Flynn Rider

The book titled 'The Art Of Tangled' contains some of the development work for the film Tangled. The part which interested me the most was how one of the main characters 'Flynn Rider' was developed and their reasons behind the dramatic change in his design.

In order to design Flynn the artists first had to answer a few questions "Who is this guy? Why is he funny? Why is he so good? Why is he the match for Rapunzel?" - Nathan Greno (Page 103)

Originally he was not meant to be very attractive, but a sweet, good companion for Rapunzel; however their ideas were all over the place, and ultimately they decided that being good looking would be a big part of Flynn Rider's personality.
They wanted Flynn to be an attractive, good looking man, so they did some primary research and asked a lot of women who they find attractive and why.
This lead to them creating the final design for their male lead, who has a symmetrical face and a juxtaposition of horizontal and vertical elements which give him an attractive look.

This story of their process has shown me how important a character is to a narrative, and how their image can make up a part of their personality; I have slightly more understanding of what a character needs in order to make their personality shine through.