Characters and Archetypes

Characters. We all know that there are many archetypal characters that we are all familiar, i.e. the Hero and the Villain, who are the main driving force that progress the story, including supporting characters, i.e. the sidekick, the adviser/helper/mentor, the anti-hero, etc. We always see them in every visual culture in media entertainment within works of fiction and illustrations within comics, graphic novels, games and film, as quoted from TV Tropes on the topic of Archetype “(1) An archetype is a universal theme, story or character which is so fundamental that, regardless of how many times it is used (or misused), it never becomes stale, dated or Cliché.”

Here are small rough drawings I quickly made up for a villain (left) and an arc villain (right).

Both follow the typical villain archetype where the ‘final boss’ seeks dominance and power, is depicted as a ‘classic’ villain and being a representation of a particular sin that most villains often follow, such as Greed or Wrath, while the ‘arc’ villain, who is considered as a boss for certain amount of time, sets up the plot further which will conclude with the main villain.  This is to showcase that they both follow the ‘villain’ archetype, but they are broken down into sub archetypes within that main archetype.

It can be sometimes difficult for one were to illustrate the character’s persona unless, or until, it was given an origin story that will feed spoon the audience the information needed to understand what makes these characters who they are, especially if there’s more to it than just being a hero or the villain, like having certain attributes or characteristics that drives them to be that particular type of character, which usually ties heavily to the story, thus making them feel more grounded with their personas and motivations towards the audience.

This can be said for all, if not, most archetypal characters, as each archetypes bears several different traits from within, in other words, portrayals of the character role, as such examples quoted from TV tropes, the ‘Byronic Hero’ “(2) A very cerebral character; he broods over his struggles and beliefs. Some are portrayed with a suggestion of dark crimes or tragedies in their past.” And the other, the ‘Classic Anti Hero’ as “(3) A dashing, confident, stoic, intelligent, highly capable fighter and commander with few, if any, flaws and even fewer real weaknesses.” Both of these traits or portrayals are different, but they all follow the same principles of the character role of a Hero, usually driven and built upon from the story itself.

References

(1) Archetype, TV Tropes

(2) Byronic Hero, TV Tropes

(3) Classic Anti Hero, TV Tropes

Bibliography

TV Tropes, Archetype [Online] [Accessed: 16^th March 2015] Available from: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Archetype

TV Tropes, Byronic Hero [Online] [Accessed: 20^th March 2015] Available from: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ByronicHero

TV Tropes, Classic Anti Hero [Online] [Accessed: 20^th March 2015] Available from: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClassicalAntihero