Charlie
You scored 69% kindness, 26% courage, 55% seedy past, and 84% secretiveness!

Your polar opposite is: Michael.
You are similar to: Claire and Kate.

Link: The Which Lost Character Are You Test written by ack_attack on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Which Lord of the Rings character are you? Which Naruto character are you? Which Digimon character are you?

Such quizzes are hugely popular. Partly this is because they’re great fun, however they also tell us something about ourselves. They do this in a non-threatening way with no technical psychobabble!

Fictional characters vary in depth but usually represent certain archetypes (or, if badly written, stereotypes). Archetypes have been around since the earliest mythology and Jung introduced the concept of the psychological archetype (child, hero, trickster, etc). Identifying elements of ourself in characters from Lost or whatever is simply a modern version of such archetype analysis.

So what can we do with this knowledge? What action can we take?

Well, if you’re a fan of a particular show you probably know the characters well. You’ll know their strengths and, perhaps more importantly, their weaknesses. Do you make the same mistakes that they do? Do you have some of their strengths that you’ve not previously realised?

What about relationships? How do the characters on the show interact - and what does that tell you about your own life?

Imagine you could sit down for five minutes - no more - with the character. What would you say to them? What advice would you give? What changes would you suggest?

They’re just a few ideas, I’m sure you can think of more.

Now I’m not suggesting that you should start taking these tests too seriously, of course not. It’s all very simplistic stuff, full of generalisations and assumptions. It would be a disaster if we tried to seriously base our actions or relationships on those of TV characters. We mustn’t start trying to pigeon-hole ourselves or others. In particular we need to be wary of transference - don’t prejudge someone just because they happen to look a bit like Kabuto!

With those warnings in place, I find that for me such quizzes can be a useful tool, especially when it comes to blind spots in my own self-awareness. There are times when a simplistic stereotype is what I need in order to achieve a breakthrough.

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