Flawed

Being sick with the swine flu this week has given me extra time for movie watching, something I haven't taken the time to do in awhile with work and writing.

While I enjoy movies for the sake of watching, my analytical brain was on overdrive for some reason and I started noticing trends and patterns in some of the most popular movies and stories. Then I wondered why that was.

Just this afternoon, Superman was saving the world again. Superman is . . . well, he's not human, he's nearly perfect physically, and yet . . . yet he's not perfect. He's flawed. Not as a character, mind you, but as an individual. For a character, he's exactly what one wants and needs. Someone strong, good looking, a good person trying to right the world's wrongs. But he is flawed.

Around Lois, he's a complete dork, at least in the persona of Clark Kent. He acts utterly human and makes the same mistakes that people have made for centuries when dealing with members of the opposite sex. And then there's that whole kryptonite thing. A little stone can debilitate a super-human power and kill a superman.

I'm coming to see that it is the flaws and not necessarily the strengths that make a character, well, strong in a story. Take, for instance, Luke Skywalker. (As you're probably noting, I was really having a movie marathon week.) He is a headstrong kid who wants to save the world. And yet for all his youthful idealism, he has the same weakness as his father—hate. It is what nearly undoes him, and yet that tension, that internal conflict is what makes the story interesting and relatable.

People want to see weakness in their favorite characters because it makes them human and makes them like us. It's an unconscious liking, but it has an effect on the way we tell stories.

Name for me a character from a truly popular movie who doesn't have flaws. Okay, go. Really, start naming them. Do you have one yet? No?

There have been stories with characters who are practically perfect in every way, but it's hard to name one from a popular book or movie. It's because those characters aren't like the rest of humanity—frail and flawed. People don't want to relate to someone who is too perfect. First, it's unrealistic, but second, it's just boring. Even Achilles had his heel.

As readers and viewers, we want to see someone who is flawed overcome their weakness because that means that we, as flawed individuals can overcome our weaknesses too.

It's making me wonder if my characters are weak enough to be strong. How about yours? Are you making them too perfect and therefore unrelatable?