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Question: Most essential characteristic of good characters in your opinion!?
What makes a character appealing to you - do you value intelligence in villains, or ruthlessness!? In your heroes, is it strength of will, humour, courage, intelligence, what!? In your heroines is it principles, strength or humor!? I know that it takes a special mixture of all these types of characteristics to create a good character, but which is the MOST essential for you!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The villain of a story needs to be someone that is human!. He can't be someone that is purely evil because no one can relate to it!. The villain has to be someone that people can start to relate to but then feel sympathetic about all the stuff that he/she had to go through!. It's got to be a lifestyle that would actually turn the villain to adopt their current mindset!.

The hero/heroine also has to be a character that most people can relate to!. If you fail to create a connection between your reader and one of your main characters the reader will leave your story behind!. They need to be human as well, they can't be some indestructible, unbreakable character that isn't afraid of anything or has no emotions!. They need to show human emotions so you can relate to the struggle that they endure to complete their journey, whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

In my opinion a good character thinks and acts beyond the horizon of the common place, a good character thinks beyond life and thinks the gift of life is for fulfilling karma, to become a Buddha of sorts!.!.!.!.a good character does good things beyond the norm, he always puts more money in the salvation army pot, he takes street people home for supper, he doesn't like one religion because he is universal, understanding that there are many roads to the Great Old One!.!.!.he is one who never thinks to save himself before he risks saving another!.!.!.a good character is metaphysical and believes in cause and effect and a hidden purpose for all of us, and that we are here to chose between the forces of good and evil, all are compelled there is no escape!.!.!.!.Anyway, that's the character of the novel I am currently writing!.!.A good character for me overkills good to the max!.!.!.!.!.hope this helps clink!.!.!.just put another coin in the pot!.!.!.!.!.!.PS!.!.!.!.for evil characters!.!.!.!.they can't be evil enough, just as smart as God or Sherlock Holmes, no conscience whatsoever and will pee or dump in their mother's casket if given a chance, they run out of basement space to bury dead bodies, eat human flesh and so on !.!.!. I could blah blah on this forever!.!.!.!.PS, in my mind, overkill is best for any character !.!.!.!.!.like a forgetful one who forgets where he lives, his phone number and his life is constant search for anything he always loses!.!.!.good questionWww@QuestionHome@Com

Essential to a villian is the fact that he is not 100 percent evil!. I like to make my villians real people who are capable of love and other human emotions!. also, I need a reason as to why he/she is evil!.!.

The hero!? Courage or at least, a willingness to fight for what they believe in regardless of whether or not they are afraid!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

In villians, I value intellignece, though ruthlessness makes me take them seriously!. For me, a good hero must have good and bad qualities!. For example, having courage and strength of will, but no motivation!. Or humor and a sense of justice, but no common sense!. I want a realistic character!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I like an intelligent character who isn't perfect and isn't flat!. That's why I usually like the villain better than the hero--authors usually don't bother to explain why a character is good, but they spend a lot of time on why the antagonist is not!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

in villains i like kinda a psychotic way of thinking like they laugh when people suffer kind of thing!.
in heroes i like a witty sense of humor and i like them to be very sarcastic!. kinda like a dr!. house kind of thing!.Www@QuestionHome@Com