What makes an iconic character?

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dclary

dclary

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My son, Stephen, is 5 years old.

He has never once seen a Star Wars movie (sorry, he's just too young for that much violence, even the cartoony goofery that is phantom menace)...

and yet his most favorite toy in the world (that he sleeps with, even), is a remote controlled R2D2.

What is it about certain characters that endear you instantly to them?

What can you do to make characters like this in screenplay? For the most part, R2D2 was merely a transition character -- he was used to move the story from Leia on board the blockade runner, to Luke planetside. After that he was just a good secondary character with no story arc.

And yet people remember him. And even knowing nothing about him, people love him.

Can you write characters like that? Do you?
 
Wavy_Blue

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Exir said:
He's adorable!
Click to expand...

QFT. Lulz.

Really, though, he's a little robot with a sarcastic spunk and makes hysterical beeping sounds. On top of this, R2 has a very strong personality, despite the fact that he never speaks.

And thinking of other iconic characters, it's not so much what they said that made them iconic, but what the did. Think Capt. Jack Sparrow, for example. There's dozens of surly pirate characters out there, but how many consistently swagger and contain even an ounce of the charisma that Jack Sparrow does?

I think what makes an iconic character is both that the viewer (or reader, whatever may be the case) can identify with them, but also be fascinated by how interesting that character is.
 
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