Personality changes

[SekoETC]

Characters tend to be molded by their environment, so at least for me, they often turn out different than I had originally planned them.

Here are some examples:

- One was very seductive and fun-loving when she was young. She turned very serious and a sort of a workaholic upon aging.

- One spawned very childish and innocent. Loved hunting. Then she went through some things that made her nervous. But later she became really outgoing again.

- This character was planned not to take responsibilities, to be a free spirit who does things for his own enjoyment. He ended up staying in his spawn town for quite a while until the people that mattered died. Events in his life made him sort of bitter, but since things have taken a turn for the better, he has also started feeling more positive again.

- One character started out very afraid and confused. She quickly got over her fear of the world but remained sort of naive for a long time. Later turned really depressed. Nowadays having some good days and some bad days.

- This one character spawned sort of awkward socially. Nowadays he's better at talking to people but somewhat bitter.

- One character was planned to turn into like the crazy cat lady from the Simpsons, but she has remained quite sane and there are no cats on the island.

- One spawned really childish, has matured since then and turned in a direction I don't like. I hope he could return to how he used to be because he's hard to play nowadays.

- Another one spawned also childish, and mostly remains that way, but has grown frustrated that she can't communicate enough.

- One spawned really good at lots of things, so she felt like she owes something to the society and should use her skills for common good. Then pretty much everyone died around her. Now she's lost. She feels like if there's even one person left, she is obliged to stay, but at the same time it's killing her inside.

- The last one spawned feeling like he should give something to the community. The community crumbled apart around him, so there's pretty much nothing left. He has noticed the world is a very insecure place and that has made him nervous.

I left out characters who haven't gone through major personality changes.

[kicking jay]

Ooh, I like this thread.

- He started out as a gung ho, naive, rather self-centered kid, and has grown into a more laid-back guy who doesn't mind quiet and time with his animals. Anxiety from waiting to starve or hit land with two other mouths that took him along is shaping him as well, but I don't know what it'll look like unless he survives.

- She started as a unintentional bandit who just grew quieter and colder to people in general with every violent misencounter. Opposed to stealing back then, now she quietly takes what she can with many scruples, and is somewhat less cold, but more manipulative; gaining a harsher and more hateful view of where she came from.

- Little to no change, more pragmatic and less wordy.

- Was rather a loose cannon when spawned, no respect for anybody and extremely rash and somewhat immature in her speech and actions. Loss and events have made her somewhat more warm, a bit less impatient (hard to tell), generally more bitter and snarky but less of a firebrand than she used to be. More or less respects authority, even if she has no love for it, and finally developed a bit of begrudging loyalty to what she's begun to consider her hometown.

- Total personality shift, mainly caused by going batshit insane a few years back. Has little current coherent personality, so I'll not bother describing her.

- A bit more sad, mature, and reserved. Other than that, little change.

- Still a funloving loner semijerk with a heart of gold. No change.

- Has not spoken or interacted with anybody in -years-. I don't know their personality anymore.

- Has barely ever spoken or interacted. Doesn't even have a name, and it's been three years. Established the foundation of a personality, but have not gotten to express it enough to develop into anything.

[Shedevil]

Only two of my characters have went through a personality shift actually, which is sort of surprising.

The first used to get involved in every drama and dilemma situation that arouse with her friends. But since she settled down with her husband she stays quiet mostly and avoids drama at all costs, she doesn't even argue with anyone or attempt to get involved and tends to push away those who want to get her involved..


The second is one of my newspawns (So early to have a personality shift but it happened).. When she spawned she was carefree and loving but after what she thought was a betrayal by the woman she loved, she has turned bitter and resentful.

[hyrle]

As I looked at my character list - I identified several that have changed from their early days, but some that are basically the same. As with some posters before, I'll only mention the changed ones:

* One spawned as a "good soldier" - happy to follow orders, do what everyone else wants. But after a while he began feeling used and unrewarded. After a love-triangle gone bad, he kind of snapped... and now he's got little respect for authority and loyalty to no one but himself. He sails alone most of the time. He's considering settling down somewhere but remaining independent. He's pretty much gone "maverick" at this point.

* Started out as a rouge loner. A maverick so to speak. Met a woman who he fell for and visited a few friendly, peaceful places - and he's mellowed out. Now he captains a fairly large crew and likes helping others, rather than being the loner maverick.

* Started out as a a "good soldier" - happy to follow orders, do what everyone else wants. Got in an argument over some silliness, and he relocated. He then became an independent townie...worked for his own purposes in a quiet town, but stayed put. After his lover fell into a deep sleep, he began feeling fidgety and wanted to travel. Now he travels with some women who he fiercely protects and shamelessly hits on near-constantly. He's become a bit of a cad, but he would also do anything for his girls.

* Started out ignored by his spawntown, which led him to move to a place where he felt accepted. He worked quietly, asking but also not getting much in return. After the town's atmosphere turned toxic in his view, he quit to "become his own man", only to meet a woman who he fell for and felt loyal to. He relocated to his fourth town and now lives there and is loyal to her and their new town.

* Started out with a desire to be around specific kinds of resources, which didn't happen to exist in his spawntown. So he moved - first going to a basically abandoned place that had them. He was there for a while and it was quiet, but then a woman came along who he fell for. They ended up relocating to a settled down, but within five years, all the inhabitants before them (except one) died one-by-one. The town ended up in his care, and he ended up going from "out for himself" to "helping others".

* Started out with a desire to live on his own as a hermit in a quiet place. Ended up settling in one of the busiest towns in the game, totally in love with one of its inhabitants. Still thinks of living with just her and him... but can't really express that desire. It would likely break her heart as well.

All the rest of my characters pretty much have stuck with the personality they've had. Their responsibilities have evolved in some cases, but for the most part they are who they've always been.

[Snickie]

I'm keeping this limited to my dead characters.

• This one...I don't remember much about his starting personality since he was my first character, but I remember he never really knew where he fit in the world. He was sometimes funny but also concerned about what other people thought about him. I think romance was what ruined him. In his entire life, he loved three women, and only ever got anywhere with one of them (although the second one would have loved him had he expressed interest in her instead of being so caught up with the first), but in the latter years of that relationship he became jealous and somewhat possessive, and when he realized he was behaving that way and that it was effectively pushing her away, he felt extremely guilty. He spent the rest of his life feeling guilty and internally despairing when people left, and finally succumbing when he found himself completely alone in the world.
  
  
• This one was spawned a carefree dumb blonde, and I couldn't keep up the act for more than a week. xDD She fell head over heels in love with a man, who later attempted suicide (and failed). She ended up killing him because he had fallen asleep and was getting mauled by animals, and she couldn't stand to see him suffer like that. She was never the same after that. After seven long years in the wilderness she returned to town with a facade, which broke down in front of the person she considered her best friend. He rejected her after that, guided by his conscience. She didn't blame him.
  
  Years later she became the town leader, but was very distrustful, especially after a pirate broke into storage and looted everything she could drag on her own. Years later she realized her distrust of everyone was hurting the town and she relinquished leadership to someone else. The first thing he did was change all the locks and she suddenly felt powerless. She went off into the mountains on a "resource run", brought back some coal, and starved herself in the town. Nobody would miss her. I suspect one person/character in the entire game actually misses her. You know who you are.
  
  
• Unlike the previous one, this one managed to stay dumb for most of her life (although her father figure would have told you differently). She spawned not knowing how to read and being silly and childish and impulsive. She was afraid of hidden conflict and, out of all of my characters, I think she was the most vocal when she had problems with people. She even made up names for all the weasels in town and played like they had families with conflicts and stuff like that.
  
  Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.
  
  Okay, that's not entirely true, but the parallels are eerily similar. Depending on how you look at it. Anyway.
  
  It actually started when her father died, and she suddenly had to grow up. She was appointed the overall leader (by inheritance and something of a popular vote) of the two towns her group oversaw. When she went to communicate the news to the neighboring town (forest), the person who had assumed leadership there left before she could announce that she had accepted the role of overall leader. That miscommunication would hurt her later on, after several conflicts over whether a certain person should be allowed to live (he was eventually dragged and killed against my character's orders), and when the Fire Nation Blackrocks arrived and offered to share that town instead of outright taking it over. The "leader" of the forest refused to listen to what my character thought was a very reasonable proposition (even she knew they were outclassed in every way by Naedell), looted the town, and took off on a galleon with her very large family and a bunch of the people my character trusted most. She ended up teaming up with the Blackrocks to stop this character, and it was the first time she had ever purposely used her crossbow, and she landed the killing shot to one of the people on deck. It tore her to pieces that she did that and that so many people had betrayed her. When all was said and done, she ended up abandoning all claims to the forest and lived out the rest of her days in quiet despair. Her last friend was killed by Naedell after impersonating an important leader on the radio (something my character had warned him against). She actually turned him in because she was terrified of Naedell and didn't want to pay for his crimes against her.
  
  I'm pretty sure this character had the most complicated story arc, and it would've made for an interesting book or movie or something.
  
  
• I'm not sure this one ever really had a personality change. I suppose as her life went on, had she gone to see a psychiatrist, she would have been diagnosed with Avoidant Personality Disorder. She was entirely too concerned with what everyone thought of her until her last days when she was too broken by losses of friends to care anymore. A typical Snickie-character story (content-ish, traumatizing trigger event, downward spiral into depression, death.)
  
  
• This character was also a bit of an Avoidant, but was also angry at the world. She was angry at the leader of Shai because she didn't feel like they actually got anything settled when they talked about work or payment. She was angry at Matthew Bauer because he left, even though they were never romantically involved. She was angry at Haap because Haap was the only person whose obnoxious noise-making could break through the tinnitis that composed her deafness. She was angry at Maho for "claiming" all the projects for this one guy. She was angry for being deaf-ish. She was angry when things didn't line up perfectly in her spreadsheet. But she never ended up doing anything about her anger, so it just stewed until she eventually shut down (read: I lost interest), which happened right after she was ready to set sail and be a schizoid who drew maps for a living. (She never did.)
  
  
• The only other character worth mentioning here is another typical Snickie-character story. She was never "happy", so to speak, but other than that it follows the line perfectly.

[Raspberrytango]

I have definitely had characters who've gone through personality changes. Not all of them do, but some do and sometimes it's because of life events, or lack thereof, and sometimes it's because their circumstances change and they adapt to it. I've also had it happen a time or two because I spawned the character without a clear idea of what the personality would be and then it just evolved.