Love this. Great insight!
Basically it means characters and more powerful than the world they live in.
This is super common… It means that characters have enormous freedom do do anything but it also makes for very flat worlds.
Interesting… It means that the most powerful character in cartoons isn't a fight between One Punch Man, Goku and Superman, rather it's between Rick, Stan from American Dad, and Homer Simpson XD

You're right- Flaws that have no really affect on a character are meaningless.
Rick being drunk all the time isn't even well conceived. It just looks like he has chronic acid reflux and a ditzy, grumpy personality.
I love the show and the character, but his flaws are stupid.

Just a thought, isn't that a problem with episodic characters? Like the whole world resets after each episode so nothing actually does change especially not the characters who do not learn from their mistakes. How many times Lucy or Ralph pull the same stunts? Then the catchphrase/punchline.

Like Groundhog Day, but doing the same thing that character did change– an important distinction.

bravo1102 wrote:

Just a thought, isn't that a problem with episodic characters? Like the whole world resets after each episode so nothing actually does change especially not the characters who do not learn from their mistakes. How many times Lucy or Ralph pull the same stunts? Then the catchphrase/punchline.

Like Groundhog Day, but doing the same thing that character did change– an important distinction.

You can do something like that in an episodic story, where episodes can be watched out of order. I wouldn't really call this a problem. Just be aware that this is what you're doing and don't try to make it also about character growth. The problem appears when you try to build too much stuff on top of original design, which ofter results in everything falling apart.

Wildcat Arren wrote:

bravo1102 wrote:

Just a thought, isn't that a problem with episodic characters? Like the whole world resets after each episode so nothing actually does change especially not the characters who do not learn from their mistakes. How many times Lucy or Ralph pull the same stunts? Then the catchphrase/punchline.

Like Groundhog Day, but doing the same thing that character did change– an important distinction.

You can do something like that in an episodic story, where episodes can be watched out of order. I wouldn't really call this a problem. Just be aware that this is what you're doing and don't try to make it also about character growth. The problem appears when you try to build too much stuff on top of original design, which ofter results in everything falling apart.

I know it can work that way. But more times than not it doesn't. Look at any number of classic episodic comedies going back to radio. The characters don't learn, there is no continuity. Sure it's fun to see the greats in action but too many try to imitate it and not everyone can do Seinfeld or I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners.