Every great hero has a reason to fall, don’t they? Fatal flaws, most well-known from Greek tragedies, are the character traits which can lead protagonists to lose their way, their mission, or even their life. When I asked for blog post ideas on Tumblr, my friend sleepyowlwrites offered the concept of my character’s fatal flaws.
It was certainly difficult at first to determine exactly what made my characters tick in such a way. My characters have many problems, of course, but what exactly could make them fall like the heroes of old?
For this post, I decided to focus on Melandra and Caspian, my two protagonists in Ghosts of the Steel Road and its sequels, along with Fastyma, my protagonist from the novel I wrote in April and May.
Melandra: Impulsiveness
Melandra is a bit of a hypocrite. She hates the spotlight, and yet, she hates waiting and doing absolutely nothing while waiting.
Though she would never actually admit it, Melandra’s impulsiveness has gotten her in trouble more than once. The string of jobs she was fired from is definitely a sign, but her problems become bigger than just a job during the events of Ghosts of the Steel Road.
She’s quick to fight, to do something she’s not supposed to. And everyone knows that about Melandra, from her friends to her enemies. It shouldn’t be a surprise at all that the antagonists of the series do everything they can to manipulate her impulsiveness to their advantage.
But what will happen if she pulls her knife on the wrong person? Will she kill something that didn’t deserve it, or will Melandra get killed herself?
More patient people have tried many times to sway her away from her impulsive tendencies, but no one has yet succeeded, despite the risks.
Caspian: Insecurity
Caspian’s whole life has been marked by insecurity in some way. That’s the way it is when you grow up in a thieving ring, with the assumption that you should be willing to do anything in order to make up for being saved when you were just a baby.
But Caspian’s insecurity also runs internally. Whenever he looks in the mirror, all he can see is a monster doomed to hurt everyone he goes near. Caspian is still the Flame Thief, the one who had the ability to burn anyone he wanted to a crisp.
Of course, Caspian has never actually killed anyone, but that doesn’t change things in his mind.
Even in moments of what should be safety, though, Caspian’s insecurity can get the best of him, turning into near-paranoia. What if he hurts his new friends? What if he’s actually a fraud, and it’s only a matter of time until everyone turns on him for it? Can he even trust his judgement at all?
With his insecurity, Caspian risks doing the one thing he fears most: hurting others. Even worse, in his blind paranoia, he may end up hurting himself in a way he’ll never be able to recover from.
Fastyma: Commitment to Duty
If you’re given a job, you do it. For many people, this is just good work ethic, but for Fastyma, protagonist of my newest novel wip, the truth runs much deeper.
Fastyma has been told she has one duty in life: to be sacrificed to a powerful dragon, who had bargained a yearly sacrifice in exchange for leaving the kingdom be.
As one would expect, things don’t quite go as planned, but that doesn’t stop Fastyma from believing that she still needed to do everything possible to complete her one reason for being alive. It doesn’t matter if she needs to travel halfway across the kingdom, defy the gods, or piss off kings, Fastyma will do anything to fulfill her duty to protect the people around her.
If things had gone smoothly, Fastyma would’ve been dead right away. But it is her continued commitment to her duty, even after learning that things may not be all as they seem, that can and will bring her consequences even worse than a simple, quick death at the teeth of a dragon.
To think about my characters’ fatal flaws was an interesting exercise. Of course, my point of view is just one of many. As I work to share more of my stories with others, I’m excited to see what they believe the worst fatal flaws of my characters are, especially if my readers see something I never saw before.
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