Act 3: Confronting the Lie and Conclusions.The way the heroes confront, and overcome their Lie, is by facing their foils, and in this case it’s their brothers.
Loki holds onto the Lie of Kingship and Ramses holds onto the Lie that the system he inherited from his father must continue. Loki believes he can earn his adoptive family’s love by killing the Frost Giants, who are his people by birth.
He wants to take the right of kingship and prove he's worthy of his adoptive family. And he does this by taking on the might means right Lie his brother held in the beginning. But by the time Thor regains his powers and confronts his brother, Thor isn’t like that anymore! He earned back his power by saying, “hey I don’t want to be that way anymore.”
Ramses’ father pressures him to live up to his family’s legacy as the unwavering “morning and evening star.” If Ramses failed to live up to these incredibly lofty standards, he would be the “weak link” that would bring down the whole dynasty.
Ramses defines himself by his status as Pharaoh and lives with his father’s admonition not to be the “weak link” in back of his mind. It becomes his driving force when Moses pleads for him to let his people go. Moses let go of the Lie of his own entitlement once his sense of identity was shattered but Ramses steadfastly holds onto it. And that’s his undoing.
Thor and Moses’ brothers believe in the Lie, while they grow away from it. Having a foil who goes in the opposite direction to the hero is a great way to create compelling character drama. It also highlights how far your hero has come, while giving them not necessarily a villain, but an antagonist who offers an opposing view.
The very end of a positive change arc has the main character not just rejecting the lie but overcoming it. Thor rejects his initial beliefs of might makes right by reaching out to his brother, both literally and figuratively in an attempt to help him. But Loki, unable to overcome his Lie, rejects his brothers help.
Ramses loses his only son as a result of not letting Moses’ people go. But even as Ramses relents, he plans revenge. The final hurdle Moses and his people must face is Ramses and his men threatening their lives. This one last show of power for Ramses while he is grieving. Moses manages to his people safely to a new land with the help of God. And Ramses is alone and broken, unable to overcome the Lie.
The positive change character arcs show the main character coming to a better place emotionally and often physically. And to highlight this, their foil often ends in the place the hero could have potentially gone if they hadn’t changed.
No comments:
Post a Comment