For some strange reason in fantasy, the genre with the most potential for creativity, there is an onslaught of bland central characters we have to suffer through book after book.  Almost always, these characters are too perfect with no amount of realism through the essential character flaw.  They are the center of goodness throughout the story's universe and every single character must look up to them.  Then there is the common but lesser known anti-hero character who has too many flaws to be likable at all.  Writing is a hard craft to master, especially when it comes to building strong characters.  Early on, I had characters in stories I wrote that were either too mean or too nice.  In one instance I had made a popular girl type character that was comparable to The Heathers in how mean she was.  Worse, I had made this character the central focus!  However, I learned from these mistakes and tried my hardest to make them more complex so the audience could better understand the characters.  There is no excuse in making a character bland when you have the skill to make them complex.

  Take for instance Bella Swan from The Twilight Saga.  Bella was seen by the other characters as the definition of goodness and was popular in school after a day due to some type of inborn "purity".  The character though had no reason to be this likable, as her only true defining feature was that she was a klux.  There were no character flaws in this girl throughout the entire series, even after she turns into a vampire in Breaking Dawn.  You could replace her with any other female character in existence and no one would notice.  Although there is the argument that Bella was presented this way in order to let the audience more easily walk in her shoes, to make a character like that in my opinion, you need to make them relatable.  Otherwise people will just think the character was lazily written.  Bella though is just one example of many characters in fantasy literature that are the definition of bland.

  Calla from The Nightshade series was a potentially strong character that became bland from becoming just another female power symbol and being too perfect in her tribal leadership.  Firestar after the first saga of The Warriors series became bland as he continuously was presented as this symbol of perfection throughout the four Clans.  In any other wizard-related story that is not Harry Potter, the main lead is almost always presented as bland by being too perfect or too mean spirited.  Heck, even established complex characters are not safe from blandness in adaptation after adaptation of stories decade after decade in comic books. 

  Characterization is a vital part of creating a truly engaging story.  Mess up this on even one central character and your book could be put on life support.  Even if we have experience, it is important to always check to see if the characters flow well in the story.  The reason there are memorable characters such as Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins is because the authors put a lot of care to make each character relatable to the audience.  Making a character is hard work that never once cannot be ignored.  I know this probably feels like a huge rant but I am just getting sick of a lack of strong characters in fantasy.  It is a terrible cliché that really needs to end.