#here enjoy this dump of random thoughts ive been having the past few weeks

[chivesyo]

Character “Dynamics” in Storytelling

When we talk about stories or media, certain elements are pretty well understood generally, e.g. “plot”, “setting”, “theme”, and “characters.” One that I haven’t heard talked about, at least explicitly, is what I tend to call “character dynamics.” Although it’s obviously related to the concept of “characters,” I think there’s some interesting stuff that comes up when you consider it specifically.

I’ll use an example to show what I mean. Here is a list of main characters* from the series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Aang

Katara

Sokka

Toph

Appa

Momo

Zuko

Iroh

Azula

(* Certain characters I could include omitted for lack of space)

When you list them like this, you get a one-dimensional structure that covers every individual character. Another way you could list them is something like this:

This is essentially a multiplication table. Each row and column represents a single character, and the intersection between a row and a column represents a dynamic between two characters. (The black boxes represent where a character intersects with themself, and the gray boxes represent duplicate intersections, e.g. Appa+Momo = Momo+Appa.)

I have found while considering this that in many ways these dynamics actually function kind of as *characters* themselves, and how they are used can have a big impact on the effectiveness of a story. I want to talk a bit about three specific aspects of this: density, diversity, and development.

Density of Dynamics

The “multiplication table” concept suggests the idea of “filling in” the squares that form at intersections. There are a bunch of ways a story can “fill in” a dynamic, but here are a few that are the most obvious/familiar:

Direct character interaction: dialogue, fights/battles, etc.

Indirect interaction: one character thinking or talking about another when they aren’t present

World building: two characters have some connection through their position in the setting (e.g. CEO/cashier, president/citizen)

Third-party observation: the dynamic between two characters is described by another character or the two characters are compared to each other by another

If you are familiar with ATLA and take your time to go through each of the dynamics shown above, you will find that almost all of them are “filled in” to some extent - even if it’s just through a very brief scene, e.g. Appa growling at Azula. Therefore, I would say that the dynamics in this series (at least for the main characters) are very “dense.” This is not the case for all stories. As examples of series with “sparse” dynamics I tend to think of a) Pokemon and b) the Avengers movies. 

In Pokemon, gym leaders and the like tend to make up a good chunk of the “major” characters (if not “main” characters). Most of the time, they never interact with each other or otherwise get their dynamics filled in, especially in older entries in the series. Obviously, Pokemon is hugely popular, so having dense dynamics seems to not be required to be “good” or at least successful. However, I think it’s worth noting that pieces of Pokemon media that are more highly praised for their stories (e.g. the Pokemon Black and Pokemon White games and the Pokemon Adventures manga) tend to beef up the role gym leaders play and give them interactions with each other.

The Avengers movies are kind of an interesting case. To me it seems like they started out with fairly dense character dynamics, but over time as they added more and more characters the dynamic density didn’t keep pace. I suspect this contributed somewhat to the difference in tone between successive Avengers movies. The first had relatively few characters and took time to fill in their dynamics at least some (both in the movie itself and ones that came before), and it also has a much more “fun” tone, there’s much more of an emphasis on comedy. The big change that correlates with it, though, is the difference in fandom activity. The first Avengers movie as far as I can tell seemed to be the one that really invigorated the MCU fandom which, although it’s still somewhat active, was pretty much out of its heyday by “Infinity War” as far as I could tell.

It seems to me that dynamic density is strongly related to the amount of fandom activity around a piece of media. What supports this in my opinion is that many of the biggest fandoms are or have been around series that are notably very dense in terms of character dynamics (although obviously there are exceptions, so I’m not completely confident):

Homestuck (which I’ve never read/seen): there are lots of characters who, from what I can tell, have many developed dynamics. In fact, if I’m understanding correctly there is an in-universe system that codifies different types of relationships between characters (i.e. character dynamics).

Undertale: if you go through the main characters (Frisk, Flowey, Toriel, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, Asgore, Chara) like we did above for ATLA you will find that the dynamics are arguably even more dense.

Hetalia: there are a lot of characters and much of the source material is dedicated to exploring the relationships between them. In addition, since the characters are based on real-world countries with, like, histories and cultures and everything, even if a dynamic isn’t addressed directly in “canon,” fans still have access to a sort of “implied” dynamic.

The reason for this probably comes down to the fact that there’s an obvious link between dynamics and “shipping” (i.e. entertaining yourself by interpreting two characters as being/wanting to be in a relationship), which is by far the primary fandom activity.

Diversity of Dynamics

Going back to Avatar: The Last Airbender, along with its character dynamics being notably dense, they are also notably diverse. If you were to label each of the dynamics listed in the last section with a couple words each you would get a big variety: “friends,” “enemies,” “enemies but one of them wants to be friends,” “siblings (friendly rivalry),” “siblings (not-so-friendly rivalry)”, “childhood crush”, “adoptive parent”, “pet and owner”, “teacher and student”, etc. This dynamic diversity effectively serves two functions: a) making characters more relatable and b) reinforcing the story’s themes.

To me it seems like the dynamics a character is involved in play a huge role in making that character relatable to the audience. Again using ATLA as an example, no one who watches the show shares the same actual experiences of the characters - it takes place in a completely different universe where human beings have fantastical powers and society is very different than our own. It’s difficult for us to relate to Aang, for example, as a person who has the ability to fly and grew up in a highly spiritual, nomadic, collectivist society. However, we can relate to Aang as someone who has a crush on one of his friends, or someone who is mourning a parental figure, or someone who has a very close bond with his pet because it was with him through a difficult experience.

Having a wide variety of dynamics in a series “widens the net” in terms of how many people are going to be able to find the characters relatable, and I think this is especially true when the characters don’t look like them. On the other hand, if the dynamics that are important to a person are absent from a piece of media, they’ll likely not relate to it as well. Despite this, it seems like character dynamics are often neglected when we talk about “representation” in media, which is a shame because I think careful use of dynamics can help to both improve the verisimilitude of a character to the people it is representing and improve the “effectiveness” of the representation in terms of its impact on other groups of people in the audience.

The character Toph from ATLA is often cited as a good example of representation for people with disabilities. Part of the reason for this I think is that her blindness doesn’t play a big role in the plot (in that it could be pretty easily removed with minimal rewriting, and in fact it was absent early in the series development) but does tend to play a big role in her character’s dynamics with others. For example, here are some of her most prominent dynamics:

Parents - Her blindness is their stated reason for being overly controlling and protective of her throughout her childhood despite her wishes - a situation some viewers could probably relate to even if they aren’t blind.

Aang - He pursues her as his earthbending teacher because of the adaptations she developed to accommodate her blindness, believing “mainstream” teachers lack the knowledge she gained through the experience. I.e. it shows a dynamic where her unique traits are treated as valuable, as a contrast to the dynamic with her parents.

Sokka - Interactions with Sokka are some of the only times when Toph seems comfortable/willing to express vulnerability. He’s the character we most often see “guiding” her when she’s in a situation where she can’t use her earthbending to “see.” 

Appa - Since she has to be in contact with the ground in order to “see,” riding on Appa is an uncomfortable experience for her, the opposite of most other characters. Therefore her relationship with Appa is somewhat unique. Obviously it’s still positive but we never see her being quite as affectionate with him as the other characters tend to be. This serves as a source of drama when Appa is stolen under her “watch.”

I think this is effective for two reasons. One, it helps to illustrate the balance between “disability (or whatever trait) has a big impact on a person’s everyday life, particularly their relationships with other people” and “disability doesn’t/shouldn’t define a person’s place in the world/society.” Two, it builds empathy in the audience because they can relate to the dynamics and see how things like disability do and do not impact them.

One last thing to say about representation: I think it’s worth noting that the Bechdel test (and its derivatives), which acts as sort of a “test” of the representation of women in a piece of media, requires 1) two named female characters who 2) talk to each other about something other than men/a man. I.e. it’s really a test for the presence of a dynamic.

The second function diverse character dynamics in a story can serve is to reinforce the story’s themes. The character Toph’s dynamics can provide some more examples to illustrate this:

Katara - To Toph, Katara seems to represent a reflection of her “prim and proper” upbringing, including all the experiences of being underestimated and bound to strict expectations. To Katara, Toph seems to represent a reflection of her tough childhood in the Southern Water Tribe, including all the experiences of being underestimated and being unfairly loaded with labor and other responsibilities. This dynamic serves as an illustration of how what can appear to be huge differences on the surface can hide profound similarities.

Zuko - Toph is the only one who wasn’t present during the first season when he was acting as the primary antagonist, so her dynamic with him during his redemption arc serves as a contrast to his dynamic with the other characters. 

Iroh - Toph and Iroh interact fairly briefly, but it’s interesting because Iroh is the only character in the show that really acts as a “mentor” to Toph. More importantly, Toph’s meeting with Iroh seems to represent the first time she has felt truly seen and respected (she had joined “Team Avatar” by that point, but her time with them up to that point was pretty full of conflict). 

You can see in many examples that dynamics are often intended to create some kind of contrast. Much like characters can be “foils” for each other (where the similarities between them serve to highlight the differences), character dynamics I think can also be foils. This tactic is used heavily in ATLA, but I think the most obvious example is the contrast between the Sokka+Katara dynamic and the Zuko+Azula dynamic. They’re very similar “on paper” (a 16 year old older brother and 14 year old younger sister; both have lost their mother; both have the younger sibling as a significantly more skilled bender; both belong to the “royal family” (or equivalent) of their society, etc.). However, the stark differences in how these dynamics play out in the show makes us think about what is different between them. Why/how did one family bring up kids that want to kill each other while the other brought up kids that are willing to die for each other? This focuses our attention and kind of “primes” us for receiving the show’s themes and moral messages, which are intended to answer those kinds of questions.

Often the “similarity” between two dynamics that contrast with each other is simply the fact that the same character is involved in both of them. We saw this in some of the examples of Toph’s dynamics: her dynamic with Aang contrasts with her dynamic with her parents and reinforces to the audience the message of the importance of not judging or underestimating people based on their surface-level appearance.

So, there is value in a piece of media in having both a wide variety of diverse dynamics, as well as dynamics that are (or at least appear) similar but with subtle differences that support the story’s theme.

Development of Dynamics

Another way that dynamics are similar to characters themselves is that they can change and develop over the course of a story. The concepts of “character development” and “dynamic development” are obviously very closely related. When a character changes all of their dynamics will likely change as well, but it’s also possible for changes in a dynamic to force changes in one or both characters involved.

In the first case, dynamic development serves as an extremely effective way of illustrating or reinforcing character development. In fact, I’m almost tempted to say that dynamic development is necessary to show character development, but there’s probably counterexamples that I could find if I wanted to spend more time or knew more about, like, literature. This is so common that it’s difficult to come up with anything to really say about it. Zuko’s entire arc in ATLA is pretty much this on a huge scale. For a smaller-scale study, you can look at Sokka and Suki in the “Warriors of Kyoshi” episode: Sokka learns not to be a sexist jerk, and their dynamic develops from antagonistic to romantic.

On the other hand, I think there is some interesting stuff to say when we consider the other case - dynamic development driving character development. Often this ends up looking like a kind of chain: character A develops, so the A+B character dynamic develops, so character B develops. We can look at the Sokka+Suki dynamic again. Their dynamic deepening after Sokka’s development causes Suki to change - he inspires her to abandon the isolationist ideals we saw on Kyoshi Island in the “Warriors of Kyoshi” episode and leave to join the war effort and support refugees.

This sort of “chaining” has the effect of upping the stakes/payoff of the first character’s development. Sokka learning not to be sexist doesn’t just mean he becomes a better person (and gets a girlfriend), Suki becomes a better person too (and because of that our protagonists have an additional ally later in the series).

So, in summary, it can be very effective to have dynamic development that either reflects or drives character development (or both). To illustrate this further, I’ll return to the subject of shipping, because I feel like “romantic” dynamics are the ones that most often fail (although that could just be my personal experience, I'm ace as hell).

At the end of ATLA, Aang and Katara enter an “official” romantic relationship. Although it was built up to an extent throughout the series, it doesn’t come across to me as especially compelling. I think this is because although the show acts like their dynamic has been developing, it hasn’t really shown it. Aang has a crush on Katara from literally the first moment he sees her, and by the third episode Katara is telling him “we’re your family now.” They start out as the most important people to each other and end the series as the most important people to each other. In fact, some of Aang’s character development centers around ensuring this dynamic stays the same. Near the end of season two, he is told that he needs to “let go” of Katara in order to fulfill his spiritual destiny, but he refuses. This causes a lot of problems for the protagonists this season, and I think is meant to serve as a kind of build up to Aang’s conflict at the end of the series about whether or not to kill Ozai.

So, this is an important character moment for Aang, and it’s directly related to the dynamic between him and Katara. But that dynamic doesn’t really change outside of like a half of one episode. They just continue being good friends who may-or-may-not end up dating until halfway through season three when they have their first real kiss. It makes it seem like all the stuff Aang went through wasn’t really all that important, so we kind of forget about it and don’t make connections with future events that would build up a theme. I tend to think that this is part of the reason the resolution of the series feels kind of empty to some people.

So many romantic relationships in media are just so boring and flat and uninspiring, and this is especially true with straight romances. This is often because the relationship is just kind of “tacked on” because it’s *supposed to be there* but it doesn’t have anything to do with the development of either character.

Conclusion

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that character dynamics are as important to a story as things like plot, setting, and characters themselves. When you realize this and decide to pay attention to it, it can really deepen your enjoyment and understanding of media. I’m very curious if this concept is already talked about and I just don’t know what it’s called.  If not, I also think that maybe creators could use this element more effectively if it was talked about explicitly.