Character Personality - when is it too much

[Midnight Melody]

I was sitting here thinking when I suddenly started wondering when people think a character is considered too rude, too childish, too aggressive, too sweet, too energetic and so on and on? when do you think is a character just too much of something?

 

[Nilum]

Short Answer: When it no longer makes sense for the conflict at large.

Long Answer: Creating characters requires some understanding of the plot, and creating the plot requires some understanding of the types of characters that will fulfill that plot's conflict. Setting has some influence in this as well, but the biggest influencer is the conflict pertaining the plot.

I'll explain a few things first, I guess, then make my point.

A conflict is the overarching issue that pushes a story forward and motivates characters. Conflicts can be anything--personal or impersonal, grand scale or local. They can be about stopping the evil emperor from conquering the galaxy to whether or not Gary and Mary are gonna wind up in a relationship or not. Stories often have multiple conflicts going on at once, and the gradual progression and resolution of those conflicts is what produces a plot--which is a series of events that occur in a traceable, chronological order.

Characters are the motivators of change in a plot. They're the ones that triumph or fail in their attempts to achieve their individual goals. The series of events that occur in a plot are based entirely on the characters and what they do. Therefore, a character's characteristics--their history, their personality, their skillsets, so on--need to reflect something that can allow them to have individual power to influence the conflict, and motive to want to see it resolved to some particular goal or end that they have in mind.

What combines in all of this--the characters, the plot, the conflict, so forth--is what ultimately produces emotional satisfaction or intellectual enlightenment, which is the two core points on any piece of fiction--to enlighten, or to emotionally satisfy. The struggle a character has in achieving their goals, or success or failure of those goals, or the mutation of those goals over time through interactions with other characters and interactions with the conflict, is what sparks life into a story.

Thus, to answer, in more detail: A character's personality is "too much" when the character itself can no longer be justifiable as a protagonist that is both willing and able to cause noticeable change in the conflict of a story. If a personality trait makes a character too incompetent, or too extreme, that is a problem. If a personality trait makes a character unwilling or unable, that is also a problem.

 

[Mnemosyne]

Hmm. Maybe a little late here, but I’m going to offer my advice anyway. As far as I’m concerned, a character is too much when they become flat to the point of being unbelievable. In other words, all real people have multiple sides to their personality. Multiple character traits. Maybe someone is very antisocial, but there should still be something someone can do that makes the antisocial one want to befriend the other. Maybe they’re innocent and naive, but eventually they will catch on to things once they’re pushed too far. There has to be just a little bit of the flip side in the character. It’s doeant have to be a lot, but at least a hint. Because everyone has some of all of those character traits in them. If a character ends up defined by one single character trait, with no others (or almost no others), it becomes very obvious that they aren’t realistic- no real person would act like that, even if they are very [insert character trait here]. It’s when they cross that lime into total unbelievability that it becomes too much.

 

[Sleepwalker]

If you are writing a jerk, than it is vital for them to be rude, but making their rudeness unbelievable without the other character batting an eye is quite strange.
If a character tells someone to shut up when that person wasn’t doing anything, that is a realistic jerk, as long as it makes sense in context.
If a character rages and kills the guy for existing, than that really shows that either this guy has problems, or the writer trying too hard to make them a jerk. No one does that.
People have facades and sides, that has to be standards, or that person is likely kind of flat, since exaggerating rudeness means you likely didn’t focus on the other traits.

 

[Trande]

The first thing that comes to mind is keeping yourself in check whenever a character’s personality influences the action and/or dialogue. In the simplest words possible, you have to keep in mind the things to which everyone will react the same way. The reaction to vomiting is usually pretty universal.

 

[Blondie]

Sometimes, making a story believable, yet interesting can be tricky. Especially when it comes to personalities! Someone told me that 'less is more' to which I completely agree. Overdoing your character's personality wether it's his/hers selfishness, kindness, aggressiveness etc. to the point of unrealistic is very easy to do.

 

[Haven]

If everything you are doing revolves around one trait instead of multiple gets to be unrealistic and repetitive. But it depends on the role play and the player

 

[Alissa Ming]

I think it depends oh who you're role playing with as well. Because some people don't like a personality type enough that even when it's balanced, they think it's too much.

 

[Windstormugly]

I was sitting here thinking when I suddenly started wondering when people think a character is considered too rude, too childish, too aggressive, too sweet, too energetic and so on and on? when do you think is a character just too much of something?

Now, I actually have an internal divide regarding these kinda things.
And with that I mean subjective questions/problems.
My own response to chars is often negative, because I see all the faults, every action and response that in my mind wouldn't be performed.
But I can objectively (as far as that's a thing) understand chars even when they are ludicrous. Some tropes work that way.

But if we are talking wholly subjectively, I can't stand chars belonging to archetypes put on pedestals, say dragons. I have nothing against dragons, but many dragon chars are played with the thought that they are the coolest thing ever, and that makes them unbearable for me.
That notion that the char is obviously the best thing ever... Ok yeah I'm talking about Mary Sue chars xD

 

[Loxius]

It has to be a part of the character itself and make sense. Like sims. You can't be Evil and Friendly at the same time as these traits contradict each other. There are exceptions of course in a fully fledged out roleplaying alive character but the basic principle of having contradictions in the personality of the character is still something you have to consider.