More than ‘Just an Obstacle’: How to Turn your Threshold Guardian Characters into Engaging Protagonists
No matter the medium you’re writing for, the monolithic character archetypes are a universal standard for storytelling. As stories evolve for modern audiences, those archetypes need to evolve with them. In an interconnected world, every character has the potential to become the protagonist of their own story. To successfully tell those stories, writers need to understand that the mythic structures are evolving, not eroding.
Curated properly, even Threshold Guardians can make compelling protagonists of their own tales.
What is a ‘Threshold Guardian’?
A Threshold Guardian is a character or force the protagonist must overcome to progress in their story. They’re not the main Antagonist, but they’re often working in service of them.
While that probably conjures up images of Jaws in the James Bond franchise and characters of that ilk, the Threshold Guardian can appear in almost any story. In coming-of-age stories, the Threshold Guardian will often be represented by the parents of the protagonist.
They literally guard the narrative gates between where the protagonist is, and where they need to be. To get where they need to be, they need to learn about the Threshold Guardian and manoeuvre around or recruit them.
Christopher Vogler describes the Threshold Guardian:
“Threshold Guardians are usually not the main villains or antagonists in stories. Often they will be lieutenants of the villain, lesser thugs or mercenaries hired to guard access to the chief’s headquarters.”
Why Bother Making a Threshold Guardian Spin-Off?
If you’ve read my article about how to make your Mentor a compelling protagonist, you’ll know already some of the benefits as they frequently overlap.
Streamlining the source text
Explore otherwise unavailable corners of your story world
Where the Threshold Guardian offers something different is their position within the wider narrative. They’re a directly antagonistic force against the protagonist. Where the Mentor’s journey has parallels with the Hero’s, the Threshold Guardian can be wildly different.
Imagine hearing the story of the Stormtrooper that shot Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru in Star Wars. A conscripted, indoctrinated soldier dealing with the fallout and guilt of his actions as a routine execution causes the end of the regime he was trying to protect. Star Wars itself doesn’t have time to deal with such intimate stories, but doing so in a spin-off adds texture to the world and deepens the core themes of the source text.
Whenever you tell a story, you’re creating a world for it to occupy. It doesn’t matter if it’s a science fiction or a period drama, no fictional story takes place in the real world. Threshold Guardians are excellent characters to expand your story world as, more often than not, they’re not in the source text for long, but they leave a big impact. They’re also, invariably, quite two-dimensional.
Parents think their child should stay at home and do their homework.
Henchmen try to kill James Bond.
Heimdall must monitor the Nine Realms.
As audience members, we forgive their lack of depth as we understand, on some subconscious level, that they’re doing a job. Just like us. Anyone who’s worked in hospitality or retail knows the glazed look we get from customers who see a uniform, a depleting bank balance, and little else. But then there’s the regulars. The ones that, over time, see the person wearing the uniform. They ask questions.
Why are you in this job?
Any plans when you get home?
And before you know it, they see you as the valuable human being you are.
That’s why Threshold Guardians deserve to be protagonists of their own spin-off. If you don’t write one, you’re basically a Karen in a Starbucks.
Types of Threshold Guardian
Cursed to Guard the Threshold
Definition
One of the most infamous form of Threshold Guardian is the character that is cursed to guard the physical threshold of the story. Through some wider-world event, the character finds themselves unable to leave the threshold. Often, they hold no ill-will against the Hero, but must try to stop them nonetheless.
Two prolific examples of this are Circe in Homer’s The Odyssey, who becomes villainous but ultimately is just trying to live her life on the island she’s cursed to inhabit, and Red Skull in Avengers: Infinity War.
The curse doesn’t have to be fantastical. The curse could be inflicted by employment, parental instruction, or any other social curse. The point is that, no whether they like it or not, they’re forced by external forces to guard the threshold and do whatever it takes to stop the Hero (or anyone) from crossing.
How to Adapt
There’s no strict method on how to manipulate a cursed Threshold Guardian into a protagonist.
One thing that is likely true of all Threshold Guardians, but especially those suffering from a curse, is that the victory of the Hero is also the lowest point of the cursed Threshold Guardian’s story. From a narrative perspective, this gives you an easy ‘in’ to work out from. If this is their lowest point, what would their highest be? How did they become cursed and what was their journey that led to this ‘canon’ moment?
If the curse is fantastical in nature, then this type of Threshold Guardian is an excellent ‘entry point’ to further explore the fantasy / science fiction lore of your story world. Circe by Madelline Miller, for example, uses the character of Circe to further explore the Olympic class system and showcase the experiences of characters that become pawns in the gods plans.
When it comes to social curses, however, the rules for adapting become thinner. Where fantastically cursed Threshold Guardians can deeper the worldbuilding, more ‘realistic’ Threshold Guardians can make ill-fitting protagonists for your transmedia story. The most universally recognised socially cursed Threshold Guardian is the school bully. Their curse is rarely explored in any depth as their curse is likely abusive neglect.
If, as daddy of transmedia Henry Jenkins states, all transmedia inclusions must “add up to one compelling whole,” you can hardly tell the story of the bully’s tragic backstory and still root for the hero when they get their comeuppance.
That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. There are, as with anything, ways and means to tell any story, you should just be mindful that you’re spinning off to make a greater whole. If you’re not doing that, then you should be telling a completely original story in its own story world.
Duty-Bound to Guard the Threshold
Definition
Like the cursed Threshold Guardian, the duty-bound Threshold Guardian appears to have no choice but to stop the Hero from crossing to their next challenge. The difference here is their motivation isn’t an extrinsic curse, but an internal sense of duty.
Every coming-of-age film you’ve ever seen, or teen romance book you’ve ever read has these duty-bound Threshold Guardians, often in the form of the protagonist(s) parents. Many of these characters do come with their own ‘curse’, like parents who don’t want their children to make the same mistakes they did growing up. These characters, however, choose to guard the threshold because they innately believe they’re doing the right thing.
Heimdall in Norse Mythology and the Marvel Cinematic Universe may well be cursed to guard the rainbow bridge, but he never bemoans his position. He believes what he is doing is an absolute good.
To pass to the next stage of their journey, the Hero of your source text needs to not only overcome the obstacle set by these guardians, but also shatter their entire belief system in the process.
A key element of many Threshold Guardians is that the way the Hero overcomes them is to recruit them. Duty-bound Threshold Guardians are one of the most likely candidates for recruitment. With their worldview shattered by the Hero, they often become adoptees of the Hero’s worldview by the end of the source text. I’m thinking specifically of the Pirate Court in Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. A self-interested bureaucratic group are overpowered by their own rules, and go on to support their pirate king in the climax of the trilogy.
How to Adapt
Where cursed Threshold Guardians often disappear after the protagonist has defeated them, offering ample ‘entry points’ for their story, duty-bound guardians invariably stick around and experience a journey of their own within the source text.
That makes them hard to adapt, but not impossible.
As the duty-bound guardian has an intrinsic belief, they must have achieved some narrative ‘want’ prior to the source text to give them that view.
They believe they’re a Hero who’s already won. In many ways, they’re a misguided Mentor. Exploring the story of how they achieved that worldview could be complex, exciting ground for storytelling.
If your Threshold Guardian is the protagonists parents, then telling the story of their tragically wild youth could further explore just why they’re so uptight in the source text, and offer greater emotional weight to the scenes where they reconcile with their own child.
If the guardian is duty-bound by fantastical forces, then exploring what drives such devout belief could also be rich soil for expansion. Using the example of Heimdall again, the story of how he discovered his powers and was groomed to use them to benefit Odin and Agard puts a new spin on the character and deepens the worldbuilding of the Thor corner of the MCU, while also elevating Hela and her motivations in Thor: Ragnarok, all without changing a single frame of the original trilogy.
Reluctant to Guard the Threshold
Definition
When a character isn’t forced by the Universe or by their own need to be a dick, how else would a character be motivated to be a Threshold Guardian?
Quite simply, sometimes it’s not their fault. On rare occasions, the Threshold Guardian is desperate to get the Hero to cross the threshold, and it’s the Hero that can’t bring themselves to cross.
Morpheus is a prime example of this kind of reluctant Threshold Guardian. He wants nothing more than to get Neo to join him in the fight against the machines. Unfortunately, the choice isn’t his. All he can do is present the threshold, and hope beyond hope that the Hero crosses.
Reluctant Threshold Guardians are often found in romantic comedies, manifested in the friend(s) that desperately want the protagonist to come to the party / leave the house / do the thing that will cause their meet cute.
There’s considerable overlap between reluctant Threshold Guardians and other archetypes, primarily the Mentor. Once they’ve got the protagonist to overcome what they need to in order to cross the threshold, they stick around on-and-off until the source text ends. The main difference between the Mentor and the reluctant Threshold Guardian is in the story psychology. In The Writer’s Journey, Vogler elaborates:
“… they stand for our internal demons: the neuroses, emotional scars, vices dependencies, and self-limitations that hold back our growth and progress.”
To get the character to cross the threshold, they play on the weaknesses of the Hero. They can’t go to the party because they don’t want to drink. If Neo takes the blue pill, he doesn’t need to grow or develop at all.
How to Adapt
Similarly to the duty-bound Threshold Guardian, reluctant Threshold Guardians tend to stick around in the source text, so finding a natural ‘entry point’ to explore their story further can be an exercise in futility.
It can also be a source of real inspiration. Reluctant Threshold Guardians tend to be inspirational, enlightened characters in a source text riddled with self-doubt. Nobody is born enlightened. Unless they are. Both are interesting to audiences.
How did they become enlightened? Were they dragged to it by their own reluctant Threshold Guardian? Or did they have a Mentor that guided them? Was there an instance in their past where they tried to get another would-be Hero to cross the threshold and failed, explaining why they behave how they do in the source text?
In the source text, the Hero has a few options when dealing with any Threshold guardian:
“They can turn around and run, attack the opponent head-on, use craft or deceit to get by, bribe or appease the Guardian, or make an Ally of a presumed enemy.”
How did the Hero deal with them in the source text? Where do we find them when the source text ends?
Medium has taken a back seat in this article, but the reluctant Threshold Guardian is such a unique archetype that when writing their spin-off, variety of medium is almost as important as the story being told.
A Morpheus spin-off movie would make a poor theatrical experience.
Guarding the Threshold Out of Spite
Definition
Sometimes, a Threshold Guardian has absolutely no reason to guard a threshold other than wanting to mess with the Hero in some way. The Ugly Stepsisters in Cinderella look down at their stepsister because of their own presumed superiority. The Dursleys in Harry Potter are similarly spiteful.
Of course, one of the main responsibilities of the Threshold Guardian is to test the hero’s ability to navigate the story’s central theme. Both Cinderella and Harry Potter (increasingly ironically) are about humility and kindness. Spiteful Threshold Guardians are a Heroes first challenge in overcoming that rot.
Where other Threshold Guardians have the ability to morph into other archetypes as the tale goes on, spiteful Threshold Guardians are often too far gone. We may learn why they’re so spiteful, and perhaps even pity them, but their function never really changes.
Think of high-ranking henchmen in spy or superhero movies. They may well be in the employ of the antagonist, but ultimately, they’re motivated by one simple truth:
They just don’t like the Hero.
How to Adapt
Now we’re getting to the really interesting would-be protagonists. Up to now, spin-offs would be tonally in-keeping with the source text. Varied, without doubt, but in the web of transmedia they’d be close to the centre.
Spiteful Threshold Guardians are horrible pieces of work, and their antagonist is almost always the Hero of the rest of the franchise. So, turning them into a workable protagonist is a real challenge.
How do you make your Hero into the Antagonist? Especially when you can’t change anything that was said or done in the source text?
My advice? Steer clear of the source text. Tell the story of how they got that broken. In my original transmedia article, I suggested telling the story of Cinderella’s step-mother as the tale of a single mother trying to find shelter and security for herself and her two daughters. In that context, Cinderella would become the antagonist as her very presence is (blindly) seen as a threat to the stepmothers dramatic need.
Perhaps, after the source text ends, the spiteful Threshold Guardian sees the good that the Hero has done and it causes a crisis of conscience they must overcome.
Or go balls to the wall and literally tell the whole story from the spiteful Threshold Guardian’s perspective.
A protagonist doesn’t need to be likable, we just need to understand what motivates them.
Dudley Dursley knows he was meant to be an only child. He knows his parents don’t like his ratty cousin. He wants to be like his father. Understandable motivations, even if they do make him an insufferable dick.
Cannon Fodder
Definition
A long time ago, in this article somewhere…
I pitched a Star Wars story that followed the Stormtrooper that killed Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle. Very often, especially in blockbuster movies, Threshold Guardians can be represented by a nameless, faceless army that the Hero must physically fight through to get to their next challenge.
Stormtroopers in Star Wars
Thanos’ army in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame
Spectre henchmen in Spectre
As protagonist plough through dozens of these once living, breathing people, audiences whoop and rejoice. Nobody thinks about the body that will be shipped home, perhaps to a grieving family. Because that’s not what the source text is about.
If Luke Skywalker needs to kill ten Stormtrooper’s to get to the Millennium Falcon, so be it.
In essence, that’s what a Threshold Guardian is.
The hero is at point A.
They need to be at point C.
But point B is blocked by someone / something.
Yet despite the anonymity, there is a level of understanding audiences have about these cannon fodder Threshold Guardians. Stormtroopers, for example, are the conscripted army of the Empire. The orcs of Middle Earth are mutant hybrids with evil in their hearts.
As the Hero’s slice and dice their way to point C, we see only one thing:
Good vs bad.
But then a Stormtrooper takes their helmet off…
But then an orc begs for mercy…
How to Adapt
Cannon fodder Threshold Guardians are, despite their deficit of character, the most morally complex protagonists of all the Threshold Guardian types. Unlike all the other sentient guardians, the audience have absolutely no idea why they do what they do.
What rich ground that is!
A cynical writer would say that a Stormtrooper puts their helmet on because they’re told to. Because they’re a good soldier. A real writer would ask why they’re even in the position to be told what to do in the first place.
Using my Stormtrooper example from earlier, it’s an established fact that Stormtroopers are a mixture of volunteer and conscripted soldiers. That means beneath each and every helmet is an individual that has been warped to believe the mission of the Empire with every fibre of their being. But only one ‘bucket head’ pulled the trigger that brought down the whole regime. What they did that day was follow orders. What they see in the aftermath is the complete destruction of everything they know and believe to be good. Theirs isn’t a redemption arc, it’s something darker and more complex.
What I’m trying to say is that to adapt the story of your cannon fodder Threshold Guardians, you need to ‘pick a bucket head’. Pick or create a character that epitomises the purpose of the group and use them to fully explore why anybody would put themselves in that position in the first place.
Creation is also something this Threshold Guardian gives you that others don’t. In fact, I’d say it demands it. Cannon fodder Threshold Guardians need to be anonymous in the source text to work. When your audience watches the source text after watching or reading your spin-off, they won’t know which trooper they’re looking for.
If it could be any of them, it could be any of them.
Elemental Threshold Guardians
Definition
I’ve been lying to you. Not all Threshold Guardians are sentient characters. Sometimes, they’re considerably more primal in nature. Predominantly found in fantasy and science fiction stories, these will often be creatures of murderous intent, protecting their habitat or realm of existence from would-be rivals.
The Balrog, for example. When the Fellowship of the Ring enter the mines of Moria, they awaken a terrible beast that tries to kill them. Does the Balrog have malicious intent? Is it cursed? Does it truly believe in its heart that its doing the right thing by attacking the Fellowship?
Who cares?
It’s a great big beast and it’s coming for them and if they don’t escape they’ll die.
Like cannon fodder Threshold Guardians, it’s unlikely that elemental Threshold Guardians are going to stick around for very long in the source text. If Threshold Guardians are designed to test the Hero, then elemental guardians are the most primal test of all:
Kill or be killed.
How to Adapt
To be a compelling protagonist, the main character needs a dramatic ‘want’. With elemental beings, that’s difficult to accomplish. When it comes to more naturalistic storytelling, elemental Threshold Guardians are often represented by wild animals. There’s nothing particularly special about finding a bear in a woods.
Instead of turning your elemental creature into a protagonist, you might be better off accepting them for what they are. A force of nature. In the source text, they probably lose their fight for survival. Otherwise, your source text ended very abruptly.
So, why not tell the story of a time when they won? How did your terrible beasty get its reputation? If it is, as many Threshold Guardians are, in service to the antagonist, how did it get there? The Kraken had a life before Davy Jones.
Use a medium to suit. As an animalistic character, there’s unlikely to be much dialogue, to why not go wild? Ha… get it?
Non-Character Thresholds
Definition
Sometimes the Threshold Guardian isn’t even a character! The tornado that picked up Dorothy and plonked her in Oz didn’t have a reason to do what it did, it just did it! Storms, freak weather events, and natural cataclysms are the final Threshold Guardian on this list.
Similar to elemental guardians, non-character Threshold Guardians represent a primal conflict. Here, though, there’s no fight. You can’t punch the rain. You can’t recruit a black hole. And you can’t seduce a volcano.
When presented with a non-character threshold, Heroes have two choices.
They can push through, or they can run away.
How to Adapt
You can’t.
I mean, not in the way you can with the other guardians.
To successfully adapt, you’re better off adapting a different archetype, and using the non-character threshold for the same purpose. The same storm can represent different things to different characters.
At the start of 28 Years Later, we see the initial outbreak of the apocalypse through the eyes of a child. It’s the same apocalypse we’ve already seen in 28 Days Later, but while the world tries to survive, the boy’s father opens his arms to the infected and willingly accepts his death. To the boy, the apocalypse is the start of his story. To the father, it’s the end. And to Cillian Murphy’s character it hasn’t even happened yet.
Yes, I know the apocalypse is technically an elemental Threshold Guardian because the ‘zombies’ are primal creatures, but the point still works.
Story Frames for your Threshold guardian
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Cursed Guardian: How did they get cursed?
Duty-bound Guardian: Their duty is their ‘synthesis’. What story led them there?
Reluctant Guardian: Often an enlightened character, how did they achieve enlightenment?
Spiteful Guardian: If everyone is the hero of their own story, how did they come to believe that what the Hero represents is actually a force of antagonism?
Cannon Fodder Guardian: Indoctrinated into the Antagonists worldview, what was the sad story that made them so fully believe in something so evil?
Animalistic / Elemental Guardian: If the guardian is a creature of infamy, how did it acquire such widespread fear?
Non-Character Thresholds: N/A
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Cursed Guardian: Flip the narrative. What does the Hero represent to the guardian when they arrive?
Duty-bound Guardian: Duty-bound guardians often have their worldview destroyed by the protagonist. If the guardian were to be the protagonist, this would be their ‘lowest point’. Using this as a linchpin, build the story out from there.
Reluctant Guardian: These characters are often desperate for the protagonist to cross the threshold. The moment they come into conflict with the protagonist in the source text is, to the Threshold Guardian, the final confrontation of their story. If the Hero doesn’t cross the threshold, they fail. Use this moment and build outwards. Why is so much at stake?
Spiteful Guardian: They’re not spiteful in their own head. In fact, they’re probably decent people and the ‘Hero’ is actually the antagonist. Challenge yourself to write the story from their perspective. Theirs is likely a tragedy. Let us feel the fall through the eyes of the abuser.
Cannon Fodder Guardian: Pick a battle from the source text. What does the battle represent to this soldier? How do they prepare? What is life like behind enemy lines?
Animalistic / Elemental Guardian: This is a war for territory. An invading force (the Hero) has invaded your guardians habitat. It’s fighting back, as any hero would.
Non-Character Thresholds: N/A.
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Cursed Guardian: Has the curse been lifted? If not, make their encounter with the Hero the inciting incident for their journey to finally lift their curse.
Duty-bound Guardian: Their duty is fulfilled in the source text. Maybe not the way they expected, but it’s done. So, what now? What does retirement look like for the disenfranchised?
Reluctant Guardian: This character needs to take a serious look at themselves. Their desire to pull the protagonist through the threshold probably caused a lot of conflict. Why are they so reliant on other people? How do they find autonomy in their world?
Spiteful Guardian: Everyone hates them. They may have been one challenge to the ‘Hero’, but said ‘Hero’ is the ultimate villain to his character, and nobody sees it. Well, this guardian will do what it takes to reveal the truth!
Cannon Fodder Guardian: The Hero won. Whoever the Cannon Fodder served is gone, and they’ve survived. If they were a hired gun, explore their next mission as they try to reclaim their prestige from such a catastrophic loss. If they were a zealot, explore what life is like for the brainwashed in a liberated society.
Animalistic / Elemental Guardian: N/A. They dead.
Non-Character Thresholds: N/A.
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Cursed Guardian: Act 01: ‘Earning’ the curse. Act 02: The challenges of being cursed, including the events of the source text. Act 03: Confronting the one that cursed them.
Duty-bound Guardian: At first, the duty they’re bestowed is an honour, but through the events of the source text and beyond, their identity is unravelled and pieced back together.
Reluctant Guardian: A stoic, simple character is adopted by an eccentric Mentor and shown the absolute truth of the world, but very few have the ability to see it. Resolved to a lonely life of knowledge, this guardian sees something in the ‘Hero’, and makes it their mission to pull them into the light.
Spiteful Guardian: A perfectly normal worldview and an exciting journey is interrupted by the ‘Hero’. The needs of the ‘Hero’ erode this guardian, seeing their presence as somehow robbing them of the life they deserve. This is a view the world shares until the events of the source text turns everyone against them, and they’re forced to either accept their spiteful ways or redeem themselves.
Cannon Fodder Guardian: The guardian lives a lonely life until the arrival of the antagonist. The guardian joins the forces of the antagonist, and becomes indoctrinated by the brotherhood the army brings. The Hero’s rise is seen as the rising force of antagonism to this guardian. When the Hero wins, this guardian is forced to confront what they did to find peace.
Animalistic / Elemental Guardian: N/A.
Non-Character Thresholds: N/A
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