CHARACTER BUILDING SHOWCASE: THE DEPLORABLE, THE LOVABLE, THE FATHER FIGURE.
Worldbuilding isn’t just about building the settings or the cultures of the world you’re populating. Character histories are important, and your character is going to have preexisting relationships prior to the start of your story. Those relationships shape your protagonist and therefore impact the plot, especially so in character-driven stories. Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2)is a character-driven plot (I would argue that most good narrative games are character-driven) that focuses on the player character, Arthur, and his relationship with the gang’s leader Dutch.
spoilers ahead
Dutch is a compelling, complicated character. You, the player, are given your first real insight to Dutch’s personality when he stops Micah from abusing/raping/murdering (who knows which one or if it’s all of the above) a woman. Dutch is presented as a gentleman gang leader, a criminal with a good heart that just wants to look after his people. He is charismatic and a smooth-talker.
He’s also a completely selfish cad, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
character creation
There are many ways writers develop characters, from spreadsheets to Buzzfeed-style questionnaires and everything in between. Developing a multifaceted character means understanding a couple of things that the writers for Dutch and RDR2.
Character interactions
How does this character make other characters feel?
How does this character’s actions impact other characters? (Large and small decisions)
Character Motivations (External)
What are their goals?
Large overarching goals
In-the-moment and short term goals
Character Core
How does your character view themself?
How do they wish to be perceived by others?
Character Struggles
How do the characters’ motivations and core desires conflict?
How do those motivations and desires line up?
Developing character struggles is hugely important for creating characters that feel real. People have internal conflicts. We have unrealistic or inflated views of ourselves, and we have hopes and aspirations of what we would like to be. Sometimes those conflict with reality in minor ways, other times they can be earth-shattering. These are important to keep in mind when building a character.
Dutch is an extremely conflicted character. At the start, he doesn’t appear to be. You, the player, are told that he is unhinged but I didn’t think he felt that way upon the first playthrough. His stress level felt understandable and made me doubt the narrative other characters were spinning. In my second playthrough, I can see the truth to what I’m told and how thing Dutch’s very smooth veneer is thin and cracked. He has strong anarchist beliefs, teaches self-reliance and self-determination, yet leads a gang where he expects complete loyalty and faith in his leadership. He expects everyone to pitch into the gang coffers, hunt for food, and bring supplies back to camp—a strong sense of social responsibility that is at odds with his underlying true desires. At the end of the day, everything about the camp and the gang is built to bolster Dutch’s self-image and ego. The two people who have been with Dutch longest, Arthur and Hosea, are two people constantly being needled and loyalty questioned because their faith isn’t blind loyalty. Eventually, it becomes the main point of contention within the game as Dutch’s veneer continues to crack.
Why is this important?
Because Dutch’s character is a slow burn. It is a gradual change and it is excellent. He is a villain who you don’t suspect, and you are able to become horrified by his actions and your part in his destructive spiral. It is often painfully obvious who the villain is going to be, and while there is a time and a place for such villains, it is always refreshing to give the reader (or player) a moment of disgust and revelation.
I wholeheartedly encourage playing RDR2 to grow as a writer (or, frankly, just for the sake of it).
-L.J.
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