I noticed in another post that was put up that alot of people here seem to agree that they hate orphans, so I have to ask you all this. Why do you hate orphans in stories? I'm asking this cuz I have two main characters who are orphans (though one only thinks she is due to some plot stuff that I won't go into unless you feel I should). Now, their lack of parents isn't really something that plays a big part in the story itself, it's not something they spend their time talking and crying about or anything like that. Also, when their parents did die, it wasn't from some disease or anything like that, they were killed. One lost a father by an assassin and another lost her family when her entire village was attacked and destroyed. If they get into anything concerning their dead parents, it's mostly about avenging their deaths and killing the ones who killed their loved ones.
Anyway, I guess what I want to know is why some of you find oprhans annoying and with what I've mentioned so far with my main characters, if I'm doing things that make them seem less annoying.
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4,243 / 50,000
Mär 30, 2008 - 10 25
For me, I think most people don't like orphans because it's like (in most cases) the author wants the reader to automatically feel sorry for them and whatnot. Plus, it's something for the characters to angst about, which isn't much fun to read. I think that orphans can be written well and be amazing characters, but it seems like a lot of the time the author doesn't add anything more to their personality other than they're an orphan, and therefore must be pitied and you automatically have to root for them. . .
That's just my two cents.
----------I believe in the creepiness of humanity.
50,198 / 50,000
Mär 30, 2008 - 15 00
I don't dislike orphans but I agree that it all has to do with the way they are presented in the story. Were you an orphann yourself? Probably a writer who was an orphan can portray a character who is believable and not a stick figure who is an orphan just for the sake of pulling heart strings. Well, there is nothing wrong with pulling heartstrings either. It just has to be real.
----------To try is to risk failure. Not to try is to assure it.
17,654 / 50,000
Mär 31, 2008 - 05 19
My take on it is this, there are two kinds of orphan stories for the most part.
The kid finds out they still have a family.
OR
The kid goes to avenge their family's death.
While not bad strictly speaking, it does get old kinda quickly.
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NaNoWriMo 2007: The Land Between The Seasons
Genre: Youth/Young Adult
NaNoWriMo 2008: Beer Flavored Kisses
Genre: Young Adult
0 / 50,000
Apr 12, 2008 - 06 54
I agree that most people seem to assume that orphans are only orphans because the author wants you to pity them. One of my MCs is an orphan but her parents died due to... well, let's just say an occupational hazard. She doesn't want to avenge them though, and she already knows she has more family so I think I've suceeded in not making her too pathetic. Really, I just needed to get her to live with a woman who was a friend of her parents. *shrug* I suppose it depends on how its written.
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Apr 17, 2008 - 14 29
We hate orphans? I don't know, I have nothing against them. In fact, it's easier, if you're trying to write up a bad guy (or a more gray character), because then they don't have any family they are attached to. The orphan thing makes everything a little more mysterious. Yes, maybe it is a bit of a cry for pity, but, I personally like a bit of angst in my stories. But that's just me.
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Amanda: Why are you dressed like somebody died?
Wednesday: Wait.
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Mai 7, 2008 - 11 46
Orphans can be annoying, like Harry Potter, for instance (don't kill me now, I LOVE the HP-books!) who always talks and whines about it and finds it very disturbing and depressing (well, who wouldn't?).
The reason why my MC is an orphan is because I want to leave as much space as possible for her and the story itself and leave arguments and stuff with the parents out. Mary-Anne isn't bothered by the fact that they're dead; she lives with her uncle who's just like her father and other people in her life who kind of stepped into her parents' shoes. (Based on my own IRL experiences.)
So, I also agree to several of the people here, it's all about how they are written.
0 / 50,000
Mai 7, 2008 - 13 21
This is exactly what's been plaguing me since yesterday afternoon when I was thinking more about my main character. I can see where the parents would fit in at the beginning of the story, but there's going to be a point where the character breaks away and is trained by someone else and I don't want to have to kill off the parents. I'm trying to figure out how to set up the role of the parents; I almost want to just say to hell with it like in Heavy Metal when Den just said, "I like it better here."
0 / 50,000
Jul 30, 2008 - 23 33
I agree- it depends on how they're presented. I have no problem with it if it doesn't become THE plot point of the day whenever time needs to be killed. My MC (not for NaNo) is an orphan, but it was kind of required to give him a job and make him not so clean-cut good or bad (depending on how wo was looking at him).
Now, here's how James Stayer basically is: He's an assassin/thief, and the most wanted man on the continent (this took him ten years on a small continent). He spends his time taking and doing jobs, mostly murder, and evading the palace guards (basically the cops). He raised his four-years-younger-than-him sister since he was seven. He was a triplet, but his brother and sister were killed the same night his parents were. (Or so he was told....but he has suspicions.) He goes after the Black Dragons (a criminal organization that eventually plans to depose the king of Ruzh, the plot-central/setting country) because they're out to kill him first, since he's a top assassin that refuses to join their ranks and work with them, instead keeping to solo work. Later, he discovers that their leader, Hex, really did kill his parents, but only because he was a traitor for Bellavosu (a neighboring country) when Ruzh and Bellavosu were at war, and the Stayer parents found out about it ten years after the war ended (they had both fought in it) and were going to report him to the king, but they lived nowhere near the capital city. So James wants to kill Hex, to accomplish his parents' final mission as much as to avenge them (though they were only going to turn him in, he never knew that). Killing Hex would save the king and help the guards that he's been fighting for so long, however while he hunts Hex he keeps up his assassin job to spite them. So he's rather more shades of gray than he had been.
*takes deep breath* But yeah, I mostly needed them out of there to set all of this off, since I had it planned perfectly right until I got to the part where he needed to get to the capital city to become a thief.....and his parents were still alive, with no intention of going there. Oops.