The important thing is to know their purpose before you write them in. There are several reasons to use these characters in a story. Flat characters in movies What is a flat character used for? There are many examples of iconic characters that can be defined as flay and actually are great for specific purposes. What is a flat character used for then? Well, despite what it may seem, they are not always uninteresting or not useful. You might be thinking that a round character in all aspects sounds better than their flat counterparts. His entire personality can be summed up as “surfer turtle.” Yet he serves an important purpose in moving the plot forward.

A great example of this can be found in the character Crush from one of the best animated movies Finding Nemo.Ĭrush is a flat character example that stems from the surfer stereotype. These stereotypes assign these characters their defining qualities. Stereotypicalįlat characters usually stem from some type of stereotype or character archetype. Think of Biff from Back to the Future or Deebo from Friday - bullies who serve a very important function for the protagonists' character arcs.

These characters lack complexity in that they have no internal conflict, no complex relationships, and only a few defining qualities.Ī “bully” is a common flat character example that lacks any defining qualities besides being mean and nasty. They are one dimensional and lack any complexity. One-dimensionalįlat characters are exactly that - flat. To better distinguish the criteria of these character and how they work, let’s look at the traits of a flat character in detail. Flat character meaning Traits of a flat character

Flat vs. round characters definition