Characters fulfilling clear cut roles.

[Tea Ess]

An actual Odyseey topic!

Alright people, this is it. We are going to conduct intelligent, wholesome, on topic conversation on an AiO subject!

One of the first things I look for in a character is whether they are fulfilling their roles. Each character has a delicate piece to play in a large symphony, if you will.

Examples of this would include early (and some later too) Mr. Whitaker, Bernard Walton, Tom Riley, Lucy, Jimmy, Robyn, Melonie, Donna, Connie, Eugene, Jack, Jason, Robert Mitchell, Lester, Katrina, and the list goes on. Notice how all of these are our favorite characters?

Especially in the early days, each character was an individual, and yet they all added up to form a living community. Many of the characters overlapped, but they all had uniqueness and an important part to play. Each character had specific bounds and a certain cast to interact with.

The characters all had some extent of predictibility, helping us to define them and get to know them.

Unfortunately, I am not thinking too well right now, so this will sound choppy and confused to some extent.

Say anything you like below. It doesn't matter if it's short, long, fancy, plain, argumental, agreeable, with highlighted purple text or with a border.

[Rosy]

I agree whole-heartily with almost everything you said here, T.S. But in the very early days, I don't think the kid characters were as defined, because in every episode, they came out with a new kid, and they didn't have the predictability you're talking about, which for me, made them a whole lot less likable and relate able as the kids who were in more than one episode.

[Doll]

We probably connect more with the characters if they fit in the roles that we expect them to (if that makes sense)

For instance, Eugene is a geek, we look for him being a geek, and we love it when he is a geek.

[Waldo]

T.S. you make a very good point here. I agree completely.

For example, we know Connie, we have seen her for years on AIO. She has grown up a little since the early days. But she is still curious and all over the place, but it would be weird if she started acting like say, Mary Barkley. Connie is still maturing in ways, and she has matured in others, but she is still Connie.

Or Jared, he filled the shoes of an obnoxious kid who has an overactive imagination. If he stopped being so paranoid, he wouldn't be Jared.

But that is the brilliance of AIO, we are the same way. Each of us here in the SS has their own personality, their own quirks and habits, and when you put us all together it can get crazy. But as we grow older we will still have the same quirks and habits in some form that kind of define us.

So in AIO's character composition, they really exhibit real life and real people, which is one of the reasons it is so easy to fall in love with AIO.

[Odysseygirl101]

T.S. you make a very good point here. I agree completely.

For example, we know Connie, we have seen her for years on AIO. She has grown up a little since the early days. But she is still curious and all over the place, but it would be weird if she started acting like say, Mary Barkley. Connie is still maturing in ways, and she has matured in others, but she is still Connie.

Or Jared, he filled the shoes of an obnoxious kid who has an overactive imagination. If he stopped being so paranoid, he wouldn't be Jared.

But that is the brilliance of AIO, we are the same way. Each of us here in the SS has their own personality, their own quirks and habits, and when you put us all together it can get crazy. But as we grow older we will still have the same quirks and habits in some form that kind of define us.

So in AIO's character composition, they really exhibit real life and real people, which is one of the reasons it is so easy to fall in love with AIO.

I like where you're going here, OF. I enjoy almost shking my head at Connie sometimes. With some characters (Connie, Eugene) I enjoy a bit of predictability. My opoinion is that Emily and some of the newer characters is that they became predictable to fast. Does that make sense?

[Pound Foolish]

Thank you, thank you, oh thank you, TS! This is a change! Ahhh, it's like old times *relaxes in chair* Oh, ahem... but *cough cough* I have made a few attempts at new AIO topics, including one of some slight depth (though nothing like as deep as we used to go) in the Front Counter. *taps foot* Have you even noticed it!?
Anyhow...
I'm surprised you think Emily has become to predictable, OF. Mr. Thinker makes it very clear he has the opposite problem with her. She's a best friend one minute, bossy and driving people crazy the next (and, often, at the same time.) She's giggly a lover girl with Buck, then clears her throat and looks for clues with him calmly. I love her for her unpredictability... and are a bit confused why you think her predictable. Yes, her character fits together well, and we know how she will react, often. But she still surprises. Who could tell she'd force herself through sleepless nights of stress to prove herself to her parents?
The comfortableness of a formula is naturally essential to a story. And AIO does it as well as any piece of genius. In Jules Verne's classic, Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg is characterized by never reacting to anything. No matter what happens, from a helpless woman sacrifice to every obstacle that threatens to make him lose his whole fortune, he holds his emotions within, eternally resourceful and acting, yet doing so without ever so much as a change in expression. Yes, he is kind, even loving, yet does all with precision and emotionless equanimity. Thus, we know what to expect from him at nearly every turn in the story.
This is a very exaggerated case of a character, well, being a character, showing patterns of behaviour. These make us feel we know them. They are our friends. We are familiar with what they do. And like it. Valerie coldly bites. Whit advises and comforts. Connie screams and pries. Trent day dreams and excels in school. Etc.
Yet, in the end, one of the greatest tests of a character is how it surprises us. At the end of the day, can the character be faced with a significant choice... and keep us tense and wondering what they will do?
This is part of where a character becomes real.
For, after all, a real person is someone who can do anything. Who can make any choice.
And you just don't know what the choice will be.
If it will be good, or if it will be destructive.
That's what reality is.
There is so little we can know, so little we can predict... most of all, so little we can uderstand. We are flooded with information about the world, but we don't understand the world more for it. We don't understand the characters of life. The presidents who let babies die. The insane murderer. The children who starve despite our belief in a loving God.
And so, it's when Emily... Whit... Wooton... when they are standing at a cross road... and we don't know what will happen...
That's when a character turns into a person.