Forums » RP Discussion » ... Character Themes?

This topic may or may not sound like what you THOUGHT the title implied.

Anyway, I was musing over my mainly used characters, and I realized that a lot of 'em seem to have...

PARENT ISSUES!

Two don't get along with their parents & are estranged, two are orphans (but either have good adoptive folks or aren't angst-y over it), one probably doesn't have parents (he just... came into being!), and two have semi-decent relations with their kin.

I have this weird thing for ruined parent-child relations. It's like I get a sick glee out of it or something? IDK. It's weird, 'cause I have a darn good relationship with my own folks.

... so, uh, my odd late-night ranting aside, has anyone else noticed some sort of "theme" amongst their characters?

Um... I notice a lot of my characters parents have been brutally murdered or killed in horrible ways? Or just not mentioned much?

Also, I have this weird habit of making EVERY SECOND MALE OC I MAKE left handed. I dunno why.

As you can tell from my list of characters, a lot of my characters tend to have something emotionally wrong with them. Something traumatic that makes them shy or sad or scared or something like that. I'm trying to break the habit.

Parents, huh? I have the same problem. Kelda's tribe kicked her out (dad was killed I believe), Karra's parents sold her into slavery, Zalia's mother died and her father hates her guts, Serenity's parents died in a fire, Anastasia's mom is fine but her dad ditched....

Huh. Wow. That sucks. My characters are so tormented!

Uh...Hmm. I think that a lot of people tend to make their characters with parent issues because it a) gives them the freedom to be off on their own if they're younger characters or b) adds to the drama of their back story.

That said, parental relationships with my characters are a mixed bag.

Uhh, they all seem to have issues with ROMANTIC relationships, though. Either they were in one that produced some bad experience, or they have problems being direct about their emotions when it comes to romance. Except Su.

With most of my characters, the parents aren't around either. Interesting that is a common theme.

That's another thing my characters tend to have in common. Except for the two Commanders, because I created them when I was too young to understand how complex romantic relationships can be. Although OOC I'm not so good at starting romantic relationships either, so that might be reflected in my characters.

The other common theme with my characters, they tend to be either evil or have a dark edge to them.

Lack of parents here, too. Or they're never mentioned at all.
As for my characters... a lot of them are tortured or hated. Sorry characters! I get so much joy out of your pain. I hope I'm not a sadist!

My characters are all old enough to be off on their own. I don't think any of them have parent issues, although Skallagrim probably resents his mom and dad since they weren't the same species, and he feels a lot of pressure from being a hybrid. XP None of my characters have tragic backstories or mental illnesses or anything like that since I find those sorts of things played out.

As for my themes, they're pretty shallow. X) I tend towards bulky masculine characters. Isleif, Knollstomp, Zazeal, Skallagrim, Hilde, and Heimdall are all BIG, MUSCULAR characters, and all but Knollstomp are heavy in the middle too (to varying degrees) because it's HARD to be muscular without being fat. (Trust me, I know. ) And Mitra is big, too, but not really muscular--just fat. I also like darker colorations and long hair, but that's more variegated.

Most of my characters tend to have alien mentalities, and are often very weird. I enjoy using those mentalities to make everyday life in a normalized society into pretty much a sitcom. They also tend to be able to fight decently - with a few notable exceptions.

Their parents are also just... not mentioned, ever. Unless we're talking about Millie or Edwin.

My characters tend to be small and hardy (but without much fighting ability), with really, really dark backstories. I also love nonhumans, and most of my characters are very religious, but none of them practice religions I didn't make up.

Hmm. I would say it's pretty mixed with my characters. With most I don't really mention parents since, like Heimdall said, they're old enough to get by on their own. Though they all have their back stories.

I think the one that fits the tragic back story shape the best would be Alacoque. She's all sorts of screwed up. lol But I think that's because each of my characters reflect a certain type of emotion. Alacoque being the super-duper emo rain cloud of the bunch.

The biggest theme I see in my character is that they tend to... go off the deep end.

Nis is boarderline stalker with trust AND anger issues.

My fallen angel character latched herself onto the first person who would love her and follow each word like a command. She did some pretty horrible things.

Willow takes being good to an extreme. She is the kind of person who will take justice too far and kill the person, but not feel that it was wrong.

My World of Darkness NPC for my table top thought she was giving birth to Christ.

I have a huge rp hard-on for the crazies.

My characters tend to either have very firm moral codes, and be almost paladinal in the practice/enforcement of said codes,
or lack any sort of moral code and be sorta... insane/evil

Oddly enough most of my characters have a lack of parents too.
Varsel doesn't remember his, Anukha's died in a war (although she has her older brother that has served a parent role in the past), Gilex was abandoned although well adopted.
Only Kemba's parents are still alive (with his knowledge), but he feels a bit detatched from them.

A theme I notice though is that none of my most used characters can take physical punishment very well.

My characters come from strong father/kid or brother/sister relationships. I have a few theories as to why, one being my hatred for my mother and my relationship with my little sister, coupled with my general dislike of female interaction (weird for a lesbian, I know.)

But seriously, so many of my characters had this. Orson and his younger sister, Nora and Jace, Alyanna and her 17 brothers, Liam and Maddock, Lyrra and Reynolds, and Dorothy and her father to name a few. Even when there is a mother in the picture she is disliked or less important.

Also chaos. I cannot play a lawful character. All of them have an element of chaos to them.

I can never make -normal- characters.
All of mine have either problems or powers or some sort of supernatural-whatever.
X3
Plus I make a lot of girl characters that arent girly. This is a bad habit.
~DuMo

A lot of my characters lack living parents out of convenience, so I don't have to take into consideration where their family is and why they don't ever see them. I try to avoid using the 'parents horribly murdered' thing, because its overdone, although some of my chars lost parents early in life. Xael for example, his mother died of an illness when he was a small boy, and he and his older brother were pretty much on their own. Marus has a self centered arrogant rich bastard of a father, but he was taken from him because of his magical talent. In his setting, where he comes from, any child who can wield magic, has to, by law be taken to one of the Mage Keeps for schooling and training. Wuori's parents are probably still alive, and just back in the Otherworld somewhere.

I do however have some common themes.. Ive got a habit of giving all my males awesome long hair, (even though I tend to play more rugged manly dudes) and over half my characters have striking eyes in one way or another.

History. Every single one of my characters ties into it, although they are set in my Alternative Universe/world which is accurate Earth plus fantasy elements, and a magic theory built off Zhi's that ties into the major change from Paganism to Christianity {in my AU; a civil war between mages of the 'Old Magic', and mages of the 'New'}.

I've got.. a Roman, Persian, Minoan, Ancient Greek, English Regency gent, former New South Wales convict, Fop.. Er. Probably some others, but those are my more active or at least, more rped ones.

Haha thats probably the major difference between our characters, I play fantasy with some historical elements, and yours are historic with fantasy elements. But it works out well, and they tend to mesh nicely.

I never considered this up until now, but I do tend to have a theme in my characters.

I'm a pretty big fan of black clothing, mostly gothic or metal, and most of my characters thus tend to wear that type of clothing. Also my characters tend to have some traumatic event in their history. And uuuhm, thinking, I do also make a happy-crazy character every so often. Y'know one of those characters that only exsist to have fun and usually endanger themselves in the process.

Nope. One of my characters lost their mom, and my other has both. My third is kind of a universal character, but I try to give him parents when I use him.