Thoughts on Life Experience and Relative Age
All right, so I've been rping Duo Maxwell for a while now right? And I recently took up Nakano Hiroshi for another rp. Well, frankly, it astounds me just how much younger Hiro is than Duo.
Hiro is a pretty mature guy for his age, based on the anime and manga, but at 19, he's just a baby compared to Duo at 15! (I began Duo at 16 for the rp and he's currently 17 but I'm talking more canon here.) I try really hard to keep my characters IC, or at least as how I perceive them to be in-character. Therefore Duo, although he acts very boyish when he plays around, has been an adult for quite some time due to his life experience. It seems to be a thing with innocence or lack thereof.. I knew this but I didn't really understand it until I started playing someone around the same age who had a relativly normal life and childhood. Logically, I recognized the difference but it still managed to shock me when I started to get into Hiro's character.
Well, say all that to say all this: when playing or writing a character, you have to take into account where they've been to find out where they are. Duo and Hiro aside, someone who's lived a tough life surrounded by violence is going to be a whole lot older inside than someone with a caring family living in a peaceful city/country, regardless of their chronological ages. And no matter how well you may think you "get" a character, they can still surprise you when you write or play them. I'm sure you all already knew that, but it bears repeating in any case.
Hiro is a pretty mature guy for his age, based on the anime and manga, but at 19, he's just a baby compared to Duo at 15! (I began Duo at 16 for the rp and he's currently 17 but I'm talking more canon here.) I try really hard to keep my characters IC, or at least as how I perceive them to be in-character. Therefore Duo, although he acts very boyish when he plays around, has been an adult for quite some time due to his life experience. It seems to be a thing with innocence or lack thereof.. I knew this but I didn't really understand it until I started playing someone around the same age who had a relativly normal life and childhood. Logically, I recognized the difference but it still managed to shock me when I started to get into Hiro's character.
Well, say all that to say all this: when playing or writing a character, you have to take into account where they've been to find out where they are. Duo and Hiro aside, someone who's lived a tough life surrounded by violence is going to be a whole lot older inside than someone with a caring family living in a peaceful city/country, regardless of their chronological ages. And no matter how well you may think you "get" a character, they can still surprise you when you write or play them. I'm sure you all already knew that, but it bears repeating in any case.