ok fine let's talk about character competency and how you can play with it, which is a thing i think some writers forget to work to their advantage, and it's also why i think we see readers complain so often about either super weak characters OR overpowered mary sues

YMMV w this, and to be clear, i also love books with characters who are "weak" and characters who are just....certified badasses

this is just! a thing i am thinking about! and i see readers complain on both ends often enough i think it's worth talking about?

and keep in mind i am coming at this from the perspective of someone who largely consumes western media so like, that is the lens i am inherently looking through and no one, including myself, gets to say What Is Good And What Isn't bc who cares there are no rules

OKAY LET'S GO

so i often joke about ranka, the main character of THE ONES WE BURN, being a giant axe-wielding lesbian himbo. which! she is!

but what is she, more than anything, is a hyper-competent girl shoved into a situation where none of her competency matters. & that? is a LOT of fun.

i think v often writers feel like we have two options; characters can either Know Nothing & Be Good At Nothing bc they need a growth arc /or/ they have to be a girlboss assassin etc who can do no wrong

i'd argue, tho, the interesting shit happens somewhere in the middle

so let's look at ranka. i did this to her on purpose; i built a girl who is an extremely capable warrior, with a deadly magic that makes her an even more capable warrior, who knows nothing *outside* of basically being a 17yo weapon of war

and shoved her into a palace court LOL

so essentially: i built a hyper-competent character, and shoved her into a scenario where NONE of that matters.

ranka can fight. she still has Things About Her that make her a threat. but now none of them matter. she's never dealt in politics before. she is IN OVER HER HEAD!

what this allows me to do, then, is do some heavy-lifting worldbuilding just by her not knowing what the fuck is going on; ranka's basic confusion over things like court etiquette tells the reader a lot about her, her upbringing, and this new setting. it also paints Who She Is

by showing *how* ranka reacts when she's rendered useless / weak / etc, by showing whether or not she tries to fix that weakness or whether she's like no fuck you i'm not playing by ur goddamn rules, it does a ton of character work with very little building on my end

on the flip side, you can make give a character competency that's simply ignored; aramis sunra, the princess ranka falls for, is an extremely intelligent, competent person -- but bc she has no magic she's not allowed to be heir. bam! competency no longer matters. FRUSTRATING!!!

her brother, galen sunra is the crown prince because he has devastating storm magic -- but he has no *emotional* competency. he simply does not want to rule. he is gentle, and nervous, has no interest of bearing the burden of leadership. and that makes him a TERRIBLE heir

this allows me to play a fun game of sliding the scale of uselessness throughout; as TOWB progresses, things get violent, and ranka can slowly Do More bc she gets to hit things w an axe -- but she always gets returned back to the environment of her competency not mattering

we've all been in this situation, too. ie -- the english major failing their math class. the super smart kid w/ no social skills suddenly at a party.

when we expose people to weakness who also know what it means to be powerful, we see who they are. and that shit is *interesting*

ATLA does this really well, tbh. aang is a hyper competent character with none of the emotional competency needed to be the avatar and it creates Problems For Him and Everyone Else. zuko is the crown prince, an excellent fire bender -- but in season two, none of that matters

and imo i think that's a part of the reason people really, really adore zuko from season 2 and on. because we actually learn who he is when his agency and usefulness is slips away. and when azula offers him all of that power back on a silver platter, he regresses HARD

on the flip side, toph is a competent character who is satisfying to watch bc she expertly chucks rocks the entire season, but i'd argue she'd make a boring main character bc until she has to invent metal bending she isn't really...challenged

this is why the beach episode in season 3 of ATLA is such a DELIGHT. we see all of these hyper-competent characters (esp azula) who go to..........a house party. LOL. and suddenly is doesn't matter that they can fight! that azula is the crown princess! bc she. can't flirt lol

everyone has things they are inherently good at. everyone. you, me, and definitely your main character. and the conflict that arises when the thing they are good no longer matters is always going to be an easy way to show readers who this person is when they're powerless

and as a writer, it's also just FUN. there's an early scene in TOWB that almost every reader loves, because ranka is meeting the sunra twins for the first time, and they're at dinner, and she has no idea wtf to do. suddenly all of her insecurities are exposed. wtf is a salad fork

in my middlegrade, i did the opposite; i wrote a story about the granddaughter of a chosen one whose family *intentionally* keeps her from gaining competency to protect her, but people EXPECT her to have the same skills as her Gran. & Ary is like wtf lol i am twelve and sheltered

THIS IS HOW WE LOSE THE TIME WAR is a great example of this bc both characters are hyper competent assassins but Red has the emotional control of a potato & when she realizes she's falling for blue she's like I AM NOT BUILT FOR THIS I HAVEN'T TRAINED CAN WE GO BACK 2 FIGHTING lol

so! yeah! this is something i try to do with every character; i ask what they're good at, & what would render it useless. whether it's physical, emotional, mental, etc. bc i like exposing the sticky, raw parts of characters. & i think--i hope--readers like it, too.

also if you like this and you're like boy does it sound interesting to see an axe-wielding murder witch try to learn how smalltalk works bc she's no longer in a setting where she can just go ranka angry ranka smash boy do i have a book for YOU https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56952365-the-ones-we-burn?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=nG187FMOZz&rank=1

trying to get better about this w/o feeling foolish but! if this is helpful! never expected, but always appreciated, i do have a ko-fi that...largely goes towards paying off debt rn rofl https://ko-fi.com/mixbecca