I've been meaning to do this for some time now. I just want to start this discussion and hopefully clarify some misconceptions out there. Forgive me if this goes on too long. First of all, we need to learn the definition of three key terms here. In my owns words,
Character Development-The process by which a character changes and grows over the course of a narrative, in this case, a TV series. Eg. learning a valuable lesson
Characterization-A character's attributes, attitude, quirks, interests, likes and dislikes. Basically, a character's personality.
Character Focus-I don't know the proper term for this but it's exactly what you think it is. The amount of screentime or spotlight a character gets.
Note: There's a fourth factor having to do with contributing to the team (eg. brawn, brains) and it's kind of related to this. But eh, let's not touch it.
Okay, three completely different terms, they go hand and hand but one doesn't always come with the other. I wanna make sure to clarify what those words mean because we tend to get them mixed up, particularly Character Development. That word is so overused that's it's really starting to irritate me, and people misuse it so much. Let me just say something here.
Being the star of several episodes is not character development.
Changing suit colors is not character development.
Having a bunch hobbies and being good at a lot of stuff is not character development.
Leaving and coming back later is not character development
Having a backstory is not character development
Having a love interest, specifically being the leader/protagonist's love interest is not character development.
All these things can LEAD to character development but it's not character development in itself.
Now to clarify some of those misconceptions I mentioned. There are more but for the sake of shortening the post, I'll just settle for one and use it as an example.
Madison is NOT the least developed in Mystic Force. In Rock Solid, she learns to be more confident, and in another episode, can't remember the name, she learns to step up, take charge of a situation and contribute to the team. Plus, she gets over her fear of frogs. In fact, Madison is higher than Chip on the character development chain, I guess in certain episodes he learns how serious being a superhero is but that's the thing, we never get the impression he takes it for a joke. Yeah, he's all excited and happy about it but for the most part, he's just as serious everyone else about being a ranger. The least developed is in fact Vida, she never grows out of her brutish tendencies and in Hard Heads, by the end of episode, we see that she and Nick have not learned their lesson. The closest thing to development is getting over her hatred of pink, something that was only touched upon in the first and last episode, not even directly in the latter's case. Now, "Who's Madison" must be brought up, it suggests she has the least amount of personality of the rangers, this is where characterization comes in. She's sweet, shy, creative, bookish, quiet, helpful, sensitive, calm and observant. And none of these are informed attributes, we see all of this play out. In terms of character focus, she does indeed get the least, this is correct.
Now I don't want this post to drag on too long. So key points
-I think character development is a somewhat overrated concept. Yes it can be important when telling a story but is not mandatory to have a good character, especially when you realize the actual definition. TJ, Carter and Tori are all well liked yet they had no character development, because they didn't necessarily need any. So, saying a character is undeveloped is not really a bad thing. And people need to stop with the "I like this character because their more developed".
-Every season has the exact same amount of character development. One or two fit the full definition while everyone else fits half of the definition. Everyone else drops the "over the course" half but keep the "change and growth" half. In other words, their character development takes place in one episode. Eg. Trini in High Five (getting over her fear of heights), Summer in Ranger Yellow (changing her spoiled ways).
-I don't want to turn this discussion into MMPR vs RPM but they are on the opposite sides of the spectrum when talking about this topic. RPM, like every other season, has one (Dillon), and maybe two (Ziggy) rangers who go through full on character development. MMPR has Billy, who goes through most of his character development in season ONE! Not season three and certainly not season 2 (switching glasses for contacts is not character development).
-Speaking of Billy and Summer, another reason why I think character development is an overrated concept is because it can drain the uniqueness out of a character. Summer would have been far more interesting if she maintain her spoiled girl attributes when she became a ranger. After that, her only unique characteristics are her motorcycle and being kind and caring, a default trait that all rangers (even Dillon) have but I guess it's emphasized enough to be noteworthy. And I think Billy was a far more interesting and unique character pre-development. Plus, if he was good enough to be Power Ranger as an awkward nerd, why should he have to change?
-People need to stop getting these three terms mixed up and stop saying character development/growth when they mean to say characterization/characteristics/personality (Which they are rarely right about, especially when talking about a character that's supposedly less developed) or screentime/spotlight/focus (Which is usually the real case when they say a character's the least developed) because it causes these very common misconceptions that really annoy me.
Now, this may have been discussed before but I used the search function, I'm sure if I do a full web search, I might find something but hey, one more repeated topic won't hurt. Maybe I'm not entirely informed about what I'm talking about but I think I know enough to understand what character development is, my best subject is Literature.
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