The Five Types of Characters

[shintashi]

In story lines, especially those revolving around Japanese animation, there are five types of characters, which have traditional interactions for story, plot, and power relations. They are:

1. The Hero - Examples include 1980s actions heroes, most comic book characters, early 20th century War heroes, and storybook knights in shining armor. This is the main protagonist, their goal is to save the day with their resources and dependence on their training, virtue, and strength of Will or Wisdom. Such heroes tend to be campy and belong in a Xena Warrior princess rerun.
   Heroes tend to be weaker than villains, especially as the story begins, but gradually gain power to save the Victims, and defeat the villain either with the means of 'higher moral ground', 'Team work', implementing the power of an artifact (below), or more rarely, by becoming 'the best'. Heroes tend to be optimistic, genuinely positive, and Naive. Most of their horrible experiences are limited and have happy endings, or motivate them to become heroes.
   
2. The Villain - Sometimes the consequence of misguided ethics, the product of a lousy environment, or cast down from a position of power or respect, these characters seek to Usurp authority or otherwise destroy whatever offends them.
   While Villains are typically among the most powerful characters in a storyline, they often have Henchmen who are a few notches below them, or powerful allies like the more neutral 'bad-ass' (below). Sometimes they have a special Artifact Monster or pet, such as a dragon or giant spaceship (death star?) that requires a large amount of maintenance to avoid a power struggle.
   More rarely villains will be puppet masters behind the throne, victimizing the kingdom or empire by using the 'artifact' position of the king or emperor as an evil adviser or Vizier.
   When a villain is forced to unite with heroes to overcome an even greater foe, or turns "good" or "neutral" with a few good, or at least less than evil intentions, the character switches to the role of 'bad-ass'.
   
3. The Victim - These are the towns people, the mall rats, the people in the shopping centers and office buildings, in the parks and schools when bad things happen. Heroes are supposed to save the Victim, but in a Despair based story-line, like Lovecraft novels, even the heroes are actually victims. In Horror films and many war films, almost every 'hero' gets reduced to a victim. Victims are normally shielded from harassment by heroes or bad-asses such as the coach, school teacher (in the case of bullying), police, elder family members and soldiers.
   In terms of story lines, it is important to remember the victims have 'strength in numbers' in two ways: the first is the 'community/mob' principle. A Mall or School has an enormous population which collectively can act as a hero to build something, avert a flood, or an angry mob can drive away a lesser villain. The second strength is in 'power of normalcy'. The mundane aspect of victims is so powerful that things like giant fireball spitting dragons or evil villains with super powers simply never happens. Streets aren't firebombed normally and people never get attacked by tentacle monsters in broad day light, or at major events.
   this is because psychologically, human beings believe bad things happen in the dark, hidden, and remote areas when you are alone, and away from the community. This goes back to the days of hunters and villages who can drive away hungry wolves and other wild animals with fire and crowds. That also means your horror stories shouldn't be attacking people at malls unless you plan on dealing with entire armies. Heroes don't normally have access to armies or police to save themselves, but victims do. No one believes a hero when they call for help, but victims always get responses. When the victims can't get help, that means the storyline has turned into a Thriller, a Slasher, or Horror film. If the tanks still role in, then it has taken on the characteristic of a Godzilla movie and becomes funny unless you push most of the authority based heroes into the victim box, like in Cloverfield or alien invasion stories.
   
4. The Bad-ass - Examples include The Wraith (1986), Xellos (Slayers), Rambo, Captain Harlock, Magneto, Batman, and Most Jet Li Characters. The Bad-ass isn't the hero. They aren't usually the protagonist because the storyline would begin to reflect their own system of ethics. A Bad-ass is like a hero who grows dangerously close to the power scale of the Villain, but pays for that proximity with a series of character flaws and bad experiences, making them Jaded, depressed, bitter, addicted, filled with nightmares and flashbacks and more. The Bad-ass isn't an optimist normally, and has earned their wisdom the hard way. Unlike a hero, they have seen their share of unhappy endings, and resemble an anti-hero in some ways, except their experience has also provided them with the tools to overcome many problems the Heroes are normally incapable of dealing with.
   The Bad-ass may be a high powered henchman for the villain, a former villain themselves, or on an separate unrelated quest beyond the scope of the heroes. For example, if a hero has to save the city, the bad-ass is busy fighting to save the country, or the world.
   The bad-ass typically has no respect for the heroes or their idealism, and has a tendency to mock their naivety. The villains tend to be cautious around the bad-ass, and often attempt to recruit them when they can, and avoid them when they can't. The bad-ass does not feel obligated to assist the heroes unless it suits their purposes, and the bad-ass may rapidly and unexpectedly morph between the role of hero and villain in the eyes of the protagonists. Bad-asses also tend to have lone-wolf complexes, and where they work in teams, it tends to be 'Elite' and impossible for normal heroes to associate with. Elites tend to have higher budgets, less legal obligations to bureaucracy or red tape, and better equipment.
   Bad-asses tend to be hyper-specialized in some areas, but completely incapable of qualifying in terms of affinity for the main storyline powers - their blood line is too thin, they don't work well with others, they can't get the senate to agree with them, the generals ignore their warnings, and no one will mourn them when they are gone. Bad-asses are what happens to some heroes who live long enough to rival the villains, and earn their position of power with blood, sweat, and tears. Most of the time, Bad-asses despise artifacts even more than heroes.
   
5. The Artifact - Aside from physical objects like a Death Star and Excalibur, there are characters who meet the same criteria. Kings born to the throne, mutants who become the 'chosen one' to carry the power of stars, and little wizard boys with scars, wands, and a treasure chamber filled with gold - these are artifacts: Super powerful actors who's power is great - rivaling that of the villains, but also coveted and easily manipulated. Harry Potter, Jean Grey, a young Bruce Wayne,Tony Stark, or Annikan Skywalker, or myriad magical and super powerful beings and beasts which seem bad-ass at first but lack the flaws or experience to support their influence.
   

The interplay of these five character types yields most story lines you could name. The position of these types is semi-fluid, depending on the storyline. Unlike "alignment" or ideas of good and evil, these titles do not dictate who is good or bad, but rather how their roles cooperate with each other, and manipulate power.

Over all, the artifact is like a badass with the naivety of a hero and the destiny of a victim - they have the least amount of choices.

The villains and Bad-asses have the most choices available but both get demonized by the authorities - in some cases even hunted down by the heroic authorities, such as Batman or the Crow vs. the detectives and cops. Bad-asses have the additional flaw that they can feel remorse for their actions - whereas a villain's moral compass typically matches their own actions except where their power or resources lack.

A Hero has less choices than villains or bad-asses, because of their moral compass and lack of relative power, but just like the Villain, (foolishly) do what they believe is right. This places them in a lot of bad situations like choosing to save the life of a wife or the life of a friend. Heroes have more choices than victims or artifacts though - as artifacts tend to be total puppets (even if aware of it), while victims never had much power to make decisions in the first place. For example, a victim won't normally leave their job or their home because their obligations hold them to their jobs and family. Victims also fear legal prosecution for retaliation against villains, making them hyper dependent on authorities to save them.

note: I got some of this from my Hero/anti-hero lit course at school.

[TheoAllen]

An awesome description...
although I have to translate into my language before :p