I don’t put a lot of stock in Rotten Tomatoes scores, but I do think it’s impressive that
last year Paddington 2, a movie about a lovable bear living in London trying to buy his mother
a birthday present, broke a pretty substantial record.
The film has a 100% Fresh rating after nearly 200 reviews, more than any other film to hit
that milestone.
It’s predecessor, underperformed with a merely 98% rating.
Have you no heart Goeffrey Macnab!
Suffice it to say, both movies are as close as you can get to universal acclaim, and they
manage this despite the fact that they break the first rule most writers will learn, that
being that: the main character must have a character arc.
From the moment he is introduced, to the final shot of the sequel, Paddington is kind, compassionate,
and earnest.
He always looks for the best in people and he does not change at all.
Is that a problem?
Is the movie somehow lesser because the main character lacks an arc?
Of course not.
But it *did* make me want to know:
“Why does *not* having a character arc work for this movie, and
what kinds of stories are actually better because the main character never changes?”
[Music by Epidemic Sound--link in description]
In her book “Creating Character Arcs,” K.M. Weiland looks at three kinds of character journeys:
The positive change,
the negative change,
aaaand
aaaand the flat arc.
Today, I want to look at three features of the flat arc—
—how it handles theme, setting, and supporting characters—
—to figure out why these stories are still compelling.
[More music by Epidemic Sound]
[More music by Epidemic Sound] [almost like it's a new section of the video]
But to understand the flat arc, I need to talk briefly about the more common character arc:
the positive change—and an element of these kinds of stories Weiland calls
The Lie The Character Believes.
The most common format for a story is that you start with a character who believes a
lie about themselves or about the world.
In Inside Out, for instance, Joy believes that the only emotion that is valuable is
...
...well...
...joy.
This causes her to act in a patronizing way towards the other characters, especially Sadness.
And it’s her belief in this lie that nearly causes the destruction of her entire world.
The /story/ acts as a crucible to change the main character’s belief in their lie,
and their /arc/ is about embracing a new truth.
The theme of the story is visible in the difference between the two.
Joy learns the value of sadness in Inside Out, and that’s the theme of the movie.
I recommend checking out Michael Tucker’s video about Logan and Children over on Lessons
From the Screenplay for a more in-depth analysis of The Lie The Character Believes.
The difference with a flat arc is that the character begins the story believing in a
specific truth.
Paddington believes you can always find the good in people.
Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games is willing to risk her life for her family and believes
the government is evil.
In Back to the Future, Marty McFly believes that you should stand up for yourself against
bullies.
In Gladiator, Maximus believes that Rome should be a republic and that it is a light in a dark world.
My favourite example of this is the grossly under appreciated 2009 comedy staring Jay
Baruchel, The Trotsky, which is about a high school student who thinks he is the reincarnation
of Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky and who leads a movement to create a student union
at his high school. "My own wife who brings a picnic for Stalin over here who wants to destroy my business!" "I have nothing but contempt for Stalin as you well know!"
None of those characters have character arcs.
They begin and end the story in different places, but when it comes to their fundamental
beliefs, they remain unchanged.
For instance, a key line in Gladiator is when Commodus sums up Maximus’ tumultuous life:
“A general who became a slave.
The slave who became a gladiator.
The gladiator who defied an emperor.
Striking story!”
Despite his position in society constantly changing, Maximus is still the same person
at heart.
The themes of these stories are often more overt than in positive change stories, because
the protagonist believes in the theme from the start.
This is in contrast to the story world surrounding the main character.
The protagonists of Flat Arc stories will find themselves stuck in a society that they
are fundamentally at odds with.
That’s because, while they don’t believe the Lie, almost everyone around them does.
Paddington finds himself in opposition with people who are unfriendly and distrustful
of strangers.
Katniss is disgusted by the excess and injustice of the capital.
Marty’s father is a coward, and it’s ruining the McFly family’s life.
Maximus is enslaved in an unjust world ruled by an immoral dictator.
And every student Jay Baruchel meets is apathetic about politics.
In each of these cases, the world is essentially trying to trick, tempt, or gaslight the protagonist
into believing in the lie.
And while they can sometimes doubt themselves or what the truth is…
What possible difference can I make?
…in the end, they never give up on trying to reform the world around them. And this
leads us to the most part element of the flat arc: the supporting characters.
You see, while the main character’s don’t change, the supporting characters do.
This is what actually made me notice this in the Paddington movies in the first place,
because a ridiculous number of character surrounding Paddington have character arcs and all of
them are explicitly the result of Paddington’s angelic influence.
In the first film, Mr. Brown becomes more accepting of strangers, and by the second
film, Paddington has made his neighborhood a much happier place.
Even when he is sent to prison, he transforms his surroundings into a paradise, making every
single person there a better, kinder version of themselves, especially the abrasive prison
chef, Knuckles.
In the other movies we’re looking at, the protagonists efforts are evident in how they
change the story world.
Katniss inspires people to rise up against the government.
Maximus inspires people to rise up against the government.
And in the Trotsky, Jay Baruchel inspires students to take politics seriously.
God, I love that movie.
But their influence is also evident in how they change key supporting characters who
are typically allies.
For instance, Maximus’s moral integrity changes the amoral profiteer, Proximo, into
a man willing to die for a cause.
Are you in danger of becoming a good man?
Katniss’ actions cause Effie, among others, to realize the mistakes of the government.
And Marty teaches his father how to stand up for himself in 1955, which radically transforms
Marty’s 1985 reality for the better.
And it's the fact that these supporting characters have character arcs
that satisfies our need as an audience to witness some kind of change during the story.
Now if you’re thinking of writing this kind of story, it really isn’t all that different
from the positive change arc that we’re used to.
The only thing that has changed is the perspective.
Most stories have a character who does not change their opinion when it comes to the
central truth vs lie of the story.
These are often the mentor figures, but it can be any kind of character.
What matters is that they are the catalyst that changes the protagonist's mind.
They’re the reason a protagonist has a character arc.
Weiland calls this the “Impact Character.”
The difference is that in movies like Paddington, the Hunger Games, Back to the Future, Gladiator
and the Trotsky, the films are actually ABOUT the Impact Character.
You could easily rewrite them to be about the characters who have arcs instead.
So the general advice of “Your character needs a character arc” is sound for a certain
kind of story, but there is a whole other tradition of storytelling out there where
the characters do not change that can be just as compelling.
It seems to work particularly well for characters who are politically-minded, characters who
are rebels.
And these kinds of stories are important.
One of the reasons we enjoy stories is that they reassure us that we can change.
But movies with flat arcs assure us of something else: that we can change the world around
us without sacrificing our beliefs.
These are stories about good people, inspirational heroes, who spend their lives spreading a
positive message in the hopes of radically transforming the people around them and the
world at large for the better.
So yeah, in conclusion, that’s how you should write a Superman movie!
Now while these characters don’t have arcs, they ARE still constantly trying to learn
new skills.
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Try the course by Simon Van Booy on building a writing habit if you’re having trouble
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Thanks for watching this video, and a big thank you to my patrons for supporting this
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Keep writing everyone!