Week 4 Story Lab: TV Tropes
This week, I decided to do a story lab to take a break from story writing and explore some new ways to improve my writing. I've been having some trouble getting in touch with my creative writing since I haven't had to write anything besides lab reports and opinion pieces in college. As a result, I think learning some new writing tricks and tips could be really useful for me to learn how to write again.
I decided to explore the TV Tropes website because I noticed that the characters in the Ramayana, especially Rama, follow a lot of character archetypes. Rama is the archetypal hero who is brave, strong, victorious, and seemingly perfect. As a result, I wanted to learn about more tropes present in writing and finding a way that I can utilize them and expand upon them in my stories.
One character trope that interests me is the "Anti-Hero". Characters that follow the anti-hero trope seem to show more complexity than other characters since there is more moral ambiguity in these characters. One example that comes to mind is the characters in Watchmen by Alan Moore. They're capable of doing good and bad things depending on the situations and their motivations. As a result, I think people like rooting for anti-heroes because they're realistic and show more complex motivations. People also seem to like angsty, struggling characters too since they elicit more sympathy, which isn't too surprising too. A good example is Batman. To tie this back to the Ramayana, Ravana could've probably been painted as an anti-hero if we understood more of his backstory, but his character was also a rapist.... so maybe not the best idea.
Another character trope that is interesting is the "Ideal Hero", which pertains to Rama. He is literally born with a God-given purpose to battle Rama and he is given every opportunity to succeed. He is also born in the best circumstance, lavishing in riches and fortune, as well as being well-loved by his family and kingdom. He is a highly idealistic character, acting with strong morals and is "perfect" in every sense of the word. However, Rama's character isn't fully fleshed out in the story, making him a somewhat boring character. He is a very cookie-cutter "superhero" since we don't know his motivations or complex emotions. For example, I would've liked to see the explanation for his actions whenever he refused Sita after saving her because it was a really selfish move. He made her feel guilty for being abducted for being held hostage in another man's home, but I feel like I could've felt more sympathy for his character if I had an explanation for his insecurity.
Reading about different tropes was really fun for me. I got to learn about different character tropes in literature and tie it back to stories I've read before. As a result, I think some of these archetypes would be good to lay the basic foundation for a character, but then also make them realistic as well.
I decided to explore the TV Tropes website because I noticed that the characters in the Ramayana, especially Rama, follow a lot of character archetypes. Rama is the archetypal hero who is brave, strong, victorious, and seemingly perfect. As a result, I wanted to learn about more tropes present in writing and finding a way that I can utilize them and expand upon them in my stories.
One character trope that interests me is the "Anti-Hero". Characters that follow the anti-hero trope seem to show more complexity than other characters since there is more moral ambiguity in these characters. One example that comes to mind is the characters in Watchmen by Alan Moore. They're capable of doing good and bad things depending on the situations and their motivations. As a result, I think people like rooting for anti-heroes because they're realistic and show more complex motivations. People also seem to like angsty, struggling characters too since they elicit more sympathy, which isn't too surprising too. A good example is Batman. To tie this back to the Ramayana, Ravana could've probably been painted as an anti-hero if we understood more of his backstory, but his character was also a rapist.... so maybe not the best idea.
Another character trope that is interesting is the "Ideal Hero", which pertains to Rama. He is literally born with a God-given purpose to battle Rama and he is given every opportunity to succeed. He is also born in the best circumstance, lavishing in riches and fortune, as well as being well-loved by his family and kingdom. He is a highly idealistic character, acting with strong morals and is "perfect" in every sense of the word. However, Rama's character isn't fully fleshed out in the story, making him a somewhat boring character. He is a very cookie-cutter "superhero" since we don't know his motivations or complex emotions. For example, I would've liked to see the explanation for his actions whenever he refused Sita after saving her because it was a really selfish move. He made her feel guilty for being abducted for being held hostage in another man's home, but I feel like I could've felt more sympathy for his character if I had an explanation for his insecurity.
Reading about different tropes was really fun for me. I got to learn about different character tropes in literature and tie it back to stories I've read before. As a result, I think some of these archetypes would be good to lay the basic foundation for a character, but then also make them realistic as well.
The Ideal Hero
Source: Pixabay
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