[Meme] Top 5 things to keep in mind when writing various characters

[edenfalling]

As seen around in various places:

Pick a character* I've written and I will explain the top five** ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.

* Try to make it someone I've written either often or recently in order for me to answer.
** May not actually be five.

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Susan Pevensie (Chronicles of Narnia), for branchandroot

Ginny Weasley (Harry Potter), for silverblade219

Haruno Sakura (Naruto), for silverblade219

Prince Rabadash (Chronicles of Narnia), for hungrytiger11

Dave Strider (Homestuck), for askerian

Aravis Tarkheena (Chronicles of Narnia), for rthstewart

Lucy Pevensie (Chronicles of Narnia), for snacky

Uzumaki Naruto (Naruto), for vehrec

Comments

[edenfalling]

continued from previous comment

5. Aravis was raised to navigate court politics. She is very, very good at that, even if she stumbles a bit at first while learning the differences between Archenlandish techniques for saying things without actually saying them and the equivalent Calormene techniques, and also what does or doesn't count as a deadly insult in her new country's culture. For the first few months after she and Cor are married and he insists that she be allowed to attend any meeting he attends, she spends a LOT of time not-so-subtly kicking him under the table or digging her nails into his wrist under the guise of tenderly holding his hand, until he shuts up. Then she glares at him until he manages to find an approach she thinks is more useful. As time goes by and Archenland grows accustomed to her, she is able to contribute on her own instead of via Cor. By the time Ram is born, she is effectively a co-monarch.

(Spoiler: Aravis outlives Cor by a few years, and while Ram technically becomes king at that point, he refuses to hold a coronation until his mother dies because to him -- and to most of Archenland, in fact! -- she is still the ruling queen.)

6. Aravis is a horsewoman. She was raised in horse country -- the province of Calavar is mostly gentle, rolling hills, all the way to the coast -- and learned to ride at approximately the same time she learned to walk. She never really likes Archenland's topography, though she does find the mountains beautiful. She is much more comfortable in Narnia, which is a broad, open river valley with occasional hills and forests. Archenland feels narrow to her on a physical level that is only compounded by the strain of feeling boxed in by a foreign culture.