I haven’t officially made a study of archetypes. What this is, is – heros. Your hero character. Let’s analyze some.
Jack Ryan (Clancy) – unwilling hero. Pushed into it when someone tries to kidnap the Princess of Wales in front of him. He then ends up getting into the CIA… and the world finds itself with a man who finds himself having to take an active role in all kinds of international drama.
The Man with No Name (Grimaldi/spaghetti westerns) – Can’t help but get involved. Tecnically, The Man with No Name has a name – it’s Joe Banco, also known as Blondie. He tends to try to keep to himself, but he cannot stand to see the strong bully the weak.
Frodo Baggins – tragic hero. He’s going to do what’s right, no matter what.
Luke Skywalker – wide eyed innocent kid who wants to do something, be something – and he finds himself on the other side, fighting with the Rebellion. He transforms from nerdy kid, to beaten skeptic, to Jedi Warrior.
Matthew Carpenter – (my character) the shorter Clint Eastwood. Former law enforcement, formerly a Karate competitor. Now just cold and trying to make it through the day, not reflecting on how lonely his life is. His assumption is, nobody else is going to do something, so… do something.
Edward Scissorhands – the outsider. He knows he’s a toy, but he wants to love. A tragic character, he loves, and knows he will have to love from afar.
Dirty Harry Callahan – Bitterness personified. He seems to be the only person in the world concerned with the rights of the victims. And his frustration levels with those who prey on the weak and those who keep telling him he can’t do this and that are roughly the same.
So, there’s a group of different heros. The right hero drives a story. I mean, Dirty Harry and Paul Kersey. Both of them react precisely the same – someone breaks the law, someone gets shot. But the essentail difference between Kersey and Dirty Harry drive the story. Both movies came out around the same time, both spawned franchises, both were hugely successful
you could go an entire career writing essentially the same story, and putting a different hero in it. It drives the story.
