A Writer’s Guide to Allies

On Scriptnotes, we often talk about heroes and villains. In [episode 252](http://johnaugust.com/2016/an-alliance-with-house-mazin), we discussed allies, and the different types of relationships between two characters.

What is the point of an ally in narrative?

1. Characters advance their interests through allies.
2. Characters learn about themselves through allies.
3. Characters suffer pain for the wrong rewards.
4. Allies define the incorrectness of a character’s starting point, and the correctness of their arrival point.
5. Allies are more subtle and universal than enemies.

In real life, few people have villains that must be vanquished to save the day. But everyone has friends — and friends can be tricky, tricky things.

Allies should theoretically be capable of being heroes — except in feature films, they can’t. Rather —

1. They need to illuminate the hero without pulling focus.
2. They need to challenge the hero without becoming the villain.
3. They serve as a proxy for the audience, asking our questions, sharing our fears.

There’s not much to learn from “we have to stop the evil genius before he blows up the world.” But drama, both in the real world and in fiction, comes from interaction with characters who are theoretically on our side.

Craig had a bunch of examples from Game of Thrones, some of which we didn’t have time to explore on the show. So here’s his complete list.

**Marriage of convenience**
We don’t like each other, but we need each other

**Buddies**
Jon Snow and Tormund

**Unrequited love**
Jorah Mormont and his Khaleesi

**Misplaced faith**
Cersei and the High Sparrow
Sansa and Joffrey

**Parent/child**
The Three-Eyed Raven and Bran
Tywin and Tyrion

**Codependency**
Jamie and Cersei Lannister

**Disciple and prophet**
The Faceless Man and Arya Stark

**Manipulator and Manipulated**
Littlefinger and Lysa Aryn

**Sparring Partner**
Tyrion and Varys

**Animal loyalty**
Hodor and Bran

**Bad for each other**
Jon Snow and Ygritte

**Alpha and Beta**
Jon Snow and Sam
Yara and Theon

**Oedipal**
Robb and Catelyn Stark

**Master and slave**
Ramsay Bolton and Reek

**Bound by honor**
Brienne and Sansa

You could argue with any of these categorizations. The point is that characters can be related in many ways other than the simple hero/villain paradigm.