Force of Nature Characters in fiction: How to get them right, what defines them and Examples of various kinds

I decided to do a series of more focused posts without slipping into tangents. It'd be a good exercise for me as habitually end up writing way more than what I expect to write. This is actually my second attempt for the day. Here is my first attempt: https://steemit.com/steem/@vimukthi/against-the-price-feed-bias-why-sbd-is-worth-more-than-bitcoin-why-sbd-should-be-left-untouched-interview-with-dan At least I sort of stayed within a single focused area and it's still better than expanding an introductory paragraph into philosophical/psychological post about Cartoons.

Today's topic for me is Force of Nature Characters

This is actually my favorite type of characters. Its also the type I connect with most. Why? It's because they tend to be about an idea. I connect with ideas very well. I also have bit of a thing for meta-fiction. Speaking of that, please check out https://steemit.com/entertainment/@d-zero/watchmen-2009-review-the-perfect-comic-book-movie-from-zack-snyder-who-could-be-the-stanley-kubrick-of-our-generation

Actually most force of nature characters ends up being villains or at least antagonists (generally towards he chaotic neutral type) because most people don't know how to properly write them. Even when they are written well, most audiences may have trouble connecting with them. For an example think about Howard Roark from The Fountainhead or John Galt from Atlas Shrugged are excellent examples of well written Force of nature hero. Much more mild example of a force of nature character would be Optimus Prime from Transformers. It's actually a great example of going from normal protagonist (as Orion Pax) to a force of nature (Prime) and completing one's character development. After becoming force of nature, there isn't much of a character arc. That doesn't mean the character always come across as some alien/godlike creature. Eren Yeager is an excellent example.

I'd actually go as far as to say than a large portion of the success of Attack on Titan (and why I love it) and the excellent pacing is due to the fact that most of the primary characters of AoT is either force of nature or semi-force of nature. The thing about force of nature characters is that they are INDIVIDUALS unaffected by the collective. That's one of the reasons most of the well written force of nature characters and their writers come across as polarizing figures. My favorite examples would be Gen Urobuchi and the greatest thing ever to happen to live action television AKA Steven Moffat (+Mark Gatiss)

Sometimes the force of nature heroes end up getting less screen time. My favorite AoT character Erwin Smith is a perfect example of this. Kaizuka Inaho was a poorly received force of nature character from ΛLDNOΛH.ZERO which I reviewed and the primary complain was that it's someone who should be a supporting character and not the protagonist.

Defining Traits

First thing you need to understand is that force of nature character do not come out of circumstance or outside forces. They are the most individualistic kind of characters. They may transform into a force of nature because of an incident/situation. But after that point it is the principles/ goals/ objectives/ philosophy that guide them. For an example Makishima Shougo is a chaotic neutral character that brought down the greatest country/civilization at that futuristic time because he wanted to live in an ordinary way in an ordinary world instead of a superficial mechanized one. It was merely a Home Makeover that reached the scale of the world's most powerful country/civilization.

This is what defines force of nature. It's just ordinary people without the ordinary limits

You can think of them as rich kids who never thought of why price tags and discounts exist. You'll also notice that these characters tend to be Mostly "NT - Intuitive Thinkers" or "SP - Sensing Percievers(improvisers)". You can have some better insights on the subject if you follow this link: https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types

A force of nature character can be a very complex one. But one thing it cannot be is 2 Dimensional. There are cases of pseudo-force of nature. Most of the time this happens because somebody went little too far than intended with certain aspects of a character (being edgy or a lazy attempt at being mysterious) or failing to make a force of nature character because some idiot tried to "Humanize" the character. Rarely comes times where pseudo-force of nature is necessary in a backstory of a force of nature character. Hannibal Rising (2007) is a rare example of properly done pseudo-force of nature. Unlike most people I love that movie. It's superbly well done. Easily one of the best origin movies I've seen. The keyword here is "Origin".

Hope I made an interesting post. Take you time to visit those links. They have very good information. I'm stopping for now. I think I ended up writing way more than I even intended as a short exercise. Until next time, you can stare at these banners.