I've chosen to analyse the infamous main character, Vincent,
from 'Pyre for the Heart' (found here, written by
Fearblogger Malus. To give some background, Pyre
is an not-yet-complete blog of our villain protagonist, who is putting a girl's
diary up for the world to see after she scorns him. And they say women are the
ones to beware, come the whole scorning-thing...
As he types up this girl's diary and he gives up glimpses
into his own life, we start seeing some recognisable faces - hey there, Red Cap
and Brute! - so it's shaping up to be an intriguing Fearblog. My focus, though,
is on Vincent himself.
(Note: this analysis/review will be as spoiler-free as
possible.)
From the get-go, we see a lot of evidence that Vincent isn't
a character that we're meant to be cheering for. He's hurt, he's angry, and
he's being quite petty about it. Vincent was spurned by a girl named Lois last
semester, and to get revenge he starts putting her personal journal online for
their entire school (and the rest of the Internet) to read. Already, I have to
give kudos to Malus - there is a very distinct shift in the way both characters
write.
Vincent will throw in his input as we read about Lois's
accounts, and we get to see a bit more of his jerkass side. He's hypocritical,
saying things out of spite that are completely contrary to the his initial
self-portrayal; he claims he's on the high ground and ignoring the fact that
he's wrestling through the mud.
As his posts continue to go online, he attracts the
attention of some of our well-known (and lesser-known) Fearblog commenters, who
proceed to leave cryptic comments (the way any good commenter would). There are
two options the writer has, when this occurs: to ignore the comments for the
sake of the plot, or have the character respond and let the plot proceed
naturally.
Malus avoided the trap of having comments shape the plot by
having the events Vincent/Lois documented occur last semester - that leaves
Vincent plenty of room to talk to his commenters, and he does so in the style
of any anonymous guy sniping back at the people seemingly trolling him. In
fact, he takes an entire comedically-done post to snark at them.
The last bit of fact taken from the blog is this: one of the
girls Lois writes about, Vivian, turns up in a post that's entirely Vincent's.
Here's where I avoid the spoilers. The conclusion is - we see a glimpse into
Vincent's life that [i]doesn't[/i] involve him sniping at a would-be girlfriend
or people who disapprove of him. Vincent has friends. He's liked by a group of people,
in his life away from his keyboard.
So, my conclusions about this character?
I love that I don't love Vincent. When I say 'his life away
from his keyboard', I mean that I can believe he has one. Vincent is flawed; an
emotional, spiteful teenager who lashes out and hurts people in the way so many
teenagers do. Over the Internet.
A guy like Vincent is believable. His actions aren't so
monstrous that you recoil, and they never go beyond the capability of an angry
teen - considering we've got Fear influence at play, any overpowered acts of
spite could be hand-waved away. The way Vincent is written, though, such a
thing isn't necessary.
He's a bully online, he has friends in real life, and he
gets in trouble for his actions. He's a hormonal jerk - and weren't we all in
high school? I, personally, can compare Vincent's attitude to my own when I was
in ninth grade.
Boiling it all down, Vincent is horribly and beautifully human, and I look forward to reading
more about him.
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