Ask The Tropers

I believe foils are based around interaction, because that's where the personality highlighting comes from. A comparison just says "hey, they're different". Interaction brings those differences to light, which is the point of a foil.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

That's what the Foil page said. I will add to Square Peg, Round Trope unless I hear any objections.

What if say, a story has two protagonists who never interact? Could they count as foils to each other?

Nope. This has actually been discussed in detail elsewhere, but like I said, the entire point of a foil is that their interactions highlight the contrast between them.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Is this the discussion you're talking about, or are there more?

This, and this TLP draft.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

I think there is another way; The Stations of the Canon. If two protagonists go through the same situation, then they can highlight their traits by the contrast in how they approach the same events. With This Ring has multiple characters thrust into the same/similar situation, and how they change based on their effects on their environment drives much of their characterization, to the point where Renegade/Paragon are one way the fans distinguish them. The author has said the two would never interact, but their actions/reactions have been used to highlight their traits.

Edited by crazysamaritan Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

^ That's what the TLP draft above is trying to trope, actually.

That said, I don't think it's possible for a foil to not exist through interaction. I'm just not sure that situation actually qualifies as making the character a foil. Even the main trope page states:

"Interaction between the characters is key for a pair of characters to qualify as an example. A pair of foils need not have an established relationship before the story begins, but they need to come together at some point in the story and let their opposed personalities contrast one another. Otherwise, we'd just have a list of characters who have opposed personality traits."

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Is that a part of the original definition though? From a quick skim of search results, I'm not finding anything that mentions interaction between foils other than this site. There are some example foils that come up, but I'm not familiar enough with the works to say whether they interact. But one example that's come up is Jekyll and Hyde. Not familiar with the work beyond pop culture osmosis, but they seem they'd be a non-interacting pair, what with the whole two-personalities thing.

I believe the wider sense of the term can include characters who are contrasted not by their mutual relationship but by how they handle the same situation differently. However it is fine if we restrict the use in examples, since any two characters can be foils to each other and we should only list the most prominent.

^ It's a good example. They kind of interact towards the end, when Jekyll looks himself in a room and goes through several bouts of changing, and they leave written messages to each other (and in Hyde's case, a lot of pointed destruction).

Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.

What about if two characters don't interact but characters external to them point out the differences between the two?

Wouldn't Trope Talk be a better place for this conversation?

Edited by GastonRabbit Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Created a Trope Talk for it.