Mio
Hello~! Welcome to another lesson, only this time it isn't also an angry rant. I have discovered a way to help us make our characters more "human"/relate-able. I put human in quotation marks like that, because I believe this can be used for characters who aren't human as well. I call it "The Anti Chivalry". (Yes, it's a terrible name. Judge me. I'm terrible at naming things.)
Right, so according to Google's definition of chivalry, one must have five things. Courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak. Now, when's the last time you saw someone with ALL these traits? What about four of them? Three? Two? One? Finding examples of someone who's chivalrous is near impossible these days, unless you're looking at a character in a book. So, you want a character that seems real and relate-able? Make them imperfect. Have them be missing one or more of the aspects of chivalry. But, just as having all of them is too perfect, not having any of them could just be ridiculous.
Courage: "Strength in the face of pain or grief" or "The ability to do something that frightens one" To counter this, make your character run away from their problems, too afraid to face them. Or, maybe your character doesn't necessarily have to face their fears, because the fears don't get in their way if they avoid them.
Honor: "High respect; esteem" To counter this, you could make your character a jerk to other people. Maybe they see themselves above everyone else. I also like to think that it works the other way too. Maybe you could make them not respect themself enough.
Courtesy: "The showing of politeness in one's attitude and behavior towards others" This one's easy. Just make your character super rude. Don't hold open doors, don't listen, etc. Let your inner bratty child run wild.
Justice: "Just behavior or treatment" Alright, does this one even exist in real life? Putting that aside… Make your character justify bad things with their own logic, maybe? I'm not sure. It's hard to counter something that barely exists anymore…
A readiness to help the weak: Simple. Just don't have your character help anyone.
And, there we have it. If you want your character to be more "human", than give them a flaw like the ones above. I hope this helps some of you. Feel free to leave comments and opinions. I am willing to admit if I've gotten something wrong. Good luck writing!
