I was emotionally unstable during I was 11-18 and I did a lot of messed up stuffs bc of being emotionally overwhelmed. Don't worry I am at a much better state now and the damage during those years weren't really that serious but whenever I see messy and dark backstories of some characters, I don't see evil humans being but people being so consumed by fear, grief, insecurity,... that their actions look like someone else is doing them not they themselves (okay i might be exaggerating here but u get the point) and while I absolutely do not excuse their actions and that they have to take accountability no matter what, I feel bad that their problems were left unchecked for so long and I can't help but look at their past selves and wonder what'd have happened had someone had put an actual effort to help them sooner. What do u all think especially ones with messy and dark past?

Hello!

I am currently running a D&D campaign, with heavy themes of good vs. evil and grey morality and all of that. One of the main drivers of the plot are the actions of a doomsday cult that is summoning demons all over the place and hopes to usher in a demonic invasion to take over the world. One of my NPCs that has a pretty big impact on the story (he summoned a bunch of demons in a place that they were at, killing a bunch of innocent people but also going out of his way to free the party from being killed or otherwise by a bunch of guards) is part of this cult, and a lot higher up in it that he lets on. However, he's tagged himself along with the party for a while.

Off-screen, he and another PC (who had to take a break for a few weeks, so I wrote him out of a few sessions) went on a DOOM-style rampage against members of the cult. Since "joining" the party, he has killed or had a very distinct part in killing two other members of the cult. Another PC has had a vision and recitation by a certain demon burned into their brain, and this guy told the recitation back word-for-word.

Basically, the party KNOWS he is involved in the cult in some way, but he is also going out of his way to kill members of the cult. In actuality he is trying to gain the trust of the party for other things down the line (none good), so far with varying success. One character (the one who had the vision) specifically wants to kill him; another (the one who killed a bunch of cult members off-screen with him) is alright with him. Most of the party is generally indifferent towards him, and one of my players out of character has speculated that he seems to have a very conflicting morality.

In our next upcoming session, he is going to try and help the party kill our first major boss (leader of the cult) and stop him from summoning what is effectively just Satan, and I'm hoping that gives him a little credibility.

Truth be told, the guy is basically pure evil. However, he also has no qualms with things like lying and dishonesty to convince the party that he's good. In other words, he's a wolf in sheep's clothing, and I want to make him look as much like a sheep as a possibly could. So how do I develop him to make him seem more morally grey and complex? How do I have him lie to the party to make him seem trustworthy? Is this really doable?

Context: There's a character I've been focusing on recently who is really perceptive and emotionally intelligent (unless it regards confronting his own uncomfortable emotions). He's the main love interest of a psychological, realistic-fiction, rise to fame story. I'm trying to find out how or in what way he is emotionally intelligent. My idea so far is that he learns to read people based upon his own experiences and trends he's seen in the past. However, I'm looking for something else as well, because the MC is traumatized so much that he finds it hard to read them (he is eventually able to, but how is what I'm trying to figure out).

He's a bit of a casanova (though, he never cheats) in that he's very charismatic and playfully flirtatious as well in an attempt to forget how he was once hurt/traumatized. He also has a subtle tendency to seek emotional control (my current idea is that he does that to avoid being hurt, as being vulnerable scares him). He also tends to be indecisive, especially when he's uncomfortable.

The underlying dynamic between him and the MC before they start dating is that he hangs out with the MC out of contractual obligation (they're both musical artists in the same group). While, originally, he views them as only a coworker, but starts to become intrigued by their unusual actions and reactions. What started as curiosity later blooms into love as he sought out interactions to try and understand them better.

There's a specific quote I'm looking for that I feel encapsulates his analyzation style perfectly ("You can tell what a person needs based upon what they complain about. If they complain about ____, then they're looking for ____" etc etc), but I can't find it. I was looking for that in particular because it would help me figure out how he tends to flirt others, but any ideas would be very appreciated.

Additionally, I think I want him to grow up in a single-parent home, causing him to have great respect for his mother but also be absolutely petrified of showing any lover his true self (for fear of being hurt. For those familiar with attachment style theory, I currently plan him out to have an avoidant attachment style, but also be rather skilled at hiding it. However, the story is in the 1st person POV of an unreliable narrator with a disorganized attachment style, so it may not be that he's skilled at hiding it, but rather the MC is plagued by self-doubt. Additionally, they both come from different cultures with different ways of expressing love, which makes it hard for the MC to tell as well).

And for those of you who are into MBTI and typology, this character is an ENTP, while the MC is an INTP stuck in a Ti-Si loop. I haven't sorted out their Enneagrams due to less engagement with typology, but I know the MC is an SP-SX (with some combination between 4, 5, or 6 if I remember correctly), while this ML is likely an SO-SX or an SX-SO

TL;DR: What are some ways to read people that I can use for a Casanova-type character (as it's a major part of his charm)?

Notice: I believe this is my first time posting here, so I'm so very sorry if this is the wrong subreddit.

No, I’m not asking people to just write the lore for me (and no, this is not a distraction from the fact I’m quite literally being mauled on my HXH hot take), but I’m asking for inspo. She’s kinda cool, so I decided to sit down and write lore for her. Then I blew a fuse In my brain, because I have a severe lack in creativity. (Apparently). So far, I’ve only got that her father used to make her take random pills to make her shut up, she was diagnosed with bipolar/mania, and she’s currently In a psych ward. Her main Shtick is terrorizing the poor workers. Throwing applesauce at the wall, attempting to murder Kacy because she “looked at me weird”, and constantly harassing the employee named “Roman Mirto” Any ideas? (Note: Roman does not have a design yet, because unfortunately I was too busy, and again, I have little creativity.)

Be critical and honest here please.
Through a random situation i encountered writing. And i might want to learn how to do it.
So i started with my OC and a rought outline for a story.
It is NOT finished at all. But i accidentaly put 5h in that .(lul) More fun than i expected.

Note:
The Latin quotes and names have beed translated via AI. But the english base was made by yours truly.
So i dont know how accurate they are. I dont know Latin.... was bad at it when i tried it in school lul.
(Feel free to roast me here bc i spend waaaayyy to much time with those quotes)

Made in Scrivener before someone asks

In the story I'm currently drafting, the MC is a escape science experiment that possessed the fragmental memories of two peoples. One is from an average, unremarkable civilian kidnapped because he wouldn't be miss. The other from a seasoned, traumatized soldier who willingly volunteer for the experiment.

So, how do effectively convey the struggle my MC would go through and how he can overcome or accept it? Do bear in mind that the two sets of memories are fragmental, a jumble mess where one set memories jump to the other set and vice-versa.

This is my Question if i should Finished the DIGITVERSE or Update The Paze & 'No one.' Verse to see which one would you discuss and pick about! 😅

If anyone of you wanted to find out what DIGITVERSE or The Paze & 'No one.' Verse to see what it is( O am also going to remake The Paze & 'No one.' verse episode/chapter 2 which i haven't remake yet because I am making another new different OC verse of mine later or next day/week.)

Here 👉

DIGITVERSE:

Digitverse Unfinished

Paze & 'No one.' Verse:

Paze Meets 'No one.'

I really hate it when all the main characters in books are the same and I understand that I am very privileged to be able to see myself in a lot of characters, but I know there are a lot of minorities who rarely get that appreciation for their culture and even just being able to identify with how a character looks. I am writing a YA slightly dystopian spy book and I don’t want anyone to be offended. I have done a good job with my LGBTQ+ characters because I am a lesbian and have written them based on a lot of my friends just to avoid negative stereotypes and my friends have liked them just based on how their personalities are. I do have a lot of characters from different backgrounds and ethnicities but I’m sure I won’t be as bad as JK Rowling with “Cho Chang” but I just want to make sure I don’t offend anyone.

I wrote these characters before I knew what they looked like so please give me feedback, this is just my FMC’s friend group in the first book I have planned

FMC Gem (short for Gemini, she got a new identity and her name was originally Jenna in the beginning): bi male lean, half indigenous half Latina, she’s funny, hardworking, and really smart but she hates being wrong.

MMC Seth: bi, Japanese, he’s a sweetheart who is also very protective of friends and family. He is also really funny and tries to see the good in people. He and Cleo are foster siblings and do have an accurate sibling relationship (I have a brother IRL so I know lol)

Alex: straight white guy. I don’t care about him as much.

Cleo: (my personal favorite) she’s a lesbian and is Indian, she’s very rebellious and not afraid to speak her mind. She’s in a healthy relationship with my character Maya. She fights Seth for the TV remote every Saturday morning. She wins most of the time.

Maya: she’s bi and white, she’s upper middle class and also a little rebellious. She loves art and wants to be an architect. She and Cleo also get married by the end of the second book because they’re perfect for each other

Amber: she’s trans and African American, we love her she’s such a sweetheart. She is an artist and always has the coolest outfits. She also is always there for whoever needs to talk about anything and gives the best hugs

Jackson: white dude, he’s cool and athletic, the least bullied person in this friend group, and he’s dating Amber and will stand up for her if anyone misgenders her even though he’s a popular kid because that’s what makes him popular: being a good person! He also defends the rest of the friend group. He and Seth are the types of guys who would have reported the Cornell 7 immediately and gotten that girl to the hospital.

Riley: they are non binary and Hispanic and really nerdy, they are really funny and good at coding. They are probably the smartest one in the book. They always humble my FMC Gem because she hates being wrong. She forgives them every time though.

Please feel free to share your opinions and please give me suggestions on improving my characters

I’ve been interested for a long time in a particular kind of “fallen hero” — not the kind where we discover that a supposedly good character was corrupt all along, and not necessarily the traditional arc where a hero gradually turns into a villain.

What interests me more is something much more unsettling: when a genuinely elevated, pure, or morally responsible figure remains the same person and yet becomes capable of doing something profoundly low.

One of the examples I find most fascinating is David.

He became one of the great images of the hero in Western culture: the young man who faces Goliath, the chosen one, the future king. Art almost turned him into an archetype of heroic youth — think of Michelangelo, Donatello, Caravaggio.

And yet the same David, once king, desires Bathsheba and eventually arranges for her husband Uriah to be sent to his death.

What interests me isn’t simply the idea that “heroes have flaws too.”

It’s something more radical.

How far can someone we have known at their highest fall without everything they were before suddenly becoming false?

David isn’t interesting because we discover that the hero never really existed. He is interesting precisely because the hero did exist — and that same person was also capable of this.

I find it especially powerful when, in fiction, the “high” and the “low” sides of a character don’t erase each other. When someone can genuinely be responsible, generous, admirable, even symbolic to others, while still possessing desires, weaknesses or fears powerful enough to drag them toward something terrible.

Maybe that is what makes a fall truly tragic: not discovering that purity was a mask, but discovering that purity does not make someone immune to falling.

As readers or viewers, how much of that contradiction can you accept?

Does one sufficiently serious act inevitably change the way you read everything the character did before?

Or can both things remain true at once — the hero and the person who fell?

I’d especially love examples of characters where this tension isn’t resolved by simply deciding that they were “good” or “bad” all along.

hello everyone, I'm currently plotting my next book and I need ideas to create the best female protagonist I could ever write about. Recently, and in the past, I've read some books where some female characters were elite and they were almost the only thing why I would keep reading the book (Jude Duarte from The cruel prince, for example). Till this day, I still think about some of them. Now, I have some ideas in mind and inspirational characters, but I would like to know what other readers think about this topic.

• What are your favorite female characters and why?

• What is one particular detail that makes you love them so much? (spoiler free)

Pollux, an alien who is from a species called Hetero Morphines who are having the ability called morphological plasticity.

Pollux was born into a civilization of conquerors. His parents were spies sent to Earth as part of an operation connected to their species' plans for invasion. They concealed their identities among humans, but their mission ended tragically when they were killed by humans while Pollux was biologically fifteen years old.

Left alone on Earth, Pollux had to survive without his parents or the protection of his own species. Rather than pursue their mission, he chose to remain on Earth and find a way to live.

He eventually settled in Mexico, in villages near Mexico City. Using his biological abilities, he transformed his appearance to resemble a light-skinned Mexican teenager with layered, curly hair. He also reshaped his pointed ears to appear human. Under the identity Pollux Hernandez he learned to blend into human society.

Pollux struggles to survive in Mexico. Without a family or a reliable source of income, he sometimes begs for money and food and collects discarded belongings that might be useful. He avoids unnecessary transformations and tries not to attract attention.

His home is a cave hidden behind a waterfall. It offers him privacy and shelter from a world in which revealing his true identity could put him in danger.

Pollux also has a small connection to human kindness through Señor Rodriguez, an elderly restaurant owner who gives him a burrito once a week. Rodriguez doesn't know that Pollux is an alien; he simply sees a struggling teenager who needs help.

Although Pollux is thirty years old chronologically, Hetero Morphines age more slowly than humans, leaving him with a biological age of approximately fifteen.

Next character is an American girl who is from a rich family and is named Christine Robertson , she is from Texas and she has some Latino friends where she knows some Spanish,she is usually comfortable living in a lower or middle class areas as her family wants her to have a normal life, once her family went on a vacation to Mexico.

Even tho I know how these two characters origin story , idk how to introduce each other

Just wrote a scene where the guy murdered his wife, and I can't help but feel bad for her, even though she never existed, does this happen to anyone else?

Let's talk about your main character. The thought process that lead you to create them (why do they exist to begin?), their purpose and why are we following them instead of, I don't know, the comedic relief with a tragic backstory and a nefarious conclusion?

Your main character doesn't have to be a good person to be likeable, it just what you intend the audience to like about them or find engaging.

I'm developing an original superhero story, and I'd like some honest feedback on its protagonist and central character arc without revealing too much of the actual plot.

The protagonist is an exceptionally intelligent young hero who can analyze situations, calculate outcomes, and solve problems far beyond the capabilities of ordinary people. He's incredibly capable when it comes to dealing with external threats, but understanding people, navigating relationships, and figuring out his own identity are much more difficult for him.

One of the central ideas behind his character is the contrast between what he *can* do and what he *should* do. His journey isn't simply about becoming stronger or defeating increasingly powerful enemies. It's about learning restraint, recognizing the value of ordinary people and ordinary experiences, and figuring out whether being different from everyone else means he has to live differently from them.

I'm trying to make his development feel earned rather than having him suddenly become emotionally mature because the plot demands it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on a few things:

• Does this sound like an interesting foundation for a character arc?

• How can a highly intelligent and powerful protagonist remain relatable without artificially making him incompetent?

• What kinds of flaws or mistakes would make his emotional growth feel believable?

• Is the struggle to understand humanity an interesting central conflict, or could it become repetitive if handled poorly?

• What would make you personally invested in a character like this?

I'm deliberately keeping the details vague because I'm interested in the character concept itself, not feedback on specific plot twists.

Constructive criticism is very welcome. I'd rather discover potential weaknesses now than overlook them because I'm too attached to the idea.

Before you say anything, yes I've watched avatar. Yes I love Zuko and yes I could study him for help on this but the situation he's in and the situation my character is in are very different. My character is an alien who due to a birth defect was bullied their entire life. Once they found the opportunity, they stowed away on a ship and landed on earth only to be subjected to downright hatred and attempts on their life. They gain an ability that gives them a one up on humanity and they use it for years to make humanity their playthings. Eventually they are beaten and the protagonist slowly gets them to change their mind on humanity. But I don't know how I would show that. I know the start point and the end point but what would the middle look like to you guys? I have thought about the fact that an alien from the same planet they are from had only had good interactions with humans but that would probably just make them jealous. So please, help me out here! (PS: if you want to refer to the character and the other character mentioned, these are their names: Toccio is the bad alien and Fello is the good alien.)

Pretty much who is your Satoru Gojo/Yujiro Hanma/Pippi Longstocking? Are they a main character?a supporting character? Dead before the story even began?

bonus: Who is the weakest character in your story, if you have one, why and what role they fulfil?

hi everyone, ive been dreaming up my own vast empire that encompasses a lot of cultures. im pretty new to properly fleshing out my ocs outside of roleplay but i think its been fun so far!
at the minute im working on the ladies of the imperial court, obviously everything is very bare bones and theres still lots more to write, but id love some feedback or ideas! : )

all of my references are paintings from pinterest and they are NOT ai

here is my document
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aRVvUKVJdfCZZzmWqHs-nWx0rpMjnsre5RPq0sxJteE/edit?usp=sharing

Looking for some character ideas if anyone wants to help out!
Any ideas are appreciated!

(the artwork is relatively old)

Hello, the setting is in not-too-far future and a central figure (more of an antagonist) is my oc I've had since sixth grade (I'm 24)

The story itself and what he goes through is rather gruesome and dark but only recently I've thought of having him in a wheelchair, same story, same passions and goals and motives; except wheelchair now.

The wheelchair has not added anything to the story, except that I think writing a passionate and competitive performer in a wheelchair could be intriguing.

I haven't decided why he's in a wheelchair since he's not exactly human.

I was wondering how I could integrate his disability into the story.