Feeling Guilty About Liking a Minor Character

[TwoHeadedLlama]

So, last night I had a dream that really bugged me. In my dream, I was watching the new Muppets Most Wanted movie, and I remember at the end, Lips had some sort of major role in the rescue of the Muppets. The fact that I had a dream like this frightens me, because it means I'm starting to latch on to a character or something.

I have this strange phobia of 'liking a character' too much. It's been bugging me since I was in preschool or so, and it's only gotten worse as I've gotten older. What happens is I usually latch myself onto a character with little development or a personality, then speculate and form head canons about them. After a while, I start feeling guilty, because the characters don't belong to me, so I feel like I'm try to 'change' someone else's character. And I also feel guilty for giving a minor character a ton of attention while mostly ignoring the main characters. "The main characters are the main characters for a reason, you should be paying more attention to them then a nobody," I think. This is why I have a hard time writing fanfics, because I know the main characters are the most important but I don't really want to put them in the forefront so to speak.

It's probably a really silly fear, as people write about minor characters all the time, but it bothers me because in the past, I've had some bad experiences with people who do this. They tend to be rather unintelligent and obsessive, (Not talking about those on MC, btw.) And my greatest fear is becoming like them, obsessive and dumb. I don't know why I feel like this, but it really bothers me because I have left a number of fandoms in the past because of it, and it's starting to get on my nerves.

 

[galagr]

So, last night I had a dream that really bugged me. In my dream, I was watching the new Muppets Most Wanted movie, and I remember at the end, Lips had some sort of major role in the rescue of the Muppets. The fact that I had a dream like this frightens me, because it means I'm starting to latch on to a character or something.

I have this strange phobia of 'liking a character' too much. It's been bugging me since I was in preschool or so, and it's only gotten worse as I've gotten older. What happens is I usually latch myself onto a character with little development or a personality, then speculate and form head canons about them. After a while, I start feeling guilty, because the characters don't belong to me, so I feel like I'm try to 'change' someone else's character. And I also feel guilty for giving a minor character a ton of attention while mostly ignoring the main characters. "The main characters are the main characters for a reason, you should be paying more attention to them then a nobody," I think. This is why I have a hard time writing fanfics, because I know the main characters are the most important but I don't really want to put them in the forefront so to speak.

Well, here's my theory about it. I, personally, think Lips is a pretty great character as well, and have even *ahem* written him into a few of my fanfics.

Well, it starts with a background/minor character. This character either is visually striking (Lips is certainly a character that sticks out. All that bright yellow hair!), or generally does something that you can kind of relate to. You see that character a few times in the background, hoping he/she does something. Maybe say a line, or just do something funny with another character. You get attached to that character, but the character never really does anything. You then start to see unused potential for that character, and start making up stories of your own to suit what little you know about he/she. Entire backgrounds, songs, or dialogues may revolve around this character. And they start taking away from the major characters, because the character you're writing about is minor, and it's their time to shine!

This is something pretty normal in most fandoms. Just try not to get too taken away with fanfics and start thinking that it's headcanon. I.E, don't be the person that goes "Ugh, this scene that they were in totally does not go how I wrote their character." It's just fan works. And please, please, please do not become one of those people who ship themselves with another character. Those fanfics are the absolute worst.

This is nothing to be afraid of. It's pretty normal for a fandom. Trust me, the Muppet fandom is actually pretty normal as far as this stuff goes. It's not early as bad as the Adventure Time fandom. They have an entire, separate fandom dedicated to characters who appeared in two episodes.

 

[TwoHeadedLlama]

And please, please, please do not become one of those people who ship themselves with another character. Those fanfics are the absolute worst.

Oh my god, that is my worst nightmare.

Thanks for the encouragement, though. I suppose I should stop beating myself up about it.

 

[minor muppetz]

And please, please, please do not become one of those people who ship themselves with another character. Those fanfics are the absolute worst.

What do you mean by "ship themselves with another character"?

 

[AlittleMayhem]

Duuuuude, have you seen my current icon?

I understand how you feel about this subject. I myself have written fics/drawn art of characters (both in the Muppet fandom and others) of minor/background characters. I think the main reason I was so intrigued by characters like Zoot and Lips is the fact that they barely speak. And because of that, we don’t know much about them, thus there are many possibilities in how to interpret them. People IRL seem to have this idea that because you don’t speak much or not at all, there’s really nothing to you. I disagree with that idea because, as someone who goes into mute mode quite a lot, I know there is more to a person than whether they speak verbally or not.

For example, we know Lips plays the trumpet from what we see of him and that’s it, but if you start asking yourself questions like, what if this happened? How would he react? Is he snarky like the rest of The Electric Mayhem or does he prefer to be more subdued? Etc, etc.

So for me, there’s a relatable element there. That’s a completely human thing when reacting to a character of fiction, no matter how big or small, or how loud or quiet.

I’m sorry you feel this way and, sometimes, even I do too. But you just gotta go, ‘eh, who cares?’ and go with what you like.

Hope this was somewhat helpful.

 

[AlittleMayhem]

What do you mean by "ship themselves with another character"?

Literally when an author makes themselves the love interest of their favourite character. For example, if I wrote myself as Lips' girlfriend.

Not to be confused with an author making a fan character the love interest of their favourite character.