Anyone else find it weird some people are too attached to their characters?

[indagold]

I don't mean like calling your character baby and doting on them but being so afraid of something bad happening to them to the point they can't even joke about the character or say something bad about them because it tears the author to shreds. Even writing conflict in stories is a massive effort to some people because it means hurting a fictional person.

Like personally I wouldn't care if something awful happened to my characters cause they ain't real, I could have them explode into smithereens in one panel and then come back to life in the other. It's the power of imagination and this kinda mindset sounds like a path down to make mary sues.

I keep seeing it pop up in topics and its pretty odd phenomenon.

[AceRagz]

I haven't really ran into this outside rp communities. Most authors I talk to outside rp are fine with doing terrible things to their characters if it makes an impact in a story.

[ben]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen it at all period but I would be interested to see

[BobbyjoeX]

i have never seen this so far but i know there are people (admittedly, me included) that get off on making their characters lives miserable

[Drewbie]

Personally I have made at least five ways to kill each of my characters while emotionaling scarring another. Angst makes the world go round

[AmysGames]

I don't find it weird, per se. I mean, I'm no stranger to doing terrible stuff to my characters, but sometimes it's hard because you grow attached to them. Sometimes I like to show a little bit of mercy to those characters because I feel so bad for hurting them, haha.

I guess the key there is knowing when to set aside your own feelings for the sake of the story. It's okay to feel bad for your characters, and it's okay to show them mercy once in a while, but every story needs to have conflict. You can't avoid it forever.

[LT1986]

I believe that the strong attachment to characters is good, because it shows that the creator finds their own story/characters to be good. I feel attached to my characters and hope that any one who follows my web comic is attached to my characters. This is what makes the events of a story better for the creator and supporters. I would feel like I'm not doing something right if I wasn't attached to my characters. If I'm not attached, then I suggest that supporters/readers aren't attached.

With that being said, even though I'm very attached that doesn't keep me from making the right decisions in my storytelling. Many main characters will die in my story. Some of my main characters that have been with me for the first 100+ pages of my web comic are about to die very soon. My comic isn't a story that has characters just come back to life.

[Oso050]

I am, very attach to my characters.

[silverraven0]

Nah. I do love my characters as much as I could but even so I still gave them bad past/future and killing them on the story.

No one could stop me. laughing maniacally

[Maps]

I’m attached to my characters but I do them dirty too. They mean a lot to me and I want my readers to understand them, so in a way I guess I care?

[amortelito]

Well, I think it is normal. Not because they are not a person doesn't mean they are not real, some philosophers say that the characters are more real and important than the authors because the character has brought more impact to the world.

A character has a meaning and emotion attached to them. Depending on the case, it also has taken years from the author's life. And even if the author likes making the character suffer and plans their death...it doesn't mean there is no attachment, it only means that the author wants to experiment with emotions through the misfortunes of the character.

Of course, there can be some delusional authors out there...

[enamnoeki]

Naruto pops up in my head for some reason. He and Sasuke had more screen time than everyone in Konoha. I know they're main characters but like I was disappointed TenTen didn't have her moment.

[joannekwan]

I suppose it would only disturb me if they took it to unhealthy levels, like otherkin level.

Personally, I don't really dote on my characters nor actively punish them. I see them more as people existing in other lifetimes and I as the documentarian of their exploits.

[punkarsenic]

cant say ive come across this... but sounds like someones emotional involvement is impeding their ability as a storyteller

[Rodimus13]

We are doing the story as it must be told...

but I have to admit our comic is making us cry as we prepare to do something awful. It's making the next few parts hard...

[Kann]

I am attached to my characters, but I also like hurting them, like many other people. XD

Never saw anyone so oversensitive about their character to the point they cannot even think about hurting them. Caring about your characters is great but what kind of story it is if there's no conflict?

[AceRagz]

The only times I've really seen people too attached to their characters to do any true harm to them and would actively flip out if someone suggested something was in rp groups. In fact Erevan and Chirin (who is to be introduced to my comic next ep) both were created by my ex girlfriend. She was overly sensitive about them. Anytime anyone suggested something horrible to happen to them she would flip! She would often call Chirin her precious baby son.

In fairness she did horrible things to characters around Chirin but rarely anything directly to him. But in turn Chirin was a pretty horrible person. So much so when she got into an argument with one rp group they bounced her out and killed Chirin horrifically! After that she was even super sensitive about him.

[GabiWolf]

If nothing bad ever happens to a character how are they suppose to evolve or how is the story supposed to move forward? Stories are suppose to be multiple tiny conflicts your character needs to figure out how to resolve.

I like to think about what would make someone act a certain way and sadly most of our behavior and habits are influenced by bad experiences. I just added a narcissist abusive mother to one of my characters life because he seemed quite and flat. Something bad can help flesh out your character, explain their behavior and give them something they have to overcome.

[chocolatteboss]

from my own expiriance(and I was one of those people) people that do that are ones that inject themselves into their own characters and so if people don't like their character it makes them feel like being attacked personally. I think that this is just one of the stages all people go through when they evolve as writers.

[nostalgicroxas]

There's something to be said about putting yourself into the role, but if you take all of it so personally that the story can't have horrible things happen to them even if the story demands for it, you won't progress as an author. As someone else said, I've only seen this sort of "nothing bad can happen to my character!" kind of mentality in the RP community - and usually it's because the person's put themselves into the role. Having anything bad happen to the character would remind the player about their real life, and RP is usually an escape from reality. Not all RPers are like this, but a lot of the ones I've spoken to do - the really avid fanfic readers/writers can also fall into this category. It's likely a little flag that someone might have a few things to work through in their real life.