A Hero With A Thousand Faces: Characters #2
In my previous article I explained the characters that walk with us for our journey. of the our hero's journey. We will continue to examine our characters. This is all about which methods are used when creating a story. The methods described here have been used for centuries. I do not offer any new way of narration. I want to create awareness on the existing method and to use these methods better. If you become aware of the methods, you can use them better. The discovery of these methods was also made by Joseph Campbell, which i use his book name on my series. A Hero With A Thousand Faces. If you missed the previous posts you can get them from the links below.
- A Hero With A Thousand Faces: Beginning
- A Hero With A Thousand Faces: Journey #1
- A Hero With A Thousand Faces: Characters #1
Threshold Guardian
In the first post about characters in this serie, I talked about the mentors our our heroes. As I said before, every character -or- archetype serves the journey of our heroes. The characters can doing evil or good things, but the goal is to same: Get the hero into his journey. Threshold guardians serve precisely this purpose. We can consider them as a real guardian. These characters are not the real bad guys in the story. These could be fugitive or mercenaries of the bad guy. They are testing our heros for their journey. Many Hollywood films use this method. Even the video game system is completely built on it. The guards protect the real bad guy and test the hero. Hero always have to pass this threshold guardians. Otherwise, they can not go on their journey.
There is a very good example of Christopher Vogler's threshold guards. Sometimes bears allow foxes to make their own nests in front of their cave. When the bear lies in winter sleep, any fatal danger to the cave is warned by the fox. The bear is alerted to the danger by the fuss that comes out from fox. We can think that main bad guys (or any situation aganist our hero) are bears. In that case, threshold Guardians are foxes.
Of course, these foxes do not always have to be powerful fighting characters. Threshold guards can also be psychological obstacles. The editor in front of someone who wants to publish a novel is the threshold guard. Or the psychological problems of the character can also be threshold guards. An antisocial man who wants to meet a girl, his feelings is also his threshold guards. If he can defeat his problem and meet the girl, he will also be able to start her journey.
Samples For Threshold Guardians
Threshold guards are especially the foundation of the game and the tv-serie world. Every obstacles up to the finals in the games are the threshold guards. All the chapters of the series as well as the final division are a threshold guard. The goal is that reaching to the ultimate final. Heroes are constantly tested. These test has been made from threshold guards. If you want to go university, the exams will be your guardians. If you want to find a job, employers will be your guardian. We have a lot of guardians in our lifes. That's why all storys has them. Threshold Guardians make storys real.
Herald
Herald means messenger. We can make the shortest summary with an example from the old medieval stories. The messenger who came to the king or the hawk with the letter in his pen is the archetype of the messenger. The news announces the journey to the main hero and invites him to a challenge. It is possible that the hero easily peels out of the story at the beginning of the story and resumes normal life. This is the ordinary life before leaving the hero's journey. But then the person brings bad news or happens. After this, it is impossible for the hero to become like the old one. He can't stay in the old days and will have to go out on his journey. Especially in mythology, the archetype of the messenger is very common. For example, the Greek god Hermes and the god of Rome Mercury are archetypes of messengers. The leading gods bring news and events begin this way.
The most important element in the stories is the changing subject. Heralds also play an important role in triggering this change. It could be an idea as well as a person or an organization. For example, the lawyer of a man who goes on in his daily life calls him. He tells him that he is inherited from his deceased father and takes the journey. The lawyer here serves as a messenger and causes the character to leave behind his old life. Hournalists can be a herald or a book, movie and idea can be too. For example, if I write a thought here and if you are affected by this idea and want to change your life in this way, the thought I write will be a herald. The character is also a source of motivation, as the heraldss are the means of change. The news or change brought by the herald is motivated by the character. The messenger is a new energy that can change the balance actually. This energy causes everything in the story to happen and all the events can be change.
Heralds can be positive - negative and neutral. The archetypes accompanying the characters can always be good or bad. For example, some heralds can be ambassadors of the evil character who defies the main character. But at the same time they may be positive thinkers who can change their lives positively. This is actually about whether the character is on a good road or is driving on a bad adventure. We should not think of heralds as ambassadors who are always neutral. These are mostly archetypes used in mythology. In modern stories, there is usually a profound effect on the character of heralds. Positive -or- negative is the beginning of all adventure of the character. Thanks to her heroic messenger, he is now ready to go out on her journey.
