The Importance of Characters

The Importance of Characters in Your Story

I love seeing different types characters in a story. Not only do I like watching/reading about them, but I also like looking deep into those characters. Seeing them developed, the relationships around them, and looking into everything that makes them tic.

To me, the most important thing in any story, is your characters. You can have a good theme, a great plot, and lore filled setting, but if your characters is flat or terrible, then the story will be. Or at least feel like it.

In every good story, be it a book, show, movie, or story-based game, they either have an interesting and colorful cast of characters, or at least one or two captivating character. There's somebody in that book that you want to find out more about. Somebody in the anime that got you enthralled. Somebody in the game that causes you to keep playing.

So yeah, out of every aspect of a story, it's the character that you need to focus on the most. The best stories are the ones with several different interesting and compelling characters.

The Colorful Cast of Characters

The stories with a large group of distinct personalities are my favorite ones. Game of Thrones, Danganronpa, the MCU, Baccano, all of those have a list of likable and interesting characters, where the audience can pick and choose for their favorites.

Again, I see the stories with the colorful cast as the best ones. You have several different characters, with different backgrounds and personalities, making up the story and the world around them. They may come from different countries, or be a part of a similar faction; but one way or another, all of them have something to bring to the story.

The best mutliple characters stories not only have the characters build the world around them, but also make them their own distinct person. Give them depth, their own arc, development as people; give them those things, and you have an excellent story in your hands.

The One Interesting Character

It could be your protagonist. It could be your antagonist. Either way, if one, or even both of them, is gripping enough, then people will continue watching, reading, or playing, just for them.

The Dark Knight's Joker; Youjo Senki's Tanya; Death Note's Light Yagami; the most recent movie addition, 2019 Joker's Arthur Fleck, aka...Joker. All these characters were incredibly fascinating to watch, to see from beginning to end (Did you notice that all these choices are all basically villains?)

Having that one or two compelling character can work, so as long as you keep the story centered around them. If they're too much out of focus, or they aren't a good enough character, then interest will quickly be lost. 

How Characters are so Important

The characters are obviously the ones people pay attention to the most. They may take notice of the world around them, the plot happening, and/or the theme of the story, but at the end of it, it's the characters that drive those things, and the thing that people watch.

When you think about Star Wars, you think about Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. When you think about the MCU, you think of Captain America and Iron Man. When thinking about Naruto and Harry Potter, you think of the protagonists the series are named after.

Characters are the things readers/watchers/players cares about the most. Not the setting or theme; not the action and fighting; not even the plot by itself. Those things are important, but ultimately, it's the people behind those things that makes an excellent story.

Conclusion

This is why I love watching characters so much. Why I enjoy examining them and picking them apart, see the very core of their personalities.

When you have great characters, they can make common themes, boring settings, and bizarre plots look amazing. They can make a common bid for the throne plot, or a rebellion story, into a complex and emotional series that have people on their toes.

But if you have bad characters, then the entire plot and theme is dragged down with them. Everything around looks mediocre or bad. So you gotta put your characters above everything else, and make sure they are better than any other part of a story.