Naruzeldamaster
Sage
Not every character needs a 'defining' trait (especially not a stereotype) but the use of the word 'defining' alone makes me wonder about HOW it defines them.
Like, say a character has 'the drunk of the group' as their defining trait. There are multiple ways to write drunkards, and multiple personalities.
There's a particular series of games I like, that often goes quite comical with a characters 'defining' trait. Sometimes it's good/well written and the character ends up better, sometimes the character is quite hated for said defining trait. And by comical I mean the kind of extremes that you wouldn't really see in real life.
Normal character: I hate bugs, they're gross.
Fire Emblem Character (more than a slight exaggeration, well...sometimes, occasionally it IS this serious): I hate bugs, bugs are the devil, this one bug murdered my mom.
In both cases, the character hates bugs, but the way Fire Emblem's writers write this kind of thing, the entire character revolves around it, to the point where the character not bringing up X thing seems OUT of character, even if it's not.
Like, say a character has 'the drunk of the group' as their defining trait. There are multiple ways to write drunkards, and multiple personalities.
There's a particular series of games I like, that often goes quite comical with a characters 'defining' trait. Sometimes it's good/well written and the character ends up better, sometimes the character is quite hated for said defining trait. And by comical I mean the kind of extremes that you wouldn't really see in real life.
Normal character: I hate bugs, they're gross.
Fire Emblem Character (more than a slight exaggeration, well...sometimes, occasionally it IS this serious): I hate bugs, bugs are the devil, this one bug murdered my mom.
In both cases, the character hates bugs, but the way Fire Emblem's writers write this kind of thing, the entire character revolves around it, to the point where the character not bringing up X thing seems OUT of character, even if it's not.