Sunday, August 10, 2014

Character Arcs

        I love a good character Arc.  The way a character develops is important to your story.  There are some instances where it's important you main character changes, and there are some instances where it is important they don't.



        One of my favorite character arcs is Wesley (Played amazingly by Alexis Denisof) from the shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Angel."  While all of the characters developed through the series and showed all sorts of change, he is the one that changed the most dramatically to my eyes.  Even more importantly his changes made sense.

       If you were to take a look at him in the beginning, he was a naive and even silly character.  He hid his inexperience under false bravado and made mistakes due to the fact he was so green.  I always felt  that one of the tragedies of his arc in Buffy, is that had the group included him as he wanted he might not have made some of the bad choices.

      One of the only moments he loses his inherit goofyness in Buffy (season 3) is when he calls the watchers onto Faith instead of letting Angel try and help her.  I always felt this decision was made on his part out of anger for not being included in the plans to help the rogue slayer, and being kept out as an outsider, and not just because he felt it was the proper thing to do.

      When he returns in Angel however, he is all jokes and awkwardness again.    Wesley once again can not be taken seriously or counted as competent as he becomes the foil to the competence of Angel.  Of course as things progress he becomes more competent and you see him grow as a character.   And then it happens.  The story arc with Angel's son Conner.

      If you can point out any part that changes his character this would be it.  Wesley makes some bad choices (that from his point of view are right, and you can argue that they are) and ends up helping Angel's son get stuck in an alternate dimension and gets his throat cut.  To top that off, Angel who can be argued to be the closest friend he has attacks him in the hospital and threatens his life.

      From that point on in the series Wesley is a darker more serious character.  Even after he makes amends with Angel and the crew he never becomes the funny, optimistic character he was.  Instead he is brooding and serious to a point that makes Angel look happy and bouncy.  There are rare flashes of the man that was before this event, but at the point his character was changed for good.

     The important thing looking at this arc, is that it was O.K. for the events to change his character for good.

      If Wesley had gone back to the happy, optimistic character of the first three seasons, it would have cheapened the actions he took and the events they led too.  Instead we see a tortured character who is paying daily for his failings, even to the point that in season five when he is supposed to have forgotten everything to do with Angel's son, he still is dark and pessimistic.  However, because you spent the whole ride with him, you still shed a tear when he dies at the end of the series.  (Seriously, the scene where he dies in Illyria's arms is completely one of the most heart wrenching things I've watched on T.V.)

      The lesson here is that you shouldn't be afraid to change your characters.  The more dirt, grime and blood you run them through the more dirty they should be.  No one is unchanged by large events in their life, and if there are no large events in your fiction then what are you writing about?  Trust your characters and let them change in believable ways and you will have more connection with your readers.  I know this is something I struggle with and one of the things I'm looking at more and more as I edit my book.

       So what is your favorite story arc, and what have you learned from it?

2 comments:

  1. One of my favorite has to be either Xander, who after seeing all the things he did, experienced all the things he did, and had many of his close friends die on him, from the first episode, to the last, he always had an optimistic view and sarcastic funny approach to everything that tried to lighten the mood. Even when he was older he still kept this attitude but with more maturity at the right spots. Reminds me a bit of me.

    From the Buffy/Angel-verses, I would also say I really enjoy Cordelia. She displays maturity from the opposite of Xander. From a high school student who thinks they know what they want and they will get because of mommy and daddy, to losing it all before grad and even going to try to start out in one of the biggest competitive markets in Los Angeles, the movie business. Then she receives a very harsh and demanding gift, and rather than ignore it, or even give it away (the offer from Skip), she takes it head on with full maturity as part of the responsibility of a young adult.

    In other verses I think would have to be from the show Nikita, where she starts as a fugitive on the run from a government organization, to gaining friends from withing, to running the organization, and then the huge twist at the end. Without spoiling anything I would say one of my favorite tv shows for its story arc, behind Buffy and Angel of course.

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    1. I will have to check out Nikita, which I haven't watched yet. I agree with both Xander and Cordelia, both were fantastic characters. Cordelia has an arc that changes her almost as much as Wesley, however I think the way they ended her run left a bad taste in my mouth. They somewhat redeemed her in season 5, but I have a hard time forgiving evil Cordelia. Maybe one of the only good things to come of Firefly being cancelled is we never got to see Joss Whedon do something to Kaylee's character that would make us cry over her. Because you know, Joss hates happyness. (Just kidding)

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