How to fail a character…
Hi people! I took a little time off but I came back with new ideas. I come across different problems with different characters I have been watching or reading in books. I cover them in each review and I touch on them in different separate issues.
A problem I have with my reviews is that I only touch on these issues as I have to focus on the book or the movie or the thing I am reviewing. I don’t tend to get my full point across. These posts are where I want to do that.
I don’t know what I’m going to call this ‘series’ but I’m going to just get on with it for now.
How to fail a character?
A promise is made with certain characters. Harry Potter is promised to fight Voldemort. John Snow is a lot more than just a night watcher or bastard. That character at the beginning of the book that’s down and out (or has a huge flaw) usually comes back and earns people respect or saves the day/ fixes their flaw.
This can be good, we all love a success story or a large fight. I think (in the TV series anyway) they did John Snow great (aside from season 8 but were not going to get into that pile of shite). Just because you know what's coming doesn’t make it inherently boring.
It can also be done in a way which surprises your reader. Another positive, but… you have to be very careful with this though as it could result in a real negative result and, as it did with me, make the reader/watcher itch their head and stop reading/watching the series/show.
I’ll give 2 examples one negative and 1 positive and go more in-depth from there.
Let’s get into it!
My first example is Jasper, in the 100.
Around season 2: You see him become a part leader to everyone inside. The writers build him up to be ‘step in’ leader. He takes charge of the people within the mountain because Clark isn’t there. It’s great. It’s what I wanted for the character (which I’ll mention at the end of this blog).
There is nothing inherently wrong with this. He counted on her for leadership in season 1 and believes in her which is completely correct for his character as she did save his life. So up to this point, they have done (almost) nothing wrong with the character, right. They built him to be this person… people expect this from him. (I go off on a little tangent for the next 4 paragraphs but stick with me)
A personal problem I have (When I say personally I mean they were allowed to get away with it because of creative flow and it doesn’t really affect my personal opinion of him but I would have much preferred it another way around). He kept relying on her. The other in the group kept saying what if she doesn’t come and his response was “she has too”.
Ok so your going to risk everybody’s life, who are inside, including your own, on a hope she will magically turn up. But I get it. You didn’t want him to become a main, main character… that’s ok. I can still support a side character. Although I don’t like it I can accept it because there are people like that and he fits the profile.
My problem comes from the way you build him up. He organises a heist to infiltrate the top-secret room in the underground building. He takes charge when the people in the mountain turn cruel. You see where I’m getting at. You build him up in one scene but also tearing him down in another?
It’s like you need him to do a job but he can’t do anything more than that job because he’s the skinny nerd kid that a lot of people can relate too… I think.
BUT… I can accept all of this because of the way you end the season.
When those people you trusted to get you and the people, who helped you, including yo girl in the mountain out safely. The people you have been backing from day 1… end up killing 300 people, including yo girl. I just can’t get over that. Not just saying that. Your leader, best friend and Bellamy betray you. Brooooooo
That should start a war!
Put yourself in his shoes. Those people you turned to get you out, those people you put your trust in and got other people to believe in turn on you and kill your girl and the people who helped you, Bellamy and yo people??? Broooo we going to fight, you can’t let characters get away with that.
It would be like if J Cole came out with a mumble rap album… Who are you and what did you do with the real J Cole?
Instead of this dope war between the character we are met a couple months/years after where he turns into a drunk. Those same characters who KILLED HIS GIRL, now look down on him??? Who even are you.
I got into a depression when my girl died but if there was someone to blame and if the apocalypse was around I would have started a war (instead I just started a war with myself and no one turns out to be the winner of that, no matter how hard you fight.
Not come across as this weak dude. BRO, those same people who killed 300+ people now look down on him. I had to stop watching the show after that. It was sad because it had so much potential.
Imagine a war between Jasper, Clark the… I can’t remember what they are called… That shit would have been dope.
I get it… mental health is huge and I should have realized he was a passive character until the story-line demanded he wasn’t. (I’ll talk about this when you try to spot these characters later on in the blog post).
Not even that but he could have been a drunk, who was a moron, but one with revenge on his mind.
I get it, not everybody is going to do what I would do but come on. You painted him as being one of ‘those’ characters and now he is just put to the back and never really appears in the main storyline again… are you trying to disappoint me? Are you trying to make me stop watching?
They really let Jasper down which resulted in them burning their show (I know they didn’t and it’s still very popular but that did it for me).
— Spoiler —
He also commits suicide… who didn’t see that coming?
A quick note…
How do we spot these characters? How do we know a writer is going to do this to a character?
It really is up to the writers/directors but there tend to be ways where you can see/predict this happening or see this kind of thing come up so it will hurt less when it does.
1rishpher0 is here to sort you out and give you some help.
I mention above, him being a passive character; till the storyline demands it he doesn’t do anything ‘cool’ or something that affects the main storyline. Take Jasper — When he saves Raven from the MOB of crazies.
There was no other character that could have done that. It was dope and badass. But it was only dope and badass because he had to do it. If he didn’t have to do it, he would have stayed a drunk and looked down on.
Maybe Clarke could have but that would have required a lot more screen time to fully explain (It was also at this point where they could have turned Jaspers character around but… of course, they didn’t!).
If we compare him to Bellamy. He didn’t have to go into the bunker right? To save part of his tribe. There was another way but because of who his character was he did it. See the difference? and How much Bellamy's character affects the overall storyline and Jaspers doesn’t? I'll probably do a whole other post on passive characters but I’ll leave it for now.
The writer builds a Hierarchy into the book. We will take the 100 again. We will look at season 2 compared to season 4.
Top of the chain you have the rarer than rare death, who the books/world is focused on and so on. These include Jasper (only in season 2) Clarke, Bellamy, Chancellor Jaha (season 3) and kind of stops there. You also tend to see a lot of characters see this and ‘bend the knee’ (which is a whole discussion on it’s own). This basically means it doesn’t matter what kind of character they are… they change based on the needs of the plot and ‘top of the chain’ characters.
second in command characters. These are characters who get their importance by or through other characters. They are most at risk in the beginning/end of a season/movie as the writers don’t know how else to motivate their main character (I have also been a perpetrator of this… no ones perfect). This would be Clark's mother, Octavia in the first 3/4 seasons.
and it goes on from their where they become less and less important but I won’t bore you going down with the 100. Let me know if you want a full post on that and I’ll try and get it done.
How to (Kinda) Successfully fail a character.
FAT Thor. 😘
We have this build-up image of Thor. A GOD. He has lived a hundred lives, over a thousand years, and when fat Thor comes along it knocks the watcher a little… or at least it knocked me.
I saw him as this fighter and protector but after most of his people gets killed, along with his best friend and brother…
I have always seen him as the dude to just get back up. Maybe it might take a minute (or a whole, dumb movie but again… another post) but he would just get back up.
It was risky running that, and I think they didn’t do the best they could in the delivery of it but… they didn’t fail.
Especially when they said they tried to bring in mental health into the movie but that’s another discussion/post.
I need to stop saying that. Stick to the topic.
The area that separates Jasper from Thor… The explanation is a little long but stick with it…
We see him as the leader and ‘the strongest avenger’ right (Maybe you think hulk is but you get the point).
For now, he is fat and depressed.
He was unable to defeat Thanos in time or in the correct way. He failed and he hates it.
The thing that differentiates him from Jasper (Aside from him being a God and whatnot) is the change doesn’t change his core character or who we believe him to be on a huge scale. He is still the one to jump into action, even though he still got an extra few pounds on him.
He doesn’t become the drunk who wants to sit out of the fight or who wants to die. He wanted to be the one to flick his fingers with the infinity stones. His true character, even though he was going through a hard time, stayed the same.
I do have issues with how they portrayed his depression and the constant jokes and the sadness I felt but I think that better to do in a podcast or not at all, as I said above. That's not the point of this post.
Do you see where I am coming from? He is still worthy and the same character at heart. No matter what he said to himself. His ark was their rather than him doing a U-turn on everything and completely changing our views of him.
Yes, our view is different but it didn’t ruin anything. Unlike Jasper.
Peoples expectation…
It can be fun to work with. I know I have messed around with a few of my short stories for that specific purpose but it’s much better to just write a new character than to completely change someone who people already have an image off.
Doing a major disservice to a character won’t just ruin him/her but might have a huge impact on the rest of the movie and your view count.
I tried pushing through with the 100. I love that genre. The end of the world or a post-apocalyptic and Zombies and all that is probably my favourite genre. but they let my man down.
Overview and takeaways…
Experimentation is great! Try finding new arches in characters and don’t go over the old ones (you can and there is nothing wrong with that, just don’t overdo it).
BUT… if being a leader is a critical part of what makes your character or you built up an image of him becoming a leader… a character. Don’t make him (them) a sheep. Delve into his faults as a leader or have him question if he is one (Kinda like Rick in the walking dead). But don’t have him just stop being a leader and make him a bitch within a season. It wasn’t even within a season… it was within an episode (Jasper example).
That's me being a little salty because I saw the potential of the series and I’ll stop mentioning it but it's up high on the list with GOT and that is saying something.
If humour is a critical part of your character don’t just, all of a sudden, change so he never makes jokes or he gets offended easily. You can change that about a character but make it an arc over the season or movies and you have to replace it with something. (Not alcohol or stupidity). An example of this would be avatar the last air bender. They do this very well with all/most of their characters; especially with the main 3.
First season there all kinda childish (especially Aang) They don’t just become grownup in an episode but over the first/second season.
My point is a character needs a real reason to do something. It needs to be within their character to do so. If you make a character a drunk when there into fitness and being a healthy person. You need (Okay you don’t need but I suggest) to give a real reason why. We don’t know why he didn’t want to fight back as he did against the mountain people… I said I wouldn’t mention this. If we take Harry Potter instead. If he didn’t want to fight Voldemort (especially after the first book) we would need a real good reason.
peace
1rish
