Perfect heroes are boring. Yeah. I said it.If a character has no flaws, is always good, never stumbles even a little, then where is the conflict? Where is the growth? Perfection leaves us nowhere to go.Also, no one is ever totally perfect, so unless you’re going for satire, this character is not going to feel real, either.Audiences might initially be drawn to a protagonist who always makes the right choices, but these characters can fall flat fast. The heroes we remember will fail (sometimes a lot). Sometimes they’re rude. Sometimes they have a fall from grace, which gives them somewhere to climb back up to. Even Superman is faced with tough choices, and sometimes he makes the wrong one.Why Flawed Heroes WorkFlawed heroes remind us of ourselves.Research in narrative psychology suggests that flawed characters serve a cathartic function. They allow audiences to explore moral struggles vicariously. Perfect characters exist in a place we might admire, but we aren’t really going to relate to them. But imagine a hero who struggles with addiction, acts out of selfishness, or carries guilt. That’s relatable! We've all made decisions we regret or been in a situation we can’t control. A flawed hero's journey becomes our journey. Suddenly, we’re much more invested.Flawed heroes also create better storytelling opportunities. As we’ve already pointed out, a perfect character is already at a pinnacle, and there’s nowhere to go from there. Unless you’re tearing them down, then it’s interesting again.Give a hero shortcomings, and you get dramatic tension,...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday