Joston Ramon Theney, Screenwriter, Author, Director, Producer: If you haven't seen
season seven [The Walking Dead], it starts with him on his knees because that's how the
season six ended with him on his knees.
Film Courage: How much punishment should we put our main character through?
Joston: I think that somebody described it best when they said what a story is
people chasing a character up a tree and throwing rocks at them
while they're trying to climb down. That's ultimately what a story is right?
I think that you should put them through as much punishment as they can weather and still
realistically want to pursue their goal and still realistically understand the stakes.
One of my favorite shows is The Walking Dead and there was a period in season
seven or eight (may have been season seven) and people kind of stopped watching. It went like this
and mainly it was due to how much punishment they put the main character through.
He had so much punishment heaped upon him that his only goal was not to receive more punishment,
that his people would receive no more punishment
and this was from a character who had been a world beater for six seasons and all of a sudden we're
watching him not only be beaten but to just be beaten to a point where the fight is beaten out
of them. I think people jumped off because that was the point that the punishment went too far.
That was the point where audience was like okay I’m tapping out. I can't do it anymore. I remember
there was an episode where he just stood there like it was just one locked off shot of him and
he just cried and the camera went to a wide shot and he's just completely alone and he's crying and
there's a guy who he just watched be killed that was from his community and the guy turns into a
zombie so it's even worse now he's at a freaking after he just witnessed this happen to the guy and
he could do nothing about it he had to turn around and be the person to through the brain to put
him out of his misery like I think I still kept watching of course because it's one of my favorite
shows but I can understand why people jumped off because at that point punishment went too far
so I think it's it's it has to be enough punishment where it does create the wound
that we're all looking for him to heal but it can't be so much that if it makes him forget
the goal the goal was not to res not to receive more punishment the goal was to
keep his people safe and get rid of all threats and now he's not trying to get
rid of the threat he's trying to live with the threat and he fears the threat
and I think that's too much for audiences to to deal with we have to constantly keep this guy
moving forward and working towards his goal while all the time realizing he could probably lose
he could probably lose but we'll root for him if he keeps pursuing his goal so it was the
fact that we saw the fight beaten out of him not the that not him being put through the fight well
he there was no fight he was being punished and punished and punished and punished it was it was
so have you seen this seasons if you haven't seen season seven it's it starts with him on his knees
because that's how the season six ended with him on his knees so it starts with him on his knees
and watching two of his friends and he could do nothing about it they're told if you move
we'll kill everybody but for now we're just gonna kill this one guy in front of you all
and they proceed to beat this guy's head in with a baseball bat in front of all his friends
and another guy can't take it anymore he gets up and hits the bad guy and the bad guy says
that's gonna cost you because now I'm gonna beat another guy head in and he beats another
guy's head in all the while the leader has to watch this happen and he can do nothing
he starts the season on his knees watching his friends die and there's nothing he can do and
then for the rest of that season he's met with even more punishment and more punishment and
the threat is always if you don't do what we say and you don't give us what we want
we'll show up and kill everybody don't forget that and it's like how many times can you see that and
how many times can you see that and the good guy not say that's it we got to come up with a plan
his only plan is to make sure there's not more punishment
you can't you can't do that to audiences they have to see the fight they have to see the
struggle they have to see you trying to win not being complacent with being proud beaten
would you say the more punishment we put our protagonists through the better the story is going
to be to a certain extent yes to a certain extent as long as we don't put them through too much
I think that we have to see I mean for my stories I love to
to to show the person show their wound and then show how they've begin to live with this wound by
accepting it as a truth even though it's a false truth and how their world is with that now this
person may not be down on their luck or anything but something has happened and this is told them
that this is the way you live life and there has to be something that forces them on their journey
when they start going on their journey they can't win every little
battle they gotta lose but they gotta see that what but I can see on the other side
of it if I just keep going because this these are the stakes and I can't allow myself to lose
they have to take enough punishment along the way where you you keep believing in them even
if they don't they don't really believe in themselves and then it has to get to a point
where it's a soul-crushing defeat like when they thought they won it's a soul-crushing defeat
and you got to watch them pick up the pieces and you got to fill you got to that's when
you circle the wagons and you're bringing together all the different people that are going to help
you build build the character back up and put them back on their their journey because now
they realize this is the worst that it can get this is the worst that this guy can do to me
but the stakes are still the stakes I still have to stop this thing from happening whatever it is
so they've absorbed all this punishment and they realize that's the worst that it can get
so this guy cannot hurt me any more than this only by them succeeding at their goal so now
I'm just going to go straight after them straight away now there's many different
ways of what you can do to get them to stop the bad guy or the bad guy succeeds or whatever but
at this point that's when the audience is behind them they receive enough punishment where
they have hopefully garnered the sympathy of the audience and the audience is behind them
so that when they lead them into this final battle the audience is behind them
on the horse behind him like oh and you're you're watching this person go in and save the day
now if you give them too much punishment I think the audience can bail because they're
just i've seen it happen they just bailed I don't think you can watch a person just lose
I don't think you can watch him just lose they have to have some win somewhere.
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