Character Tips
Heroes & Villains
by Melanie Anne Phillips
Creator StoryWeaver, Co-creator Dramatica
If you are writing with only Heroes and Villains, you are limiting yourself. A Hero is
a Main Character who is also a Protagonist. A Villain is an Obstacle Character who is also
an Antagonist.
What’s the difference between a Main Character and a Protagonist? The Main
Character represents the audience position in the story. It is the character the audience
most cares about, most empathizes with. The Protagonist is the character who drives the
plot forward.
These two functions don’t have to be placed in the same character as they are in a
Hero. In real life, we are not always running the show. Similarly in stories, the Main
Character doesn’t have to always be the guy leading the charge. Separating the two
functions opens up a wide variety of new audience experiences and creates characters that
are less archetypal and formulaic.
Similarly, when we split a Villain into an Obstacle Character and an Antagonist, we
open up opportunities, some of which bear directly on the nature and function of a Love
Interest and the structure of a "Buddy Picture."
First, what is the difference between the Obtstacle Character and the Antagonist? The
Obstacle Character represents a point of view opposite that of the Main Character. Every
Main Character will be driven by some central belief system around which the story’s
philosophic argument revolves. This belief system might be an attitude, a way of doing
things, or something as extensive as a specific “world view.” The Obstacle
Character represents the view that is diametrically opposed.
Over the course of the story, the Obstacle Character’s impact will bring the Main
Character to a point of decision at which he or she must choose to stick with the old
“tried and true” philosophy/approach or to adopt the alternative put forth by
the Obstacle Character. In many stories, this moment results in a “Leap of
Faith” in which the Main Character is forced to make a conscious decision to go with
one view or the other at the critical moment. In other stories, the Main Character may
gradually warm to the Obstacle Character’s view, but the audience is not sure if that
warmth will hold when the chips are down. Only at the critical moment will the story
demonstrate on which side of the fence the Main Character drops, not by conscious choice
but by responding from the heart.
When a Hero battles a Villain, both the functional relationship of the
Protagonist/Antagonist battle for supremacy in the plot and the personal relationship of
the Main Character/Obstacle Character occur between the same two characters at the same
time. In a sense, working with Heroes and Villains flattens these two relationships into a
single relationship. This often confuses an audience, as they are often not sure which of
the two relationships is being described by a particular moment between the two
characters.
What’s more, it is easy for an author to leave holes in each kind of relationship
because if something happens in one of the two, its dramatic momentum can carry the
attention past a gap in the other. In fact, it is the foundation of a Melodrama for the
audience to accept as a style that gaps in both relationships are acceptable, as long as
the combined momentum of them both carries the attention on to the next point in either.
To avoid audience confusion and prevent your drama from disintegrating into a
Melodrama, you may wish to split up either the Hero, the Villain, or both. When both are
split, it allows for a complete separation of the functional relationship and the personal
relationship, allowing for each to be fully developed by the author and experienced by the
audience.
When only one character is split, the two relationships converge on the remaining
character. So, we might have a story with a Hero (Main Character/Protagonist) who has a
functional relationship with the Antagonist and a personal relationship with the Obstacle
Character. This forms a “V” shaped pattern which is referred to as a Dramatica
Triangle.
In another tip, we’ll explore the Dramatic Triangle and how it can be used to
build “Love Interests” and for “Buddy Pictures.”
Copyright © Melanie Anne Phillips
