CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT- Terrible Writing Advice
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
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Character development is a long, careful process that can produce truly engaging and stellar story telling. Which is why we are going to use cheap shortcuts! Why put the effort into developing a character when we can fake it instead? Pretending to develop one’s moral character is such a great trick that I use it in real life!
Read my honest thoughts on character development here: jpbeaubien.com/terrible-writin...
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*My favorite type of character development:*
The MC kills TONS of minions who were probably manipulated or forced to help The Big Bad Guy, feeling no remorse while doing it, yet when he's a second away from killing the DAMN PSYCHO WHO STARTED THE WHOLE THING AKA THE VILLIAN, his dumb love interest pops out of nowhere saying: *"Don't do it or you'll become just like him!!!"* And suddenly he turns from the Punisher into Gandhi and realizes how "Evil" and "cruel" it is to kill someone.
Megaman skipped the love interest part and had the villain pipe up himself. The endings of MM7 and Power Fighters come to mind. Yes, in the former Dr. Wily brings up a good point that you're slaying his _robot_ army without a second thought, and he himself happens to be _human,_ but this is a cartoonish setting where A.I.s are implied to have their own unique personalities, hopes, and ambitions- they might as well just be super-powered, metal-skinned people.
When your hero has a blaster built into his arm, your series is _meant for kids,_ and it's just too dang easy to shoot the badguy in the head, they have to come up with _some good reason_ to keep things from getting messy, and "moral dilemma" is certainly an easy one.
Even implying the badguy was slain off-screen can arguably be too dark for children's media, not to mention you'd actually have to come up with an all-new badguy for the next installment in the series. Having your character "develop" and "mature" as he realizes just what harm his weapon can do -yet doesn't even blink before using it again as he jumps straight into action the moment the villain reveals his next scheme- can draw in a periphery older demographic, and make your "blow stuff up and stop the mad scientist" plot seem emotional and well thought out! ;^)
Not hating on Megaman, btw. I love that series to bits- that's why I found it so easy to ramble on about it... heh heh... ^_^'
How could you possibly place this in importance above them _just deciding this_ outta nowhere because "they're the hero"? At least people with empathy have some reason to listen to their "dumb girlfriend" about not acting like a murderous psychopath, even if it's against their nature. The hero who kills ten thousand mooks and then doesn't kill the ultimate villain because "they're not worth it" or some shit has no justification for his or her actions.
*+futurestoryteller*
Sorry I can't really understand what you are trying to convey. Do you mean that I should bring up instances where the hero refuses to take out the bad guy with no reason instead of the ones where he does that because of his girlfriend? I brought up the whole *girlfriend* part because that's the reason why the MC does nothing about the villian for the majority of stories. The only story I know where the protagonist doesn't take out the bad guy even though he should and there's no sign of the love interest intervening is "Assassin's Creed 2". In every other piece of medium I have consumed, it's the love interest that saves the big bad guy.
Oh, and I don't think someone who's okay with killing hords of manipulated henchmen would turn away from murdering the villian because he doesn't want to make his lover sad, such person probably doesn't give a damn about what others think.
*+ChaosRayZero*
The problem I have with this trope is that the writers want to have their cake and eat it too. You can't have a "hero" who kills people left and right and yet shove some "morality" in there by turning them into a pacifict at the last possible minute just so your story can have a "moral" as well.
Anyways, you sure like MegaMan!
*"Do you mean that I should..."* _I didn't say you should do anything._ All I said was that I agree with you- sudden pacifism is bad writing. _It doesn't matter who_ talked the hero out of shooting the badguy. Then I went rambling off on a tangent. ^.^' I'm not arguing, just babbling.
*"The only story I know where... there's no sign of the love interest intervening is Assassin's Creed 2... In every other piece of medium I have consumed, it's the love interest that saves the big bad guy [from being killed]."* _I literally just gave an example._ I know you probably mean that you haven't played Megaman 7, _but I kind of want to interpret that as Dr. Wily (and possibly Bass) being a potential love interest, lol!_ X^D
*"...the writers want to have their cake and eat it too. You can't have a 'hero' who kills people left and right and... [then turn] them into a pacifist at the last possible minute just so your story can have a 'moral' as well."* You can, but viewers/readers/players will complain about it. =^p
*"Anyways, you sure like MegaMan!"* That I do! X^D
Just turn them from weak to stupidly overpowered and call it a day
Yeah, sure, that's obvious, but what about the people who *don't* write Shonen Anime?
So Dragon Ball Z?
Do not forget to introduce then powerful opponents and let the elevator on and on,till you just see different overpowered people playing dodgeball with planets,solar systems,galaxies and eventually stuff bigger than the universe.Because everyone wants a story that makes sense on another level!Remember themes are only there to entrap you into the powerleveling everyone actually desperately wants.By no means do contribute to the story and atmosphere!
No no no. That means we have to watch a weak nobody at first. Go from stupidly overpowered but holding back for funsies to stupidly overpowered but actually trying to godlike.
Dude, you read fairytail too?
You know how to execute character development perfectly? A TIME SKIP! What an effortless solution! Why is the character the way they are now? You don't need to answer that question! Fanfic writers will gladly fill the void! See? Everybody is happy now and it's so time-efficient!
I wounder why he didn't mention it? Or he did but I miss that part.
@@blaya.1920 Well, at least they try to fill that information with dialogue and lore
Post-Endgame this hits hard.
@@j_6469 Ahem *Vegeta* Ahem
Funny because your character profile is Eren, lol. (Not hating I love AOT)
I'm in love with how much you hate the love triangle.
But I'm also in love with how much he hates the love triangle! Oh no. We both love how much he hates the love triangle. That makes this...
@@spacewizarddragonpuncher2461 A love-hate square.
Love hate pentagon
@@purpledefaultpfp6233 Love-hate-hexagon
@@maikv750
A Love-Hate-Hexacontagon
Its called backstory yet we dump it at the front of the book.
Really makes you think.
Nigga you high
how high are you
Not if you are Tolkien. Then you put in the appendix
Holy crap that is deep.
When you go back in a book, you’re actually going towards the front
"I'll grow stronger, to protect everyone/the ones closest to me."
- LITERALLY every single protagonist(s) in every action/adventure story from L.A to Japan.
I think a major problem with the wanting to protect others that you love Trope is that it's normally done based on half-hearted relationships that mean nothing.
to be fair, there isn't a lot of ways to do it other than that without making the reason selfish or potentally evil. And while that's not a bad thing for some stories, but some people would rather have a kindhearted protagonist and there isn't any ways I can think of to do it differently and still make it a noble reason.
I mean...no? But also what would this even supposed to be if it's meant as a joke?
Well there can be added reasons (for example in MHA if they don't they will fail at their jobs which defeats the entire purpose of their jobs if they get butt kicked) but that is the simplest explaination of it. Or in the more M rated stories where things can go bad very quickly and easily it would be "I'll become stronger just so I won't die."
Any story where fighting is important (in the varying forms of shonen stories) involves a seemingly shelfish goal into something selfless, which considering the age demographic of shonen (teenagers) is important as well as the message of "as long as you praticse long and hard, without killing yourself, you can be whatever you dream of being" again considering the demographic it cannot be understated.
I think that trope works best when you see the character fail and the consequences of that so you want to see them succeed the next time around. And also when it's not their main motivation, and you see the character struggle between what they want and helping people.
Character Development in modern Dragon Ball = New Hair color
M3rtyville before it was long hair.
And the irony is, good old Dragon Ball Z had some great examples of character development. I'm thinking most of Vegeta, but Piccolo, Gohan, Bulma...they all changed drastically from their origin.
Conrado Javier explain one long hair transformation other than Ssj3 from manga
Stephen Skinner goku too
M3rtyville too bad, all the characters had their character development till end of Z and their book was closed then came Super.
"Book 3: Have the protagonist suddenly become a racist for no reason before fixing it."
LOL! Perfect!
I think I missed a pop-culture reference.
No, no specific reference. It's just a trend in modern writing to handle racism extremely poorly, combined with a trend of stories not being planned out very well to properly plant seeds for future conflicts.
Such as?
@@chadkingoffuckmountain970 Such as...meh...I got nothing
69 likes nice....
My god. Are you saying I can see my Love Triangle develop into a Love Four-Dimensional Tesseract?
Just Some Guy with a Mustache why do I see you nearly every video comment section?
A Friendly Man-Thing he's a
Why stop there, you could even go as far as an eight dimensional octagon
No, it first becomes a love tetrahedron, then it's a love 5-cell. Nowhere do you encounter love tesseracts in trivial extensions upon love triangles.
You’re in tfs’s videos too
He's... questioning himself? Shit, get the medication, he's starting to become self aware
No, we're not breaking out the blue comfort again. Last time we did that we got a crappy song with a pop-astronomer voice over.
Don't worry by the start of the next episode he'll have reset back to his normal adorkable sarcastic self.
Someone, reset his character before he tries to break the cycle!
Character development. He reset at the end - "BUY MY BOOK!"
Alius Raptor, next he'll exterminate the human race and send a robot back in time to kill the future leader of the Good Writing Revolution...
This man predicted Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker in 2018
- Massive infodumps
- Main character just gets more powerful and pulls skills out of their ass
- Characters TALKING about how much the character has grown
- Flaw scrubbing and secondary characters are safely ignored
- LOVE TRIANGLE.
except the conclusion of that love Triangle makes no sense at all! (looking at you Adam Driver and Ridley)
I would forgive this movie if:
-Anakin appearance.
-Ben Solo lived.
-Finn potential Arc.
-No Palpatine.
-Darth Vader vs Kylo Ren scene
-NO PORGS and not even the little bears.
-Hux the main villian or Darth Revan (if there's no new creative villian or kylo Ren won't be a main villain in the story)
@@thinkingboi9508 No. He said that Terrible Writing Advice predicted TROS within this 2018 video
@@oscarpineda9459 Porgs are unavoidable. It's illegal to disturb puffins
Yeah let’s ignore that Rey’s first scene in the movie is her training.
When I saw the thumbnail I thought immediately of the Mafia City ad meme
Left: Lv. 1 Crook
Middle: Lv. 20 Hitman
Right: Lv. 99 Boss
*T H A T ‘S H O W M A F I A W O R K S*
JadeDragonn Gacha *T H A T S H O W M A F I A W O R K S*
*thats too realistic*
No, it isn't. None of that is in the game.
'they know our secret!'
@@seankrkovich2869But arguably, it is how it’s advertised
"Character is what you are in the dark" Too deep for this channell.
I do love that idea.
DEEP
That's RAAAAAAAAAAAAACIIIIST!
Okay, now our intellectual depth is back on track.
#deep
No, perfectly deep for this channel
Don't bother watching the video, here's the only two things you'll ever need to do in order to give your character some good, meaningful character development;
Either A: Put that character in a love triangle,
Or B: Kill them, because if they're not in a love triangle then they have no way of advancing the story and should promptly be eliminated
ManiaMac1613 are you sure you didn't look at the video?
udhsids
They never said they didn't???
Oh hey. You're here.
*I'M EVERYWHERE BITCH*
*checks closet*
*doesn't see Mac in there*
*furrows brow as slowly turns head towards Mac*
You were saying?
According to Paddington, which got a 100 percent on rotten tomatoes, if your main character does not go through character development, that is fine if you make it an impact character who impacts others by sharing his ideologies, and though his ideologies are constantly challenged, he will realize at the end that they are right, and the people who casted aspersions on him before will become just like him
The reason why Paddington was so strong was the fact while Paddington didn't change, you see the development of the characters around him.
@@thesnatcher3616 my point exactly. Glad we are seeing eye to eye
Paddington the Chaddington. I’ll see myself out for this awful pun.
@@lyly_lei_lei
I thought it was funny. XD
Zidane from ff9 doesn't really develop, but he still undergoes hardships. Like when he gets depressed.
A character doesn't NEED to develop, as long as they still have flaws, and is generally well written.
-"I want a movie with actual character development"
-"I see you're interested in the exceptionally rare"
the farsala trilogy has some pretty good character development
NANCOK Star Wars, all of them
NANCOK the giver movie
NANCOK those anime movies people like
NANCOK the original transformers
What about "curing" depression, insecurity or anxiety by introducing a manic pixie dream girl / dream boy? Hollywood does it all the time. :D
(It's like the New Mary Sue, except she is not the actual protagonist)
S Gs i actually really love the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Its just that those stories are poorly written.
Puella Magi Lyrical Nanoha is well written or so I heard.
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi those arent manic pixie dream girls.
Nippu AMV No. They're not. Not anymore.
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi They were never Manic Pixie Dream Girls. I think you need to research on this character type.
Two videos in one month? This channel is getting amazing character development!
That's character growth, you foolish neophyte. But then again, this guy's arc is more static than his visuals.
Don't take any of this as actual insult.
character growth*
Wimpyapple 😂😂😂
Never done before!
The whole character development/reset/over again hampster wheel accurately sums up the show Dexter. By sheer accident, of bad writing, they managed to reflect how psychopaths never really learns from their mistakes.
I thought it described The Walking Dead a lot better. I don't even think that show has characters, and it's hard to definitively state when... or if... it ever did.
That can be said for a lot of episodic shows
@@futurestoryteller You have specific examples of character resets in The Walking Dead?
Also, dexter is loosely based on a series of much darker books.
And most comics.
"We reset his character back to the way he was before as though nothing happened at all"
*Cough*remove their memories*Cough*set them back to level one*cough*
It's called amnesia.
Pokemon
@@wincentfirdaus7699 Yeah especially in Best Wishes, Sun and Moon and even XYZ to an extent.
Chain of Memories be like
That's what they did to deadpool.
The best type pf character development is when a character goes from godly powerful to ultra-mega-uber-spectacular-better than a god-powerful.
TheCakeGarden You mean Goku? xD
Only a skilled writer could ever make something of that caliber.
I like when they go from perfect to perfect but better
Suggestions:
How to properly write a love triangle, deconstructions, noir, horror and redemption arcs.
Deconstructions are too easy for a full video. Just take a popular genre, and inject it with enough edge to make the wielding a katana fueled by the main character's anger look tame. It worked for Re:Zero, and it can work for me. Don't bother with good storytelling, all that matters is shock value!
Pretty sure he made horror advice already
I yhink he already did love triangles and horror.
how to write a good love triangle: don't
Francisco Oliveira oh I know how to do that kill them all as soon as the love triangle starts and write another book
That thumbnail... did this guy predict the Mafia City memes before they became a thing?
Uh Huuhhhh
"We introduce a character by info-dumping their entire backstory all at once, having them tell their entire backstories to complete strangers who probably didn't ask!"
So...most anime villains?
Most D&D campaigns!
"I once had a toy train. Then One day I lost it."
@@thesnatcher3616 ah yes, my favorite anime villan of all time
it's just how i talk okay?
My name is Yoshikage Kira. I'm 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don't smoke, but I occasionally drink.
I'm in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up.
I'm trying to explain that I'm a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn't lose to anyone.
I always wanted to write a scene where character development happens but not in a good way. Where the characters actually ends up worse than before.
I actually have seen that happen in several movies and shows, but it's usually unintentional.
That's a lot more common than you might think. Look no further then literally every episode of The Walking Dead past, like, season 5 or so
As Always interesting
As Always
those are the best kinds! Where the character him/herself or the people around them think they've developed into a better character but they end up worse off! And vice-versa.
Maybe we can have a scenario when the character develops they are seen as amazing in one situation but can be seen as horrible in another roll since the times can change. Like a scientist who is pragmatic.
still when I also write negative character development I don't just want the character to do a complete about-face and become super good or super evil.
Something more like a heroic character who develops those negative traits but still attempts to do the right thing but now struggles with it needing the help of their friends to keep them on the straight and narrow.
Kind of like Superman and Batman.
I recently learned a great new writing tip. it's called the Brick method. To make sure your character is on the right path you throw a brick at them, and if they stay on that path you throw another brick at them. Repeat until they break or succeed. preferably they break and then succeed through development and stuff, but even then throw a brick at them. Heroes don't choose the easy path. They choose the right path hard as it gets
I tried what you told me and now I'm being charged with 13 counts of aggravated assault
Also none of the homeless people stayed on the path - I guess they need "development and stuff" to become heroes
Thanks Jeffrey
BeWater Oh my god you're amazing!
I did this and now all my characters are traumatised, they refuse to fulfil the plot incase I throw more bricks at them.
Daniel Nights now I want to read a book where the characters are rebelling against the author for making their lives so difficult and are paranoid about anything they do because the author could be making them do it. Bonus points for being aware of literary tropes, and trying to avoid doing anything close to the tropes, but then realizing the author could be purposely avoiding tropes and they try to figure out what kind of writer they are
That would be fun! I imagine it would consist of the author setting traps to try and lure the characters into doing what they want, or forcing their hand with increasingly contrived plots while the characters take every opportunity to escape like jumping out the window or something.
It could have the villains struggling to escape the author's control and trying to help the good guys, but they keep being forced to act 'in character' and drag them back into the plot...
I got way too excited by this idea
I think the time has come. We can't avoid it anymore. We absolutely need separate video on how to write a love triangle.
Character Development: “Oh boy it’s 3AM!”
(Changes into a better person)
How to make character development; make the female protagonist fall in love with the bad boy
Better yet. Have the Bad Boy and the Good Boy fall in love and kick Mary Sue to the curb.
Better better yet: Have the Mary Sue string both the Bad Boy and the Good Boy on forever, because accepting that she doesn't actually like either of them enough to go for a relationship sound suspiciously like character growth...
Cᴜʀsᴇᴅ, soon Mary Sue ends up actually falling for the bad boy and despite what she’s done they both start a real relationship, their love falls apart eventually, but they don’t say anything because Mary Sue knows that she gets attention from the relationship, she wants attention more than anything, so she keeps the relationship going, knowing that she’ll only get attention for a few days after the breakup and that’s only if bad boy breaks up with her. Still wondering what happened to good boy? Even after the relationship started, Mary Sue still lead him on, good boy didn’t know about the relationship at first, so when he caught them going out, he was devastated, his life fell apart, little by little, to this day he suffers, he has no friends nor family by his side, whenever he tries to tell his side of the story people blame him for being “ possessive” “overprotective” or for “flirting with someone who is already dating someone else” they call him names that don’t even make sense like “pervert” and “yandere”, he has lived this way since before he can remember. Character development, indeed.
Clicked on this faster than a Marry Sue's character arc toward the end of the story
Rey in Star Wars is the definition of Mary Sue
Russell Hunter i take it ruby doesn't count as a mary sue then, because she's had character arcs and growth.
That is faster than instantaneous.
Rey might be OP but she's not a Mary Sue. She's not a self-insert (not 100%, at least), and the narrative of the movies doesn't revolve exclusively around her
De Nitpichers not to mention her story is a direct rehash of luke's, with some differences in window dressing.
_Person:_ "Hey man when did you become a racist?"
_Character:_ "Oh I dunno, kinda spontaneous. I needed something wrong about me so I could fix it in an epic training montage with 80's music playing in the background so I became a racist."
_Person:_ "But couldn't you be a racist because way back in the past, your family, once part of a Human settling faction, was gunned down by Yookoriy pro-independence insurgents and burned down your village, combined with just bad experiences with them? Wouldn't _that_ not only be a good reason as to _why_ you hate the Yookoriy with a burning passion, but give readers like me an inside perspective, making me more sympathetic instead of thinking you're just an asshole?"
_Character:_ *Shrugs*
This seems like an accidental One Piece reference, specifically to the Fishman Island arc.
Spoilers for that arc:
Arlong turns out to be an example of what the person is describing, while Hody is the one who doesn't have a legitimate reason to be racist other than seeing racism.
Dont shoot! He isn't black
Screw love triangles. I got a love fractal
I got a love heart in my story. Fight me.
Why not a Love Octagon.
How about a Love Club?
Love Rhombicosidodecahedron.
the infinite loop of characters competing for another character even though they all had no screen time nor an actual reason to love each other.
Terrible Writing Advice: the world's longest (and best) book commercial.
"Now buy my book and give me your money!"
But I already did! WHAT DO I DO NOW!?!?
Buy a big stack of books and give them out to strangers on a street corner or build a fort.
Buy the books and throw them at random people.
Here's your robe and book of eldritch background chanting.
Join the cult, spread the word.
Now you have to give him your own LOVE TRIANGLE ! Your real one !
@ReineGalena I just realized I could remake
Fort Kickass
with all the books.
1:22 oh you mean 80% of people on internet? I swear there's always that person who starts talking about their life for no reason.
My parents weren’t there when I was born
I used to be a baby... until I became a toddler
I went to school, and graduated.
I clicked on this video because, and this might be hard to believe but bear with me, I’m interested in writing.
2:34
Being sincere for a minute here, honestly that one comic actually has within it the seed of a really good series idea; a protagonist defined by his/her want to become stronger to defeat the big bad, who is...also obsessed with becoming stronger to defeat what rivals she/he has. At some point, our hero recognizes this, and that the big bad has a fundamentally empty life, so obsessed with getting power to protect rulership of the Empire/World/Universe/Fighting Club/Whatever that they can't actually enjoy, uh, ruling it. The question then becomes what the protagonist wants *after* this adventure to avoid becoming just as much of a bitter shell.
Why a love triangle if you can have a love octahedron?
So A and B are in love with 4 different people that are in love with each other?
Fuck it, I'm going to make love 120-cell (four dimensional polychoron).
Why limit yourself to three dimensions? A love tesseract is the way to go
A disney show called Star vs the Forces of Evil ended up having an intersecting and cross lateral love octagon...
And yet the characters within it barely get pissed off at each other's interests.
Benedikt Geierhofer Why settle when you could have a love dodecahedron.
Sounds like Han Solo in the force awakens.
Goes from being a selfish rogue to selfless hero and then back to asdhole absent Dad/husband.
KANE LIVES!!!! Exacly
[ahem] Ray, Mary Sue from start to finish, and give lots of illusion about character (non-existed) development.
Dr Galactose You obviously didn't watch the movie.
KANE LIVES!!!! I disagree. Han Solo was never really a selfless hero, but he was pretty close to in The Force Awakens. He went to Starkiller Base to save the Resistance and bring back his son.
I kinda feel since the new trilogy most vids are about that.
After all, can't get much worse writing than that, the material literally gives itself.
Ok ngl I've used that "I'm too lazy to come up with a backstory so I'm just give keep my character's backstory mysterious" thing before and the outcome was actually pretty hilarious.
As I wrote this Character, little things about them, things I didn't really even mean to include, just little quirks in their Personality, revealed a backstory that I didn't even know I had implemented!
Generally how I write is by telling the skeleton of the story, and somehow, everything else falls into place completely accidentally. I've created an intricate network of foreshadowing, characters and messages entirely on accident!
Too many people don't think like you.
But does it hold against scrutiny?
@@DonVigaDeFierro Yes quite well so far!
Ngl
I want read it
Ah, I see I’m not the only one. That’s how I work too and being honest it works well so far for me. I create a general idea of the story and then as I keep writing things just make sense on their own, which I believe it’s my subconscious doing the work to be honest. That’s at least how it is for the first arc or something after that everything has more or less fallen in place, I just need to expand on it to give a lot of details and once again they just fall in place on their own. I honestly feel like Ainz Ooal Gown, sometimes I don’t know how the heck I did it but I did.
In short: Level progression is not the same as character progression.
I forget, have you done one on killing of a character? There are some good tropes to attack in that one. Like authors who Flanerize their character just for an excuse to kill them off and give us a downer ending because they wanted to make a point that they'd been making throughout the entire series!
You are TEARING ME APART Applegate!
Inspector Javert Or how some authors think killing characters for no reason is good "dramatic storytelling".
*looks at RWBY* That applies to you too!
(Flashbacks) Guardians of Ga'Hoole.....
Inspector Javert Or they just want to have a death, so they pick the character who was least developed, that nobody cared about, to kill off. Then they make the other characters suddenly care about him after he dies
or they choose some irrelevant bg character, make them suddenly and randomly besties with the main character, then kill them dramatically. as if we’re suddenly supposed to care about them after their not mattering for the entire story so far
i see after watching many of these videos
ive realised
ive changed
changed for good
i need to use more
LOVE TRIANGLES!!!
Why not up it to a Love Octagon.
@@brainzpvz2592 BRILLIANT!
Use a love fractal instead
Love circle
You should do one about writing fan theories. It REALLY irks me when the theorist just says “these dragons can’t be secretly blue because dragons don’t exist”
I really get pissed when the "theorist" hides behind the fact that It is just a theory regardless of how stupid or non-sensical the theory is.
@@ufukcangencoglu2279 just tell them gravity is also a theory.
@@phagesuffersatgaming.3797 Fiction and reality are the same thing apparently to you
@@alfalldoot6715 ?????
@@alfalldoot6715 You clearly didn't understand what they were saying.
Character development, summed up in one sentence:
"You either die a hero or live long enough to be the villain." - Harvey Dent, the Dark Knight.
Yeah!
two face
4:09 Sounds dangerously like an admission that love triangles are not universally terrible.
Better scrub that character development for the next video.
Is it *only* a love triangle if at least one person is torn between two others, or can they all make decisive calls, but as long as it's possible to spread the romance yarn on a map to all three of them it's a "love triangle."
I think characters the could benefit/ suffer the most from development are the comic relief ones. They end up being one note and contribute nothing to the plot and characters (an episode on comic relief would be a good topic)
So in other words...
Give them more than one trait?
I don't think writers are capable of such a feat...
As Always Movies With Mikey actually made a good argument that Galaxy Quest was a film that did the exact opposite in a really smart way, similar to Ghostbusters.
This.
That would be why Dragon Ball Z got so popular. Dragon Ball was written mostly a gag cartoon and the character development and stakes that came from switching to a battle shonen gave the Freeza fight the weight and climax that hooked people.
Perfectly illustrated when you look at Sokka vs Bolin
The first part of this revolving around everyone just telling the character how they’ve grown and not changing their character at all and then giving them powers for character development is one of the biggest problems I have with a certain series that I’m afraid to mention because the fan base is full of psychopaths.
“Oh, you’ve grown so much protag, I need to stop thinking of you as a kid because you’re making such grown up decisions protag. Look how much you’ve grown from just having a magic shield to having:
1. Aging control
2. Healing tears
3. Upgrades those tears to BRING BACK THE DEAD.
4. Fuse bodies with literally anyone.
5. Flight
6. Basically Deus Ex Machina”
Is that a shot to Steven Universe? Because of the specific powers you mentioned
Steven does change a bit though. It's the lack of consequences of the show which makes it bad. I find it to be more of a problem with the sides more than Steven. The "change" of white diamond had a terrible execution.
TehRainbowNoob Yeah, pretty much.
Well he goes from being a kid with endless love in his heart to share with the world to an angsty teenager
so....that's cool I guess.
@@GippyHappy "Everything is not fine."
Don’t forget the bad guy’s sidekicks/friends that become good towards the end for no apparent reason.
So you're selling out your integrity. I'm gonna buy your book to make sure you feel bad about what you did.
What's wrong with you?
Buy two! It'll double the efficiency.
And you SHOULD FEEL BAD
GRRRIMMMDARK
@@ShudowWolfBuy a few thousand, then it will be a best seller by definition.
Just shoehorn in a message and instantly change a character completely! Look at all the times that worked!
I think I had a heart attack when I saw how many likes this got
Don't forget to constantly have the character preach the message to the reader, regardless of whether the character's actions back it up!
Daniel Nights BELIEVE IT!!
*coughs*THOR!*coughs*
Garrumples the imbecile Sheer Heart Attack**
"Don't forget to constantly have the character preach the message to the reader, regardless of whether the character's actions back it up!"
Hypocrisy is one of the most damagingly prolific aggrievements in fiction. It's so bad that half the time the _audience_ doesn't even notice. Then again if the author's not going to notice...
Unironically though isn't the whole point of a love triangle plot to detail the changes and realizations that lead the protagonist to pick one mate over the other? I thought one of the reasons triangles are so popular to begin with is that it's an extremely easy way to show development: the girl picks the bad boy over the jock because she realizes that love is more important than status
Yeah, I feel like development is important, but I don't know that it needs to be substantial to satisfy an audience. I heard some pro talking about this. She said "Character development can be small. If your rich asshole character realizes in the end that not all poor people are lazy, that's usually enough for people." Color me a renegade shade, but I think the expert lady is right on this one, any decisions can be read as development, settling on a significant other is a big commitment to many people, particularly young people.
"Buy my book!"
I shall have to try this...
Only if you do it in the whiny Jay Sherman voice.
I just thought of a new drinking game. Binge watch every episode, and then take a drink every time you mention the love triangle.
Congratulations! You've been sent a court notice for committing mass murder via alcohol poisoning.
Take another small sip every time his "love triangle" logo shows up in the picture, whether he verbally mentions it or not.
SO I've had this idea floating in my head for something of a twist on the prophecy schtick.
The story follows two siblings who are prophesied to be a dark evil and a great hero respectively, which is discovered when they're about 14-15. From here the two find themselves torn apart, he's ostracized from society, treating like a monster by all who encounter him as he's assumed to be the dark one. While she is placed on pedestal and treated like some infallible otherworldly creature, even when she does something wrong it's treated like some saintly act. The actions of the people around them push them further and further into their prophesied roles not because they want to or are even well suited to them, it's simply the direction they're being forced to take. He falls in with thieves and drunkards, others cast out of society and finds himself wanting to better, not just himself but their lives too as they've all found themselves in a similar boat, while she gets more and more frustrated by the constant adoration and begins acting out more, becoming more selfish, arrogant and angry. Eventually things take a turn when she starts on a rampage of sorts, using near mindless hordes to take over rah kingdom and he's forced to save the people who ostracized him in the first place.
Ooh, I like it! ^_^
Although I've just read the plot-twist before the full story was fleshed out... =^s
Yeah, not gonna lie, I saw it coming, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't make a good story. Still being "frustrated" by constant adoration hardly rings true for me. It would be more convincing if she simply buys into the idea that she's better than everyone, causing her to lack compassion. This is a proven psychological phenomenon.
Cool suggestion futurestoryteller! ^_^
But I guess it depends on how "likeable" a villain you want her to be. Instead of being snotty and believing she's better than everybody else, my immediate thought was maybe she has an absolutely terrible opinion of herself and is sick of everyone "lying to her" by telling her how wonderful she is. The way she sees it, everyone loves her ONLY because she's supposed to be a hero- all she wants is for somebody to love her for who she is. She's still a brat, but one you kind of have to feel sorry for.
She could be all like, *"I'm NOT perfect! Quit telling me that I am, YOU LIARS!"* **destroys something in an outburst of rage, which everyone around her casually brushes off**
In the end though, it's all VocalCalibration's choice since it's her/his story, not ours. Maybe s/he's come up with something entirely different that would surprise us both. _I'd love to read it someday and find out!_ ^~^
Ok that actually sounds awesome and I would love to read that
So like an alternate timeline of Megamind
This chapter hits home, because the lousy "character development" is exactly what made me dislike Legend of Korra, compared to the much superior Last Airbender:
TLA - Zuko wants to become a better person, and he tries very hard to do so (but fails at first). Even when he finally succeeds, the rest of the characters still don't trust him (because why would they) and consider him a villain.
LoK - Korra cries for a bit and suddenly everyone thinks she is great. Then she continues to behave *exactly like she did before* .
Korra didn't start out as a villain, so she had way less mileage to cover than Zuko. If you compare her to anyone in terms of development, it should be Aang, since he's also the protagonist of his respective series. Aang starts out the series as a goofy kid who runs from his problems and responsibilities, and ends the series as a goofy kid who has the nerve to face the most powerful Firebender in the world (and in Korra we see that goofiness never went away). Korra starts out as an overconfident teenager whose lack of social knowledge lets her be easily manipulated by villains and tarnishing the general reputation of the Avatar and ends the series by refusing to let the final villain manipulate her and rallying everyone around her.
I found Korra to be unlikable in general. I can't understand why "strong female character" always has to mean "rude lesbian"
@@GippyHappy Oh wow, I never knew that Mulan was a rude lesbian... I should've known.
I know most people probably disagree with me but I'm just going to say it honestly i think that Aang is annoying korra is like kinda the better Avatar, idk I just found Lok more enjoyable to watch the atla
WOAH KORRA DID HAVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT......
Of all the stories I've seen my favorite as far as character development is F is for Family. The first episode sets it up to be another dumb dad cartoon, but over the course of the series, each main character changes their course completely and has a different state of power at any point in the season. Yet the progression still feels natural. As a result, you can never be too sure which character will have the most control over any given situation, kinda like how game of thrones/ASoIaF keeps you on your toes as far as character death goes.
It’s always a good day when terrible writing advice posts a video
Remember kids, people just change overnight. Don't forget to live a lustful sinful life then go death bed repentance mode.
If there's anything I ever actually learned from this channel it's that no matter what, there is always room in a story for a love triangle.
"Just make them more powerful and have other side characters tell them how good they are" sounds like Captain Marvel.
Well,it sorta happened to my main character.
He got hungred years of fighting experience and some friends to tell him that he is a good boi saving everyone from demonic invasion by mere fact of existance
This love triangle won't do
It must evolve into a beautiful octagon
No a Dodecahedron
Thinking in 2-dimensional shapes, how small-minded of you.
@@thewanderingmistnull2451 Don't tell me you're thinking of 3D, or even 4D
@@chronologizer422 You dare confine me to rational numbers, child?
@@thewanderingmistnull2451 Nah,
I'm confining you to COMPLEX NUMBERS!!!
The resetting a character can be done if for example they are cold and distant and learn to open up but then there wife dies and reverts them back to that state as a default
Jacob finerty it always can be done... but whether it should be, or whether it actually works...
Much harder questions.
Conveniently dying wife is convenient.
But I guess it works. ;)
You mean Stuffed In The Fridge?
Berserk has the main character reset too but manages to make his development go further than before, making the reset not so bad.
The thumbnail:
Level 1 Crook--> Level 50 Boss
And here I was making a satire bingo of a certain character's development throughout a certain series.
Are you a psychic or something?
In my first book my main character is a young kind hearted boy.
And I slowy torture and morph him into a murderous rage filled warrior. With his revenge quest that slowly kills his faith in humanity and pretty much murders his world view.
sounds like side effects of the economy
when I scrolled down into the comment section, this (among many other things) is not what I expected to see
Rok Kralj Koleša I just like torturing my characters
Sooo....Basically berserk? (sorta.)
Brodie Crain If you can find it, read Michael Moorcock's original Eternal Champion novel, which flips the whole "Chosen One" story line on its head. It might give you some clues on how to do this right.
As much as I enjoy the show, this channel is gonna have a whole field day with RWBY
The best character development I saw was from Belkar in Order of the Stick, who *faked* a character development to avoid being kicked off the team, which ended up being genuine development!
Yes lol that was amazing!
Thank you for acknowledging the Secret love cliché! I loathe that cliché with every fiber of my being!
POKEMON GOTTA CATCH THEM LADIES!
J.P.'s sarcasm is over 9000, therefore he is already maximum level.
"How about a love triangle!" seriously gets me every time.
Berserk did such an amazing job with developing characters.
Characters would overcome their burdens only to find their selves dropping again to the same flows or developing new ones.
Tho ill admit it takes a large story to be able to portray character development like this.
Character Development in anime = The girl is older now so her bra size has gone up!
Cutting your hair = character development! is another one.
Or growing it out, Chiyoko. Long hair has the added bonus of possibly looking cooler, too!
New hat = character development
Amrita Mahant I was also thinking about Jotaro from JJBA
The best character development
Hay can you cover *PREQUELS?*
You know whatever Make sure they contradict the originals in ways that would be hard to miss
(Shakes fist at Brian Herbert)
Easy. Have the dramatic moments and references make no sense out of context and avoid making stand on it's own as a story. Be absolutely sure to insert as much fan service and references as possible. Have it be a dramatic re-telling of what the audience already knows and in no way reveal anything new or groundbreaking. Most important of all, spoil the twist at the end of the movie you're making a prequel to.
Merritt Animation lol
EarthHound my god man your a genius!
@EarthHound
Yeh, but to be honest Prequels should be watched after initial story, so even if it is a fact that they not being self sustaining story is a flaw (specifically that you can't understand them without story they are part of and may reveal some major plot points) it isn't that by definition, just in general good story should be as much self sustaining as it can.
I think greatest offender is when you need know initial story in order to understand prequel, but also when it spoil ending of the prequel. As such it is impossible to give even recommending order. Generally people who know what they doing, know that because events of prequel lead to initial story generally you need strong sub-story what would be real final to the prequel.
So generally because Vader being Luke father is a major twist of Empire Strike Back, when making a prequel there is no point to treat it as surprise because any competent person would watch old trilogy first. Instead we should have other arc what would make story interesting, like how Emperor get to power.
Video: Is there time for a love triangle and charcter development?
Me: NO
Video: yes
Me: What?
Video: But we are not going to do that
Instead classic
Make them like Scooby Doo. They never stop being the same.
Do Crime Stories Next.
Or murder mystery.
Dasro interesting
I concur
The really nice person did it
all of these topics are great.
This is a good summary of issues that too many stories have annoyed me with lately. Good work.
I had a great realization while watching this video- the key to my own character growth. I have to stop spending so much time focusing on Mary and Sue, and their equally obsessive, yet distinctly attributable, love for me. I have to put aside my rouge-ish, bad boy ways that have thus far been my own only defining character trait. Most of all, though, I have to accept my fate... as the Chosen One. Destined for great struggle, but blessed with all the powers a once naïve and irreverent protagonist could be given; I must embrace my Gods-given task! To banish the everlasting darkness in JP's wallet and BUY HIS BOOK!
I really like your videos. They make it easier for me to find 'faults' and things I could revise in my stories!
4:49
*Miraculous Ladybug opening plays*
Funny how stumbling across these videos helped me realize that I am much better writer than I thought I was. Sometimes RUclips recommends things that help my crippling anxiety and self doubt
I really love this channel! Ive been working on a story for 14 years. I keep destroying what i write after so long because i see all these bad writing techniques creep on me. These videos are a great relief to myself, i a way.
The key is to have other characters tearfully say “You’ve changed!” I believe this is the George Lucas approach
He shows it to though. Luke in Return of the Jedi and Luke from the New Hope are drastically different. Rey does not change at all.
I think you mean Kathleen Kennedy
Of course my main character changed.
He _sawed_ the demons and undead. A lot.
By sawing i mean sawing them apart lmao
"We reset his character to before as if nothing happened at all"
- DB Weiss and David Benioff, on Jaime Lannister
I've been following all of your advice and indeed my writing's continually going downhill as always!
(By the way your new intro's GREAT!)
I love watching the constantly increasing use of jokes and sarcasm along with production values!
Keep it up!
Wow, great to see the improvement in editing!
Got any awful advice for writing kid characters
Either make them really annoying and stupid, or way smarter than any real kid would be.
In the latter case, they should be smarter than the adults and even better at fighting.
In the former case, don't forget to use them to push your ideology on the reader. E.G.
"If little George likes this, it must be good. Are you saying you don't want little George to be happy?"
BlueOrco Orson Scott Card intensifies...
Pretty much. Or grant the kid special powers/abilities in lieu of a personality - readers/watcher won't notice the difference.
You can also make them too kind and innocent that it beggars any belief. This is especially useful as a means of emotional manipulation when you make the kid suffer or be kidnapped.
And most importantly, make your kid characters forever static - the audience won't have it any other way. Children go through phases of physical and mental development at a very fast rate, but don't let it bother you!
Always make sure they are as one-dimensional and devoid of nuance as possible.
Make them talk like this “mway I pwease g-g-go pway owside, mwommy?”
(Yes I know someone who’s characters who are kids (ten year old kids) sound like this. But she thinks it’s just fine.)
@@geminis2844 10-year old characters? And I thought Sonees and Roseys were annoying!
You know I love how this guy teaches by what is either sarcasm or saying the correct thing before just saying no to it since it's TWA. But also have moments where he's genuinely truthful about stuff.
Liking the added creativity you've been doing.
the longer this series goes on the more I want to make a book with all of these concepts done wrong just for the kicks
You have to be really good at writing to pull that off though.
true
it takes skill to write well
but it takes even more skill to write terribly
@@Graknorkena I'm a terrible writer I'm sure I can pull this off
Back then when I was getting started on character development, the most glaring mistake I made was to introduce the character's flaw moments before solving it. It's not the act of realizing it that made him overcome it, he first had a heartfelt conversation with another character, and vouilá! Flaw here, flaw gone, let's never speak of it again.
But yeah, I only made that mistake once. I think by now I can handle it pretty well.
If you want to create either flaws or growth in a character just do like every author in fiction ever kill a disposable character that is supposed to be close the main character.
"Wait my character is perfect, shit better kill his girlfriend!" -author
Yay, new fixed title screen! I love it- it really captures everything in the series!
I really enjoy this series. It has helped me improve my story vastly. Still in early phases, but things will soon be advancing much quicker.
3:31-3:54 You perfectly described why I fell out of love with the pokemon anime. I actually liked Ash as a character until the Black and White anime got rid of everything he learned.
Luckster I got out of pokemon when I was 10
TBH, if Ash learnt something new every episode and if he carried it over across the series he would be on the level of actual competitive IRL pokemon players - breeding, EV training, move optimisation, item equiping, etc.
Why can't they just do what Yugioh did and just get a new protagonist every series?
They always replace the companions and they make callbacks like bringing back Charizard to fight Dragonite so they do acknowledge the older fans.
Luckster then they try to flanderize it in XYZ. It didn't feel natural. DP Ash was XYZ Ash done right.
Try "Greatest, That Ever Was... or Will Be"
How about a Love Triangle development?
*Everybody loves a good old Love Triangle*
love dodecahedron is the future!
Explosion
Thank you! I was a struggling writer and I needed this!
These videos are awesome, so funny and precise. Keep them coming. 😃💝
Oh wow an actual heartfelt sounding and serious- no wait nevermind.
...
Should really have seen that coming.