is it his charm? The fact that he's an anti hero? The fact he does whatever he wants? Actually, all of the above and more.

What is the first thing when you think about kids these days? Well, my first thought is how annoying they are. They start up some drama then cry when the "backlash" starts and act as the victim. It's annoying, it's stupid and everyone wishes they shut up. Why do I bring this up? Because Yuri is the antithesis of this type of person. He starts up a drama sure, I mean, literally killed two people, but what he doesn't do, is cry in a corner and act like the victim. No, he owns up to his mistake. He got called out for his crime and he both admitted to it and was ready to take on the consequences of that crime.

He's even been described by his best friend Flynn to be the type of person to sacrifice himself to save someone else. He's a hero in his own right. He does things for the better of the world, or just the lower class, same thing to him. He doesn't do things for a personal gain or because only he thinks it's right. He had the chance to get everything he wanted but knew it wasn't right so continued on his path and killed that character. He's putting himself below others is what I'm saying.

And he's fine dying for his crimes. He did what he needed to for his people and was fine taking with whatever was in store for him. If they can catch him that is.

He was also a knight once. He's loyal to the people and joined the knights to make things better for the lower class. When he realized it wasn't the path he wanted to take, he left. Even throughout the story he's shown knightly traits. How determined he is to protect and save the people in need, how skilled he is with a sword and other weapons from his training, and how responsible he is.

Yuri Lowell is a character who, against all odds, remains the same person and continues on his path even if it will kill him. This is the type of character who I look up to and have written a character inspired by him. He's just such a good role model moral wise but in actions he could do things differently. He's not perfect, and he knows it.

He's also not a Mary Sue. Usually a term that goes with OCs not CCs like Yuri (copyrighted characters), but oh well. He's stated to be not a big shot around the world, only the capital really knows who he is and that's because of his history of a knight and little crimes here and there. Outside of the capital however, more people know Estelle or Flynn than Yuri, mostly because of their titles. Yuri could go to almost anywhere (before he got his wanted poster) and no one would know who he was. And he's not all that strong, his popularity mostly comes from his personality. He's stated that if he didn't have his blastia (like a strength booster) then he couldn't beat the really tough monsters. And best of all, the world's rules don't bend to him. He's stuck in the world's rules. He's not an all powerful god or even wants to be one. He's a simple former knight who wants to live a normal life in the lower quarter and gets dragged into a situation in the beginning of the game.

I'm remember I was talking about how amazing of a character Yuri was, at one point, I said that he killed the people who abused their power and hurt those under them. And the person I spoke to said "yeah, killing little people isn't going to effect the whole." Like he was some psychopathic murder. (Every OC of theirs is a psychopathic murder but they don't know what a psychopath is or what a psychopathic murder is. Just like they say they draw gore but they don't know what gore is. But I digress.) My point here, is that despite all the traits that Yuri has, the only thing that mattered to that person was that he was "a psychopath," which is completely false in every way possible. He's caring in his own way, wanting to save everyone, even if it means killing himself. And, he only kills people for the better of everyone. The two he intentionally killed abused their power and treated everyone else like insects. Even the other party members had problems when the two were let free after being taken in for their crime.

I am not saying your characters have to be like Yuri, I'm saying this type of character isn't one you see everyday and taking inspiration from a character you love is okay. Yuri has been the inspiration for many of my characters and each of them are different from the last. Take a character you love from whatever series you like and see what parts of them you can add to your character. Maybe you'll see that they become more human or maybe they become less human, depends. Just, don't take from a Mary Sue character, those aren't even characters.

"What about the people of the lower quarter?! Our people?!" -To Flynn