u/Apprehensive_Ring_39

What does it mean for a character to have flaws?

Well,as the internet says and such, character flaw is an internal limitation, negative trait, moral weakness, or emotional blind spot that causes problems for a person or fictional character. It actively gets in the way of their goals, damages relationships, and makes them feel real and relatable rather than perfect.

Gonna be honest, every character has flaws and also needs flaws,it makes them feel more human and genuine and realistic, and nothing is wrong with characters having flaws but something that annoys me is when a character's flaws aren't treated as such ans are treated more like they're just being silly or aren't even addressed at all.

And I'm not talking about not giving characters flaws at all(like Gary Stus/Mary Sues) but I mean giving them flaws and not addressing them in any shape or form and it just feels like you're extremely hesitant to call them out or have them make mistakes at all due to whatever reason or have those mistakes get addressed at all and it just feels and comes off like you're being overprotective.

I feel like My Adventures with Superman massive suffers from this with both Lois and Kara.

Yeah,yeah,Jimmy fumbled,whatever, we can talk about that all day but I think the biggest issue is the fact that the series REFUSED to either show both those characters as flaws or even address them.

Kara especially is annoying cause like..it would've been really interesting to show how the trauma of what Brianiac did to her affected her and that causes her to latch onto the first nice dude in her life and really show how inexperienced she is in the world or anything that and you could also have her be like naive and overly trusting and how thad backfires on her at times or you could even have it so she's hesitant to trust other men and people cause of the trauma she faced or have her like be irrational..it just feels like her trauma with Brainiac is never shown affecting her in anyway negatively nor does her flaws ever actually get addressed or called out.

I wholeheartedly feel like the reason she's shown as this overly angelic golden retriever type girl is cause of what she did back in S2 under Brainiac so they're overcorrecting in a sense but fail to realize that characters are capable of lashing out and being aggressive or hesitant to trust others/open up at times cause of their trauma,it's a realistic thing that happens.

Also Lois was high-key the instigator in Jimmy and Kara's relationship drama and actively gave had advice to both of them and it's annoying how that's never called out and someone said that Lois is the kind of person who would give advice that she herself would never take and that would be a interesting character flaw,like showing one of the MCs as a flawed hypocrite would be genuinely interesting to explore but nope,it's just never addressed or called out or anything like that.

She's almost constantly treated like a girl boss and just feels the overall same...I'm not saying she and Kara should do 180 changes but some growth would be nice.

Also it kinda doesn't help that the other reason the writers did this to Jimmy was to Punish him cause he was too likable a character and I'm not gonna be like "oh this character was Assassinated" cause way too many people throw around the word character assaination without knowing what it means but I feel like essentially bullying one of your characters and punishing them all cause people liked them too much is fucking stupid..that's the same energy as Ben 10 writers breaking up Ben and Julie cause they were too healthy or a couple or Spider-Man writers constantly regressing him back as a teen and making him suffer cause he wouldn't be relatable otherwise.

It comes off as really Petty and for the context of Jimmy,I would even go as far as to say it's kinda racist to a extent and especially the fact that Kara is a white woman and Jimmy needs to be "punished" for how he was to her just doesn't help but that's just me.

My last example is honestly Chloe Price from Life is Strange.

Chloe is extremely unlikable and kind of not a good person at all but she's not unlikable in any sort of fun way or interesting way or even anything like that and she's constantly protected by the writers from serious consequences and all that and based on the writing, it really feels like you're not allowed to dislike her as a character.

Oh trust me,you can definitely try.

Like the game is unfortunately set up in a way where you're not really allowed to dislike her or call you out or anything like that and it's the same criticism a lot of people had with Invisigal from Dispatch, you're not really allowed to call her out or address her flaws cause if you do,you're the bad guy for it and the game kinda sorta punishes you for the one time you call her out(she punches you in the face for it and the other characters more or less tell you to suck it up and brush it off)and it just feels weird how much she's babied to a extent but not on her.

You as the viewer are gonna dislike her but the game sorta gaslights you into thinking she's this ultra mysterious and simultaneously extremely edgy badass when she's just kind of a dick.

Her flaws and how she is is almost never called out or addressed in any shape or form and it just feels like kinda dumb and even lazy at times..you can have a unlikable character as long as you don't lie to your audience about it.

You can have a character improve cause of their trauma or get worse cause of it and their flaws and whatnot but you just can't do nothing.

Gonna be honest..there are a ton of reasons one could dislike a character.

Maybe it's cause they're poorly written or maybe it's csuse of their personality or maybe it's cause they don't like their actions or choices..or maybe it's cause of projection and whatnot but there are many reasons one could dislike a character that are at least understandable.

But I'm gonna be so honest, I am so close to just rolling my eyes if I hear you tell me the fans made you dislike the character cause like..the fans didn't do anything.

You are actively choosing to dislike this character cause of their fans and that's just crazy irrational and even...stupid cause like, toxic fans should have no affect on how YOU see a character and what they do and how they are and all that and maybe you should judge the character based off your own eyes and opinion rather then just being salty on the fans and therefore that translating into irrational dislike of the character.

Like that's like hating on a food cause the people who like it are so intense, maybe you just go there and determine it for yourself instead of doing this shit.

I will see characters like Goku and Luffy and such get hate cause their fans are toxic and I feel like you're really grasping at straws and that has the same energy as disliking a character cause of ship wars and their ship in general(like how Aang,Orihime and Ochako get hate from toxic shippers who shop Zutara,IchiRuki and Bakudeku)cause it's like..that's gotta be one of the Pettiest and most non-sensical reasons to dislike a character and you should judge a character's quality just based off your own opinion and eyes and such.

Basically, in people's eyes.

You're either a hard worker that came from nothing but the Gutter or You're a talented prodigy who gets carried by their natural talent and genetics and there is no in between at all.

But here's the thing, it is never really as simple and one dimensional as that cause there are a good amount of prodigies/naturally talented person in media who have worked hard and trained and my thing is...if they still trained and worked hard to get to where they are and didn't just coax by on Natural talent and their genetics,then what the hell is the disclosure for?

They still worked hard to get to where they are and weren't lazy and didn't just rely on Their talent and whatnot, they actively and actually put in that work and effort + went on a whole journey to get there and I think a lot of the reasons why so many people are like this and this is a very hard truth but a lot of it is people being internally or externally really Jealous of anyone with any sort of privilege or natural talent so they look to find any ways to downplay it and act like their hard work and character growth didn't mean anything at all.

A good example of this is weirdly Jujutsu Kaisen cause Yes,Gojo is the definition of natural talent and skill and winning the Genetic lottery but here's the thing..he didn't even master Red and Hollow Purple until he was butchered by Toji and lived due to focusing everything on healing and even afterwards,he still didn't master or get his Domain Expansion until like..late 3rd year and later on and same with Yuji..he may have been genetically made to be built different but the fact of the matter is he still had to suffer and train and go through a ton of trials and error to get to where he is now and lost a lot of people he loved and cared for.

Another good example is Ichigo and yes,this guy is the definition of genetic but here's the thing..it's not like those genetics saved him from losing a good amount of times before winning and also,the guy literally had to go on a entire self discovery mission and self acceptance mission and go through a lot of character growth and development and a entire arc and he still worked hard to get Bankai and master his Hollow Mask,etc..

So again,he is talented but he still worked hard.

I genuinely blame Rock Lee for all this disclosure in Anime on Hard work and Talent cause he has straight up ruined discussions on it.

Even funnier is that Rock Lee was called a genius and talented himself by Kakashi and even ,even funnier?

Sasuke and Neji(both prodigies)also worked extensively hard to get to where they are at.

Neji trained his Ass off in his Clan and Sasuke trained for days to master fire style and more.

Naruto himself may have had a lot of raw power but that didn't help him cause of Kurama and had to work extra hard as well to even get to where he's at,so I dunno where all this disclosure is even coming from.

It gets really obvious that "Naruto was about Hard Work beating Natural talent" is a fucking Larper Take.

Same with "Rock Lee should've been the MC."

Seriously we need to stop being so black and white on that.

Now before I start,what does White Knighting mean?

Glad you asked.

White knighting is a slang term for when a person—usually a man—rushes to defend someone else, often a woman, without being asked. People often use the term in a negative way to say the helper just wants praise, attention, or a romantic date.

You mainly see this in a lot of media franchises and in real life where people will go out of their way to be overprotective and defensive of female characters who can take care of themselves and are mature and strong and capable and all that and basically shield them.

Basically they're unintentionally infantilizing them by treating them like fragile flowers who need to be protected and saved from the "big bad man" and whatever.

It also leads to people having somewhat no faith in them overall since they they think they aren't strong or mature enough in general to deal with these things and it's like..dude,the character you're protecting them from ain't even some evil or abusive asshole most of the time.

This happens in fandoms a lot with Hazbin Hotel or The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra and I can keep going where people will viciously defend female(or even male)characters intensely from other people who made mistakes in their relationship but made things right and fixed things.

This especially happened in the MAWS(My Adventures with Superman)with people saying that Jimmy ruined things with Kara and that he needs to "pass the controller"(kind of a sexist thing to say)and whatever and not only is this both their first relationship(so obviously they're gonna handle it messily)but people act like Jimmy is some irredeemable monster who ruined any chance he has with her..even though Kara never expressed any hatred or dislike for him,just the situation and once he apologized and cleared things up,the situation was done and gone.

Jimmy ain't the "worst fumbler" in history, he ain't even the worst fumbler in animation.

Hell,he ain't even the worst fumbler in his own Show,Kara was literally smiling and blushing when she hugged him,how is that a fumble?

I consider their situation a blunder/misunderstanding than it is a actual fumble.

I think people need to goddamn chill out and not treat women like they're these innocent babies and dumb people.

Like you should treat female characters like kids..when they're actually kids.

Like Anya range or a bit older,not when they're fully grown adults.