no, you should not analyze characters based on what they say about themselves.

[pocochina]

This was going to be my Grand Unified Theory of Character Motivations, but I think it bleeds a bit into an even bigger picture of how I generally analyze and evaluate fictional characters, which ended up making clear to me why I spend so much time groaning in frustration when something or other gets panned as being "OOC

Comments

[lokifan]

This is a really cool post! I'm v interested to hear about your technique for analysing characters, since you do it so well.

When interpreting events, real or fictional, people have a tendency to assume that because a series of events turned out a particular way, it was not only reasonably foreseeable but likely inevitable.

YES. My favourite example of this is HP: Pansy Parkinson. The assumption in fandom tends to be that her saying "let's give Harry up to Voldemort" was her choosing to fight FOR the dark side, when as far as I can tell there was LITERALLY NOT A SHRED OF EVIDENCE Harry could win. Like, we knew Voldemort would lose because it's a story and some people wanted to fight a losing battle because they were heroes, but from Pansy's pov it was literally "either Harry dies now, or he dies in an hour along with everyone in this school." WILL ALWAYS DEFEND.

[pocochina]

Thank you!

aw, poor Pansy. I feel like she gets a lot of the projection and distancing of people who want to convince themselves that THEY would OF COURSE know exactly where to draw the line and be a big damn hero and...no, most people probably wouldn't! (IMO people who are able to trivialize and distance from that kind of fear rather than acknowledge it in themselves are the ones who would make me most nervous under pressure.)

Also, I don't really think this was Pansy's intention, but in terms of group decision-making like that, someone really does have to be the person willing to sound like a dirty coward, because you need the baseline facts out on the table to make the best decision. I think that impulse to make some survival-oriented perspective taboo the way people seem to want to do is pretty dangerous.

[pocochina]

Which is such a shame even if you're a big squishy optimist under it all, and want to believe that people will do the best they can! Because if you want to avoid an undesirable behavior or outcome, you have to (1) recognize that it is a possibility and (2) identify patterns and warning signs so you can avoid that possibility in the future, and fiction is...not the best way to deal with concrete and likely scenarios, but it's an ideal way to get helpful lessons about abstract patterns and truths

[eilowyn]

How did I miss this? Oh well, it's brilliant and I really don't have much more to say.

[pocochina]

♥