: Re: How can I portray a character with no fear of death, without them sounding utterly bored? Imagine a fantasy hero with a 'time reset' ability like the protagonists of Groundhog Day or Edge of

@Karen856

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As many users have pointed out, "rewind abilities" tend to bring about a lack of stakes. Obviously, your character can only succeed if he can reset time at will, however for him to get any sympathy you need to add some cost to that.

In Groundhog Day, the cost is that he does get bored. That is our entire stake in the movie, that we want to see what path our character needs to take to succeed. Perhaps you can use this ability to show how your character, while they may not be smart, can persevere through any problem, then confront him with a problem that is simply above his grasp until he gets bored.

Another great example (and even better imo) is in the light novel RE: Zero. The main character has the ability to return to a specific point in time whenever he dies (these points are determined randomly, but replace "respawn point" with "three hours ago" and you have the same thing). This, of course, leads us to experience the trauma of disembowelment, hypothermia, being shattered like glass, being possessed, being eaten by a whale, and all other manners of death in order to get there. It gives stakes, not to his physical being, or to his success (although he does get some impediments after being cocky about it), but instead to his psychological state.

Something more in-line with your description of time travel is in Steins; Gate, where the MC can send his consciousness back through time, up to two weeks. This puts our stake again, not on his safety, but on his struggle to find the "right" path to keep everyone happy and safe.

If you want to add a bit more direction to this, you can add an antagonist that is smart enough to see through this ability. Perhaps strange powers are documented in your universe, or you just have an antagonist who either has one or knows about them, and they are able to set traps to determine: 1) what their quarry's power is, and 2) the limits of said power. Once your MC realizes that they are being had, or that someone is trying to figure them out, as long as there are some consequences for this that personally affect the character such that only by really clever application of their powers and exploitation of the antagonists' capabilities can they succeed.

On the other hand, maybe you don't need an emotionally driven character. Stories like Stephen King's Dark Tower series feature main characters that don't have much attachment at any given time, instead viewing thing's as "I have done this, now I need to do this."

At any rate, all of these methods show some kind of psychologic torment inherent to being practically immortal in a given time frame. If your character can't avoid making the same mistake, or at least being drawn to a similar conclusion no matter what they do, then eventually they come to a new understanding and reach their goal, that is all of the basic formula you need to follow to have a baseline relatable character.

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