WARNING!
This is a super-ginormous post! But do not feel discouraged! For there are contents aplenty to help you! It's like getting large fries instead of medium fries but eating the rest of the large fries anyways!

I would like to again thank everyone who's participated in the Tridimensional Character form thread, and I am glad to know that people are using the form to better understand their characters. So, seeing the success of that thread, I'd like to take the next step into conceptual writing: Understanding and Identifying Character Archetypes.

RIGHT OFF THE BAT, I must tell you that ARCHETYPES AND STEREOTYPES ARE NOT THE SAME THING! Stereotypes are often opinionated exagerrations of popular trends as far as characters go, archetypes are basic outlines and framework for which a character fits into a story. Archetypes help us understand how a character functions in a story without going into the meat of the detail, just the outline.

As prime examples of character archetypes, I will be primarily pulling references from the easiest story to understand ever (Star Wars), Evan Dahm's Rice Boy, and our very own VOID characters in case you don't catch the other references (but if you were unfamiliar with Star Wars, then you were born in the WRONG GENERATION =|). Other references may arise, thus a short description thereafter shall suffice for those who don't pick up on the note.

Here are the archetypes in summary:

(SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't take these literally! You can have other things represent these archetypes without them even being real characters!)

(THIS TOO, IS A SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: Rice Boy is the creation of Void's very own Mr. Robot, and is a wonderful example of the things I will discuss. If you have not read Rice Boy, then you are not with the Awesome Club. BUT IF YOU CLICK HERE, YOU WILL BE AWESOME.)

I. THE HERO - The protagonist, who sets out upon a Call to Adventure (explained in next lecture); functions as a window to the audience, and the martyr of change, which is always present in a traditional hero.


in Star Wars: Luke Skywalker is a traditional hero; a farmboy who, by chance, receives Princess Leia's distress call, has his home destroyed, then sets off on an adventure.
in Rice Boy: Rice Boy is a traditional hero; a humble, limbless creature who is visited by T-O-E with a prophecy, and sets out on good faith towards adventure.
in VOID: Jimmy Boom (by Kinuchio) is a traditional hero in every sense of the term. A fiery youth who uses his gifts to fight for peace and the defense of the weak.

-- THE ANTI-HERO - An alternate branch of HERO, the ANTI-HERO (or RELUCTANT HERO) is often tossed into the fray without a choice. In this matter, an Anti-hero is not initially in control of his own fate as a Traditional Hero is. He differs fromt he CYNICAL HERO and the TRAGIC HERO (below) because he is neither seeking self-gain nor is destroyed by his flaws.



from Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari is a modern example of the Reluctant Hero. He never strove to be what he became, but when circumstances arose in which he was to be a hero, he didn't back down. (thanks Pong)
from VOID: Gray (by Animeshen) is a Reluctant Hero, though we use the term 'hero' here lightly. Thrust into incidents she can't control, she is motivated by sheer circumstance. Depending on her character growth, she can evolve into a full-blown Anti-hero, or descend into Tragic Hero territory.
The Pig (by Hiemie) is an extremely vague example of a Reluctant Hero. His story is driven by pure circumstance, until the Shadow (Bad Apple) reveals himself, and is soundly thwarted by The Pig simply being a pig. This is a tough one to analyze, because the Pig doesn't actually exhibit growth, but its very nature pulls it through the story.

--THE CYNICAL HERO - A tarnished, failed hero, or a hero who otherwise lacks heroic qualities. Usually in the adventure for his/her/its own self-gain.


in Star Wars: Han Solo is a cynical hero; a greedy smuggler who is only led into the conflict through the promise of money.
in THE FRIDGE: The Swiss (by GPS-Device) has done away with any notion of prestige or honor he used to possess, and instead is driven to 'do what is right', even if it means soiling his own hands.

-- THE TRAGIC HERO - A hero who fails to develop or adapt, and is ultimately destroyed by his own flaws or inner demons. Oftentimes, a tragic hero, unlike a traditional hero, does not control his own fate; thus, a Tragic Hero may very well be a 'victim of fate', as it were.


in Star Wars: Anakin Skywalker is a tragic hero; a Jedi prodigy who was led astray by jealousy and impatience, and eventually fell to the Dark Side.
in Rice Boy: Spatch I is a tragic hero; when given the prophecy by T-O-E and Calabash, he grew drunk with power, greed and influence, and it led to the corruption of Sunk. (Art by Chunkplex)
in VOID: Jules Saphir (by Video320) is on the way to becoming a Tragic Hero. If his Beyond Battle saga is of any indication, he is driven to slake his thirst for revenge against Andy Heller, even if it costs him his life.

--THE CATALYST HERO - A hero who does not develop, but rather, inspires change in others around him. The lone gunman who strolls into town, saves the day, makes everyone happy, and rides off into the sunset, is a Catalyst hero.


Classic Example: The Toshiro Mifune character, Sanjuro, from Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic Yojimbo is a traditional example of the catalyst hero. He strolls into town, settles the disputes, everyone's happy, and he leaves.
in VOID: Toro Joe (by TINMAN) can be considered a Catalyst Hero, even if he is portrayed as a villain by others (remember, we use the term HERO because Toro Joe is the Hero of his own story). While he shows little development himself, his very presence causes change in others around him.

II. THE MENTOR - Something (doesn't have to be a person) that aids the HERO, by teaching him, giving him 'gifts', protecting him, or introducing him into "The Special World" (will come up in a later lecture).


in Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Mentor; one of the few remaining Jedi Knights who takes Luke under his wing after his home is destroyed.
in Rice Boy: The Tree Keeper is a Mentor; a mystical being who Rice Boy must seek out for more details on the prophecy as told by T-O-E.
in VOID: Dr. Boomington (by Kinuchio) serves as a mentor and guide for the Avant-Guardians. He is also literally Jimmy's father.

III. THE HERALD - Something (see above parenthetical statement) that announces the coming of change, issues challenges to the HERO, and more often than not, delivers the Call to Adventure.


in Star Wars: C3PO and R2-D2 are Heralds; their escape pod crash lands on Tatooine, where they must deliver Princess Leia's distress call. (Note: Heralds are sometimes referred to as 'Masters of Protocol'; C3PO is called a Protocol Droid)
in Rice Boy: The One Electronic (T-O-E) and Calabash are Heralds. They quite literally have to deliver an unknown prophecy to an unknown fulfiller so that the prophecy may be realized, no matter what it is.
in VOID: Cora Ruddel (by Angieness), Angela's mother, is a Herald. She shows up one day and tells Angie that she must return to the Chuchunaa Islands with no context or warning.

IV. THE SHADOW - Something (parenthetical statement above, again) that poses a threat to the HERO, and is often the HERO's greatest adversary, no matter what form it takes. Oftentimes, they represent a force that threatens to destroy. NOTE: Shadows and Villains are NOT THE SAME. If your Shadow is a meteor that threatens to destroy the Earth, it is NOT a villain; there may be a villain who is guiding the meteor, in which case there may be more than one Shadow.


in Star Wars: Emperor Palpatine is a Shadow; a Sith Lord himself, he rules over his corrupt Empire, enforcing the rule of the Dark Side over the galaxy.
in Rice Boy: Spatch II is a Shadow; Corrupted by his late father's misguided mandate, he will go through any measures to ensure that he is the only true Fulfiller
-- In the POV of T-O-E, however, his Shadow, alongside Spatch II, may be the threat of losing immortality, or perhaps even the 'God' figure itself.
in VOID: Angus Blackader (by underwoodwriter) has shown himself to be a formidable Shadow. Commanding an enormous battalion and driven by greed and vanity, Blackader will crush anything in his path to get what he wants.

V. THE THRESHOLD GUARDIAN - Something (parenthetical yet again) that stands to impede the HERO on his journey. This can come in the form of minor villains (or the Shadow's subordinates), puzzles or tests, or any sort of complication. There is oftentimes one standing at the First Threshold (to be explained in later lecture). Because it is such a long title, I often refer to Threshold Guardians simply as 'threshguards'.


in Star Wars: Boba Fett can be considered a Threshguard; he is not a true villain or Shadow, but he stands to impede the heroes in their journey.
in Rice Boy: Similar to Mr. Fett, Golgo can be considered a Threshguard; while he doesn't directly oppose the heroes, he is employed by Spatch II to do so.
In a more literal sense, Bor the Very Large is a very literal Threshguard, in which he stands in Rice Boy's way and makes it difficult to find the Tree Keeper.
in VOID: The entire gang of Murphy's Law can be considered a Threshold Guardian to many. They are an assortment of criminals, pranksters and troublemakers whose sole purpose is to incite chaos and nonsense in the city.

VI. THE SHAPESHIFTER - An entity that frequently changes appearance or alignment, to inspire mystery, confusion or doubt. If a Shapeshifter is present among the HERO's allies, they put loyalty into question and create doubt or suspense. A Shapeshifter may be considered a Homme/Femme Fatale, in that their existence is always a threat, no matter how helpful they may seem. As part of their nature, they can start as either an ally or an enemy, and may end the story wherever it befits them (an ally who turns enemy, and enemy who turns ally, etc.)


in Star Wars: In the Ep.I-III trilogy, Emperor Palpatine played the role of a Shapeshifter for a while; it was not known until Ep.III that he was a Sith Lord, so when he played favors to the young Anakin, the council had doubts about the supposed Supreme Chancellor.
in Rice Boy: The God figure that T-O-E works for may be considered a Shapeshifter; he keeps a lot of things hidden, and often inspires doubt in T-O-E whether or not his job is justified.
in VOID: The Star Child (by MyHatEatsPeople) is shown to take the forms of others, but appears directly to Wizzie Bells in a dream. Her motives are vague and unexplained, but she forces a change in Wizzie, whether or not Wizzie is ready for it.

VII. THE TRICKSTER - A character that defies the status quo; points out the folly and hypocrisy of the world and brings the HERO down to size, often challenging the HERO's right as a hero. Represents the energy of mischief and the desire for change. Are oftentimes a source of (comic) relief or a release of tension, who brings calm and balance to a story that may be getting too tense.

in Star Wars: Han Solo is also a Trickster alongside his Cynical Hero role; oftentimes, the "Whys" are brought on by him, and universal standards are brought into question; to quote Mr. Solo himself, "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."


in Rice Boy: Calabash may be considered a trickster. Unlike T-O-E who took his job seriously, Calabash had the incentive to question the job, even going as far as to defy it.
in VOID: Cue the Anti-Cupid (by Majikura) is a shining example of a Trickster. She will figuratively AND literally question the very nature of VOID City, her opponents, and even the comics she's featured in. Nothing is safe from Cue's cynical brand of humor.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT THING: A character doesn't have to have the same archetype throughout your entire story! Though it is a basic characteristic of the Shapeshifter archetype to 'change masks', there are times wherein other characters may take up different roles; when Obi-Wan held off Darth Vader so Luke and company could escape, he rose from Mentor to Hero for that brief moment; it didn't take long for Rice Boy to make friends with Gerund, but the fact that Gerund keeps eating all his food makes him a Threshguard of a small scale.

THIS IS ANOTHER IMPORTANT THING: You can mix and match archetypes! There's no reason you can't have two things at once! In the Star Wars Ep.I-III trilogy, Palpatine is both a Mentor AND a Shadow (a part of his Shapeshifter nature). In Rice Boy, T-O-E may be considered a Herald Hero, because he has his own journey to undertake. Commonly enough, sometimes Void characters who battle each other (Threshguards, in a sense) become friends, and allies are gained.

Now as the case is with Void, your character will automatically default to The Hero (in any of its forms), because in your comics, no matter WHO your character is, YOUR character is the protagonist. Even Crazy Samurai, as villainous as he is viewed by other characters, is the Hero of his story. There may be cases wherein your character serves other purposes (like Rax's Sol; quite obviously, Sol plays the role of Mentor), but in those cases you would mix-match Hero on top of another archetype, keeping within the principle that your character is the main character of your comics (so with the previous example, Sol's comics are still about Sol; thus, he is a Mentor Hero of his story).

YOUR ASSIGNMENT, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO TAKE IT
With an understanding of how character archetypes function in a story, I would like you to take your VOID character, think about other characters related to him/her/it, and try to find archetypes that match them. What kind of Hero is your character? Who are his Shadows? Does he have a Mentor? Is there a Herald present? List as many as you can as it relates to your character; I don't want to see a whole bunch of trivial things like "Tying shoelaces in the morning = Threshguard", even if it is true.

I SHALL DO AN EXAMPLE BELOW. COPY THE FORMAT AND FOLLOW IN MY STEAD. YOU CAN DO IT! :mellow:

It's a good start. The layout is excellent. You'll want to watch out for your vertical lines though, a lot of them are toppling over, as it were. A small straight edge should fix that problem, and then you'll be fine.

Keep it up!

WOOO. MARLAY'S ON FIRE.

Well actually, the way it worked in class is that you'd actually reveal EVERYTHING as though you were handing this character to an editor, not a reader. It's good to include unknowns to give a character intrigue, but part of this exercise is knowing how to fill those unknowns so you don't just have blank parts of a character where there should be content.

2. Occupation (Type of work, hours of work, income, condition of work, union or non-union, attitude towards organization, suitability for work)
daisuke is what you would call a jack of all trades, capable of doing just about anything from farming to circus performing.

Where did he get such universal skills? If you mean that he's capable of cheap labor then that's one thing, but being a jack of all trades means you probably have a minor expertise in a multitude of skills.

4. Home Life (Parents living, earning power, orphan, parents separated or divorced, parents' habits, parents' mental development, parents' vices, neglect, character's marital status)
daisuke's parents were both teachers in the watenabe family dojo.
his mother would tutor children in the basics of education.
his father would tutor men in their late teens, early twenties in the art of the sword.
his grandfather taught art, and sold his paintings.
his mother was a very kind, and loving person. she died when daisuke was 15 when she rushed into a burning building to try and save one of her friends' child.
after that point, daisuke's normally strict father sunk into an alchoholic depression and began savagely beating daisuke and his brother, kyosuke, during their training sessions. this wouldn't have been such a bad thing if he didn't beat the other students he took on as well. once the others left, his full concentration ws back on dai and kyo.
their grandfather left on daisuke's 16th birthday, and was never heard from again. shortly after that, daisuke was set to take his final test within the school.
he had to spar against his brother kyosuke and win in order to graduate.
kyosuke did not want later competition over the inheritance of the dojo, so with a sword he had hidden inside a wooden sword, he stabbed daisuke in the chest.
daisuke broke from the watenabe style, and was able to knock kyosuke unconscious with a few strikes to the head. defeating his brother in this fashion caused him to be expelled from the family school, as though he wouldn't have left anyway.

A few things I'm a bit concerned with here; if Daisuke was such a lousy swordsman, how did he manage to beat Kyosuke with a wooden sword after being stabbed in the chest? You don't mention if Kyosuke was any better or not, so there may still be an unknown factor, but from what I'm picking up on, Daisuke really isn't that great of a fighter, if he's formidable at all.

Also, being stabbed in the chest kinda should leave a mark (just my opinion). That'd file under Defects in the Physiology section if you want to include that, but the fact that he gets stabbed in the chest and is walking around now without some kind of mark is kinda inconsistent, if you get where I'm going.

9. Amusements/Hobbies (books, newspapers, magazines he/she reads, etc.)
he enjoys picking up chicks and drinking. although he's afraid to admit it, he likes reading the Weekly World News.

Why is this?

2. Personal Premise/Ambition
he wanders about looking for his grandfather, if he's still alive. other than that, he goes around looking for anything he considers fun, including drinking, having sex, and  fighting... hopefully not at the same time.

Again, going back on the idea that he's a lousy fighter, why would he enjoy something he never enjoyed doing growing up?




Also PEOPLE! Feel free to critique other people's characters! If you have questions about things you may find inconsistent in a character's form, feel free to speak up!

Tsumi's father is Japanese, her mother is Japanese American, her grandma (passed on) was American (had blue eyes), blue eyes was a recessive gene but somehow Tsumi got it.

You should mention that in the Nationality section, then. =P

Tsumi is naturally 7'2, but she's not naturally muscle-bound, she exercised herself that way. Originally she needed some amount of muscle tone to support her extended skeleton or she'd hunch over for the rest of her life so she started weight lifting to build muscle mass. She went far past her required muscle mass to keep from hunching over because of personal reasons. If she lost the muscles in her back now her upper body would snap her back.

Mmm...okay I'll buy that.

Critique of Tsumi Watenabe (by otakutaylor)

PHYSIOLOGY
4. Color of Hair/Eyes/Skin: black always dyed Blue / Blue / Asian

This is an incredibly small detail, but I thought Asians can't get natural blue eyes?

7. Defects: without her muscles to support her skeleton, Tsumi would likely bend over at the middle and her back would snap.

Something seems off here. I'm no biology expert, but don't you need strong bones to support large muscles? It doesn't at all make sense that her own skeleton can't support her muscles, and makes even less sense that in the process of building her physique, that her bones received no benefits.

4. Home Life: Parents alive and in New York, father running a small business. Parents treated her nice, though partially because they were scared of her strength a bit.

How did Tsumi feel about her parents? Was she aware that they were afraid of her? How did her parents influence how she is today?

7. Place in Community: Overprotective older sister.

That seems to apply only to Sasami, as it were. 'Place in community' should refer to how a person stands amongst the masses. Is she a leader? A follower? A trailblazer? A hermit?

2. Personal Premise/Ambition: to simply be there for her sister.
3. Frustrations: when Sasami treats her like dirt for trying to help or when anyone tries to mess with Sasami.
4. Temperament: commonly glad and accepting of others, though she flies into a near uncontrollable rage when her sister is threatened.
5. Attitude toward Life: “you are supposed to always follow the rules and be a good person, right sis?”

Something seems unnatural about Tsumi's devotion to her sister. Granted, it's fine to care about someone over yourself, but this gives me the impression that Tsumi doesn't have much of a good impression of herself. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine premise to work on, it's just something seems really off...

Oh hey, it's alive. :huh:

So um, hello everyone. I pitched this off for a VCU writing assignment, but I guess it can go here too. The incentive here is for you to discover your character through and through, to understand what makes them who they are so you can properly write them to live within your world. It's a small step in understanding how to manipulate a story driven by characters, but I intend to get into those kinda lessons later.

I'll be reading over entries and nitpicking things that may seem off or confusing, but don't be discouraged! All this means is that you need more detail in your character, and if you really understand who your character is, covering up those holes won't be a problem! Also, if anyone else has questions to ask about characters, please ask away!

I only have ONE small criteria for this 'assignment', and that is that NO ENTRY WHATSOEVER SHOULD INCLUDE "UNKNOWN" OR "NOT AVAILABLE", because you're the writer and you should know everything about your character! Sometimes you might think it's classy to keep some tidbits of a character undisclosed, but if you don't even know parts of your character, no one will.

So I encourage everyone to do one of these at least once. It's a fun assignment and it teaches you things about your character that you may not even have known!

This is a great idea, Galvo+Council, shit I wish I had been there for this meeting so I coulda backed it all the way.

Dude, you WERE online when the meeting was called, but apparently you live inside an away message.

This sounds like something I'll commit to, even if I don't meet the required 50 hands...I'll throw down as well, I guess. Unfortunately my stupid clumsy plum hands don't have as much AWESOME detail as JB's hands...well, except for excessive knuckle hair. :huh:

Hello Illy. Wow that's unique, to be named after a comic book character...I know my (future, if ever) kid would hate me if I named him after any of my characters (Red would know. He has a list ^_^).