So I was sitting here reading my english assignment, and it was talking about what makes good stories, and good characters, and it got me thinking (for the hundredth time) about what to do about my character, Inai.

It struck me, I may have just set him up for failure.

The more I look at him from an outside, un-opinionated perspective, the more he seems to become the kind of character that I normally cant stand in any form of fiction. He is the kind of character that, when presented with any random situation, I could not tell you upfront how he would react, as I could easily do with any other of my characters.

My characters have roles in the story, as do most. The joker, the leader, the villian, the clown, the traitor, the protagonist and antagonist, ect. They all have their parts to play in tying the story together. And I realize, I have no idea where Inai falls into any of this. He's just...there.

What makes him just being...there, worse, is that he is an important character to the story. And he should not be important by just being...there, and having plot points revolve around him. He needs a reason. He needs a genuine role in the story. What is his role? I look back at the things he does in the story and I realize all he does is either cause problems for most of the other characters or get them out of bad situations, two things that totally contradict each other and make him more of a mary-sue, inconsistent. Totally inconsistent.

And on the note of inconsistent, his entire character is as such. I can tell you what traits he keeps no matter how I portray him; he is loyal, he is caring, he is intelligent. He is reserved, he makes a lot of bad decisions, and he is lonely. Lonely when he really has no reason to be, surrounded by people who would care about him if he'd just open his stupid eyes. Suck it up, princess. But none of these traits really stand out, and it bugs me. I can tell you Taveru is a coward, a BIG coward. Kaori is strong willed and loyal to her friends. Varren is a dumbass who has his heart in the right place, but does not always make the right decisions. Isaru is cool and collective, manipulating and intelligent, dark. All these are distinctive traits, and you know what I hate? Inai seems to have had all of them, on some level. He is just a combination of all my other characters, and I can't stand it.

I do not know how to fix this. I do not know how to make him a likeable character, a distinctive character. Maybe I'm just trying too hard, but if I do not fix this, he will not be an enjoyable character. He will be just another Mary-Sue, and I'm not okay with that. I am aware of how much he needs work, but the more I try, the more I fail...

throughout these years only one thing has seemed to remain consistent with him, and that is his loyalty to Isaru. Wheather Isaru is nice to him, or mean to him, or both, I haven't decided for sure yet. But through it all Inai has always been loyal to him...his only consistent trait. Is it possible to build on that? I'm not sure. The worst part is, is this loyalty even a good trait...?

I'm just so frustrated. I have to fix this. I don't know how.......................