[ah, tone is so awkward - yeah, i assumed we were mostly in agreement, and i tend to get vague as i roll, apologies if i came off negative ]

[yes, there has got to be some concrete ground in terms of a character's history and actions. past a certain point, the 'whys' can be shaped as much by the audience as the creator (and i have some thoughts on how this generation of internet interaction may affect the creation & release process). i give myself a lot more freedom because i don't, as a rule, consider word-of-god relevant to canon, f'ex, whereas it's become seemingly much more significant when creators have twitter and AMAs ]