Amnesia

Amnesia is a pretty cliche way of writing a character and limiting their powers, but it's one that I'm particularly fond of. One of my favorite characters I've ever written was an amnesiac, and that combined with the fact that he wasn't actually human led to some hilarious moments where concepts of humanity and civilization simply eluded him. He knew shortly after his memories began that there was something strange and different about him, but while he was curious about that, he never really let that lack of knowledge get to him. He continued to act in the manner that came naturally to him, and he never wondered why he was the way he was - he just accepted that as truth and moved on with his life, letting knowledge come as it would, and asking questions when he needed to know.

I've played a lot of games - probably more than I've watched movies or read books - that use amnesia extensively as a plot point to hide a character's true nature or power. I've definitely seen instances where this is done extremely poorly, to the point where I simply couldn't handle to continue on with the game, regardless of how good the rest of the game was. That or games where the truth of the character's amnesia only being revealed at the end of the story, drastically changing the perception of the rest of a story in such a way that I was no longer happy with how the story had been going. I'm not afraid to point it out - Final Fantasy 8 is an excellent example of that particular instance. The truth about the characters' pasts, which wasn't even a question earlier on, ruined the relationships and motives of everyone involved for me.

I'd like to say that my writing of amnesia was handled better, but of course that's probably a pretty subjective topic. I can, however, tell you why I think that. That being that, when I write an amnesiac character, the relative truth behind it is revealed early on - just not to the character themselves. It is revealed through a third party to the reader in a side scene, somewhere within the first third of the story, so that the audience knows what is happening and is waiting to see how the character reacts and changes when they inevitably learn the truth, rather than waiting for that truth and having to process it with the sudden changes that come with learning that truth simultaneously. It paints how the character acts early on, giving context that perhaps they do not even understand themselves.

And that works for me. I really enjoy writing that kind of character, because it gives way to a lot of humor, as well as a lot of growth, and even both happening simultaneously. There's no need to have a comedy character to relieve dark scenes, because the growth that comes from those dark scenes can end up being the humor itself. It just gives a lot of opportunity, and I'd like to think that it can make even the most fantastical of characters more relatable. But I suppose most writers are probably thinking that. Even when they're writing something along the lines of, say, Final Fantasy 8.