Last Kids on Earth
As I said, we tend to go dark with post-apocalyptic stories. There’s the desire to show the struggle to survive and shadowy side of human nature. Life is cruel and ruthless, so the story needs to be too. So, how do we make a story with a protagonist who is making the most of life and enjoying it?
- Optimism is a good personality trait for a character like this, but there’s a limit. You don’t want them to deny the state of the world. Instead, they are looking at the benefits such as having more freedom and being able to live their life. The danger and possibility of death are acknowledged. Yet, these characters retain their desire to live every day instead of falling to fear.
- It helps to make them brave and give them abilities to survive. These can be physical traits such as athleticism, endurance, or great aim with guns. You can go with mental such as high situation awareness, strategic mind, or knowledge for completing various survival tactics. There needs to be something that allows these characters to believe they can survive and actually do it.
- These protagonists can be loners or social. It doesn’t have to be one or the other like some people think. A loner may see that as a better way to survive and not have anything stopping them from enjoying life. The more people in a group, the more responsibility and work can occur. Social heroes might see having others to join them in fun as a way to justify their existence. It isn’t enough to live their life, but they want to have people around to see them do it.
- Connecting to #3, these characters can possess a level of selfishness. At least for the beginning of their adventure, they may see living their life as the most important thing in the world. Believing they could die at any moment amplifies this. For example, Akira in ‘Zom 100’ prioritized getting cold beer and a big TV over other supplies at the start of the zombie apocalypse. This changed as his adventure continued, so he learned to balance responsibility/caution with working on his bucket list. So, selfishness is a good starting flaw.
- While you can make their successes rather incredible, you do need to make them somewhat believable. By this, I mean them living their life cannot be easy with no real threat. They have to be enjoying life in spite of the world being a dangerous hellhole, which means risks, near disasters, and them not always depending on luck. You can still have them luck out of situations at times since the world isn’t as predictable as it once was. The problem is if they depend entirely on luck and the universe always provides a well-timed solution beyond their control. Part of them living their life is that they control their situations too.
- If there are zombies, make sure they’re actually a presence. Yes, humans are dangerous too, but a character having fun in a zombie apocalypse can lose its charm if the zombies are barely seen.
- Failure without death is possible. These characters are optimistic and living their lives, but that doesn’t mean they are immune to disaster. They still need things to go wrong at times to make them learn. A few of their desires might be detrimental to others, so they need to realize that those wants aren’t worth pushing for. Their world now has no limits, laws, or boundaries, so personal ones must be made. One of the strongest ways to have a character establish them is by making a big mistake and living to learn from it.
Legends of Windemere 
It’s interesting that stories like this have a built-in ticking clock. So every adventure feels on the knife edge. You can’t help rooting for the character and wondering how he or she will get out of this adventure alive. A community would be nice, especially if no one sells the others out. 😊 I’m not sure I could write this type of story, but the concept is unique!
LikeLike
Always a traitor in post-apocalyptic communities. I like the fun aspect though because it makes the ticking clock more bearable.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This whole concept of having fun in a post-apocalyptic world is fun. A terrific concept and the points are excellent.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. 😊
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sounds like some interesting tips. I’d recommend checking out the anime Kurogane Communication which I think is the happiest post-apocalyptic work that the world didn’t know it needed even if there’s still dark elements. There’s comedy and even slice-of-life aspects. The creator even did Evangelion parody doujinshi works which explains why the main character Haruka is basically a photo-negative spoof personality wise of a very obvious EVA character with the character design.
LikeLike
Never heard of that anime, but I’ll look for it. Haruka resembles Asuka from what I can see. Just less angry, but the pictures could be deceiving.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s an obscure one, but very good. Yes, the character design was meant to parody Asuka, but she is a lot less angry or egotistical. Some of the other characters are analogs who act as the opposite of the characters they reference. There’s Angela who is a cold robot robot who hates humans who is modeled after Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost In The Shell. Another one is Reeves who’s a bigger yet effeminate robot who looks mostly human besides his face which is clearly robotic that is a reference to The Terminator. Those were clever parodies.
LikeLike
Interesting. Sounds almost like a spoof.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s comedy elements, but there is a healthy balance with serious elements such as Haruka dealing with her backstory as well as believing she’s the last human alive on earth as well as the final story arc with the villain there.
LikeLike
For sure, whatever the source of the disaster is, it has to be present, even imminent. Whether that’s zombies, a plague, rising sea level, whatever. The protagonist isn’t living their best life “in spite of it” unless there’s an “it.”
LikeLike
True. Though I have seen some people make the disaster so present that it sucks all humor out of the story. So, the character ends up coming off as an idiot. Guess there is a limit here.
LikeLike
This is such an interesting concept. It might be fun to try one day. (Way in the future, since I have so many waiting in the wings.)
LikeLike
It’s a fun concept to experiment with.
LikeLiked by 1 person