The Role Archetypes series is focused on presenting archetypal character roles in a way that focuses on their development throughout stories, with a particular eye to games (although most of the examples given will be taken from literature).

Today we're going to talk about the Underdog, the third of ten roles we'll explore.

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The Underdog in Narrative

The Underdog is the nexus of a story's conflict. They are the person who is suffering, or will suffer, and depends upon the Hero's success.

This is a key role in the story because the Underdog determines the flow of the plot; they are the fulcrum in the balance of events, positive and negative, that occur throughout the story.

While the term underdog has some implications, the archetypal Underdog doesn't actually need to be poor or weak at the start of the story; they simply must need a heroic endeavor to free them from some great danger. Because of this, the Underdog can often be combined with other character archetypes, though there is no requirement that the Underdog play multiple roles.

It is not uncommon for the Hero to be the Underdog in a story as well, since the Hero is always on a voyage of self-discovery, but this occurs less frequently than what people would originally expect. The Hero is by their nature insufficient for their task at the start of the story, which creates a perception that they are in need, but they are often distantly impacted (if at all) by the true Underdog's needs. In addition, if the Hero begins oblivious to the story's conflict this is typically a sign that they are not the Underdog and the character who invests them emotionally in the conflict will be the Underdog.

Examples of the Underdog

The protagonist of Fight Club is a great example of the Underdog; he finds himself trapped in a postmodern life without meaning, but then winds up sucked into the cult of Tyler Durden. It's a hard movie to discuss without spoiling it, but you can get a feel for it in the trailer below.

An example of the Underdog can also be found in Don Quixote, whose quixotic and delusional wanderings are the result of believing himself to be a chivalrous knight when in fact he has lost both his sanity and his health (he could also be described as an anti-hero).

J.J. Grandville's illustration of Don Quixote, courtesy of Wikimedia

Another example of the Underdog can be found in Princess Leia from Star Wars, who is distinct from the Damsel in Distress variant of the Underdog because after her rescue she returns to leading the Rebellion against the Empire (as she had before) and maintains a certain amount of independence and leadership.

Derivative Forms

The Underdog has a great number of derivative forms that are all relatively crucial to stories, and many of them have a special role in the story or a particular psychic influence.

Old King

The Old King is a common archetypal figure; representing the need for change and spontaneity. Frequently found in fairy-tales, but not exclusively so, the Old King provides the figures around him with a quest; if they fulfill this quest the King will be made new again. In other versions of the story he perishes and is replaced by a less worthy successor, but his dying wish is still laid upon the Hero. By service to the new king the Old King's virtues can be preserved, without his frailty and the stale course of life he reflects.

The Old King is an important symbol that ties into change; to a certain extent even Gilgamesh, the Hero in his own epic, is an Old King figure whose search for immortality reflects his desire to have more chances to explore life. King Arthur, in his later years, often becomes an example of this archetypal figure as well.

Damsel in Distress

The Damsel in Distress is another Underdog counterpart. Whereas other Underdogs often encounter the Hero directly very early on in the story, the Hero seeks after the Damsel in Distress and must try to find her and save her. This archetypal figure is usually feminine; Jung postulates that she is an incarnation of the anima, reflecting the masculine need for the direction that something like the bonds of marriage represent for men who would otherwise be adrift without limiting social structures.

While not used as much in the modern day (even Princess Leia, whose role in Star Wars at first resembles a Damsel in Distress, is not a clear figure of this sort), the role of the Damsel in Distress is to illustrate the positive potential of the unknown. By rescuing the Damsel, the Hero finds a new order for his life within the constraints of, typically, a royal marriage (though the Damsel need not necessarily be royal, merely worthy).

The Anti-Hero

The Anti-Hero is typically the protagonist in a story devoid of heroes. They lack the ability to take care of themselves and confront the problems that face them, or refuse to grow in such a way to make the endeavor successful. While Anti-Heroes are famous in the literary examples of Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984, they're increasingly common and are often a trademark of postmodern stories. I don't include Don Quixote here, but only because I think that Cervantes didn't really intend for him to be the central protagonist so much as a figure that appears in multiple stories and stitches them together through a comedy of errors. This is a judgment call on my part, and one could consider Don Quixote an Anti-Hero if he is, indeed, considered a failed Hero.

Despite the occasional use of the term "anti-hero" used for a Hero whose morality is questionable, this archetype has only a tangential relationship to those characters (namely that a critical moral failing that a Hero does not grow out of and causes their ultimate defeat or undoing is a trait of an archetypal Anti-Hero). Typically such characters are just regular Heroes or Tragic Heroes; even if they end in misery they are still Heroes at some point in their career, which is more than the Anti-Hero can ever claim.

Using Underdogs

Underdogs are a lever that draws the plot forward. While a Hero may have vulnerabilities, they cannot be weak. If they are weak it is very simple for a story to wind up unfulfilling; an unworthy Hero is not an interesting character, just as an invulnerable Hero is likewise uninteresting.

The Underdog can be a point of dramatic tension for the Hero, as they are someone who has a need and cannot fulfill that need by themselves. While this works poorly as the sole source of tension (after all, the Hero must develop within themselves, not solely in their external role as a protector of right thought-action), it provides a humanizing element to a Hero and gives them something to leverage the plot in.

It also is really useful, again, as a fulcrum to the plot. By balancing the plot around others' needs, the Hero can become powerful without necessarily fixing all the problems: video games in particular can benefit from this because of the fact that players are potentially able to find exploits to make themselves arbitrarily powerful, but the interactions between an Underdog and the rest of the game world may not be so easy to manipulate if executed properly.

Underdogs in Games

Typically, games do a poor job of including Underdogs. When they exist, their struggles are often narrative: players' characters are sent somewhere to do something on behalf of an Underdog (I think of Resident Evil 4 here), but not necessarily invested in the plot. Escort quests are not a substitute for meaningful needs in other characters.

The Fable series tries to use the Underdog as a plot device, frequently requiring the player's character to make decisions about who they will prioritize (e.g. a lost lover or the good of a kingdom), though I don't personally think that they did a perfect job in the execution of how they bring about the archetype, as it tends to devolve into choices that the player makes at arbitrary points in the story rather than a key narrative concept.

One of the best examples of the Underdog being used in games from a strictly narrative perspective comes in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, where one of the mission objectives is to rescue Paz, one of Snake's former comrades, from a prison.

However, games often lack any mechanical representation of the Underdog. Including mechanics for the Underdog are difficult, since they require players' time to be spent on things that are often not key to the narrative.

Wrapping Up

The Underdog is a key part of the conflict in a plot, and can be a way to make stories more rich and nuanced without making them over-wrought.

While they exist primarily to be assisted by others (or in the case of a Hero-Underdog, develop themselves to a point where their old problems are irrelevant), the Underdog can still be a deep and complex figure whose needs help the audience sympathize with the characters.

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