In a sense you don't have to think of characters every time you write a story. You only need to know their function. Because the same archetypes reappear again and again in every successful movie. There are no more than a handful of core archetypes and a handful or peripheral archetypes. For example:
a) In The Godfather (1972), we have the Hero (Michael), the Mentor (Don Corleone), the Shape Shifter (Tessio), the Sacrificial Lamb (Sonny), the fool (Fredo) etc.
b) In Gladiator (2000), we have the Hero (Maximus), the Herald (Marcus Aurelius), the Mentor (Proximo), the Loyal Ally (Juba) etc.
c) In Alien (1979), we have the Hero (Ripley), the Shape SHifter (Ash), the Fool (Brent), the Dove (Lambert), the Hawk (Kane) etc.
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