"People love Underdogs" - a media-Centric Follow-up. There were some great comments on this mornings post, so I want to share more detail on the thinking before getting back to business!

Straker is about the same height as Putin or Zelenski, about 1 inch below global average. (I stood next to Putin once, he's just slightly shorter than me: but much broader shoulders).

• If I made Straker bang on global average, the artwork wouldn't change.

• If I made Straker 6f 2 (the average size for SciFi heroes, John Shephard), he'd still be much shorter than the shortest Sekarri.

• If I made Straker SUPER TALL, like 6'7, they are still shorter than the shortest Sekarri, and weaker.

Even if I went all out, and made an extreme 7ft, what does that add? Most tall people are the same as most short people i.e. they are average. He'd still be lacking nanites and genetic engineering.

What are the chances you roll all 6's? 6 in height, 6 in intelligence, 6 in self-sacrificing nature, 6 in strength and so on. And work in an office? It's possible, but extremely unlikely.

As the title suggests, movies and media all around the world capitalise on the 'underdog' effect, but they usually find themselves working to square the round hole.

In Halo, John's a super soldier, but he's tiny compared to the average Elite Covenant.
In fact, in the last image attached, he's comically small compared to a single promethean knight.

In modern combat, Drones are force multipliers. In SciFi and the future, Power Armor will be force multipliers.

The reason for making Straker average height (or slightly below), was to make him more relatable to the average person. To add more realism to the lore. But of course, it further draws the striking contrast with the taller Sekarri. As a writer, there was no need for me to max out his physical attributes, in fact, it's more rewarding making him normal.

In modern writing, even without the height and muscle, writers can get themselves into trouble by writing Mary Sue characters - i.e. Captain Marvel, bombed because there was no struggle for her, no growth arc; she was just over powered and that was that.

In everything from Final Fantasy to Star Trek, writers scramble to transition the mismatch at the beginning to a classic 5 tier stage of the hero's arc/trope that most media rely on. You have to move the story to 'overwhelming odds' etc. For Startrek it was the Klingons, for TNG it was the Borg, for final fantasy 7 it was Sephiroth, Halo it was the Covenant and so on.

People want to read relatable characters, big challenges and impossible odds. Given Straker's up against a Tier 3 Super power, Neph's cloned near 9 foot super soldiers, being an extra inch or two isn't really going to carry the distance.

Hopefully that makes sense guys.