Character as plot device: Duduel and parallels

[Maalii]

We talked about this back in the day on the AOW board, but it is clear that Duduel, a fictional character, represented something more than just an imaginary person in the drama. He seemed to be at times the Hand of Fate, an internal narrator, the conscience of the common people, and a forecaster of future events. It occurred to me that in watching Japanese historical dramas over the years, that they too often used fictional characters as major plot movers, although I can't recall any of them being nearly as effective as Duduel (whose inclusion in the drama is one of the many strokes of genius of AOW). One I recall is Tomiko's (Ashikaga Yoshimasa's wife) blind sister, who functions as Tomiko's conscience and as a device to show the plight of the common people who are starving in the streets as the nobility/warrior class pursues various pleasures or engages in non stop warfare (this was in a historical drama series about Yoshimasa, Tomiko, and the Onin War). Another was in a Hideyoshi megaseries in which this bandit character was supposed to be a longtime friend of Hideyoshi--He appeared to be placed in the drama to be constant reminder of Hideyoshi's humble origins--sort of a point of reference both to the evolution of Hideyoshi in his social standing and also as to the evolution (mostly bad) of his character. In the drama Hideyoshi eventually has this poor fellow and his wife boiled alive in oil (Duduel got off pretty easy by comparison). In point of fact, I don't know for certain if the two examples I mention above were indeed fictitious persons, but I strongly suspect that they were and that they were placed in the drama as plot devices.

Anyhow, I was wondering, not having seen other Korean dramas, if any of you remember fictious characters who fulfilled roles like Duduel in other historical dramas--were they anywhere near as well done?

[skinz]

What about Asaji from The Throne of Blood by Kurosawa?

She basically represented the ambition and greediness of Mifune character and all humans. The coldness that all human beings have was written all over her face since she didn't blink not once. Kudos to the actress by the way.

[seven stars]

I know that you posted this about twenty days ago Maali. Sorry about that.

I don't know the historical accounts well enough to judge who is and isn't a fictional character. In Duduel's case, no such information is required, as his position in the story is fairly obvious. Not being a writer like yourself, I am not as adept at picking out such details in the stucturing of these storylines.

Having said that, nearly every historical character in these dramas can be viewed similar to Duduel in AOW, due to embelishments in the storyline. After all, it has to be interesting if it's going to be on television.