Caring about characters

[vapidink]

For me, it's when a character is relatable. Like others have said, I want to see characters with flaws and strengths, characters that have gone through things and who are just a little more worn down because of it. Personally, I think that's why a lot of the time audiences latch onto some of the modern villains, because we've seen them fail and suffer and get up to try again. Even if their motives and methods are wrong, we root for them.

To use recent and popular films as an example, look at Loki. People love Loki because he's a sympathetic villain. A lot of us can connect to the rejection he must have faced from his parents, the hurt of being lied to, and the struggle to prove himself, even if he went about it in a terrible way. There's the grudging affection he has for his brother and the glimpses we see of him not being absolutely awful. Loki, in him MCU characterization, is a very human character.

Killmonger from Black Panther is also a very relatable character. He also faced rejection, loss, prejudice, not to mention the theft of his culture, his identity, and the suppression of his people. Maybe his methods were wrong, but we understood why he was led to make the choices he made and we sympathized with him.

[cherrystark]

I tend to stay away from the advise that says to give your characters "flaws". I noticed that a lot of writers tend to sprinkle on flaws as an afterthought or a checklist to be met. It's in the same vein as stories where the entire plot came be summed up by a list of tropes. The characters tend to be one-dimensional and full of themselves.

One of the things I love about discovery writing is taking a basic character type and layering on extras to see what happens. For example, I think it's interesting to take the protective alpha-type character and make them the chief nurturer of the group. Aggressive nurturers are wonderful characters; they might grumble and complain when the others do something idiotic, but you know they'll be there to keep the others safe. As a reader, I care because I see how much the murder-dad loves their babies and wants to protect them. It's a different kettle of fish than saying a character is "proud" because they "love too much."

[DiegoPalacios]

Theorically it's possible to get people to care about ANYTHING
don't believe me?, watch this ad.

As silly as this example may seem, there are some storytelling tools we can use to make people care about our characters. (will not tackle the music because most of you are either doing comics, novels or other media that is purely visual)

1-Show, don't tell: This commercial didn't have a single word, except for the sentences in the end. Sometimes a character's struggles are not expressed verbally, but can be shown through actions and events. You can even make an emphasis on them with camera angles, body language, paneling and shading.

2-Emotional connection: while some conflicts may not be relatable per se, like fighting aliens or becoming king of pirates, they all invoke universal emotions, desires, fears and goals with which people can relate.

3-Appeal: This one tackles the first impression. A character with a solid design that stands out one way or another, can open the curiosity of readers. In the commercial, the lamp's red color made it stand out over the whole background which made it instantly the focus of attention.

[Nugtown]

I have one to add I thought about, and that's using anticipation.

I get the feeling some people may get hung up on the fine details of what can get a person interested in a character, particularly in relation to specific hobbies, ideas, or interests. Yes, that can apply in certain cases, but exceptions don't make the rule. You can create broad appeal just by simply creating a sense of anticipation for the reader.

For example, "John goes to work, he grabs icecream and comes home." This is a story about an event happening to a character that is already resolved without conflict. We as an audience aren't given a specific reason to give John special attention. "John goes to work, he grabs icecream and drops trou in the parking lot" <- Building anticipation through an event. Why would John suddenly decide to depants himself in public? What kind of guy is this?

I think the key to success might also lie in getting the reader to ask questions that beg them to learn more, because when presenting a scenario for a character that is already hypothetically resolved, you have a 'story'. When you present a scenario that has to be resolved, then that's the basis for a plot.

[allenT]

A lot of times people just judge by the characters' look first hand without knowing who they are or what are their backstories etc.

More realistic character designs in general are less empathetic compared to cuter character designs.

Here's a video I found about character design & empathy. (I couldn't find one I watched a long time ago which was better I think they took the Simpsons characters for example... but this will do fine)

Facial expressions! The characters who always shown with the generic smiley faces (ehem anime moes) I see them as factory-made dolls and I don't really care. (sorry otakus) Similar point: I don't really care about the characters from most toddlers cartoons because they have no personalities or designs.

ps: The 'cinnamon roll' protagonists are very empathetic too, unless it's overdone.
(please excuse my writing, it went a bit off-topic)

[Nugtown]

I'm not sure I completely agree. Empathize is a strong word and not something you can substitute with appeal or charm. Empathizing would mean feeling what they feel, understanding and being able to place yourself in their shoes. Cute characters are attractive, but I can't say within reason that people are more willing to empathize with an cute character as opposed to a realistically designed one on that basis alone.

I would even go so far as to argue people may be less attracted to realistic designs compared to cute cartoony ones, but able to relate to realistic ones better since they appeal to what we are most familiar with in every day life.

Seeing as how relatability has already been discussed, I guess I don't feel the need to go on about it so much. But I've come to the conclusion that appealing to some sense of humanity is absolutely a key component here so I whole heartedly agree on that. In design alone that can definitely also win points in appeal.

[cherrystark]

Empathize is a strong word and not something you can substitute with appeal or charm. Empathizing would mean feeling what they feel, understanding and being able to place yourself in their shoes.

But I think "empathy" works more if the a character is already fleshed out or you have plans on fleshing a character out more throughout a series. For example, Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls. She's written to be the typical mean girl rival for Mabel. But as the series progresses, we learn that her meanness is an act and that she's actually neglected. Most of us can't relate to being a neglected rich girl, but we can her shield falling.

I would even go so far as to argue people may be less attracted to realistic designs compared to cute cartoony ones, but able to relate to realistic ones better since they appeal to what we are most familiar with in every day life.

I don't really agree. I think it's more about what they're used to seeing. I know anime is really popular here, but I've seen designs that are outright disturbing and other designs where everybody looks the same, just with minor alterations to clothing and hair. I am not attracted to those but to others it's A+ gold. There are also some western cartoons that are supposed to be cutesy and fun, but the designs are outrageous and dumb, so I don't care to watch. So it's all what you're used to.

However, I do agree with what's been said. People care when they recognize an element of humanity in a character. Relatability is a buzzword, but what we're all really saying is that we're looking for elements of humanity that we recognize.

[TheLemmaLlama]

1) Show me a distinct personality

Show me an aspect of their personality that makes them distinct from the 'stock human'. To me, every character is the 'stock human' when I first encounter them (even if they're not human). Background characters are 'stock humans'; the cashier that checks out the protagonist's shopping, the guard that tells the protagonist to state their business, the innocent bystander that runs away in fear when the villain attacks the town with a doomsday weapon.

Basically, a 'stock human' acts how you'd expect a person to act to any given situation if you had to guess without knowing anything about their background.

I start caring about a character when they break out of the mold of a 'stock human'. When the cashier asks why tf you're buying 100 packets of gum, when the guard tells you about that time they took an arrow to the knee, when the innocent bystander is in awe at the doomsday weapon and wants to get a closer look. When they do something that makes them feel like their own person.

This often means I tend to connect quickly to 'tropey' characters with an extreme personality, but that doesn't mean I can't connect to more lowkey characters either. But if your protagonist has a more subtle, 'normal'-seeming personality, ffs don't introduce me to them getting bullied and being sad about it, or grieving over the death of a loved one, or basically being in any situation where they'd act like you'd expect a normal person to act :'D Introduce them making a choice most normal people wouldn't make, or being put in a situation that's uniquely emotional for them, but mundane for everyone else.

I also feel like this is why often a lot of people care more about side characters and villains than the main character, because they tend not to be the 'stock human', whereas the protagonist is often the 'everyman'.

2) ... but try to make it believable

An extreme personality would grab my attention, but to keep my attention, you'd have to convince me that this is an actual human being (psychologically, if not physically) and not just a puppet that you can make behave however you want on a whim.

Sometimes, if they don't have that much screentime, all you need to do is make them behave consistently; show me a pattern to their behaviour that I can extrapolate and speculate about, even if you don't spell out their internal motivations and everything yourself. For instance, if your side character has anger issues, and also loves cake, and also has a fear of clowns, and also speaks 5 languages, it'll start feeling like you're just making this character do whatever you need someone to do for plot reasons. Keep it to one or two core traits, if you don't plan on exploring this character further

On the other hand, if your character has a lot of screentime, having a core trait without exploring the underlying psychology will get old and gimmicky very quickly, and that's where you'll have to show me more under the hood for me to keep caring about this character instead of getting sick and bored XD A minor character can get away with an unexplained gimmick because you could plausibly imagine that they'll do stuff offscreen that connect to and explain their gimmick, but if you're following a character for most of their life and just see a trait in isolation pop up over and over again, they're gonna feel like a 'stock human' with a gimmick tacked on, instead of a fleshed out person. If we're seeing so much of their lives, we should see not only their trait, but how they feel about their trait, what those around them feel about their trait, other traits that interact with that trait, etc.

For instance, if your main character is super heroic and self-sacrificing, never hesitating to put themself in danger to save people they barely know, please dear god explain why they are that way, most real people I see in my everyday life do not behave that way and I need reasons :'D Are they trying to make up for something? Are they trying to prove a point? Do they just not care about themselves for some particular reason? Is this just the kind of person they want to be, and they've went through years of self-reflection and training to overcome their human fears and become this sort of person? What drove them to put all this effort into pursuing this ideal, moreso than other people who aspire to this ideal?

And even if I don't get answers immediately, you gotta drop some hints and give me hope that you've actually thought things through and I'm going to get those answers at some point. Even then, I might not care about your character if what I've seen so far doesn't resonate with me personally, but at that point you're treading into 'everyone's different' territory so it's out of your control Do the above, and someone will care about your character.

[kitschensyngk]

A character who is practically perfect in every way is the least relatable and often the least likable. (With the exception of Mary Poppins, or course.)

Most shounen protagonists are guilty of this in spades.

• They win every battle.
• They get every powerup.
• They attract every girl in a five-mile radius.
• More interesting, flawed characters may as well not exist.
• In spite of their perfection, the story revolves around their endless pursuit of it.
• You're supposed to cheer for them because they're the "chosen one" or they came from a poor background, even though they're really smug and obnoxious.

That to me does not make for a relatable character.

In fact, what usually happens is I gravitate toward a more interesting side character who gets shoved into the background while the jerky hero gets all the glory. That, to me, is just wasted story potential.

[Lensing]

It leads to another interesting question.
Do you need a character the readers care about?

One of my favourite comics as a child / teenager was Tintin.
Tintin is a blank/boring character who always succeeds and who has no flaws.

Blank characters without extreme character traits can work in some stories

[TheLemmaLlama]

Do you need a character the readers care about?

I think yes, but they don't have to be the main character. Lots of good stories have a blank MC that serve more as a vehicle than a character. I'm just not going to gush and write fanfic about them XD You do need to give me someone interesting to gush and write fanfic about though

[cherrystark]

I think you do like @TheLemmaLlama said. I think it's okay to start out with a blank character in the beginning stages but you have to let them grow. For example, I'm a HUGE Scooby Doo fan. I've been this way since I was little and my hypothetical grandchildren will watch Scooby Doo. The characters from the OG series were pretty generic. Freddie was your generic white boy team lead, but now he's grown into a himbo king who shares leadership responsibilities and checks in with Daphne about her emotional well-being. People have shipped those two for decades but now that their characters have grown, I root for them more now than ever.

[VersusVII]

What makes me care about characters is how they are presented: have they got dreams or goals to achieve? What are they gonna do to get what they want? Are they coherent with themselves?
I like characters with a bit of humour and I want to see them getting to their goal by step, even struggling a bit. I stop caring for them while they act out of character (for example they acted taking the most logic option caring only for the outcome, then they start following their heart without a proper change in his behaviour).

[Nugtown]

@Lensing I could totally believe that it's based on intent. My personal opinion is that I have not experienced reading many stories that follow this format, but it seems to be a popular choice for manga where the mc is just for a reader to self insert.
Maybe it depends on what kind of story you're crafting and who you are aiming the story towards. I think if I were crafting an escapist fantasy I probably wouldn't go out of my way to have the MC be too unique.

@VersusVII
It does seem to be that a character with strong goals is part of giving the reader a series of questions to seek answers for and therefore care about.
Some people are really torn about Breaking Bad and particularly Walt as an evil character because, well he's evil. Sometimes people need to resonate with a main character on a particular level like, they need to agree with them on a value based level. I am a lot more distant, it matters more how they are connected to the tale they are woven into and learning what will happen next because of their actions.

@TheLemmaLlama
You know, I can't help but feel like readers falling for the side character as opposed to the main one is pretty common. This is just me speculating, but I have to wonder if in situations where the main character was written as an audience surrogate a 'little too well' then the portion of viewers looking for something more would gravitate away from the MC. As a result of side characters not being written explicitly for being a self insert, they end up more developed and unique?

For instance, if your main character is super heroic and self-sacrificing, never hesitating to put themself in danger to save people they barely know, please dear god explain why they are that way, most real people I see in my everyday life do not behave that way and I need reasons :'D

Huge. People always have a reason for doing something. "It's fun" and "I felt like it" are just as valid as something overly complex and it doesn't always have to be needlessly complicated. There's a time and place for giving a character a "reason" and a "damn good reason".

[cherrystark]

This is just me speculating, but I have to wonder if in situations where the main character was written as an audience surrogate a 'little too well' then the portion of viewers looking for something more would gravitate away from the MC. As a result of side characters not being written explicitly for being a self insert, they end up more developed and unique?

Everyone is a main character so I seriously doubt anyone is going to write an audience surrogate as a side character. But the situation you described does remind me of the Mary Sue/Wesley Crusher Syndrome. If I am remembering my trivia correctly, Wesley was supposed to be an audience surrogate but was written so that most people didn't like him.

I still look to classic Hannah Barbera for audience inserts that didn't bog down the story. All of their old mysteries would have "guest stars" to help solve the mystery. The main cast stuck to a type so the guests could show up and have fun.

[nofacedrawer]

Game of thrones just kills them all lol

[djourner]

The is no one way to 'make people care'. Art is inherently subjective, you could paint a picture in all red hoping it will show anger, but someone might interpret sorrow. There is no way to control how your audience views what you write.
The best way to make people engaged in characters is to give them traits that people can relate to, and don't cheapen the emotions of your characters with excessive use of tropes.
The word for this is characterization and it is the single most important thing you will ever create, those 'filler' moments when characters just exist like real people and live can create levity and help the viewer relate to them, or at the very least, wish for them to no recover that status quo where they seemed happier and well.
Give them personal moments, and allow them to process and act on emotion like real people would,
Show that they can be both right and wrong at the same time,
Show the good things they want to return to, not just the inescapable hell they live,
Show those little moments where they avert their gaze rather than be stoic, to show their vunerability
Show the grasp a memento from a far away or late loved one as they seem confused or stressed
Show that those characters have feelings like humans do.

When you engage with stories on a daily basis, its easy to grow desinsitized and ignore certain characters and plots because 'we saw this before' or 'they're boring' or 'they walked into the cursed and obviously evil house', but remember that is the viewer side of things.
As a creator you just have to assume people will care and create base on that, ignore the viewer side of you that says characters are overly dramatic, and focus on making them 'human' in whatever way you can.
At least one person that engages with your work will accept that as true and just let them be without judgment... everyone else will just think your work is 'ok' with some bad parts they don't like, and that's perfectly fine... But THAT ONE PERSON is the reason why you should create.

[morganicfoods]

Personally, it's not something I would necessarily worry about when writing. Maybe I've been making stories so long that this question doesn't need to matter to me but I don't think that's the case.
I honestly just try to think of my characters as simply people with real desires, wants, flaws, etc. when writing them. People will find different people more or less likeable depending on their own personality and likes. All I do is try to make each of my characters unique in their own right, and hope that one of them catches the audience's attention.

Personally, when there are things to discover about a character, or multiple layers to their motivation, THAT'S what catches my interest. Their struggles or wants could be the most mundane, but giving the audience reason to believe that there might be more than what meets the eye in terms of their motivation, that's what gets me. Asking the "But why should I care about this guy?" in a more curious and less negative light is always a good thing to me.

[simonitropunk]

• The first point is YOU. When you care about your characters, this makes it easier for others to relate. If you don't show love, care etc... to them, your audience wouldn't care either.

• Make them human. Humans are complex and you can make them like that. They have their joy, happiness, sadness, humor and everything to make them relatable.

• For villains, I do enjoy make them so HATEFUL that when your protagonist ram his/her fist in the villain's face, it's going to feel the most satisfying thing ever.

• Throw your protagonists in situation and see how things going to play out and how they're going to grow from that experience. Just like life... there are times we are thrown in situations we don't anticipate and from then, you see how you're going to figure things out.

• Make them a bit playful... nothing makes more likable to characters when they have moments they can be playful and childlike.

Those are some tips.

[maddu]

Give them feelings. I have to identify with their thought process, their hopes and expectations. I don’t have to always agree with them (though I probably have to agree with someone sometimes to get hooked), but I need to be able to let my imagination wander between the lines about how their wants and feelings [don’t] align with the world and how things may or may not unfold.