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

Trope Tuesday: Well Done Son Guy

So the hero gets the call to adventure, initially turns it down, meets a mentor figure who gives him some sort of supernatural aid, crosses the threshold of adventure, faces a series of tests and trials, loses his mentor, experiences the power of love…and then what?  Well, if we’re playing the hero’s journey straight, the next… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Well Done Son Guy

Trope Tuesday: Supernatural Aid

Getting back to our discussion of the Hero’s Journey, I think it’s important to briefly touch on one of the earlier stages: supernatural aid.  At some point between refusal of the call and crossing the threshold of adventure, the hero typically encounters a mentor figure from the unfamiliar world who gives him something supernatural or… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Supernatural Aid

Trope Tuesday: Mentor Occupational Hazard

Being a mentor to the hero can be a pretty tough job.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the tvtropes page: If you don’t have to convince The Chosen One who just wants to be normal to grow a spine and accept the Call to Adventure, you have to convince your blindly excited and dangerously eager young pupil that You Are Not Ready to learn the Dangerous… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Mentor Occupational Hazard

Trope Tuesday: Wicked Cultured

This week’s Trope Tuesday series post is by request from a reader. Evil villains aren’t always grotesque, brutish, foaming-at-the-mouth barbarians.  Quite often, they are wealthy and aristocratic, with exquisitely refined tastes and an extraordinary degree of eloquence.  It isn’t just that evil is cool (though it may overlap with this), or that the barbarians have finally… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Wicked Cultured

Trope Tuesday: Hero’s Muse

One thing about the hero’s journey is that it tends to be very male-centric.  It’s possible to pull off a gender-swap, or to follow the structure loosely while allowing for substantial variation, but the basic form follows the assumption that the hero is male, and that most of the women he meets fall into one… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Hero’s Muse

Trope Tuesday: The Vamp

Also known as the temptress or the seductress, the vamp is one of the more dangerous characters the hero meets on his journey.  A devastating beauty who is as evil as she is sexy, she uses her feminine wiles to exploit men’s flaws to her own advantage.  If the hero falls for her, he will be destroyed.… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: The Vamp

Trope Tuesday: The Trickster

After the hero crosses the threshold of adventure and finally sets out on his journey, he passes through a long phase that Campbell called “the road of trials.” This is often where the meat of the story happens, but it doesn’t fit squarely into any one trope because of all the possible directions where the… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: The Trickster