How Harmful Are "Extraneous" Characters to a Comic Overall? (Discussion)

[Rhonder]

Hey there! I'm in the process of writing the plot/script for a short one-shot comic and ran into the title question while examining my story/characters. First I'll define what I'm referring to as an extraneous character:

-A character that makes sense to exist in the setting you're writing, but that has little-to-no real plot relevance. Essentially a character that's kind of there for fluff, more or less.

The set up for my cast (currently) is an adventurer group of 4 people, then a rival group of also 4 people that have limited screen time (besides their leader), and an antagonist. While writing the plot I came to the realization that only 2 of the main characters, 2 of the rival characters, and the antagonist are really plot relevant, and while starting to script it out, a 3rd main character helps to make the dialogue flow better.

Which leads me to that 4th main character: I'm torn, because while I love his design and silly 1-liners, he really just feels like filler in this story. It feels like in a 40-ish page one-shot like this he just wont really have time to shine. Thus I've come to the conclusion that I should probably omit him and one of the minor rival characters to streamline the whole thing.

But I'm interested in hearing everyone's opinion! If you read a comic (particularly a shorter one-shot, where you know the character isn't going to get fleshed out later, necessarily) that has an extraneous character, does that leave a negative impression? Does it not bother you one way or the other? Could having a fluffy comic relief character even be beneficial? Let me know :]

[eabemie]

I'm speaking right now as a writer so I need to make that clear. I cannot and do not draw. LOL with that said, I'll say that I think the "filler" character or comic relief character could easily be an integral part of the plot. It all depends on the genre of your comic. Is it more serious? Is it a drama? Are you hoping to break up the seriousness of the comic with some comic relief? How does this character interact with the others? Does he reveal something about that character, or make another character see someone more important differently?

What I'm trying to say is, although the character themselves may not be important to the plot, that does not mean they're not important to the world. If they have an effect on the character development of other more key characters, OR if they provide the comics story with comic relief, then I wouldn't be so quick to disregard them.

Hope this helps!

[silverraven0]

Cannon fodder is a pretty essential existence in any (most) story .

[Rhonder]

Ah, that's interesting insight! It's the kind of scenario where, if this were a longer story I wouldn't think twice about keeping the character, simply because there would be time to put them in the spotlight.

BUT your point is excellent. As long as a character like that is written well, they can gain value. The challenge then is making sure to write them in such a way as to accomplish that.

I'll take that into consideration when I hop back into the script~ Really evaluate each scene to see if I can fit them in in a useful way.

[Rhonder]

Very true! I guess the distinguishing factor I made in my head is that there's like... cannon fodder characters anyways (generic guards, the town mayor who sets the main plot in action, etc) but the character in question is part of the main crew... but just isn't very relevant for this particular plot line. However, perhaps that isn't an inherently bad thing if the lines and scenes they do get are written well. I'll reflect on that when I get back to writing :]

[SleepingPoppy]

Maybe a good way to tell is to ask yourself if upon removing this character, does the story feel different/like it’s missing anything?

Its good to remember not ever character actually needs to be fleshed out. If having the character helps break up tension with a funny line, and rounds out the dynamic of your foursome, you might want to keep them. If they’re just making extra work for you and not adding to the story, trim the fat!

[Rhombik]

That's a good question! In my opinion, fillers should be avoided but that's not to say you can't make the character more important or combine him with another character.

[indagold]

If removing the character has no impact on the story but is focused too much on then remove it. If its like a side character that shows up on occasion and isn't focused too much on, keep it I guess? A poorly fleshed out main character probably hurts a story more than some side character that doesn't have much impact on the plot.

[storytimebiondi]

I feel like I want to dispute the point of characters existing only for comic relief. For this I'd like to remind everyone about Jar Jar Binks. Characters can be comic relief, but they also must, in some way, contribute to the overall story. They shouldn't simply "be".
I feel like your issue is not one of "should I cut or keep because they contribute nothing to the plot", but instead it's an issue of "I don't know these characters well enough for them to have any meaning to the story".
I've often had characters that seem sort of accessory to the overall tale. This is most often fixed by just sitting down and developing them. Give them cool back story, give them some really sweet trait. It doesn't have to be brought up ever in the story you're writing, but it will help that character make a decision at least once in the story you're writing; and that decision is their relevance to the plot. It's the thing they do that steers the narrative down another path.

[mrtoontastic]

If there are too many extrenous characters in a comic then the comic or chapter of a comic becomes the equivalent of a filler episode of an anime. If the plot doesn't move or flow even with the extraneous characters around, then there's no story.

[joannekwan]

If you really do want to keep him, I would look at why this character means so much to the group that he's a part of. Look at the relationship between him and his group-mates and maybe you can find some plot relevance for him there.

On the general side of things, extraneous characters are just extraneous to me. I'll usually forget their names and maybe even their appearance if they don't serve the plot or directly aid/hinder the protagonist in any way. I mean, they don't leave a totally negative impression (unless they're annoying), but they don't leave a positive one either (unless they're eye-candy or something).

[punkarsenic]

i think given the size of your project, omitting characters that dont carry the plot to streamline things is a common tactic. look how many films and stage adaptations merge and omit characters - wicked comes to mind. onstage, fiyero is the main love interest, and hes a merge of two book characters. it gets shady bc hes a merge of a pampered and irrelevant white dude and a really relevant black dude (original fiyero), but fiyero onstage is usually white and is the pampered white dude but w original black fiyeros storyline, but point is they made the merge to streamline the story (and honestly, wicked needs streamlining. what a fucking tome.)

that said, story and plot are distinguishable, and while your 'throwaway' character might not carry the plot, they might be really important to the story - character development and arcs. how does he relate to the other characters? whats his contribution to the group dynamic?

i think if you included him, you could be criticised for underutilising his character, and for efficiency's sake youd be best dropping him, but do take into consideration his worth in relation to the other characters when making that decision. and hey, you love him, you enjoy writing him - if you love him enough to allow him the space he needs in your comic, do it.

[shazzbaa]

I agree with the folks who've suggested really taking time to figure out what's special about him to you, and what would actually happen to the group's dynamic and the story if he were removed.

If it turns out that he doesn't really have anything that's important to this story or this group, it's just that you think he's a fun OC... and he's not fun enough that you want to give him a real place in the story.... then I think it would probably be Good Writing to remove him.

I think in general the Good Writing option is usually to cut out things that you know have no real place in this story. The place I often come to is, do I care about this element enough that I want to include it even if it's technically Not Good Writing? Sometimes, for me, the answer is yes. I find that I want to try to make this work rather than just cutting it because something about it is very important to me and needs to be in this story, even if I can't put my finger on why.

[DiegoPalacios]

Remember, if you like something, but it doesn`t fit your current story, you can save it for another story so it can shine better.

[revisionstudios]

I think another great way to trim while still keeping the parts you like is by giving the traits of the cut character to another character. Maybe one of your other cast members can have those witty one liners and play the comic relief at times and it's just another side of their personality. This way, you can trim the excess and further develop an existing character!

[Rhonder]

Wow, I appreciate all of the responses! There's a lot of good stuff to think about here

I'm hopping back into the writing tonight, but I'm leaning toward @revisionstudios, @punkarsenic, and @Rhombik's suggestion of adapting some of the traits of Character 4 into Character 3, (or potentially the opposite, dissolve 3 down into 4; I'll have to re-examine the scenarios and see which seems most applicable).

@storytimebiondi - This outlook was particularly useful, I think! Due to the scope of the project, I've aimed to spin the story around a single character's arc, the main character. A few of the other ones are key in MC's development, but I wound up with more characters than I actually needed to make the party "look right" (in terms of # of people, variety - according to an arbitrary picture of those things that I envisioned haha).

Further, what you said about developing the character more, to find where they can make a decision that alters the path of the story is really interesting! In an earlier draft, there was one scene where the character was actually a key player and had a large impact. However, I ended up editing the scene down quite a bit, as the way it was originally written would take up way too many pages relative to its importance.

I think this issue that I've encountered is actually an interesting lesson in short vs. long story telling: If this were an arc in a longer story instead of a short one-shot, I wouldn't necessarily have questioned using the longer version of that scene, perhaps developing it into its own chapter, because it would have been a key moment for the character in question to develop. However, since I really want to focus on the strong development of a single character, having that longer scene isn't necessary, and thus the would-be important 4th character became irrelevant. I'm sure I could tackle the story at a super intricate level to force some relevance into that character, but outside of being an interesting exercise I think that would start to pull away from the story I'm trying to tell.

Rambled a bit there, but this was a lot of useful feedback Even the posters I didn't specifically tag haha. Definitely open to hearing more perspectives though!

[storytimebiondi]

I'm really glad I was able to help! I hope this project turns out to be everything you imagined it to be!