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[DISC] Marvel Comics' New Warriors and Proper Character Creation

(I'd make the video bigger but I can't.)

On March 18th, Marvel Comics released this trailer for their new Warriors comics. These characters were created by writer Daniel Kibblesmith, and have come under heavy backlash for the past few days. The two most problematic characters were twins Snowflake (the blue hero) and Safespace (the pink one). The others are a bit messy, lazily written, but it’s this pair that have caused the most drama on the internet. In case you didn’t watch the video or know nothing about them, I’ll briefly explain who they are:

Safespace is a jock who creates defensive bubbles, however, they can only be summoned when people are in danger. Snowflake is non-binary, goes by they/them pronouns and uses ice powers to create snowflake shurikens. Their names are normally used as derogatory terms, however, they wear them like badges of honour, and seek to dispel these negative stereotypes.

 I haven’t seen many responses to these twins beyond the comments on the Marvel video (which, yesterday, were primarily filled with hateful, bigoted insults) and penguinz0 (Cr1TiKaL)’s video about them, but I understand the LGBT+ community, in particular non-binary folks, are outraged by these characters. They seem like jokes, making fun of the very people they’re supposed to be representing. There is an abundance of rant Tweets, videos and posts about these characters that you can view in your own time. Adding fuel to the fire is not what I aim to do in this post.

Characters in entertainment media are an integral part of our world because we’re always searching for stories to consume. People are constantly reading books, watching films, binging television shows, playing videogames. As a result, there is also a great focus on what these characters are like and what they go through. There have been stories of people getting outraged because a queer character was killed off early in a horror film. Asian people rejoice seeing representation in mainstream media. Non-binary people were outraged that the first non-binary hero, Snowflake, is offensive because their snowflake characteristic and identity are their defining character trait. Therefore, characters must be made correctly.

How do you make a character “correctly”? That is what I would like to discuss today.

I want to begin by saying I support the LGBT+ community and awareness about mental health. I am in no way hateful towards these things. I think being part of the LGBT community or having a mental illness should become normalised and supported. I’d know, as an Asian bisexual demiboy (part of the non-binary spectrum) with anxiety, perfectionism and self-consciousness.

Did that list just now make you roll your eyes a little? I understand. It’s part of my point.

As an author, I have an issue with what I’m calling “label-slapping for the sake of inclusivity”. How do you make a character that isn’t a heterosexual Caucasian man? By making one that is the complete opposite. A lesbian African female. Or perhaps a bisexual Asian demiboy, hehe.

What I’d like you to remember is this. Character creation isn’t adding a bazillion adjectives to a Scribblenauts character. It’s gathering concepts to add some back story to.

How boring would I sound if I was described as a Scribblenauts character? “Asian, bisexual, fat, demiboy, anxious, self-conscious person”. That’s an extremely shallow description of a person, let alone a character. And this is exactly what you want to avoid.

Here’s how we properly make a character.

1. Start with broad strokes - List out some characteristics.
This might seem like I’m counter-acting my earlier point by not making a list of adjectives, but this is gathering the concepts for what you might like to see in a character.

Let’s pretend creating a character is like cultivating a garden. We got a pot and some soil. What do we need? Seeds. Now let’s imagine that you’re entering a seed shop. There’s aisles upon aisles of neatly organised seed packets hung up. You can pick out whatever you like, but you should be careful. You must not come back in here and return seeds and grab new ones and switch so casually. You’re not making a cursed Frankenstein’s Monster. You're creating a person.

Furthermore, try not to grab too many, otherwise, the next step becomes hard. Really remember you’re making a person, NOT a repository of characteristics. Aim for maybe five or six.

Drawn by me. Please give credit if using elsewhere.

Here’s mine. I suppose you could see it as (1) Gender/Sex, (2) Important physical feature, (3-4) Personality traits, and (5-6) Skills/abilities. if you wanted to be very organised about your selection.
Female
  • Overweight
  • Amiable
  • Self-conscious
  • Intelligent
  • Magic-User
You should carefully consider what you pick out because these seeds can grow to say a lot about your character. For example, don’t tack on in the middle of your narrative that your character knows how to play the guitar. Think about it. That means they sat down many times, went through the steps of learning how to play and be comfortable with a guitar, and learnt a song or two. The “Guitarist” seed packet also means your character is fairly determined, a creative type, etc.

2. Write a small biography using those concepts, and create a character. Maybe even draw!
Write a small paragraph about who your character is. Try not to phrase it like a list of what your character is without any background. Try to add some reasons as to why they have those characteristics. Use a placeholder name like “David” or “Jennifer” to temporarily fill in the space, if you have no idea for a name. Here’s mine.

Ellyn Hwyl is an intelligent and amiable magic-user. She seeks to do well in her academic studies and is highly critical on herself and any faults that she makes. This is due to an incident in her past where she was humiliated by her classmates for producing sloppily written work. Due to all her time spent studying, she's overweight and is self-conscious of this fact. She tries to run everywhere she can to avoid others from seeing her as "slow" or weak. She seeks the approval of others, especially higher-ups like her teachers.

When you write a character like that, the concepts you picked out suddenly don’t come out of nowhere. They have an origin. And with that, your character is more grounded, relatable and believable.

From that paragraph, Ellyn’s defining characteristics aren’t about what inclusive things I’ve injected into her, like that she’s overweight (for the body-positive groups) or female (she’s a female main character against the usual straight Caucasian male). It’s that she’s an intelligent magic student who seeks the approval of her teachers. I even gave her a reason as to why she’s overweight, but it added more into her self-consciousness nature and how dedicated she is to her studies. By making her relatable in these ways, she becomes an even better, more accurate representation of the groups she would be part of. A person’s appearance or sexual orientation isn’t what defines a whole person, you’d be missing out their personality!

3. Incorporate your character into the world!
Incorporating your character into the narrative world should be like adding a beautifully decorated square to a quilted blanket full of other creations. Here’s Ellyn’s role in my novel, Travelling Tales, alongside Simon Cabrera.

Ellyn Hwyl is an intelligent and amiable magic-user. She was chosen by Headmaster Alfred to accompany Simon Cabrera on her travels, to be his friend. Due to all her time spent studying and indoors, she is overweight and self-conscious of this fact. She occasionally overexerts herself when trying to keep up with Simon’s hiking pace and is extremely embarrassed when he stops to wait for her. She berates herself when she makes mistakes and seeks Simon’s approval as a mentor. She harbours a slight crush on him as well.

And with that, Ellyn has become a well-grounded, fleshed-out character that can be developed more in her environment! At the end of this post will be a picture of her and some annotations about who she is. All of these things help make her a believable, real character.

Thank you for reading this post! Please consider Following via email or at least favouriting this blog in your Bookmark bar! I’ll keep trying to upload a post by Sunday midnights, but I can’t guarantee it will be every week, due to university studies. I am okay, conducting my university studies at home, but it is incredibly frustrating. I get very easily distracted by Youtube videos, haha! And I prefer studying in the company of friends. Maybe I’ll Skype call them later… I dunno. Either way! Have a brilliant week, take care, stay safe, wash your hands, and above all, be kind to one another!

Drawn by me. Please give credit if using elsewhere.

Links / Further Viewing
  1. NEW WARRIORS TRAILER | Marvel Comics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PCWUCv1rnU
  2. Marvel's Worst Announcement (penguinz0 / Cr1tTiKaL) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2627xHSIDQ
  3. Travelling Tales (Links):
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