Character

I'm going to literally answer these questions to help me flesh out who my character is.

Quick bio:
Name: Karras (nickname Bullet)
Age: about 25
Height: 5'8''
Build: thin but curvy
Appearance: pale skin, black hair (about shoulder length), dark gray eyes

How does your character think?
She subdues her sense of self-loathing by replacing that hate onto criminals. She thinks criminals will not be missed if she eliminates them and have no place in society.

She believes what she does is out of boredom. She believes that she doesn't care about humanity as a whole when in actuality she does have a sense of justice and a want to do the "right thing". However, she has a warped perception of what is right and wrong, at least in a general ethics sense. She does not realize that her actions are not based in a hobby (as she claims what she does is just for sport) but are actually assumed because of past conflicts and events. Killing criminals instead of letting the police take care of it occurs because she, in truth, believes that the police will never do anything when it matters. She does not think she thinks this though.

What does your character want?
She wants to eliminate criminals (but only murderous ones, rapists, and corrupt politicians. she's big game hunting, essentially). she doesn't care about petty thieves and robbers.) because she realizes that as long as the government remains as is, nothing will be done. She wants to get at the politician that created a rift between her entire former life. She implements her form of "justice" for personal reasons but at the same time she wants to do this for the greater good.

She thinks she's a greedy individual and believes that she does all her deeds for herself. She thinks she wants to deal out "an eye for an eye" style justice in order to avenge her old life. She implements this brand of justice not only on people who have directly effected her but also on people in similar situations who deal with corrupt individuals who have ruined their lives. She wants to eliminate all corrupt individuals with nefarious intentions.

What does your character believe?
She believes that there is no such thing as a perfect, utopian society and that government and law enforcement have lost their good intentions along the way. She believes that not everyone in these occupations are inherently bad but can easily go astray by their increased power. She believes that she has no right to destroy the lives of others (aka criminals) but she needs this in her life so that she can feel as if she has made some sort of impact for the greater good. While she believes that society can never be perfected and crime and corruption will always exist, she's not a defeatist. She doesn't work towards a goal of utopia but a more realistic goal of self-acting justice and being responsible for eliminating those who would do greater harm. Even if she has to murder to rid society of murderers, she believes her actions are just as bad as that criminal. But she does it anyway because she feels an urge. Something she will grapple with is the fight between her being a "hero" and being the same as any other criminal. She believes she has no right to decide people's fates but she grows to find it impossible to not continue her actions. At one point she will believe she is just as bad as a serial killer.

What is your character’s truth? Mythology?
Her truth is that society is inherently corrupt and that she is just as bad as anyone else out there. No one is born evil but can turn that way through a life in corrupted occupations. She believes that power is a person's downfall but freedom is important for everyone. She wants everyone to be equal but is realistic in that as long as humans are greedy, like herself, it will never happen. She fully realizes and is tormented by the fact that she is no better than the people she kills.

What does your character need?
She needs to fulfill her urge to kill. If she doesn't she feels she'll take out herself. She implements her suicidal thoughts onto those who she has come to resent in order to keep herself alive.

What actions does your character undertake?
She has spent the last few years of her life grappling with suicide every day. She has become a master at using herself as a target but then catching the bullet (literally). She finally resolves that the target will no longer be herself. She can't keep this pace of self-loathing up. She becomes enraged by a past experience and decides to kill the man who destroyed her past life. However, he foils her plot. From that point on, she tries to get back at him but realizes she cannot be so rash. Realizing her unhappiness with her situation, she kills others who she witnesses effecting other citizens in the ways she was. In general, she ends up saving women, homosexuals, and other minorities because she views them as the most effected.

What events past, present and future push your character into action?
Past - A male politician became close to her family in order to try and marry her and have both of their families in an alliance, since she comes from a political family herself. She blatantly refuses his advances. His real intentions were that if he could marry her, he could take down her families strong political hold. She believes in government and believes the world in general is good until he has an assassin eliminate her and her family. She is the only survivor. Her survival is dependent on the fact that she caught the bullet that he shot at her. This event changes her perspective on government and law enforcement because the process is slow and with a witness, she should be able to bring charges to this man. However, he is protected by a corrupt system and she is plunged into obscurity.

Present - Whenever she sees someone who will be murdered, raped, etc. she tries to take out the perpetrator. She doesn't want anyone to have to experience that hell.

Future - She will be called to action eventually because she finally understands that her personal feelings should be excluded. While the written law itself might be corrupt, the general code of ethics from throughout time prevails. Her eye for an eye mentality will prevail.

How your character feels?
She's a bit psychotic at times. She wants to die but she feels she cannot leave this world until she has her personal revenge. Later she feels she cannot leave because she wants to protect those that have avoided corruption. She feels that she is most compelled to come into action when someone is in a similar situation to her. She feels a psychotic type of joy when killing or shooting at herself. But she also gets enraged when she begins to feel sadness or true happiness. She cannot allow herself to be truly happy.

How important this is for your character?
She gives up everything in her life to pursue this goal. The urgency and importance of her goals leave her to scrape by in life. She has to resort to thievery to survive. Her petty robbery is all justified in the pursuit for her ultimate goal.

Why your character does what he/she does?
She does it because it was done to her. She feels like she cannot let others go through the same pain and uncertainty that she has gone through.

Detail making your character’s motivation clear:
Her motivation initially is solely based on her being wronged in past by a certain man, a politician. He motivation evolves into helping those who are in the same situation as her. But the base motivation underlies the entirety of the piece.

Flaw: A problem to help humanize your character in our eyes:
Her main flaw is that she hides any of her confidence. Her actions suggest confidence but she always reminds herself and others that she is worthless. Her self-esteem is a hindrance to who she really is. She won't allow herself to have true happiness.