How flawed is too flawed?

[jourdanlane]

I woke up this morning thinking about flawed characters, but was expecting a house full of people so I never really managed to sort it all out. Now, people have left (thank GOD! Couldn't take much more toddler/baby fun... *shudders*), my house is clean again, and I'm heading off to bed shortly because tomorrow is a school day. But I just can't get

Comments

[angelabenedetti]

I'm with 2metaldog on the incubus question. In fact, I object to the idea that a desire to have sex with a lot of people is even a flaw for an incubus. It's like saying the desire to eat food is a flaw in a human; sure, one can go overboard, but it's natural and normal and healthy to eat a wide variety, and trying to eat only, say, potatoes, is going to make one sick no matter what one's purpose or intentions.

If your incubus is physically capable of being monogamous, then I have to ask what about him makes him an incubus? I know it's a trend to domesticate various classic horror or fantasy beings which used to be considered only as monsters, but taking it too far negates the whole point of using the creature in the first place. I mean, there are humans in realspace who are psychologically incapable of being monogamous, to the point of being diagnosable with a definitive disorder. So if an incubus can be monogamous, then what exactly is an incubus and what's the point of having him in a story?

I'd turn it around and say that a human who's chosen to form a romantic relationship with an incubus but then tries to insist that his partner be monogamous is the one who's flawed, and I'd rather see that character overcome his flaw than see the incubus tamed down. Maybe you could show the incubus buckling down and only having sex with his selfish human partner for some period of time, but then also show how the incubus is becoming sick and/or depressed. (And I mean depressed in a clinical sense, not just bummed 'cause he ain't gettin' lotsa ass anymore.) How would the human react to that? Would he learn to accept his partner as he is, and acknowledge that an incubus has needs -- real, physiological and deeply-rooted psychological needs -- which humans don't, and that if their relationship is going to work, he has to deal with those differences? That could be a great character development arc.

I like reading romances with traditional horror or fantasy creatures, but to be really satisfying to me the creature has to stay within its traditional bounds to some significant extent. Otherwise it's just a human with a weird label written on his chest in magic marker.

On the cop question, I think emmyjag's comment is most relevant. It makes sense to me that narcotics cops would be subject to random and fairly frequent drug testing (maybe do some research, find out whether that's the case in whatever jurisdiction you have your cop working?) and if that's so, then I'd question the realism of the story if he's been doing this for years and not gotten caught, considering that a more serious flaw in the book itself than the question of whether the cop is a hypocrite.

Angie

[jourdanlane]

#1: *nods* I guess I've been thinking of it as a flaw because it's probably THE biggest complaint I get on the series and this character. I think many people try to take a non-human character and then instill human values into the equation. No matter how you work that... they're still not going to BE human and their actions/values aren't going to be of the human expectation either.

I wish this series had never been marketed as romance :-/

#2: *nods* Oh, she's completely right on that. The frequency of testing depends on the cases that they're working at the time -- so says my narcotics guy. We're now discussing theories, so we'll see what we come up with. I think the fact that he's not been doing it for years and is a point in his favor, LOL!

[angelabenedetti]

One of the things I like about GLBT romance is that The Rules aren't nearly as ossified as they are over on the het side. Over there, readers have been talking to each other for so long, getting together in groups and discussing their likes and dislikes and deciding that anything they can get five people to agree on is a new "rule" of romance, that the field has become pretty darned cramped for the writer. I like that you can be really creative with GLBT romances and get hassled for it a lot less.

Clearly "less" isn't the same as "none," though. :P If you do decide to stick to your guns, consider having a character in the story represent the objections of those readers who are griping at you, and have another character explain clearly why the ButButButMONOGAMY!!! character is being a fuckwit? [cough] A bit more diplomatically than that, of course, but make it clear what's going on and why, and what's possible and what's not and why.

My own view is that if the people actually involved in the relationshop are okay with whatever rules they've set for themselves, then everything's cool. It's not for me to dictate to someone else how their relationship would work, or to withhold the "romance" label from their lives if they're perfectly happy and feel romantic love for one another.

Some people think that any "cheating" (which they define as either of the two people (since they deny that three or more people can have a romance together) having sex with anyone else, whether or not their partner minds or doesn't mind or is enthusiastic about hearing the story afterward) disqualifies a story from being A Romance. I think they're self-righteous twits, but that's just my opinion. I like seeing a wide variety of configurations, and seeing how the characters who are actually involved work things out so it suits them.

Angie