forum help constructing a character pls ;-;

Started January 28, 2021 by @PaperHats business

tune

Hello my dudes.

I need help fleshing out a character. So far, he needs a name, and like… a general personality. We’ll get there.

Lemme tell you a little bit about him. I’ll be referring to him as X as of now.

X really kind of just wants peace and quiet in his life. He’s a bit of a masochist, a bit of a psychopath, but that’s ok. He wants his life to be as normal as it can be, while still retaining his whole getup as a literal wacko.
That being said, if you get in the way of his generic, normal life, he’ll probably rid this world of your existence. He has absolutely no issue in killing people. Or… “disposing” of them, mind you.

Thing is, he himself gets in the way of his normal life. He has the ability to essentially “turn the lights off” in a certain radius of him, making everything in his immediate area pitch black, as if it were a moonless, starless night. In order to use this to his advantage, he constantly wears an eyepatch, so one of his eyes is already adjusted to the dark when he turns the lights off. (I’m also looking for a cheesy but cool tagline for him when he activates and deactivates his ability).

So, if anyone is interested in helping me, I’d love if you could give me some questions to ponder. Like give me a circumstance and I’ll have to decide how he’ll react or whatever. I really just want to create a good character that’s really flawed with his motives, but someone an audience will still love, as I’m looking to him to be my “protagonist.” Loose term, keeping it loose my friend.

Anyway. Yeah. That’s that. I’m currently designing him physically, so if you’d like to know what he looks like, I can offer some pics.

Thanks to anyone considering helping :D

Name… Let's see, some dark-related names… Blake, Ciar, Orpheus…

Hmm… when constructing a character, I like to start with the backstory. I think the backstory helps to build the nature of the character. So, here’s something to think about. Why does he have the callous trait in the first place? Was it how he grew up? Something that impacted his life? The surrounding environment? Etc. Something affects every character’s nature, but it doesn’t have to be overly bad. Once you have that foundation, you can work your way up. Keep in mind: events have consequences that shape your character. Let me know if you need more help :3

Cheesy catchphrase: Ready for shadow to take over the light!

Oh yeah…names. Here’s some that I think give the energy he radiates. Lars, Erix, Dakota, Salem, or Kuro

SHOOT I LOVE SALEM AND CIAR!! Those names are awesome, right on par with what I was looking for. As for backstory, that’s a great place to start…. if I had literally any idea at all lol. Honestly, i want this situation to have plot holes that are unable to be filled by myself. There are things I really wouldn’t want to bother explaining, for the sake of the audience questioning me. That’s probably weird to try to explain— sorry bout that. So I was thinking of ultimately leaving the whole “how he got the powers” unaddressed, if that makes literally any sense at all.

This entire story involving him is for me, completely self-indulgent, so I have no clue why I’m having so much trouble with him agh—

What I DO know about his backstory, though, is that when he was young, he didn’t know how to control this ability. Even now, he struggles with it, which is mostly why he wears the eyepatch. So he can actually SEE things if he accidentally switches it on. Anyway, when he was younger, he had a lot of situations in which he’d randomly trip over something in his pitch dark, or bump into things. He wasn’t clumsy, though, simply that he couldn’t fricken see. I think i might translate this to his later life by giving him a few noticeable scars? Maybe.

Also, have to applaud that tagline! That’s just the cheese i’m looking for. At first I had a few ideas involving:

Activating his ability:

• Variations of “goodnight,” “buonanotte, amore mio” _{(aka “goodnight, my love”)}
• “Bathe in dusk.”
• “TWILIGHT TIME, BABY”

each one exudes such different energy and idk how to deal with it but that’s okay—

Deactivating his ability:

• “The sun has risen again.”
• “CLAP ON” //followed by two consecutive claps//
• Variations of good morning, “buongiorno, amore mio” _{(aka “good morning, my love”)}

Also guess now is a good time to mention I originally wanted to make him Italian~ haha

Ahhh, he's an enigma. I love those types of characters. Then we can keep his backstory a secret only he knows. Maybe add little details of it to make his a little bit more 3D. Otherwise, keep all other characters wondering why he is the way he is. Personality-wise, let's flush this out. I think he'll tend to have more of a reserved personality. Here are something you can dwell on. He can even be a little passive-aggressive or just aggressive when people frustrate him or even ask about his past. Or he can maybe be aloof. Is he down-to-earth or, is he an idealist. Those are some personality traits that might fit him.

(You can also note he likes to hang in the shadows a lot away from others and the light. That would make him seem mysterious because it can be used as a symbol of his character.)

Edit: For the goodnight and good morning variants, would you like it in a different language? I’m assuming what you wrote was in Italian. I can tell you that catchphrase in French (I’m currently learning French)

“Bonne nuit, mon amour” (Goodnight, my love)

”Bon matin, mon amour” (Good morning, my love; also ”Bonjour, mon amour”)

”Bonsoir” (Good evening/ Goodnight/Goodbye)

”Bonjour” (Hello/Good day/ Good morning/Good afternoon)

It was Italian! I’m not sure how I feel about him delving into different languages yet, so I might hold off on it.

Anyway, personality wise, I’ve always enjoyed characters that are really mysterious, like you said. However, the catch that always gets me is the whole “insane” part, if that makes any sense. Like wow, this character is super cool and mysterious— but then you get to know them and you’re like, “this guy’s a complete idiot, but he’s so dedicated to ~whatever~ that it’s terrifying.” And I guess his dedication would be to his simple life, but I don’t exactly know how infatuated I’d want him to be with it. Like yes, this guy wants to live normally, but is that his entire goal in life? I dunno.

I’d also like to maybe propose an idea I had a little bit ago regarding him… Just a quick thought that makes little to no sense, but here we go anyway~

What if we didn’t go down the whole “dark” route with him? Yes, he deals with shadows, and yes, he is probably closed off and distant in the way of intimate social interaction, but is that too stereotypical for someone of his caliber? Like what if this dude was a total egotistic badass that constantly catwalks and acts like he’s what the world revolves around? What if he was charismatic without even trying, and that brings people around to bug him despite his best wishes? What if he was super confident, thinks he’s amazing, but the second someone else thinks he’s amazing, he get’s all offended because “they’ll probably end up in my way.”

Is that an even viable idea? Would it be too complicated to execute, if I’m looking for a dark story? Haha, who knowsss~

Hmm… let’s rewind a little farther. What story are you looking for? What is the theme and purpose? Then maybe he could be a bit easier to flush out? He seems to be a complicated character with a hard shell on the outside, but with maybe a soft, delicate character in the inside.

Here’s another thing I ask myself. What is his purpose? What does he serve? How does he push the story along? Maybe in knowing these things it will be easier to construct him. The few characters I’ve constructed like this would be Jaxon and Nathaniel (Nathaniel is still a mystery to me)

Would work on other parts of his nature help? Like his motives, goals, quirks, conditions, etc.

(If you want to take this to DMs, we can also do that)