By Brandon Champion
What makes a character redemptive? The reason this isn’t just an ethical question such as “What makes a character good?” is because to us as Christians it also asks us what we believe about god. Who are the characters we relate to and what does that say about how we interpret stories? For Christians this is a personal question since it involves the aspect of sin in a character’s conflict.
Redemptive stories point to god regardless of whether they mention god or not. Since we have the revelation of god’s creation and a conscience that god has given us, we make connections between the characters and stories we interpret and god, who gave us a creative spirit. In other words, God made us to be creative and we constantly reiterate that creativity in stories. They inspire because they are made by and interpreted by people.
‘Kinning’ or to ‘kin’ a character is a term used oftentimes online to describe a relation that someone has with an existing character. It is similar to wearing a mask or something that can be seen as a sort of extension of the person wearing it.
In the context of kinning, or strongly relating to a character, sin becomes apart of how we relate to them because characters are imperfect. It’s the imperfections of a character that make us relate to them, and kinning is a sort of play with these imperfect characters. This includes just about every character since most characters in fiction (or at least most interesting characters) are sinful. Even if they do not sin within the canon of whatever book or show they are in, the audience doesn’t view them as a morally spotless character unless it’s already been established that they are.
Being inspired by other people’s characters and kinning both circulate the gift of creativity that god gave to us. This gift acts out in repetition—people being inspired by the world around them, creating characters, then other people being inspired by those characters and creating more characters. Characters influence people through the expression of shared human experiences, and the way people interact with each other and the world around them also changes. This line of inspiration and creation is blurred by characters and stories.
What does this have to do with kinning? Since kinning is a an especially personal way of being inspired by or relating to a character, people will have many different kins. The one thing they all have in common is finding a sameness with particular characters. This informs the creative process similarly to how any creative writer already imagines their original characters in a story—by asking themselves what it is like to be that character and then craft a story with this perspective in mind. Without asking that question, the person writing a story will still naturally reveal themselves in the written work whether it’s a conscience decision or not.
Kinning adds usually existing characters to the practice of “becoming” a certain character in the process of writing. This relation often fuels ‘fan fiction’ and sometimes a form of dressing up known as cosplay. Kinning is not necessarily useful though, many people who kin a character do it simply because it’s fun.
Kinning can be redemptive since it gives the opportunity to share what a certain character means to someone. If we relate to or identify with a character, it’s likely because we notice a connection they have with our experiences. When fans make and engage with things like: artwork, costumes, or fan fiction, they share an outlet that lets them be apart of these characters just like those characters have become apart of them.
What can be helpful when thinking about relatable characters is thinking critically about why they are relatable. What about them shows redemption or the lack of it? Taking a critical look at why someone relates to a character tells us how that character fits into the story they appear in. When we relate to imperfect characters, it gives us a cathartic experience of feeling what they feel, which holds a mirror to us. Even though we may not fall in love with every character and choose to identify with them, we can understand more about ourselves through their imperfections. These imperfections both drive a story forward and point us to the story of perfect redemption at the same time. The need for one who loves perfectly can be seen in just about every story.
The TMU Mane 