I unfortunately wasn't in for this lecture due to being ill, but after reading the powerpoint of today's lesson I decided to write down what I had learned.
In this lesson we learned about the "Monomyth", better known as "The Hero's Journey". The monomyth has influenced popular culture in many ways, the biggest being how it is the basis for many of the stories we know in modern day, for example Star Wars.
Something that has come about from the Monomyth are "Reoccuring Character Types" AKA Archetypes. There are 7 Main Archetypes that are commonly seen.
The Hero: Our main protagonist.
The Mentor: A teacher and advisor to the hero.
The Herald: Announces the main conflict.
The Villain: Instigator behind the main conflict.
The Threshold Guardian/Henchman: Blocks the progress of the hero.
The Trickster: Comic Relief.
Shapeshifter: Misdirection
(and occasionally) The Antihero: Seriously flawed, unsociable and unfriendly but despite that they have a heart of gold.
1. Okki wakes up in bed after a terrifying nightmare, he and his parents had gotten into an accident that kills both his parents, he gets up and tells his mother who dismisses it, something is off about her... something is off about everything.
2. Okki goes outside to play only to find that there is a thick fog surrounding the house, remembering his mother's words he pays it no mind but suddenly he feels a chill run down his spine paralyzing him in fear. A ghost rises from under the ground and warns him that he is not safe and that he needs to leave.
3. Okki falls back onto his butt, shuffling away from the ghost he manages to get to his feet and runs straight to his room leaps in bed, and hides under the blanket until he passes out in fear. When he awakes in the middle of the night, there is an air of doom hanging around him. He goes to tell his mother what happened only to find her standing dead still in the living room, staring up at the full moon, she turns around and reveals her true form; a monstrosity.
4. Okki is almost instinctively thrown backward by fear, he struggles to get to his feet and shuffles away in the same manner as when he saw the ghost but more erratically, if he didn't get away this time he would certainly die. He runs for his life leaping into the fog, only to find that his house was surrounded by cliffs on all sides... he falls unconscious as he drops to a certain death but he is saved by an unknown man. He awakes in his house in "Wonderland".
5. After he awakes, he is greeted by the man who tells him about the situation in this world and how it is not the world he is familiar with. Okki panics, unsure of the well-being of his mother but is reassured by the man that she is indeed safe and watching over him and tells him that the one he needs to be worried about is himself. He is in a state between life and death and if he is to survive he needs to escape this world but the only way to do so is the free the 7 trapped lucids and free the world from darkness.
6. Okki sets off on his journey to free the land from the evils that plague it, slaying primal fears incarnate one after the other and regaining memories of his past, and gaining strength from the dreamers he freed from captivity and servitude.
7. After defeating the 6th fear, Okki regains his memories of how he got into this situation, the nightmare he had at the start of the game was in fact true and he had gotten into an accident. The identity of the unknown man is revealed to be his father who has passed away but the state of his mother is unknown. After finding this out Okki rushes to destroy the demon despite being warned that it is too early for him and that he would fail to defeat it without the full power of the Lucids. As he approaches the lair of the demon, he is preemptively attacked by it, it knew that he was coming and welcomed his arrival with delight.
8. Before Okki could be killed his father intervenes and saves him at the cost of being heavily wounded, but he was too late, Okki was knocked into a nearby ravine which luckily happened to be the location of the 7th fear. This world is different from the rest, the children are enslaved and made to work, turning other children and new arrivals into monsters. They have been removed from all emotions and being, living in eternal torment and sadness.
9. Whilst seeing this Okki overcomes the sadness he feels, reassuring himself that his mother is alive and that she would never subject people to such a fate. He frees that world from the 7th fear and rises up out of the ravine with the help of the freed denizens and goes to defeat the demon, after a grueling battle where the demon seals off his strength and he must fare with just his courage Okki awakens to his powers as the Last Lucid and the 7 Lucids descend from the stars to give him their power. He destroys the demon.
10. The world has been restored to its former glory and peace has returned. The 7 Lucids and the denizens thank Okki for saving them from their fate, his father is revealed to have survived the attack but his time in that realm was fading, he had awoken there shortly after the accident due to being in the accident at the same time as his son but it was not his place. He fades away in Okki's arms whilst telling him he is proud of him and that he couldn't have asked for a braver son.
11. Face still red from tears Okki goes to his house, when he goes through the door he will return home, knowing that he had faced scarier things on the journey he walks through.
12. Okki wakes up in bed at home, and he hears his mother in the other room. She had been caring for him since the accident, he gets up and hobbles over to her. When his mother hears him behind her she runs to him and catches him. Both of them burst into tears.
REFLECTION
In this lecture we learned about the Hero's Journey AKA, the Monomyth. Unfortunately I wasn't in for this lecture as I was ill but I will be reflecting over what I have done after reading the presentation. We learned about how the monomyth has influenced pop culture and how many stories nowadays are inspired by it, for example, Star Wars. We also talked about different character archetypes.
I was happy with what I did today in class, though I must mention that I despise the Monomyth. I think it is too tropey and really narrows down story writing to a hollow shell. I also don't think it can be applied to every story, especially many games stories. My game in particular just doesn't have all of the character archetypes as it has no need for them, adding them in would make the game's narrative completely different from what it is meant to be.
I believe I could improve my work by making up for the lack of character archetypes by developing on the already existing characters which I already intend to do.
Using a hero's journey graph I was able to split the game into different parts and then write my plot out using that, I believe that made up for my worries last lecture that I was missing out parts in order to talk about parts I deemed more important.
To conclude, I am happy with the progress of my work even though I did not like using the hero' Journey to do so. I think that I have solidified my premise and I have a clear idea of what I want to do with it.
In the future, I will act on that idea of what I want to do for my premise and develop it as much as I can.
