1. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2018
    Messages:
    753
    Likes Received:
    382

    Have I Properly Addressed My Character's Fatal Flaw?

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by LastMindToSanity, Apr 8, 2021.

    So, my main character's flaw is that she doesn't want to be who she is. She was born from the planet itself (Magical miracle nonsense) as the being who would destroy the Big Bad, but she hates it. She knows that, if she did go fight him, they'd both die, and she doesn't want to. She wants to live, so she lies about what she is, and allows the Big Bad to run rampant until someone else takes care of him. This is really bad, as she knows that her own existence means that there isn't anyone else alive who could do it, so she's intentionally letting him do whatever he wants because she wants to live. This changes when her friend is kidnapped and she goes on a violent rampage, killing the Big Bad's generals and forcing him to flee from her. After this, she then runs away from everyone who saw her do it, including the friend, and changes her identity, running away once more.

    This leads to more problems with new generals threatening her new friends, and her first friend being held captive for about a year as bait. This does push her to finally act and face the Big Bad, but with allies. She manages to survive the fight, her friends do as well, and the first friend is saved. Albeit with many innocent lives taken, as well as the lasting mental problems that another main character developed because of the Big Bad killing one of his friends.

    The idea is that her deliberate inaction has hurt a great many people, and she has to deal with that. She has to live the rest of her life as "The Woman Who Let the Monster Run Wild," despite being the sole reason he was killed in the first place. It's supposed to be more of an emotional failing. She wanted to escape her fate, but in the end had to follow it anyway. Stacking that with the knowledge that she's responsible for thousands of deaths on her hands (By the way, one of the generals started a war in hopes of finding more people to become generals, and she counts all of those deaths in her total).

    I'm just wanting to know what all of you think. Is this a proper way to address the character's main flaw, or do I need to do something more tangible?
     
  2. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2019
    Messages:
    12,457
    Likes Received:
    13,501
    Location:
    Way, way out there
    It sounds right to me, because it connects up directly with the central conflict of the story and is what's holding her back from doing what she must do in order to kick off the climax and complete her arc. So the whole story is basically a constant back and forth push-pull between what she must do and her flaw, which prevents her from doing it.

    That said, I'm fairly new to this whole idea of the fatal flaw, and really just studying story structure and character arcs now.
     
    LastMindToSanity likes this.
  3. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    Jan 8, 2017
    Messages:
    12,137
    Likes Received:
    19,761
    Location:
    Rhode Island
    It can be very overrated, the fatal flaw as a necessary aspect. Not all characters need to have them to the "fatal" degree (and I'm still not sure how it can be fatal if they don't die, but that's the loose term we throw about). I mean all characters have flaws, but like in real life, they're balanced by attributes. And like the rest of us, they don't need to walk around with the yoke of their flaws affecting everything they do. Not saying the OP is doing this at all, but you will see a lot of writers put an unnecessary amount of effort into developing a fatal flaw scenario that might not need to be there as much as they think.

    As for the OP's case, I think you're fine. The Chosen One who has to overcome not wanting to be the Chosen One is about as basic an archetype as you'll find anywhere. Readers will be able to vibe with that. In fact, I would be worried about overemphasizing this based on:

    which makes her fate seem deterministic, and removes some of her agency. There is a chance that character will come off as very whiny as she struggles to fight the inevitable too much (more than once I've found myself saying "Just shut up and fulfill your destiny already... I have to make dinner in a hour" out loud to a book/movie). Or on the other hand, the author may have to reach a bit to concoct enough agency to make the character interesting if an obvious destiny comes off as too "destined." Again, not saying the OP is (or will do) any of that, but it's something to be aware of.
     
    LastMindToSanity likes this.
  4. Robert Musil

    Robert Musil Comparativist Contributor

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2015
    Messages:
    1,219
    Likes Received:
    1,387
    Location:
    USA
    This sounds like a perfectly reasonable plot, but maybe to put it in more character-development terms, consider the following:

    1. What does she learn or how does she change by going through these events?
    2. What's her motivation or goal?
    2. What is the emotional valence? How does she feel during all of this?

    It sounds like she starts off feeling guilty about her inaction, but still won't do anything about it, so there's an internal conflict right there. Her first goal is to free her kidnapped friend, which she does, but it doesn't change her underlying state, as she still refuses to face up to the big bad. Finally the second kidnapping truly changes things, she defeats the big bad, and learns one or two things--that she didn't have to be a martyr, that she could let other people help her perhaps? But she also learned that all those people she let die were in vain, since her death could have been avoided anyway. How does that make her feel? That seems like a whole different kind of story, instead of the internal conflict of her guilt or the external conflict with the big bad, now she is stuck just trying to live with her actions, which she can't undo. Does she try to make amends? Run away again? Just take a Don Draper, "It'll shock you how much it didn't happen" kind of attitude?

    Hope this helps--characterization is definitely the thing I struggle with most, so I'm trying to get better at thinking through these kind of issues in general. Thanks for letting me practice on your example, ha.
     
    LastMindToSanity likes this.
  5. Not the Territory

    Not the Territory Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2019
    Messages:
    1,240
    Likes Received:
    1,674
    She ultimately learned the duties involved with facing her responsibility were different than what she thought (prophesized?). "Okay fine I'll do the dishes—oh we own a dishwasher now so I don't have to die." That late game stakes change somewhat undermines the core of her 'fatal flaw' conflict. So what's the message? Responsibilities don't actually demand sacrifice of the individual? It's even worse if that hiding time allowed her allies to build in strength or number.

    I think uncertainty that she will even win would be a more powerful deterrent. It makes her more sympathetic in that she could be throwing her life away for nothing. Personally, I'd add a few foils that have the same 'shot' at winning, so to speak. People that try and fail and die, setting a good example and making her look more selfish in the process.

    An unrelated aside on flawspeak: I've read (sometimes on here) that 'features' lend a lot more nuance than a flaw or boon. It can be a part of the character's personality that helps in some circumstances and hurts in others, and positive growth of said character may involve increasing the good and minimizing the bad aspects.
     
    LastMindToSanity likes this.
  6. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2019
    Messages:
    12,457
    Likes Received:
    13,501
    Location:
    Way, way out there
    Lol I hear ya! Though I always took the fatal part as metaphorical, that it's fatal to the character's success, and of course could be literally fatal if they don't overcome it before the big face-off.
    This is actually just different wording for the 'fatal flaw'. What she learns is to overcome the character flaw, and that's also how she changes. Thinking of it in terms of a character defect helps you focus on it being something internal and at the very core of the character, something she thinks of as a central part of herself but that's actually a problem that requires overcoming.
     
  7. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2018
    Messages:
    753
    Likes Received:
    382
    Basically, yeah. There's a bunch of other things going on with the other characters, but that's how her involvement in the story goes.


    This makes me glad, because that's what I'm going for. All of this being her destiny and her actual capabilities are only revealed in the last act of the story, and I kind of want the readers to be frustrated and kind of angry with what she did (or, didn't do?). Pretty much every other character ranges from disappointed to incredibly pissed off that she let this go on. Her inaction caused the death of a whole lot of people, and even a significant named character. She does a lot of morally dubious things throughout the story (Mostly related to being cruel when killing enemies), but this whole incident is the proverbial "F" on her report card. I do want the readers to think less of her because of it. She was supposed to do a thing, but a lot of other people suffered because she refused to.

    She's not all bad. There's several moments where she sticks her neck out for others. In one of them, she actually risks her life for the first time for no other reason than pure heroism.

    As to the deterministic thing... kinda, yeah. She is the only person with the knowledge of the Big Bad and the abilities to be able to beat him. There are a couple of other characters who do match her in sheer power, one of which being the dead character from earlier, but the Big Bad is too intelligent to let power by itself determine the winner. She really doesn't have any agency with the whole thing, but does manage to force some by training up her friend group and playing a more support/suppression role rather than being the main powerhouse, which does result in their victory. It kind of works along the lines of the Prophecy being just vague enough to get multiple technically accurate outcomes.
     
  8. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2018
    Messages:
    753
    Likes Received:
    382
    I have a few planned, one of which essentially unleashed the equivalent of a ballistic missile in the Big Bad's face. The villain is also fairly intelligent, so I don't think it'd be too hard to write it being a toss up as to who would actually win.


    the idea for the theme was something like: "Yes, you can push off your responsibilities for someone else to take care of it, but the consequences of doing so can't be taken back." It's more of an exaggeration as to why you should take care of your figurative skeletons, rather than let them rot and start to stink up your closet.
     
  9. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2018
    Messages:
    753
    Likes Received:
    382
    And that's why I was worried in the first place. It's such a story that's right there, but it doesn't fit in with the rest of the narrative! It's so frustrating, and I'm not too keen on writing a whole other thing as to their lives afterwards, as that's not really my "area" as a writer. That sounds like a cop out, but I don't know if I could tell a compelling emotional drama.

    She would want to run away, but pushes from at least one of her friends would make her stay and try to make things better.
     
  10. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2021
    Messages:
    6,260
    Likes Received:
    5,506
    I read the description with interest and really like the premise.

    "She knows that, if she did go fight him, they'd both die, and she doesn't want to."

    But she survives after killing him? Hmm. That kinda bothers me. I guess I want her to suck it up and die as expected instead of wiggling out of her fate. Of course, I was disgusted with Harry Potter returning to life, so my preference in endings is probably fatally flawed and not to be trusted.
     
  11. Kalisto

    Kalisto Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2015
    Messages:
    975
    Likes Received:
    995
    Let me tell you what I like about this and then you can decide if you like it or not:

    You treated her flaw like it was. A flaw. A lot of times people put flaws in with little to no consequence. You're not glorifying it. And it's actually a serious flaw with actually ramifications that fits with the story's overarching narrative. Not this half asked "Oh, she's just a really hard worker..." or "She's a little standoffish." You know, when authors do these really half baked flaws because they're too afraid people might not like their main character, instead of trusting their audience.
     

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice