Convoluted Backstories

It's understood that whenever you introduce a new character in a story, they have a pre-established history which may or may not be important to the plot and/or character development. No character unless they are a new born baby or young child appears out of thin air with a blank space where their past should be. Something as simple as a failed marriage can give the grumpy noir detective something to be grumpy about but when does it become too much or overtly complex?

I have a supporting character, a mentor type for my young protagonist who I think may have too much backstory and would like some advice on this. So the guy's name is Farhan Ali and you can think of him as a Jason Bourne type except he doesn't work for any particular agency and has been going rogue for a while.

He decides to recruit the protagonist for a mission that could prevent a war and part of his backstory plays a part. He used to work for the ISI, which is Pakistan's Intelligence Agency and was in a lasting relationship with another male officer. Naturally this relationship had to be kept secret, Muslim country after all but it put a strain on both parties and they parted. Farhan himself became disillusioned with the direction his country was going and went AWOL as mentioned.

Naturally this leads to a later confrontation between Farhan and his lover where the latter tries to get him to come back, promising to pull all the necessary strings so that he can serve his country again but Farhan rejects this and his lover ends up getting killed simply because he was on the wrong side.

Now all this shouldn't seem too bad right? Well I thought about the fact that Farhan explains that he spent time in India and even had multiple identities set up for the purposes of intelligence gathering. So another aspect of his past is that he was in a relationship with a woman which he made a part of his cover. Now there is an interesting cultural reason for this, in India young bachelor's are seen as trouble makers and/or suspicious. So at many "Paying Guest" or even apartment complexes you can see a sign that says, "No Bachelors" (naturally in practice it's not that clear cut)

Farhan ends up marrying the woman (mostly as a favor so that she could escape her family) and they even have a kid. Eventually Farhan parts ways with her and they feed people a story about how Farhan died in an accident. Now the kid that they end up having grows into her teenage years and ends up living in the same city as the protagonist (she herself is kind of a teen hero). Now my protagonist and this girl become friends and the girl confides in how she lost her father at a young age and has only vague, fuzzy memories of him.

Family and parenthood kind of are a running theme in my story especially with my protagonist being all sorts of screwed up from a life of being an abused orphan. So where I would take this next is that my protagonist urges Farhan to rejoin that family of his that he created, mostly because the protagonist believes that her friend deserves to know the truth. Farhan himself is kind of a "dreams of a white picket fence in the suburbs" kind of guy and regrets having to leave.

So would like some suggestions on this. Does it sound too messy? Does it sound like I combined two characters? And coming to more general questions, how complex or simple should such backstories be?

edited 27th Nov '17 6:17:35 AM by SmokingBun

It's not that bad a backstory, but it could be streamlined. Rather than focus on the two of them, focus on the one.

I suggest focusing on the one where he had a relationship with another male agent. It's the most important one since it lead to his choice to go rogue. Than streamline the other one in India, by saying the fake family was part of the job.

Another thing you should try to do is make it compelling. A serviceable backstory is one where something bad happens. A compelling backstory is one something bad happens and the hero blames himself.

@J.G. Crowne

That could actually work well. I can easily imagine an intelligence agency sending one of their agents on a suicide mission because he doesn't fit a certain image they want to portray or his activities and personal life are somehow 'inconvenient' to them. Except it fails and Farhan survives. Hell, this makes him even closer to Bourne so that's just dandy.

Also, would be easy to say that the marriage and family was part of the cover and the kid was simple happenstance. It would be very interesting to have Farhan re-unite with them considering the woman would most likely be dismissive since from her perspective, the relationship wasn't real but Farhan feels responsible for his very real daughter who thinks her father either ran off or died. Essentially, the girl wants her dad but Farhan's "wife" thinks it's dangerous because as a former ISI agent, she would be monitored.

I agree that it could be streamlined, and the main relationship between Ali and his lover is the more important one to focus on.

The wife and kid could show up, and I actually like that whole bit. It adds another dimension to him as a character. But I can see the kid as happenstance, yes, and that relationship coming up again and messing with his new one. Cover or not, he's a father and I'm guessing that might rankle his lover's chains somewhat. Especially given that they'd be unlikely to be able to start a family in Pakistan if they wanted to. If either one wanted that in the first place.