Writing Tips and Reviews

OP Character Does Not ALWAYS Equal Good Character

Immortality:

I don't hate the idea of immortal characters, actually, I kind of do. After an.........interrogation of a certain someone, who doesn't deserve to be mentioned due to reasons, and seeing their character, I saw how the trait of OP overwhelms the other traits. That's not good. They completely oversaw the potential of their character becoming memorable and likeable, and focused all the attention to their character to be an OP little brat who cries and complains whenever something isn't all about them.

The way I see immortality done right is from the anime "Code Geass" (watch it). Specifically, everyone's favorite immortal, C2. The basics are that: she's immortal, she's seen her friends and family live and die around her, and that's painful. While it's true that not ALL immortal characters should be this way, it is true that C2 has much more to her than being immortal and powerful. She's an interesting character that you want to know more about.

Too Much Power:

This is something I hate, when people believe power is everything. Giving a character all the power and on top of that immortal, is the worst combination in my perspective.  I would say you have a 0.1% chance of doing this right. Characters who have all the power are usually annoying and unlikeable, sprinkle a bit "look how amazing I am" and you have the worst character imaginable. I do not recommend this trait unless you have experience and know what you're doing, and by that, I mean you're a book writer or manga/comic writer and is over 20.

Dark Characters:

I hate this more than you could imagine, I really do. This really annoyed me when I interrogated that person, this person was this annoying. The entire time it was "I'm broken, I'm dark, I'm cold hearted, only the worst of the worst can defeat me." Please, just shut up!!! This doesn't have to be a bad character trait.

Velvet Crowe, actually, the majority of the Berseria main cast has this trait. But like I said when I talked about the OP trait, it's not all they are. Velvet is the Lord of Calamity, she's the embodiment of hatred and anger, but that's not all she is. Deep inside, she's still the little girl who wants her brother and sister back and live a normal life. Rokuro wants to kill his brother, but you can see he does it because in a way, it's relieving him of the stress that was out on him for failing before. Eizen, my personal favorite, is the reaper, death itself. Following him is walking straight into death. But does he care? Nope. His biggest worry is protecting his little sister Edna and the Aifread's crew.

Each character has a reason to be a dark character, or, an anti-hero, but it's not all they are. They aren't known to the players as dark character, rather, they're known for their other traits. One of my favorite characters, Yuri Lowell (Tales of Vesperia), is the perfect example of a dark character done well. He's a sarcastic liar, who is also a murderer, but that's not all he is, actually, it is. But he's not completely known for that, he's a good friend and he loves his dog Repede.

So in general, I'm going to say the exact same thing I said when I talked about immortality, "I do not recommend this trait unless you have experience and know what you're doing, and by that, I mean you're a book writer or manga/comic writer and is over 20."

What I have left to say:

Making good characters is tough when you have no experience, but it's also about being proud of what you've created. If you're proud of what I've explained as a "whiny little kid who cries and complains when something isn't all about them" good for you, just don't expect the world to think the same of that character. Man, that person got on my nerves, mostly because of how annoying their character is, yes, they never learned. I've been writing for 10 years and know exactly what I'm doing when I write, I've also taken a lot of inspiration from the Tales series and other anime/games.

I don't care if you're characters are animals, furries (whatever those are) or human base, what annoys me is when characters think they're better than everyone else (and so does their creator). What I look for is a character that is interesting farther than a cardboard box (I'm looking at you Ludger Will Kresnik from Tales of Xillia 2) and isn't annoying beyond the point of "please shut up".  Basically, most of characters written by people are fine with me.

-I know I'm judgmental, but it's because this has been brought to my attention, like three times. These are just a few things that get on my nerves, there are plenty of other traits you can go with when writing a character, these are just the hardest to do right. Whether it's a villain, or hero/anti-hero, there always has to be more than just one to two traits.-