Assemble! - Horror Victim Archetypes - The Authority Figure

Welcome to Assemble!

 

Here, we'll look at several different characters across multiple series to see who would form a perfect team for a certain genre. From fighting game rosters to RPG adventuring parties, different types of characters tend to show up frequently. What we'll do here is look at those archetypes to see what character is the best fit for that slot, and in the end, we’ll have the best team for the job. These articles will also be shorter entries, compared to some of the more long-form articles here, focusing on one or two characters at a time.

When talking about horror, the villains, monsters, and killers are often the first things that come to people’s minds. The people they hunt are often an afterthought, but these characters show that not all survivors are that easy to kill. The right group with the right people can make things very difficult for the killer. Here, we’ll be looking at that can represent different archetypes of horror movie characters, to build a strong squad of survivors.

THE AUTHORITY FIGURE

When awful things happen to normal people, like what happens in a horror scenario, one of the first ideas the people involved usually have is to call the police or some other kind of authority figure. That is where this character comes in. When the Authority Figure enters the picture, they are portrayed one of two ways. They can either be unbelieving, unhelpful, or even antagonistic towards the victims that tried to summon their help, which often ends with them becoming a victim themselves, or they turn out to be a competent presence that can manage to hold off the killer. In the latter case, this character is usually a protagonist, who is actively pursuing the killer, to bring them to justice. That last type is the character we will look for as our Assemble pick.

Our pick for The Authority Figure is…

Detective David Tapp from Saw

Throughout the first Saw movie, Tapp is investigating the murders of the Jigsaw killer, bent on ending his murder spree. Different clues and connections lead him to the site of one of Jigsaw’s traps, where unfortunately, he is fatally shot. While this ends his story within the movies proper, his story actually continues in a short series of Saw video games. In the games, Tapp is healed by Jigsaw, so the killer can place him within his own tests. While he fails to capture Jigsaw, he still saves a lot of people by the end and is regarded as a hero, even inspiring his son Michael to follow in his footsteps after he’s gone.

For being an enduring presence throughout the franchise, even after his canonical death, we now add Detective Tapp to the roster.

ADDED! 

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What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. 

Thanks for coming!