How-to: Character Development

How-to: Character Development

When it comes to narrative design and story-telling/writing I often hear complaints that people are never taught where to start, or they aren't given an instruction manual for creating characters and a story. Just like with a lot of creative processes, there isn't an exact step-by-step process everyone follows to create great characters or stories. However, a great place to start is by emulating the greats.

Most people can come up with a story, world, etc. Unfortunately, most fall short when it comes to creating great characters with depth. I'd like to suggest a "mentor text" for developing your characters: Dragon Ball Z (DBZ).

Dragon Ball Z is an anime (also a manga) series that originally aired in the 1980's and 90's that benefited from an extremely long run. Unlike other contemporary long-running anime, the writer(s) of Dragon Ball Z actually decided to develop most, if not every, character making each one unique and wonderful despite their Lawful/Chaotic alignment or the fact that 80% of the characters looking strikingly similar.

The two characters we will be focusing on today are Nail, a short-lived Nemekian character and Vegeta, one of the main characters and in my opinion one of the best characters ever created/written.

Vegeta

While every other good character in the series is an "every-man" who's motivation is to just be a good person (something more of us should strive for) and already have an understanding of who they are as a person the second we meet them, Vegeta adds a much needed spice to the good vs evil sauce that DBZ is covered in.

When Vegeta first shows up on the scene he's ballin' around the universe enslaving or destroying planets for the evil Lord Frieza, a transgender alien that consequently destroyed Vegeta's Saiyan home world and enslaved Vegeta's entire race. The situation is utterly smothered in irony as Frieza is a prince of his race destroying or enslaving every civilization he comes across which is exactly what Prince Vegeta was doing before Frieza showed up. Prior to Frieza Death Starring Planet Vegeta (Yep, the ruler of the Saiyans is named King Vegeta, his son is Prince Vegeta, and the Saiyan home world is Planet Vegeta. Narcissism much?), the Saiyan race sent out their babies in space pods to extraterrestrial planets in hopes the babies would grow up and enslave or destroy said planet. Pretty much the plot to Invader Zim. After Vegeta's planet explodes he and the remaining adult Saiyans decided to just continue doing what they've been doing forever, just in Frieza's name. Eventually the few Saiyans that are left happen upon Goku -- one of the babies shot out into space who ended up less like Zod and more like Clark Kent's Superman because he bumped his head when he crash landed on Earth. Since this is Dragon Ball Z, all of the Saiyans are evil and Goku and friends are good, fights ensue and eventually the only Saiyans left alive are Goku's half-breed son Gohan and Vegeta. Vegeta retreats to heal as the remaining Earth warriors peace out to Planet Namek to retrieve the titular Dragon Balls and bring all their friends back to life including Goku. Now, in the DBZ universe the afterlife is basically just a place where the characters can train and get stronger, then get brought back to life from the Dragon Balls or by running across the great wall of China.

This abridged back story for Vegeta is important because he goes from being an evil henchman to a clever warrior hell-bent on betraying Frieza, who has decided to collect the Dragon Balls and become immortal, and stop Frieza's reign of terror. Vegeta eventually accomplishes his quest by forming an alliance and bonding with the Earth Warriors while on Planet Namek and essentially becoming an anti-hero. However, Vegeta's character growth while on Namek is more than just begrudgingly teaming up with "the good guys". When he first lands on Namek Vegeta still has the personality of "kill first, ask questions later" he had when he arrived on Earth. However, over the course of his time on Namek and bonding with "the good guys" he begins showing mercy and sometimes acting selflessly in order to help out the Earthlings and Goku.

This is the biggest turning point in Vegeta's character development because the writers throw Vegeta into adverse situations and at first the only way to win is for Vegeta to team up with the heroes, but he begins to enjoy their company and their lawful good actions/personalities begin rubbing off on him making Vegeta a better person as the series goes on. This is called character growth. This personality transformation is very gradual over the course of the entire series and it doesn't completely change Vegeta's personality. He's still very much remains methodical, competitive, and self-serving. But his character growth allows him to act in the betterment of man-kind, form positive relationships with his teammates, a wife, and child. He even shows weakness, hopes, aspirations, and dreams because he's both jealous and crushed when Goku, a fellow Saiyan, achieves the legendary "Super Saiyan" power level before him. Since Vegeta's underlying desire is to be the strongest warrior in the universe, he takes any opportunity to gain a leg up which is evident by allowing himself to be "brainwashed" during the Buu Saga only to reveal he did it on purpose to gain more power and he's actually still a good guy.

But what if I don't have the luxury of developing my character over the course of 243 some-odd episodes in a seven year span?

Nail

Despite being in only one or two episodes of the Planet Namek saga during DBZ's run, Nail shows a wide range of character depth and is an excellent "master text" case. When we first meet Nail it's through his interaction with the Earth Warriors and Vegeta. He's apprehensive of the Earthlings, but treats them as good guys because his fellow Nameks do. On the other hand, when Vegeta shows up, the duo are ready to duke it out to the death until Nail senses five other threats and the Namekian leader asks him, Vegeta, and Earth Warriors to stop the five threats. The all oblige and Nail puts his distrust of the off-worlders aside to deal with the bigger threat. Sadly, Frieza shows up to murderize some knowledge out of the the Namekian leader so Nail disobeys orders to turn around and protect his leader. Unfortunately, this selfless act is partially in vain as Frieza kills almost every Namekian, but Nail sacrifices himself so a Namekian child can flee and help the Earth Warriors activate the Dragon Balls.

Spoiler alert: the good guys end up winning and they bring back all the Namekians to life. However, instead of just dying after getting his face smashed in by Frieza, Nail makes Piccolo -- a Namekian from Earth who happens upon the scene well after Frieza flies off after the Dragon Balls -- fuse with him in order to raise Piccolo's power level. This essentially traps Nail's mind and spirit inside of Piccolo for all of eternity making him the only Namekian not revived by the Dragon Balls. He makes this choice knowing full-well the consequences, but he does so because he believes giving up his free will and life will be enough to stop Frieza from destroying the universe.

Derek holds a Bachelor's Degree in Game Design and has two and a half years of game development experience. To view his other work please visit www.dereksinex.com or his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JDKevlar