Minor character thingy. Which may not make sense.

[lesbiassparrow]

I was pondering this while watching Konstantine on HBO (don't even think about the connection because there isn't one). 

Do you think it's easier to be a minor character in a show? And by easier I mean 'be more liked'?  I only say this because when I used to go over to TWoP more regularly there'd always be a whole slew of posts about how X who only had a few lines should be much more central or something and take over the show from the rubbish leads. 

The thing is I've always figured that the great thing about minor characters is that (usually) they don't have time to wear out their welcome. Then get to come on the screen be interesting and different for an episode or two and then go off before anyone has a chance to get tired of them.  Whereas the characters you get every week, well they mess up on a regular basis because you see them more and perfection is horribly boring. But I do spend a lot of my time suspecting that if the minor characters became major characters with backstory and a whole season worth of episodes people would be all 'fecking wanker! s/he's useless. I bet [even more minor character] would be more interesting.' 

Or maybe I am just wrong about all of this.  Which is entirely possible.

Comments

[lilith-morgana.livejournal.com]

I think you're right - if the minor characters ended up being leads we'd tire of them, too. Which might say something about how lead characters usually are written?

But also, I think people identify with the minor characters much more than they ever identify with the Hero/lead character. (At least I do.) And there's a little tendency to go "oh god, I a Real Companion/Woman/Girlfriend/Minor Character would have been so much better in that situation."

Also, minor characters can often be more flawed (and often more generalised, if you know what I mean - they can be any of us, we know enough to identify but not enough for it to be too specific) than central characters, which makes it so much easier to both relate to them and like them. Many people have an extremely low tolerance for perfection. Tin dogs, anti-heroes, often even villains - now those are characters we like.

Oh, I don't know. I just babble.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Also, minor characters can often be more flawed

And the advantage is that their flaws don't get shown as often, so you're not 'oh not that again! when will they be different. boring wankers!' It's variety.

And as you say, they're more like us, or at least we can imagine ourselves as them because we don't know that much about them (and when we do it is often a disappointment).

But I don't get people who seem to automatically loathe major characters as a sort of reflex action. Or expect them to ditch the major character or get annoyed because there is not enough of the minor characters, because that does sort of run against the way fiction, films and tv shows are written.