character identification poll

[rm]

Quick and dirty, but of interest due to random convo with copperbadge:

[Poll #1541697]

Comments

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

The only two characters I can think of who I've gone, "Yes, that's me" were Tonks and Erica from Being Erica.

With Tonks it was a confluence of appearance, desires, and general personality.

With Erica, it was circumstance, family experience, loss, therapy, and regrets. (You'd have to see it to understand the full breadth of similarity, but it was a total o_O moment when I started watching it.)

Interestingly, I've been really glad I never watched Buffy until recently. If I'd watched it in high school, I would have been insufferable. I don't know if I would have identified with Buffy or Willow, but I would have irritated the piss out of everyone in a three mile radius with it.

I'm similarly glad I never watched Nightmare Before Christmas until I was an adult. If I'd watched it as a kid, I would have run around pretending I was Sally all the time. (My scars? Oh Christ.)

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I wanted to be Katchoo from Strangers in Paradise because I thought she was really fucking cool.

Because at 14, I somehow thought being a female-oriented bisexual alcoholic retired prostitute living with her high school best friend was awesome.

I...what?

Somethin' wrong with me.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I wanted to be Katchoo from Strangers in Paradise because I thought she was really fucking cool.

HOLY SHIT. ME TOO.


Except I was torn between wanting to be her and wanting to be with her. And wanting to be with Francine. Or both of them at the same time. GOD DAMN IT.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

I definitely both wanted to be her and be with her. Mostly because you knew sex with her had to be *mind-blowing.*

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Oh hell yeah. I'm still infinitely curious as to what her special "Baby June" technique was. You know, the one to which Moore repeatedly alluded but maddeningly refused to disclose.

At the same time, I sympathize more with Francine and David regarding their approaches to sex - their believing that sex is this beautiful, magical, special experience - whereas Katchoo accepts that, but doesn't necessarily understand it because of the abuse, betrayal and desertion she has experienced in connection with sex. It's complicated.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

i didn't actually answer the poll b/c i don't really ever actually identify with any characters - there are ones that i like for various reasons, but not really having anything to do with their lives/personality resembling mine

[pin-drop.livejournal.com]

Hard question. Thanks for getting me thinking. I checked some of the boxes above, but I wanted to add this in as well: I seem to relate (or not relate) to characters based on how they handle power, both having it and not having it. Insecurities, guilt complexes, despair. Folks who doubt themselves and are afraid of fucking up, folks who hate feeling underestimated but like to fly under the radar. People who bluff when they get scared. Also the ways a person acts with the person they care about the most, what role they play -- caretaker, friend, advisor, confidante, rival, sidekick, mentor, apprentice, priest. I definitely tend to identify more with a character's flaws and desires than with anything else. As a really general statement, the characters I've seen the most of myself in were dishonest and well-intentioned.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

My "other" explanation for question 1 is actually an explanation for the "virtues" choice. Because I have been historically low in self-esteem, I more quickly identify flaws in myself than I do virtues, and thus initially dismiss the commonalities between my traits and the character's traits. However, I do find that when I am more objective about myself, the characters with whom I identify do share virtues with me as well.

[dsudis.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that I never or vanishingly rarely identify with characters (I'm like some of those above who mostly have favorites who are nothing like me, or at least nothing like my self-perception, but don't really look for an identification-character) except that I remembered that in my first few years in fandom I had at least one important personal epiphany by identifying myself with Xander--and, huh, Xander thereafter became somewhat the template for my favorites--and then channeled a lot of misery and confusion in complicated relationships into way, way overidentifying with Daniel Jackson.

So apparently when I do identify with characters it's because I need something from them. If that makes any sense.

[dm811.livejournal.com]

I tend to identify strongly with characters who show empathy, as that is one of my own strongest virtues/flaws. Characters who struggle with identifying their own feelings, or who supress them. Ender Wiggin and Ianto Jones are the first to come to mind. I fall a little bit in love with characters who are introverted, but feel deep passion. And now that I'm really thinking about it, I most often identify with male characters, even though I am a hetero female. Could be that I am looking for a fictional mate that is similar to me in some ways. Or it could be that female characters are not always as well written as their male counterparts.

[alumiere.livejournal.com]

To the first question, other = emotions and actions.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

I think the reasons why I identify with Buffy are pretty obvious, and will become more obvious as the show goes on. Flaws. Desires. Relationships. Past experiences. Aspirations.

And as for Sherlock Holmes... FLAWS FLAWS FLAWS, etc. ;)

[ravenskye8.livejournal.com]

I tend to identify with characters that have personality traits that are the same or similar to mine.

[severed-lies.livejournal.com]

I identify with the characters that are perceived as "other", just as in RL, I tend to gather the more unique (read strangest to the conventional/popular crowd) and most non-mainstream people as friends. Flaws are my benchmark of how honestly people present themselves, not interested in hiding their true selves. I always envy the most non-conforming people. It takes real courage to unmask in public.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

In addition to my selections above, I identify with my characters in much the same way I do with my friends, through empathy. Some of my characters are very me, and others are more like people I know and admire...

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

It depends on the character, but quite often it's a mixture of flaws and, for some odd, what kind of career they have. The second one isn't deliberate, and I wasn't aware of it until you asked. But if we do a quick round-up of characters I identify with they're all scientists of one sort or another (Owen Harper, Severus Snape, Kerr Avon and Stephen Maturin). I'm deeply annoyed that they're all male.

I think it's because they react to things in a similar way to me, they don't internalise, they shout back and are normally deeply unpleasant about it, and then there's the horrible moment where they go too far and you can't help but recognise it.

With Stephen Maturin it's odd, because I love Jack Aubrey more, but for the same reasons that Stephen loves him, which I think also helps with the identification.

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

Also, would it be okay if I mentioned this post in a post of my own about characters?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yup, feel free.

[hippypaul.livejournal.com]

I find that the fictional characters that I identity with the most are the 'might have been' versions of myself. Very self centered I realize but I am trying to be honest here. The ones that do not work for me are ones that are doing something that I just can not see myself doing. I do not mean in a moral sense, I can identify with some truly bad people but not with people that do not seem real.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

"Desires" and "aspirations" for me - but, that being said, like several others here I rarely if ever identify with characters. One of the few exceptions I can think of - and that only for a certain time in my life - is Harriet Vane.

[coriander.livejournal.com]

I'm having a hard time answering this poll.

The fictional characters that speak to me are usually flawed in a way that shows, but they have overcome those flaws with their own creative paths.

But, it's not just "flaws" - it totally depends on so many things - the interaction, the communication, the depth of the character as well as the acting skills used, the setting, the visual aspects (if in a visual medium), and whether I believe the character is true to their nature (if it's applicable)... Very interesting questions.

Ok, maybe writing this comment has helped me to answer better after all.

[canaana.livejournal.com]

When I identify with a fictional character, it's because of the tiny, subtle things that are intrinsically me. They're not circumstantial and they're not necessarily aspirations. They're certainly nothing current, and while past experience may have something to do with it, there may never have been an *experience* that builds that commonality.

I'm an old soul. I walk a particular spiritual path. I am not tied to sex, sexuality, or gender. I am a warrior at some subconscious levels that have nothing to do with physical strength or training at arms. My subconscious seems to run on the feudal system. These are the things that tend to build strong identification with a character. I don't necessarily need all of them to be there, but when most of them are, I get the oddest sensation of looking at a character and looking back at myself.

Or, as I explained to someone, meeting Jack Harkness was like looking into a funhouse mirror. I look at him and see myself--just twisted and pulled at some different angles. Not every case of identity is that strong . . . but then, I don't usually have that *many* points of commonality with a single character.

[natf.livejournal.com]

I wanted an "It depends on the character" tickbox because the trait of the character that I am identifying with depends upon which of my traits they have. The boxes that I ticked are the boxes you offered that most often ring my bells. ;-p