What kind of characters do you gravitate towards?

[Missapogee]

I don't mean this question in the "What designs/ trope characters do you find hot" way, but instead in a "looking back at the characters who end up being your favorites, what are the similar traits between them?

sort of like that artist meme from a year or two ago where they took the designs of their favorite characters and combined them to create their ideal character design, but more conceptual.

I personally have noticed that I tend to gravitate towards female characters, and I cannot get enough of female characters who are kinda rude, maybe even anti-heros or morally gray, and rely on their skills (not looks) to get through life (I personally hate the "oh she seduces and kills her target with her hottness and she keeps a knife in her cleavage femme fatale stuff, eugh) or female characters who's big flaws are more complex like huberis or trauma and isn't perfectly good instead of "she's just tooooo nice and hot and smart and everyone who dislikes her is eviill", I can't get enough of characters who aren't universally liked by anyone who's good. I can't get enough of a little in-fiction controversy.

which i guess can boil down to "controversial/complex, non-sexualized female characters"

What about you?

[WillowTree]

Damaged lol. I love a character that has been through a whole lotta bullshit. I love a character who struggles with self-esteem. A character who doesn't know how to be close with someone. A character who struggles to differentiate between help and manipulation. Literally the more damaged a character, the better, but that's only if the character's arc revolves around them healing/growing/etc

I also love the rich/poor dynamic between two characters (in either romantic or platonic settings).

[YuJiaKweh]

Rude but kind hearted characters. Blunt and brash with their words and behaviour. They don't know how to be kind but they try their best when the time comes. Basically tsunderes.

[joannekwan]

I love characters that are aloof (sometimes cold), mostly level-headed, and who usually have their emotions not on their sleeves (except for maybe anger). I just think they're really cool, like they don't give a shit and will just brush stuff off their backs and keep on going on.

This is pretty evident from my favorite character bingo meme

[DiegoPalacios]

"Piglett doesn't give a sh*$%"

[Leverance]

Personally I like characters with a lot of emotional depth (having PTSD, anxiety, amnesia and so on, this can also be emotional maturity). Also that the character is sometimes impulsive with his decisions and chooses with his heart instead of the head, I also like the opposite of being a level headed and cool. But both being antiheroes or having a traumatized past, I don't really relate to soft-hearted characters.

Some characters I like and not limited to;

Dean Winchester (Supernatural)
James Tiberius Kirk (Star Trek)
Spock (Star Trek)
Kylo Ren (Star Wars)
Armitage Hux (Star Wars)
Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)
Merlin (Merlin)
Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)

and many, many, many others.

[Phantomlight]

@YuJiaKweh and @joannekwan basically said my answer xD but just to add to that...when I think about the characters I have gravitated towards even since I was younger, it was always the ones that were misunderstood or the ones that almost no one wanted to get close to because they were cold or rude but tended to change with time and the relationships they formed with other characters. This goes for male and female characters alike. I kind of like the ones who are reserved or not easily approachable. They do have a kind heart or maybe they don't but they aren't mean spirited. And I think I also enjoy a character more if there's a reason for their behavior and personality, like there's a bit of depth to why they act so coldly, though a character who is just the way they are because that's their personality is fine too. I've been shy since I was a kid and there's not really a reason for that, so a reason isn't really significant, but it's something I do find interesting to learn about a character.

[amortelito]

Nice topic!!
I like stylish sassy male antiheroes.

Heroes who mean well and are kind hearted.

Basically anything you put Lee Pace in. 🤣

But seriously, I love characters who have a grey morality or even evil or characters who are very good. Even in my comic I have this pattern of awfully selfish main characters and 2 sweet pure angels.

[cherrystark]

which i guess can boil down to "controversial/complex, non-sexualized female characters"

I'm kind of in the same boat with this one. I like female characters that feel like real people instead of caricatures. We see a ton of female characters, even in the anti-hero realm, that seems to belittle everything that's traditionally female to appear strong.

I like characters that aren't good at everything and open that they need help from their friends. Bonus points if the friendship/team dynamic established between multiple characters makes sense. (They don't have to be besties by the end of series or rivals, but at least let them be civil.) One of my favorite female characters is traditionally "hot". Instead of throwing on a mini-dress and seducing men with ease (like practically every woman in any action movie ever), she's incredibly awkward. She can do the seduction, but she needs to be coached on how to pick up a mark and deal with normal people. She needed help stopping a bombing at an embassy, so she called in her girlfriends. There was no need to justify why the main team was female; she simply called the people she could trust to help her.

I also like it when characters have traits that go against the grain of the stereotype, like the leading man type that instead of just being the "damaged bad boy" or the "womanizer" is also sweet and gentle to the people he cares about.

[domisotto]

Triumphant womanhood. My favourite story was written in true matriarchal setting, and I wrote women who never were influenced by millennia of oppression. It was tons of fun, and that’s what I want to keep writing, I think.

I am experimenting with male mains atm though.

[xabelmind]

I gravitate towards autistic and queer characters and Real World people. Didn't notice till I found out about my autistic queer ass, then everything started making sense

[Mallory]

I like characters who have lived through trauma/had been dealt a crappy hand, but have learned live their life productively and deal with it. It's not that they don't care or weren't affected by the trauma, but rather they were changed by the trauma, and changed again - to live their life and look forward. Before Gintama jumped the shark, I thought Gintoki was a VERY interesting character because of it. He lost the war and lost his country and learned to move on, even taking on a former "enemy" as a daughter figure. And Kagura, as well - she went through some real tough life things but she's also found her life again, finding solace in her new family.

When I was an edgy teen I was ALL about those revenge narratives where the characters only live by looking at the past, but I honestly can't stand them now. Life sucks already and I've had to deal with a ton of crap that I've learned to move on from. When I imagine living every day stuck in some past event, it honestly makes life not worth living.

Also I freaking love me some male characters who exist in a stereotypical masculine role but who defy expectations of said role by being kind and caring. Like, give me a warship captain who picks up a bunch of kids escaping a war zone and then goes down and reads them from his favourite childhood novel that he's still carrying around with him (not because he's good with kids but because he spontaneously decides that's the right thing to do) and I will freaking melt.

And, to be honest, I DO love me some femme fatales, so long as there's a huge juxtaposition between her appearance (feminine, sultry dude bait) and her personality (actually the scariest, most pragmatic sociopath you'll ever meet). I hate the "she's a badass, I swear, but most of the time you see her make mistakes to boost the ego of the dude hero while her boobies bounce and then she of course inevitably finds the dude hero irresistible" trope of the femme fatale, but if she is actually ruthless and scary... I can't get enough of it. I write one into every single one of my stories.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Characters with bigger mass have bigger gravitational pull, so I will easily gravitate towards them.

[kmlangleyauthor]

Damaged

That’s... probably accurate for me as well

[cherrystark]

Also I freaking love me some male characters who exist in a stereotypical masculine role but who defy expectations of said role by being kind and caring. Like, give me a warship captain who picks up a bunch of kids escaping a war zone and then goes down and reads them from his favourite childhood novel that he's still carrying around with him (not because he's good with kids but because he spontaneously decides that's the right thing to do) and I will freaking melt.

BatDad and his thirty-seven children. haha

[lizewchristman]

Disaster gays with anxiety and at least one of the following traits:
+ Chain smoker
+ Espresso snob
+ Swords

[summer_coefficient]

Characters who use their anger as a source of strength, but are also extremely technical fighters. I love them because they fly in the face of "anger doesn't do anyone any good" and show that rage can be focused.

[ble]

Cool villains. Those that are badass and not cliche. And even if you know they are the villains, you can't help but like certain traits of them.

LOL....i just noticed, all of them wear purple.

[Kann]

Chaotic neutrals or goofballs. I like the crazy and unpredictable ones. Or the ones that do a lot of incoherent screaming. xD

[Macarenaoftime]

Morally gray protagonists with protestic parts.

Yeah, the edge it's real.

Or that kind of protagonist that narrates the whole thing as they were your uncle telling you about that crazy thing that happened the other day.