I've been trying to think of a way to say this that doesn't sound rude or condescending, but in my personal view, I feel like characters in media these days leave a lot to be desired in terms of nuance or complexity. An example I often turn to when I think about fully-formed personality traits is Sol Bad Guy from Guilty Gear. Aside from possessing his own personal fighting style, his background reveals details about his personal life and interests, and he interacts with the world in his own unique way. That's part of what led to me writing so many of my characters as intense rockers who break stereotypes about metalheads being evil and uneducated. They're intended to feel like real people who have their own likes, dislikes, hobbies, quirks, and mannerisms - not just extensions of the world they live in. It's something I see all the time in horror where the protagonists are completely unlikable. It's like they only exist as fodder for the meat grinder. If you're not rooting for the underdog who's at a disadvantage, what's the point of them being there, ya know? I guess I'm just curious whether I'm alone in this or if anyone else feels like I do. Like I said, it's not meant to toot my own horn or claim I'm the only one making an effort, but the lack of creativity just feels off-putting to me. Feel free to leave your opinions in the comments.

7960484
I can't speak to Sol Bad Guy, as I've got no experience with that, but I'm wondering if you realize that your initial premise, that "characters in media these days leave a lot to be desired in terms of nuance or complexity," is a bit of a large generalization that fails to take into account other sources or media.

Sol Bad Guy is one example, but, like, surely there are others. Are we talking about recent movies or products? If so, I'd say that Paul from Dune Part Two could count as a complex character. But then if you view "these days" as being quite generous, I'd say go pick up a book and see if anything published in the last year shows complex characters. Maybe you just need to expand your scope?

7960510
I haven't seen the recent Dune movies. I saw the mini series ages ago, but I don't remember much. It's just that so many movies and shows nowadays portray their characters as stereotypes with hardly any creative or unique personality traits. Take Any from the Sonic franchise. She's an alien with clairvoyant abilities, but up until recently with Frontiers, that aspect of her personality was completely ignored in favor of a borderline yandere stalker. They all but erased her original interpretation for 25 years and she became one of the most hated characters in the franchise. I can't blame fans for expecting more quality control than that.

7960484
Eh, I feel like there is somewhat of a misunderstanding about what makes a character 'nuanced' or 'complex'. What makes a character nuanced and complex is not superficial things like their likes, dislikes or hobbies, but their beliefs, goals, virtues and vices. If a story glosses over what a character's hobbies are, that doesn't mean that the character is shallow, it just means that those hobbies aren't relevant to the story.
7960579
Eh, I'm not sure if the Sonic games are the best example, the Sonic franchise is kind of infamous for having questionable quality control. Although Flanderizing of characters is unfortunately common.

7960586
Any character in a coherent story will have goals and beliefs, but smaller details push them to a level of realism you don't often see. They're part of what makes that character uniquely themselves. Take Maria from my novel, Dragon of Grace. Her ultimate goal is to redeem humanity, because she believes in and values the lives of the innocent. She has heroic traits we've come to expect from good guy characters, but it's the other facets of her personality that set her apart. She's this mysterious mixture of underground culture and late Gen X/Early Millennial qualities. She embodies most of how we expect traditional heroes to act, but has a darker edge to her being that makes her distinct. It's almost like writing her mimicks talking to an old friend, ya know? You feel like you're actually being heard and given thorough consideration that's hard to find even in reality. There are multiple layers to complexity. What you're describing is only just one.

7960579
This still means you are making a huge generalization that can't really or fully be trusted. I've brought up an example that at least "conflicts" with your premise of "so many movies." As for another, Arcane featured some pretty diverse characters who are also quite complex - my favorite being Viktor.

What about critically acclaimed work that I haven't seen, like "Across the Spiderverse" or "The Boy and the Heron?" What about work in the last three or five years, does that fall under "these days?" What about non-movies and shows - do these fall under the purview? Have you read anything contemporary? Have you read enough? Consumed enough?

The statement that it feels like media nowadays is lazy and generic with their characters just isn't a good statement to make in regards to the craft of writing. It's a good place to start, but ought to be used to examine itself and what we mean by it, not used as a declaration against media. It is, again, a painful generalization, even a dangerous one.

7960484 A lot of the time, when folks say that 'X thing these days aren't good', they're not looking that hard. Both in terms of what's around nowadays, and also in terms of the kinds of dreck that used to be around in the past as well (that's the thing about old media; only the memorable stuff actually gets remembered).

I've been on these forums a while and I've seen every flavour of 'it was better in my day'. I'm sure I've even contributed to it a bit now and then, for fun. I'd recommend interacting with more media than a few fighting games, and maybe you'll find some stuff you actually vibe with; let's be real, I'm not sure what you expected from a fighting video-game. I've just been catching up with Frieren and that one's got layers in spades.

With regards to character personalities, though, it's really not that hard. Most characters I find start out as a bit of a trope, especially when you think of a story plot-first (meaning you have a story, and then sort of populate it with appropriate characters; the other way around is also possible; come up with a character that *needs* a story, and then figure out what story interracts with the character best). Personally, I often draw inspiration from myself for characters; little thoughts I have, intrusive ideas, flaws I perceive in myself, as well as things I find interesting that I can give to a character. Little things that build up their character in an organic way that, because I'm taking them from myself pretty much, I know I relate to (and hope that in some small way, other people will therefore relate to as well).

I don't build a character around them liking pens. But it's also okay for them to like pens, and I find that the odd little quirk of a character having a one-sentence tangent to focus on an oddly shaped pen is the sort of human weirdness that makes people colourful... and also gives me a neat opportunity to describe another character via their pen.

How they interact with things is often more baked into their core personality, which is more plot-dependant. If I need an active character, I'm not going to have them interact with their surroundings by passively observing it; likewise, if I had an intelligent, observant character, I need to have them observe and reflect on the things they see. But the little things? The little oddities, I just like to throw in there.

7960620
Yeah, this. There was always just as much mediocre/bad work in any time period as in any other. The bad stuff just doesn't get remembered because why would most people focus on the gravel instead of the gold nuggets? It's a form of survivorship bias that warps our perception of the past, and that's how we fall into nostalgia traps (which are, sadly, being increasingly weaponized to venerate a mythologized "back in my day" idea of a past that for the most part never actually existed).

7960484
As far as characters "lacking nuance or complexity" goes: don't forget that (good) stories don't include exposition or description just for its own sake ("because it's cool" or whatever). They include it for a reason. As such, the level of complexity or nuance that any character has should be developed for a reason that serves the story.

For example, good villains are often complex because simplistic lazy-trope depictions of evil are generally unrealistic - no one just "becomes evil" as a face-value random decision without motivating reasons underneath, so it feels unsatisfying to write a villain that way. A solution to that problem can be to give the villain real reasons for what they do, stemming from a past that feels like something that could realistically motivate someone to do whatever kind of villainy this villain is doing.

The hypothetical villain character in this example isn't complex just for sake of "complexity" or "nuance" in itself, they're fleshed out and made complex to solve the storytelling problem that they would otherwise be a character with unsatisfying or unbelievable motives.