CHARACTERS in a STORY - The archetypes Part IV

And suddenly I arrived to the post number 100! 

 

 

Almost finishing this first set of articles about the Archetypes in a story. Today I'm going to write about the Blockers. As I mentioned before, I simplified these archetypes in four groups. Other authors and scriptwriters have different choices and opinions. I just organized them in a simple way and I still agree with other points of view like the Christopher Vogler. If I want to get it even more simple I can easily group in the old fashion way the "good ones and the bad ones".

Anyway, let's talk about the Blockers.

They are everywhere in the stories: That horrible secretary of the Antagonist, the stupid assistant of that annoying boss, the killer sent by the commandant of the opposite army...

So many examples you can remember. For instance Norrington (Jack Davenport) in Pirates of Caribbean. So many times he delays Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) but he's not the antagonist of the story. He is just someone moved by his own intention of revenge because he lost his love to the pirate.

 

 

Normally this characters are as evil as the antagonist, sometimes even more stronger, many times they are not as much intelligent. 

They are secondary characters who create problems to the protagonist. They are just like the traffic in the morning when we go to work. They delay us, but they never stop us that we arrive at the office.
 

Normally they are following orders from a superior or they are moved by a personal interest, envy or stupid avarice.

 

They really block the protagonist in his journey, but just momentarily. They are the ones who put the sand in the mechanism. But they are not good enough to defeat the hero.

 

Because their role in the story is not strong enough, normally they lose the final battle not against the hero, but against a companion of the hero. The protagonist is to good and to important to waste his/her time with minor problems.

 

Happens so many times that a blocker is a girl, and in the end is the girlfriend of the hero who punches her face. The hero can't punch a girl on the face even if she is really evil. One day I may write something that the hero has the chance to punch the bad girl... Ok... it may need to be a comedy.

CYA soon!