A Sympathetic Character is Better than a Morally Just Character
part of this was drafted from a month or so ago but iāve been thinking about it so iām going to finish it now and post it on this blog instead of the og ranboocore blog haha!Ā
i would really wish this fandom would understand though that,Ā
a morally good, righteous, upstanding character =/= a GOOD character like yes. they are morally good. but that does not inherently make them the better written, more satisfying character. like i enjoy characters like dream, ranboo, technoblade, wilbur, quackity, and sam (my favorites especially are dream and ranboo) because they have depth. they are multifaceted and have internal conflict and clear character flaws.Ā
sam is actually a good example of a character being righteous and that being a flaw. BECAUSE of his values, tommy died on his hands. because he adheres to laws, he has internal conflict as the world has shown him that maybe he was wrong. maybe it is not good to be so righteous.Ā
i see a lot of posts like condemning characters for their actions and i get so utterly confused because thats the point. like yes. they did the bad thing. yes. youāre right that is bad. but likeā¦ can you analyze it? can you break down the character motivations, that characters reasoning behind it, is it relatable? is it sympathetic? is it compelling to you?Ā
if itās not why are you here. because these ARE sympathetic characters. they make mistakes and it is clear that the mistakes they made ARE INDEED MISTAKES. because that is human. and we can relate.Ā
ādreams not sympathetic, heās evilā immmmm SORRY are you telling me that if you were repeatedly told that you were an awful person, that you were toxic, that you were the bad one EVEN THOUGH YOU WERENāT, you wouldnāt get frustrated? you wouldnāt get upset and maybe act drastically? you wouldnāt lash out?Ā
āi wouldnāt manipulate someone and blow up a country.ā no shit! i wouldnāt either! but i would get angry! i would get mad and upset and i might say something mean or out of line or like make a mistake and start a fight. the beauty of writing is that we can exaggerate things to extremes. this raises the stakes and makes the actions so much more meaningful, but because we at our core can relate to similar actions and the line of logic, it makes it moving. it makes it sympathetic and relatable. like? no obviously, i donāt condone abuse or like manipulating someone. but i can understand and relate to the idea of āthe ends justify the means.ā which is the type of character dream is. in his head, the ends will justify the means.Ā
so i need you to understand that a SYMPATHETIC character is better than JUST a MORALLY RIGHT character. ESPECIALLY in the dream smp. this is the narrative where EVERYONE is their OWN MAIN CHARACTER. and the main character NEEDS to be sympathetic. the villain doesnāt necessarily, though a sympathetic villain is always so much better than a flat, 2D villain, but the protagonist NEEDS to be sympathetic. and by sympathetic i mean likeā¦ can i follow their line of logic? can i understand this character? like maybe i personally wouldnāt do the things theyāve done, but can i understand why theyāve done what they have? am i rooting for this character because i can relate and sympathize with them?
this is SO important in writing. it GIVES characters depth. it makes them feel real, and not just likeā¦ a 2d caricature of something. thats part of WHY i love ranboos character and WHY he is very obviously a fan favorite. ranboo, hands down, undoubtedly, PUTS THE WORK IN. his character is deeply flawed and for that extremely relatable. ranboo makes SURE that there is subtext there for you to understand it. the way his character rationalizes things is such a good testament to him providing subtext, but itās definitely not the ONLY way he provides subtext. he doesnāt TELL you that his character has anxiety (in lore i mean out of lore heās said it plenty of times) BUT HE SHOWS THAT.Ā
his character catastrophizes, his character is pessimistic at times, his character is worried pretty frequently, he displays signs of paranoia among likeā¦ so many other characteristics that are clear results of anxiety or just SHOW his anxiety. he doesnāt just SAY that flat out, but he shows it in the way he talks, the way he thinks, his actions. like YES. yes ranboo IS a hypocrite but you can understand WHY he is a hypocrite. itās because, ironically enough, his character VALUES being morally correct. ranboos morals are important to himself and he CANNOT conceptualize being the morally wrong one. and thatās SHOWN in the way he rationalizes his acts of hypocrisy. he excuses himself because he doesnāt want to be the one thats wrong, and itās clear that that is a character flaw of his.Ā
itās intended that you pick up that ranboo is wrong, but he is excusing himself and trying to rationalize that heās not the wrong one because thats one of his character motivations. whenever ranboo monologues and its him rationalizing, it is clearly him CONVINCING himself that he hasnāt done anything bad. he KNOWS he has done the wrong thing, but he DOESNāT WANT TO ADMIT IT.
his character HAS depth. his character feels REAL.
there are plenty of characters you can break down in this way, and i know people are aware of it because iāve seen posts about how tubbo provides subtext through largely his actions rather than monologuing (which is a pretty good way to get across inner thought in this medium). i think that ranbooās character is amongst the ones display depth the best because he very clearly does dedicate himself to his character and his narrative. he provides subtext and small mannerisms and goes through a monologue fairly realistically i feel where heās working himself through a situation.
thereās also sam, who iām VERY excited for more lore from, because heās had a fall from grace. this is such an extraordinarily human thing that i think so many people can relate to and i think it makes him such a driving character. like no, iām not gonna torture someone, but because i can and have fallen from grace before, iām inherently intrigued by his story. how did he get here? and what was he thinking and where did the lines begin to break down for him? also heās just kinda ahhah hah hah whus poppin babeyyyyyy but thats irrelevant
other characters i can think of off the top of my head are quackity, technoblade, wilbur, and tubbo but im sure there are other streamers im missing simply because i donāt watch them enough? i feel like nikiās character probably has depth itās just that i donāt follow her character arc enough, so i wouldnāt actually know.
either way though, these characters all have depth because theyāve dealt with their issues in interesting, pressing, and ultimately human ways to their barest degrees because like i said the beauty of writing is that we can exaggerate these feelings to their extremes, butā¦ ultimately we still experience these feelings.
like no i wouldnt do any of the shit these characters have done, but i can follow their line of reasoning and i can relate deeply to all of these issues.
and i think thatās what we really should be discussing rather than morality on the matter of likeĀ āgood characterā orĀ ābad characterā because i see that happen so frequently. like, in enjoying a character youāre not justifying their actions and if someone assumes that thenā¦ they should really go back to english class. thatās not how human nature works, and itās not how literature works.Ā
a good character is someone i can relate to and understand. including a villain.Ā
TLDR; a sympathetic character is far more enjoyable and better than a morally just character. sympathetic characters are undeniably good characters because they are inherently characters you root for or simply just enjoy more. morally just characters, while they can be sympathetic, arenāt inherently good because being morally just isnāt inherently relatable. a good character is one that has depth.
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