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Die, Jerk!

Fixing the “good” jerk character trope.

By Veronica Valentine Published 3 years ago 3 min read
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Rory queen of the “nice” terrible people.

It’s ten thirty pm and once again I spend twenty minutes mindlessly browsing lists on BuzzFeed. Hey, I have two kids under four and I’m a widow! My brain really can’t handle anything else right now.

The biggest trend I’ve seen lately are lists about “good characters” that are really huge jerks. Amongst the rants you can find the usual suspects, Ted From How I Met Your Mother, Rory from Gilmore Girls and the entire cast of Riverdale.Now, I’m not saying that these fans are wrong, but they are all excellent examples of terrible character development. So, want to avoid having a hated “good character”? Here’s my completely unsolicited advice.

First of all put your money where your mouth is! Ok, so in season one we are almost always introduced to the “nice guy or good girl” character. This character is usually “shy” has a long list of loyal friends and is beloved by their community. Here’s the big thing however, They do nothing nice or noble.

It horrified Rory for example in Gilmore Girls when she realized she hadn’t volunteered enough for her college transcript. Her entire motivation behind volunteering became self-serving! Did she care about families without homes? Or reading to a blind kid? Big nope! She just wanted Harvard to think she was Saint Rory! At least her “evil” friend Paris was honest about her altruistic intentions.

Wow, way to be problematic Rory

In other episodes she passively insults towns people, refuses to be involved in the community and cheats on numerous occasions!

This is although we are constantly told she’s a nice girl and a “good kid”.

Here’s a tip, being quiet and reading a lot are not moral attributes.

Meanwhile, Ted from How I Met Your Mother is only nice to women he wants to have a relationship with. Ted’s constant grand gestures are reserved for the girl of the month. The only rare exception to this rule is of course his best friends wife Lily.

So what should you do? Put your money where your mouth is. An amazing example of this is the too soon cancelled sitcom “Apartment 23”. Good Girl character June is an overwhelming ray of sunshine. We frequently see her helping people to the point of chaos, and they actually make it funny!

June, biggest nice girl ever!

Meanwhile, her co-worker Mark is actually seen being nice to people he doesn’t want to sleep with! Like I said before show don’t tell, show the characters swinging their moral compasses!

Ok so what if you really need to show your character being an asshole but you also need to avoid universal hatred?

Remember, it’s easier to go up than downhill. Technically that shouldn’t be the case, but writing doesn’t follow the rules of physics.

Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Sherlock Holmes played by Benedict Cumberbatch

Helena from Orphan Black

These are all examples of dangerously psychotic characters who end up becoming the good guys!

These are the type of personalities who should really be in true crime podcasts! All it takes is for them to be nice to one cute kid and then wham bam they’re on the path to redemption.

Helena the serial killer! Redeemed by a kid!

Want your character to get away with murder? Then remember, everyone loves a reformed sinner.

One thing fans hate however is backsliding. Do not under any circumstances allow your reformed sinner to fall onto bad habits in the season final. They never forgave spike for sexually assaulting Buffy after years of being her champion. Half the characters in American Horror Story flip from evil to good to evil at the drop of a hat. One of the best examples of this is of course Game of Thrones. Multiple characters had their redemption arcs thrown out the window! Don’t get me started on the horror show that was Jaime Lannister. Constancy is key folks!

Look I get it, writing is hard! Sometimes in order to create conflict its easier to just throw in some truly jerk moves. But.. and this is the big but! Remember fans are watching. Fans hate inconsistent heros. Above all else however, it’s important to keep your characters human. No one is inherently good or bad, people are above all else people.

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About the Creator

Veronica Valentine

Writing into the void!

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