the reason i ask this is because i LOVE seeing characters with permanent flaws, and it's awesome when characters f up so badly that they can't fix it. i think it makes them more lovable, because if they had no permanent mistakes, they won't feel complex or real enough y'know? i wanna hear some major mess ups from characters because thehyr'e cool to listen to :]
I've got it set in Shade's backstory that he did something bad once, and that sort of formed his present personality… but I don't actually know what that is yet. Crime? Murder? Tax fraud? I am still unsure.
Most of my other characters are pretty straight forward, with either basic social flaws or having been outcasts that doesn't result in any actual wrongdoings on their end. …. Hmm…
Major mess up from one of my characters? Easy.
I made a funny little guy named Naveil. Thing is, he has crazy anger issues and is very much impulsive.
Long story short, he burned down an entire kingdom.
And then he felt really guilty later because he realized his best friend lived there.
Y'know, just the usual assorted shenanigans.
Okay, here we go. (TW: mention of suicidal thoughts)
So my protag, Malissa, starts out kinda hating her magic and judging her worth based on that. She never really learned to control it, and so one day, long story short, things escalated, and she ended up killing an innocent 7-12 y/o child (by accident).
It took her a few months to start using her magic again (using magical pills to stopper her magic), and she never really got over what she did. She grapples w/ self-loathing, guilt and suicidal thoughts (although never attempted) for most of the series.
Even w/ all this being said, I love her even more for this <3
My little guy Renier has abandoned his sisters and friends without bothering to speak to them before leaving or reach out afterward, not only that but he also abandoned his responsibilities until he realized the consequences of doing so would directly affect him ❤️
OH ALSO my other little guy Ines left her group in the marine corps for dead to partake in literal piracy which in the grand scheme of things when compared to what other people in the story have done isn't nearly as bad but it is very shameful to her because she takes the concept of loyalty extremely seriously. The people who were supposed to be watching over the soldiers did not do their jobs very well because of poot funding and generally horrible choices in hiring but she still respects them a ton. She also feels as if she has disappointed her family and wasted her training because of this, even if they don't know and presume her to be either dead or still overseas.
(Can we respond to each other as well? Because everyone else's characters look really interesting too.)
(I hope so cause these are some wild occurences)
(ooh I have another but I don't want to put it just yet cause I just put 2 others 😭)
these are all so cool!!i didn't expect so many responses so fast :sob:,, your characters are all so cool
Canarie: Her inability to communicate properly and her constant self-sabotaging in order to protect herself, she sometimes does things without telling anyone first. She's obsessed with finding a way to revive him but she's never asked if he really wants to revived (spoiler alert: he doesn't, he doesn't want her to ruin her own life by being tied down to him). She thinks that reviving him, she can deserve some kind of happiness for herself without being burdened by her guilt of being the only member of her family who's still alive.
andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer): He thinks he's ruined his sister's life by dying (see Canarie), and he's desperately trying to find a way to die so Canarie can live her own life. He essentially views himself as a burden and he's afraid of breaking her heart if he straight up leaves her behind. When he was a human, he fucked up really badly by constantly pushing Canarie away while knowing she wasn't mentally okay (his soul was literally being eaten away by the Nothing disease so that kind of explains his coldness). He's also a complete and utter douchebag to people he hates, like Benny and Crow.
Basically the twins have good intentions, but the way they go about it is only harming them. It's a cycle of constant suffering for the both of them, and they refuse to let anyone intervene so they don't end up being harmed by their actions as well.
Lemon is a fae, and a so her morel standards are inherently much lower than most others. So before flora her friend found her, she’d made a habit of killing anyone she came in contact with, which was mostly travelers and lost kids and what not. So later flora found her and has been keeping her in check, but during the time skip in my books, the two were separated and lemon upgraded from forest to going undercover in a brothel with her girlfriend to get access to more people to kill. She doesn’t feel any guilt whatsoever btw
I have to many character's scattered in different stories so I'm gonna do one at a time at my own pace.
Isabella (she/her): I'm not gonna say she's "flawless". She is the protag after all, but she's simply immature and doesn't make the smartest decisions despite common sense. Definitely like Tommy from DSMP or Luz from TOH, they weren't bad people. They just got roped into something much bigger than them and their decisions (being intently or not) did make things worse in the process. The major difference is that Isabella isn't a "child who chose the fantasy world over reality" or "the chosen one". All of her actions have good and "heroic" intention, but still not the best thing someone could do. I could say it's because of her age + trauma this flaw exist.
(did I do this right?)
Caroline had accidentally let her fellow vigilantes into a trap made by the heroes, which ended up in many of them being thrown in prison and even left some dead. Everyone tells her it wasn't her fault, but she's still really guilty about it.
Royka's greatest misdeed is certainly allowing Ylaine to be poisoned (although he thought it would be Orkas that died). He crafted an incredibly potent poison that was capable of killing a god, but when he was pressure to use it to kill Orkas and end the conflict between the two religious sects, he hesitated. Orkas was a god who was occupying his lover Dax's body to act on the astral plane. Royka loves Dax and thought he would be killed by the poison as well if Orkas was poisoned, so he insisted that he wouldn't have it done. However, he does hate Orkas and wants him dead, so he left the poison unguarded, understanding that others might use it if he did. His plan backfired; the poison was stolen and used, but the poisoned tea was mistakenly consumed by Ylaine, who was innocent and widely love. She died slowly and painfully. In a moment governed by revenge, Royka would have allowed his beloved to die and in fact directly caused the death of someone pure. He'll never scrub the guilt from his soul.