What is a character that felt close to home for you

[Samtale]

     There are a numerous amount of mental health problems so I am sure there is one character that you personally felt represented your mental afflictions. I am very curious to see which characters hit closest to others. For example I am a mixture between Shelly and Luna I have dealt with anxiety and depression my whole life worrying so much how I'm viewed by others. Wanting to help others hoping to feel worth, this is a really damaging thing because you put your whole worth on pleasing others if you can't please that other person it makes you feel worthless and shut you down mentally. Can't tell you how many times others don't understand that feeling.

    The only thing to escape this feeling for me is escaping to fantasy my favorite being dark fantasy that's where I relate to Luna. I love dark fantasy finding beauty in dark themes but in a romanticizing way than viewing dark as bad. In a similar fashion people tell me that liking dark or sad things is the cause for the depression when I view those themes differently if they are placed in a fantasy style. Apologies for the overuse of "I" I know it can annoy some tried to word it in relation to others as well.

 

So please share how you relate to the reborn characters if you feel comfortable.

[Zarc]

I will say Cal. 

 

My personnality is kinda similar to Cal's one. I often have to regret somes choices i made and i cannot stop thinking about it , especially if i hurted someone. And i'm feeling very bad , i'm always thinking about the problem , and i can't stop until i fix the issue or i have to wait a long to forget about it. 

 

Also : 

 

" i guess i have a habit of not really being what people want me to be " . Definitely true , especially irl. And not only the others , i have a habit to not really being the one i want to be aswell.

[Angelkitsune]

Well I guess I'm a combination of Shelly,Cain and Aya.I may not look like it but I have low self-esteem...no thanks to my parents.I have to deal with them arguing since I was born until they decided to divorce when I was 5, and yet I still got into the middle of a tug of war between my parents as they fight for my custody.I always think I was unwanted since my aunt told me my father married my mother since she got pregnant with me and I was like well sh*t.In the end my mom just gave up and disowned me saying I'm not worth the trouble and all I do is just...stay silent.Besides I rather go with my father that always says "I didn't expect much from you"over my VERY controlling mother.

 

In school I have social anxiety as I was known as the weirdo that loves anime and childish pokemon stuff,also I tend to accidentally said something that might offend somebody so yeah...I don't have alot of friends not to mention I always get bullied by the other students from insults to pranks and all I do is just laugh it off...acting like these things never effect me at all.

 

to me my home is like a safe haven.Since it was just me,my grandma and sometimes my father.All I need is my laptop and my games and I don't need to worry about anything at all my grandmother doesn't know anything as she tends to sleep everyday while my father was sometimes never home so I have alot of freedom ,so far nobody even knows that I have been cutting myself and suffering from insomnia for years now and I want it to stay it that way,my school uniform have long sleeves so nobody notices and whenever I was sleeping in school everyone just says that I'm just lazy.So whenever I sees Cain,Aya,Shelly and everybody else I always Yeeted (☆▽☆)

 

sorry for the long rant just ignore it if it's too long ε=ε=ε=(~￣▽￣)~

 

 

[ZEL]

Seems to be divided between three characters for me. Amaria, Zero and Aya are all pretty damn relatable and remind me of different parts of my life.

 

Now, nobody on Reborn has known me long enough to have experienced me like this, but Zero's behavior is a pretty good representation of what I was like before I had my breakdown. I was the whole package: impulsive, uncooperative, couldn't get along with people for shit, never took blame for my mistakes, and even the people who did like me regularly had to tell me "hey, don't insult me" and "you can't always have it your way" and "don't take your mood out on us!".

The slightest sign of stress was enough to turn me into a complaining, frustrated jerk.

I believe a huge deal of the sympathy I have for this character stems from the fact that I know what it's like to be like that and not realize just how bad it is until a traumatizing change occurs and shakes me up to the core. (Complete with losing people I depended on.)

 

Though on a scale from Zero to Aya, I dealt with "How do you take feeling abandoned in a bad environment" more like Aya. The more my behavior caused me to drive people away and shit to go wrong in my life, the more I felt like perhaps I was just a fundamentally unlikable person, and that I was doing people a favor by turning them away from me.
Like Aya I didn't have the most wholesome home situation, and between the constant conflict with my parents and the deterioration of relationships, I was left with absolutely no self-worth and no optimism that things could improve from there on. I couldn't imagine for the life of me why anyone would bother with me (be it in private or professionally), and expected that everyone who did would surely end up regretting it. Where I had formerly taken my moods out on others, I turned against myself completely, treating myself harshly over any mistake (real or perceived) I made.

It's best if I don't go into the details, let's just say that I ultimately ended up on the psych ward.

 

That's where I got my diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder and severe depression, and began therapy. I can thankfully say that it helped me a ton. It was a much, much needed intervention just in time.

There's a certain bitterness in knowing I had been in need of help for years - but still, finding out that I'm not actually a shitty person, and that much of what happened had been beyond my control, was the biggest relief in the world to me.

Except... no amount of realizations and self-reflection make the actual process of change easy. And I guess that brings me to Amy.

I don't want to talk about this as much because it's an ongoing thing. What I'll say is that there's a vast disconnect between what I know, rationally, and what I feel.

And that's what she put into words in her onyx diary: "I have lots of friends, an amazing partner, a great education and life... But it doesn't feel like it."

"I'm tired of feeling this way. I'm tired of feeling like I'm always drowning."

All this progress, but I still wake up every morning dreading existence so much that I feel physically sick. It takes enormous effort to convince myself that if I just keep going on, I'll experience a first good morning one day.

[CrossImpact]

not to the full extent or anything, without all the attached drama, but Titania felt relatable, in a sense.
I have once done basically nothing but being there for and taking care of a significant other, for about 10 months a few years back.
day to night, night to day. I was like a sole focus point for everything. even had to be in a call when she was sleeping, otherwise, well, unstable reactions occured.
nothing suicidal or close to that. but definitely unhealthy.

I didn't really have hobbies at the time other than watching the local handball club play in their arena about every week to two weeks, and of course gaming a lot with friends.
instead of stabbing Meteors, I gave up on the first (not only due to my SO though), and probably could count the amount of times per month I got to play peacefully with my friends on one hand.
maybe I had like 3-4 hours per day for myself due to timezone difference (a remarkable 6-7 hours) ; these hours did include being ready to answer any text immediately to avoid said unstable reactions.
so you could say I stabbed the necessity to properly take care of myself and take timeouts.

now, the big difference is, I actually love(d) the person, and I generally enjoy taking care of someone quite a lot. and most of the time we spent was actually very fun.
however, I suppose all of these can be true, yet having about no time for yourself will take a toll on you one way or another.
and I guess the funny thing is that it was her breaking up instead of the other way round - which, to this day, I feel ???????????? about, for the most part.

[Shia]

serra's monologues about life-changing decisions and the whole theme of mirrors that can't be fixed again is very relatable, that and corey's monologues about how gruelingly unfair life can be 

 

amaria is also noteworthy, as the reactions towards her last episode really shows how different people can act when they're falling apart

[sdddf4]

It's been a while since I've played through reborn fully so I don't remember every feature of the characters but if I had to choose a character I would probably have to say Shelly. 

 

A year or two ago I used to find it hard to socialise with people even my own friends and had low  self-esteem. I also doubted if they were truly my friends. I was basically just doubted myself and others constantly. Thankfully, due to advice from others and me putting in the work to try and improve myself I can say that I'm in a much better place than before.

[Zander]

Randomus of course. You don't know how life will be so just do your best and let it take it's course. He's also one of the most interesting characters for me and episode 18 was the best one because of it. I don't really care for his gimics with his hats but he is a pretty thoughtful guy who just wants his family. 

[Azeria]

despite not really liking him, Cal's one of the only characters I myself relate to. Sibling rivalry, as well as one with my cousin which counts I guess, disappointing my parents constantly, lashing out in anger towards those I care about. Haven't quite joined a terrorist organisation to one up my family yet, I guess. I feel like I've simmered down and become a lot more composed over the years.

 

Shelly is another too, even now I've got horrible self esteem and issues socialising with others. I've always just been incredibly awkward.

 

Don't really have a lot of long speeches about how I relate to the characters, most of the ones I like are those that don't really share most of my traits.

[Abyssreaper99]

I can relate to a few characters:

• Cain - I act in certain ways in order to hide my own insecurities. Plus the split parents thing too and I kinda make a lot of sexual jokes irl if around certain people (I won't say them if there are children around or if people I know are uncomfortable with such topics are nearby).
• Cal - From when I was little until about 13, I had a really bad temper and dealt with things really bad. I would constantly overthink stuff that I've done, even if it was years before (still do this now I guess). I've calmed down a lot after a certain incident but there are brief flares of anger but I tend to rant it out instead.
• Shelly - I get really nervous when talking to people I don't know and I'm awkward af. Plus I really like reading too!
• Noel - We both have Aspergers and at one point my sister was the one who got more attention off of our mum (linking to the point earlier, my dad ended up getting custody of me so this was prior to then but we talk now).

[Bobert III]

I ended up really liking Titania. The character development(especially with Amaria) was honestly one of the best parts of the game for me. It just felt so real. I do also relate to her the most. I’m super blunt when I talk but I’ve also been a sort of emotional crutch for two of my friends. Sometimes I have snapped on them, but the following discussions have always turned out well for all of us.

[Sheik]

My memory is somewhat vague so maybe I forgot some features of characters in game. You could say Im a combination of Kiki and Cain.

Kiki - I dont suffer from any social problems, somewhat your average guy, I have a lot of friends, Im good in a lot of things and I always try to help my friends in whatever I can help, but no one can help me with my problems.

Cain - The only reason I can relate to Cain is because I have no idea what I want to do with my life, I have no idea what I want to study in College or what I want to work at.

[rumps]

The character I generally connected to the most would be Taka, his struggles generally stemmed from an interior struggle between his respect and belief that he should follow in his father's direction, even if he disagrees with it, and the fact that he wants to go his own path even if it means disappointing those he cares about. Many of the decisions he made seemed rather half-hearted as he really believed that what he was doing was wrong, but he stuck around out of fear of what might happen, which I personally struggle with tons. In a game full of characters that actually have character to them Taka really stood out to me.

Spoiler

;-; why did he have to go ;-;

 

[Guest Relinquished]

Whom i like and whom i resemble in traits, are two different things; sigh!

 

I like Radomus and Anna the most. But i feel close to something inbetween Taka and Cal, really...