Maybe this should go in the Lounge, since it does apply to more than just games, but it was gaming this thought started, so into the Gaming forum it goes.

Anyway, I've been playing Persona 3 recently, when I got to thinking about the thread on whiny vs edgy characters. It was argued that western gamers didn't really get that Japanese character type that led us to characters like Vaan, preferring the more masculine and heroic characters like Basch.

Persona 3 is a game which has clear examples of both character types, yet I love every one of the characters, even the tiny little kids and the characters who never stop whining the whole game. And I know I'm not alone in this, as most of my friends who have played it agree.

So why do we all hate Vaan so much?


The answer, at least for me, is that Vaan shouldn't have been in the game. He wasn't written into the game, and didn't belong. He was an example of a character who existed for one reason: To be a character we are supposed to relate to. And this is something I hate.

It's not limited to Vaan, nor to games. We've all seen these characters, and most of us loathe them intensely. Usually they take the form of token kids, like Vaan, or Jubilee from the X-Men cartoons (for fans of either of these characters, I apologize. I found them annoying and unnecessary, but you are certainly welcome to your own opinions). They are put in haphazardly, are poorly developed, and are completely unnecessary.

People cannot empathize with a character who has no connection to the story or other characters. And furthermore, it is perfectly possible to connect to characters that you have little relation to at all. Heck, most of life is about empathizing with people who we are very different from. What makes a character relatable is how well they're written. How well their psyche and problems translate to the gamer and make them feel for that character's situation. Sticking a character with a superficial similarity, telling the gamer to relate to them, and then offering no development whatsoever is not the way to get a gamer to like a character. You have to show us why we should care. Flesh them out, make them real people. Then we will care about their issues, whether they are supermen or hopeless wimps. And, when you do that, we'll care about them, and their friends, and their world. It draws the gamer in, and makes the game so much better.

This is what Persona 3 did brilliantly. It didn't give you one nonentity and ask you to relate to him. It gave you dozens of excellently written characters and asked you to relate to them all.


So, discuss, and feel free to list other characters of this type who have really gotten on your nerves.