Feo Takahari
Auror
I'm having a little trouble with the protagonist of one of my stories, a sad little girl who shies away from other people. I use a lot of symbolism linking her to nighttime and moonlight, and much of her tastes run towards darkness-themed things. But it's a major plot point that she loves "Pony Princess" dolls, pastel plastic quadrupeds with flowers in their manes*--the fluff for the franchise puts a lot of emphasis on tolerance and understanding, so she thinks that if she were a Pony Princess, the other ponies would love her as she is.
The problem is, I introduce her love for the dolls much earlier than I introduce her reason for loving them, so I'm a little worried that this may come off as contradictory. Is it okay to just have this character as she is, gushing over dolls in one scene and talking excitedly about bats in another? Should I hang a lampshade on it, having another character comment that she has no idea why the kid loves ponies so much? Or do I need to establish earlier just why this character loves ponies?
More generally, how do you develop a character who seems to contradict herself? How would you write, or how have you written, a character with traits that seem opposed to each other?
*Any resemblance to an existing franchise is entirely intentional. This is going on a fanfic site as part of a backstory for how that universe came to exist.
The problem is, I introduce her love for the dolls much earlier than I introduce her reason for loving them, so I'm a little worried that this may come off as contradictory. Is it okay to just have this character as she is, gushing over dolls in one scene and talking excitedly about bats in another? Should I hang a lampshade on it, having another character comment that she has no idea why the kid loves ponies so much? Or do I need to establish earlier just why this character loves ponies?
More generally, how do you develop a character who seems to contradict herself? How would you write, or how have you written, a character with traits that seem opposed to each other?
*Any resemblance to an existing franchise is entirely intentional. This is going on a fanfic site as part of a backstory for how that universe came to exist.