Tiny Warlord In A Metal Castle
This setup is perfect for playing with the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. Make the knight a little more brash, maybe, and set up situations in which his 'idealistic' way of dealing with things leads to more people being hurt than the practical doctor's solutions. With only two main characters, too, you would have the capability to add a lot more complexity to them both: while the Knight is at first glance a representative of Idealism and the Doctor a Cynical Pragmatist, real people aren't this simple. Doctoring, while it tends to make people cynical, is an inherently idealistic profession - saving lives. Knighting involves the carefully applied science of killing people in the name of your cause of choice, or just your honour. Try to bring out the inherent hypocrisy of their attitudes. Just play with the scale.
After all that - given the tiny bit you've said about your work, I'd read this. Good luck with it.
No, I'm not dead. I cannot die. My own assistants tried to kill me, but like Rasputin, I notice not the poison and laugh at their icepicks.
The Puzzler
Is the doctor a chirurgeon or a master? *
Has ADD, plays World of Tanks, thinks up crazy ideas like children making spaceships for Hitler. Occasionally writes them down.
Lv. 3 Genasi Wizard
Technically a pharmacist, but with enough general medical knowledge to serve as a make shift doctor.
And yeah, I've already thought about the fact that, yeah, the knight has the job of killing people when he's busy talking about protecting others, resulting in a cynical job. The doctor, on the other hand, yeah, despises people in general but is the best at helping them, is also a nice juxtaposition.
The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.
Basically, I've got a skeleton of story about a doctor and knight traveling together. The doctor is cynical but rooted in reality, though often bordering on defeatism at times, but regardless sticks around with the knight. The knight is idealistic to the point of ignoring reality, bordering on batshit insane at times. He needs the doctor to more or less patch him up with all of the injuries he practically asks to get and the doctor needs him as body guard of sorts since the places they end up going through aren't exactly friendly.
The two, via the fact that they're extreme foils, more or less form this sort of "We hate each other, but we're friends sort of deal", but work together to solve not only their problems but the problems of people they run into (who, all too often, are even more insane).
However, the problem is, the knight comes off as right far too often. Maybe it's because I characterize myself as idealistic, but the knight feels like he's too right at times and has all of the flashy battles while the doctor typically ends up solving problems in the most anti-climatic (but practical) way possible. I guess what I'm saying is that the knight is hogging the show even though he shouldn't be. Making the doctor more out spoken just makes her a jerk and making her more direct just causes her to become another girl with a gun and she begins to lose personality.
I suppose the question is, how do I make the doctor get as much attention as the knight without breaking her character?
edited 25th Feb '11 3:39:44 AM by Usht
The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.