Trickster of the Light: Four Types of Trickster Archetype, Their Traits, and How to Turn them Into a Protagonist
Every character ever written serves a function in their story. Whether they’re the hero, the villain, or something else entirely. Knowing what archetype your character embodies will help you identify their function and, in turn, make them stronger and more original than ever!
Once you’ve got an original, exciting, driven character, you’re probably going to want to write all about them. But you can’t. This isn’t THEIR story. Don’t worry, every story has a home, and even the trickiest characters can find their time in the spotlight.
What is a Trickster?
Tricksters aren’t villains. Except for when they are. In all honesty, there’s no such thing as a villain, but Tricksters are the first archetype in this series that closest resembles the direct antagonist to the protagonist of your source text.
In The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler defines a Trickster:
“The Trickster archetype embodies the energies of mischief and desire for change.”
Tricksters can be funny, cutting, witty, anarchic, or any other characteristic that shatters the status quo. Yes, Tricksters can do this by blowing up a planet for a giggle, but equally they could bumble around a Dwarven cave and wind up waking up a Balrog. The point is that Tricksters shake the story up, taking it in surprising directions, often for no reason beyond their own functional desire for anarchy.
Anarchy is not an easily defined term in storytelling. Tricksters will be tied closely to your narrative themes. In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, order is initially found in the devoted following of the omniscient Gandalf. Anarchy, then, is introduced when Pippin steps away from the crowd and immediately wakes the Balrog, killing Gandalf and causing the Fellowship to break apart.
Your story will be your own, and your Trickster may be difficult to find. They may be hiding in your antagonist, or in your loyal companion. Don’t panic if you can’t find them, I’ll be giving some examples later on!
A Good / Compelling Protagonist
If you have found your Trickster, what you’ll probably find is that you’re completely in love with them. For writers, Tricksters are liberating. They’re where our darkest desires, our best pranks, our unsaid thoughts are made manifest. Ever been handed a baby and heard that voice in your head telling you to “drop kick it”? Or (less traumatically) have you ever seen your friend’s phone on the table when they’ve left the room and wanted to take a terabyte of selfies? That’s your Trickster.
What you’ll also find is that they are fighting for the limelight. Every scene a Trickster is in belongs to the Trickster. If you don’t believe me, just look at the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Jack Sparrow is not the protagonist of those movies. He’s a hybrid of the Mentor and the Trickster. Yet he’s so compelling, two further films were added after the trilogy ended, one of which focused on Jack directly, and the other that… exists.
All that basically to say that making your Trickster a protagonist isn’t a chore, it’s an inevitable delight! Protagonists must be active to justify their place in the story, and nobody moves faster than a Trickster. So, once you’ve told your central story (or source text, as I’ve been referring to it in this series), stick your Trickster under the microscope and start poking them.
If you’re still not sure how to identify your Trickster, here’s some helpful definitions (and some suggestions on how to shapeshift them into a protagonist).
Types of Trickster
Comic Relief
Definition
Subversion of expectations is a core tenet of comedy. When the normal thing would be to go left, the comedian goes right, and it gets a laugh. A Comic Relief trickster is essentially the sentient manifestation of that idea. They exist in the same universe, but there’s something a bit ‘real’ about them, like they can see how absurd the rules of their world are.
Take Fred and George Weasley, for example. Kind, good natured, but model students? Not likely. They highlighted the absurdity of a school that teaches magic in a way that allowed the audience to laugh with them for a moment, then get back to the real drama.
Another example would be Korg from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he constantly holds a mirror of buffoonery up to the audience, getting a quick laugh before getting back to the action.
Why do they hold that mirror up? Well, both examples aren’t exactly keen on rules. They’re anarchists, it’s in their nature. They’re tricksters!
How to Adapt
How many grains of sand are there in the world? The Comic Relief Trickster has absolutely no defining characteristic or narrative role More than any other archetype, they’re a ‘function’ rather than ‘archetype’. They’re whatever your original story needs them to be. Fred and George Weasley were functionally Allies to Harry Potter, but their character was inventive and collaborative. The Genie from Aladdin was functionally a Mentor to Aladdin, but his character was one of a hyperactive slave.
This is one of the occasions where how you adapt really is entirely up to you. Pick a medium, mine your plot, and run wild with it.
Just make it funny.
The Skewed Agenda
Definition
Do you ever look at the character stood next to the Hero and think, “whatever happens, you’re going to mess this up on purpose to suit your own ends”? That’s a Trickster with a Skewed Agenda. They look like a Crossed Paths Ally, and for a time they may even act like one, but sooner or later they’ll stick a grenade in the drama.
Captain Jack Sparrow, for example. In the four films that exist in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (I wonder if they’ll ever make a fifth?) Jack Sparrow follows one agenda, his own.
Dr / Professor River Song is another example of a Skewed Agenda Trickster. Her arrival in an episode of Doctor Who heralds anarchy above else. Audiences know that when River’s around, it’s going to get wibbly wobbly to the point even the Doctor can’t keep up.
And that’s what makes Skewed Agenda Tricksters so delicious. They’re always two steps ahead. Skewed Agenda Tricksters are playing 4D chess with toddlers. Is their agenda moral?
No, almost never.
Skewed Agenda Tricksters are also uniquely selfish, and for some reason, sexy. Sex appeal is a huge part of their character, even in its absence. Petyr Baelish, of the Game of Thrones parish, runs a brothel despite his character essentially being a cuck. It’s his lack of sex appeal, it could be argued, that fuels his manipulative Trickster ways.
So Skewed Agenda Tricksters are smart, sexy, and are at the very least morally ambiguous. The more they hop back and forth over the line, the better.
How to Adapt
The unfortunate thing about a protagonist is, at some point, they’ll have to stand for something that ties them to a thematic, dramatic ‘need’. Doing that to a Skewed Agenda Trickster almost feels blasphemous.
So, don’t.
Unreliable narrators are a trope as old as storytelling (probably). Remember, your medium will say a lot about the story you’re going to tell. While unreliable narrators have often found a home on the page, why not push boundaries and mess with audiences’ minds with a screenplay? Just look at Joker, a movie that found acclaim in the fact nobody could really tell what was real and what wasn’t.
Let your Skewed Agenda Trickster trick the audience. Make them think this is a story that gets to the heart of who they are, then pull the rug. That way, when they go back to the source text, they’re sharing the betrayal your Hero feels.
Or do the opposite. Tell a story that is so clearly unreliable that your audience doesn’t believe a word they say until the last possible moment, where the true vulnerability of the Skewed Agenda Trickster is revealed and the audience is riddled with the guilt of not believing them sooner.
Chaotic Good
Definition
The word ‘trickster’ can mislead you into believing the function is inherently evil. Sometimes the trick is secretly a treat! Some of the greatest evils in storytelling have been oppressively ordered regimes. Galactic Empires fall at the hands of crazy teddy bears all the time! Upturned dustbins with plungers and whisks for weapons quake in fear when a blue box materialises from thin air.
Yes, Doctor Who’s titular Doctor is actually a Chaotic Good Trickster. Remember, one of the core functions of a Trickster is to embody “the energies of mischief and desire for change.” You can hardly argue that the Doctor doesn’t do that on the regular.
Chaotic Good Tricksters are agents of chaos with a heart (or hearts) of gold. Do they get it right all the time? No. But every time they lick something, poke someone, or say the wrong thing, audiences know they’re doing it to try and hurry the story along regardless of the sentiments of the characters around them.
They can, as with all archetypes, rebel against who they are inside. Deadpool does this in almost every outing of his character, as he’s forced time and again to face the fact that he actually is a hero, not just a ‘merc with a mouth’.
How to Adapt
Chaotic Good Tricksters make for tricky (pardon the pun) protagonists. Very often they’re utilised as characters that can already see the bigger picture, so putting them in a position where they can’t see it all is terrifying.
Or maybe it’s exciting.
Can your Chaotic Good Trickster see everything? Or are they lying through their teeth. Are they even good at all? Or is their goodness an accident?
Both the Doctor and Deadpool have skeletons in their closet, traumas that trigger a lot of their chaotic natures. Your Chaotic Good Trickster may have similarly powerful ghosts. Make those ghosts haunt them.
Rip them apart!
Chaotic Evil
Definition
There are two sides to every coin. Some cause chaos while trying to save the day, while others cause chaos to tear it all down.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Chaotic Evil Tricksters aren’t villains. Cut that out right now! Yes, the Joker is obviously the king of the Chaotic Evil Trickster archetype, but even he isn’t a villain all the time.
Another example of a Chaotic Evil Trickster is Willy Wonka. That’s right. Mr Chocolate himself is just plain wrong. Why does he torture and (probably) kill a bunch of kids? Because he thought he was getting old. That’s insane!
How do we know he’s a Trickster? Because every time he literally maims a child, he ushers everyone else along to the next whizzing, popping, colourful torture chamber.
Tricksters of all persuasions are theatrical, but Chaotic Evil Tricksters are particularly memorable for their sociopathic and seemingly (but never actually) random acts of anarchy.
Whether they’re the antagonist of your story or not, your Hero will find the actions of your Chaotic Evil Trickster abhorrent.
How to Adapt
Why do people do horrid things? Go find out. Study that first kill, the first moment your Chaotic Evil Trickster went from Chaotic Good to agent of illegal chaos.
Remember, Tricksters are “the natural enemy of the status quo”, but that status quo is set by your theme and choice of protagonist. From the Chaotic Evil Trickster’s perspective, it’s the Hero that’s rupturing the status quo.
Even as a writing challenge, telling the story from the Chaotic Evil Trickster’s perspective could be exceptionally compelling.
Story Frames for your Tricksters
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Skewed Agenda Tricksters rarely have their actual agenda laid out in the source text. So, why not explore that? Their moral greyness came from somewhere. They want something. Once they’ve achieved it (or not) their story ends with the meeting of a naïve ‘Hero’ that can give them exactly what they need.
Chaotic Good Tricksters have tried to be a normal Hero. But doing the right thing in the right way left them scarred either inside, outside, or both. So, tear them to shreds. What broke them? Make your audience admire their optimism / desire to do good even more by smacking them in the face with their previous trauma.
Chaotic Evil Tricksters may not have always been that way. Like Chaotic Good Tricksters, tear them to shreds but instead of their trauma making them good, it makes them sociopathic and maniacal. Knowing why Willy Wonka’s first reaction to ageing was to torture children won’t change how horrific his actions are, it’ll elevate them.
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Comic Relief Tricksters might be blissfully unaware of the central story they’re a key catalyst of. While Fred and George Weasley are crucial characters in the final Harry Potter book, their journey up to then has been entirely separate.
Your Comic Relief Trickster may be the same. What are they doing while they’re not in your source text? Are they opening joke shops? Are they hunting wilder beasts? Are they suffering domestic trauma? Entirely up to you!
Skewed Agenda Tricksters are driven by one goal, and their main obstacle is the blithering ‘Hero’ of the source text. Often in the source text, the Hero and Skewed Agenda Trickster learn a lot from each other, so exploring the chronology of the source text from a different perspective can shed new light on that merging of ideologies. Alternatively, it could highlight their differences and even lead to audiences sharing the Skewed Agenda Trickster’s opinion of them. Both are good!
Chaotic Good Tricksters are often close allies to the Hero, though sometimes not by choice. Donkey from Shrek for example. If the relationship between your Hero and Chaotic Good Trickster is thematically strong enough, then exploring those themes from the other side could be as cathartic as it is revealing.
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Comic Relief Tricksters superficial nature makes them an odd prospect if you’re looking to further their story after the end of your source text. That said, they’re also the most fluid in terms of character. Perhaps there’s another comic tale itching to be told about this characters life after their adventure with the Hero?
Skewed Agenda Tricksters either succeed in their skewed goal, or they don’t. Either way, you probably didn’t care in the source text where they go after the credits roll or the book is closed. I urge you, follow them. Follow them to their din, to their secret family, or on their weekly shop. Being so morally grey, something is going to come for them, and it’s going to be a riot.
Chaotic Good Tricksters will very often continue their function if furthering the source text. They’re always happy to help and they’re sometimes actually helpful. If you’re continuing the story with the Chaotic Good Trickster at the heart, my suggestion would be to make the inciting incident a moment where their usual anarchy doesn’t further the adventure, it stops it in its tracks. Then deal with that.
Chaotic Evil Tricksters will usually end up in one of two places, jail or dead. If dead, there’s not much you can do with them. If in jail, there’s plenty more chaos to cause. Only now, chaos and trickery is the point, your north star, and what fun you’ll have!
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Skewed Agenda Tricksters experience the journey of the Hero as one piece of their larger puzzle. Their end goal may be achieved in your source text, but their journey actually began a long time before the inciting incident, and their perspective of the source text could be inconsequential. Why not play around with that?
Chaotic Good Tricksters become the paradigm of the tragic comedy Hero under this model. Seeing what caused their humour, how it affects them in the source text, and how it heals them afterwards could win you a Pulitzer / Oscar / gold star.
Chaotic Evil Tricksters are chaotic because they are. Beetlejuice was chaotic before his film. Pennywise was chaotic before Georgie splashed into that drain. An anthology of dark chaos would be fun to write, and would elevate the Hero’s victory to new heights. Of all these disconnected stories, only the Hero could match them.
LEARN MORE
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