Shocking News - People Like Good Characters

no it's a well-known fact that if there's anyone I respect more than twitchy's trust and Safety Council it's today's mainstream entertainment journalists and nobody epitomizes this profession more than Scott Mendelsohn a man well known for his hard but fair and insightful articles on the movie industry and general air of authority and integrity Scott's not the kind of guy to shill for big movie studios write puff pieces to explain away the failure of objectively bad movies or criticize fandoms and audiences for being unhappy at the wholesale destruction of their childhood heroes yes I can definitely smell shine which brings me neatly along to the topic of today's video see Scott routes an article for Forbes recently dealing with the backlash against Luke Skywalker in the last Jedi and rather than dismissing such criticism as the unfunded temper tantrums of basement-dwelling man babies clinging pathetically to their feeding memories Scott does the unthinkable and acknowledges that maybe they have a points no way I mean he doesn't go totally off the map and suggest that the last Jedi might have been a bad movie or anything but even this tiny admission is pretty telling it's always funny watching a man trying to reconcile two completely contradictory bits of information without incurring the wrath of his corporate overlords but as much as I enjoy the car-crash of political ideology running headfirst into the brick wall of reality the point here is that this article actually brings up the interesting question of why certain characters are popular and others aren't I'm not going to read the whole thing because it's boring as [ __ ] and about 90% of it is Scott desperately trying not to offend Rian Johnson and Disney but the premise can best be summed up in the following paragraph if you listen to hollywood's in terms of how to craft new heroes and revamp existing ones audiences don't like the straight arrow boy escapes they prefer Han Solo to Luke Skywalker Jack Sparrow to Will Turner and Batman to Superman Luke Skywalker and Superman are often used as templates for the kind of Dudley do-right hero that filmmakers claimed to avoid because audiences allegedly can't relate to them but recent history shows the fallacy of that's arguments so basically Hollywood thinks the traditional wholesome hero isn't popular anymore but they keep making lots of money at the box office so maybe they haven't gone out of fashion after all the thing that Scott struggles to explain is the popularity of less conventional heroes like Tony Stark han Solo Jack Sparrow Bruce Wayne and Walter White's how strange it's almost as if there's something else that ties all these characters together something more fundamental than the archetype that Scott clumsily tries to pitch and hold them into he's correctly identified the problem and he comes so close to something that could be considered a valid conclusion but is instinct to shill for Disney at all costs prevents them from taking that final step into actual understanding truly you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink unless you force a [ __ ] hose pipe down his throat well worry not because the drinkers here with hose pipe in hand to condense this nonsense I feel safe along the thing that all of these different characters have in common is that they're all extremely well written their actions and decisions are logically consistent with their personalities they're interesting and nuanced played by competent actors that are well suited to the role and understand the character they're playing equally important they're treated with respect by their writers Tony Stark for example is a brilliant but flawed man whose ability to invent new technology and think fast to get himself out of difficult situations is matched by his ego and arrogance his reluctance to cooperate with others and his belief that he can fix anything if he applies his mind so it's even in the most dire of situations he always has some witty comeback or snarky put-down to keep his enemies off-balance have you been juicing a little fat burning cocktail not a great plan yeah he makes mistakes and often pays a high price for them but the script never mocks him belittles him disrespects him or has him act completely out of character just to fit the requirements of the story Steve Rogers starts out as a scrawny little kid whose lack of size and strength have held him back his whole life but instead of becoming bitter and envious he's developed into a scrappy and determined little fighter again the script treats his character with respect helping you to empathize with his struggle with like mocking or pitying him and when he gets the chance to become something more it really feels like he deserves it it's also worth noting that the character didn't really take off until Winter Soldier introduced new depth and complexity to his outlook forcing him to question the cause he was fighting for in this case Steve's old-fashioned belief in fairness and personal liberty puts him in opposition to an increasingly sinister an authoritarian shield at the other end of the character skill walks away is one of the greatest examples of character development in modern entertainments he starts out as a mild-mannered and decent man that's been let down and taken advantage of his whole life when he's given a terminal diagnosis he's reluctantly drawn into a world of crime and murder forced to resort to increasingly ruthless and morally reprehensible acts to protect his hard-won gains unfortunately his newfound power and respect starts to go to his head ultimately warping him into something completely unrecognizable from the man he once was I could go on and on about this but the point is that each of these characters became popular not because of what they were but how they were written and portrayed there were each well developed well written and well acted an audience responded to those things most fundamental of all their writers respected them which is the first and most vital step towards making the audience respect them because believe it or not audiences aren't as dumb as modern Hollywood might think yeah they can't always articulate why they like a certain character or how smart writing can convey a lot of information in a short time or make complex character development seem easy or how a good script can depict a flawed person that makes mistakes while still maintaining respect for them but they know it when they see it and more important they know when it's missing which brings me back around to Luke Skywalker the subject of this article see describing Luke from the original trilogy as a glorified Boy Scout is ridiculously reductive and patronizing towards both the character and the reader which is pretty much what you'd expect from modern clickbait journalism so whatever the reality is that Luke is a classic example of the reluctant hero who gets swept off on a journey a hero's journey if you will know hey when he starts so he's young and idealistic and inexperienced just the farm boy live in a sheltered life for the ass end of nowhere who harbors romantic notions of adventure and excitements his first steps are into the wider world our tentative and faltering he makes mistakes lacks the knowledge needed to navigate a dangerous world and gets himself into situations he can't handle and it takes the guidance of an older and wiser mentor to get him started on the right path the first time he gets into a fight or operates a gun turret or holds a lightsaber or flies an x-wing he's kind of clumsy and awkward and he has to learn fast to stay alive growing in skill and confidence along the way his actions throughout the movie are entirely consistent with what we know about his personality and backgrounds by the second film he started to expand his powers but his impetuous nature an emotional attachment to his friends causes him to rush into a fight he isn't ready for and he pays a heavy price for his mistake but by the final film he's learned to temper his power with wisdom compassion and restraints ensure he's completed the hero's journey and every stage of that journey the script manages to stay respectful to his character it never has him do stupid [ __ ] for a quick laugh or makes him weaken and capable just to elevate another character or hasn't make choices that are totally inconsistent with everything he's done before just to fit the demands of the story people bonded with Luke because fundamentally he was a well-written character played by a good actor who went on an interesting and exciting journey ultimately becoming a stronger and wiser man as a results a character whose rates are very much respected and cared for him so as you can imagine it was a bit of a kick in the nuts to see him living as a broken defeated bitter cynical loser in the last Jedi a man whose entire personality in worldview has been altered to fit the needs of the story massaged the ego of the director and advanced the political ideology of the producer it was pretty clear that the bond of respect between rights are and character no longer existed unless that character happens to have a vagina of course and if the writer doesn't respect the character he's working with then why should the audience looks mistakes in the last Jedi were no longer portrayed as understandable natural flaws in an otherwise good man instead they came across as a cynical and mean-spirited attempt to denigrate humiliate and minimize the once popular character in order to elevate his inferior replacements an angry plan in other words people could tell that Disney didn't respect Luke Skywalker and they didn't like it if he wants another example you need to look no further than jean-luc Picard who was once a smart cultured and highly capable commander the audience is respected and liked then they morphed him into a pathetic clueless submissive old man who spends his days getting yelled at and apologizing to everyone he was no longer consistent with who he was before and this new personality came across as a very obvious and contrived attempt to manipulate the audience the point I'm making here is that the popularity of a protagonist has got nothing to do with the mold you try to fit them into there is not and never has been some magical archetype that's guaranteed to make your character popular the hero of your story can be selfish or altruistic smart or stupid cynical or idealistic a lone wolf or a team player a defender of the law or a breaker of it an average Joe or a superhuman they could be any of these things or none of them because none of that really matters what matters is that whatever they are they're well-written interesting and complex they go on to satisfy an emotional journey they stay true to themselves and the bond of respect between character and writer remains solids do these things and your character stands a good chance of being well-received do it knots and the drinker will be paying you a little visits anyway that's all I've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 925,324

Keywords: The Last Jedi, Star Wars, Luke Skywalker, Lucasfilm, Rian Johnson, Scott Mendelson, Forbes, revoew, review, Han Solo, Leia

Id: dtmS_GVD530

Length: 11min 45sec (705 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Notalent13]

Critical Drinker goes over how what makes a character great is that they are written well and have a well written arc, rather than fall into specific character archetypes. Also how Disney's disrespect of old fan favorites and lazy development of new characters is what ruined their Star Wars films.