So Disney bought Lucasfilm

[aoffan23]

If I remember correctly, Lucas based the story off a book called something like "10000 Heroes" where they discuss how almost every ancient story has a very similar process to which it plays out. The Rise and Fall and then the Redemption. It also suggests that the story of Jesus was derived from an accumulation of many different stories, taking the best parts from each.

It's called the Monomyth, and it's taught in high school.

[Keldoclock]

If I remember correctly, Lucas based the story off a book called something like "10000 Heroes" where they discuss how almost every ancient story has a very similar process to which it plays out. The Rise and Fall and then the Redemption. It also suggests that the story of Jesus was derived from an accumulation of many different stories, taking the best parts from each.

It's called the Monomyth, and it's taught in high school.

The Monomyth is utter bullshit, its based on the Epic Of Gilgamesh which it oversimplifies to the point of being a useless study.

http://filmcrithulk.wordpress.com/2011/ ... rney-shit/

Jesus is your typical sun god, he shares a lot of his origin stories with Horus, sometimes bordering on plagiarism.

[aoffan23]

If I remember correctly, Lucas based the story off a book called something like "10000 Heroes" where they discuss how almost every ancient story has a very similar process to which it plays out. The Rise and Fall and then the Redemption. It also suggests that the story of Jesus was derived from an accumulation of many different stories, taking the best parts from each.

It's called the Monomyth, and it's taught in high school.

The Monomyth is utter bullshit, its based on the Epic Of Gilgamesh which it oversimplifies to the point of being a useless study.

http://filmcrithulk.wordpress.com/2011/ ... rney-shit/

Jesus is your typical sun god, he shares a lot of his origin stories with Horus, sometimes bordering on plagiarism.

Well, fair enough.

[Natalya]

The nature of archetypical stories, especially the hero's journey, confuses me a bit. If that archetype is SO compelling (and it is) how can there be any OC ever if it won't be as compelling as the hero's journey? I am aware that there are other archetypes, but like all super successful movie franchises are heroic journey stories. Star Wars, the Matrix, Harry Potter, Terminator, Alien, every disney movie that had a boy for the main character, LotR, etc...

Sorry if I am over-simplifying, but it makes me wonder about other possible life narratives we can view ourselves through, and there is the problem of the end of the journey; what happens next? Is the rest of their lives spent in obscurity?

In many ways I see my own adolescence and then early adulthood as a sort of unheroic hero's journey, like it is easy to line a bunch of my life events up to fit into that narrative. But for me there is no resolution when it's over, just an emptyness that is hard to fill. For example, my Roller Derby career thus-far can be framed as a sort of hero's journey type thing. Here we go:


1: I discover a hidden part of our society that was previously unknown to me
2: I eventually start going out and practicing on my own (time spent alone in training)
3: I make friends with other ladies who want to get into derby
4: We practice together to take the first assessment
5: We pass it (beat the first trial) together
6: More trials like this are given to us, but along the way most of that core group gets whittled down so only 6 of us make it
7: I get drafted to a team (initiation into a special group)
8: I start at the bottom in terms of skill and seniority
9: We practice together and play games and stuff. I slowly become more important as a member of the team
10: We make it all the way to our championship game (a couple months ago) but the team we will face has already twice defeated the only team we had lost to this year, so it will be a final challenge
11: We face off. In the first period neither team has a good advantage. We are up, but right before the last jam of the first half, our opponents tie the game 35-35
12: This is bad because they percieved us as stronger, so this will boost their morale and hurt ours for the second half
13: So, on a whim, our bench manager tells me to go in for the final jam of the first period as the jammer
14: The pressure is really high for me to not screw up, this is my one chance to prove myself
15: The jam whistle blows. I somehow manage to cut through their defensive line within like 3 seconds of the jammer start whistle blowing. I'm the lead jammer. I manage to complete 3 scoring passes, scoring 15 points for my team, without a power jam situation. The first period ends with us up 50-35 and the wind finally at our backs. Everyone is super proud of me for how well I did, it is like a super success, especially for a rookie like me.
16: We go on to defeat the other team in the second half; they are never able to recover from my 15-point jam. I got to jam 3 more times and I scored 6 more points with a delta of 4 for the second period. I also blocked some and did good at that. The rest of the team carries us to victory. Best part of my derby career.
17: I am awarded (recognition) MVP for the game because I turned the tide of the game at such a crucial moment

It is like a textbook cinderella story, it's everything I had dared to hope for. It still astonishes me that all that happened and went so remarkably well. You could make a movie out of it. That of course is only one way to interpret the events of my derby career, but that is the most appealing wah to do it. This archetype stuff is weird because it means that the way I just told the story is probably the most compelling way to tell it. The fact that there is a 'most compelling way' is what is weird to me. Are there other ways of telling life journeys or stories that are as compelling, or is the hero's journey the best way in all situations?

[Natalya]

Wow, super post. I hope that is coherent.

[Pwnerade]

Well, the fact that everyday people's life events can fit the hero narrative is probably what makes it so popular. You could turn my experiences working at Boy Scout Camp into a coming-of-age cult classic.

[stubby]

Are there other ways of telling life journeys or stories that are as compelling, or is the hero's journey the best way in all situations?

The hero's journey is the most compelling in the males-aged-5-to-25 market segment, but that's where all the money is made. The archetypal heroine's journey is different (see: Disney princess movies, shojo manga, etc.). It's just as "compelling" for its target market, but it doesn't dominate the entertainment economy the way men's stories do, because girls don't have the same spending patterns. Female fandom doesn't convert to dollar signs the way male fandom does.

Around 25-30 you stop identifying with the hero's journey so much, and there are completely different sets of archetypes for the stages of life that follow. Again, we live in a hyper-capitalist system, so while these archetypes can be just as compelling to their target audiences, those audiences don't monetize as easily as a group of twenty-year-old dudes and therefore no one really cares.

George Lucas's lasting contribution to modern culture wasn't in discovering that the Hero's Journey makes good movies, it was in discovering that the Hero's Journey is the archetype that can be merchandized. Before Star Wars teamed up with Kenner and exploded the market in a way human history had never seen before, Hero's Journey movies and stories were just another niche. Now they define America.

[stubby]

17: I am awarded (recognition) MVP for the game because I turned the tide of the game at such a crucial moment

Waaaaait a minute. This sounds awfully familiar. Are you sure you're not just thinking of "Whip It?"

[Keldoclock]

The core of any piece of media is communication, you are communicating to people experiences that they have never had, it's like a set of emotions that belong to other people are watered down and given to you- The Hero's Journey manages to always convey the emotions of "people face hardship and grow" but that's something everyone already faces fairly often, which is why I think it is such a shitty way to tell a story. As for if there is any resolution to life's tale, no, not really. You live! and after you are done doing an exciting thing, you will still be alive tomorrow, to do mundane shit like accounting and grocery shopping and worrying about your finances and going to the bar with your friends, until you start the next exciting thing or die.

[Zahru II]

Nobody gives a fuck about what's happening after the journey is over, as the focus of these stories is the journey itself; the whole Adventure, ho! basically. The concept and idea is fascinating, but as stated before, it's not the recipe for the best story ever, case in point all the shit fantasy teen movie garbage we've gotten in the past years. It's more of an interesting phenomena if anything. Exploiting it for merch is another thing, but stubby already discussed that. Just my two cents anyway; I find the idea incredibly amazing, but it's not the be all end all of storytelling.

[IVhorseman]

We're all heroes here.

Except silva. he's got 1d4 skill

[Predator]

We're all heroes here.

Except silva. he is an hero

[Natalya]

17: I am awarded (recognition) MVP for the game because I turned the tide of the game at such a crucial moment

Waaaaait a minute. This sounds awfully familiar. Are you sure you're not just thinking of "Whip It?"

No, in Whip It, Ellen Page's team loses.

[silvadream]

ELLEN PAGE IS MY Dominatrix

[Predator]

ELLEN PAGE IS MY Waifu

IDK about Silver, but silva will never have a gurlfriend.