What happens when you cross the Ghibli Hills with the Call to Agriculture? You get Arcadia, a simple, uncomplicated utopia where people keep to the good old ways and live in harmony with nature. As home sweet home for the farm boy and the country mouse, it’s often the starting point for the hero’s journey, though you’ll… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Arcadia
Tag: Trope Tuesday
Trope Tuesday: Honor Before Reason
If you can’t do something smart, what do you do? Something right–at least, when this trope is played straight. Characters who place honor before reason tend to be idealists, starry-eyed or otherwise. It’s not that they’re stupid–at least, not always–but they do tend to be vulnerable to flaw exploitation. If the Fettered can’t take a… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Honor Before Reason
Trope Tuesday: Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age
Before the world fell apart and the Empire took over, when there were still men of honor in the world who stood boldly against evil and fought for the weak and the downtrodden, there was this trope. The weapon of choice of a bygone age, more elegant and noble than the crass instruments of wanton destruction so common… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age
Trope Tuesday: Peking Duck Christmas
It’s Christmas, but for whatever reason (most likely because you’re Jewish), you don’t celebrate. Or maybe you do celebrate Christmas, but you live in a place where no one else does. So December 25th comes around and you feel left out. What do you do? Simple–you find a cheap Chinese place, or somewhere similarly non-festive that’s… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Peking Duck Christmas
Trope Tuesday: Terraforming
One of the problems with interplanetary colonization is that Earth-like worlds are fairly rare (though possibly not as rare as we once thought). In our own solar system, the only other world that comes anywhere close (Mars) is a radiation-blasted desert with only the barest hint of an atmosphere and a surface temperature colder than… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Terraforming
Trope Tuesday: Settling the (Final) Frontier
I love stories about colonization, especially when they’re set in space. There’s just something about a small group of rugged pioneers striking out into the harsh, unforgiving wilderness to make a new life for themselves. Maybe it’s just something about my American heritage, or all those 4x games I played as a kid, but I doubt… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Settling the (Final) Frontier
Trope Tuesday: Space Cossacks
I’m going to take a break from the hero’s journey trope posts for a while, until I have the time to do them justice. In the meantime, let’s have a little fun. Some of my favorite science fiction stories are the ones about a culture of nomadic starfaring people wandering the universe in search of… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Space Cossacks
Trope Tuesday: I Choose To Stay
The hero’s journey can be divided into three basic phases: departure, intiation, and return. In the departure phase, the hero receives the call to adventure and eventually leaves the familiar world. In the initiation phase, the hero passes through a series of tests and trials eventually leading up to the climax and final confrontation with… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: I Choose To Stay
Trope Tuesday: MacGuffin
So the hero has crossed the threshold of adventure, thwarted the trickster, evaded the vamp, and met with the goddess. He may have lost his mentor and descended into the deepest dungeon, but by calling on the supernatural aid he received at the beginning of the quest, he has passed the final test, found atonement with his… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: MacGuffin
Trope Tuesday: Came Back Strong
This trope, also kown as apotheosis, is by far my favorite part of the hero’s journey. Up to this point, the hero has faced a lot of tests and trials. Some of them he’s passed, some of them he hasn’t, but the setbacks haven’t yet been enough to stop him. Sure, the costs have been… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Came Back Strong