The Negative Character Arc Of Vito Scaletta Part 3: Act 2

The Negative Character Arc of Vito Scaletta Part 3: Act 2

Remember that character arc essay I was going to do? Me neither. Geez. It feels like I’ve posted more today than I have in the last few months combined. Thanks lack of giving a fuck with school and upcoming finals. I’m doing part time school next semester, so hopefully it won’t be so bad (it’s has been a BAD semester guys). The next one will be published tomorrow.

In writing, the second act is the story’s ‘rising action’ and shows the character’s various attempts to solve the problem that came from the last character arc, usually finding themselves stuck in increasingly worse or higher stakes situations. This is where the meat of the character arc (or the slow burn aspect of it) takes place. Quick warning: this is going to be a LONG post. I’m going to try and just use the basics, but the second act of this story covers the second half of Enemy of the State all the way to A Friend of Ours. That’s eight out of sixteen missions (fifteen if you don’t count the unplayable prologue). A lot of character interactions are going to be left out, simply because there’s a lot here and I’m just going to relate it to the character arc. This does mean that what we do have of Joe’s arc here is going to be left out as well. For those that read these, let me know if you want me to do a short part 5 about Joe’s aborted positive character arc or not. Let’s get on with it!

Beat 4: The First Pinch Point (Series of Discomforting Events)

The fourth beat (or the first of act two) is the story’s conflict firmly underway; the tutorial is over baby. In a negative character arc, we have several events that are firmly in place to shake the lie and the truth that the character is facing, but we are only starting the second act. For the disillusionment arc, the events are meant to show the tragic truth that the character will eventually come to, but they repeatedly cling to the lie instead. They end up being repeatedly ‘punished’ for this until the next beat. It’s important to note that this is a SERIES of events, not a single one. 

Most obviously this starts with the mess of the OPA job and its aftermath. Now, nothing about the job directly is the issue (yet), but the way the stamps are handled afterwards (not getting enough money) counts as a little punishment, and it is instrumental in helping him achieve the midpoint. Murphy’s law is another one (one that also affects the midpoint), as it’s a robbery that ends up as a catastrophe of blood and without a payout. The only mission that doesn’t really fit for this part is The Buzzsaw. The Buzzsaw is still a very important chapter, but it is more important for the establishment of Vito and Joe and what exactly they’re willing to do. It also references the fact that Vito has already killed, further emphasizing how the system spat him out. 

Beat 5: The Midpoint

You should be halfway through your story by now and suddenly an event occurs that forces your character to confront their Lie and Truth, but, unlike all of the previous small events, the consequences of this are irreversible: your character recognizes the other side for what it is. In the Disillusionment arc, this means your character can now mentally articulate the tragic truth they will eventually come to, questioning the Lie they’ve believed for the first time. Do keep in mind that they are still not embracing the Truth, they just realize that it is an option or compare it to their Lie seriously for the first time. An important point to make is that they may not voice the thought or even realize this themselves, but it is part of their psyche.

Here I will take a quick sidestep to talk about the ‘Tragic Truth’ of the story. I’ve been avoiding it up until now because of how important this is and how quietly the midpoint reveals it. So, Vito’s normal world is one in which people are either at the whims of the system or they’re part of the group that runs it. His Lie is that he needs influence to be part of the group that runs it (or subverts it while running it as the mob do), and this is needed for his happiness. The truth, the tragic unfortunate truth, is that it is not possible for Vito to achieve his wants by operating under his Lie. The Truth of this story is that everyone is at the whims of a system, regardless of the appearance of power and influence and only a select few are excluded from that group (usually beholden to each other). More importantly (and the part Vito won’t realize until the very end), the system was against Vito from the beginning. He is the son of a poor immigrant that got stuck working an awful job. His forays into the mafia kept him as an associate or soldato and, despite his connections, he just wasn’t the kind of person that could achieve the success he wanted. The problem with that is that Vito tries so hard to be an adult, to be independent, when so much of his adult life and formative years are spent in surroundings of violence where independence is taken from you. The dice were loaded and the deck was stacked; he didn’t stand a chance.

This is important, because the midpoint of our story occurs when Vito is thrown into a new system, one he will spend six years in. I’m talking about Time Well Spent. (Hoo boy).

Up until he gets arrested, Vito has been gaining clout with the mafia. He believes that he has a decent ranking and has made a name for himself. You may be wondering how him getting arrested might shake his Lie, considering that arrest is an expected part of a criminal lifestyle. This comes less from the fact that he got arrested and more from the fact that he got no support afterwards. Luca Gurino hires a lawyer, ostensibly to get Vito out of prison, but it is quickly pointed out that he is there more to keep Vito quiet. Vito thought that his maturity would allow him to take care of himself, that the connections he was getting would help him solve these problems, but they did not. He thought that with his new adulthood, he could help take care of his family, but instead his mother dies and all of the money he had been saving went to his sister, not to take care of her but for a funeral. Everything he had gained (’earned’) was gone, and the person that helps him get out of is it Joe, but telling him that prison operates under a different system. Joe points Vito in the direction of Leo Galante, who operates as a father figure by helping Vito navigate his Normal World in the way Vito’s father couldn’t. Leo is aware of the truth and even hints at it when we see how he is in prison. The prison system works for Leo, but even he admits that he operates under the will of others. 

Vito can articulate his tragic truth: there is always a system. Someone always works for someone, and his lifestyle, the Lie he believes, will not get him the money, power, and maturity he craves. However, this is only the midpoint. This is not something that Vito believes, but a worldview that he recognizes is there. To him, he realizes that his previous Lie was incorrect, but instead choses to expand his Lie and incorporate part of the Tragic Truth into it. Sure, there will always be a system and what he was doing before wasn’t working. This was made clear when Leo Galante points out that Vito and Joe were getting duped and that the whole road to being Made Men that they were on was just a way to keep them busy. Now, however, he’s found someone new who can get him the success he craves. He still has a chance. Vito hasn’t realized that he never did.

Beat 6: The Second Pinch Point (Series of Devolving Events)

By now, the protagonist has seen the Truth (in this kind of arc) and can no longer look away. More and more they see how their Lie no longer functions the way it should. They see the limits. They start to use the Truth to operate in their world, no longer relying on their Lie, and this rewards them and allows them to get the thing they want. Vito is a unique case because of how closely his Lie and Truth are intertwined. The real difference is in whether or not he can succeed in the system that he is in and how. If he believes his Lie, Vito continues to operate as if he can actually gain something by working in the mafia, which he will do for the majority of these missions. The Truth shows him that it doesn’t and it won’t work. At the beginning of the In Loving Memory of Francesco Potenza, it does appear that everything has worked out and Vito’s new estimation of who is actually in charge has landed him a powerful ally; after all, Leo got him out of prison four years early. As the chapter goes on, however, Vito’s celebration is at the whims of Eddie Scarpa, to the point where they end the chapter burying a body for him because (in that moment) they are his lackies. It’s more played for comedy, so not really significant, but it is something to consider.

The Wild Ones and Balls and Beans stand in stark contrast to one another. This is because the Wild Ones furthers our story while Balls and Beans is a significant ‘step back’ or so it would appear. In the Wild Ones, Joe’s cigarette scheme ends with them having reality shoved in their face when the stock is messed up and they end up owing Eddie tons of money, both hurting their reputations and making it clear that the camaraderie they felt the previous night meant nothing when the chips were down. Opposed to that is Balls and Beans, where Vito gets of a glimpse of ‘mafia loyalty’ and becomes a made men. For me, that whole encounter was tinged with some bitterness, despite how victorious Vito probably felt. This is also major set up for act 3, but I will get there when I get there. Room Service is important mostly for Joe, but it just is another moment where Vito sees how disposable the people are and how fragile the peace between the mob families are when he and Joe are instructed to really start a war.

This comes to a head when Vito operates using his Tragic Truth by saving Leo Galante in A Friend of Ours. He is still clinging to his Lie to a certain degree by believing that he is important to Leo Galante (which, to be fair, he is; just not as much as he believes), but he also recognizes some of the truth of the system. Who is he if Leo Galante is disposable? The man was someone that everyone respected, but now his death is being ordered, and it is his friend that has to do it. On this lower level, Vito recognizes that there is no honor among thieves, but there can be among friends. He is seeing that the system he believes that can make him successful will do nothing to help him at the end of the day. So, he takes matters into his own hands and goes against orders out of a sense of loyalty to this man and appeals to the loyalty of his friend to let them go. 

It works, but Vito may have learned the wrong lesson. He now sees that the system isn’t working the way he thought it was, but he still doesn’t realize that he can’t succeed in it and it is actively trying to push back against him.

The Negative Character Arc of Vito Scaletta Part 4: Act 3

Ah yes. It’s the final act of the story! Time for the resolution and a neat wrap up of all of the subplots, including our protagonist’s character development. For the Disillusionment Arc we’ve been studying, that means that the character will finally fully embrace the truth and all of its consequences. This usually covers the last fourth of the story. Also I am now 100% convinced (I know nobody mentioned it but it seems like fun after all the reading I’ve been doing) to do Joe’s aborted positive character arc at some point. I just want to.

Also this was a weird one to write. I kept skipping back and forth between putting certain events in different parts. Part of what took so long is that I had a whole  three LONG paragraphs written for part 8, but then realized when I started to write beat 9 that what I was writing for beat 9 was beat 8, what I was writing for beat 8 was part of beat 7, and that some of beat 10 was beat 9 and some of it was beat 10. It was weird and it made beat 7 so long on rewrite, but here it is.

Quick recap for those who haven’t looked at this in a while:

Vito’s Normal World is one where the lawful system does not work. The working man is a sucker and those that take for themselves are the ones that are successful. The system of crime that exists in the world is more effective than that of the law-abiding one. This is important for the themes of adulthood and maturity and masculinity that permeate his story, as for Vito financial success is equivalent to adulthood (being a man). Being dependent on others is being a child, especially considering that his father was not able to provide for his own family and, in fact, made their situation worse. This is vital for understanding the last act of the story. Vito’s Lie is that he can use the system of crime to be successful, to gain clout, to be considered mature. It is extremely similar to the one his father believed, but using a different system. The Tragic Truth is that Vito overestimates the clout/influence/success that the system has given him. He won’t succeed in it and was never going to succeed. His status in society as a poor immigrant from poor immigrants was never going to work for him. He was not lucky enough for it to work out that way, and despite his hard work he is just as disposable as ever.

Now, onto Act 3. 

Beat 7: The Tragic Realization

Starting off for poor Vito, it is time for devastation! Here, the character recognizes that they’ve been operating under the Tragic Truth and its been working in their Normal or Adventure World (here it is the normal world), but something happens that tips their hand. Here, the character is forced to watch as their tragic truth is either their undoing or the undoing of those they love.

This is most certainly exemplified in the latter half of A Friend of Ours. First and foremost, the decimation of Vito’s life as he knows it when Frankie cuts him out of her life after he beats up her abusive partner. This is not nearly as damning as what comes next, but it directly shows how Vito’s way to solve problems just creates more of them. The way he has been taught to operate took away his own remaining biological family.

Then, his house gets burnt to the ground, and with it all that he has put his sweat and blood into. Over the course of a single day, Vito loses everything: his family, the home that he built, even a place at Joe’s. He has to flee to Joe’s in the middle of the night (with a stolen car in my playthrough). Joe’s success is juxtaposed to Vito, even if it is success by Joe’s standards. Suddenly Vito is back where he started, depending on Joe instead of being his own man. It also doesn’t help that this time Joe provides him a place, making it feel more permanent than a stay on a friend’s couch (and feel like he’s less welcome there). Full disclosure: I do think that if Joe didn’t have Marty’s apartment in his back pocket, he would 100% let Vito stay with him. It’s just that he does and having Vito stay with him would be incompatible to Joe’s current lifestyle, and he probably thinks that letting Vito have his own place will give him a sense of agency. Unfortunately it can come off (although I don’t think he meant anything by it at all) like he’s just helping a ‘friend’, but doesn’t want to be there to be emotional support. I just think Vito is not expressive in the same way that Joe is and they don’t have the same values. 

The distance between them and just how much the night has hurt Vito comes after he’s gotten his revenge, but doesn’t feel better. Joe says, “All the stuff that got burnt up? It’s just things Vito.” and doesn’t realize that to Vito those things and that money are what make him an adult and everything his father wasn’t.

Vito’s Tragic realization is that all of the hard work that he put into this life and working to gain what his father couldn’t have was his own undoing. It was operating in this lifestyle that put the target on his back in the first place and it was operating by the rules of that system that pushed his sister away. Now, he has nothing and also thinks he has no one. He sits in Marty’s apartment and laments that he is stuck there without any of the money that he had found comfort in, only with a roof over his head and the charity of his friend.

The tragedy of the Truth is full realized in the Sea Gift and Exit the Dragon. Keep in mind that the reason Sea Gift happens for Vito is because he has just lost everything. This whole plot, for Vito, was a desperate attempt to get what he had back, no realizing that system he was a part of isn’t working for him and actually being able to do something about it. Henry, knowing his friend needs money, decides to put this up as an option. I don’t think Vito here is trying to get out of the life, despite knowing that staying within the system will only cause him problems, but he is still stuck knowing that after losing everything he is nothing. There is a cycle of violence here that will continue by existing in this system and Vito is a grunt at the end of the day. Nobody is going to post bodyguards around his house and rival gangs/mobs are going to feel perfectly safe retaliating against him as they did just then, because the only person to fight back will be Vito. Money is safety and comfort, so Vito goes searching for it.

Then, his world is shattered as Vito and Joe find Henry’s body. This person who may not have been always next to him but was nevertheless an important part of his life is dead. Not only that, but they’re money as part of the deal is gone because they spent it, Falcone is demanding a cut, they still have to pay off the broker, and it only gets worse. Joe and Vito, while still working together, have to immediately begin taking jobs as they are on the chopping block and no one is going to hold their hand and say it’s okay. They go to war with the triads as revenge for what happened to Henry, and only succeed in angering their bosses, although that doesn’t come to a head yet.

Vito has just been forced to realize just how fucked the system was for them. They tried to pull themselves away only to succeed in being dragged back into the cycle. In this moment, while dealing with his relationship with the Henry and the man’s death, not to mention all that he is going to have to do in order to keep Joe and himself alive through this. It’s desperate and he is driven to despair here. It has undone everything, and now he sees, really sees how the truth of this world has harmed him.

Beat 8: The Third Plot Point

Now, the character has seen the Lie and the Truth for what they really are and no hope for the future with the one they’ve been operating under. They can no longer fool themselves into believing that the Tragic Truth is not true and that their old Lie is true. Here, they accept the dark truth and reject their Lie. The biggest point of this is to recognize that the Lie they found comfort in is nonexistent. 

This point of the story belongs solely to Stairway to Heaven. You know what I’m talking about.

Set up: at this point in the story, Vito has lost everything, really lost it. Now, he is no longer even trying to get it back anymore. He’s just trying to get himself and Joe out of danger before something worse happens and they both die. More and more he’s been seeing how the system has fucked them over and how every single time things start to get better, specific institutions or by products of doing the jobs they do in the system push them back down. He’s been told a friend betrayed him and pressure has been put on him since he tried to avenge that friend’s death, not to mention that he, Joe, and Henry spent enough of the money that they won’t be able to pay back the person that got the money from and give Eddie a cut.

So, he goes back to the beginning after a job or two doesn’t cut it and works for Derek at the dock, strong-arming the workers for the man. As he is doing his job though, he finds out about his father’s death and Derek’s role in it. Vito, for the first time, seems to claim ownership of his father. At least, he feels responsible for avenging his father’s death instead of working for the man that killed him. In a way, he sees that his father and he were a part of the same system and that it murdered his old man. 

But, that’s not where Vito accepts the truth. But first, Eddie tells Vito that his friend was a snitch for the feds. This is just more proof, to Vito, that he was disposable to the man and a tool (whether or not this is true is up for debate, but nevertheless this is how Vito felt as well as conflicted over the truth of the declaration). Not to mention that there’s potentially a war starting and it might come back to bite Vito and Joe if anyone finds out about they’re involvement. After a kerfuffle, it becomes clear that the Vincis do think Vito and Joe are a part of it and plan to punish them for it, and I personally believe it’s pretty clear that if the Falcone’s find out about the whole thing, there might not be retaliation. After all, a couple of low level wise guys who almost set everybody to war with the Tongs. Giving them over would be a lot less trouble, and if they did bother to do anything about it, it wouldn’t be because of Vito and Joe. No, if they bothered to retaliate, it would only be because they were itching for war and Vito and Joe gave them a good enough excuse. Vito gets to realize that in this moment and rescues Joe in a manner that no one would know they were there so that it doesn’t get back to Falcone.

And the final nail in the coffin. The moment where Vito sees and accepts the Tragic Truth of it all. He goes to pay back Bruno.

This, I feel, is where his story truly comes to a head. Vito goes to pay back a debt, something his father never got to do, only to find out that the man he is giving the money to is the same one his father took out a loan from years ago. It is the same man that strong armed his sister and mother into paying, despite knowing that they couldn’t, and Vito can’t touch him. Suddenly, everything is put into sharp relief. There are no separate systems, his father wasn’t a sucker. Vito is the sucker for ever believing that he could do what his father couldn’t. There is only one system, both Vito and his father were a part of it, and both of them folded to it in the end. There he was, making the same mistakes as his father while trying to be everything but. Here, he accepts that he was never going to succeed, not the way he wanted to. “The working man is a sucker,” said Joe, but no one bothered to tell Joe that Vito that the lifestyle he craved wasn’t what Joe wanted. Joe was fit for the life, quick cash and quick spending. He could go with the flow, but Vito wanted maturity and adulthood. He wanted to be successful and to have respect. In this world though, Vito was never going to have either. He had the same dream his father did when coming to the U.S. of a better life, but didn’t realize this was not the place to get it. All of the people in the mob were there when it was established in Empire Bay, they were the old guard, an institution. Where there are institutions there are systems, and where there are systems, there are hierarchies. Vito would always be the fall guy, which meant he could never move up.

Beat 9: The Climactic Moment:

Now, the protagonist fully acknowledges the truth, and uses it and all it has taught them to get the thing they need and occasionally the thing they want, but if they do get the latter, they usually realize that it’s worthless in the face of their new Truth or they sacrifice it somehow. They end the conflict between them and the antagonistic force. Oftentimes, for a Disillusionment arc, the character will experience one final tragedy, usually as the result of what they’ve previously set in motion (this is usually found in the resolution or at the very very end of the climactic moment). 

No more is this more obvious than Per Aspera Ad Aspera. Vito literally spends the beginning of the chapter basically lamenting the truth by discussing how his life is nowhere near what he thought it would be. He gets a call from Eddie Scarpa about meeting at an observatory, but before that he is stopped by Leo Galante, his dark father figure. Leo gives Vito his real ultimatum and shows Vito that he has the real power here compared to a figure like Falcone. He likes Vito, so he’s going to give him this chance to make things right. This is a short beat, but it goes up until the point where Vito convinces Joe to side with him, even as Joe is being promised everything by Falcone. Vito is wielding his friendship and the knowledge that he and Joe both have now (as Falcone admitted to using them as pawns) to fight. They both know the system won’t work for them, so they have to work for each other. It’s triumphant! Together they beat Falcone and manage to break free of Empire Bay’s mob families, moving along with Leo Galante, but then tragedy strikes as we move into the resolution, one that ends the bitter-sweet moment of knowing the Truth and using it to put themselves in a new place. Sure they are alive and together, but there is still the knowledge that they both were in a place where they were never meant to succeed, Falcone’s words ringing in their ears. Their only hope of getting out of this is at the mercy of Leo Galante.

Beat 10: The Resolution

Now, the character is fully faced with the reality left in the wake of all of their actions and the consequences of their Lie and the Tragic Truth. They will either enter a new Normal World or return to the original, but now jaded with the Truth in face of the world that operates on the Lie. 

You may have noticed that I am ignoring much of the actual confrontation with Falcone, and that is true. While I do believe the ending of Per Aspera Ad Aspera is vital to Vito’s story as the resolution of it, namely seeing what “happens” to Joe due to the way the new Normal World operates, but the actual confrontation is more important for Joe’s arc. While friendship is an important part of Vito’s story thematically, that more has to do with how Vito relates to the men in his life. Joe’s arc in the story is more about friendship, and I will address that in the next part. So, importantly, Vito, by the end of this, gains a new darker mentor that has been steadily hinting at the Tragic Truth since they met. Notice how large turning points for Vito’s character usually involve Leo Galante somehow. While up until this moment, Vito has acknowledged and even wielded his Tragic Truth, Galante finally confronts Vito with the world he was always a part of. 

By stepping into the car with his dark mentor, Vito Scaletta agreed to join a New Normal World and start to use the new connections he has, aware that his only value in the system was how much he still meant to Leo Galante. But what Vito forgot was how expendable everyone was, how the system chewed up and spat everyone out, not just him. He was fully faced with reality at the end of this when Leo Galante made clear who he valued and who he didn’t. All he needed was a simple line to drive home the consequences of forgetting this Truth for even one second, disillusioning him to it completely.

“Sorry kid. Joe wasn’t part of our deal.”

Trying to figure out if you’re ace or aro can be so goddamn hard because it’s like, trying to find the absence of something. Imagine you’re at a pond and you want to know if there are any turtles, or fish. Say you find a turtle and you’re like “great! Now I know there are turtles.” Or a fish, now you know for sure there are fish. Or you find both, and now you know for a fact there are both turtles and fish in the pond.

But like, if you don’t find any turtles it might be that there are no turtles or maybe you’re just really shitty at looking for turtles and maybe you THINK you saw a turtle over there or maybe it was just a stick. Maybe there are only a few turtles. Maybe you need to do something special to find the turtles. Maybe a bunch of these rocks are actually turtles but you couldn’t tell them apart. Maybe there are no turtles. You have no idea. Meanwhile some people are saying “Oh there have to be turtles! You’ll find them eventually ;)” or “How many turtles have you found in your pond?” or “Try planting some vegetables at the shore to attract the turtles.” Or “Oh no! What disaster happened to your pond that there are no turtles?” And you’re just standing there wet with an empty net and a tired expression.

But whatever because whether there are turtles or fish or not your pond’s ecology works just fine without them because that’s what eco-communities do they form a system around what they have. You aren’t missing anything if you don’t have turtles you just have a pond system without turtles. If someone tried to change you by pouring a bunch of turtles into your pond it would probably fuck something up.

So you don’t have to be entirely sure. You don’t have to search every inch of the damn pond before you can decide there are probably no turtles. If you want to take the aro or ace label because you think it fits go for it. And if you do find your turtles you can rename the pond. That’s fine.

New story!

This is called The Queen and Her Heir and is trying to explore an alternate universe of the Gotham tv show where Ra’s Al-Ghul essentially created a mother-son relationship between Barbara Kean and Bruce Wayne. I also plan to prominently include the Sirens, because those three and their relationships were gone way too soon.

I hope you guys enjoy!

Me: Hey brain?

Brain: yeah bitch what's up?

Me: I'm just wondering, things should be going pretty well, so why are you in a funk and keeping me from doing anything?

Brain: well uh you see-

New chapter of Eating Alone (finally). I hope you guys enjoy!