I was rewatching one of my favorite shows today, an anime called Tokyo Ghoul. It was about a young college student that had, by accident, become a half-human, half-ghoul hybrid. He struggled with who he was, alongside the dark urges of feasting upon corpses, all the while desperately trying to cling to his sanity. Not only this, but he had to confront his own fear of death, as well as the fact that he may be hunted down, never again to live normally. While I didn’t get to finish the season, it still made me remember the questions it posed at the end, questions that were so haunting it inspired me to write, whether it be short stories, or fan-works, or poems. After reminiscing on those bittersweet memories, I finally realized what drove me to write these works, and that a character’s reasons for existing, and to a certain extent, are my own.

It’s a strange motive really. After all, we write because we want to, don’t we? We write because it allows us to escape. We write because it’s relaxing. We write because it’s fun, and allows us to follow our passions. We write because it’s necessary. We write because we want to bring change into our world, change that doesn’t involve violence or bloodshed. We write to encourage someone, or to tear someone down. And these reasons, no doubt, extend to our characters. After all, aren’t characters just a representation of ourselves? They’re fictional, so what they think doesn’t really matter, does it?

Not particularly. The characters have been known to inflict change on massive levels. People have used iconic characters in films, TV shows, and even commercials, simply because it resonates with people. Take, for example, Harry Potter. People can connect with Harry because of the difficulties he’s been through, the battles he’s had to fight. And though he isn’t a perfect hero, he is still someone that we can all relate to. To us, he’s a living, breathing person, and not just a fictional character that resides on a page. But more than that, he has a reason for surviving; he wants to live for the sake of saving his loved ones from a horrific monster bent on destroying everything. He’s trying to protect them, and salvage whatever he can to build a new life for himself.

Another example comes from the classic Romeo and Juliet story. Our two lovers are motivated, and want to be together against all the odds. It’s a familiar love story we’ve all grown fond of, and despite their obvious hormonal rages and reckless decision making, we can’t help but admire these characters for having the courage to follow their hearts. One of their most enduring traits is the fact that they centered their reason for existence around each other; if one falls, the other is sure to go. It’s because of this devotion that we end up hoping for at least some semblance of a happy end for them. Because after all, we know what first love is like, and how painful it is to let go. But we’re also curious; loving someone, and being their everything, isn’t really something we find in people who want to thrive.

So, yes, you could say that these characters are little more than fictional pawns in a never ending story. You could even say that they’re playthings subjected to the author’s whim. But there’s a sort of realism within them that makes us want to analyze everything, especially their reasons for existing. Because in the end, they aren’t just a reflection of us; they’ve taken our stories, and breathed life into them, and that’s what makes them special.