Dialogue as Character

You should be able to identify a well-written character by their speech patterns alone, without any other information. Yoda's inverted syntax. The Joker's philosophical provocations. Forrest Gump's literal simplicity. Each voice is as distinctive as a fingerprint.

Dialogue reveals power dynamics. Who speaks first, who interrupts, who stays silent — these patterns communicate status, intelligence, and emotional state without ever stating them directly. The best dialogue scenes are chess matches where every word is a calculated move.