McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Overused Types of Characters
1eyedjack:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on July 31, 2011, 10:49:36 PM ---That's a relative issue. I mean, it's the bedevilling problem of many Superman comics, but there are still good stories about Superman, and Mike Carey's Lucifer got a mostly totally awesome 75-issue story arc out of a central character who is the second most powerful in all of Creation and has both the ability and the temperament to set the world on fire if he wants to light a cigarette. Partly by giving him a great supporting cast and partly by giving him pride enough to insist on playing your game by your rules and winning anyway.
--- End quote ---
I didn't think I was stating absolute fact Zur-En-Aargh, just my own personal opinions. There are some superman story lines that are passable but for the most part I'm unimpressed. I have found that it is a lot more difficult to take the premise of absolute power in the main character and turn that into a compelling story. Not impossible, just less likely. It is relative but then again all things are. Even a tried and true method will fail at times and sometimes a longshot will end up on top. The point was overused characters.
--- Quote ---Tolkien was doing something specific with orcs that seems to me to be worth doing, in that direction; his orcs are Fallen elves, and his elves are very much like Miltonic angels, with what that entails in terms of free will.
--- End quote ---
But remember, the topic is overused characters and I think orcs fall into that category. Fantasy post-Tolkien has at the same time advanced and stagnated. On the one hand there's more of it and it is far more widely accepted. On the other hand elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, and many other fantastical creatures have become dumbed down Tolkien interpretations and have not strayed very far since then. Not to say that there are no exceptions I'm sure there are. On the whole it is still very true.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
I am not sure there are characters I think are overused, but there are things that I have had enough of that often make up large parts of characters. Things that fall under this category for me include:
- Seeing and seeking Twue Wuv as defined by a checklist of criteria that are all about ideals and not so much about individuals.
- Twue Wuv being accepted as an excuse for treating one's other friends badly-to-abominably and expecting them to think this is right and just and The Way Things Are.
- Come to think of it, thinking pretty much anything is The Way Things Are* as a central point of a character and not questioning it - in the story if not necessarily in the character's own head; fanatic characters are interesting, but worlds that conspire to prove them right, not so much. Whether I actually agree with the philosophical point they are making or not.
- Bullheadedness as a virtue, in general. Characters we are supposed to admire because they stick to their principles when the world presents them with evidence that those principles might not be the best way to proceed, rather than reconsidering whether their principles are actually for the best. (With a special place reserved for books that cheat to have it both ways; certain urban-fantasy protagonists who acquire harems of men to have endlessly-described sex with while still getting to feel good about their good-girl guilt issues because somehow the universe is forever conspiring to put them in situations where Terrible Things Will Happen unless they keep having sex with more men particularly irk me in this regard. One of the downsides of successfully overcoming some of the things wrong with the culture in which I was brought up is being very short on patience for the particular shape of negativity that leads to protagonists never getting to have a simple straightforward good time.)
*The Way Things Are about human psychology, I mean. If you want to write a story in which The Way Things Are about the world is that a deity will instantly vanish anyone who wears green because it doesn't like green, and you use this to explore some human beings thinking green is inherently Evil and others defending the right to wear green, I'm good with that - particularly if you use it to say things about human psychology and emotional responses that might be harder to say clearly if you picked an issue with more real-world contentiousness.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: 1eyedjack on August 01, 2011, 12:19:34 AM ---I didn't think I was stating absolute fact Zur-En-Aargh, just my own personal opinions. There are some superman story lines that are passable but for the most part I'm unimpressed. I have found that it is a lot more difficult to take the premise of absolute power in the main character and turn that into a compelling story.
--- End quote ---
I'll agree that it's a lot more difficult.
That's precisely why I think people should attempt it. There's precious little point in only taking on easy answers and solved problems. I admire a writer who can make me sympathise with and understand someone I would not normally like much more than I admire a book that is working for me because it's hitting my emotional comfort-buttons.
comprex:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh link=topic=27643.msg1191082#msg1191082 ---- Bullheadedness as a virtue, in general. Characters we are supposed to admire because they stick to their principles when the world presents them with evidence that those principles might not be the best way to proceed, rather than reconsidering whether their principles are actually for the best.
--- End quote ---
Do purely emotional arcs without a proven ability to form, change or follow personal principles fall in this category?
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: comprex on August 01, 2011, 05:31:38 PM ---Do purely emotional arcs without a proven ability to form, change or follow personal principles fall in this category?
--- End quote ---
I am finding it hard to think of an arc that pure; have you any specific examples in mind ?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version