Question for you, Karel: How does obsessiveness relate to the Hero’s Journey? I mean, is it not usual for the protagonist to be stumbling and unsure after the inciting incident? And so, how can obsessiveness come in at that stage? Perhaps the classic case of young Luke Skywalker could be used as your explanatory example here?

Steven.

Nice, David. Thanks!

Tyler Durden – a character from a $20m arthouse film ;o)
The Dude – DEFINITELY obsessive about his rug!

Maybe the key point is that there are certain weaknesses central characters must not have, like apathy. No drive is bad, one drive (obsessive) can be enough, multiple drives can also be good.

Joy starts the movie obsessive about making Riley happy. Hence not allowing Sadness to touch the memories. But that changes. She might be a serial obsessive, I guess.

Michael Corleone does what he does for his family’s sake, not despite it. He’d have rather married a civilian and walked into the sunset at the start of the film, but if he does that his family dies so he can’t.

Starting from https://www.filmsite.org/100characters4.html

Vito Corleone: I guess I have to give you this one, he’s obsessive.
Fred Dobbs: It’s not that he’s obsessive, it’s his paranoia. But close enough.
Scarlett O’Hara: certainly develops obsessions at some times in the story.
Norman Bates: multiple personalities, some of which are obsessive perhaps.

I seem to be doing very badly here but I just noticed all these characters are from the 1970s at the latest, Let’s try something more modern. https://www.etcanada.com/movies/photos/empire_mag_readers_favourite_movie_characters_of_all_time.aspx#!Indiana_Jones

1. Indiana Jones: Multiple drivers: uncover buried secrets, stop the nazis, save the girl … when he has a rocket launcher aimed at the ark his rival calls his bluff and it’s the balance of the drives that matters.
2. James Bond: Save the world, get the girl: sometime sthey come into conflict.
3. Han Solo: mercenary but not as mercenary as he likes to pretend, help his friends, protect his love. At a key plot point decides to abandon his friends and is probably at least partially talked out of it by Chewie. Definitely multiple drives.
4. Batman: I guess I’ll give you this one, he’s an obsessive.
5. Ripley: Survival horror so she’s just doing what anyone would do – trying to survive.
6. The Joker: obsessive? Though a mercurial one. Perhaps a serial obsessive, leaping from project to project.
7. John McClane: partially survival-drive, partially save the girl, partially do the job. As it turns out the drives never clash so he acts like an obsessive but maybe isn’t.
8. Tyler Durden: obsessive?
9. Darth Vader: Always a little tension between serving the emperor, avenging insults to the force by colleagues and wanting to recruit his son.
10. The Dude: I vaguely recall this film.

For these more modern characters being obsessive is a little rarer.

An obsessive we all loved: T-800 series from Terminator. You put one of those on the job they don’t slack off when they get tired.

Thanks, Karel. Another useful link : https://www.clown-enfant.com/leclown/shop/category.php?pageid=8. What’s great, these days, is that we have so many inputs on story telling. We can grab gems here and there.

Thanks Yves. Great examples.
For more examples, people can always go to your book, I guess. ;)
(Check on this blog: https://thestorydepartment.com/writing-drama-1)