Although I was disappointed how terrible the movie was , the TV show series "Avatar the last Air bender " is amazing and full of archetypes from mythology. I started watching this show with my brother and we ended up watching it every single day of the summer. We ended up watching every single episode at least twice. This TV show is full of kick ass archetypes that everyone will enjoy.
The world is divided in four nations based on four elements. Water represents spirituality and passivity, earth represents receptive and solid, air represents movement and freedom and lastly fire represents control and violent passion.The world is being dictated by the fire nation and the world has been waiting for a savior (avatar) for a hundred years to free them from the destruction of the fire nation. Finally the avatar is found and his name is Anng the last last air bender alive. This goes well together because the world needs a savior to be free and air represents freedom. Anng starts he's quest with his friends to find his mentors to train him to learn each element to defeat the fire nation. Anng is also accompanied by two friendly beast Momo and Appa which reflect that nature is on the hero's side.
This show has three seasons, so there are many more archetypes to be seen. If you love action and a great battle between good vs evil and seeing good ultimately triumphs over evil despite all the challenges faced.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Analyzing Sucker punch
Today in class we saw the trailer of the movie " Sucker punch" and it blew my socks off because of so many archetypes all compact in one movie. This movie has a epic journey a young blond warrior girl goes through with many trials and a difficult quest given to her by her mentor that seems unimaginable for such a young girl to accomplish. This is a movie that everyone would like cause its full with action.
The female hero is broken down in the begin of the movie and in pain. She ends up begin put in a "prison" with other girl in a dark,grey lifeless place. The hero wants to escape the prison, but this seems impossible. However, with her mind set free anything is possible. This is when are hero journeys starts when she enters a underworld. The world she is now in is dark and red representing evil and violent passion. This shows that there's a battle against light (the hero) vs darkness. The main character meets her mentor and is given a her quest which consist of finding five items with different symbols. The map represents location, finding one-self and a guild. Fire represents the ability to transform,passion and life. The knife represented is sacred (her magic weapon) and it is used by the hero as a weapon that will help her in the movie to defeat her enemies. The key represents unlocking something new and protected. Her last item is a mystery and will be known after she finds the rest of the items and finds herself. In the rest of the movie I believe there will be many more archetypes like the fall of are hero and many characters have not yet been revealed that may or may not help the hero.
The female hero is broken down in the begin of the movie and in pain. She ends up begin put in a "prison" with other girl in a dark,grey lifeless place. The hero wants to escape the prison, but this seems impossible. However, with her mind set free anything is possible. This is when are hero journeys starts when she enters a underworld. The world she is now in is dark and red representing evil and violent passion. This shows that there's a battle against light (the hero) vs darkness. The main character meets her mentor and is given a her quest which consist of finding five items with different symbols. The map represents location, finding one-self and a guild. Fire represents the ability to transform,passion and life. The knife represented is sacred (her magic weapon) and it is used by the hero as a weapon that will help her in the movie to defeat her enemies. The key represents unlocking something new and protected. Her last item is a mystery and will be known after she finds the rest of the items and finds herself. In the rest of the movie I believe there will be many more archetypes like the fall of are hero and many characters have not yet been revealed that may or may not help the hero.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Animations have archetypes too!!: Kung Fu Panda
I finally sat down today after school, convincing myself I needed to do a blog on my Mythology site. That was the easy part, the hard part was actually finding a movie or book that somehow related to ancient mythology. I bet many of my friends in English will choose some serious movie, because Greek and even Roman Myth was serious and daunting. But how about something funny, like the adventures of Po in Kung Fu Panda.
When I first watched the movie, I thought it was funny, but nothing special. Now that we're doing this kind of unit, I realize how many inspirations from these old stories the movie actually gets. So I watched it again and yes, Kung Fu Panda is not only hilarious, but has meaning through mythology. The movie starts off with Po, dreaming of escaping the family business (that is a noddle shop) and becoming a hero up high in the mountains. Step One, the hero dreams of one day becoming important, as he is not right now. Po is brought up by spiritual means, another archetype from mythology. When he decides to leave and go watch the local hero's ceremony, some kind of spiritual meaning tells Master Shifu, the "Obi-Wan" of the movie that Po, a normal panda is in fact the one that will rescue the village from evil. Step Two, the hero is aided by some divine spirit in his journey.
Po then has to go through his initiation to become the one everyone wants him to be, despite being "a bit" flimsy and doubt from others. Step Three, the hero goes through "A Road of Trials" to succeed in his quest. The hero, Po through this also is helped by his mentor, Master Shifu. There is also a motto told through this story, the fact that "things become special if you believe it can become special". This is another archetype, where there is a lesson or morale of a story to be told through this hero's journey. And as all good stories and myths end, the hero wins and good trumps evil. Good (being Po) is able to realize the true meaning of the Ancient Scroll, while Evil pretty much can't do so and...remains evil.
The movie then ends with an new sprout growing from the earlier seed Master Shifu planted. Obviously through this, the director is "passing the torch" and a new era is born, from a hero who at first seemed more like a poor man's sidekick, and less of a village saver. Stories can be told through myths, but they can also be told through animation movies.
When I first watched the movie, I thought it was funny, but nothing special. Now that we're doing this kind of unit, I realize how many inspirations from these old stories the movie actually gets. So I watched it again and yes, Kung Fu Panda is not only hilarious, but has meaning through mythology. The movie starts off with Po, dreaming of escaping the family business (that is a noddle shop) and becoming a hero up high in the mountains. Step One, the hero dreams of one day becoming important, as he is not right now. Po is brought up by spiritual means, another archetype from mythology. When he decides to leave and go watch the local hero's ceremony, some kind of spiritual meaning tells Master Shifu, the "Obi-Wan" of the movie that Po, a normal panda is in fact the one that will rescue the village from evil. Step Two, the hero is aided by some divine spirit in his journey.
Po then has to go through his initiation to become the one everyone wants him to be, despite being "a bit" flimsy and doubt from others. Step Three, the hero goes through "A Road of Trials" to succeed in his quest. The hero, Po through this also is helped by his mentor, Master Shifu. There is also a motto told through this story, the fact that "things become special if you believe it can become special". This is another archetype, where there is a lesson or morale of a story to be told through this hero's journey. And as all good stories and myths end, the hero wins and good trumps evil. Good (being Po) is able to realize the true meaning of the Ancient Scroll, while Evil pretty much can't do so and...remains evil.
The movie then ends with an new sprout growing from the earlier seed Master Shifu planted. Obviously through this, the director is "passing the torch" and a new era is born, from a hero who at first seemed more like a poor man's sidekick, and less of a village saver. Stories can be told through myths, but they can also be told through animation movies.
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