Character Help

Zar

Hoping this is the right place to post this. If anyone else has trouble with their own characters, feel free to post here as well.

I'm always working on different stories and the like for fun, but there is one in particular I've returned to a couple of times, and I'm thinking of seriously trying to make it a one-shot. It's about a group of young superheroes who try to make a difference in their city, despite neither the government nor the official superhero organization caring for them or their efforts. The worldbuilding is still a bit wonky, but I got the protagonists and their powers down… except for one. And it keeps bugging me and I don't know how to fix her. Especially as the character dynamics is the most important part for me. And I'm wondering if I could get some feedback and ideas?

This character, let's give her the codename Phantom, has a motherly, womanly and calm personality and her powers needs to fit the spellcaster niche.
I just can't bring myself to like her. We don't get along, and unlike the rest of the cast I don't enjoy coming up with her stories or trying to figure out a past for her. I can't even see her interact with the rest of the characters. The reason I haven't replaced her yet is because her character type is neccesary to balance out the rest of the cast (four loud and bold characters, and the fifth is a quiet loner who doesn't who doesn't know how this world works).

Basically, what I need is a character to balance out loud archetypes. It must still be a dynamic personality that works with the others, and someone who isn't drowned out when interacting with loud types. She needs to be confident, and a source of both comedy and drama. The other characters consist of the hot-head, the pessimist, the cheerful, the jokster/creepy kid and the mysterious loner.
I need to define her powers as well. They need to fit the spellcasting archetype and she must be able to fly.
If you know any good characters with her archetypes I'd love to hear more about them, examples would be superb. But feedback and ideas in general would be appriciated.

I actually found a picture of her.

!
The question is, is she a badly written character or is it something as simple as me not getting along with her character type?
I don't hate her, and I've grown a bit fond of her, but still…

kazy

You could have her character be uptight. Like Angela from the Office kind of.

Also somebody who has a really hard time telling a joke or maybe tells pointless stories like Grandpa from the Simpsons.

I can't think of powers though

Zar

That might be an idea. It could create some interesting conflict between her and the others too.
I'll test that out.

Wagomu

I'm not very good at coming up with characters, but I know what characters I like. If you want a couple interesting references that I think might be helpful, here's some that came to mind.

Focusing on the motherly and calm aspect, two characters popped up in my head. The first one is way on the motherly end of the spectrum and probably away from what you want, but I think she would be an interesting source of ideas nonetheless. Toriel from the upcoming game Undertale is a strong figure that shows up at the start of the game (and is pretty well-defined in the demo that's been out forever if you want to track that down). She is very handholding and careful to the point that it's annoying, but that's the source of comedy around her. She's not a perfect person by any means and there's this selfish and hurt side that motivates her controlling nature. She's got a surprising amount of depth for a character in the demo of an unreleased game, haha.

The other one I'm thinking of is Pearl from Steven Universe. She's much more tense than she is calm, but is strict, caring and can be considered motherly without necessarily being a mother figure. She's also nerdy, authoritative and disciplined, but not above a little craziness or rule-breaking. The description on the wiki is pretty god and you can read that, but she stands out to me as a character that I thought I would hate for being the 'strict mother' type, but really proved to be a lot more fun and interesting than that.

Again, I don't think either of these characters is quite what you want (or necessarily close), but I think they are really good and interesting characters from which to draw inspiration for that sort of calm, caring or authoritative person.

(A couple more examples are coming to mind right now, too, but I've got to run. If you find this helpful in any way, though, I can post more later)

Hasumi_Emi

Since Zar says it's OK, I want to ask for some character help here, too. I'm trying to decide a couple things with my One Piece OC, Emi. She's half human, half fishman, and is part of the Straw Hat crew. I'm trying to decide if she should gain a special ability or two after the time skip. The two I'm debating on are the ability to talk to fish, and the ability to use Haki. I know it's pretty uncommon for Fishmen to be able to talk to fish, so I imagine one who's only half fishman would be even less likely to have the ability. I also haven't yet thought of a good reason why she would need the ability based on what I've seen so far of One Piece only got into it fairly recently, and I'm nearing the end of the Fishman Island arc. Would there be any real benefits to her having the ability to talk to fish? Should I have her able to do it at some point, or just not worry about it?

As for Haki, that could be far more useful, but I'm not sure if I want her to be able to use it. I wouldn't want too much of the crew to have use of Haki, nor do I want my OC to seem like some super-overpowered being, but at the same time everyone traveling with Luffy is constantly fighting and getting stronger, and they all would be more likely to learn to use it than your average pirate. If she DOES start using Haki, which type should she get? Should she use Kenbunshoku, Busoshoku, or both? Haoshoku, Conquerer's Haki, would of course be off limits for her. Since it's supposed to be very rare, it wouldn't make much sense for two members of the crew to be able to use it. But, I can't decide about the other two. They both would be useful to her and both could make sense. She's a strong fighter like Zoro and Sanji, so being able to use Observation and Armament would both be beneficial to her, but I would need to come up with a good reason for her to awaken it. The reason for either one awakening would likely relate to Brook, as I'm one of those sad, pathetic souls who made an OC to be in a romantic relationship with a canon character. XD Her desire to protect him both because of her feelings for him, and because of a promise she made to his deceased crewmates, would likely be the catalyst to awaken either type of Haki she may learn to use. I just can't decide for sure, though.

Zar

Thanks! These actually help a lot.
One of the problems with motherly types is that they often come off as annoying, so seeing successful examples helps. I've been planning on watching Steven Universe anyway, so now I have one more reason.

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I think giving her the power to talk to fish would be a good idea. It's unique, stands out among the crew, and can probably be useful. Keimi used it to ask for directions, and Jinbe to summon whalesharks to escape from Impel Down. She could use them to help her fight underwater, save devil fruit users who decided it was a genuis idea to attempt surfing, or just provide some talk in lonely situations.
I think there was a limit to the power though… even if some fishmen could talk to fishes, they couldn't talk to all of them. Since she's half fishman, maybe she can only talk to small fishes.

Regarding Haki... everything regarding Haki is a mess, canon or not :P What you could do is wait a bit as you write, and get a feel for the flow of the story. But I don't think it would make her overpowered. There are several characters who got the power despite me personally not understanding how in the world they awakened it, and as somebody mentioned on these forums at some point, in the New World it's better to consider Haki the norm rather than the exception. Dressrosa is a great example in that regard. As for Kenbunshoku/Busoshoku, I'm voting for Busoshoku (that's armament, right?). Having both is a no-go as not even Zoro/Sanji got that. Furthermore, Busoshoku is a lot more dynamic than Kenbunshoku and more suited for fighting and action. I think it would be much more fun to write about.

Rebecca

Perhaps to could make her similar to…
A) Nico Robin. At first I didn't like her, and thought she was uninteresting, but as the story progressed and revealed er cute personality, she positively grew on me. She also fits the mold you set for "motherly", "composed", etc.
B) Raven, from Teen Titans. She's smart, composed, and motherly (once you get past her sass).

The important thing with this kind of character is to make them rounded. If they tend to be quiet, reveal their thoughts as a way of letting the readers get to know them. Like Robin and her cute fantasies!

As for powers, it really depends on the context of the world. Are they alien powers? Mutan powers? Cosmic/god given powers?

I'd love to offer more help if I can. :)

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(As soon as I'm allowed to post threads, I'm starting a character help one. I love reviewing characters and giving advice.)

Hasumi_Emi

Does anybody know if there is any real information on the ability to talk to fish in One Piece? I thought of a reason Emi may want to talk to sea creatures, specifically one particular type, but I don't know if it would make any sense in universe. If she could learn to talk to Island Whales, she could help Brook have a real conversation with Laboon some day. Since it will be some time still before Brook sees Laboon again, I have plenty of time to decide how it should be handled, if I go for it that way, but I can't really find any info on the ability in general. If it's something you're just born with and that's it, or if it's something that can be learned through hard work. If it's something that can be learned through hard work, it would make sense for her to want to learn in order to help Brook, but if it's something you're either born able to do or can't, it wouldn't make sense for her to just happen to be able to talk to the type of sea creature Brook is close to.