My Hero is captured, now what?
I'm trying to write an escape scene in a fantasy novel. My problem is that I've spent a fair amount of effort explaining what a dire predicament my hero is in, and now I don't know how to get him out. All my latest tries have involved someone else rescuing him. I need him to escape by himself. How can I do this?
(In my specific case, it's a forester and an elf who have been captured by Werewolves and are about to be delivered to the Goblin King. I'm asking the question in general, but using this situation in your examples would be great.)
Another possibility that has not yet been mentioned is magic that works differently on humans and goblins. For example, …
9y ago
Another route you could take with the story is for your hero to use trickery on one of his captors. for example: Hero s …
9y ago
What you're forgetting, and no one seems to be mentioning, is that you are the AUTHOR. You CAN and SHOULD go back, rewri …
9y ago
Werewolves or goblins? Which one captured him. Perhaps just say the werewolves are bounty hunters and the bounty was to …
9y ago
Possible routes to escape (they can be combined): - Luck - the captors make a mistake, or something completely unexpect …
9y ago
Unless your hero's enemies are all intensely stupid, he and his companions will be totally unarmed, and will have been c …
9y ago
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6 answers
What you're forgetting, and no one seems to be mentioning, is that you are the AUTHOR. You CAN and SHOULD go back, rewrite a section so that he can pull a rabbit, pixie, lockpick, magic spell, etc. from his ass, so that he can save the day (or his ass) in this situation. Go back several chapters. Reveal that he has been studying the forbidden and damned works of the Qkuiktolp sorcerers in secret. The spells there are cursed for a reason - whoever uses them damns their soul and the souls of all their friends to the wastes of Kquidlpl. BUT, they save the hero and his friends PHYSICALLY. Now what do they do, since the Goblin King and his entourage have been transported physically to hell? They interrupt their quest to find a way to save their souls of course!
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Possible routes to escape (they can be combined):
- Luck - the captors make a mistake, or something completely unexpected happens that the hero can exploit.
- Preparation - the hero, knowing that capture was possible or imminent, prepared something (a tool, spell or ally) that would help him escape.
- Knowledge - the hero knows what the captors want, need or fear, and can use that against them.
- Charm - the hero negotiates with or sweet-talks the captors into releasing him. May take the form of a bluff.
- Connections - the hero knows someone the captors respect or deal with. Or maybe one of the captors knows him.
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Another route you could take with the story is for your hero to use trickery on one of his captors.
for example: Hero shows a few gold coins to a guard. Guard reaches his arm through the bar to get them. Hero grabs guards arm and pulls. The guards head hits the iron bars and renders him unconscious. Hero grabs guards keys. Freedom.
Another great escape that comes to mind would be Game of thrones by George RR Martin. Tyrion lannister escapes from the Eyrie.
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Werewolves or goblins? Which one captured him. Perhaps just say the werewolves are bounty hunters and the bounty was to bring them alive to the goblin king. I don't consider werewolves to be the merciful types so there needs to be a reason they didn't just eat the heroes outright.
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Unless your hero's enemies are all intensely stupid, he and his companions will be totally unarmed, and will have been carefully searched for anything valuable. Really, unless your goblins are nobler than those in most stories, readers will expect goblins to take everything from their captives. Your hero can't pull a lockpick or a poisoned pin from the seam of his coat or sole of his shoe, because he has no coat and no shoe. He's wearing goblin rags (if that). So, that's your hero's big problem. You've put him in a corner with no way out.
Or does he? Your hero's bad situation is also your hero's opportunity. His enemies assume he is now helpless. Naturally, being lazy goblins, they're not going to guard him too closely. Now is the time to reveal that he soaks his hair in poison, or that he knows a couple magic spells, or can talk to moths (!), or can control weak minds (especially drunken ones). Or has a pixie in one lung. (THAT's why he's been short of breath!) Perhaps also now would be the proper time for him to tell his companions that he PLANNED all along to get caught, because that was the only way to get to the Goblin King, and that he is, in fact, a walking time-bomb.
The problem for you, the writer, is to put a twist on this age-old formula. In real life, of course, the hero would just die. That's often how RL is: good people die, ignominiously and needlessly, for no good end. The bad guys win. But that makes for a lousy story, unless your story has multiple heroes so that one or more is expendable. Assuming you don't want to kill off this guy, you have to think of a way to save him that readers won't expect but also won't reject. You both need and don't want a Deus ex machina. So, after you've saved your hero with this totally unexpected twist, you have to go back (like Mac Cooper said) and set it up in the earlier part of the story.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12521. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Another possibility that has not yet been mentioned is magic that works differently on humans and goblins. For example, the hero could have worn an amulet that offers some magic protection for humans, but has a very bad effect on any goblin wearing it. Of course the goblins would have stolen that amulet, but not knowing about its special properties, some goblin (maybe the guard taking it away from the hero, maybe even the goblin king) would put it on (the hero wore it, and is known to be knowledgeable on all types of magic, so it must have a good effect on the wearer, right?). Whatever effect it has on the goblins weakens them enough for the hero to escape.
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