Humans are complex, inconsistent, and cursed beings. Depending on any given sequence of events, different tones may come out of a person. The faithful priest may in the next moment be covered in the blood of saints, the homeless drunkard may in the next sentence disprove the words of a professor, and a virgin may become the world's greatest prostitute. Often what we define as ourselves are just roles; these roles help us to configure the world around us, give us obligations, and some sort of disfigured identity. We can stay strapped into a flat character mold, or traverse through a myriad of masks... some masks may be more fitting than others, but what is truly underneath the mask?
The same things are in all of us: brokenness, heartache, shame, joy, worry, poverty, blame, and mercy. Character isn't just a role. Character goes into the eidos. It's when we put the materialistic masks we call roles over ourselves that the true identities of who we are become shadows, copies of our true potential.
My greatest love for writing is strong characterization. A story will resonate forever in my mind and heart when the characters are brilliance beyond years. It's their choices that fascinate me. Whether a character is moving through tragedy or comedy, it's the choices that define them, not the world around them, except without that world there are no boundaries for characters to develop a sense of decision making.
I played video games growing up, and one of my favorites was the American Super Nintendo version of Final Fantasy III. One of the main female protagonists, Celes is revealed through a series of sequences on the true character of her nobility. At the beginning, she is in the hands of a global company bent on enslaving a magical race, but then she becomes the prisoner, the traitor, the heroine, and even an opera star. Her decisions take her through some wild places; she even comes close to the point of suicide. And yet still, it's through her decisions that people are able to group together and overthrow a powerful world dictator; in fact, he didn't just conquer the world, he destroyed it. He won, but eventually out of anarchy rose people hungry for the original home they had.
It's not the trends, quirks, and avant-garde styles that bring a character to life. If those things take precedence over the character themselves, it's like a present finely wrapped, but with nothing inside. The aesthetics are the aroma of art. Those gimmicks from chewing bubble gum, wearing plaid socks, comb-overs, red cowboy boots, and the like speak of other things that are much deeper than the surface. A true character does not allow a role to define them or a series of sequences, a job, education, and the other goods. A true character comes from navigating through these hurdles, by using them to get to the core of what matters most. They have innate qualities that implore them to fight for the cause of mercy, justice, love, death, beauty, and so much more. A flat character is someone who distracts themselves with the hurdles rather than using those hurdles to do the one thing we truly are: alive.
Sure, some business nuts are going to say this is ridiculous. "You have to have a job to make money. To put food on the table. To keep the bills paid." What if that job turns against you? What if as a woman your whole life you are raised to have children, but either your body won't allow it or the children you have end up destroying you? Men are not just jobs and women are not just sex objects and baby holders. When we start classifying ourselves this way, we demean ourselves. Family and work are blessings; if we allow them to cloak ourselves, define our entities, and so forth -- midlife crisis will be imminent, and mid-life crisis can lead to fatality, divorce, impulsive decision making, and depression of the worst kind.
The most important part about life is life. Paradise is now, so I implore each person to live exactly how they would if they were to extend into eternity. Are you happy with the choices you are making? Is this who you would want to be in a world of perfect ideals? What are you doing to transform the world to reach closer to eternity? The characters that last in our minds are not the ones who end at "happily ever after" in a realm of "There is nothing left within this character's life that is worth noting, for we have already told you the greatest portion of all." Good characterization has us constantly thinking about what will they do next, why isn't there more written about them, and who were they before it all began.
Have you ever listened to music where it is impossible to hold it in one genre? Are those not some of the most inviting and compelling pieces of all? For they transcend the mold.
Going back to the word eidos that I used earlier: eidos is the highest plain of reality according to Plato, it transcends the materialistic world. The material world is the flesh, the conveyor of the concepts. All characters are vectors; they have direction with the concepts they hold. When two concepts collide, the stronger of the two prevails.
It takes great strength to build character whether to the highest peak of heroism or villianism. Only one of great character can fend off another of great character.
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