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I have three characters, who are supposed to be good friends. Athos, Aramis, and Porthos, if you wish. Instead, I have two characters who share a strong Frodo-Sam relationship, and the third guy, w...
#4: Attribution notice removed
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/42521 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/42521 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
I have three characters, who are supposed to be good friends. Athos, Aramis, and Porthos, if you wish. Instead, I have two characters who share a strong Frodo-Sam relationship, and the third guy, who is almost a "third wheel". It's not that my "Porthos" is less developed than the other two. But he is less cerebral. If I think of them as a [Freudian Trio](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FreudianTrio), he's the id. He loves physical activities, he's adventurous, he is the one who is ready with a joke to ease a tense moment, he is practical in his thinking, so if the other two get into arguing ideals, he's bringing them back into the here-and-now. If the other two are "Frodo" and "Sam" he's "Pippin". To make things worse, the other two are both POV characters, while he's not, not until significantly later into the story. Because "Porthos" is less cerebral, and because he's not a POV character, he gets less time in the spotlight, which, I think, exacerbates the problem. **I'm _telling_ they're 3 friends, but I'm _showing_ 2+1. How can I change that?**