I'm hoping this thread can help give writers (myself or others) some good ideas/inspiration for cool new characters.
Note: Spoilertags really do include spoilers in this thread. So if you don't know the characters i recommend "experiencing" them first through the media they're in.
Noxmilien (Wakfu's (Cartoon) Antagonist)
What i like about Nox is that he's probably one of the most believable and tragic antagonists i've ever seen. He is portrayed as a viciously evil character through the entire first season, but then by the end of the season when you're made to realize what drove him to do this, you'll start to feel sympathetic for him instead of hating him. He's a believable antagonist because he actually has a reason for commiting his evil acts, a lot of story writers often seem to forget to give their antagonists a legitimate reason which the player/reader can sympathize with or just understand. A similar example would be Saren from Mass Effect. As a fan of split personalities, i cannot help but like Tristapin in Wakfu too, although he doesn't really have a split personality, he has a demon living inside his sword, argues with him, fights him and sometimes gets possessed by him, to be precise, it's as if he has two personalities, but not both locked into the same mind, a very interesting concept.
The Swapper (An unnamed character from a game with the same name)
"The Swapper" might not have been exactly a very deep character, it's a silent one much like Gordon Freeman(Half-Life). The real characters in this games story were the side characters or antagonists if you will. But what made this character special, was that a vast majority of players automatically assumed that this character was male. All characters in a space suit alone in space have to be male right? Well this game likes to slap them in the face near the end of the game saying "You were playing a girl the entire time!" and to reinforce that fact, they make sure that in the very last scene someone calls you a "she". Although this plot twist (of genders) is a trap i'm not quite so prone to falling to. I always doubt the things that i'm not directly told, but i see a lot of players that were taken completely off guard with this small plot twist. I think that's interesting.
Barneziah (Elder Scrolls Series)
Ever played an Elder Scrolls game? read the books by chance? there's a story in it called "The Real Barneziah". It follows the story of a dark elf princess. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what makes her as good of a character as i think she is (a complete side character too). But i'm guessing it's how her personality develops through the story, she starts out as a child, but you get to see her grow up to adulthood. There's another interesting character in this story named Jagar Tharn, you're likely to recognize him from the first Elder Scrolls game: Arena (He's the antagonist)
Hyun-Ae (Analogue: A Hate Story)
As a Ren'Py dev, you're almost obligated to know this one since it's the main character of one of the most popular games developed on Ren'Py. This is one of those characters that you are simply going to sympathize with. You get to see her start out as a fairly normal girl, then read on as her personality is broken down through violence, and she's forced into practically slavery. Marrying an old man. It's a sick, rather twisted story (kudos to the writer, Christine Love. I really respect her for this story.) But what's special about her is that in her story, her personality takes turns you would not have expected, but the end result of it all was wonderful, it was a question of moral whether you agreed with her solution to all her problems or not. How she reacted when she re-gained her rejected memories, the emotional flow. It was superb
Malkavians (World of Darkness/Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines)
This was something i think is really interesting, i've been playing through Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines as a Malkavian. Everything that comes out of my mouth is nonsense, i seem to be able to see the future, and i'm just completely insane, having heated discussions with STOP signs and whatnot, it truly makes for interesting gameplay to play as a lunatic. Nobody understands what you're trying to say, but everything you say sounds kind of cool. The problem with VTMB is actually that there are no/very few Malkavian characters in the game aside from the player (if the player chooses to play as one). But this is something i will probably make use of in one of my handful of future projects. An interesting Malkavian in the game is the combo of Therese and Jeanette Voreman. They are sisters sharing the same body, completely nuts with a split personality, and they have their own storyline too. The businesswoman Therese and the mischievous Jeanette make for two very incompatible personalities clashing together in one mind, truly drives you crazy to have conflicting personalities doesn't it? I should know.
Cross-Breed Priscilla (Dark Souls)
Another character you sympathize with. This is an optional boss-fight in Dark Souls. There are many cool characters in Dark Souls, another example would be Queelag's sister. Her story as given in the game from inspecting a doll:
"There once was an abomination who had
no place in this world. She clutched this
doll tightly, and eventually was drawn into
a cold and lonely painted world."
Hated by all as an abomination for being a cross-breed of Dragon, Dragons being the most hated creatures in the world. She escaped into a painting where she could live in peace and without persecution. An interesting thing about her is that you can actually choose to kill her or not kill her, she is big (as a dragon crossbreed should) and wields an intimidating scythe, she's even a fierce opponent thanks to her invisibility spell (all you'll see of her are her footsteps, you have to guess her attack patterns to avoid them). But most players will not kill her, killing her just feels pure evil, it makes you feel like you're heartless. After all, despite being a monster, bigger and stronger than you... She really is just an innocent girl and has a personality to match that fact.
Olivier Mira Armstrong (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood/Manga)
"There once was an abomination who had
no place in this world. She clutched this
doll tightly, and eventually was drawn into
a cold and lonely painted world."
Hated by all as an abomination for being a cross-breed of Dragon, Dragons being the most hated creatures in the world. She escaped into a painting where she could live in peace and without persecution. An interesting thing about her is that you can actually choose to kill her or not kill her, she is big (as a dragon crossbreed should) and wields an intimidating scythe, she's even a fierce opponent thanks to her invisibility spell (all you'll see of her are her footsteps, you have to guess her attack patterns to avoid them). But most players will not kill her, killing her just feels pure evil, it makes you feel like you're heartless. After all, despite being a monster, bigger and stronger than you... She really is just an innocent girl and has a personality to match that fact.
Ah, Fullmetal Alchemist, the story doesn't have a single dull moment. At least not in the Brotherhood anime. But one thing i particularly noticed was Olivier, she's a young woman, and yet a very fearsome general. There's nothing sexual about her which makes her a bit of a rarity, seeing as in games and media most "strong women" end up wearing skimpy or skintight clothes and are agile rather than strong. Although not exactly musclebound she can kick her (quite musclebound) brother's ass in a brawling match, she is the general commanding the most elite unit in the entire army, and the only one capable of being their general, and unlike most female characters in a situatino similar to hers, she successfully throws away her feminine side, the only thing that even hints at her being feminine is her hair style. She's corageous, strong, intelligent(strategic, how do you think she made major general?), elite, and all that stuff, a real hero. Beautiful too, but manages to do so without relying on sex appeal and skimpy clothing. Something WE NEED MORE OF as a community, why do we not have more characters like this? I feel obligated to make at least one. Hope i can. Another similar character would be Princess Cornelia li Britannia from Code Geass, although she is somewhat of an antagonist.
Soichi Negishi/Johannes Krauser II (Detroit Metal City)
Unfortunately i have not read the manga. But Soichi Negishi just like a character i named from VTMB has a split personality. Normally he is a huge fan of swedish pop music. But somehow, miraculously he ended up being the lead singer of a "Death Metal" (Not really Death...) band as another personality named Johannes Krauser II or simply Krauser. It makes for an excellent comedy character, again two very incompatible personalities in one body, and you begin to ask yourself which is the real Negishi. And how did that wimp end up as being worshiped as a death metal icon? Did he really just by complete accident end up this way? The actual point with the character was however to show that metalheads aren't always what they seem to be (at concerts they may strike you as violent, savage and senseless creatures, but outside of them they tend to be completely normal people! both the fans and the band members.) Despite not having any obvious reasons for being a metal singer, the character did have a reason for being there, not just because he was a protagonist but to deliver a message (what i just said) to the viewer. And of course, to be a great comedy character. Split personalities are usually not a funny deal, but characters with split or conflicting personalities tend to be interesting if done right.
Sakura Ichiko (Binbougami Ga!)
What i find makes this character as good as she is, is how different she is from what i'm used to, i've met people like her in real life, and trust me... I hate them. She's pretty and she knows it, she's lucky and she knows it, and although deep inside she's a fairly normal girl, on the outside she's borderline evil. For example you can see from the first episode that she has no friends, sure deep down inside she is a little lonely, but she really just laughs at the people who say bad things about her thinking they're pathetic. Ironically enough she's right too! but most characters in that situation would be crying in a corner instead of laughing. She's also given the knowledge that she is draining the fortunes of all people around her, thus negatively affecting their lives. She fires her butler, the only person she actually gives a damn about to save him from the tragedy, but doesn't care at all about the other people around her. Except for the people she specifically cares about the entire world could rot for all she cares. And she doesn't care about many people. To add even more to her evil side, something she very often does is to trick others, that is say one thing, while secretly thinking another. For example she tricks Momiji into thinking she'd let her take all her luck from her, pretending to be all sympathetic... When she really didn't care, but just wanted to save one person's life with that luck, she manipulates people for her own benefit. The reason i think we see so little of these characters is probably because they're either
A) A very lame villain that doesn't really impact the story that much.
B) There are plenty of people like that all around is in the real world, so it might not be exciting to create a character that already exists in real life.
A) A very lame villain that doesn't really impact the story that much.
B) There are plenty of people like that all around is in the real world, so it might not be exciting to create a character that already exists in real life.
Sophia Velmer/Valmet (Jormungand)
Another strong female character, but this time it's one that actually does have a huge chest as one of her highlights. What makes her special though is that she's actually quite more realistic than most "sexy female warrior" characters i've seen, and why is that? She doesn't really wear skimpy clothing, and she's got the muscle tone and physique required to pull off the stunts that she does. Instead of being a slim teenage girl that can take over the world with fat for muscles. What i think really killed Lara Croft (which was an attempt to make a character exactly like this from what i understand) as a character, was her physique... You're not gonna be performing half the things Lara Does with a waist like that, and with those huge pillows she'd also need to have some serious back muscles! But she doesn't have any of that. She's way too slim. One could just blame it on pixels being what they are at the time though...
Steela (Hells/Hell's Angels)
Surprise surprise! (The cat i'm currently using as my avatar is from there as-well.) Steela is a silent character, sadly similar to barneziah i don't remember what made her so great all too well(long time) i'm guessing though what made her interesting is the fact that she's reasonably unpredictable, although you learn about her and who/what she is later in the manga/movie, at the start you see her act as sort of a guardian, with no clear reason since she doesn't even speak. I think another thing that made her interesting is her art style, as you can see in the picture i linked she seems to be sowed together from (seemingly) random patches of cloth and has screws and bolts all over (like some frankenstein monster), you wonder how she can even count as a lifeform. (Not that that matters much in hell)
Other characters worth a mention: Walter C. Dornez(Hellsing), Skull Knight(Berserk), Rafaela(Claymore), Jeremiah Gottwald/Orange(Code Geass), Homunculus(Fullmetal Alchemist), Yourself(Real Life)Yes, you mustn't forget about yourself, you're a great person, a real person, a believable person. It might be intimidating to recreate yourself somewhere in a fantasy world, and for some even impossible. You can also take inspiration from your real life friends if you know them well enough. But you could also recreate yourself as the person you want to be inside your own novel, however i think it would be inadvisable to make yourself the protagonist, but i don't know for sure as i've never really tried, i don't think i'd make a good protagonist, but i could possibly make for a good antagonist if i throw in the right storyline. Hmm... i wonder if i'd fit for any of the characters who's personalities haven't been defined yet, it's an interesting thought.
I think i've made a decent little list, you can see the Honest Critique image in my signature, this means i don't mind if you disagree with me and would in fact love to hear why. I hope this list will be of use to anyone, and would love to get some more characters added in posts below so i know where to look for interesting characters, and of course what others look for in characters.
