I've only had a problem with once with a character long term.
Back in the day I used to play Aion and I had a version of Armi there (I tend to have a version of her in every game /badrper). In that version she was made a Daeva (An immortal being that fights for the government of whatever side your on, all Aion characters are Daeva's) and hated every minute of it, becoming obsessed with Death and mortality as she felt like it was taken away from her. It sounds good on paper - an immortal who wants to die but can't so fights like she has a death wish - and it worked for about 6-7 months. After about the 8th month the whole "I want to die, I never asked for this!" business got real old, to me and to everyone around the character. The problem I had was I never let her grow out of it, because without that one defining trait I had nothing else for the character. At about the 9th Month I just ended up quitting the game, didn't like it that much anyway and I started hating my own character in the process.
I learned a lot from the experience. The next time I rolled Armi (In TOR) I made her growth a lot more flexible (STARTING her as a Force User who believed in the Republic, but didn't believe in the Jedi ways making her a bit Dark Sided) and made sure I was okay with Armi eventually going to be taught by the Jedi or even turning completely to the Dark Side. Even though I had one sentence for her - I had to be okay with that sentence no longer being true.
Growth and change is massively important for a character, it's AS IMPORTANT for a character as it is for actual people. If a character is the exact same as they are when you roll them, you're going to find down the line they are going to easily stagnant and become increasingly boring. Change and Growth comes in a lot of ways - the easiest is trying to get yourself involved in FC plots or friends plots, even if your just a side character take it as a way to really get your character connected. My characters always start as side characters in a few plots, not really being that important but making important connections that will make her important later on and this has always worked well for me. Off screen roleplaying (Journals, or stories or even just things happening in your head) are really important too! Humans don't only grow around people, we do most of our growing with inner reflection.
If the character isn't working for you anymore, trying to pull them out of RP for awhile and then look at what you think went wrong along the way, then try to fix it. Even if a bad decision was made in a roleplay and you didn't really like it, it can be fixed without retconning. EVERYTHING can be fixed. At the end of the day you have 100% control of your character, figure out how to reconcile that bad decision and bring them back in line with where you really want them. All people make mistakes, and so do characters. If it's something you agreed to but don't really like it (Like say people were like "We wanna have you kidnapped and <thing> implanted in you that does <thing>" and you say "Yeah that sounds fun" but then it's not fun after the plot is over) figure out a way to get rid of it. It can be done completely in character without a retcon, just have them leave for awhile and when they come back thing is gone. Our FC head, Ellion, did this. Something happened in a plot, his character went to Othard for awhile, came back and magical Othard doctors helped him. No big.
Most things can be fixed. The one thing that can't be is the passion to play the character.
Aforementioned Ellion? Eventually, he decided he wasn't really happy playing a Miqote Male, and decided he would be happier playing an Au Ra. He had already retconned the character once (He was a highlander in 1.0, no one cared about the retcon cuz only like 4 of played back then and were the only ones who noticed ) but his character was so engrained in Miqote lore after the retcon he felt it would be cheap to retcon it again. Turning cat Ellion into an Au Ra by magic was out of the question for him, too. So, he figured out how to keep the name Ellion (Ellion being a title, not a name) and killed of Miqote Ellion a few weeks ago, pulling himself out of RP till Heavensward.
Despite the character being something he's played for a REALLY long time, he says he's already much happier with this decision. It as a personal one to him, and while all of us really liked the character (I loved that Ellion played his Miqote really really fierce and domineering, with an edge and a terrible temper. More like the beast from Beauty and the Beast ) he just wasn't happy. And no amount of fixing was going to make him happy. He was done with the character and we had to let him be done.
Really sit down and evaluate WHY you want to get rid of the character. Because you don't work through that and then decide to change, your going to regret it, especially if the feeling is temporary because there's a shiny new race on the horizon. But also don't be afraid of knowing when the character has really reached the end of it's story.
Back in the day I used to play Aion and I had a version of Armi there (I tend to have a version of her in every game /badrper). In that version she was made a Daeva (An immortal being that fights for the government of whatever side your on, all Aion characters are Daeva's) and hated every minute of it, becoming obsessed with Death and mortality as she felt like it was taken away from her. It sounds good on paper - an immortal who wants to die but can't so fights like she has a death wish - and it worked for about 6-7 months. After about the 8th month the whole "I want to die, I never asked for this!" business got real old, to me and to everyone around the character. The problem I had was I never let her grow out of it, because without that one defining trait I had nothing else for the character. At about the 9th Month I just ended up quitting the game, didn't like it that much anyway and I started hating my own character in the process.
I learned a lot from the experience. The next time I rolled Armi (In TOR) I made her growth a lot more flexible (STARTING her as a Force User who believed in the Republic, but didn't believe in the Jedi ways making her a bit Dark Sided) and made sure I was okay with Armi eventually going to be taught by the Jedi or even turning completely to the Dark Side. Even though I had one sentence for her - I had to be okay with that sentence no longer being true.
Growth and change is massively important for a character, it's AS IMPORTANT for a character as it is for actual people. If a character is the exact same as they are when you roll them, you're going to find down the line they are going to easily stagnant and become increasingly boring. Change and Growth comes in a lot of ways - the easiest is trying to get yourself involved in FC plots or friends plots, even if your just a side character take it as a way to really get your character connected. My characters always start as side characters in a few plots, not really being that important but making important connections that will make her important later on and this has always worked well for me. Off screen roleplaying (Journals, or stories or even just things happening in your head) are really important too! Humans don't only grow around people, we do most of our growing with inner reflection.
If the character isn't working for you anymore, trying to pull them out of RP for awhile and then look at what you think went wrong along the way, then try to fix it. Even if a bad decision was made in a roleplay and you didn't really like it, it can be fixed without retconning. EVERYTHING can be fixed. At the end of the day you have 100% control of your character, figure out how to reconcile that bad decision and bring them back in line with where you really want them. All people make mistakes, and so do characters. If it's something you agreed to but don't really like it (Like say people were like "We wanna have you kidnapped and <thing> implanted in you that does <thing>" and you say "Yeah that sounds fun" but then it's not fun after the plot is over) figure out a way to get rid of it. It can be done completely in character without a retcon, just have them leave for awhile and when they come back thing is gone. Our FC head, Ellion, did this. Something happened in a plot, his character went to Othard for awhile, came back and magical Othard doctors helped him. No big.
Most things can be fixed. The one thing that can't be is the passion to play the character.
Aforementioned Ellion? Eventually, he decided he wasn't really happy playing a Miqote Male, and decided he would be happier playing an Au Ra. He had already retconned the character once (He was a highlander in 1.0, no one cared about the retcon cuz only like 4 of played back then and were the only ones who noticed ) but his character was so engrained in Miqote lore after the retcon he felt it would be cheap to retcon it again. Turning cat Ellion into an Au Ra by magic was out of the question for him, too. So, he figured out how to keep the name Ellion (Ellion being a title, not a name) and killed of Miqote Ellion a few weeks ago, pulling himself out of RP till Heavensward.
Despite the character being something he's played for a REALLY long time, he says he's already much happier with this decision. It as a personal one to him, and while all of us really liked the character (I loved that Ellion played his Miqote really really fierce and domineering, with an edge and a terrible temper. More like the beast from Beauty and the Beast ) he just wasn't happy. And no amount of fixing was going to make him happy. He was done with the character and we had to let him be done.
Really sit down and evaluate WHY you want to get rid of the character. Because you don't work through that and then decide to change, your going to regret it, especially if the feeling is temporary because there's a shiny new race on the horizon. But also don't be afraid of knowing when the character has really reached the end of it's story.