If it can be imagined, it can be created.
This is the motto of the Creator, the Jungian archetype driven by the need to see dream become reality, while providing structure to the world. They are the great architects: the artists, the scientists, the gods and goddesses. Their mind is always questioning, tinkering, and entertaining new theorems. Ingenuity is their hallmark.
As I have mentioned in prior posts of this series, this collection of posts deals with the archetypes first put forth by psychiatrist Carl Jung, and the use of these archetypes in fiction. Every post deals with the motivations, character profiles, and Shadows (or negatives) of each archetype. This week continues the group known as the Soul types, which are defined by goals related to personal development, or agendas that serve to improve their spiritual, mental, or physical standing with the world. The Creator, driven by a need for progress, is today’s selection.
THE TWELVE ARCHETYPES
The Creator
Also known as the artist, innovator, inventor, architect, musician, artist, and dreamer, the Creator is solely focused on examining the boundaries or our reality and perception. As a character, they often take the position of the well-meaning scientist, or savant artist.
The Creator carries an inexhaustible imagination, often excelling at their chosen vocation. When presenting as a mortal character in a reality-based world, he is often portrayed as a man ahead of his time. There are often better examples of this archetype in the real world (Galileo, Einstein, Mozart, Steve Jobs) than in fiction!
Mediocrity is the Creator’s worst fear. Whether this result comes from concept or execution doesn’t matter. The creator wishes to be an authentic voice in a world of white noise. They gain rivals easily, answering those challenges with innovation in their work, and their personal outlook.
The Creator, however, has no shortage of a Shadow. Often given to starting multiple projects but finishing none, or abandoning morality for the sake of their craft, they can be taxing on other people for their insensitivity. Because of their genius, the Creator often tends to play god, allowing the end to justify the means, and deciding what is best for the masses without consulting outside opinion. Many a tormented villain began life as the over-eager, excitable, and impulsive Creator.
EXAMPLES
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Mozart, as portrayed in Amadeus, is so consumed by his brilliance that he can not notice the way his life is crumbling all around him, ultimately bringing him to his final destruction.
Frida Kahlo, as portrayed by Salma Hayek, was a woman beyond the literal scope of her reality. Confined in body but not in spirit or mind, she advances the ideas of feminism, marriage, sexuality, and art in ways few in her era could.
Wednesday Addams is one of the more precocious children in TV and Film, taking her “arts” to new levels at every opportunity. She lives outside of her life as a little girl, often speaking and conducting herself in ways that are more mature than even the adults in her household.
Cisco, from the TV series The Flash, is a geeky Creator. If it sounds cool, he’ll build it, sometimes with disastrous outcomes. However, his pure heart is never tampered with, and since he never believes himself superior to others, he is able to maintain his relationships, redirecting his genius to solve the various problems the team faces.
Mythology’s original creator. Not much needs to be said here; the stories of Zeus and his creations, and his anger when those creations fail to venerate him properly, are world famous, and with good reason.
Known as some of the most creative artisans of Middle Earth, the dwarves of Tolkein’s world are also greedy, erring on the side of arrogance and superiority.
All of the characters pictured here from Big Hero 6 (sans Baymax) could be included in the Creator Archetype, which may be the reason that some found the story a bit flat — there were no real foils or different personalities to round out the cast.
No list about the Creator could be complete without Dr. Frankenstein, the original pop-culture inventor. While Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde could also make the list, here we have a man playing god, with horrific consequence.
An obvious inclusion, the figurines of the LEGO universe (and the company as well) are all about Creators as a brand. Build anything. Everyone is the Special.
Another example of the Creator falling victim to his own genius, Tony Stark is a master tinkerer, unable to keep himself from exploring, or asking questions that shouldn’t be answered. In the most recent film, this led to the creation of the diabolical Ultron and the neutral Vision.
Dr. Emmett Brown of Back to the Future fame, is your standard Creator archetype. Like most inventors, his inventions tend to backfire in unexpected ways, and he must both grapple with and correct those errors before they result in catastrophe.
Bulma, inventor extraordinaire, is one of the few females to make this list. As a scientist in Capsule Corp, Bulma’s ingenuity nearly functions as a plot device to get the heroes out of tight situations, but his arrogance as the “brains” behind the operation often put her at odds with the rest of the group.
John Hammond wanted a simple thing: to create life. To bring what was extinct back from the dead. But his internal vision was not the outcome: chaos can not be controlled, and Hammond was no god.
Wayne Szalinski, from Honey I Shrunk the Kids, rarely thinks about the consequences of his inventions. He sees them only for the good they can do. This of course led to a highly successful series of movies revolving around his irresponsibility with his genius, where he must often rely on his children to clean up his mistakes.
Forge is an interesting paradox for this list in that he is a Creator – able to create anything in all the world he wishes to create – but he lacks the imagination to do it by himself. The complex nature of his gift forces him to rely on the ingenuity and imagination of others, while his fingers make what would only be dreams, otherwise, reality.
Ratatouille is the creator chef, and with his rat’s palette, he is able to combine new ingredients for unexpected tastes.
Karen Eiffel, the effective “god” of Stranger than Fiction, is an author who does not realize the words of her imagination are reality for her protagonist Harold Crick, but in the end, she chooses compassion over genius, sparing his life.
Kevin McCallister, from Home Alone, is the common portrayal of the Child Creator. Like Dennis the Mennis, Harriet the Spy, and Matilda, Child Creators’s ingenuity is often used for the good of harmony and overpowering those who disrupt the proper order (happiness and peace) of the world.
Brilliant, confused, angry. The history of Dr. Wells is complex and fascinating, but his use of the particle excelerator for his own ends is a classic example of “playing god” and allowing the end to justify the means.
Turning to Chinese mythology for a moment, we have Nüwa, the female equivalent of Zeus. She, too, made humans from clay, and set order to the world, at one point repairing the heavens when they tore away from the world.
Tinker Bell, in her movie incarnations, has a much richer personality than in her Peter Pan days, as Hannah Givens (check the recommended readings) points out. In these movies she is a tinker, and inventor, and she must come to terms with the goodness of that designation before she can begin to grow as a person (or fairy!)
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Ariel Hudnall 
I think thisis a very popular type of character, especially in speculative fiction. And yes, I see how villains often come from this archetype.
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It’s surprising how many villains start here! Here, or with the Lover, or Hero.
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It isn’t something I’d expect… but it’s so intersting from a storyteller’s point of view 🙂
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What a great and informative post. I really enjoy your character archetypes.
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Thanks so much, Solveig! I’m glad they make an impact. They’re quite fun to write. 🙂
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You are welcome.
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Nice one, Alex! I was drawn in as soon as I saw the picture of Wednesday Addams 😉
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Have you seen the recent YouTube videos of Adult Wednesday Addams? They’re quite charming, in that Addams Family way. 🙂
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It wasn’t hard for me to spot my primary desirable character trait (a search for authentic voice). As for the shadow, that business of starting multiple projects is familiar, even if it takes place only in my head.
I need to watch “Back to the Future” again. That was such fun.
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Yes, I should go back and watch a lot of these movies again. But as I was writing this one, I definitely had a sense of “Yeah… this sounds too familiar for comfort!” 😉
Interestingly, and this didn’t make it into the blog post, but you reminded me, another aspect of the shadow is that the Creator can use his ingenuity as a distraction from self-reflection. I found that a really fascinating element. For example, the genius using his quest for time travel to avoid recognizing grief.
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These archetype posts are really neat, Alex. I’m more familiar with the Myers Briggs Personality Types than Jung’s examples (I learned about the former and not the latter in college), but I can see little bits of crossover. It makes me wonder which Jung archetypes the characters for my own WIP would fall under. Do you know of any websites or online tests that go into more detail?
On a separate note: I LOVED Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Home Alone when I was a kid! *lol*
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Myers Briggs was based on Jung, so it’s not surprising you’re more familiar with that (it’s also more scientifically sound, haha.) Archetypes.com is useful if you want to take a test, but don’t bother with the newsletter. 😛 I may try to make up a worksheet for “divining” which slot a character fits in when I finish the series…. only four more to go! Some sort of flow chart, maybe. 🙂
Note: Me too! Now I kinda want to watch Honey again. 😀
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The worksheet is a neat idea. I’d love to give it a try if you end up creating it!
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I’ll play around with the idea!
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Ooh, thanks to Twitter (Sarah Z) for my finding this. Yours is an excellent shorthand go to about the archetypes. Thanks for putting this out there and all the work you did to compile it. Going to get to the other ones.
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Not at all! Thank you very much for dropping by and leaving your thoughts. ^_^
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I think, in terms of character, the creator is my favourite to work with. I love the eccentricity, the way they shape and influence a story. It’s a great deal of fun. You chose some excellent examples. I really enjoyed your breakdown of this archetype. Thanks 😀
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Thanks so much, Melissa! (BTW, love your new avatar!)
Creators are definitely fun to work with. They have a lot of personality that really can’t be contained. Makes it fun to write what’s going on in their heads.
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It certainly does! And thanks. I thought I should have a more up to date photo on there. 😀
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Yay! Yay! For once, I absolutely know some of my characters fit this archetype, because my protagonist and most of his associates are Mad Scientists. 😀
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Yeah, I kept wondering where all of my characters were (besides the Outlaw) and finally found them here. 😉 Hoping to see a couple more in the last four!
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This one really hit home, especially the part about exploring boundaries of perception and the fear of mediocrity.
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Yeah, it’s certainly the one I connected with. But then again, we are both creative types, so it’s not so hard to imagine!
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From mild to extreme ENFJ and INFJ personalities.
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