On character backstories · 1:41am Apr 4th, 2016
So I've wanted to make a post about this for quite some time now, and I feel like now is a good time, having delved into the backstory of one of my favorite TV characters ever (see my profile picture). As always, my thoughts are past the break!
When it comes to television shows, there are some that do backstories very well, and some that do them fairly poorly (or even not at all *gasp!*). One of the most important things you can remember as a writer, though, is that backstory is huge, even if you're writing about characters who have been established already. Of course, you'll want to avoid those common pitfalls that plague many a new author. I'll be delving into those in a moment, but I wanted to take a minute to write about how poorly done I felt Starlight Glimmer's backstory was done in the show.
Even during the season 6 premiere, which I thoroughly enjoyed watching due to the slight development to her character, I found myself still not really digging the backstory they presented. Her backstory isn't much different than that of Moon Dancer. Yet she reacted in a way that, to me at least, doesn't suit what happened at all. I've had to say goodbye to a lot of friends throughout my life, but it never made me a bitter person, because I knew I was on to new adventures as long as I kept a positive outlook. Obviously, that style of thinking didn't resonate with Starlight, so she came off as nothing more than a brat throwing a temper tantrum. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this in the comments, but now I'm going to move on to the common pitfalls.
First of all, never write your original character as having amnesia, unless it's a theme throughout the entire story (which is still hard to pull off for a new writer as well). The reason a lot of new writers tend to give their character "amnesia" is to avoid having to write a backstory for the character. That's lazy, and it never pays off in the end. Putting a lot of thought into your character's history will give you a much better idea of how to make him/her act, and can even help you come up with conflict for the story, which will only make it better.
Next, and this is especially common in Pokemon stories for some reason, never have an established character be "betrayed" by his/her friends who would clearly never betray him/her. Example: Twilight Sparkle is betrayed by her friends and comes back four years later as the strongest pony in the history of Equestria. If you write that, you deserve to be whacked in the face with a wooden spoon. There are literally no exceptions to this, as far as I can tell.
Finally, never make a backstory that has to do with your character having been "banished". Chances are it happened about two thousand years ago and your character was the crown prince of Equestria. If this is the case, you have failed as a writer, assuming you're not just trolling when writing your story.
This is for you, Dustin!
That's about all I have to say for this blog, but be sure to leave your thoughts on character backstory in the comment section!
I do still agree on the whole Starlight thing (as much as I've grown to like her and was neutral on the ending of the fifth season finale, work was needed on her backstory quite a bit), but all I can say is that even though you took moving on from old friends fine, doesn't mean others will, because I think it's clear that she's emotionally unstable, which is something I'd like for them to explore, but you never know. There are multiple questions that they have yet to answer for her backstory, but if they did them right, they'd make her story work a lot better about her character.
For backstories, I don't think I've seen Pokemon do this. Then again, it's been waaaay too long since I've seen episodes? When did this happen? And god, I so agree on betrayal stories. If they don't fit the character, it falls flat so bad. It's a desperate attempt at creating tension and drama. It irks me.
3846621 Pokemon stories, not episodes lol. There's an enormous amount of "Ash was betrayed by his friends" fanfics.
3846622 Fuck, that's dumb.
3846626 Yeah. I read one that was sort of okay, but that was only because it was a story where he felt betrayed by someone, he wasn't actually betrayed.
For the most part, the 'backstory' makes a lot of stuff convoluted and kind of a mess for me to keep up with.
And that's all I can say on the matter.