goth kids
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ragamuffin
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mean girl
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bond girl
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stoner
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fop
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redshirt
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nosey neighbor?
scaley used-car salesman?
Oh! How about the jabbering native?
gutter punk?
How about those eldritch Goth kids?
Streetwise punk.
I hope you keep adding to this list, it's great.
How about good cop, bad cop? Two archetypes for the price of one!
May I suggest the evil stepsister? Or the benevolent, pipe-smoking grandfather?
ptero... not sure, but there are a bunch of Shakespearean insult lists, that's for dang sure!
In early Spielberg films the archetypes were invariably pepsodent suburban normalites - E.T., Poltergeist, Close Encounters, etc. They had to be pinnacles of ordinariness to provide contrast and resonance for feature character/event/monster.
There's also the quirky roommate (who may also serve as wingman or comic sidekick). The mean girl, the prom queen, or - more interestingly - the former pageant queen/prom queen/head cheerleader. The comedy gold of the foreign exchange student, source of many hilarious misunderstandings. And, of course, there's that high-school stalwart, the cool, brooding outsider.
The arrogant clinician, with entourage of fawning courtiers, held at bay by the straight-shooting, street-smart emergency room nurse. All those female district attorneys, E.R. doctors, forensic pathologists, married to their jobs and unlucky in love.
Fair point, pterodactyl. My recollections of the stories that I read while growing up is that they were just studded with cads, bounders, and poltroons. But memory is notoriously unreliable.
What is the difference between a cad and a bounder? The bounder is much more despicable. The following story encapsulates the distinction:
An officer is killed in battle, and one of his brother officers is tasked with delivering the bad news to the widow. Now, the brother officer would be a bounder if he told the widow the bad news, and then seduced her - but would be a cad if he seduced her, and then delivered the bad news.
The assumption, of course, being that only a bounder would be so tasteless as to take advantage of a grieving woman.
Is "lily-livered poltroon" an archetype? I'm not sure. It sounds more like a hilarious Shakespearean insult.
And why has no one listed it yet? You'd think that Wordies, of all people, would appreciate hilarious Shakespearean insults.
Great suggestions, sionnach -- thanks!
How about fawning courtier? ambulance-chasing lawyer? lily-livered poltroon? hooker with a heart of gold? whiskey priest? wise elder statesman? corrupt politician?
I find both the title and concept of this list to be fairly stupendous.
Instant story -- just add plot!