Star Wars Writing Tips and Tricks.

Groups of Similar Opposites.

It's very unusual to find a story where the protagonist is alone and has no interaction with another character or does not become part of a group. It almost seems to be an essential part of storytelling.

Examples of group dynamics that have proven to work in popular works of fiction include the Fellowship from Lord of the Rings, Team Voltron from Voltron: Legendary Defender, Hiccup and friends from the How To Train Your Dragon franchise, the Gaang from Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Ghost crew from Star Wars Rebels, list is practically endless.

But what is it about these group dynamics that appeals to us as the audience?

The interactions between the individual characters are often one of the many reasons why we are drawn to certain groups in works that we love. Because no two characters act the same. If they did, we'd probably stop enjoying it, mostly due to predictability, and find something else to entertain us.

Let's take another of RoosterTeeths popular works RWBY as an example. The titular team is made up of Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long who all have different backgrounds that make you root for the individual characters.

In the beginning, Ruby is energetic and happy-go-lucky, Weiss is cold and aloof from her team, Blake is quiet and secretive, and Yang is the hotheaded, overprotective elder half-sister of Ruby.

By season 6, after they have had some adventures together and have bonded to one another more closely, Weiss and Blake are less aloof and secretive respectively to the team whereas Yang has become more aggressive to those around her. Ruby still has mostly the same personality about her, though she has become more assertive and more of a leader as the series has progressed on.

Characters change over time and because of what happens to them. No one character should stay the absolute same throughout an entire work, they need to grow and adapt as the viewers grow alongside the characters. This not only also works for much larger groups but also for pairs and trios.

Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black, two of the antagonists in RWBY, are good examples of pairs working. Initially, Emerald appears to be the one in control of the pair and frustrated at Mercury's nonchalantness as he goes about with her completing the missions assigned to them by Cinder Fall, another antagonist. Their roles appear to be reversed in the aftermath of season 5, as Emerald begins to fall apart and Mercury's more ruthless side starts to come into play. The season 6 finale shows that they are both equally as lost as one another, just in different ways, and are going to need one another in the coming seasons even though they do not appear to be on the greatest terms with one another.

The Branwen twins, Qrow and Raven, are also good examples of pair dynamics. It is implied that they were once quite close to one another, especially during their days in Team STRQ as Beacon Academy students, Raven seeming to counteract Qrow's semblance of Bad Luck. However, after graduating and working with Ozpin for a while, during which Ozpin used his magic to grant them the ability to turn into the birds of their names, Raven began to see that Ozpin wasn't who he was saying he was and left his inner circle, which put her at odds with her twin brother Qrow who was very loyal to Ozpin.

Eventually, Raven proved to be correct in her suspicions of Ozpin and Qrow quickly spiralled down into a hole and turned more frequently to alcohol, which appears to be his crutch for past mistakes, and put the rest of the group in danger from Grimm attacks.

Other pairs that work closely from RWBY include Torchwick and Neo, Ozpin/Ozma and Salem, Ozpin and Glenda Goodwitch, Taiyang and Qrow, Qrow and Summer, Cinder and Emerald, Blake and Sun, Blake and Ilia, Ren and Nora, Jaune and Pyhrra, among others.