The inner conflict of a character in a story.
Duh. It's so obvious. But I'd completely forgotten about such a specific thing when trying to look at the big picture. There's a lesson to be learned, people.
Of course, tonight's post will be drawn on inspiration from tonight's episode of Teen Wolf, "Riddled" because Teen Wolf has just been kicking it when it comes to awesome character arcs. Yet unlike my best-friend conundrum, it won't focus entirely around Teen Wolf. But you can never have enough Stiles.
Inner demons are something that most characters struggle with, and when taken a certain way, can lead to a damaged character, so, this could sort of serve as a prequel to my broken hero post. We shall see.
These inner demons can come in all sorts, though. They can be literal demons that have become like a virus and found a host, they can come from an event that happened in one's life, or it can be the struggle of doing something good versus doing something bad. In the latter sense, it's almost as if there are two different characters in one body: a good one and a bad one. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here.
Inner demons can cause conflict in a character, which is good. It adds depth. I'd much rather see a character struggling to pull the trigger than be like, "BANG ha I'm awesome love me but I suck."
Inner demons always make their presence known, it seems at two critical points: just before the rising action and right at the climax. Just before the rising action is just before the journey starts. If a character is struggling with something, say like alcoholism or they have a secret they're keeping from the group, this is the time that they will either spout it out or it will stay with them and haunt them. By the climax, the inner demon has worked itself well into the character's story and usually shows itself. The secret gets revealed, the drunk gets severe alcohol poisoning. Something happens that was caused by a lack of action.
That is, of course, given that the inner demon is not an actual demon itself, like it is in Teen Wolf with a certain character. Arguably, there is a literal demon inside Harry Potter in the Harry Potter series of novels. From books 5-7 he struggles with a certain entity that is trying to take over his mind, fighting it whenever it creeps up, even trying to learn to control it. Again, at the climax of the novel, Harry's oversight and even reliance on this fact gets people hurt and killed in heartbreaking fashion that makes you re-read the page five times just to make sure you read it right.
Yes. I did that. Judge me for wanting a character to live. You did it to in books 6 and 7!
From a personal note, the actual demon approach is one of my favorites. First of all because I've incorporated it into my story more times than I can count (yes...one was also with werewolves) but also because it makes the world of the characters seem larger. It adds a question of "how did that happen?" to the story, it gives me more to explore in the world. This can also be the same for a questionable backstory, because it begs the question, "why is this character like that?" and, as a writer, I get to explore this struggle and as a reader, you/ we get to see how it develops and advances the story as a whole.
The whole good versus evil thing is the most typical yet it is always effective, because the struggle of good and evil has been going on since before even Adam and Eve. The story of the Fall is the ultimate good and evil story, actually, because it is the ultimate good versus the ultimate evil. The Book of Revelation (favorite one, by the way) explores this more with fake evil and fake good and it's confusing when you're reading it for the first time but it's still an interesting thing to see envelop before John's eyes.
So to see that same concept happening within a person is great. Of course, everyone's seen the devil and angel on the shoulder routine before.
| "No, no...he's got a point." |
Getting to that point, though, is interesting beyond belief. Either the demon takes host or an event happens and things just spiral out of control. The broken hero is essentially the embodiment of that inner demon because what he does shows what the inner demon would be doing. Again, it's like a virus. The hero becomes a shell for a much darker force to take control of.
Sometimes the inner demon doesn't win, though, which will be touched on in a later posting. When the inner demon does win, though, there are shockwaves that effect even the minor characters. Because the story has to adapt to its new changes. In Shadow's Edge, we see Kylar longing for the thrill of a fight, so he goes out, against the wishes of Elene, to stop some punks from messing with innocent people. Is that an inner conflict? Yes it is! He's going against the wishes of his one true love in order to satisfy his own desire for killing! He's thirsty for blood, people, and the only thing to quell it is a river (love the story, highly recommend the Night Angel trilogy).
For now that's all I have to say about inner demons. When they win, big changes come. Yet it seems like they can also never lose. In The Dark Knight (spoiler, not really), Batman obviously wins. But what about the effects of the Joker and Two-Face, what effects do they leave on Batman and Gordon? We see those at play in The Dark Knight Rises. Even though the Joker may have lost the battle, he won the game. He broke Batman out of being himself. He didn't lose, but he didn't win either. Inner demons, that's what they are.
Eternal.
Unless you're Darth Vader. Then you get closure.
See you next time!
Links to images:
"One does not simply" meme:
http://www.quickmeme.com/img/4d/4d03e9a7f0324c9c02a29b866f12664f265f22fc3507e1f638fd8c51e225f165.jpg
Joffrey FREAKIN Lannister: http://cdn.memegenerator.net/images/300x/4938065.jpg
Kronk meme: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQoBMq2b4qnf8BysRAHWvBzQYZCK9HHxeKjOWFAZpseiSODotLq
Darth Vader meme:https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT3b48_IKEB2cQ8xC4pNd7sy1b7m47nOtNkn6bn3wsd9rX7kgQQ
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