So I'm working a screenplay, a fantasy story in which the protagonist is betrayed by his fellow knights and swear revenge. His main motivation for being a knight is due to him wanting to live up to his family name. So how do I work his arc in a way where he realizes that revenge isn't the path he should take, and/or that living for his family doesn't matter?
Hmm.... other smarter/better writers than me will come up with better answers. But the simple way would be create a sort of Mirror character(s). Someone who is going down the same path, or already went down the same path, and the main character sees where it leads and realizes he doesn't want it. The easiest way would be to create a mentor or friend character also seeking revenge (IMO it would be better if his revenge quest was not directly related to the main characters, but you do you). Then as the friend becomes consumed with his revenge he loses everything that matters, the main character decides he doesn't want to go down that path. The problem there is it is possible the friend character becomes more interesting than the main character, which can be fine but let's assume you want your main dude to keep most of the focus. Slightly better but trickier way to do it, is to sprinkle in a few side characters who's mini arcs or personalities are going through what the Main Guy is, maybe each side character shows a different aspect or period in the 'revenge arc.' Maybe the Main guy sees people playing cards and everyone is cheating one person, then later he comes across plotting to attack the friend who stole his treasure, and then maybe he has to stop a guy who attacks a man who killed the man's wife, and lastly he ends up talking to a guy in jail for beating up a friend who stole from him. This allows him (and the audience) to subconsciously see why the arc is 'bad' and decide not to go down that path. This works really well in Novels and TV shows because you can sprinkle them out along the way, Movies might struggle with this, but maybe some version could work. What I don't like about this suggestion is it is heavily dependent on external stuff, it's like we're watching a movie about the main character and the main character is watching a movie about about Revenge and Family. What I do like about this approach is it frees you up to explore other aspects of the character, he can still go on a fantasy adventure, or revenge/family quest, but on the way he is seeing what such a quest does to you, and then he decides not to fall into that trap. Again someone better can probably give a better suggestion. Just my 2 cents
Well, I'll take any advice there is! This is a serial I'm planning so having a few other characters help him is intriguing to me.
I can add a bit though. What he said about having a group of characters around the MC is similar to what's known as a character web, where each character has a different stance toward the main theme of the story. I explained the concpet somewhat here: Jessica Jones - All About Abuse - Exploring the Character Web - Initial Thoughts. Spoilers. For a more complete explanation go to John Truby's Anatomy of Story. I don't know if there's good info about it online now. There wasn't last time I searched, but that's been years ago. If you check you might find something.
I've never heard of character webbing before, but now it intrigues me. Character coping with abuse, responding to it, eventually over-coming it. Or have it consume them.
I checked and ran across 2 very brief articles about it. One by Truby, the author of the book I discovered it in: The Character Web Creating a Character Web I also wrote about how it interacts with plot elements in my notes for an Iron Man analysis
