Personality Analysis: Flik & Hopper
I mentioned diving deeper into a comparison between Flik's CTA and Hopper's. So, while I get Atta's information together (I'm changing the order of the characters I do) I'll run this little essay through first.
To make things more organized (thank you, OCD) here's the table of contents for which I will be comparing their personalities. These are general aspects of their dynamic.
How Do They Struggle and Cope?
How Do Their Circumstances Align?
What Makes Their Friendship Plausible?
How Do Their CTA's Complement Each Other in the Movie?
This post also turned out longer -- which I should have expected -- so I'm putting a "read more" right here before the analysis begins.
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How Do They Struggle and Cope?
While they seem to be complete opposites, at first sight, the two of them actually share a lot of internal wars that they aren't willing to let others see.
As we see in the movie, Flik is constantly trying to prove himself to the colony. Each mistake seems like a huge setback that he's struggling to make up for. Even though he has the best intentions, his plans end up going awry and usually at the expense of the colony.
Hopper is also seen doing the same thing. He makes mistakes throughout the entire movie that is at the expense of those around him.
When he loses his temper and takes his frustrations out on another gang member rather than Molt.
When he decides to go back to Ant Island and buries the three grasshoppers in an effort to reassert the authority he may have lost.
When he allows Manny to take the Queen for his performance, he only realizes it was a trick and resorts to physical violence.
When he chooses to continue pursuing Flik, landing them both in front of the bird's nest (this was a potential threat for Flik too, mind you).
Each time these two attempt to correct their mistakes it's to get everyone else to view them differently. It's never for the sake of feeling better about themselves. When you get right down to it, both of them constantly push aside their own desires for the sake of upholding/forming a reputation.
Hopper obviously would have preferred to relax, even while Molt was annoying him, but he had to reestablish his authority with the gang for thinking they could use his brother as a tool to get what they wanted. Flik would love nothing more than to use his inventions and for the rest of the colony to use them as well, but he pushes it aside when realizing they don't take too kindly to his ideas.
And you could argue that Flik continues to invent things despite knowing the colony will oppose it, and that's true, he does. And Hopper also continues to try and find a way to relax (when they take over the Island) despite knowing his authority is what will make or break the whole operation. Just like how his desire to relax led to him having his guard down, Flik giving into his desire leads to something going awry in the process.
Throughout the course of the movie, both of them are finding that there are consequences to giving in to their desires. The only difference is that while Flik is finally allowed to indulge in his, Hopper suffers for his desires.
Now, when they face the repercussions for their indulgence, they both find themselves at the mercy of their own emotions. Flik drowns in a state of depression and isolation. Hopper is overpowered by anger that may be a defensive mechanism to the anxiety of some sort.
Realistically, most people who deal with anger issues have trouble handling more complex emotions. In turn, they resort to anger because it's the easiest emotion to both understand and express. Fear is something we struggle to show in certain situations and is often hard to trace back to the source. For Hopper, his anger may really be driven by a fear he's suppressing and using anger to cope with.
I mentioned before that the main difference in how they deal with those feelings is by either isolating themself (Flik) or surrounding themself around other people (Hopper). It's a way to invoke an unease that can be easily traced to the source. Since Flik shows to be more comfortable around people, he'll isolate himself when those people push him away. In theory, the loneliness he forces himself in is supposed to serve as a "greater of two evils" therefore making him more willing to tolerate the ridicule of the colony if it means avoiding having to be lonely.
The same goes for Hopper. While he finds comfort in being alone, sometimes being alone with just your thoughts can lead down dark paths. If it's a choice between dealing with other people (who can be controlled) or dealing with internal conflict (not easily controlled) he's going to choose the former. Once he has regained the inner sense of stability and control by being around others, he'll feel more at ease to be alone again, believing his thoughts were not as overwhelming as they first seemed to be.
How Do Their Circumstances Align?
From the get-go, we see that the ants and grasshoppers are on two sides of a battlefield, even before there is any true conflict. Even then, there are always parallels to two people's situations.
Flik and Hopper are obviously the temporary leaders of their respective groups. Flik is temporary since he really only gains influence by the end, and Hopper since he...well...yeah.
Being that leader, the two have to share some circumstances in order to get into that position. For one, I think it's safe to assume that both find themselves in the midst of people with lower intelligence. They aren't stupid, by any means, but they are below the level that Flik and Hopper are at. The rest of the colony refused to welcome new ideas and concepts, which was detrimental to their intellectual growth. The grasshoppers just...didn't show any signs of having the same awareness that Hopper did when it came to their power over the ants.
They also have something to offer to their respective groups that no one else can provide at the given time of the movie. Flik has his out-of-the-box thinking and bravery to a fault, which is something the rest of the colony lacks until the end of the movie. Assumably, Hopper is able to provide the other grasshoppers with food every year because of his psychological power over the ants.
Both are intellectually gifted. Even though most people see the bad guy as the stupid, bumbling bloke that loses because of his/her incompetence, Hopper is just as intelligent as Flik. It shows during their moments apart when we get glimpses of how much knowledge they're holding back from everyone.
Both of them also have a role to fill as mentors to younger individuals. Dot, from the beginning, looks up to Flik endearingly as he's been the only one to stand up for her. Molt is reliant on his brother for protection and food as well, seeing as if it weren't the case then Molt could easily leave to fend for himself. But he doesn't. Even by the end of the movie, Molt returned to the Island and chooses to work for the Circus instead of going off on his own. He's dependent. And the one person he was relying on has been killed.
This one might be a stretch, but I felt the need to mention it anyway. Both are, at some point, despised by the colony. Flik honestly knew how much the colony wanted him gone, and Hopper was aware of those thoughts being directed to himself as well.
But despite both of them facing hatred from the colony, they continued to come back. Flik had left the colony twice and returned both times as well. Hopper had made annual trips to the colony for the offering, but in the movie, he also leaves them and makes a reappearance later on.
And just like when the colony had banished Flik from the Island, they were initially going to do the same to Hopper before the rain hit.
It seems that the colony really has one set way to handle situations while Hopper and Flik are the ones looking for other solutions.
What Makes Their Friendship Plausible?
This is the one I was excited to get to. The whole working thesis behind my novel and short stories. This is the question I've been forming answers to since I joined the fandom. And really, the responses I've given above work as reasons for how they are able to form a friendship.
To add to it, they are able to provide an alternative escape for each other as to how they deal with their internal struggles. Flik struggles with handling the backlash of the colony whereas Hopper has grown accustomed to dealing with it. Hopper has learned to surround himself in an environment where his strengths are beneficial (in other words, in a situation that can be controlled). This is something he would show to Flik, to encourage him to step back from everyone else and focus more on the thing he has created. Basically, Hopper is teaching him that the success of what he set out to do is more important than the way that success is perceived by others.
Likewise, Hopper struggles with his thoughts overwhelming him while he's alone. Instead of turning to something more controllable and potentially harming that vulnerable thing, Flik teaches him how to verbalize his conflict rather than suppress it or resort to physical solutions. Flik is used to his actions being criticized by the colony so he's learned how to express himself through talking instead (as we see when he speaks with Dot, then the Circus Bugs when they try to leave, and Atta, to name a few). To start out, I like to imagine Flik being the first person Hopper really opens up to and learns to verbally vent to.
They also compensate for what the other lacks. Hopper can provide physical protection that Flik simply isn't built for. Flik provides ways to improve Hopper's lifestyle so he isn't struggling for food every year. Hopper keeps Flik grounded to a harsh reality while Flik opens Hopper up to the more idealistic view of the world.
Together, they emotionally support each other in ways they couldn't by themselves. This somewhat leads us to our next topic.
How Do Their CTA's Complement Each Other in the Movie?
There's usually more to an antagonist and protagonist dynamic than the good vs. evil archetype (at least in the writing world). Not every villain is going to be a good fit for the hero and vice versa. This doesn't just apply to their physical capabilities but also their personalities. To make a story more captivating it always helps to have two opposing sides that create a mental challenge as well as physical.
What makes these two such perfect enemies in the movie is the fact that their personalities align to some extent. They're not complete opposites and that's where the conflict truly manifests.
It would be a boring movie if Flik was the perfect hero fighting a bumbling idiot of a villain. Luckily, Pixar gave us a submissive, clumsy hero standing against an intelligent, assertive villain.
Flik is being put to the tests as he has to avoid Hopper noticing his assent to the fake bird, keep himself at bay of the grasshopper's innate strength, and keep Hopper distracted long enough to not notice the bird's nest.
Mind you, the personality test results for Hopper (ISTJ-A). The "S" stands for observant.
However, Flik's test results (ESFJ-T) also showed him to be observant. The two find themselves at a standstill when it comes to keeping things under their noses.
Both are also judging, so they both can quickly find solutions and are able to stick to their guns about it. Notice in the movie how their confrontations are like a showdown to see who can draw out their gun first. Both of them are able to rework their plans according to the situation and it makes it difficult for either of them to go down the first time.
This means the characters are forced to rely on their differences in order to gain the upper hand.
Flik has to resort to attuning to his emotions and using that to connect with the colony. His entire speech uses a lot of pathos in order to persuade the ants to rise up. He also uses a combination of being attune to others emotions and observation to see that Hopper already knows how strong they are. He can read his fear.
Where Flik has the strength in emotional influence, Hopper is forced to resort to his rational thinking. We don't get much dialogue from him up until his demise, in part because he's got a blueprint of an idea working in his mind. He's planning out the courses of action he needs to take to reign the colony back in. His rational thinking comes in handy when the rain comes and he swiftly moves so that Dim accidentally fires him right in Flik's direction. Imagine the level of intelligence it takes to see an ant in the midst of a whole colony from far away, being blind in one eye, rain pouring down, and still able to accurately direct yourself in the direction you need to go in.
While Flik's natural ability to hone into emotions plays in his favor -- mimicking a panicked state to keep Hopper distracted from the nest -- it's not to say Hopper didn't give him quite the challenge. Remember, Flik's initial idea was that the grasshoppers would quickly flee from the Island once the fake bird appeared. Little did he anticipate Hopper steeling his resolve despite some of his gang leaving.
Needless to say, I absolutely love their dynamic. Both the one presented in the movie and the one I have imagined for them. They're definitely top favorite characters of mine because of how much depth we can go into their mindsets and dynamics.
Also, this post took me almost three days to plan, write, and edit and I'm not sure if I should be amazed at my dedication or disappointed at how long this took me 😅
