Open Thread: Oracle Hotline

[mithen]

Continuing with the character explorations, looking at your most recent POV character:

What is this character’s greatest flaw?

Ooof, Sami Zayn is one of those characters whose flaws can sound like strengths and even be strengths in a lot of situations. I'd say it's an inability to know when to let things go, a bone-deep stubbornness that keeps him fighting even when it might be wiser not to. How about you, how are your characters flawed this week?

Comments

[me_ya_ri]

Hmm, I think that Keanu's weaknesses are very similar to his strengths. He sees the good in everything, the beauty in everything and thus leaves himself open to a lot of ugly happening when things aren't quite as good and beautiful as it seems to him.

He's also VERY young in godly terms. Not even a toddler, really. So he's got that combination of extreme vulnerability and ridiculous ability to bounce back that all really little kids have.

Then throw in that he became a god by sacrificing himself, literally taking a death spell, for his friend and First Follower Prince Cyrille and, well, there are distinct possibilities that Keanu will not make it to godly adulthood because he'll do something stupid to save someone and ouch.

But I haven't gotten to write that story yet. Right now I'm working on a different one where Xun, the leader of Keanu's little group of god-killers, has to face that she can't save everyone by charging straight in. Sometimes you have to be sneaky and careful and even then you might not win.

Hope your writing is going well!

[mithen]

He sees the good in everything, the beauty in everything and thus leaves himself open to a lot of ugly happening when things aren't quite as good and beautiful as it seems to him.

I always love characters whose strengths are also their weaknesses! And that's a wonderful strength/weakness to have, combined with inexperience it makes for a VERY fun character to write... I hope it's going well!

[prince0froses]

Since I have not written since, I will go with the same batch of characters from last time. Also, greatest flaw will be a bit of a puzzler for me because I tend to populate my characters with lots of small flaws (or in some cases, to think of them as flawless, which is it's own problem).

Dade: I was inspired by Hamlet here - the stunning ability to put off painful or unpleasant but necessary action for as long as possible in deliberation, only to act rashly and emotionally in the moment and throw all that planning to the wind. His evasion of Judah because he can't bear to deal with his brother's betrayal and reaction to Judah's behavior tends to follow that pattern. He's also got some empathy issues - not like his brother, I know I've written him as beautifully kind and empathetic to his loved ones - but he spends so much time in his own head and wrapped up in his own emotions that he tends to disregard or forget what the others around him are feeling because he's blinded by his own feelings on the matter.

Dorian: I haven't showcased it as much as his struggles with authenticity, his second biggest flaw, but his biggest is this: he is completely unable to say no to people, particularly people he cares about. Part of that is enforced with the oaths, but there are plenty of times where he isn't strictly bound to someone that he gives in because the oaths have made it habit.

Heerah: The opposite of Dade, doesn't think before she speaks or acts nearly as often as she should. Also, because she's the everyman dropped into a fantasy story who is happy about it (in contrast with Mahir, the everyman in that situation who is miserable about it), she tends to experience the story through a "THIS IS SO COOL" lens, which can be offensive to the people nearby for whom real things are at stake - until her emotions get involved too with Beast and her growing attachment to Dade and Rose, she treats her involvement in their very serious and unhappy lives like she's playing a video game.

Sean: His makeup and the confidence he projects in social interactions is a veneer to mask a well of self loathing so deep that if it weren't for Giacomo and Samantha he would have drowned in it by now.

[mithen]

What a fascinating comparison of Heerah and Dade's complementary flaws! I can definitely see why they'd work well together--Dade to set the story up by waffling too much when it matters, and Heerah to jumpstart it into moving forward. And they both have different empathy blind spots which work really well too.