How to make a cool unmanly character [closed]
Closed by System on Nov 9, 2018 at 01:35
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How to make a cool character who is really unmanly? The guy is bad at leadership, lacks endurance and strength while also being kind of a coward and having quite feminine facial features.
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Give him a talent. Make him a musician, or singer. Let him have a sense of fashion. Let him win some talent contests and awards with this talent. I'd say even a comic, but writing that dialogue could easily fall flat. I will note that many professional comics freely admit they were cowards in school, but people loved hanging with them because the comic made them laugh.
This could even be low-contact sports, a basketball player doesn't have to be a tough guy to have the highest shooting average on the team, the same goes for the shutout pitcher on the baseball team.
Pick a talent that impresses his classmates; or just the same for the writer, write his classmates as people that are fans of his talent.
He doesn't have to be brave in a physical confrontation in order to have the confidence to get on stage (or on the field) and deliver. Just like comics may run from or cower before bullies but still have the self-confidence to make an utter fool of themselves on the stage, to elicit laughter.
Ensure his classmates are impressed. Bullies may still come, but he can also be welcome amongst friends that protect him from said bullies, because they enjoy and admire what he does. They might even think he's going to be a frikkin' star someday.
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You know what famous character is not a leader, lacks endurance and strength, is not particularly brave, and has a beardless round face? Bilbo. Or Frodo, for that matter. Or Sam:
'I am sorry,' said Frodo. 'But I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum.' (The Lord of the Rings, Book I, chapter 2 - The Shadow of the Past)
'I do really wish to destroy it!' cried Frodo. 'Or, well, to have it destroyed. I am not made for perilous quests. (ibid)
'I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them.' (ibid)
I feel very small, and very uprooted, and well - desperate. The Enemy is so strong and terrible. (ibid)
And it continues throughout the narration - Frodo is terrified every step of the way. And so is Sam. And Bilbo almost wets himself in Smaug's lair. Physically, they are the weakest of the party, they are content to let others lead, and they feel altogether inadequate for the task they've been sent to perform.
What makes them awesome is that they master their very human, very understandable fear, and rise to the occasion. I don't know if that answers your definition of "cool", but those characters are engaging, relatable, and admirable. They are very much "ordinary people", which makes their heroic acts all the more extraordinary. For all their fear, for all that they are unfit and unprepared for the task, they step up and do what is necessary. And handsome Legolas pales before them, and royal Aragorn bends his knee.
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