Favorite kinds of character groupings in stories

[Jiggy]

My creative writing professor used to say there were only two types of story plots, namely "stranger comes to town" and "hero [or protagonist] takes a journey," and even those two are but one in actuality; they're the same plot from a different perspective. I can't help but think he's correct, almost by definition. In stories, events happen--if they didn't, we would call them "descriptions" if they were in text and still pictures if they were drawn--and that can only be so if at least one of the characters goes somewhere.

Most of the time this involves meeting somebody, so what are your favorite permutations of a stranger coming to town? Maybe I'll start a poll after a few have been listed, but I don't want to do it right now. I'd be sure to overlook something since I'm pretty single-minded with what I like:



3) A quirky guy meets and changes the life of a fairly ordinary girl or group of people. If it's a single girl, I don't care if she does or doesn't fall for him eventually or whether they become an item, but it should be a slow-burn change until she realizes her admiration (whether romantic or platonic). It can be cool if their personalities each become more like the other and find a meeting point, though that's not my top preference; I'd rather see the guy deeply influence and change others (whether that's one person or many).

2) A quirky girl meets and becomes the sunshine for a fairly ordinary guy or group of people. If it's a single guy, he should be either knowingly or unknowingly bored with his life, and I usually hate when his influence ruins her into normalcy too. Like with the above plot, I prefer for the girl to deeply influence who she meets. The guy doesn't have to become quirky himself, per se, but he should at least be taken with the girl very quickly. I almost always want them to avoid getting together, though.

1) A quirky group of people meet and go about injecting oddity, mystery, and color into everybody's lives whether they like it or not. Some reject them and some don't, but it's a fun trip all the way.



If by any chance you can't figure out the unifying factor here, I'm drawn to the weird casts. :P

[Rotanibor]

Requesting to change thread title to 'Favorite types of Anime Character Cliches' to better suit the op's post.

[Hive]

Requesting to change thread title to 'Favorite types of Anime Character Cliches' to better suit the op's post.

haha

Jiggy is an anime cliche

[Jiggy]

The Phantom of the Opera would be one great example of a non-anime with a quirky guy meeting a fairly ordinary girl, although it also had some angsty material weighing it down. If not that, then in the end of Disney's Enchanted the put-upon knight from the animated world drew one of the "real" world girls in with him.

[Edit: Shoot, even the Irresponsible Captain Tylor was based on a novel and that was the exact anime I had in mind.]


Speaking of Enchanted, it almost hit my quirky girl standard only to fall apart for me when its obnoxiously stoic guy normalized the princess. In the children's novel Winn-Dixie, an unabashed little girl who gets her noses into everything affects the entire town, but I can't remember how quirky she was. In the Korean drama 18 vs. 29, a married lady gets amnesia and reverts to a mental age of 18. While trying to avoid a husband she doesn't remember marrying, she meets a high school guy and influences his life by being so different from both girls his own age and any other 29-year-olds he's met.

I might point out that Haruhi was a novel to begin with, not an anime--if not for the fact that entirely too much of its story progression points to her eventually becoming a "normal" girl, which would disqualify it from what I'm talking about anyway.


Examples of a quirky group of people are hard to come by, because usually those are side characters; even with Maison Ikkoku, which was right in mind when I posted, almost 100% of my appreciation is directed at the secondary tenants who don't serve any particular purpose other than annoying the male lead. I guess the rarity of seeing these characters as main heroes would be one reason it's my favorite setup of all, but any given comic or TV episode involving both the Joker and Harley Quinn would be a decent example. And I don't know how similar Mother 3 is to the novel it was based on, but at least as a game it operated on the opposite principle--external forces coming in and stripping the quirk from a wonderfully-strange town.




Edit: Anyway, those are just some character groupings I like and they're all based on 1) quirk and 2) the characters not being like each other. If you appreciate everyman characters, tough guys, brooding types, brash young kids in over their heads, or whatever else, post away. :P

[doomed1]

first thing i thought was that you REALLY must like Haruhi. the second thing i though was that i largely think the same way. as an oddball myself, i greatly appreciate oddballism. however, i must say that while i like the concept of oddball interaction, i'm not necessarily partial to whether they affect anything or not. what i REALLY like is expression in a story. the oddball quirky individuals in a story tend to be the modus operandi by which the author expresses themselves, since the mundane is rarely what the author desires.

anyway, like i said in the game thread, all things in context. i can't really say one way or another until i get at least that.

[AzureJericho]

Honestly Jigs, I think you've listed the the types that I like the most already. If I had to add any loose, 3:49AM ideas on any other that I'd like, I'd probably mention the humble guy or gal that takes a lot of crap from life but never loses their smile, inner strength or temper who winds up influencing a larger group of people, or just one other person (who doesn't necessarily have to be the total opposite) due to this indescribable strength of will they possess.

The key thing to note here is that the humble guy or gal isn't timid or whimpy, and their life's story, while not a long winded sob story, isn't full of thornless roses. I hope that all makes sense to ya. XD

[Iam Canadian]

I rather like the eccentric types, myself, the ones who are complete oddballs on the fringe and outside of the mainstream. So, put me down as another person who agrees with Jiggy on this one.

Hey...fringes. I think I'm onto something here.

[Jiggy]

I rather like the eccentric types, myself, the ones who are complete oddballs on the fringe and outside of the mainstream.Just to be clear, I'm not talking about individual character archetypes so much as how two or more characters interact with each other--it's probably only a slight distinction, since nearly every story involves at least two characters and they're only very rarely the same archetype as each other, but still an important one.

For example, there's a difference between liking the straight man as an individual and liking the straight man in the context of a comedy duo.

[Prax]

Okay, here's the type of thing I want to see/read more:

1) A quirky girl goes off on an adventure, recruiting people along the way as she changes their lives OR they think they can change their own lives by going on an adventure as well. The recruits bring out the best in her or make her realize how wonderful/amazing the world is.

2a) A quirky pair (they are best friends or have some sort of existing partnership/relationship) that's not romantically involved go off to seek adventure together. They have a lot of conflicts or rivalries, but it's usually good-natured, and it's funny to watch.

2b) Alternate to the above is that the pair IS in a romantic relationship. They still travel and adventure, and they still have lots of conflict. Ideally, it's a quirky girlfriend/wife with a cynical boyfriend/husband. Through their misadventures, even though the viewer may sometimes doubt their relationship, they remain loyal to each other.

3) A sarcastic/caustic/jerky guy has to deal with a group of quirky people all the time for whatever reason, and often expresses annoyance toward them. The quirky people are all off put by this and express anxiety towards him, but slowly begin to bond with him as they realize he is just as quirky as the rest of them. (I guess this could also work with a female jerk...)

What does quirky mean to me when it comes to a character description? => curious, easily engages in magical/nonsense thinking, not easy to read or predict, humourous/witty

[Jiggy]

While I'm thinking about it, does anyone else regard similar relationships between fictional characters and real people in almost 100% opposite ways? For example, usually I get weary very quickly with people who've turned on their permanent goofball switches and treat everything in life as a super-happy adventure, and I'll only act either way with somebody else if I'm trying to annoy that person--but in fiction, shoot if it isn't stupid fun when Minori from ToraDora (my current avatar and favorite character of all-time, originally from a light novel) creates pudding in a bucket, makes weird faces and talks fast and otherwise ruins serious moments every chance she gets, strikes random poses for the sake of being dramatic, and redirects serious conversations to being about aliens when possible.

And I also tend to hate withdrawn characters who don't talk very often, but in reality I like people who don't expect me to care about them no matter how briefly we've known each other.

Edit: This is getting away from character groupings and more into individuals, but another example would be Pollyanna types. Maybe I'm simply envious or whatever, but in reality I often have a difficult time accepting people who never lose their ability to smile and can laugh off everything in their lives, no matter how awful. Meanwhile, in fiction it's almost unheard of that I'll dislike a permanently happy character as long as she has even a pinch of quirk and isn't merely a normal-but-happier person. In fact, if one day we can get a talented female singer to work with us, I'd love to make the Mother series' "Pollyanna" our unofficial theme song.

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Maybe I just have multiple personality disorder? :P

[Iam Canadian]

Nah, there are plenty of cases where traits exhibited by fictional characters endear me to them while those same traits would annoy me to no end in a real person. For an extreme example, take Haruhi Suzumiya from her titular anime. She's wildly entertaining in the show and I root for her every step of the way, but in real life, I'd be probably be rather frightened of her, or at least consider her mildly insane. And the prospect of actually being in her club is terrifying.

Then again, isn't liking characters who'd be unlikeable in real life common? After all, take any villain you've ever been a fan of. I may appreciate Giygas and Pokey from the Mother game as great game characters, but I wouldn't want to ever see them given flesh.

[Jiggy]

Then again, isn't liking characters who'd be unlikeable in real life common?Maybe, but I also flip the other way--I didn't bring that out much in my post, but I get bored in really short order with characters whose entire premise is based around them being good and normal people, and almost never feel sympathy for them. I'm also almost guaranteed to hate any character who reminds me of myself (or one of my selves), which is ironic in whatever twisted way. :P

[Iam Canadian]

I think it's because we're more interested in characters who are entertaining, or lead to entertaining scenarios than characters who would be likeable in real life or who are relatable. I, for one, don't like characters who remind me of myself because I don't think I'd be interesting in a fictional world. :3

[Keru_Shiri]

I think it's because we're more interested in characters who are entertaining, or lead to entertaining scenarios than characters who would be likeable in real life or who are relatable. I, for one, don't like characters who remind me of myself because I don't think I'd be interesting in a fictional world. :3

Plus, an entertaining character facilitates and/or perpetuates conflict and drama (hence, the entertaining scenarios).

This is fine, within the framework of fiction, but not so much in the real world.

[merit]

A group of heroins falling together to become some group of justice. Each have their own quirks but each must be competent in some manner x_x .. I am not liking the Sailor Moon Usagi type mmkay. Must be all girls group! Love interests? Maybe some but they never get anywhere!

Reverse harem LOL! But girl must be competent, and MUST NOT screw with the guys. Must. Be. Distant in-that-way-ya-know-what-I-mean. No crushes on all of them! Even better if it's crushing on nobody! Again, no Usagi types.

An awesome amazing nice girl coupled with an awesome amazing JERK! My fantasy? Oh just maybe, but I wouldn't want a jerk irl XD Those are hard to handle and hard to love! But see.. this nice girl will see the nice in everyone--even if they maybe aren't genuinely nice. She must be intelligent though. Now add in a magical world where they are some opposite ends of power and you get some nice forbidden or very harsh circumstances due to their ocean-deep-forever-forbidden-how-could-you-love-such-a-horrible-entity love. So yes, their love may fail too.

I guess I should have just put the topic as "important characters that may have love in their faces but never get to it". <3

[SuperAngelo64]

My ideal character group is pretty much this:

TheMain herois really wet behind the ears, his heart is in the right place but because his world has dramatically changed from some kind've discovery he really embodies the idea of 'trial and error'. He's embarrassed easily but isn't shy, think 'Tenchi Masaki'.

He's forced to befriend Skilled Rival, he's faster, stronger, smarter, and all around more badass than the main hero. He comes and goes so often that you're never sure if he's actually a good guy. The Main hero usually trumps him at the end by exploiting one of his emotional flaws (to cold, to reckless, etc.). He's pretty mysterious and will usually come out've the shadows to deliver a smart-ass line after secretly watching Main hero fail at accomplishing something he could do in his sleep.


There's also Tough chick who is a bit of a tomboy, loud, rowdy, and always slaps Hero guy on the back way too hard. She has feelings for Hero guy but never expresses them because her lack of femininity secretly lowers her self-esteem, forcing Hero guy to make the first move, which is so shocking to her that it drives her to tears.

There's Demure chick who is the pinnacle of being a 'quiet girl'. Sometimes wears glasses, reads, cooks, cleans, and if in a fantasy setting relentlessly studies spells. She will occasionally surprise the group by doing something completely 'OOC', followed by apologizing for it.

There's Brute sidekick. He's the strongest, biggest, and slowest of the bunch. He's very friendly and will usually act as a father figure or 'uncle' (see: Oyaji character) to the cast even if he is the same age or younger. He constantly surprises the cast by either being very wise, intelligent, gentle, chivalrous or all of the above. He will end up making a huge sacrifice for his friends sometime in the story which doesn't have to be death, but sometimes is. He will sort've take on a 'guardian' role to Demure chick and their romance will not unfold until the very, very end.

And last, there's Savant child. A kid who is greatly skilled in a certain area (magic, technology, anything cerebral). Incredibly unsure of his or her skills, they will eventually be forced to use their knowledge in their field of expertise when the rest of the cast is in jeopardy. Savant child will often feel disconnected from the group because of the age-gap but will develop a 'little brother' relationship with Main hero.


Okay that's it!