Nearly every work, whether it be a video game, comic book, or novel, features a hero character. His role is to vanquish the villain menacing the world and save the people he cares about. But prevailing over the villain shouldn’t be easy. The hero must have triumphs and taste the agony of defeat before he can end the dark threat and bring peace back to the world. This is known as the hero’s journey and it’s a central trope in fantasy.
The hero’s journey follows him on his quest where he’s accompanied by a group of allies as he ever moves closer to the climatic confrontation with the villain. His allies range from the sidekick to the jester characters. For more information about the types of characters you typically see in these works, please refer to the articles, Sorting out the Important Types of Fantasy Characters 1 and 2.
The journey isn’t just that of the hero; it’s that of the audience as well. You want your viewers to form a connection with the hero. The way to do that is by having him be relatable. Show his strengths and flaws. Have your audience cheer when he’s victorious and have them root for him when he experiences setbacks.
How do you chronicle his story and do so in a meaningful way? Let’s get started with the first part: The Beginning.
The hero’s journey starts within the first part of the tale. While your goal here is to introduce the world of the hero for your audience, you need to write a great introductory scene for him. You want to present him in a memorable way, since he’s the heart of the story.
A good couple of examples are:
Meeting the character who the story revolves around this way helps the audience begin to form a connection with him. The audience likes heroes who are dynamic, likable people, not dull and boring people.
The first part of the hero’s journey shows him in the place he calls home, a tranquil community far removed from the world at large. This is where he grew up, where he’s happiest. This is what he’ll eventually fight for when he’s forced to leave.
It’s here where you first start to hear the rumblings of evil. The hero and the audience hears stories about trouble in far-off lands and at first, the hero believes they won’t come to his doorstep. You, the audience, know that’s not the case. Otherwise, the story would be over before it really began!
You have an event that causes the hero to leave the safety of his home to seek out a way to prevent the darkness from reaching his home and the people he cares about. This is called the inciting incident and it’s a common element in storytelling. The goal of the inciting incident is to kickstart the hero’s journey.
Part of the hero’s arc, the rise chronicles how he becomes more confident with himself as he learns to become a leader. However, his confidence borders on arrogance as he believes that defeating the villain will be easy since he’s become more and more powerful. This part of the arc concludes with a shattering defeat that shocks him to his core.
The hero’s journey really begins to take off, starting with the inciting incident. After he leaves the comforts of his home, he faces a world larger than the one he knew. During his journey, he’ll cross paths with all kinds of people, some good and some bad.
You want the hero to talk about his insecurities, either thinking by himself or confiding with someone whose advice he values like the sage or sidekick character. This helps keep him relatable to the audience.
This part’s also where you introduce those who will be his traveling companions, his allies against the forces of evil, to the audience. His traveling party consists of the sidekick, the sage, the jester, and sometimes the rogue or the princess/love interest. Each character has his own personality and you want to explore how the hero interacts with each one of them.
The hero becomes more confident in himself as he masters new skills and solves problems. He gains newfound respect from his allies and all the people he’s helped during the course of his journey. He believes victory against the villain is inevitable.
You want to set the stage for when he’ll lose everything and be forced to start all over again. This is accomplished by the hero rushing into an encounter with the antagonist or one of his servants against everyone else’s advice. The hero believes he’s already strong enough to defeat the villain and that dispatching him will be a simple feat.
The next part of the hero’s journey, the downfall consists of a fateful encounter between the hero and his foe. Ignoring everyone else’s advice, he impulsively rushes in, thinking he’s ready to face off against the villain, only to discover that he’s more powerful than he thought and the power he has isn’t enough to defeat him. The enemy effortlessly defeats him with relative ease and mocks him as he does so.
The antagonist’s objective here is to break the hero’s spirit and he does so in several ways:
Having accomplished his mission, the villain leaves, seeing there’s no need to kill the hero since he’s no longer a threat.
The hero’s crushing defeat, at the hands of the villain or one of his minions, destroys his confidence. His arrogance evaporates as he’s stripped raw, reduced to nothing. He’s lost everything and must now choose whether to give up or start all over again.
The hero’s defeat is central to his rebirth. Having been guided by the mistaken conviction that he was prepared to fight the villain, he’s humbled. No longer underestimating his enemy, he finally understands what he’s up against.
His fall is the catalyst for his rebirth and his eventual triumph over the villain. This is the point in the hero’s journey where things get really good!
Everyone loves a good comeback. The harder the fall, the greater the comeback. The rebirth is the part of the hero’s journey where he claws his way back up from the doldrums of defeat. He recognizes that his mistake cost him everything and vows never to repeat it. He also vows to keep on fighting and not let the villain win.
Having learned his lesson, he seeks to make things right with everyone. As he works to fix his wrongs, he regains the respect of his friends he lost. He eventually reclaims the role of leader, this time wiser than before.
Back at the helm of leader, the hero continues fighting against the forces of darkness as the story careens towards the climax. He works to thwart the enemy, preparing for the confrontation he knows is coming. The villain, discovering that the hero still poses a threat to him, believes he’s the only one capable of stopping him. This causes him to redouble his efforts to destroy the world and eliminate all opposition, setting the two on a collision course.
The collision course paves the way for the hero’s final showdown with the villain, the one that determines the fate of the world. The two fight ferociously and while the antagonist taunts him like before, he detects something in his opponent he hadn’t noticed before, which fills him with fear. He works to maintain the upper hand but it isn’t long until the tables turn.
As the villain begins to lose the fight, desperation sets in. He engages in increasingly dirty tactics to catch the hero off guard but they don’t work. It isn’t long until the hero administers the fatal blow, ridding the world of the villain’s tyranny and returning peace to the world.
Upon returning to his friends, the hero is greeted by cheers. He goes down in history as the savior of the world and yet victory came at a cost. The world is broken and needs rebuilding. He works to help make a better future and to prevent what happened from ever happening again.
The hero winds up marrying the princess or the love interest and he gets his happy ever ever.
The hero’s journey is a compelling one. From the beginning to his rise, downfall, and subsequent comeback, his story captivates the audience from start to end. You cheer for him when he kills a monster in battle and cry with him when he’s alone, having lost everything. You swell with pride when he finally defeats the villain and restores peace to the land.
His story is one we all relate to and we keep coming back for more because we just can’t get enough.
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Sunfire
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