The Psychology of Things — Article IV: The Importance of Comfort Characters & Why They Genuinely Matter.
“It stops being fictional, when the characters affect you in real ways.”
-Preface-
Have you ever questioned the relatability of actual people? Perhaps once, you might have been deceived by someone you once knew or trusted for a certain period of time, inevitably before that faithful ‘bridge burned’. More often than not, we feel stuck in a sociological or psychological position scrambling for answers for something, anything we can truly confide in.
Greatly surpassing that of normal human understanding to a certain justifiable extent — we now live in a day and age where characters in various media can be more powerful, relatable, and even more reliable setpieces to be inspired by day to day. It may not seem believable at first by any means. From personal experience, and all over the world, ‘comfort characters’ as the term has been coined, can be massive inspirational breakthrough points for us in our daily lives. All completely dependent on the lense that chooses to view it.
-I- Surface Level Misinterpretations
According to the full definition coined by UrbanDictionary, comfort characters are:
To those unfaithful and who choose to purposely misunderstand, comfort characters fall under this incredibly personal and powerful category of inspiration all on their own. This becomes easily targetable to misinterpretation or misunderstanding if their character happens to be explicitly ‘attractive’ and people provoke such shallow meanings such as: “simping”, “waifu” or anything else remotely sexual. When in truth, these characters have genuinely saved their lives and helped keep them grounded mentally day to day as something to look up to. UrbanDictionary also confirms on such an expectation as well, in the bottom half of the additional meanings shown here:
Comfort Characters can be as ‘deep’ or as ‘shallow’ as the person chooses to see. If it gets misconstrued under their own volition because of some vernacular or jargon they unknowingly used, the genuine value of it becomes muddled. I have heard many deep and personal life-changing stories as to why these characters can be such powerful ‘inflection points’, ‘roots of inspiration’, forms of ‘strength’ to get through the day. We are here to discuss all sorts of testimonies and my own personal perspective on how incredibly significant this all is and why it is always worth protecting.
-II- The ‘Anchors’ That Keep Us Grounded
From a precursory glance, ‘comfort characters’ probably just seem as ordinary as any other inspirational fictional character would be but — you would be greatly mistaken at the gravity of what they can truly accomplish. I have personally spoken to lots of dear friends apart from myself and heard so many incredible testimonies about how their ‘comfort characters’ were always the leverage, that driving force, to keep them going when times were tough for them in reality.
“If it wasn’t for Milla Maxwell, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Whenever reality shatters our expectations of the reliability and trust of ‘real’ people, ‘comfort characters’ have been proven to be incredibly genuine points to help us stay ‘grounded’ when others failed. From a technical standpoint, the ludonarrative harmonization given from their ‘comfort character’ in relation to themselves becomes these undying threads that help grasp and fight off the bitter ends of reality. Ludonarrative is another frequently used game design term describing: “the player’s ‘story’ of the character or game’s story.” Essentially their own personal interpretation as to what the narrative was trying to tell them, but in their own words and tone. That ‘story to tell’ also becomes a massive breaking point to reflect on yourself personally, depending on what direction that narrative went and how it stuck.
-III- Inflection Points
Another powerful point of conversation among ‘comfort characters’ was how much of ‘inflection points’ they can be. Inflection or Inflection Points — signify massive decision pulls or turns in somebody’s life unexpectedly. When ‘comfort characters’ first surface themselves to somebody, they can unknowingly not know the entire impact that they can have due to their relatability, story, and so on. Like a mirror looking inward on oneself, when people begin to see small, noticeable traces of a character in themselves, they start to realize how much they want to change for the better just like their ‘comfort character’ would grow.
Be weary, that inspiration can be as broad as how a character expresses their kindness to the world, has a gentle heart, or just perseveres like no one else. If there is any form of root to leverage, it’s worth it, because they are able to find something tangible, and believable to latch onto. One of the most insightful statements was that, once a certain character reaches a level of inspiration where they affect you in actuality, it’s not ‘fictional’ anymore. It doesn’t have to be, because you stand your ground firmly beside this notion.
The entire concept that someone, something gives you ‘something’ to believe in is what makes comfort characters ever so important in this day and age. Imagine if no one else could, if it wasn’t for their existence? Circling back to the previous statement noted, this can only be possible if the person chooses to believe so, otherwise it will just be some other ‘disposable’ fictional character written off like any other. There has to be some tangible believability, and the person in tune with it has to be willing to stand for it too.
-III- Roots of Inspiration
In broad strokes, the way, the manner, the tone, a character expresses themselves and how that impacts you in even the most slightest way — can be considered raw inspiration. If it changes you, just because you thought about how ‘they’ would act given how a situation would be hypothetically, is the reason they exist. As the original definition states, they give you this ‘comfort’ so that they be used as tangible, coping mechanisms during such rough ‘seasons’ in your life, or even move you.
As a note from my own personal testimony and story — Shionne Vymer Imeris Daymore, the main heroine from the recent, critically acclaimed, JRPG of the Year, entitled ‘Tales of Arise’ went though this massive breakthrough of reaching out to others. In her own narrative, through her own ‘personal strength’ as I call it, she prevented all forms of contact and refused to be near others and in truth, protect them, but she became lonely. Although, this costed her all the interactions she desired, and the relationships she always wanted to build. Shionne eventually learned that she had to stop being selfish and trust what others wanted for her, besides what she just desired.
This can be mirrored by me in recency, where I felt ‘alone’ for most of the time with where I was, even given the circumstances on social media. I talked about things I loved passionately but no one to hear me out — and it became dreadful and lonely. Think of a bright fire but nowhere for fire to bring any warmth or protection anywhere, it just existed, and was. It took me a similar step, to reach out to people much like Shionne did and it became life changing. These are the exact characteristics as to how a ‘comfort character’ can be extremely personal and impactful under any circumstances, because of our own stories and testimonies. It’s powerful because it’s something tangible, it’s something relatable.
-IV- The Space In Between
Now, just to be one hundred percent transparent, comfort characters are not categorized as some form of ‘religion’, ‘occult belief’, etc. but they do justifiably fall under whatever the person wants to believe. It can be weird, awkward, or even extremely off-putting to anyone to put so much ‘faith’ or just genuine trust in a character. As I say, pretty much every single time:
“It’s as deep or as shallow as you want it to be.” If it becomes something silly, or an easy target of insulting others, that’s all your own fault for interpreting it under that lense.
These characters can hold a plethora of meaning to so many people, so please always be mindful of how you go about understanding it. For the sake of protecting the meaning of them as well as those who hold them so dear. For some, it probably falls on ‘deaf’ ears because it can seem so ‘unbelievable’ that something like that could even be possible, but it is, it just requires you to open your mind and widen your lense a little more.
-V- Conclusion
So…maybe you still don’t believe any of this? Perhaps it’s too hard to believe such a thing is possible? Well, do not worry, because there are lots of people that are in this ‘gray space’ about how to feel about such an ever-growing phenomenon. Just keep in mind, that these ‘comfort characters’, and the people attached to them and whatever stories people have to tell, have an open mind and heart when hearing them out. It would be a shame to call them ‘comfort characters’ as they are if we did not confide in them so frequently.
Maybe you just haven’t found one yet.
[Writer’s Note: Thank you so much for reading this much needed article on why comfort characters matter so much to me and to others! I tried my hardest to get out of every single type of interpretation and form of strength or inspiration they can provide to us. So I hope you enjoyed and gained some insight as well, there are just so many out there and so many stories attached to them.]
