[ SECRET POST #2636 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2636 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Pinocchio]













Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 086 secrets from Secret Submission Post #377.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[(Anonymous)]

I've noticed that a LOT of times, people say "character X is my favorite because I relate to him/her the most" which kind of baffles me. It's not that I dislike the characters I relate to most, but they tend to feel familiar to me because I relate to them so much, and therefore I am more interested or entertained by characters who are nothing like me. So...how many people like their most-relatable character best? Does it depend on the fandom? If you don't gravitate towards your most-relatable character, what tend to be your personal reasons for having a favorite character?

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[caecilia]

No. My favorite characters are the really complex ones with painful flaws.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[kaijinscendre]

Not at all. I mean...I hope I am not an asshole with daddy issues.

Except maybe Donna. I may be a lot like her.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[(Anonymous)]

There's only been one character ever that I see a lot of myself in, and no, she's not my favourite.

My favourite characters are the ones who have traits I admire, or who interact with another character in an unusual or challenging way.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[(Anonymous)]

Sometimes, yeah. In my current fandom, there's a main character whose flaws and hangups correspond so eerily with mine that I can't help feeling defensive, even though I know people are justified in criticizing his actions.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[ex_mek82]

Eh, not really. There might be a couple characters with one or two traits I relate to, but characters who are a lot like me, I tend to shy away from somewhat. Why for, I have no clue.

(Though if our favorite characters *do* say something about our personality, I wonder what having Cad Bane from 'Clone Wars' as a personal favorite says about me...)

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[(Anonymous)]

Usually characters are ones who I find funny and/or who have interesting back stories (I tend to like dark characters.)

I sometimes relate to certain aspects of characters but I don't find that I am like a lot of characters in the media I consume. So it's rare for a favorite to really be like me. It can be kind of cool or even therapeutic when I relate to a part of a story but it's not something I find essential to my enjoyment.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[intrigueing]

Usually not. My favorites are really random. But they tend to feature a lot of people who are either completely unlike me (I find these the most interesting to figure out, and trying to get inside the head of someone who thinks and behaves absolutely nothing like the way I think or behave is really, really fun and sometimes eye-opening). Or people who I admire/wish I was more like.

That being said, the characters I relate to most are often the ones I talk about the most, because I understand them the most and therefore have more to say about them. So it can sometimes look as though my favorites are the ones I relate to. But having more to say about a character doesn't necessarily mean I like them more ;)

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[(Anonymous)]

Not at all. I tend to instead hate the characters I should relate to.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[rubbertea]

not necessarily.
tbh i have no idea why my favorite characters are my favorite. it just happens, you know?
but still, i noticed some character traits, motivations, physical characteristics that i tend to gravitate towards. a number of these traits and stuff apply to me was well as to my favorite characters. i don't really know what to make of it, though.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[dreemyweird]

I don't relate to characters, so there is no connection.

I'm pretty boring when it comes to picking favouries. The characters I like possess personality traits that attract me in real people. Being badass, kind, compassionate, and clever helps. Combine all this with being reserved (or trying to be reserved), and theeeere you go.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[fingalsanteater]

My favorite characters are just people/aliens I wish I could be. And the ones I want to have sex with.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[queerwolf]

Besides my gender, I usually don't have much in common with my favorite characters. Most, though not all, tend to be "bad boys" or have tortured pasts and that's definitely not me.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[(Anonymous)]

It usually ends up that way. But they're not my favorites just because I can relate to them. Rather, I think when the more I identify with a character, the more strongly I feel about them - for good or for bad.

The reasons that I like or dislike a character don't really have anything to do with identifying with them. I like characters who are smart and wise. I like characters who are funny and vulgar. I like normal people who try hard. I love characters who are basically normal people placed in positions where they have to make extremely tough moral choices. There's all kinds of reasons why I like characters.

But out of those characters that I like, the ones that I really care the most about are the ones that I also strongly identify with. Similarly for characters I dislike - the characters I hate most are the ones I both dislike and identify with.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[pantswarrior]

Nah. I tend to like loud outgoing characters who drink too much and generally are a lot of fun in canon, but who I'd find annoying in real life, because I'm an extreme introvert who hates even being around people who are drinking because the alcohol smells, and generally prefers my own company anyway.

...I actually made a secret awhile ago about why I think I latched onto that character type. -_-

Every now and then I find a character that reminds me so much of me that I can't help but be fascinated, though. Voyager did that with Seven.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[diet_poison]

Varies wildly. Much of the time I either a) find them a more extreme (sometimes to the point of caricaturization) version of myself, b) find them admirable/someone I wish I could be like, c) just find them super badass or d) find them super hilarious. There are definitely patterns to the characters I love but they're not by any means all the same - sometimes they're in direct opposition to each other in canon both in terms of personality and plot.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[inkdust]

Nope. My favorites are the ones I just...like. They're funny or snarky, or super smart, or genuinely compassionate, or completely ridiculous in some way and don't give a shit about it. Sometimes I can relate to them, especially if they're the nerd-type, but I also tend to relate to individual moments, not a character's entire life. And those moments can come from a character the complete opposite of me.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[(Anonymous)]

No,and it's because well...I don't particularly care for certain personality traits I have. [And yes, I'm working on either toning them down/changing them.]

And for me...It's usually the characters I find most interesting, or the ones that make me laugh the most.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[darkmanifest]

I prefer characters who are nothing like me, because characters I relate to also tend to frustrate me like I frustrate myself, so I'm hyper critical and can't really enjoy them.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't really tend to relate to characters? I mean, I don't usually look at them in relation to myself or the real world, more in relation to each other and/or their universe. Sometimes situations characters find themselves in will resonate with me, but characters themselves not so much. I find some characters easier to understand than others, easier to get why they do what they do, but that doesn't usually impact much on whether or not I like them. (It will, however, impact whether or not I write from their POV a lot in fanfic).

My favourites tend to be my favourites because they hit my narrative sweet spots and/or are awesome to watch/read in action. Some of my favourites are people that I would honestly loathe if I met them on the street, because things that happen behind the safety of the screen are so much different from things people do in real life. I adore some really horrible fictional people in ways that I would never tolerate their real-life counterparts, and I'm pretty okay with that.

So ... I think probably relatability is a bit down on my list of reasons?

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[case]

There's a big divide between the characters that are my favorites because I'd want to be them (characters who have traits I admire, like leadership and courage and intelligence), and the characters that are my favorites because I'd want to know them or befriend them (and help them out and/or give them a hug they usually need). Nobody really specifies which type of favorite they mean when they ask, though!

...I guess neither are really about "relatable" to me.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[nightscale]

Not really, they tend to be the ones I find most entertaining.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[meredith44]

Not generally. (Mostly because characters like me would be very boring. :P ) I have a character type that I love (outwardly snarky, inwardly damaged), so a lot of my favorite characters fit that. Others are my favorites for various reasons. I think maybe one of my favorites is similar to me?

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most? yes

[(Anonymous)]

yes, or the ones I want to be/could be.

For example ACD Watson is not my fav, because I couldn't possibly be that patient and good-humored. Holmes is my fav, because in my headcanon he suffers from noticing the bad and the ugly in the world due to his skills. Also he's arrogant, theatrical, moody. I identify with all that, so he's my fav. I can read a fic about him with anybody or gen.

Then take Lestrade from Sherlock. He's caring, gets tired at work, so I identify with him somewhat and I read about him in Mystrade. Then take Mycroft, I identify with him when he's shown to be caring or insecure and I'd read some h/c. So I'd read fics exploring these themes, but I wouldn't read a fic about Mycroft or Lestrade just because they are In Character. However I would read a fic with IC(-ish) ACD!Holmes, because I identify more strongly with him.

Basically I see a character, see something that resonates with me and then love this character.

Re: Are your favorite characters usually the characters you relate to most?

[nyxelestia]

I never really have favorite characters in the first place. I tend to gravitate towards characters on the basis of sharing a certain personality or background trait with them or identifying with them in a specific capacity, but I'm usually not the biggest fan of the ones who are actually anything like me.

I think the closest I got to this was identifying with Darcy Lewis and liking her before she got popular in fandom. Mostly on the "level-headed, self-defending political science student with good analytical perception, and a strong interest in advanced sciences despite not really understanding it, with a strong attachment to a particular electronic device" front.

Then fandom turned her into an annoying hipster who follows Thor around because he likes her but doesn't do anything particularly helpful or productive, and yeah, I stopped liking her so much. I'm not saying there aren't good fanfics about her, but now I avoid most fanfics in which she features prominently for pretty much this reason.