Making Your Character TOO Important

Add one more to the list of characters who were better before they were important. Or at least important to certain parties.

Sabine Wren, one of the heroes of Star Wars: Rebels, got an upgrade of sorts in Ahsoka when she was turned into a Force user, something that wasn’t in the show…by choice. A recent interview in the Rebels rewatch podcast Pod Of Rebellion, as reported on by Bounding Into Comics, featured an appearance by show producer Henry Gilroy among the usual podcast panel of show voice actors, was asked about Sabine being made a Jedi in her live-action appearance. Turns out that wasn’t just something the original animated series didn’t bother with, it was outright rejected:

In turn, the producer bluntly admitted, “I’ll say that it was absolutely not the plan,” before explaining, “As a matter of fact, we had a discussion in Season Three about whether that and we really felt, not only did it step on Ezra’s story, but it was like a retread – Okay, we already did this.”

“Yeah, the idea of Sabine training as a Jedi when she is already you know, this fantastic warrior of her own type, we felt like, ‘Well, this is overkill.’ So honestly, I had nothing to do with the Ahsoka series, so I was shocked because our entire story team had discussed it in Season Three and thought it was a bad idea. We kind of did a pros and cons list and were like, ‘Oh, yeah, this just kind of like a weak retread, why would we push that way?’”

“However, what I love with [Sabine’s] story about the Dark Saber is you don’t have to be a Jedi to have Jedi ideals and embrace the Jedi philosophy – and I think that’s what’s really like the more important thing rather than ‘Okay, now I’m gonna you know, force push Ezra, you know, one hundred feet when I’ve never used the Force before.’”

So Sabine didn’t need to be a Jedi to be an important character or for her character growth, and in fact her character arc was tied only in the idea that the Jedi ideals are something anyone can follow, which is a good message. Like with superheroes, you don’t need the powers and gear to emulate your favorite hero. A great message for kids that was lost to adults because someone insisted she’d only be good if she were among the important characters in the Star Wars universe, the Force users. Somehow you only matter if you have all the power, meaning that Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, Padme Amidala, Dash Rendar, Giri, Wedge Antilles, the various droids, and anyone else who couldn’t manipulate minds and make things float don’t matter because they didn’t use or in a couple of cases believe in the Force. That is why they fail. It’s not even the only time I’ve seen this in Star Wars, and it’s definitely not the first time in fiction.

“You kind of see Sabine already pick up the leadership mantle when [the Rebels crew] go to Mandalore. She comes into her own from being that kind of ‘I’m going to be the mercenary Mandalorian warrior’ versus ‘Oh wait, I’m part of this this bigger fight against oppression, and I can be a leader, not in commanding troops, but just by demonstrating you know, the leadership skills, which is leading the charge or inspiring people around her by courage. You know how is as a person is a strong person.”

Wrapping his thoughts on the topic, Gilory ultimately told his former Rebels crew members, “I felt that that it that it really kind of diminished her, trying to make her a Jedi, because she doesn’t need it. She doesn’t need to use the Force. So it was definitely a shock to me too to see her, you know, suddenly training.”

He wasn’t even special enough to be on international posters.

Emphasis mine, because that’s the same point I try to make with Finn. His character arc, before The Last Jedi ruined it, was that Finn was a former Stormtrooper for a bunch of Empire wanna-bes who realized he wasn’t cut out to be an evil soldier. His path of growth didn’t require him to develop Force powers. And yet the same people annoyed with Sabine going Jedi totally state that Finn should have been a Jedi, mostly because they hate Rei so much. She is easy to hate for different reasons, but Finn didn’t need to be a Jedi to be interesting. He had his own character arc and not everybody in that galaxy needs to make things float and junk.

This has also been the problem with Sam Wilson and Miles Morales. Sam already had his own hero identity, the Falcon, and fans liked him for years. He not only didn’t need to be Captain America to be important enough to show up in multiple animated projects and The Winter Soldier. In fact it’s a step down that he’s now just an also ran Captain America replacement rather than in the identity he built up himself. This was done for “race war” purposes because apparently taking the mantle from the white man was so important, while fans just see a formerly self-motivated hero wearing the white man’s hand me downs. He can only be important if he has the more “important” name, as is Captain America is more or less important than Spider-Man because of his name and not the legacy Steve Rogers put into it.

Speaking of Spider-Man, Miles. For whatever reason Brian Michael Bendis wasn’t satisfied with making heroes based on and for his kids. He had to make them the important characters. So in the Ultimate universe, Miles replaces Peter after a sacrifice to save the world or something. I didn’t read the story but that’s how it worked in the Spiderverse movies. (I’ve got a dumb commentary to break down if I have time next week on that.) That was acceptable in another universe until every other writer for that imprint ruined the Ultimate universe with a false idea of “maturity” and Miles was drawn into the main universe. Rather than form his own identity in a universe where there’s already the original Spider-Man still active, they still call him Spider-Man, and Peter is going to retire in the Insomniac games universe so Miles can take over rather than Miles being his own hero with his own identity. Even calling him “Spin” in the Disney Junior show is a nickname to not confuse the elementary school-aged audience. The corporate and activist mindsets alike only think he matters if he has the brand name instead of his own name. It’s holding the character back just as it regresses Sam, but the warped sense of what matters and what’s important is held by the people in charge and formerly liked characters now aren’t.

Meanwhile Rory was so determined to protect his wife that he willed himself back into existence in an Auton body of a Centurion to live for centuries while she was stuck in a box. Rory’s a real man to emulate.

It doesn’t stop with just name swaps and having The powers. Look at Doctor Who. He can’t just be a man traveling in a time and space capsule of alternate dimensions who helps people and occasionally saves the universe in the process. All his adventures lately are for all the stakes possible, and that’s still not enough. The Doctor him/herself has to be the most important being in the universe, not just the story. Back with the final classic shows Andrew Cartman wanted to “add back” mystery to a character who for all we knew about him was and still is pretty mysterious, so we got a line in “Remembrance Of The Daleks” that he was “not just another Time Lord”. I took it as just the Doctor being the Doctor, that he’s special because of all the things he’s done and how he takes part in things the Time Lords don’t to help others while not crossing the lines of, for example, the time meddling Monk. No, it was supposed to indicate that there was something special and more important about him due to other factors. While the show never got to explore that the novel Lungbarrow decided he was the reincarnation of “The Other”, the never before mentioned but totally there the whole time third person responsible for Gallifrey obtaining time travel alongside Rassilon and Omega. Did he need to be? No. The Doctor had formed his own destiny. He didn’t need to be the most special ever.

The new series ignored all that, but between Russell T. Davies and Chris Chibnall we got stuff harder to ignore. Davies kills off all the other Time Lords (except the Master because the Doctor needs an alternate, and he still kept trying to get rid of him) so only the Doctor is left, making him special. There are reasons I refer to 10 as “The God Doctor”, because someone of his action, especially after dealing with the Saxon incarnation of the Master, ramped up how powerful he was now that the others of his people went by-by. Steven Moffatt’s “the question that should never be answered” brushed with the idea of the Doctor’s importance but that was brushed aside well before Chibnall introduced that the Doctor actually came from another dimension and brought the secret of regeneration as the Timeless Child. He wasn’t just important, he was important for one of the most special things about Time Lords. Again, except this time it’s annoyingly still canon. I wouldn’t mind if we learned the “Fugitive Doctor”, who makes very little sense the more you think about it, turned out to be the Timeless Child but not a pre-Hartnell Doctor.

Now I’m even seeing it happen with Optimus Prime. Star Convoy, originally Optimus Prime/Convoy reborn in the Japan-exclusive “Battlestars” toyline and tie-in media is finally going to be in a Hasbro line, to the delight of those of us in the West who knew nothing about Star Convoy pre-internet. Except now he’s one of the “13 Primes”, the first Transformers who are the embodiment of the toyline’s various gimmicks. Not sure which one he’ll represent, my guess being base modes based on the original figure, but in Hasbro’s version they decided to reverse the order. Instead of Star Convoy being the resurrection of Optimus, Optimus is the resurrection of Star Convoy, meaning Optimus isn’t just the robot who grew into the role of being the best Autobot commander like in the G1 days, or the “chosen one” of the more recent stories, he’s one of the most important characters in official Transformers lore. I don’t need that. I don’t even need him to be the chosen one. I just need him to be someone who became important by his own hand module, not the destined child of Primus. He becomes boring after that, just like the others I mentioned. Apparently even the great Optimus only matters if he’s the most special person in reality.

What does that mean for those of us who weren’t born special or the most important ever. Sucks to be us! Even with Harry Potter, another chosen one among a group of magic users we can’t hope to be like, we see him grow into that destiny, something we never got with Rodimus Prime. I just said that we can emulate the heroes not because of their powers but what they do with them. You can have the destined chosen ones without making them so special, so important that you only matter if you’re them, if you have the Name attached, if you are destined to be. Watching the Doctor, Optimus Prime, Sabine, Finn, Sam Wilson, and Miles Morales forge their own paths without being the most important person ever and ever to Eternity+ makes them LESS relatable, not more. We can’t be them because we aren’t the most special, rather than showing we don’t have to be. These characters were special by their own actions, not with hand-me-downs or being the most special. It’s like the “My Hero Academia” world, where you’re only special if you have The Gift. If you don’t, get back in line and worship the ones that do. Don’t forge your own destiny. Don’t think you matter unless you have the Destiny or the Name. You only matter if you were always important.

That’s a lie. We can all become something special even if we aren’t the most special. I learned that from my heroes, even some of these characters until the egotistical elitists and social activists came along and decided who gets to be important, usually them or the other “cool kids”. They didn’t “improve” anything. They ruined characters who were already special and relatable without being them.