Advice on perspectives, please

Hello, Tropers. I'm currently experiencing writer's block with all four novels I'm working on right now, but I still want to write. So I decided I am going to write just a small, unrelated alternate story featuring two characters from one of my novels for the sole purpose of my own amusement that I'll likely delete later. I still want to put effort into it though, because I see it as an opportunity to even further develop these characters.

But here's my dilemma.

One of these characters is a major pacifist and has never hit another person in his life while the other is a cynical, Deadpan Snarker who has no qualms with getting into fights. Because I am sadistic, I want the pacifist to be put in situations where he snaps and is forced to counteract with lethal violence, and then deal with the aftermath. The Deadpan Snarker is already the narrator of the novel they came from and I thought it would be interesting to see things from the other character's perspective, but at the same time it seems like it would be too cliche for the story to be in the perspective of the passive individual that watches himself turn into what, in his opinion, is a Complete Monster. Not to mention, I think it would also be interesting to see from the perspective of the character watching his friend turn into something completely different.

What do, Tropers?

edited 17th Sep '11 11:46:22 AM by MechaJesus

Switch the perspectives around. First tell the story from the Deadpan Snarker, then the pacifist, then the snarker, and so on and so forth.

edited 17th Sep '11 11:51:13 AM by Masterofchaos

I like this idea. Also, why not break the pacifist character into becoming a villain? Have him hit a Despair Event Horizon, or commit progressively more reprehensible actions until he doesn't quite care about his morals anymore.

As I see it, the choice of perspective will heavily affect the tone of the story. For example, you could play it like this:

From the snarker's point of view, the pacifist is The Fool. He's Wrong Genre Savvy and needs to break out of it and give up his idealistic ways before he winds up dead. The moral of the story is that Black-and-Grey Morality doesn't work in a Black-and-Grey Morality world. So the whole tone of the story is cynical, a deconstruction of the Actual Pacifist trope.

From the pacifist's point of view, he is something of a Cosmic Plaything or The Woobie, burdened with a setting that wants to prevent him from living the life of peace he seeks and the snarker is a Trickster Archetype who constantly reminds him of it. Perhaps he becomes a Technical Pacifist and Iron Woobie, or perhaps he cracks. The tone, then, can range from Earn Your Happy Ending to a very dark tale of hopelessness.

Yes! Why didn't I think of it before? Thank you very much, that is what I'll do.

I considered that idea, too. It would make me sad to do it, but it'd be really interesting. But I don't think I'd be able to make it work in the end unless I turned him into a full-fledged Yandere, which also doesn't really fit him. But yeah, I really appreciate the advice.

The main driver in this story is the fact that the two characters are both each other's Most Important Person, and so are fiercely protective of each other. And that will be what pushes the pacifist to kill. Not self-preservation, but the will to protect his best friend.

edited 17th Sep '11 2:33:31 PM by MechaJesus