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

[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.

[ble]

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[indagold]

It does seem like a very RP thing, although I have seen some authors act similar. With RP I've seen people churn out 70 ocs in a week with no personality traits just exists as a self insert. Millions of ocs with no discernable difference outside of hair and hobbies.

[baasinsimple]

I mean, great authors who care about their characters usually end up doing something horrific to them. George R.R. Martin loved Catelyn and Robb Stark, in fact he cried while writing the Red Wedding, but they don't exactly have the most generous fates. I'm the same way. The fact I love my characters makes me know when I do something awful to them that I'm doing a good enough job to the point where I feel bad.

[Drewbie]

As a person who previously did RP there are definitely people who refuse to let anything bad happen to their characters. So much so that they will literally give IRL threats (I was in an rp group where someone got banned because they tracked someone irl and sent the persons nudes to his mother. all to get payback because the other person had killed them in rp)

[Drewbie]

It's sad how much people can get attached to characters. Especially if it gets in the way of the character fleshing out and growing.

[racarter]

Yeah, that’s weird. I never understood that kind of attachment. I’m of the opinion all creators are (or should be) sadists on some level - be it by using emotional torment, physical, or whatever.

Like I love my characters to bits and that’s exactly why I want to torture them in various ways. I even feel the same about characters who are not mine - I want to see them suffer and can’t understand the whole “uwu domestic fluffy no badness all is good and pure” stuff. I’d much rather see characters suffer because it’s far more interesting, engaging, and evokes a stronger emotional response from me.

If a creator isn’t sadistic or cruel then... what’s the point?

Tho again I wanna clarify “sadistic” can mean a lot of things in this context. Even mild conflict is hurting your characters in some way - even if your story is otherwise light and fluffy. Basically I’m saying a story needs good and bad, light and dark, gray areas, conflict, etc. because otherwise what’s the point? And when I say “conflict” I don’t mean like those ones where some strawman pops up, gives hell to the protagonist, and the protagonist either doesn’t care or has no internal conflict or they just school the strawman and walk away like they think they’re hot shit. That’s not conflict. That’s more of a pointless lecture.

Anyway I think there’s this idea that hurt, pain, conflict, etc are inherently bad - even in fiction - and some people want to completely avoid those things. People are weird.

EDIT: Gag comics are more or less an exception but even then I’ve seen many where the main characters get dragged and their suffering / current conflict is funny.

[vfinnigan]

I don't find it weird at all. Then again, I write about real people, but it hurts when I have to write about someone dying in a plane crash or a teenage prisoner of war kept in little more than a ventilated grave. And given that I write a lot about military aviation, that unfortunately means more than one plane crash.

[indagold]

I wouldn't call it being sadistic and cruel to a character, its just trying to emulate life and life is never perfect. No person who exists in our world is without some hardship even small.

Its like having a baby, you gotta let it get hurt sometimes and learn. You can't shelter it from the world forever.

[borzoiteeth]

Usually I'm all for tough love when it comes to fictional characters. Whether I'm RPing original or fandom stuff or writing stories. Its hard to feel high stakes against a terrible situation if said situation doesn't actually do anything of lasting consequence. I have heavily maimed and/or killed off my favourite characters many times.

However, there has been one story I've been working with my partner with where when it came to the part in the plot where X character was going to be offed- we hit the breaks so hard we could feel the figurative whiplash. I was choking up as if this character was a real friend.

They weren't even my favourite character is this story! They were designed with a "love to hate" approach. I'd never, ever want to meet this character in real life. But while I'm not keen- they do mean a lot to a few other characters. They've carried a lot of weight throughout. It's not like they have been perfectly kept safe from harm. They have lost a lot of people and things they value. But so have other characters that I've done this to in the past. Why be hit with this now? It is very weird.

The story was put on pause for a bit. My partner and I hate plot holes and convenient contrivances more and were not going to just let this character off the hook because it hurts our feelings.

So TL;DR I both understand and don't get it.

[Drewbie]

There is just something about tearing down a character and watching them build themselves back up that is so satisfying. It makes their happy ending so much more fulfilling (if they had one) and makes their tragic ending so much more painful

[Drewbie]

Also being sadistic to the readers so enjoyable lmao. Make someone like a character then make the death so pointless and avoidable its infuriating

[dawgofdawgness]

I’ve personally never seen anyone be THAT obsessive over their characters, but I’m actually really curious on what that would look like lol. I can see why people might get really attached to their characters, especially if you’re thinking about them all the time and how they could progress the story, etc.
my characters are all based in negative traits that I have myself so that sort of attaches me to my OCs. Like they’re not really my “babies”, they’re just fragments of me.

[indagold]

I dunno i guess they would be the obsessive fan type it seems, i notice many are like that, their fandom obsession blossomed into ocs.