Babel Clash

The biggest problem of putting Gods into a story, in my opinion, is that Gods tend to be very powerful, yet as every storyteller knows, the most dramatic characters have flaws.   Ask any one who watches ‘House’.   Flaws are interesting, and give the character something to struggle against, and viewers or readers something to empathise with.

So how flawed is too flawed?   I think House is a great character, but though I’ve seen it a few times, I don’t watch the show because a) I’m not much into the whole medical show thing, and b) at times I think the character overdoes it.   As characters go, House isn’t big on nuance, and I find his schtick at times just endless.

On the other hand, some characters aren’t flawed enough.   Let’s reference a more recent TV show (and yes, I am using TV in preference to books because let’s face it, there’s a far greater chance more readers will have seen a particular TV show than read a particular book) in Castle.   The lead character, Rick Castle, has obvious flaws — vanity, immaturity, etc, but done in a lovable way.   That’s the key to a good character flaw, they have to make the character if not more lovable (House is not always that) then at least more sympathetic (he does save peoples’ loves, so we forgive him).

Yet Castle’s opposite, Kate Beckett (the scrumptious Stana Katic) started the series too perfect, the beautiful homicide detective who is not only brilliant, but somehow the only woman in NYC resistant to Castle’s charms.   Her ‘perfect detective’ thing made her a little aloof and distant at first, and the writers have been busy adding lovable flaws to her character ever since — she’s a lot more insecure now, and her struggles to hide it and pretend otherwise are quite entertaining.   In short, vulnerability, which is so much more interesting in a strong character.   It’s also, as we discussed below, a problem more likely to be inflicted upon female characters than male, as the PC impulse often makes them too perfect, flawless, and thus boring.

When I wrote ‘Sasha’, I figured very early that her principle flaw was the same thing we see in a lot of top athletes — self absorption.   It’s a common trait amongst exceptionally talented people.   It doesn’t necessarily make them bad people, although it can.   But I didn’t want to overdo it, because again, good flaws make characters more lovable, not aggravating.

Here’s the key — in most people, their best qualities are also their worst.   Sasha is a powerful woman in a man’s world, she has no choice but to be driven, passionate and egotistical to some degree, or she simply could not fulfill that role.   These qualities are admirable, yet they can also be called flaws, because while she’s brave, loyal and entertainingly exuberant, she’s also hot tempered and sometimes short sighted — a real handful.   So it’s a balance.   The things that make her lovable also make her sometimes a pain in the neck.   And aren’t most people like that?

I’d steer away from gods in anything I wrote because to counter balance a power or perfection as intense as a god might wield, you’d have to create a flaw so big it’d either annoy everyone, or dominate every other character.

And yes, I did use the word ’scrumptious’.

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