It's one thing to do the Greek Tragedy and have the situation so that the character is trapped between a rock and a hard place with bad choices on each side, and another to do the waffling "Oh no! He feels so guilty! But *you* shouldn't blame him!" dance. It makes the characters look stupid for not realising the necessity of their actions, and it really doesn't contribute to the flawed character interestingness they're trying to convey. If someone's not going to give a character mistakes, fine, but then they shouldn't do the wishy washy thing.
Bujold did it right. Miles ended his intelligence career in a move caused entirely by selfishness and fear and denial, and Bothari did genuinely terrible things for no better reason than that when unmedicated he was angry, lonely, and honestly utterly nuts. And eventually, the consequences come home in a way that feels right, even if you love the characters.
Be strong, writers! Be brave! Let your characters make the mistakes natural to their personalities sometimes, and then have to live with it.
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momijizukamori and
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Date: 2006-11-09 10:07 am (UTC)It's one thing to do the Greek Tragedy and have the situation so that the character is trapped between a rock and a hard place with bad choices on each side, and another to do the waffling "Oh no! He feels so guilty! But *you* shouldn't blame him!" dance. It makes the characters look stupid for not realising the necessity of their actions, and it really doesn't contribute to the flawed character interestingness they're trying to convey. If someone's not going to give a character mistakes, fine, but then they shouldn't do the wishy washy thing.
Bujold did it right. Miles ended his intelligence career in a move caused entirely by selfishness and fear and denial, and Bothari did genuinely terrible things for no better reason than that when unmedicated he was angry, lonely, and honestly utterly nuts. And eventually, the consequences come home in a way that feels right, even if you love the characters.
Be strong, writers! Be brave! Let your characters make the mistakes natural to their personalities sometimes, and then have to live with it.