  Fantasy
This week: The Thief Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.
-Lao Tzu
I don't know why, but audiences are often sympathetic to thieves. Sometimes they are more sympathetic to thieves then they are to earnest people. What does that say about society?
-Matt Dillon
Honor among thieves is the ancestor of all honor.
-John McCarthy
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Continuing my series on Fantasy archetypes, this month, I'm focusing on the Thief.
I'll confess it took me a while to warm up to the idea of the Thief. Comparing the role to that of the previously discussed Warrior and Wizard, I was never too comfortable with the idea of thief-as-protagonist. Thieves, I believed, were criminals who prey on the public indiscriminately: burglars, pickpockets, bankers, muggers.
But then I realized that the Thief archetype isn't about what the thief does, but about how she does it. After all, anyone can steal stuff; all it takes is the motivation and physical ability. Not getting caught at it is another story, and that's what distinguishes the Thief from other archetypes.
Where the Warrior focuses on direct confrontation and arts martial, and the Wizard is all about intellectual pursuits, the Thief is a master of stealth, misdirection, and surprise. To what end these skills are used can be noble or criminal - or both at the same time - but it's the skill set that defines the Thief, just as proficiency in fighting defines the Warrior or knowledge defines the Wizard. While thieves are often story antagonists, they can serve as sympathetic protagonists as well. In fantasy literature, remember that Bilbo Baggins was recruited for his skills as a "burglar."
Sometimes, to achieve noble ends, not-so-noble actions must be performed - and even not-so-legal. This is where the Thief comes in. The spy who breaks into a secure facility to recover documents exonerating a falsely accused person, or incriminating a supposedly upright one; the pickpocket who recovers a family heirloom from the person who stole it; the assassin who takes out an evil dictator; the highwayman who robs greedy merchants - all are examples of thieves that a reader might relate to.
The only real thing that changes about thief characters among different settings is the technology used; a high fantasy thief may be limited to ropes and dark clothing, while a future thief could use stealth technology, antigravity devices, and so on - but faces much greater challenges as well.
So don't hesitate to sneak a thief in there when you're writing; readers love a thief - good, bad, or morally questionable. |
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Last time, in "The Wizard" , I discussed the archetype of the Wizard (and for those who might have missed it, the first in this series: "The Warrior" )
Quick-Quill  : I hope I'm not on the wrong line. but I kind of thought the Wizard could also be the Mentor or the wise one. In most of our stories we have a person with reason. A friend who tames the wild side or acts to defend us even when we are unaware. This Wizard in the fantasy world does the same. Whether Gandalf or Merlin we have a Wise one or the voice of reason that assists the Warrior on their way.
I'm mostly trying to present this series of archetypal characters as story protagonists - the player characters, if you'll permit a term from gaming, as opposed to non-player characters, who are important but secondary to the story of the main character or characters. Gandalf didn't accompany Frodo across the broken waste of Mordor; Sam did. Obi-Wan Kenobi set Luke on his quest, but the story's not *about* him (well, not until the prequels, which we don't discuss in polite company). Point is, I meant to present the Wizard as protagonist, or co-protagonist, not as Sage, which is an entirely different archetype. And I'll be covering the "voice of reason" protagonist in a later installment. I appreciate the comment; I've been meaning to make this distinction more clear.
MacTÃre Taibhse
GhostWolf  : I enjoy this newsletter, but I have to say I am loving the focus on the series of archetypes. The wizard is one of my favorites- one of my heroes from childhood has been Merlin (inherited from my aunt, a former nun, who introduced me to the wizard at a young age through her collections of Merlin figures and artwork)- I even named my dog Merlin (which I have to constantly tell people it is NOT in honor of the BBC's popular abomination of that name- but I digress, that is another topic entirely). While Merlin and Gandalf are popular wizards, I like how you clarified that the archetype doesn't always have to follow high fantasy's expectation, and that the base of the archetype doesn't really have anything to do with magic, but rather intellect and pursuit and application of knowledge.
I look forward to more essays on archetypes and thank you for providing me some great directions to great fantasy stories.
Thanks for the comment - of course, it's important for a writer to experiment with different takes on any of these archetypes, but as a reader, it can be useful to figure out which archetype a given character portrays.
FruitSeller : [Submitted Item: "Invalid Item" ] - Mostly I'd like to ask how to effectively introduce new fantasy tropes (like races, magic history) and what the best way to do that is (naturally I already have idea's but any input would be nice).
Any readers want to help out here?
That's it for me for November - see you next month! Until then,
DREAM ON!!! |
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Fantasy: November 18, 2015 Issue [#7325]
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