5 Reasons..All Fictional Characters Have Super Powers
Some fictional characters literally are super heroes. They can fly. They can run super fast. They can transform any part of their body into ice cream. But, in fact, all fictional characters have super powers because they are able to function in ways that far surpass we mere non-fictionals. Here are five reasons every imaginary person has abilities we can only imagine.
1. They Rarely Need To Pee, Poop, Bathe, And Sleep
While you often see characters eat in film and TV—shared meals are a logical way to bring all your characters together in one spot—the same can’t be said for the other necessary things we do to stay alive. We rarely see or hear characters on a toilet and usually it’s for comedic purposes. Characters do bathe, but it’s almost always attractive female characters and just to show off the outline of their naked bodies in the steamy glass or poking from underneath the foam of a bubble bath. Characters also spend time in bed, but usually they’re having sex, not sleeping. Beyond these, fiction is not packed with scenes of characters doing any of these things. Watching someone pooping, washing their feet, or snoring isn’t that much fun. Or at least, it shouldn’t be fun…
2. They Process Emotion At An Astonishing Rate
Fictional characters are emotional resilient, mainly because as writers we can’t have them wallowing for too long. Wallowing is very difficult to make look interesting. So no matter what trauma we put characters through, we very quickly move them on so we can move the action on. Soap opera characters in particular could give the rest of us a master class. A soap character can have their spouses murdered and replaced by said spouse’s evil twin, discover the truth, then a month later fall in love with the evil twin with not another tear shed for their former loved one. And as I write all that I’m suddenly thinking this isn’t such a great thing…
3. They Are Tremendously Resistant To Damage
Fictional characters regularly survive being shot up like swiss cheese, stabbed dozens of times, suffering car accidents where their vehicles are crumpled like tin foil, and falls from a height that would kill the hardiest of cats. They typically either just keep going as though nothing happened or are later shown with their arm in a sling and a small bandage wrapped around their head as they laugh and joke about the ordeal that would seriously injure anyone in the real world. Meanwhile, if I stub my toe I’m crippled for a week…
4. They Are Savants
Doctors who pull off never-before-performed surgeries without a hitch. Sports people who ace the statistically-improbable-need-this-to-win-the-game shot. Action stars who make an impossible leap to save themselves or take out the bad guy with a shot that defies all known physics. Detectives who solve crime scene riddles with just one glace at a room. Fictional characters are geniuses who excel in whatever field they’re in and even some that they’re not.
5. They Are Immortal
Fictional characters never age. At least to us. If a character is not killed in-world then whatever age they are at the end of their stories, they remain that age forever. There’s something beautiful about that. Everything fades. Those we love in real life will eventually die. We die. But fictional characters remain stuck in time at the moment of THE END, falling in love with evil twins pretending to be their spouse, surviving catastrophic plane crashes, and only pooping when it’s really funny until the end of time. What a way to live!
