O Captain, My Captain

Many a novice reader may believe that every protagonist is a hero. While technically true in that we are all the heroes of our own tales, these "heroes" aren't always on the side of the good and righteous. However, that's a story for another day. Today, we focus on your garden-variety, "do-gooder" hero. 

For the sake of brevity, we're going to lump our heroes into two different categories. Your willing heroes, and your unwilling heroes.

This entry will focus on the willing heroes.

He's a new breed of hero... 

To make things easier on your resident blogger, we're going to assume this particular hero is male. He could be female if he really wanted to, but for today, he's a dude.¹ 

Now, what comes to mind when you read "hero"? Is he handsome? Fit? With a rugged jaw line? Eyes that smoulder like the heart of a dying star? Does he have a charming smile? A broad back? Chances are, he might look a bit like Superman.
Our willing hero trope is likely to be eager to jump into the fray. He might have an ego-complex. Everyone loves him, or at the very least, he believes they do. He's Captain Hammer (portrayed by Nathan Fillion), from Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. He's Captain America, from Marvel's Avengers.

But not every "willing hero" is willing.

"What on earth could you mean by that, oh great and powerful blogger?"

Well, a willing hero is essentially one who makes the conscious choice to do something. He might not be happy about it, but, darnit, he's going to do it anyways, because maybe no one else will, and maybe no one else can. ²
That's not to say that he can't be confident. He surely can. But there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Don't make your hero arrogant, unless you intend for him to fail. Character developpement tends to be crucial to our protagonists.

Let's take Thor, from the Marvel-verse. He starts off as a trigger-happy ³ , and eager to prove his mettle, even at the detriment of others. If he had remained on that plateau, I doubt he'd be so popular, if only because he'd be insufferable. He is forced to change, and through trial and error (and a bit of love), he becomes a more worthy hero. Is he willing? Yes. He choses to save that little town in New Mexico, and he choses to try his best to get Mjolnir back. But he's not perfect, which makes him a much better hero.

To reiterate what will inevitably become a mantra in this blog: "let your character breathe". Don't let him become nothing more than a living and breathing bundle of brawn and testosterone. Allow him to have flaws. Allow him to doubt himself. Allow him to fail. Allow him to be human. 

And most of all, remember that not all heroes wear capes.

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1 This is done in an effort to keep pronouns in check. Heroes can be female, too! They can also be genderless blobs. It's your story. You decide. ^↩
2 For more information on what makes a willing hero, feel free to visit http://crimsonleague.com/2013/07/22/creative-writing-and-characterization-what-makes-a-willing-hero/↩

3 This turn of phrase works only if one pretends hammers have triggers, of course. ^↩

Every fairytale needs a good, old-fashioned villain1

We're not supposed to love the villains; Karate Kid is about Ralph Macchio, not Billy Zabka (unless you're Barney Stinson), but sometimes, we can't help it. A good villain is easy to hate, and a great villain is one we love to loathe.

It should be noted, however, that I abhor the stock-variety, "I'm evil because I'm evil" villains. They bore me. Without the chance of redemption or a flicker of humanity, what reason do I have to be involved?

It is my belief that a good villain should act as a counterpoint for the hero. It's what makes Khan so fearsome - he is merely the other side of the coin. We can hate Khan for taking those same values we admire in Kirk, and twisting them to create something we consider despicable. BBC Sherlock's Moriarty is so great because he, like Sherlock, only wants to entertain himself. Where Sherlock is a consulting detective, Moriarty is a consulting criminal. They both want to escape boredom, and can only do so by engaging in an epic battle of wits.

So, let's get to the common trope. "Villain" might bring forth the image of a slimy, weasel-faced man, twirling his moustache and maybe petting a cat. Maybe he's a psychopath, or a sociopath. He could be a mobster, or a pimp, or a Sith Lord. He's wearing a hockey mask, and he's got a chainsaw, or he's got clown makeup on. Truthfully, there are so many villain tropes that it's hard to pin down what any one of us may be thinking.²  It all depends on which villains one is exposed to, and which ones resonate with us. My favourite villain might not be yours.

Not every hero/villain story needs to be dark and dreary.
There are villains in comedies too. And in spoofs. 

Frankly, there is no way to tell how to make a good villain. Every audience is different, and every hero is too. Moriarty wouldn't work well against Harry Potter, and Leatherface might not work against Captain Kirk. If you choose to start your story with a hero, ensure that the villain is anathema³. Allow him (or her) to be similar in some respects, and completely different in others. Harry Potter and Voldemort are both orphans who grew into brilliant children. Moriarty and Sherlock are both stunningly intelligent. Khan and Kirk both care deeply for their crew. But neither of these duos share the same moral code, and as such, they are enemies.


So let your villain breathe; let him, or her, come to life. Two dimensional characters aren't fun, regardless of which side they're on. Don't assume that by making your villain abhorrently evil, the audience will care for the hero's plight. Allow them to be human, and maybe, just maybe, you'll create someone we can love to hate.

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1 This is a quote from the Season 2 finale, "The Reichenbach Fall", of Sherlock (BBC). "
2 For more information about villain tropes, head to TV Tropes 
3 Anathema is defined by Merriam-Webster as "someone or something intensely disliked or loathed" 

Let's talk about tropes.

What, exactly, is a trope?

This is color hex #483C32.
Enjoy it. 

Well, for one, it's not a colour. You're probably thinking of taupe, which is either a dark shade of tan, or the french word for mole. Unfortunately, this blog is not dedicated to French Moles, nor to #483C32.
A trope is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as a "word of expression used in a figurative sense" or "a common or overused theme or device". For the purposes of this blog, we'll focus more on the second definition. Still not following me?

Well then, let's pretend we're writing a story. A crime thriller, perhaps? With swoon-worthy vampires? Maybe an unwilling hero, a psychopathic villain, a shmuck in a sweater-vest and... Hmm... Maybe a lackluster leading lady? Sounds great. Maybe we can even throw in a few hired guns to round it all out.

Well, perhaps not "swoon-worthy"

Any of those things sound familiar? It's probably because they are. They're tropes. They're culturally significant, little bits of characters we recognize. When I say "swoon-worthy vampires", you're probably thinking of Edward from Twilight or any of Anne Rice's characters. Maybe True Blood or The Vampire Diaries comes to mind. "Unwilling hero" may evoke an image of a meek, portly man, desperately trying to resist the adventure we all know is coming. 

From the ditzy blonde to the squeamish cop, they turn up everywhere. But they're not archetypes ("the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies"). Let's take "The Geek", for example. For many Western readers, the character that comes to mind is probably socially awkward, has thick rimmed glasses, maybe with a bit of a nasal voice. ¹ That's a trope - it doesn't necessarily mean anything to any other culture, but it's common enough to us that we can infer a few key physical and personality traits. If we broaden the definition of a geek to someone who happens to be knowledgeable, we get an archetype. He becomes The Scholar, a theme not limited to the

Archetypes are not limited to
only one culture.

Western world. ²


So that's what this blog is. It's an examination of tropes, and how to make them better. Just like stereotypes, they shouldn't define us, nor the characters we create. Just because The Geek is awkward and nasally, it doesn't mean he can't be a phenomenal salsa dancer. The Dumb Blonde could be a great chef, or secretly a member of Mensa. Tropes allow us to point the audience in the right direction, but they shouldn't be the only roadmap we use to get there. 
So, stick around. Maybe you'll learn something new, or maybe you won't. At the very least, it might entertain you.