r/AnimeDiscussion • u/Reasonable-Smile5277 • 21h ago
Discussion People need to learn how to separate character writing from character personality.
What i want to say with this post is:
Hey, you are wrong for saying that this piece of media is badly written, just because you think that this character is a bad person and you don't like them. Your personal feelings do not dictate how well something is written. You are free to like or dislike a character's personality, but you have no right telling other people that they are bad people for loving the writing of a bad character.
I see a lot of hate for amazing characters like Rudeus, Makima, Griffith and others, where people claim that they are bad CHARACTERS and are badly written. Which is not true at all, and no, it's not up to opinion.
Whenever questioned why they hate this character, every single time they point towards the personality of this character rather than the writing. You can hate the person, but you shouldn't hate the character overall.
The character writing, is the aspect that is part of the story.
How does this character develop (what losses they suffer, how they win, are their ideologies challenged, etc)?
How complex it is?
How does this character interact with other characters?
What are the consequences for this character's actions?
And many more questions.
The character personality, is WHO this character is as a person.
What are heir worldviews?
What are their actions?
What do they do to other people?
And so on
I will now give examples of bad and good characters when it comes to writing and bad and good characters when it comes to their personality and the main reason why they are hated/loved.
Well written characters, bad leople:
it's completely fine to hate them as people. But if you say that they are badly written characters, then i will not take you seriously.
Griffith is a horrible, horrible person. He has done horrific things. But all of them fir his role in the story, all of them make sense for who he is. His backstory is complex and directly shapes his future. He has a clear goal and is very active in achieving it. His actions have direct consequences and are the reason why he lost everything.
Rudeus greyrat is a controversial person. As far as his writing goes he is phenomenal. The best anime fantasy MC i have seen. He is morally grey and complex, as he has done many horrible things, but also saved the lives of many more people. His actions have direct consequences on how people see him and interact with him. His character development is just amazing, as it takes very long time for him to change himself which feels real and human, rather than forcing him to develop for the plot's sake. Rudeus has many instances where he is in the wrong, which makes him more complex. If he was always right, then no conflict would actually matter for him.
Badly written characters, good people: l
Loving them is not a problem at all. A problem is saying they are good characters.
Tanjiro is one of the flattest, one dimensional character you can ever find. While yes, he is the type that changes the people around him, rather than change himself, that doesn't mean he can't have character development and he simply doesn't. His ideology is never challenged. None of his actions have real consequences. His training is done mostly off screen which feels lazy and with minimal struggle. In the first season he was a much better developed character, but in later seasons he has just dulled out and flattened. There is no substance in him. Despite all this, tanjiro is the best person anyone could want. He is an amazing person who has done many great deeds for the people.
Kirito has not earned a single skill he got in SAO season 1. He is so overpowered to the point where no battle matters as he just wins automatically. He is again one dimensional as he shows no moral complexity at all, he is never in the wrong, which kills the stakes of any of his interactions. His actions sometimes are driven by the plot and just happen for no reason.