Reason & Emotion

Why Reason and Emotion Characters?

Having briefly described the Protagonist and Antagonist, we can already see how they represent basic functions of the Story Mind. The Protagonist represents the drive to try to solve a problem; the Antagonist represents the drive to prevent or avoid success. These two characters teeter back and forth over the course of the story as each in turn gains the advantage.

Even in the most Archetypal terms, this conflict is not enough to describe an argument fully. It fails to address many other basic concerns that occur naturally in the minds of audience members. Therefore, we must incorporate these other concerns into the Story Mind as well. That is why there are six other Archetypal Characters. Just as Protagonist and Antagonist form a pair, the other six Archetypal Characters form three other pairs. Reason and Emotion make up the first of these pairs.

Reason and Emotion Described

The Reason Archetypal Character is calm, collected, and cool, perhaps even cold. It makes decisions and takes action wholly based on logic. (Remember, we say wholly because we are describing an Archetypal Character. As we shall see later, Complex Characters are much more diverse and dimensional.)

The Reason character is the organized, logical type.

The Emotion character is uncontrolled and driven by feelings.

As in real life, Reason is not inherently better than Emotion, nor does Emotion have the edge on Reason. They just have different areas of strength and weakness that may make one more suitable than the other in a given context.

Functionally, the Emotion Character has its heart on its sleeve. It is quick to anger, but also quick to empathize. Because it is frenetic and disorganized, however, most of its energy is uncontrolled. It wastes energy by lashing out in so many directions that it ends up running in circles and getting nowhere. In contrast, the Reason Character seems to lack "humanity" and seemingly has no ability to think from the heart. As a result, the Reason Character often fails to find support for its well-laid plans. It wastes its effort because it has unknowingly violated the personal concerns of others.

In terms of the Story Mind, Reason and Emotion describe the conflict between our purely practical conclusions and considerations of our human side. Throughout a story, the Reason and Emotion Archetypal Characters will conflict over the proper course of action and decision, illustrating the Story Mind's deliberation between intellect and heart.