Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema

As a viewer of film or television, or a reader of an excellent story, we know it’s the character that keeps us engaged to the very end - to battle alongside them, to root for them, and to attach ourselves to them.

In this series, I’ll be chatting with incredible creatives about which screen or literary characters inspire them, and what archetype they embody. Fandom begins with the writer’s pen, so let’s get started!

Screenwriter and occasional prose writer Debbie Moon is probably best known for her BBC teen werewolf series, Wolfblood, and is currently working on an animated fantasy film with Canuk Productions and Film Cymru Wales. 

"I’ve also written a detective drama in darkest Wales, YA sci-fi, horror, and action," she adds. "I’m currently working on a spooky YA series, a docu-drama about the Wild West, and an animated fantasy feature."

Faramir, "The Lord of the Rings"

"One of my great personal inspirations since my teen years [is] Faramir from "The Lord of The Rings." [The story] is an attempt to make sense of a broken world, a world where the old ways no longer seem to matter, and compassion is a weakness. It’s a story about ordinary people doing what they can, and evil ultimately destroying itself. And it’s packed with characters who have so much more depth and complexity than the heroic clichés they initially seem to be."

"There are so many great characters, of course," Moon continues, "but I’ve always felt a very personal bond with Faramir. And he’s someone who doesn’t get [a big] victory or the flashy story arc — though he does get the girl! — which makes him all the more interesting. His story is less conventionally heroic than some other characters in the story."

One of the best parts about Tolkien is the everyman stories within the fantasy, and Faramir has just that, maybe not a fight for the sanctity of the world, but a very real and relatable family issue.

"Faramir is a character who should have lost hope long ago. His father despises and belittles him, his older brother is a decent man with a fatal flaw, and his home is on the verge of being wiped out in an unwinnable war. And yet, he doggedly keeps doing what he knows to be right, however much it angers those around him, however doomed it seems. Even when his own father sends him on a suicide mission. For anyone who’s ever felt they were in an impossible situation, particularly with their family, that’s absolutely something to aspire to. Except maybe the suicide mission…"

"It’s clear he decided very early on what was right and what mattered to him — for example, his admiration for Gandalf on his visits to Minas Tirith, his study of legends and ancient poetry — and he centered his morals and his sense of self in those, not in the criticism and the neglect he was receiving elsewhere... That’s a really powerful act of self-care and quiet rebellion," Moon says of Faramir's incredible undertaking to have free thought and forge his own path.

How Plot plays into Character

When it comes to the rebellion, "He simply refuses to make the mistakes of the people he sees around him. He won’t place Gondor’s needs above the rest of Middle Earth. He refuses to take the Ring when it looks like doing so would solve all his problems at a stroke. In a situation where most of us would have pushed Denethor off the battlements and slapped some common sense into Boromir, he knows that no good will come from doing evil — and he sticks to that, whatever it costs."

And in the world of Tolkien, "fate must be waited for and timing is everything." Thus, "you could make the case that he should have counteracted his father’s policies sooner — but a civil war would have resulted and left Gondor open to attack."

The Archetype

Faramir has "a willingness to accept that the world doesn’t revolve around him. He understands very quickly that Frodo and Sam’s quest is something he can’t stand in the way of — and he accepts their ability to pull it off, despite them not exactly being mighty heroes…"

On the flip side, his flaw is "very nearly fatal. Despite his intelligence and grasp of the situation, he’s still prepared to die in a pointless battle to win his father’s approval. But then, we’ve all been there, right…?"

On the Jungian Character Archetype, "Faramir is absolutely a caregiver. For Gondor, for Eowyn, for Frodo and Sam. He’s the one quietly facilitating the good guys’ victory from the background. And where would we all be without people like that?"

And where does Moon think she falls in the Jungian Character Archetype model?

"Actually, I think I’m a caregiver, too! Unless 'plump Englishwoman addicted to tea and cake' is an archetype!"

If the story were to live on, it's Faramir's relationship with Eowyn that Moon would most like to see.

"I would love to see a continuation story showing Faramir and Eowyn — the ultimate fantasy power couple, let’s be honest — battling to reclaim Ithilien from the last monsters and marauders after the fall of Mordor. Action, adventure, romance, magic: it’s got it all! Call me, Amazon Prime! I have ideas!"