Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Writing Your Protagonist: The Thinking Man




In more recent years, there's been blurring of the lines, but this is the sort of reveal a story with a Thinking Man protagonist builds towards- and as such it's the sort of thing the audience expects when you feature such a protagonist in your story. Do not disappoint; the strength of the reveal will make or break your story. As seen here in this classic Charlie Chan film at 1:00:10, you get the climax where the Thinking Man protagonist brings it all together- at which point you will see the foreshadowed elements in retrospect.


Competing Thinking Men as Protagonist and Antagonist, properly executed, produce brilliant storytelling via their Duel of Wits- each trying to outsmart the other in order to adapt and overcome the opposition. In popular media, you won't find a better example than Yang Wen-Li and Reinhard von Lohengramm from Legend of the Galactic Heroes:

This is different in its execution, but it also allows contrasting personae to facilitate both plot advancement as well as character definition and development. Yang is cerebral, but casual and modest to a fault; Reinhard is imperious, impatient, and far more ruthless than Yang. Yang's the better reader of character of the two, and it allows him to upset Reinhard time and again- despite him being infamous for being useless below the neck. (A true non-action guy he is, whereas Reinhard has some chops as a Fighting-Man. Some.)


It's not as broadly applicable as the Fighting-Man, but it's pretty broad and with the right support and execution you can do a lot with it. You'll find this a lot in Miyazaki films, where the (often female) protagonist has to rely on wits and charm to win the day, so there's your example of Little Thinking Boys and Girls. (Most famous being the Potter kids.) Done right, you get some of the best Doctors in Doctor Who; done wrong, you get the worst. Just remember this: the nature of how the protagonist deals with the conflict dictates the archetype you employs. (Never send Encyclopedia Brown to do The Shadow's job.)

1 comment:

  1. My archetype for "dueling Thinking-Men" is Light Yagami and L from the Death Note anime.