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!

 

CHARACTERS in a STORY - The archetypes Part I

Authors like  Christopher Vogler present us with an extensive list of types of characters that we call ARCHETYPES. They are the type of characters that you need to include in your story. If you have a protagonist who has a task, which is walking from A to B and he does it in one go, the story will be simple and boring... maybe even there is no story. Now we have the same protagonist with exactly the same task, walking from A to B, but on the way another guy appears and create lots of issues that make the protagonist to move to C and D before finally he can reach the B. That will be more interesting.

But let's start from the beginning.  I think Vogler's ehxaustive list sometimes become a bit repetitive with some archetypes being coincidente with anothers. Is not a disagreement (who am I to do so) but is a simplification. I turned the Vogler's archetypes in an easier diagram.

First of all I create the protagonist or the Hero of the story. I put him in the centre of the universe. All the other ones will surround him and push him or pull him from his final objective.

The PROTAGONIST will have a task in the story which can be so many different things: Conquer the Castle, Win the Battle, Get the Girl, Become Rich, Find happiness, Build a life...

In his journey to achieve that he will have plenty of other circunstances and characters that prevent him to do it. They are the ANTAGONISTS. It doesn't need to be another person. It can be an object or a strenght from the other world. In Castaway, Chuck Nolan (Tom Hanks) is trying to survive in a desert Island, just like Robinson Crusoe 200 years before. The Antagonist in both stories is the Island. It's the Island which prevents the hero to return home. Is not any human being who stops them to do it.

In other way both Heros have a friend, who I call here a COMPANION, someone/something that helps the hero to survive in the Island and does the journey, or part of it,  with him. A FRIEND. Robinson Crusoe has Friday the indigenous and Chuck Nolan has.... Wilson the Ball.

Both of them help the hero to keep his sanity, even with the insane conversations with a ball or to a indigenous who can't speak the same language. But that conversations maybe help Chuck and Robinson to survive during the time they were trapped in that Island.

I will continue for some time with this diagram of characters.

CYA.

Some good books - Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers

 

Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler

What I may say about this book? Well it's a good book. Much easier that Robert McKee's Story, and definetely more light, but some information looks a bit repetitive in the end. You feel that some of the Archetypes some times cross to other archetype's zones. The author also mention that.
 Maybe you should read this one before the McKee. It's a good introduction book and the very rare negative points are not enough to blured that is a good guide for scriptwriting.

You can find it here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/193290736X/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=479289247&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0330375911&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1ED2QDXAT38A7Z9JVV5Z

Enjoy it. Is not expensive at all for what you get.