They can also become a Static Character trapped in amber with repeat uses of a Reset Button or Snap Back, negating what little growth they manage and they may mutate into another sort of Flat Character with Flanderization. Or some characters can look flat until the Red Herring Shirt reveal shows that they are truly full characters. The audience doesn't need to know everything about the character to understand quickly what role they'll play in the story because of the stock character's easily recognizable characteristics.Ĭharacters who start out flat can be fleshed out into Rounded Characters with Character Development, Hidden Depths and/or being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. Nominal Importance is another example of this.įor this reason, Stock Characters are used to flesh out a world without bogging down the story with endless backstory for each character.

This is why we get the Fatal Family Photo - if an otherwise interchangeable Red Shirt takes the time to establish his hopes and dreams, it's obvious they're going to be dashed in the name of drama. The Spear Carrier, the Red Shirt, and the Bit Character may require a Flat Character, to prevent the reader from feeling cheated. Indeed, adding details to the character indicates to the audience that the character is to be important. all comes under the heading of 'too much information.' By the time all that is relayed, the customer waiting for their drink has died of thirst. The fact that the cocktail waitress is a leukemia survivor who is working two shifts to pay off her medical bills, all while trying to polish off her doctoral dissertation on Ming-era Chinese poetry, squeezing out enough time to decide which of her three suitors will best be able to get along with her aging, beloved Pomeranian-Pug pup. Character depth should be proportional to the character's importance to the story. Benny, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second PartĪ flat character is one that has only the bare minimum of characteristics necessary to play their role in the story.īeing flat is not automatically bad.

What is the purpose of flat characters