Characters That You Have A Deep Connection With

[MercenaryCanary]

For me?
It's Jack.
Yes, Jack from Mass Effect 2.

I'll be honest with you. I used to think this character was pretty pointless. A generic hard chick that's trying to prove how tough she can be. Okay, sure. I'll skip over you.

Then I played through a few more play-throughs (as a male this time), and went for Jack just to see what the romance scene was like. What I got was a character that I ultimately felt deeply connected to and will forever love.

You see, my fellow Escapist members, Jack and I both had to go through something very emotional and persistent in our lives: Abandonment issues. More and more this became clear to me, as I was going through therapy while actually going through this play-through, and had to explain to the therapist how I felt about what I've been through. Then I realized she was going through everything that I went through. She wanted to be alone, she wanted to push away those that wanted to get close, and when they finally got close... she was so afraid of losing them that she'd just break down and cry and ask to be hugged and held.

I knew what was going on in that shaved, tattooed head of hers, because it's what I was going through. Because of this, Jack is my favorite character. What seemed to be a stereotypical cardboard cut-out actually turned out to be a deeply-flawed interesting character that just tugged at your heart strings.

Now it's your turn.
What character do you feel deeply connected to?
And why?

 

[Dominic Burchnall]

The character I feel the greatest personal connection to is Garrus Vakarian.

All right, I'm not a Turian marksman, but on an emotional level I do feel a lot of empathy with his character. I despise seeing wrongdoing and being unable to do anything about it, and tend to dwell over something I could've prevented. I tend to act a bit cocky around my friends (the equivalent of shouting "Scoped and dropped!" in the middle of a firefight), but I'm a lot more reserved and private in social situations (always doing calibrations). I'm not hugely confident when it comes to talking to women I'm attracted to, and if I make a faux pas or double entendre I will tear myself to shreds thinking that she took it the way I didn't mean it. I'm stubborn, and don't back down easily, and I've got quite a fondness for big guns.

Also, can I just say how good it is to find someone else who hasn't simply written Jack off as a psycho, and took the time to explore her character and history.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I can relate to fictional characters yes, but I cannot connect to them. I'm one of those that can only establish emotional connection with living tangible things.

 

[Zing]

I can relate to fictional characters yes, but I cannot connect to them. I'm one of those that can only establish emotional connection with living tangible things.

What he said.

Forming a "deep connection" with a fictional character seems pretty weird to me.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Any character I make up, mostly because they come from my own personal experiences. Nothing else though.

 

[Austin Howe]

I guess you could say that Squall Leonhart and I have a connection, in that we're pretty much the same person.

 

[badgersprite]

I've formed very strong attachments to a number of characters, but usually not because they're anything like me at all. I find it way easier to relate to characters who are completely different from me and going through completely different things than I've ever gone through.

So, yeah, I feel strong empathy towards a lot of characters, understand them, or like them, but I've never seen a character who I would personally identify with as a reflection of me, or, if I have, then it didn't make me like the character.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Anders from Dragon Age 2 until

Spoiler

he went crazy.

Also, Link and Pikachu, as they're the mascots for video game series that got me through tough times as a kid.

 

[OutcastBOS]

Before I answer...do you mean just video games, or any fictional character?

 

[Ninjat_126]

The character I feel the greatest personal connection to is Garrus Vakarian.

All right, I'm not a Turian marksman, but on an emotional level I do feel a lot of empathy with his character. I despise seeing wrongdoing and being unable to do anything about it, and tend to dwell over something I could've prevented. I tend to act a bit cocky around my friends (the equivalent of shouting "Scoped and dropped!" in the middle of a firefight), but I'm a lot more reserved and private in social situations (always doing calibrations). I'm not hugely confident when it comes to talking to women I'm attracted to, and if I make a faux pas or double entendre I will tear myself to shreds thinking that she took it the way I didn't mean it. I'm stubborn, and don't back down easily, and I've got quite a fondness for big guns.

Also, can I just say how good it is to find someone else who hasn't simply written Jack off as a psycho, and took the time to explore her character and history.

The character I have the biggest connection with is "Dominic Burchnall", for the reasons above.

Although my dialogue in social situations is more similar to Tali's than Garrus'.

 

[Raideh]

Cleaned.

 

[Turigamot]

Uh, I like certain characters, but have a deep connection with? They aren't living, breathing, thinking humans; that kind of throws the whole "deep connection" thing out the window as far as I am concerned.

 

[Valkyrie101]

The galaxy will burn as I avenge the death of Garrus Vakarian.

 

[Manji187]

Define "deep connection"...especially considering the fact we're talking about VIRTUAL characters.

 

[That_Sneaky_Camper]

The title should be changed if possible, an actual connection requires for me and the character to interact with one another on a personal level and a fictional character cannot do that as they are quite clearly not real. I can relate to fictional characters, form sympathy or empathy or even a degree of admiration for their situation but a connection/relationship can't be formed to someone who isn't real.

Anyway I have so many characters I like that I could type all day about my feelings on their situations and why I feel I can relate to them.

 

[Vrex360]

The closest I've ever gotten to a deep connection with a fictional character is easily Ashley Williams from Mass Effect. Yes, I know she gets a lot of hate but I instantly liked her for her tough girl attitude and wisecracks and found myself growing fonder of her as the game progressed.
She was a rare case of a character that I actually felt like I got to know and understand, even her faults like her aggression and distrust towards aliens actually helped me grow attached to her because flaws help define character. Plus it was kind of neat that I was able to persuade her to change her worldview or at least be more open minded and look at this whole situation in a 'big picture' kind of way.
It was pretty cool that a game where the central theme essentially was 'time to let the past be the past and move on and come to terms with change and relations with new cultures' that there actually existed a character who you could argue with and yet still be able to romance.

As far as Mass Effect 2 goes, well, Horizon sucked. But I fault that on horrific writing and unlike the many angry people with appalling spelling and doubtlessly bad grooming out there... it wasn't enough to turn me off. It was actually pretty easy to stick with Ashley even though she only showed up once and not exactly on the best of terms.
And even though the game keeps shoving Liara into my face, desperatley trying to convince me that she's the 'right' choice and pushing Ashley further and further away from the spotlight or anything to do with the main story, still I dug my feet deeper into the ground and determinedly stayed the course.
Which is a lot of commitment given that I'm talking about a fictional character.

If nothing else, the fact that I've verbally defending Ashley numerous times, regarding numerous issues that people keep bringing up against her and that I've never given up no matter how stubborn said people can be in their arguments should be enough of a sign that the character has certainly grown on me, and even though I can't say I approve of the decision made by Bioware to make her look like a spandex wearing supermodel for Mass Effect 3, it's also not going to be nearly enough to even bother me.

So yeah, to Ashley Williams. My ultimate game crush, few would I ever defend with such determination and valor.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

The NG Resonance holograms in Invisible War. Yes, the game is vastly to the inferior, everyone agrees. But everyone also forgot how awesome the NG Resonance holograms were.

 

[Zhukov]

Uh... none?

Don't get me wrong, there of plenty of characters out there that I like. For example, like the OP, I really liked Jack. But at the end of the day fictional characters are, well... fictional.

Bottom line, if I can't poke someone, "deep connection" simply isn't on the cards.

 

[Richardplex]

My own Shepard, probably a bad sign that I'm more emotionally connected to the character I RP as than my IRL self, but whatever. Liara and Garrus too, as they helped my character develop in ME1 and 2 respectively. Liara so much so to change my play style (as an infiltrator) from very defensive to reckless aggressive in LotSB when you first see the broker's personal guards.