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Character
Tips
Heroes
& Villains
by
Melanie Anne Phillips
Creator StoryWeaver, Co-creator
Dramatica
If you are writing
with only Heroes and Villains, you are limiting yourself. A
Hero is a Main Character who is also a Protagonist. A Villain
is an Obstacle Character who is also an Antagonist.
What’s the
difference between a Main Character and a Protagonist? The
Main Character represents the audience position in the story.
It is the character the audience most cares about, most
empathizes with. The Protagonist is the character who drives
the plot forward.
These two functions
don’t have to be placed in the same character as they are in
a Hero. In real life, we are not always running the show.
Similarly in stories, the Main Character doesn’t have to
always be the guy leading the charge. Separating the two
functions opens up a wide variety of new audience experiences
and creates characters that are less archetypal and formulaic.
Similarly, when we
split a Villain into an Obstacle Character and an Antagonist,
we open up opportunities, some of which bear directly on the
nature and function of a Love Interest and the structure of a
"Buddy Picture."
First, what is the
difference between the Obtstacle Character and the Antagonist?
The Obstacle Character represents a point of view opposite
that of the Main Character. Every Main Character will be
driven by some central belief system around which the
story’s philosophic argument revolves. This belief system
might be an attitude, a way of doing things, or something as
extensive as a specific “world view.” The Obstacle
Character represents the view that is diametrically opposed.
Over the course of the
story, the Obstacle Character’s impact will bring the Main
Character to a point of decision at which he or she must
choose to stick with the old “tried and true”
philosophy/approach or to adopt the alternative put forth by
the Obstacle Character. In many stories, this moment results
in a “Leap of Faith” in which the Main Character is forced
to make a conscious decision to go with one view or the other
at the critical moment. In other stories, the Main Character
may gradually warm to the Obstacle Character’s view, but the
audience is not sure if that warmth will hold when the chips
are down. Only at the critical moment will the story
demonstrate on which side of the fence the Main Character
drops, not by conscious choice but by responding from the
heart.
When a Hero battles a
Villain, both the functional relationship of the
Protagonist/Antagonist battle for supremacy in the plot and
the personal relationship of the Main Character/Obstacle
Character occur between the same two characters at the same
time. In a sense, working with Heroes and Villains flattens
these two relationships into a single relationship. This often
confuses an audience, as they are often not sure which of the
two relationships is being described by a particular moment
between the two characters.
What’s more, it is
easy for an author to leave holes in each kind of relationship
because if something happens in one of the two, its dramatic
momentum can carry the attention past a gap in the other. In
fact, it is the foundation of a Melodrama for the audience to
accept as a style that gaps in both relationships are
acceptable, as long as the combined momentum of them both
carries the attention on to the next point in either.
To avoid audience
confusion and prevent your drama from disintegrating into a
Melodrama, you may wish to split up either the Hero, the
Villain, or both. When both are split, it allows for a
complete separation of the functional relationship and the
personal relationship, allowing for each to be fully developed
by the author and experienced by the audience.
When only one
character is split, the two relationships converge on the
remaining character. So, we might have a story with a Hero
(Main Character/Protagonist) who has a functional relationship
with the Antagonist and a personal relationship with the
Obstacle Character. This forms a “V” shaped pattern which
is referred to as a Dramatica Triangle.
In another tip,
we’ll explore the Dramatic Triangle and how it can be used
to build “Love Interests” and for “Buddy Pictures.”
Copyright ©
Melanie Anne Phillips
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