Perhaps you can’t bring yourself to identify the one character who has the most personal influence on your main character. You’ve gone through the theory book and worked your story through it, but that one choice - who the Impact Character is - keeps that keyboard silent. What are you to do? The answer, it would seem, requires a tumble down the rabbit hole…

In The Matrix (1999), you have Neo/Mr. Anderson (Keanu Reeves) as the Main Character. His major issue is that he’s been chosen. He’s the guy that is going to save all of humanity from the oppressive forces.

The natural choice then for his Impact Character, is Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). Morpheus has one perspective and one perspective alone - Neo is the one. No matter where he goes, Morpheus will always believe that. Even when the Oracle tells him otherwise, Morpheus still holds steadfast to the point-of-view that Neo is going to be the guy.

But there is another character who features prominently in the film who shares the same perspective as Morpheus — Trinity (Carrie Anne-Moss). She feels the same way as Morpheus. And it seems as if she has the same impact on Neo. In fact, both she and Morpheus are saying, “You can’t avoid yourself there, Neo. You are the chosen one.”

So if an Impact Character’s primary role in a story is to force the Main Character to deal with his central issue, which one is it? Morpheus or Trinity?

The anwer is both.

Handing off the Perspective

In Dramatica, perspective is all that matters. In order to have a complete story, you need to show all four points-of-view: “They,” “I”, “You,” and “We.” Characters may come and go but those four filters on a central issue cannot. The characters in a story are not as important as the perspective they are there to represent.

Anyone could have been an Impact Character for Neo as long as they forced him to deal with his problems of being the chosen one. And anyone in your own story could be an Impact Character for your Main Character as long as each replacement character holds the same consistent worldview. It’s important to keep it consistent because it is that perspective on things that causes the Main Character to grow out of or into his resolve.

Changing it would only confuse the issue.

In Dramatica it is called a hand-off. You are handing-off the dramatic function from one character to another. The characters are simply containers for the argument you are trying to provide.

The only trick in doing this is to make sure that both Impact Characters spend little to no time together on screen. Two characters with the same dramatic function in a scene cancel each other out. They seem weak and redundant. It’s like having two chocolate ice cream cones - one in each hand. The first one is great…but do you really need the second?

If you need to have the two of them in a scene it is probably best keep them out of sight of the Main Character.

As far as the Subjective Story goes, Morpheus seems to be the key Impact Character. The relationship in The Matrix is primarily one of teacher/student. The teacher, in this case Morpheus, wants to transform Neo - to change his perception of the world. In the world of the Matrix, reality is what you make of it. Morpheus is trying to “wake him up.”

It is that perspective on things that causes the Main Character to grow out of or into his resolve

Trinity really doesn’t contribute much to this throughline. The only way she could would be to undertake the role of teacher - just like Morpheus. She does have some smatterings of this here and there, but I believe her primary function in the story is that of an Impact Character - to provide additional emphasis to Morpheus’ line of thinking.

Hopefully this sheds some more light on how you can make your stories more complex without becoming complicated. Dramatica is not a set standard of bold-faced rules that you HAVE to follow. You can bend the theory anyway you want - as long as you keep the perspectives and dramatic functions of your characters consistent.

Nowhere in the theory does it say you have to only one Impact Character. You could create a truly original story and have a dozen Impact Characters. The only thing you have to keep unvarying is that “You” perspective - that external influential point-of-vew that will give your Main Character a moment of pause and an opportunity for growth.

After all, in the matrix that is Dramatica, your story is what you make of it.

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Somewhat related to this article

• where is the Impact Character?→

• how the impact character relates to the main character→

• bringing the audience in→

• the main character’s role in the OS→

• There’s a Reason We Are Both Alike→