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[personal profile] owlectomy discusses vulnerability in heroism. There are two directions in a hero's journey: from weakness to strength, and from strength to weakness.

The first is about building skills, abilities, equipment, experience, resources, fitness, agency: all the stuff a hero needs to make a difference.

The second is about building endurance, resilience, adaptability, courage, humility, integrity, self-awareness, connections: all the stuff a hero needs to survive.

These two things are equally true. They are equally powerful. They are equally important.


With only the first part of the journey, you get over-powered characters -- especially if they do not have potent enough opposition. This is both unbelievable and boring. That's why so many action movies are mostly explosions. Those are interesting when the characters are not.

With only the second part of the journey, you get morose victims -- especially if there is no one their to pull them up. This is entirely too realistic and boring. Everybody knows these people. It's why they change the channel or abandon the book on the nightstand.

Dynamic characters are, by definition, the ones that change in a story. That's distinct from static characters, who do not change. The protagonist is usually the one changing the most. Now here's the key: the most exciting characters, the ones who have the greatest degree of change, are the ones who change in more than one way. When those two directions intersect, you get characters who move up and down, back and forth, around and around. They find and lose things, other people, themselves.

The crucial message behind these characters is this: Nobody is strong all the time. Nobody is weak all the time. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses that apply to different circumstances. You can develop your potential, but you will never be able to handle everything, because nobody can do that. So you have to know how to cope when things fall apart, because they will; you have to understand your inner resources and who you can turn to for help. That also means you do not just sit on your butt whining when things inevitably go wrong. You do something about it, even if all you can do is remember to breathe and refuse to panic or despair.

A true hero supports their buddies when they're up and helps them when they're down, understanding that everyone will go through those phases. They understand gentleness as well as force, compassion as well as assertiveness. They have determination that is based on choice, not power; influence that is based on respect, not authority. They are flexible enough to bend without breaking, adaptable enough to use different methods as necessary. They've been there, done that. A true hero is cyclic. That's potent stuff, because basically the whole of nature runs on cycles.

As a reader and a writer, I like that sense that things could move in any direction at any moment. It's less predictable and therefore more interesting. I like to see characters pulled two ways by competing needs, goals, or qualities. I like to see how they fall down and how they pick themselves back up. I like to see how they deal with being strong and being weak, how it affects their interactions with the other characters. Only when you have seen both sides will you truly know the character.

Those cardboard characters -- the unstoppable badass, the morose victim of fate -- they're just a tempest in a teacup. A true hero is an ocean, storm and angst and wave-roaring fury, mirror-smooth water under silvery moon. And like the ocean, there is something of it in each of us, which is what makes it so compelling.

(no subject)

Date: 2013-01-18 03:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] westrider.livejournal.com
This nails a lot of what makes Seasons 2, 5, & 6 of Buffy so powerful, especially their endings. You've got multiple well-developed characters moving in all kinds of different directions, falling down in different ways, getting back up in different ways.

Yes...

Date: 2013-01-19 04:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com
I agree. Joss Whedon is a master of putting characters through the double-wringer.

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