Brilliant Character Post by Charlie Jane Anders

I love io9, but I especially love it when Charlie Jane posts. I have hung out with her in person a couple of times (I’ll always remember pie and WorldCon 09, Charlie Jane!), and she’s nothing short of brilliant. I was delighted to read her post this morning about characterization and the “F*** Yeah” moment. (I try to keep this blog clean, but that’s the title of the post. If work or kid situation doesn’t like you reading stuff like that, be warned the word is spelled out in the article.)

But most genre entertainment, and especially science fiction, revolves around a kind of heightened reality, and even the most dystopian or dark stories involve an element of escapism. (And we think escapism is a form of high art.) So most of us would rather identify with a hero who occasionally has a moment of pure s***-kicking splendor — rather than someone who accurately reflects our own “going to work and walking the dog” existences. Also, there’s an element of aspiration in identification.

(Aside- someone wrote to me, angry that I put down It’s A Wonderful Life in the Very Special Christmas Episode, saying that it was OK that Potter didn’t go down in the end, because that’s how it happens in real life. But that’s the very point. I live in a world where Dick Cheney is pretty much the equivalent of Potter, and he’s doing just fine. I don’t want to “escape” into that very same world. I want to see stories where the villain gets his. And yeah, I don’t get into politics often on this blog, but sometimes you gotta make a point.)

Charlie Jane illustrates several F***-Yeah moments, including my favorite scene from Babylon 5, embedded below. It’s what really makes you sit up and say, “OK, now I’m invested in this character. What amazing thing will they do next?” It’s the thing that makes them bigger than life, heroic, when they say or do things you would never, ever, have the courage (or even the idea) to – but they inspire you that maybe, someday, you could have that courage or ingenuity.

For some reason, the thing that pings in my mind is the moment in that horrible movie, The One, with Jet Li, when the hero discovers that even though the villain has exactly the same level of skill that he does, when he (hero) uses the gentle, internal martial art bagua, to counter the villain’s offensive style, that was my f*** yeah moment. I blame it partly on the fact that I was studying the internal martial arts bagua and Emperor’s Long Fist and tai chi at the time, and it was thrilling to recognize it in the otherwise stinky movie, but it was an awesome moment. (Yeah, I just spoiled a nine year old not very good movie. Sorry.)

I’ve said before that you have to make us care about your story and about the characters. We have to be invested. And admittedly, the f***-yeah moment comes much later in the story after you’re already invested, but it has to come at some point, or else we’ll get bored. You have to make us care about the character, yes, but we have to keep caring.

(Note: caring doesn’t always mean liking. I’ll cover that in another blog post.)