South Park: Multiple Main Characters within One Story

Breaking the mold: how shared perspectives weave a cohesive story

Not every well-told story fits perfectly into the typical Dramatica story paradigm - i.e. an Objective Story, a Main and Obstacle Character, and a Relationship Story. Sometimes a good story can have multiple Obstacle Characters and multiple Main Characters. One way of pulling this off with minimal confusion to your audience is to ensure that each Main Character shares the same perspective…just as the South Park movie did.

By far the most interesting aspect of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut is the idea of having multiple Main Characters within a single storyform. While it’s not entirely unique to have more than one Main Character, it is uncommon to take this approach (at least with the movies I’ve seen). Usually, multiple Main Characters means more than one story within a single piece.

Take for instance the Pixar film, Finding Nemo:

Finding Nemo has two stories in it. The larger story is the title’s namesake, “Finding Nemo.” In that story, Marlin, Nemo’s father, is the Main Character, with Dori (and a bit of Nemo) as the Impact Character(s). The smaller story takes place in the Dentist’s aquarium. In that substory, Nemo is the Main Character and Gill is the Impact Character.

These two stories have separate storyforms - different structures, if you will.

Turning Point for Matt and Trey

The South Park movie represents a shift in crass two-dimensional storytelling. Up until then, the boys of South Park - Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny - were often collectively thought of as the Main Character. This is most easily seen in the first South Park short, “The Spirit of X-Mas.” No one character stood out from the others as they were all treated as one cohesive group.

After the South Park movie (the 3rd season), you can begin to see a change in the storytelling to a more refined personal approach. Often these episodes will center on one character’s own personal issues with the rest of the group sort of fading into the background. The other boys are still there (sometimes even providing the Obstacle Character’s Throughline), but no longer do they operate as a collective perspective on a personal problem.

The South Park movie, interestingly enough, takes both approaches. It certainly favors the former, but there are still elements of the multiple Main Character in there. But even with all that in there, the film still does not come off as convoluted. On the contrary, besides being absolutely hilarious, it also provides us with a meaningful ending. The reason it’s able to do this is because each Main Character is basically dealing with the same type of issue.

The Singular Personal Perspective

The most personal of all viewpoints in this story comes from Stan and his “uneasiness” when it comes to the girl of his dreams, Wendy. We, as an audience, get a personal look into Stan’s personal problems - we get to hear him sing about how beautiful Wendy is, and we feel the shame when we can’t control our butterflies around her. Stan’s status with Wendy (MC Domain: Universe) is at stake here, exemplified with his question, “How can I get Wendy to like me?”

Stan is a Steadfast Main Character. Why is that? Because when looking at whether a Main Character Changes or not, it’s important to question whether the Main Character has truly changed their paradigm, or have they instead grown into their resolve.

At the end, Stan still has butterflies, but you can see that he has really dug his heels in, especially when it comes to the appropriateness of the Terrence and Phillip movie, Asses of Fire (Hereafter referred to as AOF). Stan also retains his strong feelings for Wendy, regardless of his uncontrollable reaction to Wendy simply saying “Hi” (See the above photo).

Changed Main Characters adopt a brand new outlook on life

Wendy, on the other hand, is the Changed Obstacle Character. From the beginning, she plays the hyper-aware and politically minded character - maturely concerned with all things social, seemingly brainwashed (OC Domain: Mind) by the very demure Gregory. She reacts negatively to sexist statements, refuses to go see AOF, and is, in fact, one of the only kids to not be wearing a shirt promoting that vulgar film. Her fondness for all things Gregory has a profound impact on Stan and helps to shine a light on his own personal problems.

In the end, things change for the better though, when she proclaims “F*** Gregory.” At this point, she has adopted Stan’s perspective of political incorrectness. With that bold statement, she has changed the way she views the world.

So we have a Steadfast Main Character and a Change Obstacle Character. The Main Character’s Domain (or perspective) exists in Universe and the Obstacle Character’s Domain exists in Mind.

What about the other Main Characters?

Collective Main Characters

There are 4 additional Main Character Throughlines that can be seen in South Park (listed here with their corresponding Obstacle Characters):

• The 4 Kids vs. Their Parents
• Kyle vs. Sheila (his mother)
• Cartman vs. Society
• Kenny vs. Satan

Each of these Main Characters Remains Steadfast while their Obstacle Characters Change - remaining true to the singular Main Character storyform. The 4 Kids and Kyle Throughlines are very similar - with the latter operating as a microcosm of the former.

The Kids remain steadfast in their belief that AOF (and vulgarity in general) is not detrimental to their mental stability. The parents, with Kyle’s mom Sheila at the forefront, initially freak out over the film’s influence on their children.

Paranoid, they imagine that while their children may be cursing now, they may be doing something even worse farther down the line. In the end, Kyle manages to change his mother’s mind with the plea, “I don’t want an activist, I want a mom.” Sheila stops her insanity, confessing that she might have been too quick to judge.

From this perspective, the boys, stuck in a small mountain town, find themselves up against obstinate, set-in-their-ways parents. This maintains the previous storyform with the boys stuck in a situation (MC Domain: Universe) and the parents fixated in their attitudes (OC Domain: Mind).

Cartman, too, experiences his own personal battle with political correctness, having watched a movie that warped his “fragile little mind.” Eventually society, with its fixed view of how boys should behave, conspires to install a V-Chip in Cartman’s brain. All Cartman has to do is utter one dirty word for the V-Chip to riddle his body with an incapacitating electric surge. Like Kyle, Cartman eventually manages to convince V-Chip proponents that such devices are more harmful than helpful.

And lastly there is the story of Kenny and Satan. This story, to me, is more personally felt than the two previous ones. You could almost make an argument that the 4 Kids Throughline and the Parents Throughline are really masquerading as Protagonist and Antagonist, respectively. But the story of Kenny, Satan, and Saddam certainly feels like its own story (a sub-story if you will).

Satan exists in a typically negative codependent relationship with an atypical partner, Saddam Hussein. Saddam verbally abuses Satan at every turn – an approach that Satan apparently has been taking in stride for several years. That is, until Kenny arrives.

Kenny, now dead (MC Domain: Universe), exerts his muffled influence on Satan. The King of the Underworld, fixated on his belief that his relationship with Saddam is just what it will always be (OC Domain: Mind), eventually grows to stand up for himself. He grows and changes, like any other typical Main Character, to adopt a brand new outlook on life. Strengthened, he ends the abusive relationship by tossing Saddam into a Michael Bay-inspired impaling.

Different Subject Matter, Same Structure

Now, while the first three combinations (and the original singular Main Character perspective) all dealt with the effects of political correctness, the last one dealt primarily with Satan’s love life. But even with vastly different subject matter, the structures of the five stories are all the same. They all have Universe Main Characters who Remained Steadfast and Mind Obstacle Characters who eventually Changed.

You can do the same with your own story. Personally, I find it hard enough to manage one Main Character. But if you are so inclined, work your way through the Dramatica software and settle on one storyform. Print it out (it fits on one page) and then shut down Dramatica. Now fire up your favorite storytelling device and start writing. With the roadmap of the storyform next to your keyboard, you can be sure that your Main Characters will remain consistent and true…something every audience desires!

Note: This article was written 15 years before Subtxt and Subtxt Muse made it even easier to develop your stories using these concepts. We highly recommend these latest tools to help you with your storytelling.