1. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

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    How to Disfigure a Cute Character

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by LastMindToSanity, Apr 18, 2018.

    Okay, so in the Second Act of my story, one of my main characters, she's the youngest and is the "cute one", gets in a fight with the Big Bad's four underlings. She manages to defeat three of them, but can't take down the fourth. This fourth underling then proceeds to electrocute one half of her body with lightning, causing lightning scars on that side, and burn the other half, also scarring that side. This permanently scars her body, erasing that whole "cute one" status. It's not meant to bother her all that much, she grew up in a society where looks don't matter, at least she's still alive. This is meant to upset a couple of the other characters. This is important because it visually signifies that this character is different than when she started. She's also the bruiser of the group, and I personally think that bruisers and scars go together like the three animals from Homeward Bound. Oh right, it's also meant to show how she keeps going, doesn't matter if she's hurt or not.

    I just want to know, how do I handle this? I don't really have experience with disfigurement so I'm kind of working with a blind spot here. Is this overall unnecessary?
     
  2. DeusXMachina

    DeusXMachina Member

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    First of all and honestly, I have difficulties to take a character seriously that is defined solely by their cuteness.

    But if she herself doesn't mind the scars very much, she has probably a different self-perception than just being cute right from the start. There's potential for conflict between her and others who reduce her to that trait. OTOH, don't overdo it with the "not minding too much" - extensive scars of the scale you described hurt, permanently and chronically, and they will be a hindrance to her, no matter what she thinks of the optical disfigurement.

    I think it's pivotal how other characters react to her. Do they pity her? Are they disgusted? Perhaps they don't take her seriously as a fighter any more? Do they pamper her? Even if she doesn't mind the scars, she will have to react to these sentiments.
     
  3. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

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    First, she doesn't define herself by her cuteness, but it does hurt how the other characters see her. For the First and Second Acts, the other characters see her a child that needs to be taken care of and kept out of harm's way.

    OTOH, don't overdo it with the "not minding too much" - extensive scars of the scale you described hurt, permanently and chronically, and they will be a hindrance to her, no matter what she thinks of the optical disfigurement.


    I will take this advice and kindly thank you for it. I hadn't thought of that.

    I think it's pivotal how other characters react to her. Do they pity her? Are they disgusted? Perhaps they don't take her seriously as a fighter any more? Do they pamper her? Even if she doesn't mind the scars, she will have to react to these sentiments.

    I'll take this advice as well. Man, I'm really glad I asked about this, there were a lot of things I hadn't initially considered. Thanks for the help!
     
  4. Indigo Abbie

    Indigo Abbie Member

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    I suppose a lot of things in stories are unnecessary, but without bits like that thrown in as an author's choice then stories would be bland. The thing that causes it to be necessary in my opinion is what you do with it. Something like that would change the character and its force within the story could be heavy. You could create an endearing or invigorating moment for her.

    Why does it upset them? You could do a lot with this to show personalities of the other characters. Maybe her vain teammate found her attractive once but is now upset because she's no longer physically appealing to them. Perhaps someone is even more driven to defeat the baddies now because of what they did to their friend. Or it brings out the compassionate side of another as they treat her wounds throughout her whole healing process or attempt to help her through feelings she has surrounding the experience.

    Then ask how would she respond? Would she blow off the first person because she could not bothered give a single damn about his perception of her now? Would she be angry that someone else is motivated to fight on her behalf because she believes revenge is hers or she does not want to seek revenge? Would she be put off by the compassionate one and reject their help or would it open her up to a stronger friendship?

    Good luck! The possibilities are endless.
     
  5. GlitterRain7

    GlitterRain7 Galaxy Girl Contributor

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    This is really true. Anything can happen with this situation.
    Honestly, sometimes the unnecessary things are necessary. I agree with what @Indigo Abbie said above.
    I see two things you have to cover. How the character herself feels about her disfigurement and how others feel about it. Stemming from that, you can take the story anywhere.
    As for gaining some insight on what it’s actually like to be disfigured, I’d say just research disfigurement. I’m sure there’s some people out there who are disfigured that have wrote about it online. That has the potential to give you valuable insight.
     
  6. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    Um... I think if someone is hurt and disfigured the way you describe it would definitely affect them a lot more than you are allowing it to affect your character. It makes no sense that she wouldn't be really mind the outcome. And I would think something this traumatic would affect her in a hell of a lot more ways than just shedding "the cute one" status. I don't think your character's reaction is very realistic from the way you've said here.
     
  7. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

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    Well, the reason is that she was born and raised in a place where these kinds of things can happen to anyone. She grew up in a very hostile and dangerous place, and saw these things happen to people all the time, so she's used to seeing it. Yeah, she'll be affected by it, but she'll stay fairly calm because these kinds of things are normal in her eyes. But, I see your point. There's no way for her to know how it feels, so I ahould take that initial reaction into account in the future.

    Thanks for the advice. That goes for everyone else, as well.
     
  8. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    On the question of it not affecting her, you seem to be focusing on whether she cares that she's not-cute. But she's also going to look like "not herself". Whether her identity is in any way tied to being cute, it's still an identity; looking in the mirror and perhaps barely recognizing her own face would surely be a pretty big deal.
     
  9. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Not to mention some form of PTSD. Even if the lasting physical pain is manageable and her new appearance doesn't bother her too much, she's most likely going to have issues with electricity, the smell of ozone, the smell of bacon, open flame.

    I accidentally knelt of a lit piece of charcoal when I was about 13. Third degree burn on my knee, hurt like fucking hell. The scar is gone now, but I am still very shy of hot things, I'll tap the handle of the kettle three or four times to make sure it hasn't heated up, hate even the slightest brush of my knuckles against the side of the oven. The amount of initial pain you're describing is going to leave her one messed up puppy, in all likelihood.
     
  10. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    So cooked on the inside, with some burns and singeing?
    Should be lucky to be alive.
    May or may not really want to get back in the fight due
    to trauma (both types) after the whole affair.
    If it is a common thing to worry about, then that will
    play a factor as well. Though most would walk away
    after having it happen to them, unless they are stubborn,
    or have a really damn good reason to go and ask for seconds.
    If they are untrained as a warrior or soldier, chances are
    they are not going to be in a big hurry to ask for more.
    And even then it falls down to being stubborn, and unable
    to care or simply admit that it isn't their cup of tea.

    So gonna go with severe trauma, leading to acute PTSD,
    and a not too willing to go and get zapped again mentality.
    Definitely not going to just walk it off, what she has been through,
    nor would she feel compelled to do it a second time.
     
  11. The Dapper Hooligan

    The Dapper Hooligan (V) ( ;,,;) (v) Contributor

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    Yeah, from how it's been described, PTSD or some kind of emotional problems stemming from the attack are more likely to be a problem for your character than just being 'not-cute' Like you said, appearances don't really matter in her society, so the scars themselves, as you say, wouldn't bother her and probably wouldn't bother her friends. She's a bruiser, and she and her friends probably expected her to get pretty scarred at some point, so it doesn't make sense to me that they would be the friends primary emotional trigger. But being a bruiser, up until that point, she was probably never in a position of complete helplessness and that can be pretty psychologically devastating. She could be fighting fear, feelings of failure and uncertainty, or even massive amounts of guilt if she felt people were hurt because she wasn't able to defeat this guy. Likewise her friends, while probably somewhat upset about the scarring, are probably more upset about the changes that are happening to her while she copes with these problems, they probably, too have feelings of guilt and failure at not being able to help their friend in her time of need. The lot of them may take issue with the scars, but less because of their anti-aesthetic qualities and more because they're a reminder of their lowest point. The time when they were in the Belly of the Whale. Which, for me at least, would make for better motivation than her just being not cute anymore.
     
  12. 123456789

    123456789 Contributor Contributor

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    If by "cute" you mean very attractive, I think she's going to notice when people suddenly start treating her in a manner she's never been treated before.
     
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  13. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

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    Damn, guess I missed a lot when I thought about it originally. Thanks for all the advice, I'm sure this'll all help make my story better.
     
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  14. Indigo Abbie

    Indigo Abbie Member

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    I think the conversation this thread opens up is super interesting and to be honest it's helpful for myself as well.

    In my story both the main character and his best friend deal with moderate to extreme burns in their own way. I'm also by no means a professional, quite the opposite really, I'm just a fellow writer, but maybe if you'd think it would help @LastMindToSanity I could elaborate on my character's responses and the route I chose to go because of their injuries. Granted, it's very much an in progress story and things may and will probably evolve. Perhaps I could get some input on a closely related case and you could receive some ideas or inspiration.
     
  15. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

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    If you want to share, I'm always willing to listen to another opinion. Would you want to listen to some of possible reactions from my characters as well? And maybe we could compare notes.
     
  16. Indigo Abbie

    Indigo Abbie Member

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    In my story the protagonist has problems with sun poisoning. The story is set in a Colonial era and medicine is not believed in. It's controlled by a deranged church-defector that became convinced Edgar's condition was an indication of evil. From my research sun poisoning can result from polymorphic light eruption (an allergy to the sun), or from severe sunburns. In Edgar's case it's the latter. He rarely receives proper treatment aside from cold water and after one case in which he was burned severely due to punishment by exposure for roughly twenty-four to thirty hours. I did a fair bit of research into actual side effects of sun poisoning as well and they're fairly awful. Logically following his punishment he had a down time of about a week for recovery.

    Besides obvious pains, how does this effect him? He constantly has blister scars on his arms, legs, back, neck, and face. This is on top of the fact he's unusually tall and appears gaunt. He represses jealousy towards his best friend, though it does surface once. Overall, Edgar does not care much for his appearance simply because his life mission is focused on using what he has inside; he's intelligent, devout, and compassionate. His conflict with his physical state is an external one and does not have an arch or ending as it's a forever condition.

    On the other hand Edgar's best friend Joseph is considerably attractive, but morally bankrupt. He had no perceived physical flaws except a deformed wrist from a break that never healed properly. When he became old enough, he had a metal bracer melded around his arm to conceal it. During the beginning of the story, a freak accident occurs in which he and Edgar became trapped in a burning cellar. Edgar escaped with minor burns to his hands, but Joseph was burned from one side of his face, starting around the cheek area, down to his torso.

    How did this effect him? Joseph played it off for quite a long time, even tossing a comment to Edgar that he was almost as ugly as him. Eventually his true feelings come out during a heated argument with Edgar. He feels bitter and cheated because of how temporary his physical "perfection." Joseph was more angry at himself that he had been vain and never found anything to fight for or believe in like Edgar had, so once his looks went he no longer felt like a person.

    Joseph's conflict was an emotional one. His burns had been bad, but he was not completely deformed like he made himself out to sound. It's meant to capitalize that even though other's regard his condition as easily healed and gotten past, the world crumbled for him. After some time he comes to terms with it and sees that there was more to life than what he could gain from engaging in vacuous pleasures. (I'm not teaching a moral, it's just how things turned out for him.)

    For sure, share away! :)
     
  17. LastMindToSanity

    LastMindToSanity Contributor Contributor

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    Sure. May, the object of this post, has always had to deal with her friends treating her like a kid that needs to be protected. There was one character who saw her as their equal, but he's dead at this point. The problem is, for the entirety of the story up until this point, May's been trying to prove to her friends that she's their equal and that she doesn't want to be treated like a child. Things were looking good by the end of the Second Act, she had grown a lot stronger on her own, she had fought off the Big Bad's underlings several times, and she was on her way to rescue the leader of their team. As she was undergoing that rescue, however, she found herself fighting the Big Bad's main four underlings, while the leader is unable to help. She manages to beat three of them, but the fourth one completely overwhelmed her and caused the scarring. Now, this wouldn't be too big of a problem, if not for the visual reminder that, in her own eyes, she actually isn't their equal. Now, her character is one that suppresses emotions that they don't know how to deal with, so she does. This eventually leads to her getting into a fight with the leader with the intention of proving to the leader, as well as to herself, that she's their equal. During this fight, they both discover that May has developed a fear of both lightning and fire (The leader can directly control these things), and the fight is called off. The leader forces May to acknowledge her suppressed emotions and they move on from there, with May slowly getting better as the days continue. The leader acknowledges May's strength to keep moving and starts to see May as her equal.

    Now, May has a brother, and that brother controls lightning. This is a problem as May is now unintentionally afraid of her brother (She isn't scared of the leader because her brother's been using lightning for as long as she can remember, but the leader just recently got the ability.). After some trying, the brother realizes that he can't force May to not be afraid of him, so he resigns himself to disgruntled acceptance that his sister will be afraid of him for the foreseeable future. Along with another character, he is a strong advocate for May leaving the team.

    There's one more character, and she doesn't really care about May's disfigurement. Hold on, because it's not in a positive way. She just realizes that they live in a dangerous world, and are undergoing an especially dangerous task, as well as the fact that May's the kind to get into fights easily, so it was inevitable that May would get hurt in a serious way at some point. I don't think I want her to be entirely dismissive, she does care about her friends, after all. So she'll probably be a strong advocate for permanently removing May from the team, in an effort to prevent more serious injuries. This stance irritates May, and they got into a lot of arguments at first. Later, however, it becomes a sort of joke for them, especially once May does retire at the end of the Third Act.

    The Big Bad loves what happened to May. He sees May as such a non-issue, that he never seriously considered her a threat. So for someone as insignificant as May to directly oppose him, well serious pain was the only outcome she deserved. During their final confrontation, he attempts to get May to slip up by emotionally attacking her injuries, but this only serves to get May to fight harder.

    May has nightmares about the scarring. I took into account the fact that, despite growing up in a culture where these kinds of things her common, she herself would have no way to know what it felt like, so she would probably get a bit traumatized by the whole experience. Her left arm (On that side hit by lightning) has a twitch that'll happen once in a while. While her entire right side is has deep second degree burn scars. She's developed a fear of lightning and fire and shows no signs of getting over it by the end of the Third Act. She's unconsciously afraid of her brother, a fact that only serves to upset her, but tries hard to interact with him normally. Her confidence took a gigantic drop after the incident, but she managed to get most of it back by the end of the Third Act. Her fighting style became more defense-focused at first, but reverted back to an all-out strategy later. She doesn't like reflective surfaces as her body reminds her of her biggest failure. She started wearing longer clothes to cover her limbs. There was a tattoo on her right arm that attached her to the dead guy I mentioned earlier, but she couldn't get it reapplied in the same spot, so she settled for putting on her left arm instead. I'll probably have her feel pain-flashes, but I'm not sure on that part. Most of her confidence issues are settled when she beats the Big Bad into the ground at the end of the Third Act.

    So, yeah, I think that about sums it up. I took everyone's suggestions, as well as my own research into the subject, to put together what I believe their reactions would most likely be. I would appreciate any criticisms on it.

    With regards to Indigo Abbie

    All that sounds quite interesting and logical. I didn't know that light poisoning was a thing, and it sounds very interesting. I like how you have both an external and internal conflict concerning issues that are fairly similar, it really highlights the difference between your two characters.
     
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  18. Indigo Abbie

    Indigo Abbie Member

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    Ooh that bit is interesting, I see some neat scenes that could wriggle into. I could tell you took a lot of advice into consideration as well which is a nice response, for some creators it can be totally impossible to receive advice or critique no matter how helpful even if they asked for it. I think your story sounds pretty cool and like it'll be a good read, seems to have a blend of actions and character interaction and development as well.
     
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  19. Homer Potvin

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

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    How does someone get sun poisoning in the Colonial era when every square inch of their body is covered in those ridiculous clothes?
     
  20. Indigo Abbie

    Indigo Abbie Member

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    Perhaps I should have elaborated, most of the sun poisoning through his life has been minor and he's had an odd habit of testing the limits of his condition out of curiosity or self-spite. As it is Colonial times and the town is set up in a way where currency does not exist and they live to provide for the community, a certain amount of farm labor is expected from him being the only male in his household. I reasoned that it would be near impossible for him to totally avoid exposure. Apparently you can sunburn within fifteen minutes of exposure though it could be hours before it shows. (A sad reason for my pasty self to load up on sunscreen from now on...)

    The incident I mentioned in which he was exposed for twenty-four to thirty hours came from being stripped down and chained in the town's punishment center. The Reverend, the antagonist, claimed it was to verify that his condition was not brought on by demons and was natural, but it could have been used as a method to inflict unique abuse. For someone especially vulnerable to sunburning and poisoning, that would indeed be detrimental.

    Your comment totally made me laugh though. :rofl:
     

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