Thread by @ashleylynch

I'm happy to talk character development, arcs, secondary development and how this relates to story structure.

It's one of my favourite topics of screenwriting.

https://twitter.com/IfIWereMagneto/status/1115398872808022018

Personally I'm astonished at how much of an arc the Russos have been able to give these characters in the movies they've done considering how large the cast is and how little real estate is available.

When you get down to it, it's a huge summer action action film that needs to have a massive setpiece every 20 minutes, reintroduce and give every character a storyline while fitting into the overarching narrative.

There really isn't a lot of room left.

And that fact that no fewer that 6 characters had not insignificant arcs in Infinity War and every character in this unfathomably large cast having their moment to shine... It's a mammoth achievement.

Are any of the characters going to go on a journey as personal and affecting as they do in their solo films? Of course not. That's just not reasonably possible in the group films.

Iron Man 1 - 3 actually make a nice ongoing arc for Tony with the entire series being about his own acceptance of his better self and what that even means.

Iron Man 1 is about stripping away his artifice and coming to terms with what he thought his life's ambition was.

Iron Man 2 is about him recognizing the need to not bear responsible for everything alone and let others into his life.

And Iron Man 3 was about Tony obliterating the duality between himself and Iron Man, that they are one in the same and inseparable.

But given a much shorter runtime that you have to give Tony an arc in any of the Russo films, then end up defaulting back to the Readers Digest version, so you have the main conflict.

Tony vs. his PTSD/need to bear the burden

And this sustains because what appears arrogance and pushing people away (Iron Spider suit auto parachutes taking Spidey out of the fight, thinking he's protecting Pepper by keeping her at arms length), is actually a self-destructive need to bear the burden. It's a contradiction

Contradictions in characters are FANTASTIC! You want then to contradict themselves in ways that reveal character. This is what makes them interesting and revealing, and is at the heart of building a character arc.

And you reveal these contradictions by how they deal with the different secondary characters in the story. Each secondary character teases out a different side of your protagonist's full character and creates those contradictions we want.

Like the way Tony behaves with Strange is entirely different from the way he deals with Peter. With Peter suddenly we see Tony become a mentor. Peter is someone he needs to protect -- a more innocent, purer version of what Tony imagines he once was.

And that's the great thing about these mass team up movies, that there's been enough development outside of these event films and the characters are diverse enough, that with very little shorthand every interaction with a different superhero teases out a side of their character.

Like just the short moment where Rocket asks how much for Bucky's arm. Not only is it a funny call back to both GotG1 and Winter Soldier, but that interaction reveals not only part of Rocket, but part of Bucky, and what their relationship now is.

And all that was accomplished with 4 lines of dialogue and a dismissive shrug.

"How much for the gun?"
"Not for sale."
"How much for the arm?"
Bucky walks away.
"Oh, I'll get that arm."

And I don't want to pull the "if you think it's so simple, why don't you do it card" but I challenge anyone to write a 160 page screenplay with 20 protagonists, has an action petpiece every 20 pages and services all those characters like Infinity War did.

Infinity War is far from a perfect movie and perhaps its greatest strengths are also it's biggest weaknesses, but I marvel (pun intended) at what the Russos achieved with that film. I'm struck with awe.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little journey through character and story.