a short thought on passive characters
Mar. 6th, 2014 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslutBack in the day when I was at the beginning of my writing career and still attending a lot of workshops, I was often criticized for having passive characters. Characters who didn't do enough; they were just buffeted by circumstance.
It was (and is) a fair comment. I will also note that the characters who received this criticism most sharply were all female.
For the record, I mostly ignored this sort of critique except to be annoyed by it. But it nags at me once in a while.
I was thinking about this the other day when contemplating The Lion King.
I mean, talk about a character who just kind of goes with the flow. Who has things happen to him rather than doing things. At least for 90% of the movie! At the very end he does finally take some decisive action, and I guess you can argue that this is his growth arc completed. Nonetheless. I'm just noting that it must be more complicated than "passive characters, ew." I think I've pretty clearly indicated what I think is really going on. Feel free to discuss.
It was (and is) a fair comment. I will also note that the characters who received this criticism most sharply were all female.
For the record, I mostly ignored this sort of critique except to be annoyed by it. But it nags at me once in a while.
I was thinking about this the other day when contemplating The Lion King.
I mean, talk about a character who just kind of goes with the flow. Who has things happen to him rather than doing things. At least for 90% of the movie! At the very end he does finally take some decisive action, and I guess you can argue that this is his growth arc completed. Nonetheless. I'm just noting that it must be more complicated than "passive characters, ew." I think I've pretty clearly indicated what I think is really going on. Feel free to discuss.
