Manifesto

Control Freaks, Puppets, and Puppetmasters

I love characters with control issues, whether they're controlling or powerless. If a character's primary conflict is based on their lack of/excess of power, I'm sold. You got me.

I'm a real sucker for characters deciding they've had enough and taking back control, total submission, Stockholm/Lima syndrome, and characters that are SO thouroughly brainwashed. Both sides are very fascinating to me.

Dissolution of Self

I love characters broken down into their core components. It's like lifting up a rock and seeing what's underneath, or breaking something precious in the hopes that you know enough to remake it. I love gradual erosion, breakdowns, and loss of identity.

Brats and Bullies

I love characters who fight back until they're fighting everything. I love characters who have never known kindness, who abuse others' kindness, and who manipulate because they've been manipulated. I love characters who were spoiled once and are only now finding out that life doesn't work like that. Riches to rags plotline, if you will.

Complexes, Complex Relationships with Family

I love characters with complexes. I'll never get tired of a superiority/inferiority complex combo, or a bro/siscon. Characters defined by their relationships or insecurities fascinate me, particularly if they're defined by familial relationships. Naming complexes are an easy way to look under the hood, so to speak. A character that conveys how they tick without meaning to is always a joy and a treat.

Tangentially related, I adore older sibling characters and younger sibling characters. These roles are very comforting to me, and they always improve a character in my book. How does a character function? Look back to the family unit. So many of my favs have siblings.

Doomed by The Narrative/The Narrative's Specialist Little Princess

I love characters who have a particular place within the narrative. I love the punching bags and the people who the sun shines on. Luck, good or bad, is such a fascinating part of a character to me.

I love characters who have an expiration date, who outlive their usefulness and desperately try to cling to what they had, or who sell themselves out for much less than they're worth. A good chunk of my favs have been discarded by the narrative, killed off, or made less significant over time.

Gap Moe

I love gap moe and subversion of expectations. Super competent fighter can't take care of himself. Powerful shota. Two-faced characters and characters who do a complete 180 when talking to specific people. Sociopathic cuties. It gets me so good.

Repression

I love emotional repression and shame. Guilt, shame, and repression are powerful influences on character that may widen the gulf between internal and external. I love characters who have repressed so long that they're a solid brick of all the shit they never said. It's beautiful to cut a character open and see all the calcified emotions. Bonus if they're so repressed it's physically hurting them.

Whump/Sickness

I love when characters go through unimaginable hells. When they have to suffer to get what they want. When they're having a very bad time. When they're frail or lack constitution. When they're actively wasting away. It's so nmnmnn . . .

Unreachable Goal

I love when, for whatever reason, characters cannot reach their goals. The rival in a conventional narrative. The avengers the author forgot. The guy whose ambition powers a narrative that's already too long. Budget cuts. Side characters. Tragedy.

Misunderstood

I love characters who are misunderstood. This is probably the most embarrasing entry on this list because one of the easiest ways to pull on my heartstrings is to say "nobody gets him ;_;". I'LL get him! I understand everything. Nobody gets her like I get her. I won't stand by and let them be treated like this . . . I'm such a sucker for the misunderstood ones.