Hey, I'm just wondering if my characters seem well rounded. They are from a story I hope to get published so I want to make sure they are good. Yes. Some of them are Nazis, but I DO NOT support any Nazi ideals. Main character- Standartenführer Bertram Herz- age: 47. Platinum blond hair. Pale blue eyes. 6'1". Icy, harsh, not well liked by anyone except Gabriël. Will shoot anyone to prove a point. Prone to violent rages. Does have a soft spot for Gerald, as he feels bad for his poor assistant. People just don't like him. A good leader. Feels no remorse except when he kills Gerald, which leaves him a broken man. Brigadeführer Gabriël Von Amstel- age: 54. Blonde hair, blue eyes. 6'. Bertram'a old mentor and only friend. Snarky, sarcastic, has a slightly pompous attitude. An alcoholic, has seen some of the worst fighting of the war and can't cope with what he's done. Sometimes enjoys others pain. Uterbannführer Gerald Schmidt- age 28. Sandy blonde hair, dark blue eyes. 5'10". Shy, socially awkward, submissive, terrified of everything and everyone. Bertram's assistant, gets bossed around and does nothing. A mischling, half Jew, and is a traitor to the Nazi's for the resistance movement. Helen O'Brien- age 33. Brown hair, hazel eyes. 5'3". The co-leader of the resistance movement. Like steel, only cares about killing Bertram. Driven by revenge. Can be kind, has a slight crush on Gerald an wants to help him a much as possible. Devestated when he dies and that only fuels her drive for revenge. Janusz Sandowski-age 38. Black hair, dark brown eyes. 5'11". A Polish Jew, whose wife and son were killed by Bertram. Wants him dead as well. Has two emotions, basically, anger and sadness. Not a happy man, and won't be until he has killed Bertram. Sturmbannführer Jochim Reitcher- age 36. Brown hair, blue eyes. 5'11". The power hungry second in command. Rebelious, not a great leader, not even a great soldier. Doesn't mind that Bertram has people out to kill him, would gladly kill Bertram himself.
They could be, but only the writing itself will tell. A character is not a set of attributes. A character is shown through the story he or she inhabits.
No. No character would sound interesting in such brief descriptions. Put them in situations that challenge them and see how they deal with it. Then they might be interesting.
I hope there is more to the characters than just that sentence. If there is, then we can't really judge whether they're well rounded, and if there isn't, then they aren't well rounded. Let us see a rough draft of the story to judge character depth.
Sorry, it's really hard to say one way or the other. The descriptions are so brief. Seeing them in a situation would speak much more about them.
I notice that _all_ of your men are above average height. Average height for an American male right now is 5'10"; I'd guess that fifty years ago German males would be shorter than that. And while these are soldiers, I don't think that every German soldier would be extra tall. I realize that this sounds like a terribly trivial point, but it makes me wonder if perhaps you're making these characters a little overpowered, and risking slipping into stereotypes. And I'm afraid that your characters fit pretty neatly into stereotypes - Classic Movie Nazi, Cringing Broken Man, Noble Broken Man, Resentful Incompetent Underling, and so on. I'm sure that they can be more than those stereotypes, but right now that's how they're reading to me. ChickenFreak
These are just facebook profiles or dating site profiles. Set me a date with them through your writing, only then I'll be able to tell you if I like them or not.
They seem like quite 'well rounded' (well for being nazis) caricatures of real people. Going back to the dating site example, i've never met someone whose myspace profile truly did them justice, same with your MCs. They seem interesting enough, but that's not saying much given the lack of context. No point in reiterating what everyone else has said, so yeah.
