Creating Characters With Real Flaws
Anyone who knows anything about writing will tell you that compelling characters are supposed to have flaws. Real people have flaws, so they generally can’t relate to a perfect character with no issues unless said person is a delusional narcissist who sees themselves in that perfect character.
Now, unless a character is supposed to be perfect in some fictional setting for a narrative purpose, you’ll find that most characters out there do have flaws, but there’s a catch: far too many of them have “flaws” instead of real flaws.
What’s the difference? Well you see, real flaws have a real impact on the character and the story. Maybe their arrogance leads to other people getting hurt. Perhaps their penchant for spitefulness leads them to emotionally scar the ones they care about. Maybe a personal vice causes them to waste valuable opportunities or potential.
“Flaws” on the other hand, are superficial things tacked onto a character’s existence, through which the writer pretends they have created a character with actual weaknesses to make them feel more like people. In reality, “flaws” are a smokescreen to hide the fact that their character is too perfect.
You can identify “flaws” by the way they fail to have any significant impact on anything in the story. Maybe the protagonist has trust issues, but that somehow never affects their relationships or the story. Maybe they are impulsive and don’t think carefully about what they are going to do, but that impulsiveness never sets them back in any way. Perhaps they lack confidence, but still manage to succeed in all of their endeavors.
This type of thing is a serious problem for shonen characters in particular. What are Naruto’s flaws? That he’s impulsive and reckless? Somehow, those traits effectively never manage to set him back in any way, except in completely arbitrary and temporary ways that don’t really cause any problems: and without those “flaws” there’s literally no other downsides to his character. He holds no grudges, forgives the most heinous people just out of the kindness of his heart, and manages to be the nicest, kindest person in the whole world without presenting even an inkling of personal darkness (they tried to pretend he had a dark side at some point, but he blew past that pretty damn quickly).
At that point, he’s less a character and more just a manifestation of ideals. How is anyone supposed to relate to a character that’s so kind, so forgiving, so understanding that he gives Jesus a run for his money, especially when he’s got no real flaws to counter all of his perfection?
It’s not just shonen and anime though: this kind of poor characterization happens everywhere. Sometimes it’s used as a power trip fantasy. If you’ve watched Star Wars, it’s pretty easy to see this issue in, say, Rey (shocker, right?) What are her “flaws?” That she’s insecure? That she’s obsessed with her identity? A lack of confidence? A lack of control? Cool, great. Now when do any of those “flaws” actually cause any problems?
Does her lack of confidence stop her from outperforming elite pilots in cutting edge fighters in a decades old freighter, even though she has never flown anything in her life? Do her insecurities stop her from mastering Force powers on demand to achieve her aims? Do any of her “flaws” stop her from overcoming every enemy and obstacle that comes her way? Does her lack of discipline and control ever actually cost her anything (like Chewbacca, for instance)?
No, they don’t. They aren’t real character flaws, they are “flaws,” completely irrelevant aspects of her character that were tacked onto her existence just to create the illusion of a multi-dimensional character that has strengths and weaknesses. Staying in the same vein of Star Wars, compare this to Anakin, who is very powerful, very talented, and also chosen by destiny. But at the same time, he has actual flaws that actually impact his existence and his story. Hell, his flaws are actually the main crux of his story: his flaws cost him everything he cares about.
Arrogance costs him an arm, fear costs him his morality, hatred costs him his closest friend, rage costs him his beloved: his flaws are integral parts of his character that cannot be ignored when discussing him. They cannot be separated from his character or his story. This is in stark comparison to Rey, who, if you removed her so-called “flaws,” her story would be almost exactly the same, because they barely had any significance in the first place. They only existed in the first place to try and convince the audience that she wasn’t a power-trip fantasy character capable of achieving anything and everything she feels like with minimal effort.
Those are pretty specific examples, but the idea holds true across all of media, and needs to be taken into consideration if you ever want to create a character that’s dynamic and relatable. The point of fiction is to be removed from the aspects of reality that we don’t like or don’t care for, but that doesn’t mean there should be no aspects of reality within fiction. Characters in particular need to be close to reality in the sense that they emulate real people and real characteristics.
No real person is perfect. No real person can achieve everything with no effort. No real person is without meaningful flaws that somehow impact their life. This is not to say that real character flaws must play a huge part in every story, or that they must be the focal point of a story. But a character’s flaws should mean something, at the very least. Their existence should at least have some sort of effect on something important. Look at it this way: if you can cut away an aspect of a character and it changes absolutely nothing about their characterization or the story they are a part of, it was superfluous to begin with.
That said, this doesn’t mean that characters can’t or shouldn’t have relatively unimportant aspects that add some superficial depth to their existence, but that’s an entirely different conversation for another time!