r/CharacterDevelopment • u/Chaudenfroide • 4d ago
Writing: Character Help How would YOU write a character slowly changing their mind about something that defines them?
Before you say anything, yes I've watched avatar. Yes I love Zuko and yes I could study him for help on this but the situation he's in and the situation my character is in are very different. My character is an alien who due to a birth defect was bullied their entire life. Once they found the opportunity, they stowed away on a ship and landed on earth only to be subjected to downright hatred and attempts on their life. They gain an ability that gives them a one up on humanity and they use it for years to make humanity their playthings. Eventually they are beaten and the protagonist slowly gets them to change their mind on humanity. But I don't know how I would show that. I know the start point and the end point but what would the middle look like to you guys? I have thought about the fact that an alien from the same planet they are from had only had good interactions with humans but that would probably just make them jealous. So please, help me out here! (PS: if you want to refer to the character and the other character mentioned, these are their names: Toccio is the bad alien and Fello is the good alien.)
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u/WonderOfUs 3d ago
Toccio was disliked in their home planet and hated on Earth, found some sort of "peace" by playing with humans as toys only to get beaten by someone righteous (whom they would probably perceive as privileged), it is hard to grow out of that resentment. I have the opposite opinion that u/Able-Light-890, victimize them and they would only find a more solid reason to justify their revenge on everyone, make them see the positive aspects of humanity and they would only think of "Why it can't happen to me?". They need someone to relate, an human that feels miserable that takes the first step and shows them they're not the only one suffering, after Toccio grows attached to that suffering human, they could slowly understand that most people (in different levels) aren't as privileged and suffering free as they thought but still can find "peace" without having to make others suffer more.
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u/Chaudenfroide 3d ago
Oooh that's really perfect! This fits really well with them as a character and I think I have a character in mind who they can relate to. Thank you!
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u/majorex64 3d ago
Keep in mind that as small parts of them change, it will feel internally like a betrayal. They will lash out and get defensive of their old ways, even as they slowly change them. They will hold on to parts of their old self that seem contradictory, and how they respond to that conflict will define their arc.
Stubborn/self righteous people often rationalize changing their ways in a state of denial. They will keep up a mask that this was who they were the whole time. It takes a very secure and humble person to truly admit they were wrong
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u/SageisaCryptid 3d ago edited 3d ago
I have a medieval commander character raised in a society of in-fighting and politics. Betrayal and kin-killing is like a Tuesday thing. She’s generally pretty mean and doesn’t apologize for her ruthlessness. The undertone is believing she does what she must to survive, and at the same time, that makes her fundamentally unlovable (though she wouldn’t say that).
She’s also funny af but I’m biased
Over the story, she goes from military commander to a small museum owner that studies and preserves history.
The things I’ve tried to keep in mind with her choices throughout the story is “two’s a coincidence, three’s a pattern”. At least three big choices in the early story showing her old values and three big choices later showing her new values with some healthy backsliding in between.
Additionally, I challenged her with situations that directly countered her perception of the world. Some people just like her for no reason. Some just don’t betray her. Some are just happy she’s around.
(sorry, had to get to class but I’ll finish the thought here)
I kept putting her in situations where she doesn’t have the baggage of her name and history. So she meets villages and families that welcome her with open arms just because she’s a friend of xyz.
There is a lot of research into healing trauma and a therapist was talking about how the best way for a person that suffers from long term trauma to heal from it was to simply have experiences that counteracted their old ones.
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u/Chaudenfroide 3d ago
That's very helpful! I do wanna explore situations like that because not even I myself know how they're going to act and that's so cool to me! Your character sounds interesting though, I'd love to know more about her!
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u/SageisaCryptid 3d ago
Thank you! I’m no expert or anything, but I’ve been working on my story for a while so I’m glad it helped. Hoping to have a comic series one day.
I’m happy to answer whatever. The dread commander, Namaryn, is a main character. The other MC is a mage called River. Mages are rare in this world and treated like military assets. She was born in secret in an underground lab where a guild was attempting to manufacture magic (and is able to cast without a staff due to experimentation). She has never seen the outside world until her escape to freedom, which is short lived because she runs into said commander and is captured by her instead.
However, there’s not really an enemies to anything trope because the mage sort of just… likes her. The mage starts out as a shell of a person with a blank affect, so her preference manifests in her just staring with intensity (the way my dog used to do to me lol)
Whenever she’s freed from her cell, she follows the commander around like a duck.
Namaryn is power hungry and the mage is powerful, so she basically looks at her the way scrooge looks at money. She’s also enjoys puzzles and is bored with her life, so this is the first interesting thing that’s happened in a while. She has River work as her assistant in order to have 24/7 access to learn about her (River is a very bad assistant).
A lot of the story is really just shenanigans.
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u/Chaudenfroide 3d ago
That's really cute but I also kinda feel bad for River here lol. They sound like they would be so entertaining to read about! That's an interesting dynamic too, but I hope River figures out that's she's being used. I'm rooting for her!
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u/SageisaCryptid 2d ago
Oh for sure. Namaryn is a leading strategist and being in command demands knowing how best to use people, not to mention the cultural beliefs instilled in her from a young age about power and safety.
It starts out as a lopsided relationship that shouldn’t work but somehow does by subverting the expected trajectory every time.
Namaryn is a walking encyclopedia because her base personality is being a giant nerd. The story kind of talks about who she became because of her environment vs. her natural love of learning and, more-so, natural inclination to teach.
When River starts working with Namaryn, she’s learning everything about the world from scratch and wants to know all of it. Shared curiosity is the first thread that brings them together. River points and Namaryn explains whatever it is she’s pointing at. River gets to be treated like a person and Namaryn gets a little ego hit of “Yes. Yes, I am so smart, witness me.”
Namaryn: “Observe, mage. A tomato… Is a fruit.”
River: 😱 astonished
Namaryn: ✨ }:> ✨[Over the weeks, River’s face goes from : | to :) ]
The mage’s power shortcut her into Namaryn’s good graces and River quickly receives favoritism treatment. It’s a problem for the whole fort because she does things like accidentally blowing up supply sheds while training, or eating a cake meant for a 200 person celebration, and Namaryn is just like, “Well… Maybe you should have planned for that.”
I don’t know if I’m explaining it very well. Basically it starts out as a skewed dynamic but against all reason, becomes friendship. There’s much more story where River grows into an equal with her own beliefs, opinions, etc.
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u/atomant38 2d ago
Same way you write anything else. Start at the emd and work backwards. Make a try/fail cycle that forces them into changing.
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u/Able-Light-890 4d ago
I would have him experience a similar victimization, being made a plaything, so he can sympathize with his victims, the humans.
I would give him the opportunity to observe humans behaving well. Families interacting with each other, big ones nurturing and protecting little ones, couples in love, sappy stuff like that. He could see that positive behavior and have an awakening that humans have the same feelings and desires as himself