Character Archetypes

archetypes

How many wheels?

How many legs?

Whowears this?

Are these answers always true?

Archetype

an original model; a prototype.

Carl Jung

Sigmund Freud

(in Jungian psychology) a primitive mental image inherited from man's earliest ancestors, and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious.

recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, etc

In which game are there 72,084 different outcomes after two moves each?

What moves can each one do?

What are some common, recurring types of characters?

Archetypal characters

What do the following characters have in common?

The old man wizard

Old
Wise

Larger world
Often male

Removed so the hero must act alone

Can I teach this boy/girl?

Other old man wizards?

handsome

Can I slay the dragon?

Can you think of other heroes?

Name five female heroes

How is this hero different?

The dark hero

dangerous

dark past

action

Will I do the right thing?

Who else is a dark hero?

There is nothing dark about this next archetype

sidekick

Needs saving

Spot the sidekick

Can you think of other sidekicks?

Which type?

Love interest

young
female

attractive

Needs saving

Let’s find another archetype

The child

innocent

Needs protecting

Mostly actual children

And another

She is a witch, but that’s not her real character

Mother

Nurturing

Caring

Selfless

Beautiful but rarely sexual

This is a witch of a different colour

Tricky

Female
Destructive

Sometimes the step mother
Can be magical, or not

What do these men do?

The
Destroyer

Verbal

Older
Strong

What defines these characters?

The Trickster or Deceiver

Mischievous

Underhanded

Double agent

Let’s go archetype spotting

Now let’s look for all the archetypes in these stories

Mix and match
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bixentro/338430687/

Even simple hybrids give you a total of 121 possible characters

Hero/old-man wizard

Love-interest/destroyer

Innocent/destroyer

Here endeth the lesson

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Character Archetypes

by Mark O'Meara on Jan 13, 2010

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Character Archetypes — Presentation Transcript