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“What’s your favorite Backstory?”
I’m going to risk sounding like a broken record and say Zuko from ATLA.
(I seriously need to expand my consumption of fiction so I can find a new favorite and use something else as answers.)
I really love backstories that have direct consequences on the main plot and also help you understand why the character acts a certain way and makes the types of decisions they make in the present day.
Zuko’s backstory does that perfectly.
It’s not there so that you can pity him, it’s there to show you what his goal is, and why it matters so much to him. What his fear is, and why he’s so over the top and melodramatic.
So what’s one of your favorite backstories in fiction?
I personally think that Edward and Alphonse from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood had a pretty epic backstory (it was pretty epic) one of them lost an arm and a leg, and da other lost their whooole body (it was pretty bloody and epic, if I do say so myself)
They also have blonde hair, and as a blonde hair user myself, i must say I can relate to them #RELATEable. But my hair is turning brown so maybe in the future i will not enjoy the backstory as much.
For more context, I recently had a haircut and after the hair was cut, I looked down and on the floor I saw brown hair. Not blonde as you might expect from a blonde haired person. Quite the shock, I know.
Fun fact: a child said I looked like Justin Bieber. Is that even a compliment anymore? I know the Bieb was pretty popular back in da day, but I’m not too sure anymore…help.
Will this ruin my reputation? No this IS my reputation!!!!
I do realize this is more of a hair backstory rather than a favorite backstory, but thats just life y’know.
Come to think of it, my hair backstory might be more interesting than full metal alchemist, especially considering that my hair is taking a dark turn. Literally
Come to think of it again, this post is longer than my hair could ever be (and I think that’s pretty epic). Come to think of it again again, this is the most i have ever written in a long time. What does that say about me as a writer? Why am I even on this forum? Why am I even allowed to be on this forum? Should I even be here? Why are we all here? Why do I even exist? What’s the meaning of life? How many holes does a straw have? Is Shrek even a good movie?
k bye.
Flawless and handsome (as ruled by my grandmother.)
I dunno… that’s a hard question. Maybe Bruno from Avi’s City of Orphans. I really felt for him. No, maybe Errol from Patrick W. Carr’s A Cast of Stones. That was really good. Yeah, I’d say him. 🙂
Sorry, was I supposed to tag you? @kathleenramm
@not-so-secret-secret-assassin Fullmetal Alchemist is so good! I was just thinking about it this morning, haha…
@kathleenramm Something similar to that; In Silver Spoon, by the same author as FMA, the main character Hachiken Yuugo has a pretty compelling backstory. At the start of the series we see that he’s come to farming school as an escape, and we can see how gradually over the course of the story how his experiences change him for the better, instead of focusing all on grades and competing with others, as well as fear of failure and rejection. This is also like not a good summary of the actual work. The actual manga is so much better than what I just said here.Also, while I’m on the topic of manga, I think that the backstory for Monster’s mc Kenzo Tenma is one of the most striking and plot-relevant backstories I’ve seen. Dr. Tenma saves the life of a boy who turns out to be a monster, and now he must go and fix his mistake, and also grapple with the choice that he made. Beautifully done.
20th Century Boys (by the same author as Monster) also has extremely well-done backstories for all of its characters, and we can see how they tie in throughout everyone’s character arcs. Especially for the main character and the main villain. I love how throughout the story the present is always tied to the past. The mc, Kenji, has to deal with the devastating consequences of a story that he made up as a child. And might I say, the villain backstory is one of the best done I have seen so far in fiction. It is not meant for us to sympathize with him, but rather to understand him. I feel too often that villain backstories always go too far off the sad end and almost try to justify the villain’s actions. But this here is done extremely well.
Anyways, I could probably keep ranting, but those are my offerings.
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into daysAll the main characters in Six of Crows! Kaz an Inej especially. It’s really well done!
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I know I totally sound like a broken record every time I answer these weekly questions. So don’t worry about it. XD But today is gonna be the first time in a long while I won’t sound like a broken record… because I’ve got a backstory that isn’t from TKAM or Les Mis! Rare, am I right? 😂
I’m gonna say Saffron from the Casson Family series by Hilary McKay. (An absolutely delightful series from my summer reading list that I’m going to review on my blog in July, I enjoyed it that much.)
Saffron was born in Italy to Eve Casson’s twin sister Linda, and when Linda died, Eve and her husband Bill adopted their niece. Saffron grows up with Eve and Bill’s three children and doesn’t know about the adoption until she is much older. In the first book of the series (Saffy’s Angel), she discovers that she is their niece and travels to Italy to discover her former life. She gets closure for a while, but in the third book of the series (Permanent Rose), she realizes that she doesn’t know who her biological father is. Linda never told anyone, not even Eve, about Saffron’s father, and Eve never asked. Saffron begins a search for her father. Toward the end of the book, in a shocking and emotional twist, we find out that Saffron’s father is actually Bill. Bill’s girlfriend dumps him as a result, but is clearly sympathetic toward his children; Saffron is very upset for a while but gets through the trial with her best friend’s help; Eve surprisingly gets over the revelation quite rapidly and harbors no ill feeling toward her sister; and the rest of the family is understandably blindsided but recovers.
That storyline is a huge reason why I have a deep appreciation for this book series. I love how it gently teaches that there are many different kinds of families (a truth one of the characters actually points out in the second book). I feel that this is a very important truth more people need to realize, and a truth I myself had trouble grasping for a long time.
I 100% agree with you there! Their backstories are amazing and the ones I was thinking of when I thought of backstories.
@not-so-secret-secret-assassin
Ah yes. Characters who have the same hair color as you. A topic, I fear, is frankly not discussed enough!
Although I have never been a blonde hair user as yourself, (I’m a brunette you see), I understand your struggle to relate to characters whose hair color doesn’t match yours.
Like when I read about a blonde protagonist, I’m like, “Who are you?” because they are that unrelatable.
After pondering this weighty subject, a distressing thought popped into my head.
If Shrek has no hair, is it impossible for him to relate to anybody?
It is not meant for us to sympathize with him, but rather to understand him
Those types of villain backstories are probably my favorite. There’s a fine line between understanding and sympathizing. And when an author walks that fine line perfectly, it couldn’t be better.
Because if you sympathize with the villain you start to believe that the terrible things that they did were inevitable, natural, and even okay. Which is kinda a twisted message.
But if you understand them, their actions still make sense of why they did them, but shows that the villain was still the one that ultimately made that awful choice.
It’s not easy to pull-off so when a author does do it well, I love it so much.
@joy-caroline
I’m happy I’m not the only broken record on here. You just like what you like you know? XD
I don’t think I’ve heard of the Casson Family series before, but from the little you said about it, it sounds really interesting. Do you have a favorite book and character from the series?
I’ve yet to read Six of Crows, but I’ve heard a lot about it! What about the backstories do you think made you like them so much?
Well, the main characters are pretty morally gray, so it’s really interesting to see how they got to that point and the trauma they went through that eventually shaped their goals and decisions. It also makes the characters highly sympathetic and you feel like you have a connection with them. The author makes you feel really conflicted because you know some of the things they do aren’t exactly right but you understand the characters so well because of their backstories. It also brings up a lot of questions and thoughts in my mind about that kind of stuff. I hope that makes sense!
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Right? 😂
Hmm, I’d have to say Indigo’s Star is my favorite book from the series. The main storyline revolves around the gang of bullies in the Casson kids’ school. Along with a storyline where the youngest Casson, Rose, desperately tries to get Bill to love Eve again. That broke my heart. Indigo is my favorite character, but Rose comes close. Mostly because her love for Bill is endearing to see even if he doesn’t realize how much she needs him.
That totally makes sense! I too like more complex characters over simple ones.
my favorite backstory… oooof that’s hard
XD
well, it would have to be…
Lord Rodolpho Greco from The River of Time series; he’s a traitor for most of the series, and you’re never sure if he’ll turn on the MC because he’s so elusive and never reveals what he’s thinking, but has the skills and the power, and the elusive deception to have them all dead at the moment he wants to eliminate them. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants and can be really brutal, but he’s brave and has his code he lives by. The love hate relationship, I guess XD
From the MC POV it’s hard to understand the stance he has between civil war-torn Italy’s two opposing forces; on opposing side from where he is, he has the brotherhood he’s sworn to serve with til he dies, and on the other, he’s a powerful knight who’s in the position to get anything he wants.
sorry, that was long XD
ugh, I have to watch this Avatar: Last Airbender sometime; I have had several people tell me I should watch it XD
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
I love characters that you can’t tell whether to trust or run the opposite direction from. XD And Lord Rodolpho Greco sounds like one of those characters.
I haven’t heard of The River of Time series before, did you enjoy it?
I just watched ATLA a few months ago because my younger brother recommended it, and it’s so fun! (Especially if you watch it with friends or siblings). Plus each season is better than the last, so you always have something to look forward to.
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