Alternative to destiny: Making Protagonists earn their victories

[gargantual]

Now that we're so jaded a generation from overexposure to popcorn action narratives that all play off Joseph Campbell 'The Heroes Journey' framework to some degree.

I was wondering (because I'm prepping a story for what might be a comic or novel) what are your best examples of stories in movies, games, film, anime that choose a grounded fair approach to action adventure hero-myth instead of 'the heroes journey'

where the rest of the cast is just important as the hero, and even though the protagonist is traditionally going to succeed, you feel like they earned their victory among their peers through their own intelligence, strength and support, instead of being "predestined", or having it handed to them.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'd give a nod to Guts from Berserk. While he's definately the Hero of the story, probably one on who all hope resides on, he still had to fight for every single scrap. In fact, his whole shtick is that he's predestined to lose, but he keeps fighting anyway.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Pick up a copy of Heinlien's Have Spacesuit Will Travel. The protagonist (Kip) is reasonably inventive and clever, but he gets through a lot of situations through sheer perseverance. For one of the big "rescues" he actually plays second fiddle to the benevolent alien he's helping. And as for the resolution of the final conflict in the book... well I'd best just not say any more. You should be able to pick it up as an e-book for just a couple of dollars.

 

[dyre]

Joseph Campbell, huh? Thank you, now I finally have a name to which I can direct all my hate regarding the "Hero's Journey" bullshit!

A lot of the Tales (of Xillia, etc) games seem to fake that cliche...you start the game thinking you're a hero destined to save the world, only to find midway that some powerful people just made that shit up to manipulate you to do certain things (usually things detrimental to saving the world).

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Joseph Campbell, huh? Thank you, now I finally have a name to which I can direct all my hate regarding the "Hero's Journey" bullshit!

Don't blame Mr. Campbell, it's the storywriters using his idea to manufacture instant easy motivation you should be annoyed with.

Seconded any Tales Game. Generally anyone in that series who tries to force you into a certain path by saying 'it is your destiny' has ulterior motives at the very least.

In fact I don't believe it's terribly ubiquitous in video games at all, unless you also count subversions like being chosen by the villain to accomplish some other goal and eventually ruining their plans instead (all of the Wild Arms games), or being an outsider with enough stubbornness to reject certain destructive cultural rules that ensure an eternal recurrence of history (Final Fantasy X and XII).

I think that, perhaps more than the gifts of superior strength or wit, is the hardest and most unique thing in a hero- to speak out and go against the group mind at the cost of ridicule, ostracism, exile, or even outright death. In Batman Begins (yes, pulling out my favourite again...), Bruce admittedly has been blessed with a quick mind and strength, and randomly cursed with you-already-know-what that motivated him to travel the world and master various fighting disciplines coupled with inhuman anger. But it's strongly implied that all of the other League of Shadows recruits were given that same final test of loyalty before joining, and that most if not all of them went through with the execution, killing the criminal. As he would later learn, the penalty for turning against the League and sabotaging their plans was most severe and cost him his home twice over. It would have been SO much easier and less painful for him to just go with the flow... but it was the right thing to do.

However if we're not limited to fantasy/sci-fi, I would consider Andy Dufresne to be the hardest-working hero in film. It took him most of his life, lots of long-term planning and countless beatings, degradations, rape attempts, and worse, but this ordinary ex-bank teller ended a corrupt reign and brought hope to many other prisoners.

If I ever write a film/book/anime/etc. with lots of combat, my protagonist will be self-chosen because he/she speaks out against a social ill and become strong through heavy training for the purpose of correcting it/saving his/her life from people who seek to kill him/her because they spoke out. By the end of the saga he/she will have scars all over his/her body and maybe even lose an eye or an arm (hi Big Boss!), but no regrets at all with their success.

 

[verdant monkai]

I'd give a nod to Guts from Berserk. While he's definately the Hero of the story, probably one on who all hope resides on, he still had to fight for every single scrap. In fact, his whole shtick is that he's predestined to lose, but he keeps fighting anyway.

Always nice to see another Berserk fan.

Now that we're so jaded a generation from overexposure to popcorn action narratives that all play off Joseph Campbell 'The Heroes Journey' framework to some degree.

I was wondering (because I'm prepping a story for what might be a comic or novel) what are your best examples of stories in movies, games, film, anime that choose a grounded fair approach to action adventure hero-myth instead of 'the heroes journey'

where the rest of the cast is just important as the hero, and even though the protagonist is traditionally going to succeed, you feel like they earned their victory among their peers through their own intelligence, strength and support, instead of being "predestined", or having it handed to them.

I'm tempted to write a story or maybe even have a go at a game one day. I'd suggest that you centre the plot around something other than a victory or achieving something. For example my story will be based on the desire to escape a miserable land, to ignore everyone when they tell you it's impossible and to keep moving forwards in spite of adversity, the overall theme of the story will be escape. Which is not immdeiatley heroic but I reckon would make a good story. A journey is probably the best motivation for a story, but the reason for the journey is what makes it interesting.

If you want to get away from hero tropes you can do no better than avoid motivations like victory , saving something or achieving something. It's hard but I would respect your work more if you strived for total originality.

Please let me know if you do actually write/make something I'd be interested to see what you come up with.

 

[Crispee]

I quite like Bilbo Baggins from the book/film series The Hobbit. He does have the traditional growth as a hero, but nobody really pays attention to him, and he doesn't save the day, he just smart talks his way out of a confrontation with the ultimate villain and watches it die in a crossfire between it and a random dude he just met.

 

[Ix Rebound]

Well for a game a can recommend X-COM Enemy Unknown/Within

While there is no "protagonist" per say, your cast is the whole X-COM organisation, especially the boys and girls you put on the ground, you can project a personality (as well as name, looks, etc) onto each one and absolutely no-one is safe from death, one slip up can mean the death of the whole ground team and your sure as hell gonna need strength, intelligence and support to pull through (as well as a lot of forward planning) and earn your damn victory.