(T/F): 'We often choose our favorite characters because we see ourselves in them'

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I have a much heavier T/F topic in the works...but for now I'd like to pass some time with this fun one. ^^

So this is an idea that gets passed around a lot; the idea of gravitating towards our ideal selves in fiction...and as much as I want to deny it just to be contrarian, some of my favorite characters are definitely the quiet ones, the mature ones, and the obvious neurodivergent outcasts.

However (maybe because those kinds of characters aren't actually given prominent roles very often...surprise surprise) my tastes actually vary a lot. For example, I was thinking about my favorite character in Avatar: the Last Airbender...it's not Zuko. It's not Iroh, it's not Azula, and it's not anyone from the Gaang. If I had to pick the character who most reliably puts a smile on my face, whose episodes I always look forward to when I rewatch the show...

...It would be Admiral Zhao.

He's just so much fun. ^^ I really love his 'understated-snarky' personality and his delusions of grandeur, which get stronger and stronger as his character descends into madness. Although he's not totally delusional-- he's a genuine threat who's good at his job, and there's always this sense of dread in the air when he pops up to bully the protagonists, especially Zuko.
Basically, he's a Grade-A professional pain in the ass with a sexy voice; and that kind of character will get me a lot of the time. XD

But as you might expect, there's not a lot to relate to there...I'm obviously not an East Asian military leader hungering for recognition. ^^; I don't enjoy bullying children, I don't have dreams of conquering the world...I do like the snark, but I can't really see myself saying the things he says.

A lot of my favorite characters are like that, maybe even the majority: Silco from Arcane, Soundwave from Transformers (I guess technically he's "quiet", but he's also insane), Adam from RWBY, Jax from TADC. ^^ All these vicious, mean characters who seem to specialize in making people miserable, who go against everything I stand for as an IRL human being...and I love them because they are fun. In any long-form story, characters like this are the lifeblood; they tend to keep the plot going and give the heroes something to worry about at all times.

They also tend to die early, before the ultimate climax of the story...which may spell bad news for Jax, if the pattern holds. ^^; But that means I get to see them both at their best (introduction/establishment of their threat level) and at their worst (ultimate failure as they fall prey to their biggest weakness) which really helps endear them to me.

But yeah, in light of all that, I'm gonna have to say False. To be perfectly honest, voice acting, character design, and Rule of Cool have a far greater influence on my tastes than any degree of relatability, at least when I'm in the audience. But what do you all think?

• True
• False

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[Cairn_Rath]

Theirs a million reasons why we choose our favourite characters, sometimes we see ourselves in them, sometimes we see what we wish we had, or what we strive to be, sometimes we love what they represent in the narragive or just find them fun.

I just finished watching the artful dodger and my fav charcater was the younger sister fanny, sure she was an artist, but thats not why i loved her, she was just a joy to watch, espeacially her journey in s2.

Though i find its the charcters were most alike, that we either defend or despise with a passion.

[AmysGames]

See, I would say false, in that most of my own favorite characters aren't very much like me at all. But as a general rule, I'm more inclined to say true.

I think people in general are often drawn to characters they can relate to. I've heard a lot of people talking about their favorite characters, specifically mentioning that they find them "relatable" in some way. Even thinking back to myself as a kid, I often liked the female characters just because they were girls. Heck, one of the reasons representation is such a hot topic is because people enjoy seeing characters in media who are similar to themselves.

Perhaps as we immerse ourselves more in literature, we stop caring as much about characters we can relate to, and start resonating more with characters we can't. We enjoy exploring viewpoints so different from our own, and experiencing things that we wouldn't get to experience in real life. Or maybe that's just me, lol.

[eunwei]

don't tell me im the only one who chooses favourite characters based on their looks

looks are one thing but if their personality is equally trash then I might not like them, but often yes, it's based on the looks and the type of personality they have - if they are humorous, or loyal, honest etc.

These aren't things I see in myself, definitely not. However, these are the things I would "like" to see in people I want to be with.

Hope this makes sense loll. Please don't attack me for choosing characters based on their appearance haha

[AmysGames]

I mean the other thing I was gonna say is I often see people pick favorites based on how hot they are, so you're definitely not alone in that, lol.

[jwabeasley]

So, I often do feel drawn to characters who are very similar to myself in personality - but they are rarely my favorite.

Reliably, the characters that are my favorite usually are ones that remind me of my wife. Blond Blazer (Dispatch), Rarity (MLP), Penny (Hogwarts Mystery)... yeah, I have a type!

Now, stories that feature a protagonist that has a lot of similar personality traits to me are easier to get into. I find it easier to get into Glory or Starflight than the other Dragonets of Destiny, for instance.

And we all have a YA novel series that really 'got' us as teens. For me it was Merlin in the Young Merlin series. For my wife it was Cimorene from the Enchanted Forest trilogy.

But I see where you're coming from. Kinger is the TADC character I am most like, but I appreciate Jax and the dynamic he adds to the scenes he's in. As audience members we need those dynamic, fun characters. Being a good person and being an interesting one aren't correlated at all, and for stories being interesting is far more important.

I have definitely seen some stories where everyone is 'nice' and most characters act like therapy textbooks. They tend to get boring quickly. It's a writing challenge for me with Etherwood, since it has a warm, positive vibe and nearly all the characters are reasonably kind/trying to be good, I have to be careful to keep some jerks handy.