Ironic Characters, ...what do you think of them?

[Nix]

Ironic characters. I'm pretty sure we've all come across them at some point for another. What exactly is an ironic character, you ask?

Basically a character that goes in on itself. A doctor that cannot cure his own illness, a water-themed character who is afraid of water, etc. You get the idea.

So what do you guys think of them? Are they dumb, do you think they're overused, cliche? I've had the idea for an ironic character bouncing around in my head for a while and I'm curious to hear what you guys' opinion on them are.

[Missy-san]

I think these ironic characters are actually a clever and creative idea.
I don't think I have any of my own. But I'd like to see some more of them. :3

[Diane]

Irony is my FAVORITE!

I have all kinds of irony floating around in my plot, but it's not really super blatant and basic, so I'm having a hard time pulling out specific example-characters. (It's hard to narrow my focus when I have like 70 characters and a large portion of them have some kind of irony in their character because irony is one of my favorite plot devices).

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Pulse, who's a deaf raver. But she's not as ironic as she seems at first glance, because she really just likes dancing. She's a clothing designer and loves the raver style.

There's also Merri, who's a cutesy, bubbly, seemingly immature girl... and also a brilliant computer hacker. And Serendipity is super super unlucky but the most cheerful, optomistic individual you'll ever meet. XD

There are more. But the ones I just listed are more directly based on irony than the rest, so it's harder to summarize the rest.

[Everglow]

Yeah, I'm really fond of irony as well :3 Both in characters and in plot. I enjoy taking stereotypes and turning them in on themselves, reversing roles, etc and so forth.

I say go for it. It doesn't really matter if they're overused or cliche either, because it will all depend more on what you make of them than how many other people have started with a similar idea.

[davidfenton1]

I'm working on an idea for an offsite-Charrlean (though I may or may not use it; the idea is kind of based off of a TV show character), in which that she cannot feel pain (or, she can feel it, she's just been "taught" how to ignore it), yet she inflicts pain, whether physically or emotionally, onto others (...and of course it's on purpose).

I've probably got some other ironic characters, if I need to present someone else to you. x3


And I think it's what you do with an ironic character; if it's something new and original, I think people might appreciate it more (with Mime drooling at the computer screen because you will undoubtedly come up with something FANTASTIC!)

[Sybil]

I like irony in measured doses and as a literary device... irony that seems effortless is ideal to me, just because something that seems too thought out can come off plastic.

Uh.
Yeah. I live in a world of irony, so it always ends up creeping into my characters.
(ie, Maddigan, who can do anything imaginable, except save her Gabriel :C

Or Clementine, who finds lasting, nearly perfect love for everyone but herself. (srs, they all either leave her or die. Being an eternal thing is not a fun occupation.)

[akrona_catgrrl]

IRONY
fun tiems

I don't do it on purpose though it just sort of happens
still fun though

I think the most obvious example for my characters is Gravjit.

Grav is a demigod. He joined Tekhism, which is a religion centered around Teketeza. Teke is not, in fact, a god. Grav keeps asking for favors from someone who is essentially useless in that regard, while he could be out leveling half the universe.

[Suiqu]

Most if not all my characters have something ironic about them. Like how some of my characters look beautiful on the outside but have...a lot of inner turmoils. Most of my plots are cliché but have an ironic twist that makes it not so cliché. So yus, irony is awesome but like everything else if it's overused then it's can be no good. xD

[Tacita]

I really like ironic characters. : D Some of my characters have a little unintentional irony in their stories, haha. xD (It's hard for even me to find it, though.)

For instance, Livaeli is a robot created for destruction but he has a living, beating heart inside of him from before they took his living body and made it into a robot. Also, he's probably my character with the most "personality", 'cause he's all happy, kind, reckless and such dispute being a robot. xD That's the best ironic example from my characters I can think of at the moment. lD;

I mainly like taking cliché stuff and twisting it to make it something unique. Pretty much all of my characters have something a little cliché in them (clone, experiment, lost prince, robot, etc.) and then I twist it around to make them what they are. c:

tl;dr: Irony = funnnn

[Nix]

It appears that irony is generally well-liked here. Why am I not surprised? xD

I think that I'll work a bit more on the idea for my character, because the basis isn't anything special and will end up really dumb if I don't work on it more. Thanks for the input, guys! C:

[Lachtaube]

When done right, they can be pulled off. But it depends on each unique situation so there really isn't any kind of formula to bump new kinks in an otherwise straight up cliche character.

[phaeri]

Now to basically be entirely redundant, and say the same thing as everyone else...

(yay for double redundancy through that comment)

YAY FOR IRONY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[swiftstart]

mine are mostly lifestyle ironies
my evil mastermind spends his spare time knitting sweaters,
My supposedly all powerful vampire is a massive sci-fi geek+pack rat
My elemental guardian of darkness likes to cook

i probably have mor,e but can't think right now