Most people don't actually know what a complex character is (from a writer's perspective)

So there's this trend where people are saying "Oh you guys want complex characters but can't handle this character" and show an example of a complex character. But then they'll show me cho chang and tanjiro and it makes me rethink all of their scenes in my mind.

Granted, I have watched the entirety of demon slayer and I don't know how his manga turns out, and I've only watched the Harry potter movies, but neither of those characters are complex characters.

Are they good characters? Yes, Tanjiro is a common shonen protagonist whose endeavors to get stronger and their inherent upbeat attitude, sympathy and all around goodness inspires those around them and ultimately helps defeat the main antagonist, but that does not make him a complex character since he does not undergo a character arc, his identity to all of those around him remain the same and he lacks a lot of the bad traits and actions that we see in many complex characters. He has no seeming contradictions.

Again, he's a simple archetype that I never get tired of seeing, he's still an interesting character that you can root for. I'm never going to judge this kind of protagonist since they're inherently good people.

Then there's cho chang and (again, only watched the movies) was only really there to serve as a love interest for harry and JKR's attempt at being pc. She's not really explored, she's very flat as a character, and we only see her placed against cedric diggory and harry so she, again, isn't a complex character.

Someone asked in the comments of that post how cho chang was a complex character and the creator replied, "Oh because most people think she's a whiney pick me."

that doesn't make her a complex character, that just makes her an interpreted character. Perhaps a misinterpreted character. By the way, there are multiple ways to interpret a character, the only way to misinterpret a character is by directly overlooking the context of which the author wrote them in.

An example of a more complex character from the Harry potter series would be Remus Lupin, Sirius black, Severus snape, dumbledore, grindlewald, Ron Weasley. I hesitate to say it, but hermione in the later movies. Neville Longbottom, his entire arc throughout the series was simply epic.

Likewise for Tanjiro, while he was very static as a character, some good counterparts would be the purple haired chick with the butterfly and poison, the good demon that they worked with, the purple haired chick's protégé (Aoi? I think is her name) surely some of the upper rank demons were better than Tanjiro, and by the way, i'm pretty sure everyone likes tanjiro? I'm not sure whose calling him a bad protag.

Also, saying that someone is a complex character and that someone simply did not understand their character as a way to hide behind criticism is a weak excuse. complex characters are character that you are allowed to hate and be sane, while also being allowed to love and be sane. (sane meaning that you would be following the creators intentions with said character, and you're still able to understand the character to it's core)

That's why Mahito, even though he is a very interesting character, is not a very complex character.

People are allowed to hate complex characters and people are allowed to have sympathy for these characters because they were written to fulfill both roles, and this is from the consumers (consumer being reader, watcher, listener, if you're blind...feeler? Or listener, anyway that you can consume media) own pov.

Like yeah, maybe someone who survived a riot isn't going to like (slight s poilers for season two of arcane league of legends btw) caitlyn, while another person is going to love caitlyn for her helping (again s poilers, season two arcane) vi save Warwick.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my ted talk. No I will not elaborate.