The rebel

 I'm thinking about rebels today.  While everyone is going on around me with their jolly Christmas holidays, I can't wait for them all to go home and go back to work.  Everywhere is crowded with people, all noisily trying to prove what happy families they are.  I don't buy it.  I have a rebel's eye view of the world.

Rebels are very useful as characters.  The rebel in a family can challenge a status quo that has gone unexamined, sometimes for generations.  The rebel can be a young woman refusing the marriage arranged for her, the boy refusing to give up his art dream for a 'proper job' in a profession.

Rebels can be leading a resistance against a corrupt regime, or activists showing us the uncomfortable truth of our actions.  They are people who think for themselves, and are willing to risk the wrath of society, and perhaps worse, to follow their truth.

Bryn's rebellion in Panthera : Death Spiral is to steal Panthera and refuse to let his employers hand him over to the military.  That means he has to run away from them, and change his identity, but the cause is worth it.  The stakes are Pan's life.  Bryn is a quiet, geek rebel, and that's what makes his decision to take off across human space with Pan even more powerful.  He's completely out of his comfort zone and willing to risk everything to protect Pan.

Felis's rebellion in Panthera : Death Song is completely the opposite.  She's an interstellar eco-rock star, and her songs are protest songs about the way humans are destroying the natural world.  She takes her protest public, while Bryn's is quiet and private.

Because rebels challenge the status quo, they're a great way to introduce conflict into your stories.  A rebel with a cause is going to be motivated to do things, and that can give your story's action.  So next time you're in need of a character to pep up your stories, try introducing a rebel with a cause.