Modern Myths

[filkertom]

Some stories become larger than themselves.

They are the tales that we all know -- even those of us who may not have ever seen them at least know of them. They are more than cultural reference points; they have grown and expanded and shifted and evolved and become ours. (Which is, no doubt, frustrating as hell to Rick Berman, George Lucas, and J. K. Rowling in particular.)

Star Trek. The explorers, the men and women of action, constantly finding new realities and facing new challenges... and charged to keep the peace while doing so.

Star Wars. The epic quest, taking the humble farm boy and showing that he is after all a prince... and there's a princess to save, an evil emperor to topple, a father to be redeemed.

Superman. The savior, the one so apart from us that he alone has the ability to do what we cannot... and yet he works only for our good, and does not think of himself as special but as fortunate to be able to use his gifts to help people.

Batman. The wronged child, who grows up to actually right the wrongs committed upon him, and who struggles constantly to ensure such wrongs are never committed upon anyone else... so much so that he essentially relinquishes what we would consider a "normal" life to pursue his goals.

Indiana Jones. The quintessential Tough Guy who would rather not be in a fight in the first place... the man who simply will not give up.

Doctor Who. The one who's alone, more alone than anyone has ever been, constantly seeking distraction, companionship, and redemption... and the one whose luck, skill, and knack for solving even the worst situations makes him the wonder and terror of a million worlds.

Harry Potter. The boy who is nothing, a footnote... except his wicked aunt and uncle have been hiding his true heritage from him. He's famous, wealthy, and burdened with a terrible destiny. And he has a mentor, friends, and family... quite a number of whom will die.

Others. Pick your favorites, and why.

Comments

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Kermit the Frog. The humble creature, unassuming in attitude and appearance... Whose narrow shoulders so many turn to for some semblance of stability in a world gone mad.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. The woman who formed allies and warriors out of scared teenagers, who said "screw you" to the patriarchy which insisted she should fight and die alone...and for whom high school was the greater challenge, one she passed with flying colors.

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

MacGyver!

Brains over brawn, inventiveness, improvisation.

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

Totally. In fact, not that long ago the word "macgyver" was incorporated into Miriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary as a verb, meaning "to cobble together out of available materials; to creatively solve a seemingly unsolvable problem".

[trav13369.livejournal.com]

John Crichton (my personal hero)- a regular guy (at least in his own eyes), who, when put in a very strange and dangerous new life, becomes a hero, with the help of his own unique skills and talents, the love and support of his new friends, and pure, blind, unadulterated dumb luck.

[ladysmith.livejournal.com]

Firefly - which seems to be one of the endless variations of the Robin Hood mythos. The honest criminal, fighting for the greater good in spite of himself.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

As silly as this sounds...

The Power Rangers. Teenaghers whose most difficult choice has been which social group to involve themselves with, who have the perfect, normal, everyday lives of our society find themselves caught up in something bigger, older, and far more important than most adults can even dream of, and get through it by relying on each other.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Five good looking friends from all walks of life...*




* a fabulous NoPrize to the first person who knows what that's a quote from.

[maikujaku.livejournal.com]

Sailor Moon - 5 reborn teenage girls, forced to live a double life as superheroes when a talking cat reveals their past, present and future.

[maikujaku.livejournal.com]

I should probably elaborate a bit, Each girl is an outcast, one is a crybaby, another is a nerd, one is labeled as dangerous, the other mysterious and kinda creepy. The only one of the 5 original sailors not to be QUITE such an outcast is Venus, who is a popular actress and crime fighter in London til Artemis brings her to Japan. But then again, that makes her an outcast in her own light, as being famous has it's drawbacks to not having a normal life.

[lukeski.livejournal.com]

The Muppets - Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, Piggy, Animal, Pepe, Rizzo, Rowlf, Scooter, Bunsen, Beaker, Dr. Teeth, Floyd, Janice, Zoot, Sam, etc. Shunned misfits, freaks, and weirdos who have all found each other and meaning by entertaining people wherever and whenever they can, as a family of their own creation.

Sound familiar? ;)

[concertigrossi.livejournal.com]

"Life's like a movie, write your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending..."

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

Frodo and the Fellowship.
Star Wars was the 3rd movie I ever saw, after Bambi and Fantasia :)

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Dentarthurdent.

Alice.

Edward Bear and friends.

Valentine Michael Smith.

And, of course, Tintin!

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Angel. A wastrel as a man, a mass murderer as a vampire, and now cursed with the restoration of his human soul. Bearing the unimaginable burden of his vampire self's past crimes -- and never allowed to know even a moment of true happiness, lest that evil self return -- he is inspired by love for his most ancient enemy to become a Champion of the luckless, the downtrodden, and those threatened by the creatures of supernatural darkness...even when it means he must fight and kill his own kind. And he is able to inspire others in turn, living and not, supernatural and mortal, to fight by his side...even against utterly hopeless odds.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Herbie Popnecker - his father calls him a "little fat nothing" but presidents and movie stars stand in awe. Put him in longjohns, with a plunger on his head, stick a lollipop in his mouth (each flavor dispensing a different super power, and hard-to-get cinnamon giving all powers), and he becomes the greatest (in more ways than one) of all super heroes, The Fat Fury!

There's a new Herbie compilation out. My copy is on its way from Amazon.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

... You want I should bop you with this here lollipop? ;)

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Can the Doctor really claim to be more alone than Superman?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Arguably the Doctor knows what he's missing, as he grew up on and returned to his home planet.

On the other hand, Superman wasn't a runaway from his.

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

Babylon 5. A story of how things could go, in the future, and full of wonderful imagery.

I echo Buffy, Angel, and all the Muppets. :)

[faxpaladin.livejournal.com]

And more than that: B5 is both myth and metamyth -- a study in how myths are born, both by intent and by accident...

[elisabeth.livejournal.com]

Ellen Ripley. To beat the monster she had to become one, all the while having to defend humanity against innate greed.
"I don't know which species is worse; at least you don't see them f'ing each other over for a percentage."

[wookiedamokole.livejournal.com]

Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt. Unifying the last few remnants of a dead world into a fighting regiment, giving them a chance for vengeance against the enemy that took their home from them. The man that will not fail and will not fall, no matter what challenges come before him, or how his superiors may work to marginalize or betray him.

[faxpaladin.livejournal.com]

Miles Vorkosigan. Ignored by Central Casting as being too short, too weak, too crippled to play the hero, and stealing the show anyway with intelligence, charm and above all, persistence...

[rabidfangurl.livejournal.com]

Forward momentum!

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Here's a couple not mentioned, possibly because they have no real tie to scifi/fantasy fandom:

* MASH. At a moment in history, noncombatants thrust into the insanity of war cope by subverting the insane organization that runs the war, i. e. the Army.

* The Man with No Name (as played by Clint Eastwood). Outcast by mainstream society, thrust to the violent frontier, he struggles to maintain his own code of honor in a place where honor is scarce.

Also, the "lonely god" Doctor isn't the keynote of the character. I go back to the older incarnations, where the Doctor is a being forever fleeing his past and seeking something new, destined willing or not to be an agent of salvation or destruction for every world, every history, every culture he touches. The key is not that he is alone per se, but that he is the wanderer with no destination, alien wherever he goes.

[ludzu-alus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so glad you included MASH. One of my favorite shows and where I learned some of my coping mechanisms! :)

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Taran the assistant pigkeeper: The boy who wanted so desperately to be a hero, not knowing what it meant and learning that lesson the hard way. Who, in the end, sacrificed going to paradise with his friends so that humans would have the leader they needed.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden: The outcast, and only publicly practicing wizard in the world. The leaders of his magic community hate him, he lives under the threat of death if he, or his apprentice, ever do anything wrong but still comes to the defense of those who need it. Even when running away would be the smartest option.

(yes I've kind of got a thing for those kinds of characters) :)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

So do I. I've been meaning to reread the Prydain books for awhile now, especially Book 4, Taran Wanderer, a book I simply love. It's somewhere in storage, which is even more reason to get it out of storage....

[the-yoyogod.livejournal.com]

How about the A-Team:

"In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire: THE A-TEAM." ...

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Green Lantern, and I mean all of them. From all walks of life, from all FORMS of life, they are called as peacekeepers and lawbringers, at times the sole guardians of almost unimaginably huge swaths of the black beyond, and yet always part of something larger, something grand, the union that is the Corps.

Conversely, there is the one and only Steve Rogers. A youth defiant of his genetic and physical heritage, his heart calls him to service to the greater good of his fellow countrymen. What genetics could not provide, science can grant him, but it is at last his heart that guides him, that makes him trustworthy to stand as THE symbol of all that is glorious about the Great Experiment. Valorous sentinel, shield-bearer of Liberty, so far as I'm concerned, there can only ever be one Captain America.

[scriviner.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was thinking of Green Lantern more as a riff on the older myths from the Arabian Nights of the wishing ring and the wishing lantern.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

A bit surprised the thread has gotten this long without mention of Spider-Man -- an ordinary schlub suddenly given great power, still having the same old problems, getting no respect, but still driven to do the right thing out of guilt for what happened the one time he couldn't be bothered.

[saganth.livejournal.com]

The X-Men. Outsiders raised in ordinary mundane life, with abilities or conditions, and a point of view, most other people don't understand, fear or deride. Sounds like most geeks/nerds doesn't it, only the X-Men get to have cool powers. A similar argument could be made for the show "Heroes."

Also, Chuck (from the show of the same name), the everyman thrown into extraordinary circumstances, in over his head frequently but because of his basic desire to do right manages to come out on top, especially since that desire is supported by the more powerful people around him. A little bit like Walter Mitty without the fantasy - and Mitty is an iconic figure as well: the daydreamer always hoping that real life would be better and more interesting (until it does get interesting, in the Chinese sense).

[danceswithlife]

Vivian Ward, the pretty woman who knows that personal dignity and self respect is more that than the "geography" you find yourself in, who knows that money and power don't replace fun and friendship, who passes on unexpected good fortune to the people she loves, and who rescues him right back.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Roland the Minstrel Pig. A book by William Steig that would have made an even better film than Shrek, which also started out as a Steig book. The story of a pig with a lute who goes off to seek his fortune. (And why not a film where the characters from Shrek fly a starship out into space looking for strange new worlds? Yup, Star Shrek.)

And speaking of Rolands, what about Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner? A flawed hero who comes back as a ghost to vanquish his enemies. Like many of Zevon's songs, a concept big enough for a novel squeezed into 3 minutes.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

And speaking of Rolands, what about Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner? A flawed hero who comes back as a ghost to vanquish his enemies. Like many of Zevon's songs, a concept big enough for a novel squeezed into 3 minutes.

But I wouldn't like to meet his tailor.