My first topic in ages...I guess after a while here you get to a point where you can't think of anything you haven't talked about yet. ^^; But I finally thought of something!
So what do you enjoy about characters who are exiled from their societies? Whether they "deserved" it or not; whether they chose exile, were coerced into it, or were physically chased out...whether the society they left behind was even worth staying in at the time. What themes do you explore with these stories; what makes them interesting?
Bonus points if you DON'T mention Zuko (if you're gonna talk about popular media). I know we all love him, but there are other characters out there. ^^;
I was thinking about this because I'm planning an urban fantasy romance where one of the partners has been exiled from a magic society, secretly living in parallel to the human world-- and thus, one of the requirements of this exile was that her memories of her former life were all erased. All she has is a notebook written by her former self, telling her some important aspects of her identity, along with the reason why she was exiled...a crucially important detail that I still haven't figured out. ⚆u⚆;;
I've explored so many options in my head: did she commit a serious crime? A small crime that was used as a convenient excuse to get rid of her? Was she escaping something or someone, and chose voluntarily to leave even if it meant essentially ending her life? A good story could come out of any one of those, but nothing's sticking yet. :T
I have written an exiled character before, though: one of my old favorites, from a completely different story. Basically, he's a prince with an interestingly structured backstory: first he runs away from a bad situation, then he's punished for running away and subsequently refuses to run away from a worse situation, then he's kidnapped and subsequently decides to leave voluntarily from a much better situation. ^^
The point is that the 'kidnapping' was really more of a 'rescue', and when he was finally taught to treat himself well and gained the agency to make his own choice in life, he did. As a result, though, he's one of many 'black sheep' of the royal family, who no longer has the place of reverence in society or sense of purpose that the others enjoy.
He doesn't really get closure, either...he and the other royals are all immortal (and their appearances don't change much...think of it like a world of toys) so although he's technically allowed to go out in public, there's always the risk that some noble will recognize him and try to re-air some dirty laundry from 2,000 years ago. This includes his abusive father, who still wants his son back after literal millennia and never really moved past their original conflict emotionally.
If I had to describe it in a word, it would be...'tiring'. ^^ Which informs this prince's drowsy characterization, and the goal of his arc-- I never actually finished writing it, but I have the general gist in my head, and it's basically that moving forward in life and loving new people requires sacrifice and vulnerability.
For thousands of years he's "stayed out of things" and his life has been relatively peaceful and nice, but when two of his newer friends (the MC, and another exiled royal who many don't even know exists) start having issues, he has to get out of bed and be there for them, even if it means confronting the scary people and sad realities he's avoided until now. Even if he arguably would be better off staying away, simply because he can't afford to anymore.
I think forcing an exiled character into a situation so dire they have to return to society (whether society wants them back or not) is really interesting, and is a great way to showcase their values and how much they and the world have changed since before they left. Past vs. Present and Risk vs. Reward are always themes that work well in stories like these.