: Re: Intervening Characters in fiction I have been finding it hard to find info on a certain character archetype. Character traits: has very little investment into the central plot and thus plays

@Lee1909368

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What you're describing is the essence of the Trickster.

The Trickster

Most people think of a trickster as being a foolish or comedic character but the Trickster forms in the overlap between a foolish character, an authoritarian character and a mentor character. If you think of these three archetypes as forming the points of a triangle you can place your individual trickster into that area somewhere.

Several of the characters you describe (I can't talk for the Count of Monte Cristo) fall hard toward the axis between authority and mentor. For this reason it's easy to miss the influence of the foolish character in the mix.

Foolishness

In the cases you've picked foolishness is provided by one of three factors.

The Graeco-Roman Gods had very human foibles and appetites, some stories play these aspects up to make the gods into humourous characters or characters one can more easily recognize or relate to. In the story of the golden apple Hera, Athena and Aprodite are portrayed as being chronically vain, the events of the story depend upon this vanity.

Gandalf is bound by things he cannot do, specifically he is unable to trust himself to bear the ring. An equivalent derivative character is the character of the Dungeon Master in the 80s cartoon show Dungeons & Dragons. Dungoen Master appeared to know everything, had demi-godlike powers and regularly appeared and disappeared at will. However he could neither take on the antagonist, Venger, in a fight nor send the party of main characters back to their home in the real world. He was also known for concealing information by talking in riddles. All of these limits and deceptions conspire to tip DM into the trickster archetype.

In the case of Grey Fox the only thing that makes him a trickster is that he is concealing his true agenda by acting in the role of helper until the situation changes sufficiently for him to reveal his true colours. This would edge him into a sub-type of the trickster, the false friend. What stops him from just being a "mole" or a "traitor" figure include his personal code of ethics and also his weakness for proving himself against Snake in the midst of the action.

Balance

It is important that all three of the archetypal elements are present in the trickster for them to be a trickster.

Without elements of deception or riddling the figure becomes more monk-like, or just a straight mentor figure, like Obi Wan Kenobi.
An authority figure who is in some way foolish but has no mentoring role becomes a tyrannical, chaotic figure, like Caligula.
A fool who has knowledge to impart but no authority becomes a Savant character, such as Kazan in Cube.

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