this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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Any characters with the duo dynamic of Don Quixote/Sancho Panza is top tier imo
Privileged fancylad whose delusional mode of existence is born from his alienated life but paradoxically is also what allows him to connect with people in a way that is free of judgement, alongside a devoted pragmatist born of poverty who discovers the vocabulary for a kind of imaginative happiness through being unable to deny his instinct to care for the ridiculous person he is forced by circumstance to travel with
This could actually work really well, especially since one of the countries suffers from extreme income inequality. Maybe the child of a regional representative (yes the country is modeled after a liberal capitalist nation) could flee home and hire an impoverished sell-sword as the child tries to explore the world they have been sheltered from. I do like dynamics like these, as these kinds of characters play off of each other really well.
I feel like I have seen this done but still miss the point, you know? Like there's the classic duo of sheltered princess and gritty merc, but in my experience it usually it winds up being about the sheltered person proving they are actually very "with it" in their own way and the gritty guy learning that royals are actually cool and fine.
To really capture the literary significance of a Quixotic figure, I think they must be in many ways pitiable and ridiculous to the point of frustration, with the pragmatist coming off as a bit of a user since Sancho at first is planning to just let this rich weirdo self-destruct as long as he gets paid along the way. This could still be done with the sort of beautified anime style, but in a sense I almost feel like it's a dynamic that works best with people who are maybe a little bit uglier.
I don't think it's a shortcut to being compelling but it breaks the mold of the usual "opposites who learn to like each other" buddy dynamic.
(Also don't let me deflate any ideas of yours I'm just discovering with these posts how much I apparently care about a book from the 16th century)
Oh no I wouldn't do it like that, this game is going to be shitting on the nobles/capitalist class, as the main character is from a recently-liberated people's republic. I think I would have the noble would realize that they are the exception, not the rule, and see that most others in their position would do anything to maintain/gain power. Kind of like a class traitor kind of thing.
Who doesn't love a bit of class betrayal?
I often think of Quixote and Sancho being an example of two people becoming "proletarians" (for lack of a better term) from opposite directions. Quixote's madness makes him become more of a genuine person who takes part in the world around him for a change while Sancho's exposure to such madness carves away at his more selfish lumpen tendencies as he realizes how the madness of his companion reflects upon him in the eyes of others. See also: Julian and Ricky from trailer park boys