#reki doesn't let them go too high though but still high enough to make the adults worry

[ikatakoirl]

How To Write A Comic Relief Character That Doesn’t Suck

So. We all know the comic-relief character trope. The one who doesn’t do much but tags along because of their “loyalty” and falls on their face every now and then for us to laugh at whenever the tension gets too high. But then at the end they have their heroic moment and prove wrong everyone who ever doubted them! Only for them to go back to exactly how they were before in the resolution. Right?

NO! WRONG! THROW IT IN THE GARBAGE! In this post I’m going to give some ideas of how to add comic relief elements to a story without devaluing any of the characters! First of all, let’s start with some examples! I'll explain most of my choices throughout the post. I'm hoping I provided enough examples that everyone can recognize at least one in each category! I’ve also done my best to make direct comparisons.

Comic Relief Characters Done Poorly

Ronald Weasley (Harry Potter)

Neville Longbottom (Harry Potter)

Haymitch Abernathy (The Hunger Games)

Lance McClain (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Loki (MCU, before the Disney+ series)

Marinette Dupain-Cheng (Miraculous Ladybug)

Luigi (Super Mario)

Goggles (Coroika)

Comic Relief Characters Done Well

Fred and George Weasley (Harry Potter)

Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)

Peeta Mellark (The Hunger Games)

Sokka (Avatar: the Last Airbender)

Peter Parker/Spider-Man (MCU)

Chat Noir (Miraculous Ladybug)

Sonic the Hedgehog [depends on which show/game ofc]

Skull (Coroika)

Reki Kyan (Sk8 the Infinity)

Kai (The Hollow)

No Laughing Matter

It’s great to have a character who struggles with clumsiness or feeling incompetent! But what if you tried actually taking those concerns seriously? Instead of the divert-with-comedy-and-never-readdress approach, make your character turn angry or sensitive. (Or the best of both worlds, tsundere!) Really get into their head and explore how that incompetence is affecting them. Bonus points if they actually fail something of consequence! How do they react to this failure? Do they have people supporting them, and if so, how? And if instead the character is on the outs and constantly the butt of jokes, how does that affect their psyche? Maybe they’ll throw themselves into training or practicing to become better, but maybe all they need is a reminder of where their strengths do lie so that they can use them better to their advantage next time! I actually challange you to separate the klutz character from the comic relief character! It may be funny to watch people falling down on Reddit, but it doesn’t make for a compelling character that people will remember! I love Marinette, I really do, but I have to admit that she could be written better because she falls right into this sort of trap.

Himbos Are People, Too

Okay, okay. I know we all need to have our himbos sometimes. And that’s great! A character who’s a bit out of their element can be endearing for a lot of readers! But in order to get there, the character needs other personality traits, too! Comic relief is not a personality. It’s something you can stack onto a personality, but you need to create a whole character first, complete with hobbies and interests! Which means that, yes, you have to let your character be good at something. It doesn’t have to be the same as their interests, though! This is a great opportunity for a reminder that you can still find joy in something even if you’re not very good at it, and just because you're good at something doesn't mean it makes you happy.

And it should really be more than one thing they’re good at! Don’t write the Ron who’s only good at chess or the Lance who’s only (somewhat) good at flirting!

Tell Me What You Want

This also goes for character motivations! Each character needs to have either a clear motive or a clear lack of motive! Bonus points if it’s multiple complex but identifiable motives! Sokka is a perfect example of this! He wants to live up to the legacy of his father, find his place in the Gaang, and maybe pick up a girl (or a guy) along the way. And most importantly, he uses his humor not as a selfish way to avoid his feelings or for plot convenience but rather to lighten the mood as part of the duty he feels to keeping his sister safe and happy! His Voltron doppelgänger, Lance, has no clear motivation… ever, pretty much. He's implied to like Allura, but it's treated as more of a joke. Same with Ron, or Neville, or Luigi, or even Loki. What do they even want? You could say that Ron saw his greatest desire in the Mirror of Erised (to be recognized and respected), but does he ever take steps toward this? Does it ever even get brought up again? Or was it just meant to contrast with Harry’s greatest desire? After all, Ron ends up as some Auror as an adult but doesn’t show any regret or longing for a higher status.

(Another hint: Not dying is not a character motivation!)

However, I did give another option, which was a clear lack of motivation. We see this in Percy, Reki, and Kai at certain points, and they all express that they don’t understand exactly what they want. And that’s perfectly okay, too! I actually really love writing characters like this! That being said, this is typically a temporary thing, and you should have something in mind for the character’s endgame. I want to stress that this is actually the harder one to pull off correctly, so you can’t just use it as a cop-out.

So yeah, there’s your crash course in character creation and development! Maybe I’ll do a separate post for that in more detail!

According to my Calculations…

Yes, I know that can all feel like a lot. But it's no excuse to fall into stereotypes. Especially this one, which is often done as an Asian-American caricature. Going the other route with a conventionally unattractive, glasses-wearing, acne-having white kid is bad, too. It's cringe. It's harmful. Don't do it.

And this goes not just for the stupid-nerd caricature, but also for any other stereotype out there. This one is just the most annoying one I can think of.

The Loyal Lapdog

Another sort of random trope is justifying a bland character by claiming that their virtue is their "loyalty." If you're going to use loyalty as a personality trait, be very careful about it. You have to be committed to upholding that personality trait even if it messes with your plot. You don't want to end up like Ron, who is actually arguably one of the least loyal characters in the series, abandoning his best friends in an apocalyptic situation just because he was jealous and constantly getting in fights with Harry over things out of his control. It is good to test and even break the limits of your character’s loyalty, but if they give up at the slightest inconvenience they’re clearly not actually loyal at all. (I’m sorry I bash Ron so much. It’s not what it sounds like, I actually hate him much more than I’m letting on.)

Comedy Communism

Guess what? You can have more than one character be funny! In fact, why not make all of them funny? Even your dark, serious character can be accidentally hilarious, and Skull is a pristine example of this. And giving a brooding loner character a surprise one-liner can be a great way to mark character development as they become more comfortable in their environment.

Overall, spreading out the role of comic relief across multiple characters is just a plain good idea because it forces you to fully develop each character and makes your comedy less predictable.

Or here’s another idea: make the comic relief character the protagonist! It’s an unexpected move that Percy Jackson pulls off immaculately! It’s also another strategy to help you avoid writing flat comedic relief characters because your protagonist should be the easiest character to fully flesh out.

Don’t Ruin the Moment

Using comedy to lighten the mood can be a good thing, but it has a time and a place. I've seen so many truly moving, deeply emotional moments completely gutted by a stupid joke. It's so devastating to see a writer put in all this effort to build up to a big moment, only to ruin it. It’s up to you to decide what counts as a “big moment,” but once you decide, fully commit to it. If you really feel like it’s too much for the reader, you can use a scene break, which will provide relief to the readers with less bleeding over of the lighthearted mood into the serious part.

But it can also be hard to maintain that tension, especially if a comic relief character is involved. Having them tell a joke that falls flat can actually be a great way to further increase the tension while staying in character!

~

With that, thank you for reading! Go forth my friends and make people laugh with complex and memorable characters! And look out for my next post about How to Write a Truly Bone-Chilling Villain!

#writing #writeblr #creative writing #comic relief characters

[subjectivelycorrectcritics]

Middle Thoughts: SK8 The Infinity

Type: Anime

Title: SK8 The Infinity

Genres: Sports anime

Progress: 10/12, though refers more to 6/12

Spoilers Below

I feel like there's a few things I should preface about myself before starting. For one, I've been pretty burned out from anime as of late, or at least new anime. As for as anime watching goes, I've pulled back to rewatch some of my old favorites and finally get to some of those films I've been meaning to watch forever. Secondly, I rarely watch airing anime. There was a point where I started following that trend so I could join in some of the conversations of my friends and the anime community I was in, only to quickly realize why I didn't do it in the first place. Watching an anime when it's airing, depending on what anime you're watching, usually means you're constantly stuck on cliffhangers. It also means that, if whatever you're watching it on is a little bit behind or you're watching the dub, you are destined to just be swamped with spoilers by people that completely forgot that crowd exists. It's just really annoying to deal with, especially for someone like me who tends to binge shows they're really enjoying. The last airing show I watched was Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai back in 2018 and have managed to avoid airing anime ever since.

All of that being said, a show must be pretty darn good for someone like me to break their avoidance streak. A dub must be really, really good for someone like me to watch it over the sub, despite the fact the sub has finished airing and the dub has not. SK8 The Infinity as a show definitely, so far, lives up to my decision, and the dub only makes it even better.

Watching the SK8 dub gave me a feeling I never thought I'd feel in anime again. Well, actually, it gave me multiple feelings I believed other anime couldn't give me anymore, which is why I have certain anime on my favorites in the first place. Watching the dub specifically brought me back to my first time watching Durarara. Yes, I watched the dub and, after having come back to rewatch the sub with my partner, to me, it simply doesn't compare. The dub of that show completely entranced me. Every voice actor played their character wonderfully and in such an interesting way, even for the characters I disliked, their performance was unforgettable to me. Not to mention all the added humor that just made it all the more enjoyable, some of the jokes completely void in the sub or without the same kick. The dub performances will always be the way I see the characters, they're iconic.

Watching the first episode of the SK8 Infinity dub made me feel the same way. I was immediately drawn in by the way each voice actor played their characters, they did such a great job at portraying them in such a unique way. Not to mention the nuanced emotions shown at the beginning, which is only built on in later episodes in such a gut-wrenching way. Then, just like Durarara, there's the humor. I wasn't aware until some people pointed it out to me, but some of the funniest lines aren't in the sub or simply aren't delivered as hilariously. It's amazing how a few word changes and delivery can really make a joke all the more better, or Hell, add an extra layer entirely. However, that's not the only layer the dub adds. Let's just say the viewers weren't the only ones that support renga and matchablossom and it really shows in the best ways.

That being said, the dub voice actors still need a good script and characters to work off of, and this show provides that in spades. All the characters feel entertaining, rich, and I found myself wanting to learn a lot about all of them. All the characters have so much charm and I think the dub really highlights that. As for the story, the relationships and the dramas showcased don't ever feel one-note or neglected. The drama and conflict of the story constantly had me thrilled rather than rolling my eyes, which is thanks to the way the races are presented (more on that later) and all the emotional investment the characters put into it. It also follows my favorite trope of biting off more than you can chew and getting caught up in something much bigger than yourself, so maybe I'm biased.

SK8 The Infinity also has that certain element I think other sports anime are missing. It's what Yuri!!! On Ice had, focusing a lot more on making each performance theatrical, entrancing, with a focus on the character's passion and drive over realism. I want the characters to win not for the sake of winning, but because they put a part of themselves into each performance. It's not that other sports anime doesn't try to do the same, but I tend to either struggle with getting invested in the characters, winning is way too emphasized overall, or the way the sport is showcased is just dull to me. Yes, half of the things the skaters do in this anime are unrealistic, but that's what makes it so fun and unpredictable. I adore seeing the stunts the characters, especially Langa and Adam, pull. They're amazing and the way they're animated are so cool! In my opinion, this is a great example of "action" done "fun". All the characters are pulling out their greatest stunts to win, only getting better and better as time goes on. Still, as an audience member, you don't feel as if anything is artificially being held back from you, the characters are always giving their all, they simply learn or have different opportunities as time goes on. This is probably one of the reasons that Langa becoming too good at the sport so quickly didn't bother me. He's awesome to watch, that and the fact the snowboarding excuse makes sense to me, plus it makes for such an interesting plot point and character conflict. The way the races are portrayed, along with the deep connections of the characters that play into it reminds me of Yuri!!! On Ice a lot.

The last point I want to make is what great main characters Reki and Langa make. Reki is such a relatable character main character and is written really well in this regard. He's insecure without being a brat about it, when he does break down or get upset with the other characters it's completely reasonable. His struggles of not feeling good enough, of allowing himself to be bullied due to a lack of self-worth, among other things, are something a lot of us struggle with. It's been great seeing him go along his journey and finally find support in Langa. Speaking of Langa, apparently, he and Reki were made together (and for each other if you ask me), and it really shows. Langa juxtaposes Reki, yet isn't his complete opposite, nor a rival. In fact, their friendship is not only because of their common ground of loneliness and socialization issues, but also because of their differences and how that makes them work as a team. Unlike Reki, who comes off as very turbulent and cautious at times, Langa can come off as quite confident (with skateboarding) and adores taking risks. Reki effectively serves as Langa's breaks and the voice of reason, while Langa helps Reki come out of his shell and learn to trust. I just love these two together, can you tell?

To summarize, SK8 The Infinity is great, especially the dub. The writing does have some hiccups later down the line that I will discuss in my final review. For now, though, I am rating this really high and am going to finish it. I feel like, no matter how it ends, this is going to become one of my favorites.

Current Rating: 8/10

~ SuddenCoffeeMug ☕

#review #sk8 #sk8 the infinity #sk8 the infinity dub #show review #anime review #spoilers #show opinions #middlethoughts #middle thoughts #midthoughts #sk8 the infinity review #sk8 the infinity current thoughts #I'll finish watching #suddencoffeemug