What Do You Think Makes A Well Written Character?

[Astral Vision 286]

As everyone knows, a good character needs to have many strong qualities such as a unique personality, particular capabilities, and especially a few weaknesses. I've seen many examples of fan made character backstories going around, but I've noticed a bit of a pattern with some of them, that pattern being that a few of them can be pretty long. I'm not looking to judge anyone, but one of the tips I can provide for this is to keep it simple. In other words, make it so you can sum up your character in one sentence. For example, if you were looking to describe Twilight, you could say this: "An intelligent pony princess who loves to read books." Those who hear this basic description are able to build upon this view and develop their own interpretation of the character much easier. But that's not to say you should make your character bio too short, just try to write a summary that expands on information one piece at a time, rather than trying to introduce new information all at once. So in conclusion, try to keep things simple, because basic concepts are much easier to develop than complex ones.

So do tell, in your own opinion, what do you think makes a well-written character?

[Astral Vision 286]

Thanks. First time posting something on this forum, still trying to learn how to navigate.

[They call me Loyalty 1,951]

Humanity. Imitating life as much as possible. There is no better storyteller than the universe.

[Astral Vision 286]

Observing life at its core principles is certainly a great way to create a realistic personality for a character, good point Loyalty.

[Misty Shadow 8,027]

Suffering. Make your characters suffer in a way that is unique and grow in a way that anyone can relate to, and people will get invested in them. 

[EpicEnergy 23,240]

Relatability, a major flaw and a few minor flaws, and a likeable and unique personality - I think those are critical to a well-written character.

[Goat-kun 2,530]

Consistency. A well written character is not necessarily a good one. A good character is a character well-suited for the role it was given, but it can be ruined by the lack of consistency.

 

 

I believe that the true question in the OP is: What makes a good protagonist? Even this question is too broad as we should probably be discussing FIM protagonists. And even then our fandom is divided on the path since good slice-of-life protagonists and good action adventure protagonists are quite different.

 

What does a good lighthearted fantasy comedy action adventure character look like?

TA-DA!

 

Megumin is how you may want to approach your great wizard in such a show. FIM magic users are taken way too seriously while magic ruleset and villains are a joke. Make everything into a joke then. You know why they didn't do that? These sorry ass FIM writers have no humor. They make animators do funny pony faces and that's that. What a joke.

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

The inherit conflict within the character design being interesting would help. Rarity from the Mane Six has the most interesting character from this aspect because she is both greedy and selfless at the same time. This led to episodes like Rarity Takes Manehattan and Inspiration Manifestation. Rainbow Dash on the other side, doesn't have that for that matter.

Character's attitude also helps. Even when a certain character eventually comes to the same conclusion, the attitude can make a huge difference.

And remember kids. No parents.