Characters Can Carry Endless Stories... If You Understand Them

Why do some characters carry endless stories while others collapse after one great origin? In this video, I look at what happens when writers mistake the surface of a character for the thing that actually makes the story work. A cool costume, tragic backstory, robot body, magic sword, spaceship, or gimmick might get the audience’s attention, but it does not automatically create a story that can keep going. Using RoboCop, Mad Max, Luke Skywalker, Kirk, Picard, and a little speculative story surgery on RoboCop 2, I dig into the difference between a character’s origin, their completed arc, and the kind of stories they naturally belong in. RoboCop 2 had a lot of the right ingredients: Cain, Nuke, OCP, a replacement RoboCop, and a giant cyborg fight. But the first movie worked because Murphy was still a cop. He investigated. He followed the case. He exposed corruption. The machine was not the story. Murphy was. The lesson for writers is simple: don’t confuse the surface of the character with the soul of the story. Once you understand what your character really is underneath the gimmick, you can see what kind of trouble they belong in, what kind of stories they can carry, and where things go off the rails. Sources discussed: Peter Weller interview with The A.V. Club Edward Neumeier interview with Money Into Light RoboCop 2 production history and sequel-development background