You see characters like this especially in serialized storytelling. Basically they're the keepers of the future; they're where the story has room to grow.
So in the Star Wars prequels, we meet Mace Windu in Episode One, but he's not a major character. He's a Trailer, his moment to come in the next film and the one after that.
If you've seen the recent series HOLLYWOOD, Joe Mantello's studio head Dick Samuels is a Trailer--and one my favorites in recent memory. That series presents as all about these talented young people trying to get in the business. And then all of a sudden in episode three we discover Samuels is gay, and has spent his whole life in the closet and celibate so as to advance in the industry. And his story becomes one of the most heartfelt and powerful of the series.
I say that Trailers are characters who protect the future of a series. But along the way they can also inject something new and different into the present. Diana in BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN is a case in point. As the title of the film makes pretty clear, this is not her story. She's being set up here for her own film and for JUSTICE LEAGUE, where she's much more central.
But each moment that she shows up, the film absolutely comes alive. I think that's precisely because she's not trapped in the guys' inevitable Fight-to-the-Death-until-We-Hug-it-Out-Over-Our-Momses. She's on a different mission entirely, one much more personal. And she's got a whole different take on life, one capable of humor and wisdom. Just a moment of that is like water in the desert at times here.
I'm pretty sure she's the only character that smiles in the whole film.
Diana fully steps on the stage in Act Three, and once again that makes for a big boost. It seems so counterintuitive to have a character who suddenly makes their presence felt only at the very end. But in fact after all the strum und drang of the other two, a different set of colors and skills is exactly what the third act needs.
Trailers are often my very favorite characters in a series. And I suspect I'm not the only one. Because they're like Story Santas--all they do is give gifts. And Diana is a great one.
(So is Joe Mantello. Definitely worth checking out HOLLYWOOD if you haven't already.)
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It's the same lesson you see in RETURN OF THE JEDI, but for the opposite reason. EMPIRE ends with so much having gone wrong--Han Captured, Luke's Hand Gone and His Dad the Monster that has been Terrorizing the Universe. These are bad things. Overcoming them should require a lot of the characters.
And on the Luke side of things, a lot is sacrificed. Luke walks away from Ghost Mentors, confronts the Emperor alone -- and only survives because his dad sacrifices his life.
But on the Rebellion/Death Star side of things, the film kind of pancakes, precisely because no one we care about actually loses anything. Harrison Ford famously asked to die in that movie, and there's good story sense to that idea. It's the big finish, everything riding on this. In order to earn that win, somebody big needs to lose.
The death of Superman is a big shot in the arm, too. A gap creates its own kind of momentum; things want to rush in to fill it. And so we get the end scene of all the people at the candlelight memorial, and that incredible statement, which might be the most hopeful thing in the entire Snyderverse.
Meanwhile Diana and Bruce step forward to plan for the future.
I've been rewatching FRINGE, an old favorite show. In episode 421 villain William Bell puts it just right: "In the vacuum created by the loss of what is most precious, opportunity abounds."
I feel like I need a poster of that hanging on the bulletin board above where I write.
