Of Kings and Tantrums

Greetings, Bookworms!

So we come, as we inevitably must, to yet another period of my life where I have not the motivation to write another review, but know that I have to show my faithful bookworms I still exist. That is why I am introducing a new segment, called ‘Random Opinion’. Basically, it serves as a way for me to voice a certain opinion of mine that has been boiling away inside of me for a while, without having to do all the research necessary for a review. Tell me what you think about these segments: mindless vents or interesting insights? (For the record, they basically are mindless vents. If you like them, that’s a big bonus for me!)

The subject of this mindless ve- I mean, random opinion, is the character development of kings in books.

Now, as someone who loves writing, I have been through the stage of wanting all the good guys in my stories to be flawless. It’s one of the reasons I often wince when reading stories I wrote when I was in primary and early high school. Back then, I thought that if you had a great, exciting plot, everyone would like your stories. Thankfully, my eyes were gradually opened to the truth: your narrative is only as good as your characters.

Back then, in my early writing years when people deemed me too young to receive proper criticism, such as “Your story isn’t as great as you think it is,” (come to think of it, at that age I probably wouldn’t have received that very well- I just wanted to be told that my stories were good) I thought that a good character was one that was good at everything, who was always kind and knew all the right things to say. It’s a good thing that I was never one for romance, because that would have been just painful.

It was only when I was about 14 (pretty late, I know, but better late than never, huh?) that I realised that really good characters are ones that have flaws. Characters that have struggles, fears, tempers and faults they have to get over in order to do a set task. I saw that people don’t want to read about perfect characters leading perfect lives; they want to read about real characters going through real struggles: characters that we all, being humans, can relate to.

I had suddenly entered into a whole new dimension of writing: one where you don’t just enjoy it because of the erotic excitement of creating an amazing plot full of so many twists it makes you dizzy, but because there is a genuine joy in discovering your characters’ strengths and weaknesses, and journeying with them as they overcome their struggles. It’s like meeting new people: at first, you don’t really know them that well. But as you continue to watch them, you begin to get an idea of who they are, with all their complexities and mannerisms. Gradually, they grow on you until a deep friendship is formed, and you get excited because you know who they are at the beginning of the story and the changed person they’re going to be at the end of the story and you’re going to be there every step of the way to watch them grow into that person.

It’s your job to then introduce others to the amazing new people you’ve met, to share the sheer delight you’ve found in watching these characters mature before you through words. That is the joy and challenge of writing I have discovered.

Now, I deeply love stories about ordinary people leading ordinary lives being thrown into situations where they suddenly have to be courageous, strong and do things they never imagined they could do, where they then discover that they are not ordinary; they are, in fact, extraordinary. This is one of the many reasons my favourite book of all time happens to be ‘Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ by C.S. Lewis. This is a delightful tale of discovery: both through literal exploration of uncharted waters and each character’s personal voyage. These two separate aspects of the story merge together at the end of the book, where both journeys come together in the climax: meeting Aslan at world’s end.

I could go on for pages and pages about how each character grows throughout this amazing book, but I will spare you. There are places such as NarniaWeb to let out such observations gradually so that friends and family are spared from people such as myself never shutting up about the wonders of Narnia.

I will restrain myself enough to concentrate on one character in particular- given the topic of this particular ‘random opinion’, can you guess who that is? If you guessed Edmund, take off 50 points. If I was writing a segment on him in relation to VDT, I would name it more along the lines of ‘Of kings and the Midas conspiracy’. Besides, most of his character development is in LWW. Duh. If you guessed Peter, take off 100 points. Yes, in movie-verse PC he is very good at throwing tantrums, but he isn’t even in VDT. Get your facts straight!

No, I am talking about Caspian! You see, Lewis acknowledged that once someone becomes a king, they are by no means perfect. Even three years after he is crowned, when VDT takes place, Caspian still has important things to learn, and the book focuses a lot on how this king of Narnia matures from a boy used to having his orders followed to a man who realises it is not through his experience he can ever be worthy of ruling Narnia, but by the grace and guidance of Aslan.

Of course, he does not suddenly realise this. This wisdom comes through him making many mistakes, and at the end of the book throwing a massive tantrum, after which Aslan gives him a stern talking to. This is the major character development scene for Caspian, and you know what annoyed me about the movie? THEY LEFT IT OUT!!!

The whole movie, Caspian is this guy who doesn’t make mistakes. Yes, it saves time, but at what price? The only slight character development involves no tantrums whatsoever. To put it in a nutshell, from Caspian’s point of view: “To make up for losing my fake Spanish accent, I must brood over my father's death and come to the conclusion he thinks I am a failure (even though he’s dead) to show everyone I still have traces of Inigo Montoya syndrome so they will feel sorry for me!” That is the only reason I can think of as to why the filmmakers would create such a shallow character arc, and even there I can’t really see the logic behind it!

Book-verse Caspian was someone many people look up to, myself included. In fact, he was a character I unknowingly based my main character, King Henry, on (King Henry the Tenth, in case you’re wondering) in my latest NaNoWriMo novel.

To give you some background info on my pal, Henry, he was born a mischievous prince who had a palace at his disposal to play all the practical jokes he could ever wish. However, when he was about 16, his parents were murdered and he was taken captive by a usurper, with only his best friend for company. Five years later, the usurper was overthrown and he was given back the throne.

Imagine what it would be like for a twenty-one year old who is still used to being a spoilt kid suddenly having the enormous responsibility of being king thrown upon him, and you have Henry.  Watching him grow from a childish, immature (but well meaning) boy into a mature and patient king through many tantrums, arguments, and moments of reflections asking himself where he went wrong has been so much fun, and now he’s my best friend trapped in the confines of my mind and ink and paper.

What I never realised when I was writing about Henry was that he would never have existed if it were not for Caspian’s tantrum scene at the end of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader book.

This is the reason why I was so annoyed they did not include Caspian’s tantrum in the movie. Kings have their moments of imperfection, just like the rest of us. And we all love characters we can relate to. Not everyone who sees the movie will know the horrible pain of losing a father, but everyone who sees the movie will know what it’s like to think you’re right when in actual fact you’re wrong, and to make an idiot of yourself when doing so. Audiences need to see all the characters work through their problems in all of their embarrassing glory!

Long live the character development of fictional kings!!!

(For the record, VDT is still an awesome movie with a much clearer message than the other two. I would highly recommend it to everyone.)

(Feel free to comment)