diff --git a/microservices/CharacterApi/Models/VisibleLocation.cs b/microservices/CharacterApi/Models/VisibleLocation.cs
index 2087abf..5aff51d 100644
--- a/microservices/CharacterApi/Models/VisibleLocation.cs
+++ b/microservices/CharacterApi/Models/VisibleLocation.cs
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
-using MongoDB.Bson;
 using MongoDB.Bson.Serialization.Attributes;
+using MongoDB.Bson;
 
 namespace CharacterApi.Models;
 
+[BsonIgnoreExtraElements]
 public class VisibleLocation
 {
     [BsonId]
diff --git a/microservices/CharacterApi/Program.cs b/microservices/CharacterApi/Program.cs
index bac4df0..7440d00 100644
--- a/microservices/CharacterApi/Program.cs
+++ b/microservices/CharacterApi/Program.cs
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
-using CharacterApi.Services;
-using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer;
-using Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens;
-using Microsoft.OpenApi.Models;
-using System.Text;
+using CharacterApi.Services;
+using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics;
+using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer;
+using Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens;
+using Microsoft.OpenApi.Models;
+using System.Text;
 
 var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
 builder.Services.AddControllers();
@@ -57,11 +58,45 @@ builder.Services.AddAuthentication(JwtBearerDefaults.AuthenticationScheme)
 
 builder.Services.AddAuthorization();
 
-var app = builder.Build();
-
-app.MapGet("/healthz", () => Results.Ok("ok"));
-app.UseSwagger();
-app.UseSwaggerUI(o =>
+var app = builder.Build();
+
+app.UseExceptionHandler(errorApp =>
+{
+    errorApp.Run(async context =>
+    {
+        var feature = context.Features.Get<IExceptionHandlerFeature>();
+        var exception = feature?.Error;
+        var logger = context.RequestServices.GetRequiredService<ILoggerFactory>().CreateLogger("GlobalException");
+        var traceId = context.TraceIdentifier;
+
+        if (exception is not null)
+        {
+            logger.LogError(
+                exception,
+                "Unhandled exception for {Method} {Path}. TraceId={TraceId}",
+                context.Request.Method,
+                context.Request.Path,
+                traceId
+            );
+        }
+
+        context.Response.StatusCode = StatusCodes.Status500InternalServerError;
+        context.Response.ContentType = "application/problem+json";
+
+        await context.Response.WriteAsJsonAsync(new
+        {
+            type = "https://httpstatuses.com/500",
+            title = "Internal Server Error",
+            status = 500,
+            detail = exception?.Message ?? "An unexpected server error occurred.",
+            traceId
+        });
+    });
+});
+
+app.MapGet("/healthz", () => Results.Ok("ok"));
+app.UseSwagger();
+app.UseSwaggerUI(o =>
 {
     o.SwaggerEndpoint("/swagger/v1/swagger.json", "Character API v1");
     o.RoutePrefix = "swagger";