Unique characters

[Arilia]

What characters have you seen with really unique and interesting motivations in games, movies, and books?

 

Ordinary characters have typical goals like fulfilling destiny, fighting crime, world domination, or revenge. We have seen those many times. I'm searching for more rare motivations like Heath Ledger's version of the Joker. He wanted to show the world everyone is a monster like him, trying to turn civilians into mass murderers and the city's best lawyer into a serial killer. It's a less common goal among villains than world domination.

 

I like characters with unusual motivations because they surprise us more often. We're less certain what's going to happen next, and that keeps the excitement going!

 

Another complex villain I've seen lately is Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones. She initially seemed like just another power-hungry world domination type, but her true motivation appears to be more about protecting her family at any cost. We all want to protect our family, so we can understand that desire in her, and relate to it. The ways she carries out that goal make her a villain. This complexity lets us empathize on some level - even while rooting for her to fail. The hope she fails then gets turned on its head when her insane son takes power, and turns out to be worse than she is.

 

I'm looking for inspiration from interesting characters like these, particularly villains, if you know of any. I'm working on improving my writing.  I'm also thinking of creating some villains for a Skyrim quest. I've seen good inspiration for protagonists over the years (modern anti-heroes are very popular), but unique villains are more difficult to find.

[AgentChicken]

I always thought Sam Fisher from Splinter cell was unique. Not only was his mission and job to be a secret agent to get in complete a task and get out without being seen but also to maintain a healthy relationship with his daughter. And considering that Sam Fisher was a "Splinter Cell" which is a Super Secret agent that only the NSA and the President know about, he could not tell his daughter what he worked as or for who. This caused secrecy between Sam and his daughter Sarah who through out the game series was mentioned only a couple of times. Through out the game, Sarah is pulled into the whole Danger that fisher's job brings, considering that Sam Fisher was given jobs that were against Terrorist groups, Revolutionary's, Rouge agents, and Governments.

 

Sam fisher Raised Sarah since she was little with her mother "Radigan" if i remember correctly, who died of cancer during Sarah's Teenage years, and In Double agent Sam is told that Sarah was hit by a drunk driver and Died shorty after arrival at hospital. Causing Sam fishers very being and everything he stands for breaking down and causing Sam to go rouge and start drinking. This very even caused me to cry, because Sam Fisher throughout this game was my favrouite game character, bigger than Mario, Sonic, Solid Snake in my eyes and too see this happen caused me to cry. Finally in Splinter Cell Conviction Sam is told that Sarah is actually alive and was being held in Agency care and that the only way he can see her if he helps Third Echelon (Sam's Secret agency Employer). Eventually he meets with Sarah again and then i cried like a baby. No game character has made me feel sadder more than Sam. Besides Lee Everett from Walking dead game

[Emily]

Anyone that ever involved in limbo are all interesting fellas.

Story can goes to little children even an old man like Ebenezer Scrooge.

[Strelky]

Vito Scalletta from the Mafia games, he wants nothing more than respect, so he joins the mafia, but then he sees just how horrifying that world is

[drenari]

I always liked the Jon Shannow character from David Gemmell's books. Apocalyptic end of times future setting where technology is roughly 1800's level. He roams the lands looking for new jerusalem but at the city's and towns he goes through there are always some brigands and people taking advantage of others so he kills them. He is so brutal and efficient at it that nobody wants him to hang around even though he help them. His internal struggles are almost a match to the external because he accidentally killed an innocent.

I prefer the darker hero's with blood on there hands who walk on the edge of good and evil than to the super man, always good hero's. Throw in a good external conflict and some good character internal conflicts as well and you cant go wrong. Be it a good guy who fights in a bad guy way, or a bad guy who is being bad but with good reason.

[Siegehead]

Francis Dolarhyde from Red Dragon, Thomas Harris' first novel in the Hannibal Lecter series. Dolarhyde believes that the people he kills are being absorbed into himself, facilitating his transformation into The Great Red Dragon from William Blake's paintings. He's undergone cosmetic surgery to correct his cleft lip and palate, and that—among other traits—factors into the character's psychology in a way that I found intriguing and believable.

 

The concepts that drive Dolarhyde are actually more powerful than what's behind Hannibal Lecter in my opinion. But Lecter is the character Thomas Harris' novels are remembered for, because his dialogue stands out and because of Anthony Hopkins' portrayal in the movies.