Still dwelling on the information I absorbed last weekend at symposium, I was thinking about characters I've seen in video or read about who have their goals which for one reason or another they are incapable of achieving (thanks, Matt, for discussing this in your workshop).

As I was mulling over this on the drive home from work, was wondering what specific instances I could think of that would make that general feature more concrete in my understanding, I happened to be listening to a Harry Potter CD, and latched immediately onto Filtch the caretaker whose goal is to keep the students subdued and the Hogwarts castle clean (and Peeves banned), but unerringly fails. And it's great that his character, who is a little creepy and scary, gains a comic element thereby.

'Course, Filtch isn't exactly period, so I thought I would reach out to fellow tribesters, and ask you all: do you incorporate this unattainable goal feature in your character, and if so, how?