45 Master Characters (59 page)

A lover may leave him because of his cold demeanor.

He may be betrayed but chooses to ignore it as if it doesn't matter, or he seeks revenge.

This sets up the stage for his transformation or rebellion in the end. How set in his ways is he? How closed is his mind to changing? What will it take to open that mind?

Preparing for the Journey

Another part of this stage is the preparation for the journey. Now that he has chosen the outer journey he'll have many trials and obstacles to overcome. He'll meet them with resistance and with the hope of conquering them. He gathers the tools he thinks he'll need to accomplish this — guns, money, disguises, expertise. These tools mean survival and victory to him. Nothing will stop him now.

Armed with these weapons the hero feels confident, but he can't see what lies too far ahead of him; faith in his abilities keeps him going. Essentially it's his courage and willingness to grow that will make him successful, but he doesn't realize this yet.

A Mentor or Magi may show up with all the information the hero needs, but the hero must find his own way of doing things. He's the only one putting his neck on the line, and he can't totally rely on the way of others.

In his mind he has a list of people he thinks he can call on if he needs assistance. There may be some characters he trusts. He may have a close friend he wants to share the journey with. What fun is it to succeed if there's no one there to see it?

On the other hand, he may be forced to work with other characters, which happens in many cop films where the lone cop wants to keep working alone but his boss forces him to take a partner.

Examples of Stage 5

Gilgamesh
translated by Maureen Kovacs

Gilgamesh meets the goddess Innana after she has gone on her descent. She invites him to “marry” her to join with her — a metaphor for him taking the descent as she did. He refuses her, and the two become enemies. She sends the bull of heaven to kill him — after all, he went into nature, the territory of the Goddess, and slayed her trees. He refuses her and the descent to wholeness. He doesn't want to change his ways. Instead he gathers special weapons and sets out on his new journey.

Star Wars

Princess Leia shows Luke how strong and tough a woman can be as she helps them escape down a garbage shoot. When he first met her he seemed to be taken aback, as if he hadn't met many women on his planet. She is the “feminine” to him. She gives him strength and shows him the way as if she's been through it before.

Three Kings

Archie allows refugees to jump into the back of the truck. He was forced into a shooting match with Sadam's soldiers, and he can't just leave the people there to die now. He still doesn't care about the people as much as his pride. His life isn't in danger and the gold isn't in danger so he'll help the people to escape and show Sadam's soldiers who's the boss at the same time. He won't think too much about helping the people beyond that.

His truck is bombed, and a group of rebels help him and his men escape. They later ask Archie for help but he's unwilling to do any more.

Moby Dick
by Herman Melville

Several times Captain Ahab is asked to give up his quest and examine his motives, but he won't take a look at what he's doing. He doesn't want to see himself as he really is. He doesn't want to face his rage; he just wants to blindly act it out.

Later, he meets with the ship
Rachel
. The captain begs Ahab to help him find his lost boat, which holds the captain's son. Ahab refuses, going against one of the codes of conduct and decency between captains. He refuses to help another.

Gender-Bending:
The Long Kiss Goodnight

Charly won't face her old self (Samantha) now that she has regained her assassin identity. She changes her hair color and makeup and takes a shower. She's trying to wash the old identity away.

She tries to seduce Mitch, but he refuses because he knows she's only trying to bury Samantha the schoolteacher. He knows she wants to forget about her little girl back home. He wants her to face herself, but she isn't ready yet.

Here the hero is invited down the feminine journey, but he refuses it. Come up with different ways to show his refusal. Is the woman in his life a metaphor for his feminine side? How does he treat her?

This is the best stage to hint at whether he'll accept transformation in the end and grow or be rebellious.

The villain can help push him on an outward goal to rescue what he cares about.

Stage 6: Trials

John continues to climb. The winds kick up. He can't breathe. The moon hides behind the clouds and darkness surrounds him. Another man has passed him and falls right in his path. John keeps moving forward, searching for a place to rest. He trips over the fallen man, hits his head and loses his water bottle.

In this stage the hero faces more obstacles to his goal. He may think he's overcoming all of them with ease and may expect it to be easy to defeat the villain, but he's wrong. No matter how successful he is in this stage it won't stop him from facing his worst fear in the next stage.

By facing his fears and overcoming obstacles, he's given another taste of success, which will fuel him and keep him reaching for his goal. If you want your hero to change in the next act, you need to gradually change his mind throughout this stage. Give him lots of reasons to change. Push him into that change.

Think of the hero in
Three Kings
. He doesn't just see poor women and children fighting for milk and change his whole outlook on life. He also sees soldiers stealing what little food they do have. He sees soldiers torture an innocent man, kill an innocent mother and harm a child. This is still only the beginning of his transformation.

Obstacles can be:

Internal struggles and moral issues he has to face, like killing one to save the many, letting the villain get away to save someone, facing his own self-doubt or overcoming his own pride.

External struggles that leave him exhausted — racing against time, physical ordeals.

Mind games played on him by the villain. He may have to face his fears.

A supporting character who comes in and messes things up for him.