Twilight: Bella is SUPPOSED to be a flat character.

[ZombieGenesis]

I'm pretty sure the whole issue of whether this is double standard by video game measures doesn't carry much weight. After all, there are two crucial areas to consider;
1) A game uses action above narrative to tell a story, and isn't reliant on the three branches of written context (action, thought, dialogue) to put across the entire story.
2) Game heroes like Master Chief ARE bland and uninteresting, and most will agree. If you're looking at video games which use a protagonist for projection for its story, you're looking the wrong way.

However a book cannot use this defence, as story and character are all it has.
Someone else in the thread mentioned Murakami, the writer, and they're absolutely right- his 'flat' characters the reader is supposed to step into, often you can't even tell they're supposed to be projections. They make choices, they have thoughts and ideals. They're just crafted well enough to flow around the readers conventional impressions of the story.

 

[claw38]

this has been obvious for a while :|

This.
Plus I love your icon...that band is amazing =D

 

[SamuelT]

Here's an idea: write an entire love story wherein every single character has no defining traits or personalities! That way, the reader can make them into whoever they want them to be!

In all seriousness, though, I've always thought that.

I immediately thought of Eragon there.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

So Bella is just like Gordon Freeman? Big surprise.

 

[Wintermoot]

that,s NOT a excuse for a bad characther, if the writer wanted the reader to project themselfs INTO Belle, why didnt she make a dating sim in the first place?

 

[Siberian Relic]

The reason she's such a bland, uninteresting, burlap sack of a character is because the target audience is intended to project themselves into her shoes. If she were a REAL character (i.e., someone with a personality and other defining traits), she would just be some dumb ***** getting in-between the reader and Edward Cullen (or Jacob, if you're into that sort of thing). Probably also why the Twilight novels are written as a first-person narrative.

Then why does Bella even have a name? You want to create the illusion of reader projection, write your first-person narrative with a protagonist that's never named. But Meyer can't do that, any more than she can regurgitate the same basic story arc through all her books.

No. That's just an excuse for poor writing. It's an asinine statement made by the same sort of writers/readers who believe the connection with the main character can only be achieved by making that main character as close to the 'Average Joe" (or 'Jo') as possible.

When something is well-written in terms of characterization - film, stage play, book, comic - the audience doesn't need to project themselves onto the character. Because they'll actually care about the character. Emotions are universal. When a character is in serious peril, and you're invested in that character based on his/her personality/actions/decision-making quirks (like, you know, the way we're invested in real life FRIENDS or FAMILY), then the emotion is shared.

It takes much, much more skill to get the reader to invest in someone else that it does for the reader to invest in themselves.

 

[Reveras]

Bad books made into worse movies.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

This does not change the fact that the films are terrible.

 

[RatRace123]

Yes, she's supposed to be a flat character with no real drastic personality change, she has a set, rather bland personality.
It still doesn't change the fact that she's a fairly stupid, realtively shallow, and all around unlikable character.

 

[Sleepingzombie]

I think you are right on the money there. Its a tactic that sounds funny when you reflect on it; you write so bad readers beliave it is good

 

[MassiveGeek]

To bad that I don't think Smeyer actually intended her to be in the first place.

It was probably pointed out to her though, and she jumped on the train.

 

[Red-Link]

So Bella is just like Gordon Freeman? Big surprise.

The heretic must be burned! Freeman has a crowbar, it's entirely different.

OT: As others have said, there really isn't an excuse for poor writing. However, a lot of people have jumped down the OP's throat about mentioning the fact that this may have been intentional. Sure it certainly seems that way, but has she ever actually said anything that confirms it. Think of those bad fan-fictions of things you've seen. A lot are trolls, some, the poor souls, are serious. I don't think there's any denying that these stories are her sexual fantasies, which is bad enough, but she might actually believe that they're well written, and Bella to her was a fully-rounded character because she was projecting so much when she wrote it. Honestly, I'd rather the poor characterization be on purpose because the actual publishing of the other side is scary.

That came out a bit longer than I expected. Sorry, I tend to ramble worse in text than in voice...

 

[Liquid Ocelot]

Yeah, she's supposed to be bland, but that doesn't mean the actress should be portraying her as a bland, monotonous, traitless character. It just gets utterly annoying and stupid as fuck.

 

[Palademon]

I agree, but I'm not sure the author did it on purpose as much as she just felt like writing a teenage girl's sick fantasy of guys fighting over her.

 

[Sam Eskenazi]

SOMEONE's read 'The Oatmeal'

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

So Bella is just like Gordon Freeman? Big surprise.

The heretic must be burned! Freeman has a crowbar, it's entirely different.

OT: As others have said, there really isn't an excuse for poor writing. However, a lot of people have jumped down the OP's throat about mentioning the fact that this may have been intentional. Sure it certainly seems that way, but has she ever actually said anything that confirms it. Think of those bad fan-fictions of things you've seen. A lot are trolls, some, the poor souls, are serious. I don't think there's any denying that these stories are her sexual fantasies, which is bad enough, but she might actually believe that they're well written, and Bella to her was a fully-rounded character because she was projecting so much when she wrote it. Honestly, I'd rather the poor characterization be on purpose because the actual publishing of the other side is scary.

That came out a bit longer than I expected. Sorry, I tend to ramble worse in text than in voice...

Many video game characters, Freeman, Master Chief, Link, etc. are rather blank characters, precisely so that the player can project themselves onto them and experience the adventure for themself. But yes, I am a Half-Life heretic, as I was rather unimpressed with the game when I played it. Don't get me wrong, it is fun and all, but the heaps of hype kinda made it fall flat.

 

[archvile93]

The words ''no shit'' come to mind.

Though, this does bring up the point that there is quite a double standard. After all, you don't see nearly as many people complain about shell characters in video games.

That's because games have the more important gameplay to pick up the slack.

 

[Triarii]

Then how about I publish a book consisting of nothing but blank pages?

Then the audience can project as much as they want... It's genius!

They do that, It's called a "composition note book" They sell REALLY well, even more so around school time, although i think it is because they undercut the market of novels quite a bit.

 

[cptawesome]

while this may be true, that doesn't serve to excuse Bella's "flat" personality. Its a mediocre love story at the heart of the Twilight series, and let's face it, even if bella is "supposed to be flat," that doesn't make the story any better. that's like removing all of the subplots from the LOTR movies because the audience is supposed to enjoy just the action. If the reader is supposed to fill a character's shoes, read a Choose Your Own Adventure story.