My wife doesn’t understand how I can have such strong opinions about Boromir, from Lord of the Rings. I even have a lecture about Boromir that I’ve whipped out for numerous students working on character development. My wife claims Boromir is just a bad guy. I rant about how that isn’t true. She again says he’s just a bad guy.
The thing is, I obsess over character. Objectively speaking (I say, somewhat facetiously), characters are everything to a story. You can have the most dastardly plot, the most inspiring setting, the most addictive voice, but if you can’t make characters to carry the story, you have useful tools, but no one to wield them.
So, welcome to my first side character spiral, where I’m going to drive myself mad trying to discern why I obsess over certain characters and not others. What will we learn from this? I don't know, maybe nothing. But as storytellers, it’s so important to know what draws us to characters so we can replicate that for our own readers.
You may not like the same characters I do. I expect you not to. But you will be able to ask the same questions I do, and that’s the point. Don’t just accept why you love certain characters, find out why.
Character of the Day: Genya, Demon Slayer
Heavy Demon Slayer spoilers ahead.
We’ve discussed (and by discuss, I mean I’ve told you) how Demon Slayer was the lynchpin that got me hooked on manga. I sank into the series and needed more, and I’ve been adrift in manga-land ever since.
For reasons unknown to me, but maybe soon to be known, my favorite character from the series is Genya, who is maybe in the story for like, 5-10% of the series, if that. I have a Genya figure next to me on my desk. I have literally told illustrators working on my scripts, “use Genya as a template for this character.”
When Genya first enters the Demon Slayer universe, he’s a complete and total jackass. He hates everything. He’s mean, bitter, a bully, and easily sets himself up as a villain in the hero faction. And then he disappears for awhile, comes back, does some good work, and begins to showcase some complexities. He ain’t all human, let’s say that. In a world where demons are hunted by demon slayers and humans are hunted by demons, Genya is some mix of all of the above.
So there’s a lot to dissect there. The first being that one of the first divisive points within the hero faction is that our protagonist, Tanjiro, is protecting a demon, his sister, from being killed by heroes. The heroes see everything in black and white, and there is no gray.
In Genya’s second appearance, he becomes a very underused gray. It’s very obvious that he has some kind of demon in him, or demon-esque capabilities, that allows him to heal the way demons heal, not to mention his eyes get all warped and stuff, making him look like a demon. Who knows about this? Is he still a good guy? Can he be trusted? Oh, dear reader, wouldn’t you like to know? Because I sure would. I mean, look at this guy…
Bad guy, right? Nope.
We even learn more about his tragic backstory (everyone has one) with his older brother, who is in the upper echelon of the hero faction, and begin to connect more with why Genya is so bitter and disconnected, despite still being a part of the good guy world.
Fast forward to the end, the final showdowns. Genya does his part, he fights his battles, makes an impact and, tragically, is killed after making peace with his brother. I will tell you right now that he should not have died. His brother should have. In fact, it’s almost a Jaime Lannister situation where his arc was going in the absolute right direction until he died, but we’re not here to discuss that. Are we?
Anyway, Genya’s intrigue comes from what we don’t know. He can’t do the things other Demon Slayers can do, but his special ability, which no one else has, is that he can eat demon flesh and gain some demonic abilities, like healing. That sounds pretty sketch for a good guy, yeah? Hence the gray.
But that’s the thing—gray characters are the best characters. You don’t want a textbook hero (Flash Gordon) or a textbook villain (Emperor Ming). Pure good and pure bad is snoozefest. Heroes should be gray, villains should be gray. Side characters should be gray.
Demon Slayer is the exploration of gray. Because Tanjiro’s sister is not a bad demon, it forces the entire Demon Slayer corps to reassess everything they thought they knew. Literally everything. And Tanjiro’s sympathy for even the vilest demons is more exploration of that previously unexplored gray that could change the entire structure of the world.
Yet, while everyone else is exploring the gray for the first time, Genya has been gray this whole time. Which puts him on something of a storytelling pedestal in his uniqueness. Not just in his fighting style, but in the way he is offset by the story itself. Again, this is a very black and white universe. Good vs bad. With that middle ground being explored. There isn’t a lot of “out of the box” thinking happening in the spotlight before Tanjiro arrives. But just outside of that spotlight is Genya.
What did we learn? Personally, quite a bit. Genya is Boromir. As for you, I want to encourage you, when you find yourself drawn to a character, to look at that character in two ways: 1. how does the character compare to the other characters in the story. And 2. how does the character get framed by the story structures?
And okay, since you asked, Genya shouldn’t have died because as the gray became more accepted in this universe, the original gray gets offed. So everyone sees Tanjiro as this trailblazer with his sister, yay for demon’s rights, meanwhile Genya gets his head sliced in half. Boo.
Excellent analysis! I'm now interested in Demon Slayer. I agree with you about Boromir too.