Obstacle Character as "You" Perspective

questions
#1

Many things I have read and heard about Dramatica describe the four throughlines as four perspectives.

  • Objective Story as “They”
  • Main Character as “I”
  • Obstacle Character as “You”
  • Subjective Story as “We”

I really like this take, but I realize that there is one perspective that I have trouble understanding. That of the Obstacle Character, or the “You” perspective.

In relation to the Story Mind personality, I was wondering if this is more like:

  1. Someone saying “you” to the Story Mind personality,
  2. The Story Mind personality saying “you” to that obstacle,
  3. Some mixture of these two,
  4. Or something else entirely?

I appreciate any help in regard to this, especially since I really feel that I get the other three perspectives and their relationship to the Story Mind.

#2

My interpretation is that “You” is an alien perspective that the Main Character doesn’t understand. Like, I have this totally reasonable belief, and then You show up believing this weird other thing. …Oh, or like that. When I think “You,” I think “the Other.” I am the farmboy who wants to escape myself, and You are the Other, the last sensei of a mysterious art, who promises to unlock my potential if I Trust him.

So I suppose the answer to your question would be the first one–it’s the Main Character saying You to their opposite–but perhaps my explanation sheds a little more light on it.

(EDIT: When I think of You, I think of it as being said like this. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

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#3

Thanks @actingpower. It certainly did. I was leaning that way, based on everything, but that explanation helped out significantly.

And the song didn’t hurt either (very slight pun intended). :wink:

#4

The “I” and “You” perspective are both part of the same Story Mind so I wouldn’t think of it as the first one. I’d think maybe closer to the second one. Or maybe the fourth.

The way I see it is closer to the Story Mind saying “This is how I look at a problem, and that’s how you look at a problem. Should I keep looking at the problem the way I look at it, or should I start looking at it the way You look at it?” In that sense, I guess the story mind is looking at You from the I perspective.

*I read something on one of the other threads not long ago that I basically interpreted as what I just said. I can’t remember which thread, but probably one of the Captain America ones. I might try to find it and link at another time.

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#5

This is more or less what I was trying to say with 3, actually. Also, I suspect you’re right with Captain America threads. It was something in one of those that brought about this question.

There’s always a great deal of useful information around here, and I am seriously thankful for the help.

#6

Then I should probably apologize to whoevers words I stole and probably misinterpreted. Haha. I scanned through several threads and couldn’t find it. Oh well.

Anyway, I wanted to try to expound a bit on the previous post. I think it’s still a bit confusing to think of “I” and “You” perspectives within one single story mind so I wondered if it might help to take out that language. If we do that, my previous explanation would look more like, a story mind looks at how it personally solves a problem (the I perspective) while comparing it to what it might do if it saw the problem in a different light (or from another perspective, the “You” perspective) and then decides which is the better light to view the problem in.

Not sure that’s any less confusing or if it helps, but maybe…

#7

I doubt you misinterpreted anything, and I want to say thank you for helping me out with this understanding. Unfortunately, the expounded version is quite similar to much of the discussion on this portion of the theory. That is, it’s because I have seen it described in that way, which feels more abstract to me, that I was unsure.

Gratefully, taking in what you have said, plus the new article by @jhull article about the Influence Character, cleared the smoke and solidified my wavering understanding. From all of that, I have a much stronger grasp on this concept.

Thank you, again.

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