What Entertains Mee, Lee?: Theorizing our Characters

What is the Character Theory?

For our project, my group has concluded that Character Theory fits our story the best! We created a character that is a princess in the protagonist's eyes even before realizing she fits the princess archetype in Propp's Character Theory perfectly! Hold on, I'm getting ahead of myself! Let me backtrack and explain to you just what the character theory is.

Through studying over 100 fairytales, Vladimir Propp created this theory in 1928, saying that every character in a story fits into one of seven different archetypes. The helper, the villain, the donor, the princess, the dispatcher, the false hero, and the hero all work together to create one of the 31 narratives. In creating this theory, he was able to set up the foundation for future narratology. Let's dive into these archetypes!

The Hero

Propp believes there are two types of heroes within this archetype. There is the seeker who wishes to save others from the villain and then the victim who suffers directly from the villain and wishes to save themself. These heroes then go on a hero's journey to defeat their villain and to achieve their personal growth they need to be segmented as a hero.

Both the movie and game Sonic fit this Hero archetype, but interestingly enough they are the opposite types. Sonic in the movies (2020-present) is a victim, being hunted down by Dr. Robotnik as he tries to destroy Sonic and his home. Sonic decides to fight back to protect his power and the people he has grown to love and cherish. On the other hand, Sonic in the games (1991-present) is a seeker, who chases after Dr. Eggman after seeing him capture and hurt innocent animals to power his robots. Alongside that, Eggman terrorizes many different organisms throughout Sonic's world, and because Sonic is such an amazing guy (hedgehog) he takes Eggman on constantly to save those who can't protect themself.

The Hero archetype is meant to inspire. Inspire their audiences to stand up for others or for themselves to do the right thing! To achieve their goal and fight against evil. It is supposed to be a reflection of their audience and show them who they can grow to be.

How Does this Apply?

The main character for my film opening wants nothing more than to be a Hero. To do that, however, he needs to have more inner reflection and grow through the Hero's journey to defeat his bully (villain) who is blocking his way from love with his crush (princess). This would in turn make him a victim hero making him need to stand up for himself and save himself, and in turn, save the girl he cares about as well.

The Helper

The helper has a role explained in the name! They are the type of characters to help the protagonist succeed and grow by helping them achieve a goal or fix a misfortune. The helper tends to also give the hero a form of transportation or help them get from point A to point B. One might say that this helper is the sidekick of the hero.

A film character that fits this archetype is Tails originally adapted from the Sonic video game franchise. Throughout 'Sonic 2' (2022) Tails assists Sonic through his initiative gadgets and gizmos which help the pair progress through the movie and defeat their villain. If it weren't for Tails, Sonic would've failed within the first 20 minutes of the movie, possibly being dead! Tails may not have done all of the heroic stuff, but he was the one to help Sonic do his heroic stuff. Tails is important to both this movie and to the hero, Sonic, because he helps the story progress and teaches Sonic how to depend on others and grow into the hero he wants to be.

This in turn shows that helpers within the narrative world are needed for character and story progression. They assist the hero in being heroic and they are what's needed to get the goal achieved. The helper might not be a main role but is a vital role.

How Does this Apply?

The main character doesn't have many friends since he is seen as a loser, but we could follow the cliche of giving him an equally lame best friend who helps him figure out how to get his bully to stop being so nasty as well as to woo the girl of his dreams and to get her to leave the toxic relationship that she is in. This best friend could find out information for our main character and could encourage the main character to do things he wouldn't normally do!

The Villian

The villain's role is that of the antagonist. They cause misfortune and harm to others for their own gain or pleasure. These evil deeds, whether on the hero or not, will cause a fight between the villain and the hero. The villain is what causes the hero to become a hero by giving them a reason to fight and to grow. A narrative story needs a villain just as much as it needs its hero.

Giving the Sonic Franchise a break, let's look at one of my favorite villains, the Joker from one of my favorite Batman movies, 'The Dark Night' (2008). In this film the Joker does nothing but cause chaos and destruction throughout the entire movie, leading many to wonder why Batman doesn't end his reign of terror once and for all. The Joker pushes Batman to be better than he is. No matter what the Joker does, Batman must strive to never kill him which would make him a kin to the Joker. Instead, he works hard to give hope to the world that the Joker works to take away. His Hero's journey is motivated by being better than the Joker and never allowing his plans to follow through. The Joker works to destroy not only the city but all of Batman's morals and who Batman is.

The villain causes the conflict and only when they or their actions or defeated will the resolution occur. It is the villain that creates the hero and it is the villain that creates the story.

How Does this Apply?

Our main character starts off wimpy with no heroic bone in his body, despite striving to be one. He has no true motivation until he is met with the villain of our story. Our villain is the main character's bully and will keep trying to get the main character to believe that he is lame, that he won't amount to anything, and that his dreams are stupid. The villain of our story doesn't destroy cities, but other's self-esteem. Not just the main character's but the girlfriend too! This will motivate our main character's hero journey as he learns that those are all false and that is when he learns to stand up for himself and others against this bully.

The Princess

The princess is a character a sought-after person who the hero must "save" to complete their quest. Sometimes they are a lover that the hero is after, and other times a family member the hero must save. Although these characters can be passive, especially when they are women, modern-day has allowed room for more kick-buttery from these princess characters.

'Taken' (2008) is a movie about a man, Bryan Mills, saving his daughter Kim who got kidnapped by human traffickers in France. This movie's plot centers around the princess, Kim. Bryan does everything in his power with his "very specific set of skills" to rescue her before it is too late. She is the only thing that matters to him throughout the entire movie. He doesn't care about his or anyone else lives. He just wants his daughter back. She helps his hero journey by being his determination not to give up, despite his hard and violent challenge. He won't stop until she is saved.

This character archetype is what keeps the hero determined. What keeps them on their path. It would be so much easier to fall into the hands of the villain, but they must continue to work hard for the princess they have to save. The princess keeps the hero on their journey.

How Does this Apply?

Our main character actually imagines his crush as a princess, which is very fitting since she is our princess archetype! She is stuck in a very toxic relationship with her no-good jerk of a boyfriend who continues to bully the protagonist. Sure he could endure the endless bullying until he finally graduates and is free from it, but that would mean that he never gets the girl of his dreams and that she would still have to endure the wrath of her boyfriend for who-knows-how-long. This is what keeps the main character determined to grow into who wants to be and to fight for justice against the bully.

The Donor, The Dispatcher, and The False Hero

The Donor is an archetype described as someone who gives the hero a special item for the hero to succeed in their heroic duties. The Dispatcher is the one to shout the call to action towards the hero. The false hero can be either be seen as one to take credit for the good deeds of others despite being evil or a twist villain. All of these roles have been seen throughout varies media but aren't as common as the other roles, especially for a coming-of-age movie.

Cinna from the 'Hunger Games'(2012) films represents the Donor by providing Katnis and Peeta their costumes that got them noticed by the game sponsors who would then also become donors by giving the pair supplies they need within the games. Cinna also gives them clothing for the games and Cinna sneaks Katnis her pin from home within her outfit. This makes him important because he doesn't just provide supplies but hope for the hero.

The Mayor in 'Powerpuff Girls' (1998-2005) would always contact (via the phone) the Powerpuff Girls, who were the heroes of the entire show, to alert them of an attack and plead for them to save their city of townsville of evil doers. This makes him the Dispatcher becausing he is quite literally calling the girls to action. This makes him important because he is informing the girls of the problem/conflict and sending them out to solve it.

In 'Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal' (2011-2014) had a major plot twist with the character Ray actually being the villain Vector that the hero Yuma was fighting all along. Ray tricked Yuma into becoming best friends and grew a false bond with not just Yuma but with all of Yuma's friends. Little did the group know that Ray was Vector, one of the beings they vowed to destroy! This makes Ray a false hero because of his desecption of the hero to thinking he too is a hero only to turn around and be another villain, if not the villain. Not only that, but he took the credit of good deeds of others and denied any evil-doing accusations to further his deception to not just the other characters but to the audience as well.

How Does this Apply?

While reading about these roles, I've come to the conclusion that for my film these roles aren't as important as the previously mentioned roles. In fact, these archetypes can be merged in with other roles if they are used at all! I feel as though our story does not need a twist villain, but maybe the bully taking credit for something the nerd did. I don't see the need for a dispatcher at all. The Donor can be any character that gives a special item to the hero, even the villain himself.

However... now that I am thinking about it, the main character is obsessed with the fantasy world and writes a comic that is his life but within a fairytell narrative. All seven archetypes are seen within the fantasy genre, so perhaps, to represent that side of our main character we should then indeed have a fully story that has aspects representing each archetype, including these. Either way, these roles will not be placed within our opening, but I am beginning to lean into the idea that they should all be present for the entire story.