Lesson 5

[Brenda Boddy]

Brenda Boddy – Character emotions
What I learned doing this assignment: This was a breakthrough for me. It showed me how to give my characters subtext through their actions. The backstory creates the present actions.
ASSIGNMENT 1: Example Show
Watch the next episode of your Example Show and create an Emotional Profile for two or three main characters in this show.
Clark:
A. HOPE: To save the ship/Fear: They will kill off more people.
B. WANT: To contact the ship. NEED: To be with Finn or maybe have a connection with someone after feeling her mom betrayed her.
C. BASE NEGATIVE EMOTION: Pain over father and perceived mother’s betrayal. Public Mask: Savior and healer.
D. WEAKNESSES:
E. TRIGGERS: Her pain and fear of failure.
F. COPING MECHANISM: Fight back.

Bellamy:
G. HOPE: To keep the adults, on the arc, from coming to earth. FEAR: They will punish him.
H. WANT: To protect his sister.
I. BASE NEGATIVE EMOTION: Guilt for his mother’s death and his sister’s imprisonment. Public Mask: Leader
J. WEAKNESSES: Terrified of being powerless.
K. TRIGGERS: Anything that feels like it will take his power or endanger his sister.
L. COPING MECHANISM: Action and potentially dominating the resistance he faces.

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ASSIGNMENT 2: Your Show
1. For each of your main characters, brainstorm an Emotional Profile, filling in the following:

JUSTICE:
• A. Situational: Hope: To go home. / Fear: That he’s stuck in the future.
• B. Motivation: Want: To go home. / Need: Fit in with his peers. Survival in the new world.
• C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Not qualified. Fear. / Public Mask: Confident, lawman. Capable.
• D. Weaknesses: Lack of knowledge.
• E. Triggers: Fear (danger to family, that he will fail his ‘test’ and not be able to go home, that he won’t make it as a modern lawman). Bad actors, bullying, someone taking advantage of a weaker person.
• F. Coping Mechanism: Action, fight back.
CHARACTER ARC HISTORY: Justice is a fish out of water from the past, who needs to learn modern ways. He was married to the love of his life who died in childbirth, leaving him a son who was four at the time Justice reincarnated.
Justice was raised by an educated lawyer back East but was dyslexic and had trouble reading and writing. He embarrassed his upright, snooty father, who was disappointed in him and blamed his lack of education on being lazy.
Justice moved to the Southwest and kicked around on cattle ranches and eventually worked his way into becoming a Texas ranger, finding that he had a knack for shooting and riding. When he fell in love with Elizabeth, he laid his heart at her feet and, to his ongoing guilt, even allowed the competition for her hand to die in a horse accident when he came upon him and could have saved him. He has killed his share of men and isn’t afraid to use his fists when needed. He smokes, drinks, and occasionally whores (because a man has needs but doesn’t feel this is unfaithful to his past love).
CHARACTER ARC – PRESENT: In this new world, Justice will have to hide his inability to read. His language will be old-fashioned and educated. He will be desperate to get back to his son, while trying to survive and learn the ways of a new era. He will have to be courageous and capable to fit into his new job as a BORTAC agent, while being terrified that he’s not up to the job.
Holding onto his love for his wife, Justice will not consummate a relationship with Samantha’s mother, but find an odd attraction to Jewel, who is at odds with him. Miley’s attention will be unwelcome and cause further conflict, pushing him to enter a fake relationship to keep her at bay. His parenting will take a new turn as he is now responsible for a teenage daughter who has been emotionally abused and is full of anger and challenge.

SAMANTHA:
• A. Situational: Hope: to have a normal family. / Fear: Her father will kill her mom.
• B. Motivation: Want: Friends and safety. / Need: To be out of an abusive situation.
• C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Anger / Public Mask: Timid, reclusive.
• D. Weaknesses: Not an adult.
• E. Triggers: Bullying. Abuse.
• F. Coping Mechanism: Recluse, plotting revenge.

MILEY:
• A. Situational: Hope: To find someone to love her and stay. / Fear: That she is flawed/less then good enough/ attracts death.
• B. Motivation: Want: Someone in her life to love. / Need: To accept herself for who she is.
• C. Mask: Base Negative: Worthless, self-absorbed. / Public Mask: Self-sacrificing helper.
• D. Weaknesses: Falls for anyone who shows interest and is taken advantage of.
• E. Triggers: Rejection.
• F. Coping Mechanism: Overeating, bulimia, stalking.
CHARACTER ARC – HISTORY: Growing up in a humble farming community as one of three children raised by a single mother, she learned the value of hard work, resilience, and compassion from a young age. Despite financial struggles, her mother instilled in her a sense of optimism and a belief in the power of kindness.
Her natural inclination to champion the underdog was evident even in her youth where she often stood up for those who were marginalized or mistreated. This desire to help others, combined with her determination to overcome adversity, fueled her ambition to pursue a career where she could make a difference.
In school, she pursued mechanics to empower herself to work on her on rig, a big truck that symbolized her independence and self-sufficiency. She found solace in country music, which resonated with the values of hard work, resilience, and community that she held dear.
When Miley was a teenager, tragedy struck when her two brothers were both killed in a car accident, a result of weekend drinking and carousing. This was followed just a short year later, when Miley’s mother, dying of cancer, begged her to help with assisted suicide. Miley’s guilt over this combined with the loss of everyone she held dear, moved her to begin becoming consumed with the people she dated. She began obsessing about her looks and became bulimic as well as striving to be everything, the person she was dating, held dear. She became terrified of being unloved and left alone in the world.

CHARACTER ARC PRESENT: Miley is stalking her ex…She moves her interest to Justice as she becomes attracted to his masculine capability. (He eventually uses someone else – Kenzie? Jewel? – as a pretend love interest to throw her off) …She tries to discredit whoever she thinks he likes, but when that person is in danger she breaks down and helps her.

JEWEL:
A. Situational: Hope: To feel confident and successful. To help others. / Fear: That she returns to a situation where she no longer has control. A victim.
B. Motivation: Want: Revenge. / Need: To find peace.
C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Victim / Public Mask: Modern Robin Hood activist.
D. Weaknesses: Being powerless.
E. Triggers: Male aggression or negativity toward females.
F. Coping Mechanism: Fights back, manipulates, takes revenge.

CHARACTER ARC – HISTORY: As a child she experienced instability and trauma in the foster care system, bouncing around from one home to another. The lack of stability and consistent caregiving left her feeling abandoned and vulnerable, leading her to develop a strong sense of self-reliance from a young age.
At a pivotal moment in her teenage years, she found herself trapped in an abusive foster home environment. Recognizing that she was the only one who could change her situation, she made the courageous decision to leave.
Faced with the harsh realities of life on the streets, she quickly learned to rely on her resourcefulness and adaptability to survive, until she was snatched up by a drug ring, backed by Cuervo and Miguel. Whether it was finding shelter, securing food, or navigating dangerous situations, she honed her survival skills through trial and error, refusing to let adversity break her spirit.
At a community center she became involved in several programs and services aimed at supporting the physical, emotional, and educational well-being of children and adolescents from underserved backgrounds. They helped her escape the clutches of her Cuervo. She quickly learned that education and access to resources such as computers and books gave her essential skills to work and meet her needs.
With a fierce drive to take control of her own destiny, she worked herself up the ranks of law enforcement and set her sights on BORTAC, a career that made her feel in charge of her life.

CHARACTER ARC – PRESENT: Jewel is working with Internal Affairs to figure out who is a ‘rat’ in the BORTAC agency and might be working with the Mexican Cartel. She is eager to take the cartel down and bitter about the abuse she received at the cartel’s hands, when they owned her as a sex slave. She dreams about revenge.

Internal affairs are investigating Justice. Jewel is aware of Justice’s predecessor’s sexual desires due to his crude flirtations in the work environment when around Jewel. He disgusted her. However, when faced with this new Justice, Jewel is confused and wary of her role in the investigation. Should she proceed to try and expose him if he is no longer the man who possessed the body before? She bristles with animosity.
In the meantime, Jewel has crossed her own moral lines by confronting and killing several sexual predators on her own. It isn’t long before she is complicit with Justice in dealing with the Mexican cartel, and messing up the very investigation that she is involved in.
(When Miley becomes increasingly obsessed over Justice, Jewel enters into a fake relationship with him to keep Miley away?)

MASON:

CHARACTER ARC – HISTORY: Mason was a privileged child who was expected to be a doctor like his dad. Awkward and nerdy, he was often beat up and pushed around and immersed himself in marvel comics of heroes. Shortly after graduating, he trained and obtained the BORTAC position, causing a fight with his father.
Mason is a rule follower and a perfectionist. He wears a mask of joking and chivalry but will punish himself when he feels like he’s failed at a task. He feels vindicated when a bully goes down.

CHARACTER ARC – PRESENT
Mason is eager to be friends with Justice, while gnashing his teeth when Justice crosses boundaries. He is in love with Miley and anguished that she sees everyone else but him (He reminds her of a brother.) He is jealous of Justice’s easy comradeship with others and strives to imitate Justice. In the end he is a true friend, but often plays second fiddle to everyone else.

• A. Situational: Hope: To be popular and have friends. / Fear: No one truly likes him.
• B. Motivation: Want: Miley and friends. / Need: To accept himself.
• C. Mask: Base Negative: Worthless / Public Mask: Fun loving chick magnet.
• D. Weaknesses: Insecurity, overcompensation, lack of boundaries.
• E. Triggers: When left out. Hypersensitivity to slights. Enraged when criticized.
• F. Coping Mechanism: Self-punishment.

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