Emotion 1: Emotional cause and effect

What do emotions do in a story?

What do emotions do in a story?

To find some answers, let's start with the image below, which is an expression of an emotion:

Panel from a comic strip. Susano-o stares with wide eyes, raised eyebrows, and has an exclamation mark coming out of his mouth.
What's this character feeling?

You can probably tell this character looks shocked or startled.

How do we know?

  • There are body language clues: wide eyes, raised hands, teeth bared, eyebrows up—both curving in the same direction—body leaning back like he's pulling away.
  • There's a graphical clue in the giant exclamation mark, bold, breaking out of the speech bubble.

By itself this panel is just a representation of an emotion at a moment in time.

What happens when we extend the time and add context?

(Click on the image to see a bigger version.)

3 comic strip panels. Susano-o rides his horse through a forest. There are loud crashing noises. Susano-o looks shocked.
Some more context.

Now we can see the character, Susano-o, going through three emotions: focused, confused, shocked.

With more context we have new questions:

  • Where was he going?
  • What has shocked him?

Let's answer the first question: where was Susano-o going?

Susano-o setting off to find the serpent of Koshi, looking determined.
Where was Susano-o going? And how did he feel when he set out?

Now we know Susano-o was hunting for the Serpent of Koshi—and the locals said he would be killed.

  • How do you read his attitude when he's setting out to find the serpent?
  • What do you think his subsequent shocked reaction means?
Panel from a comic strip. Susano-o stares with wide eyes, raised eyebrows, and has an exclamation mark coming out of his mouth.
What do you think his shocked reaction means?

Well, here's what happens after Susano-o's shocked expression:

Susano-o is confronted by a fearsome multi-headed serpent
Uh-oh.

These questions are central to narrative:

  • What does a character feel?
  • Why do they feel that way?
  • What will happen next?

For this scene, Stan Sakai gives us the following answer:

Susano-o reaches for his sword, a determined expression on his face.
Susano-o responds like a bad-ass.

Susano-o responds like a badass: he’s brave, determined, reaching for his sword. 

If we put all these panels in the correct order, we have a brief story sequence (click to see a bigger version):

Spread from Usagi Yojimbo comic in which Susano-o leaves to find a serpent, is startled by it in the woods, is terrified, but then fights back
All together now. How do Susano-o's emotions make this sequence feel more alive? From 'Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 12: Grasscutter' by Stan Sakai (Source)

Now we can describe this story as a series of events:

  • A man (actually a god) says he is going to see a serpent.
  • Locals warn him he will be killed, but he goes on anyway.
  • He doesn’t go far into the forest before the monster attacks him.
  • He fights back.

But do you notice how lifeless that sounds?

Now let's list those events but include Susano-o's emotions:

  • A man says he is going to see a serpent.
  • Locals warn him he will be killed, but bravely he goes on anyway.
  • He doesn’t go far into the forest before he is surprised by the serpent's attack.
  • The serpent is terrifying, but the man fights back with determination and courage.

Do you notice how this version feels more alive?

One function of character emotions is to help you make sense of what is going on by explaining how characters feel about the world around them.

Next

Let's look at how different emotions create different meanings.

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