Your Characters Might Hate You

Imagine a situation where Frodo Baggins, after sailing to the undying lands at the end of “Return of the King,” was greeted by J.R.R. Tolkien. After everything the fellowship had been through, the pain and suffering, do you think Frodo would be too happy to meet the person who put him through all of that for the enjoyment of others?

Maybe. It’s possible that he would look back on the journey and be grateful for the person he was forged into, happy to have grown into a person who was able to achieve great things and save the world. (Oh wait, that was Sam that did the hero work.) But more likely than not, Frodo’s initial reaction would be to want to throw Tolkien into the fires of Mount Doom to join the ring.

I know if I met Dex Prullen from “Empire of the Void,” he’d beat the hell out of me for what I did to him. That is… if he’s patched up from all the broken ribs, blaster burns, and saber cuts. 

I challenge you to name one interesting or iconic character, who never took one major hit, emotionally or physically.

Characters and the stories they live in are only interesting when there is strife. No one wants to read about or watch a character getting off easy with every conflict they face. That’s one of the reasons why the latest “Star Wars” trilogy was so panned. 

One of the things that makes audiences connect with characters is seeing shared struggles. Wanting to break free of a mundane life, fighting for something they believe in, and facing the loss of a loved one. Once the shared experience is set-up, every subsequent beat-down makes their inevitable win feel more earned. And in that way, the reader feels a sense of fulfillment living vicariously through the victory of the characters.

In “Empire of the Void,” Dex and Lacy are separated by forces beyond their control. Not fun.

Many of us have been in relationships, and distance is never fun, especially if it’s because of outlying reasons that force us apart. It’s a concept that we as an audience should be easily able to relate to. 

Now, if all Dex had to do to get her back was ask politely, then we would all give an indifferent shrug, be happy for them, and move on. Now if he’s held against his will and breaks free to save her, our interest is piqued. If he takes a beating and still tries to get her back, now we’re really rooting for him.

Audiences connect with the plight of the human spirit. It encourages us and inspires us, seeing someone take hit after hit and still go the distance. That’s why “Rocky” resonates with so many people.

These hits also define the characters. With each hit they take, ask yourself, how will they react? Are there any moments of self-doubt? Do they ever consider giving up? Any answer for that is a good answer as long as it’s handled well. This is because it gives the audience a deeper understanding of the character. If they have that moment of self-doubt, they become more vulnerable, as long as in the end, they do push through. We believe that there is a real person on the page. If there is no moment of self-doubt, but still that introspection and a drive to push forward at all costs, you end up with a character like Captain America, who is willing to take the hit no matter the cost to do what is (hopefully) morally right. It elevates the character to someone almost superhuman. Maybe less relatable, but still inspirational.

The audience just has to know that there is that inner monologue going on. Your character is not an autonomous machine. They don’t do things because the plot happens, they do things because authors give the illusion that they have free will and realistic flaws.

Let’s pivot now from building up to victory, to building up to defeat. A well-earned defeat can sometimes go just as far as a victory.

Let’s look at arguably the best superhero movie ever made (Remember this is a blog, now news, I’m allowed to have opinions), “Spider-Man 2.”

The film opens with Peter Parker delivering pizza, which will cost him his job if he fails. The set-up and stakes. It’s something very realistic that the audience can sympathize with. Now we add to that. Challenge one: traffic is blocked, preventing him from delivering the pizzas on his bike. We see how he overcomes these challenges by delivering them as Spider-Man, but only after he tries and fails to deliver them as Peter. Almost immediately, challenge two pops up: children playing in the street are about to get hit by a truck. He can save them and risk being even later than he already is, or he can focus on the task at hand and save his job. Selfish or selfless option? Making the decision to save the kids, which makes us sympathize even more with the character presents another challenge. He has to temporarily ditch the pizzas, and when he does, they’re almost stolen. We get two very small victories then; he saves the kids and is able to get the pizzas back, but now it’s too late. The pizzas aren’t delivered in time and Peter loses his job.

We get challenge after challenge after challenge, and as hard as he tries he still fails. But because we see what he’s going through, and we understand where his headspace was at(and hopefully agree with his selfless choices), we stick with him as a character and get excited to see when he’ll bounce back.

So beat them down, beat them up, challenge their ideals. Make them wish you never created them. And when they overcome all obstacles to achieve their goal, the audience will love them all the more.

Just don’t make it unrealistic.

We’re humans, we have limits. Our characters too have limits. If your character has an arm ripped off mid-fight, chances are they won’t be able to hold their own in hand-to-hand combat against an opponent with all their arms. They’ll probably go into shock and have to tap out. In the right circumstances, this is still a great set-up.

Oh no! How will they overcome this obstacle?

Getting back up and overpowering the enemy that isn’t bleeding out from having their arm ripped out will take the audience right out of the story. 

A retreat works better here because that’s two defeats. The first is physical, losing an arm. The second is losing the battle as a whole. This is great because you have now given them two opportunities to bounce back from. Two opportunities for redemption. How will they adapt to missing an arm, and what will happen when they face that enemy again?

But this is not to tell you to go around ripping every character’s arm off. As with everything that happens in your work, ask yourself, “Does this serve the story?”

Every blow your character takes should serve the story in a way that centers around the book as a whole; the tone, the theme, and the overall message of it. 

The children in the “Cat in the Hat” face enough challenges without getting their arms ripped off. That would be horrible for the tone.

I don’t remember who said it, but when a character is going from point A to B, throw as many obstacles as you can their way. Your character will hate you for it, but the readers will love it.