Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon
It’s actually taking me an hour to find a picture for this post. I never realized how hard it is to find a character with scars that aren’t over the top, barely visible, or on a character that’s simply over done. Basically I wanted to avoid Harry, Joker, Freddy, Scar (Lion King), and Scar (Fullmetal Alchemist). We’ll see what I grab after I write this post and go back on the hunt . . . eh, fudge it. Bruce Lee will work because you know those wounds won’t heal completely.
I recently hit a point in my series where the heroes got brutally trashed. Just writing up the injury list was painful and only one of them was in a condition that wasn’t life-threatening. So this brought my mind to the idea of physical scars. Luke is already sporting 2 and might be getting a third. Timoran has a bunch and Nyx is sporting one after an earlier incident. Then there’s Sari . . . I don’t know what to do here. It’s hard to put a scar on her because of her personality and the importance of her physical beauty. This isn’t going to be an easily seen mark though, but it does feel like I can’t casually give her one. Right now I’m leaving it up to her, but it’s really hard to believe that she wouldn’t be scarred because of this. Healing magic could do it since she was the one person not to be hit by a spell in the beat down. Of course this brought my mind to a few other things when it comes to scars and characters:
- Scars on heroes are typically made to look and sound attractive/noble. Scars on villains always seem to be scary and intimidating. Any good guys with ‘ugly’ scars tend to be gritty and angry like Jonah Hex. At least in American culture since Vash (Trigun) and Kenshin have scars and are nice. Yet we seem to see scars on a heroes as a sign of prowess and manliness.
- Very few heroines have scars and those that do fall into two categories. Barely visible and you simply have to take their word for it. I forgot the movie or show where a man and woman are comparing scars, but I couldn’t see what the woman was pointing at even when I paused the TV. If it isn’t barely visible then it looks like somebody tore up the woman’s face with a vengeance. The trade-off ends up being the body of Aphrodite, the combat skills of Ares, and the mind of Athena. There’s rarely a middle ground with female characters that are scarred. Again, this might only be in America since I know some anime woman with scars that are in the middle.
- It’s funny how authors can overlook an injury that should scar, but doesn’t. Even stranger is how readers don’t notice either. Imagine if scar-worthy injuries actually got the scar in comic books. Every superhero would be a walking scar instead of the unblemished skin of a baby that they seem to have. In non-visual fiction, it rarely crosses our minds that an injury can’t be fully healed. Yet it happens all the time in real life even with wounds that aren’t life-threatening. Burns are a big one in here because those can scar easily outside of fiction. In fact, fictional characters are hard to set on fire unless the story calls for it. How does Spidey never ignite when he’s running through a burning building in spandex?
- Does a scar really take away from a character’s attractiveness? In real life, we notice blemishes and it alters our perception. Some people wonder about the story behind the scar or the hygiene of someone riddled with acne. Keep in mind that it is rude to make these thoughts public. Yet I don’t know if this carries over to books since you don’t see the character. How many people remember that Luke is scarred if I don’t mention it when he takes his shirt off? What about the scar that Nyx keeps hidden? Some readers didn’t even pick up on her losing her long hair in Family of the Tri-Rune. So do we really have to worry about scars in our books outside of our own interest? This entire thing might only be to satisfy my own curiosity and thoughts when the readers gloss right over it.
So, what do people think of characters earning scars in fiction? Is it necessary? Would you even notice a severe injury not leaving a scar?
Legends of Windemere 
Many Chinese still honor him…
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Do you mean Bruce Lee?
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Yes, the one with “scars” in the pic of your blog.:-) I think he’s still worldwide famous.
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He definitely is. I still see people talking about him and enjoying his movies. One of my friends is always posting quotes from Bruce Lee too.
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It does depend on the genre, too; doesn’t it? I can’t imagine grimdark without a few scars, just like they’d be largely out of place on, say, Legolas. Only pne of my Pearseus characters has a large enough scar to disfigure their face. He’s a bit of a hybrid character, neither good nor bad, and the scar actually ties in with the plot, so it makes sense to me.
Funnily enough, I was wondering of something similar the other day – about tattoos.
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I think I can see a scar on Legolas more than Merry or Pippin. Though I don’t really have much love for the elf since I always thought of him as background.
Genre does change the effect of a scar. In fantasy, they can be signs of prowess and intimidation. In a romance, they can be horrible events that change the entire story. Though I guess it depends on the character too. Some archetypes open themselves up to scars more easily than others.
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I don’t think it necessary to earn scars in fiction, but it depends on if the scars have a story to tell…
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True. Though I do think it odd when characters survive a bad injury that involved a bleeding wound, but they don’t scar. Of course this is something earned during the story.
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I think they can be great story or character elements, but it’s up to the author to really sell it. I’m writing a guy right now who has plenty of them, but they haven’t changed his personality or made him brood about them. Great topic today.
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I have a character like that. One of his tics is to scratch a shoulder scar, but that’s really it. I think scars can have a bigger visual impact with some characters. You’d have to repeatedly bring attention to them to make them more than ‘window dressing’.
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It’s true, people are funny when it comes to scars. For my current WIP, my character Bronwyn has a lot of scars. They are mentioned several times and not made out to be “manly” or “attractive.” He’s ashamed of them because of how he got them. I have no problem scarring characters–even their faces.
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I thought I was fine until this one character took a hit that just screamed scar. I wonder if it’s easier to start with a scar than have characters get them over time.
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I was just thinking about this last night. If I bring back my villain in a future book, she will likely be scarred or disfigured. I was wondering if that would gross out the reader, you know, like maybe they wouldn’t want that image in their mind, even though she’s a bad guy. Something to think about. I think for a woman, the scarring would would have more of an impact on self-image. This would likely affect her behavior/personality. I know that sounds sexist, but I do think women are more obsessed with body image in some ways. Yeah, men want the six-pack abs and women want to be trim. But a noticeable scar is like a medal to a man and it is devastating to a woman.
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I think people would be shocked, but to have her come back clean might be ridiculous. I’m assuming she is in a violent accident that nobody should get out of in one piece.
Gender is definitely a consideration. With female characters, an author definitely has to make a reaction that differs from a male. At least we think we do. I’d like to think some women wouldn’t let it consume their personality.
Odd thing, but do you think people automatically visualize the face when a scar is mentioned?
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I have read books with burned or disfigured characters and when the author paints pictures with words it can be pretty gruesome in my mind. Haunting if it’s not in a horror novel where you would expect it. I have had such disgust when reading about disfigured children that I couldn’t continue reading the book. Then I felt sort of ashamed by my reaction…also not a good feeling associated with reading.
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Shock and disgust were probably the aim. Sad thing is that such situations bring more realism to stories. It’s a nasty double-edged sword when you write an adult story that involves children.
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I think so much depends on the characters and the genre, as well as race and culture of the characters. Slaves, for example, both male and female, might carry scars from whipping and other brutal acts, and perhaps it is important to the story. Some cultures also have ritual scarification. Some people can have severe injuries that don’t really leave scars. Characters in some dystopian world might all have scars, as in the Pure series. I’m sure you’ll figure it out, or your characters will let you know what they want revealed. 🙂
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Didn’t think about the slave role. I keep thinking about the scars earned in a story, so the pre-existing ones keep slipping my mind. Funny since I’m outlining a story that involves a character with magical scars.
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Magical scars! Cool!
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I’m having them show up only in moonlight and they bleed a bit.
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I like the noble scars. You know like the old German sword wound on the cheek (head cheek). it gives the hero something to talk about when he meets new characters or at least something for them to think about. Scars on women? What’s the difference between a scar and some to the tattoos? I think a nice noble scar on the upper arm would be interesting.
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It is interesting how the same scar on a woman can elicit a different reaction.
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This is kind of interesting, and rather apropos, considering. In my experience, I actually FORGOT that I gave one of my characters some scars in my own book. She was in a bad fire, and her hands were burned. Then, magically, they weren’t–and while it made sense, considering, I forgot to even put anything in later about them. xD Like anyone asking, wow, how did your burns heal?? Or even HER noticing that they weren’t.. because, of course, her silly author forgot about them. Whoops.
On another note, I actually intentionally gave the MC of another story of mine, a 24-year-old woman, scarring on her face that resulted from a sickness she had during childhood. It affected her a great deal–it ruined her chances of an advantageous marriage, and distorted her own image of herself so much that she chopped off most of her hair and pretends to be a guy a majority of the time. (There are other reasons for this, but mainly she just doesn’t consider herself attractive or desirable.) It also makes her more resentful of the elite class system in her world.
So, as you can see, I’ve actually been tackling scars a lot, so I found it interesting that you posted this. 🙂 I feel like it’s an interesting angle that you could play with Sari in this case–like you said, so much of her identity is kind of tied with her beauty, but it’s rather strange to imagine the crap these heroes put their bodies through and expecting them to come out the other side unblemished.
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Very impressive scar usage. I forget them too at times, but others I put in the wrong place until an editing run. As far as Sari goes, I’m scared to make her come off as vain when that isn’t true. I need to find that balance or make her come to terms with it. The latter seems more likely since she’s been through a lot already.
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Ha ha. Have any of your characters had an easy time? xD And she might not be vain, exactly, but let me tell you–there are few women in the world who would get a scar and not care about it at all. It’s not that we’re vain either, exactly… Just that, I mean, who wants some kind of mark that you can never get rid of? Stretch marks are bad enough!
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Maybe it’s the fantasy adventure world, but it’s still a tough mentality to put in for longer than a chapter or two. Especially since the other characters have already earned a few scars.
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I think scarring is necessary if it feels like that adds depth to a character, perhaps if the physical scar was due to a trauma that explains why the character is the way he or she is today. As for setting a character on fire – nope, haven’t done done that!
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Definitely a scar that’s around before the story needs some type of impact. The one I have in my story is ‘gained’ during a big fight scene. I really couldn’t rationalize the wound being healed, even with magic, and not leave a scar.
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You want scarred heroes? Tanith Lee’s “Kill the Dead” hero could barely walk. A great book — I’ll have to see if I still have it around here.
You’re right, though. People do rush to judgment about people with obvious physical attributes that are out of the ordinary, whether it be a scar, hook-hand, or massive birthmark. It can be a great switch-around to have a person with a scary-looking scar turn out to be the most loyal and dependable person in the story.
If you want a hero to be scarred or have any other distinguishing features (brilliant red hair, anyone?) you need to mention it, or a reaction to it, at least two or three times during the book. ‘Cause people do forget.
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I can actually see how a scar would probe loyalty if someone got it defending a friend. I definitely give each character a defining attribute. It helps in later books when I bring the character back and need something to trigger the reader’s memory.
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For goodness sake give them scars, it’s interesting. Aragon always attracted me because he was described as not being attractive. Perfect = dull
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I have a few different types of characters, some with crazy abilities to self heal, or healing magic, so if they do bare scars, it’s kind of a big deal, and even more shocking to those who find out because something very out of the ordinary must have happened.I have another character from a game who has been prevented a lot of terrible scars thanks to healing magic, but he does have quite a few smaller, less noticeable scars accrued from a childhood of curiosity and the rough and tumble life of an adventurer. In more recent years, though they are diminished thanks to the fervent healing efforts of his friends, I scarred his face and torso because I wanted him to retain some kind of physical representation of an event that left more than one lasting impact on his life, and what he had survived.
My general rule of thumb is to mention a character having a variety of smaller scars at least once if you want it to impact a reader’s initial perception of them. Give them more noticeable scars if it had a significant impact on them, either as a reminder of their resilience, or if it still haunts them. Scars are often badges of proof that a character survived something that did not kill them.
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I like that rule. Helps create a solid visual of the character’s physical form and hints at personality. Fully agree with scars proving you survived a deadly experience.
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