Personality- None

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How

JUST HOW!

How can ANYONE stand to read or write these?

What are 'these'? Well, I mean characters with LITERALLY NO FUCKING PERSONALITY TO SPEAK OF. They have even less individuality than a fucking HAREM PROTAGONIST. And that's saying a lot.

Okay...

*takes a deep breath*

So I was trying to find a good fanfic to read, and I stumbled upon a certain fanfic that shall not be named. After reading a few chapters of it...I decided to create this chapter.

Because I actually feel like tearing my eyes out when I read these. Okay here are some characteristics of one of these pieces of literal garbage.

-Tragic Backstory (Apparently people think that adding a tragic backstory will make everyone sympathize with a character, even if they DON'T HAVE ANY PERSONALITY)

-Ridiculously Strong

-Beautiful

-Hobbies that basically everyone has (Listening to music, reading books, going on phone, ect)

And here, for the biggest sign

-Having almost no inner thoughts of the character, and basically only narrating what she does

Look, I like to think the people who make these characters just have a good grip on the industry/what gets views, I really want to. But sometimes I'm not sure...

I just don't understand WHY ANYONE WOULD READ THIS SHIT, I DON'T UNDERSTAND

When someone reads shit like this we're only reading the actions of a character, with none of the characters thoughts or feelings. Not only that, those actions we read are usually SOOOOO FUCKING TYPICAL, and say NOTHING about the character.

'××× Poured the soda on Tonpa. Tonpa looked at her, amazed, but also terrified. "You know, it's not nice to poison people." ××× said. Tonpa ran away screaming. ××× knew it was poisoned because of all the times her abusive mother fed her poison.

After that ××× went back to what she was doing, a stoic look on her face. A while later she saw a white haired boy enter the room. He sparked her interest. And a few hours after that she saw a greenish-black haired boy, a blond haired teen, and an old guy in a blue business suit enter the room.

××× eyed them. They caught her interest.'

Now....What do you think is missing from that? I'll give you some time.

Ding Ding Ding!

You guessed correct! Thoughts and feelings. Those were only her actions. And her actions didn't say much, no wait, anything about her personality.

Look it's hard to make good personalities, but that's not an excuse for having literally no personality!

Of course establishing a personality through only actions can be done. But it's hard, it takes effort and skill. There are probably some hxh fanfics out there that make great characters with good personalities through actions alone, with almost no inner thoughts. But those would be one in a million, it takes  a master writer for that.

But I'm not talking about when characters actually have a personality! (Through actions or otherwise) I'm talking about when they don't!

And when they don't...you have a problem.

Moments aren't awesome, they have no impact. Any feelings characters have towards ××× feel convoluted and unearned. And to be perfectly honest, the story is just dull and boring. At that point it just becomes a re-telling of hxh with one extra character that nobody ever wanted.

Ugh...

Honestly this is my least favorite kind if character, I hate them even more than Mary sues. (Although a ton of them ARE Mary sues)

At least with Mary sues I can be fairly certain that whoever is behind that character has some kind of honest passion for the series. But with these I simply can't tell.

It's like... I can't tell if the author is just so incompetent that they don't know their character needs any personality.

Or...

Is it just some author that has a good grip of the industry and knows that kind of no personality wish fulfillment character sells well and gets views? (Because yes, unfortunately, they do bring in LOADS of views, votes, and attention)

I just can't tell.

Hey, I never want to see one of these garbage 'characters' again, so here's some tips that may help...

●Speech patterns!
-How does this character talk?
-Do they have a habit of using any particular words?
-Do they mumble? Shout? Falter?
-How has this characters past affected their speech?

●Habits
-What do they do when their nervous? Do they twirl there hair? Fiddle with the buttons on their shirt? Stare at the walls?
-Do they space off?
-What do they do when their bored?

●Hobbies
-Try to imagine how their past would've lead to the hobby
-FOR THE LIVE OF GOD, DON'T ONLY DO TYPICAL AND COMMON ONES (Reading, drawing, listening to music, ect)

●Personality
-How did their past impact their personality?
-Don't make their personality defined by their past
-How does their personality tie in with their hobbies, speech patterns, and habits?
-What's their goal, and why?

Of course that's no where near close to making a good character, you need flaws, backstory, believably, all kinds of shit. But the stuff above should at least help with making the baseline of a character, a personality!

And of course that's only the start of making a good personality, but it's a start!

Just...yeah...

I never want to read another character with literally no personality to speak of...it's just painful...it's even worse than the emo edge lords, and I fucking hate those shits.

^-^

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