Id, Ego, and Super Ego

I was watching comic writer Alam Moore talk about how to design characters. That bushy Brit is one of my favorite comic writers. With the exception of Watchmen, everything he does is great. For context, I didn't like what happened to Rorschach in the story and everybody talks about Watchmen. It's a good story but it's been talked to death.

Moore states the three dimensions of characters are good and evil, one, characters with flaws, two, and characters that think the story is about them, three. I think a master would know how to use these levels. For me, it's like the super ego is the good and bad characters. It's one part of a dimension such as Golden Age Superman and Lex Luthor. Why does Luthor do evil? Because he is evil. No reason. Better still, it's like the Emperor from Star Wars. He's pure evil without a cause.

Id would be the second layer, referring to what a character wants. Ben Grimm or The Thing from Fantastic Four hates his powers and wants to be human again. He didn't ask to be a monster and would give it up to be normal. 

Third dimension would be the ego. Today, most characters think the story is about them. It fits human psyche because we all think the same. The best example I can think of is ASOFAI or the Song of Fire and Ice series. Everyone is the star in their head which is likely why the writer is taking so long to finish it. It's okay to have characters of different dimensions but you have to know how to use them.

It's like my Picasso rule: if you look at his earlier works he drew normal facea. Only by understanding the rules can you break them.

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