Common Story Arcs and their implications

[taiwwa]

A few I run across often...

1. Armies of Man fights against animalistic foe until a greater more sinister evil arises as a result of their conflict and comes to threaten them both, forcing the former rivals to team up as superfriends. Usually the more sinister evil is some sort of mindless undead. This represents the sheer destruction of war.

2. Sorceror from his tower becomes power-mad and corrupted. A young knight, at the behest of the king, goes out and kills the sorcerer, putting an end to the corruption. Then the young man returns home and is knighted for his efforts. This one seems like an anti-progress tale, where a change to the social order is met with violence, from fearful people who imagine new things as abominations.

3. Dragon kidnaps princess from castle. young knight goes out to find dragon. Deflects fire with shield. Kills dragon with sword. Rescues princess and gets some of the dragon's hoard of ancient treasure. Maybe representative of the exploration instinct that inspired Herman Cortez to sack the Aztec Empire? For queen and country, slay the enemy, take home the gold?

 

[Feo Takahari]

I don't understand what you're getting at. Is there a question you want to ask?

 

[Devor]

I don't . . . . is the first one supposed to be Warcraft?

It seems needlessly antagonistic to jump from dragon slaying to the destruction of the Aztecs.

I think fantasy literature, like most stories, represent a large bundle of qualities reflective of many different aspects of life.

 

[kayd_mon]

Little people destroy evil magic ring. Represents the author's distaste for industrialization and technology. Maybe.

 

[Malik]

Stoop-shouldered sad sack loser kid with no redeeming qualities inherits ridiculous power for no reason whatsoever rather than earning it. Finds a magic sword that cuts anything, learns he has dragon blood, on his 18th birthday his father tells him he's one-quarter god, whatever. Goes on to become instantly super-awesome and conquers everything, ever, without once really working for it. Symptomatic of a society that views relentless pursuit of superlative abilities as either selfish, culturally irrelevant, or outright suspect.

 

[taiwwa]

I don't . . . . is the first one supposed to be Warcraft?

It seems needlessly antagonistic to jump from dragon slaying to the destruction of the Aztecs.

I think fantasy literature, like most stories, represent a large bundle of qualities reflective of many different aspects of life.

I have played a lot of Warcraft in my life, so yes. But it's kind of evident in other IP's. Halo has that to some degree, with the Flood and the Elites and Spartans becoming superfriends.

Well, as they say, the colonization of the New World was motivated by the 3 G's: God, Gold, and Glory. That last one I did struggle a bit with trying to figure something out.

 

[Pythagoras]

The Dragon typically represents greed. Slay the dragon, take his hoard, and now you are cursed with that greed. Or, slay the dragon, don't take the gold, but only because you died in the process. At least your kingdom is now free of his terror. Or, maybe the dragon has the princess rather than gold. Slay him, rescue her, because women just can't do anything for themselves (please read my sarcasm). Or maybe it is just as simple as good knight vs. evil dragon. Good needs evil in order to exist after all, and nothing can possibly be more evil than a giant lizard. There's a reason God killed the dinosaurs (more sarcasm).