Wow, I can't believe how much bias and prejudice people have toward fictional characters. I wonder how much they have toward REAL people. O_o
I know I said some negative things in a previous post in this topic, but since then, I've had an enlightenment. There is no such thing as a bad character.
I've been thinking an awful lot about characters lately. But then, I meet real people. If I say something offensive, they laugh. "That's not normal", I thought. "Shouldn't he be defending himself?"
I've realized that people/characters have full personalities no matter what; personalities nobody understands, not even their creators. When a character is given form and a name, it becomes a person. They have a personality, no matter what kind. Even if everything they do is completely random, that right there is the personality.
I've also been thinking about storyline. What is the most important part of a storyline? Hmm? Is it complexity? Nope, it's what the audience feels that's most important. If the audience doesn't react the way you planned, you failed. But is that the characters' faults? I don't think so.
If you walked down the sidewalk one day and started talking to a complete stranger, they'd probably irritate you because you don't know them that well. The same thing happens with characters.
If a character starts the story whining, because that's what their personality portrays, you immediately find the character irritating, of course, but do you really know WHY they whine like that? If you really met someone like that, wouldn't there have to some reason, even if they didn't know what it was themselves?
Let's take an example that seems to be popular here: Tidus. Everyone says Tidus whined a lot. I just recently played FFX a second time and I do not recall him EVER whining about anything. Well, except for the "I need food!" part, but that's probably just to emphasize his more childish nature. Immature people exist in the world, and things can happen to them, too. ANYTHING can happen to ANYONE. That's the nature of this world.
Characters are what make a story. But it's not their personalities that define it, it's their actions. Actions are what make up a plot, personalities are what give the audience those feelings we recently discussed. Of course, actions also have to be based on a character's personality, or do they? A really wimpy character could suddenly find the courage to face his fears (e.g., "Pagemaster"'s Richard Tyler).
Even above a plot, the audience's feelings are the most important thing to keep in mind when making a story. But does that mean the entire game has to be completely depressing or happy-happy-joy-joy?? Ugh, NO. Every emotion must play a part, or else it doesn't feel like real life. Irritation is a feeling too, even if it's one we don't like. That's life, and that's your story.
But back onto THAT topic, annoying characters EXIST, both in games and in real life. One person said he stopped playing a game after five hours because the main character had a personality he found "annoying". What if he actually MET him in real life for five hours? Would he quit life, too?
Every character, no matter how "annoying" you think they are, are an important part of any story. Truth be told, if a story doesn't have at least one character the audience can loathe, it's not complete.
Furthermore, if you're going to quit a game just because there's a character you don't like in it, good luck EVER beating a single good game.
In closing, I believe that ALL characters should be respected, even the ones we don't like. Think about it, would the story really be the same, would it convey the same feeling, without them?
like once you have associated a character with a voice it sounds strange to have another one tbh lol