Hours/Days Earlier

As I enjoyed my shows this week, no less than 3 of them started with this device.  We're shown a brief flash of our heroes in some unexpected or dangerous situation and then in the next scene is the caption that makes my blood boil:

13 Hours Earlier ...

This is a fairly common hook.  Lots of writers use it.  I hate it.

To me, it's a cheap tactic, one aimed squarely (but not terribly effectively) at the unfamiliar viewer.  Regular viewers/readers are already invested in a series' characters.  We don't need to see them in danger to be drawn in to this week's episode.

The purpose is to draw in the new viewer/reader.  They become intrigued and curious about the flash and then settle in to watch the episode.  Since they don't know who the main characters are, then it is presumed they will believe anyone is in jeopardy.  Of course, it becomes difficult for most of them to remember who was in the initial flash, lessening the impact.

It isn't just TV shows which do this.  Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series also starts with a flash of the book's climatic scene.  It is distorted, of course, so the uninformed reader believes he or she knows what is happening but when they get there it is still a surprise.  In the first book, the opening refers to Bella giving up her life for someone she loves.  Since we know she is going to fall in love with a vampire (the back cover makes this part clear) we think she's sacrificing herself for Edward.  In fact, she is sacrificing herself for her mother.  (More on Bella's apparent suicidal drive in another post ... and believe me, I actually love the Twilight series but that part bothers me.)

I don't like obvious hooks like "little did he know he had just set in motion a chain of events which would lead to his death" or "She was safe ... or was she?".  I love stories, I love reading them.  I don't like it when I can see the manipulation. 

The DaVinci Code is a fabulous example of a book with great (but not obvious) hooks.  Every chapter, every scene propels a reader forward, desperate to find out more.  But not once does the reader feel manipulated into reading more.

To me, it boils down to respect.  A writer should have respect for his or her readers or viewers.  Give us a little credit and let your work stand on its own merit without the razzle-dazzle of cheap tricks.  Most of the time, the cheap tricks aren't necessary.

Brenin Llwyd - The Gray King (Welsh/Scottish)

The Brenin Llwyd lives in the Snowdonia mountains in Wales.  A very similar creature, the Big Grey Man, inhabits the summit and passes of Ben Macdhui in the Cairngorm mountains.

Both are described as gigantic, furry creatures with the general shape of humans.  As a shorthand, they are often referred to as the Celtic equivalent of the sasquatch (Bigfoot).  There are reports of the creatures going back to the middle ages.

One of the interesting things about these massive hominids is the effect they have on those who encounter them.  People describe feeling an overwhelming sense of panic, although what they describe is not terribly scary in and of itself.  Hearing footsteps behind or above, sensing that they are being watched.

The word “panic” actually comes from the Greek, referring to a chance encounter with a faun or the god, Pan.  Both are described as creatures with a man’s torso and goat legs.  They shouldn’t be confused with the more sexually charged satyrs, who are half horse.  Those who encountered fauns in the woods tell us of being terrified out of their minds, to the point of fleeing in terror.

Could the fear be a defence mechanism?  A pheromone or some kind of projective empathy?  Witnesses don’t claim the creatures are simple beasts but instead say they are actually intelligent.

Those who are lost while climbing these peaks are said to be taken by the Gray Man or Gray King.  What they would want with humans is unclear.  Are they taking them on behalf of someone else?  Mountains wreathed in mist and cloud are the home of the god, Nudd, who shepherds souls between the land of the living and the dead.

The Last Unicorn: A Study in Corporate Stonewalling

The Last Unicorn was a popular book and the movie has become a cult favourite, with multiple releases in VHS and DVD.  It has been released in multiple countries.

Yet apparently, it never made any money.

Fans were surprised when pleas appeared on the internet, asking them not to buy the 25^th anniversary special edition.  We discovered that Peter S. Beagle had not been paid any royalties since Granada International, the company which released the movie, claimed it had never had any profits.

The sheer ballsiness of this claim is astounding.  The company kept releasing more and more copies despite the fact that no one was apparently buying them?  It was beyond ridiculous.

The company used a variety of accounting tricks, shell corporations and multiple ledgers, to hide the fact that The Last Unicorn was doing quite well, thank you.  They sold it for a pittance to a subsidiary, who could then release it without paying any royalties to the author.  Foreign sales weren’t being tabulated  properly.  It was a mess and the paperwork was almost impenetrable.

Luckily, there is a happy ending to this tale.  In 2011 (and remember the original movie was released in 1982), the new CEO of Granada agreed to pay Beagle back royalties.  When the new CEO, Adam Crozier, came in, Beagle and his representatives took a chance.  They knew he would have no reason to continue to perpetuate a cover up since he had been hired with a mandate to clean  house.

Crozier quickly agreed that Beagle had not been paid his due and wanted to work together to increase profits from this very successful story.

It took a lot of persistence and if the film had only been a moderate success instead of a decades-long favourite, it might have been far more difficult.  But I give full credit for Crozier doing the right thing.

Yara-ma-yha-who (Australia)

I learned about this little fellow from a Cracked article.  They were asking themselves what could possibly frighten little Australian children, who grow up amid poisonous lizards, snakes and spiders.  Not to mention sharks, dingos and the many other lethal predators which call Down Under home.

 

The answer to that question is the Yara-ma-yha-who, from Australian Aboriginal folklore.  It resembles a little red man with suckers on the ends of its hands and feet.  Its head and mouth are disproportionately large but it has no teeth. 

A froglike appearance is common among European goblins and earth-faeries (sometimes referred to as gnomes or brownies).  Brian Froud often depicts his gnomish faeries with a wide mouth or frog legs.

The Yara-ma-yha-who is an ambush hunter, hiding in trees to drop down on unsuspecting prey.  It drains its victim’s blood and then swallows him or her whole.  After a time, it regurgitates the victim, who comes back shorter and with a reddish tinge to their skin.  If a victim is fed on repeatedly, they turn into a new Yara-ma-yha-who.

This puts the Yara-ma-yha-who in the same category as nineteenth century vampires (like Dracula).  Originally, a vampire had to feed  many times on the same victim before that victim turned into a vampire.  In the novel, Dracula, Lucy Westenra is fed upon again and again before dying and rising from her grave to feed on beggar children.  Mina Harker also does not transform after a single feeding, although it makes her vulnerable to Dracula’s call.

One could probably argue that these creatures are a metaphor for falling in with a bad crowd.  After all, at first it seems relatively harmless, but then the victim is drawn deeper and deeper into something they can no longer escape from. 

Victims of the Yara-ma-yha-who can defend themselves by, first off, not wandering off alone in the bush.  However, if swallowed, they can play dead after being regurgitated and wait for the creature to fall asleep.  Victims have to be careful, though.  Like the crocodile in Peter Pan, the Yara-ma-yha-who will stalk a previous victim if they liked the taste.

Hero's Journey: The Last Unicorn

Joseph Campbell teased out the 12 steps of every hero’s journey.  Although every hero (or heroine) is different, they all go through the same stages.  Recognizing these stages is a great opportunity for a writer to improve his or her writing.  Although writers may worry about being predictable, without these stages, stories are often considered unsatisfying or shallow.  They say the best way to learn the stages is to see how they apply to other stories.  So I’m taking my favourite movies and books and applying the stages.  If I’m brave, I’ll even apply them to movies and books I didn’t like and show why they don’t work.

Hero’s Journey:  The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn is based on the book of the same name by Peter S. Beagle.  His story is a fascinating example of creative book-keeping and how creative artists (including authors) can be ripped off by large corporations.  In this case, the studio.  More on that next week.

This is one of my favourite films from when I was a child and I still enjoy watching it.  It’s a great voice cast and I really enjoy that style of animation.  And I secretly love the songs from America enough that I’ve been  looking for a copy of the soundtrack for the last two years.  I highly recommend it to anyone who still has a little spark of childhood wonder tucked away.

1)      Ordinary World, the baseline:  The film opens with two medievally dressed men hunting in a forest.  The older man tells the younger they will find no game in a unicorn’s forest, that it is always spring there and the animals learn to disappear.  The younger man suggests they turn around and hunt somewhere else.  It is a very brief sequence but does a good job of establishing everything visually.  We know we are in a fantasy world with medieval-esque people and that unicorns exist.

2)      Call to Adventure:  As the two men leave, the older shouts out to the unicorn telling her to stay where she is and “keep her trees green and her friends protected” for she is the last unicorn in the world.

3)      Call Refused:  The unicorn steps out, surprised at this human tale.  Unicorns are immortal, though they can be hunted or trapped.  There should be many of them in the world.  Her hesitancy to either believe or discard the information is wonderfully voiced by Mia Farrow.  No matter what the outcome, her peace and tranquility have been destroyed.

4)      Meeting with the Mentor: This is a wonderful example of how the mentor does not always have to be especially wise.  In this case, it is a butterfly repeating scraps of poetry and songs.  The unicorn repeatedly asks if the butterfly knows who she is and just as she is about to give up, he identifies her as a unicorn.  (Old French: unicorne, Latin: unicornis.  Literally, one-horned: unus, one and cornu, a horn.  A fabulous animal resembling a horse with one horn.)

He then tells her: “You can find the others if you are brave.  They passed down all the roads long ago and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints.”

The butterfly can add nothing more but his information spurs the unicorn into action.

5)      Crossing the Threshold: The unicorn leaves her forest, abandoning the animals and trees which depend on her.  It is difficult but she literally crosses the threshold, leaves the unicorn’s forest for the world of men.  A montage of seasons changing as she searches suggests she looks for a long time, moving invisibly through the world since men cannot see her.  When they look, they only see a white mare.

6)      Tests, Allies and Enemies:  Although she deals with several challenges, I will only cite the ones where people recognize her as a unicorn.

Mommy Fortuna/Schmendrick the Magician: Mommy Fortuna is the owner of a travelling carnival show and a witch.  She recognizes the unicorn and captures her for the carnival.  Schmendrick is a bumbling wizard who also recognizes the unicorn and helps to free her.  When he does, they also free a harpy who has been held captive.  The harpy slaughters her captors but the unicorn takes Schmendrick away.  In return, he asks to accompany her.

Captain Cully/Molly Grue: Although the Captain doesn’t recognize the unicorn, he does capture Schmendrick.  He is a wannabe Robin Hood and Molly Grue is his equivalent to Maid Marian.  Schmendrick escapes by conjuring illusions of Robin Hood, scattering Cully’s men but is then recaptured and rescued by the unicorn.  Molly Grue abandons Cully after recognizing the unicorn.  She has a beautifully written and delivered speech where she demands to know where the unicorn has been all her life:  “Where were you when I was new?  When I was one of those innocent maidens you always come to?  How dare you!  How dare you come to me now!  When I am this!”  She breaks down sobbing and the unicorn comforts her.  That moment speaks to me more as an adult.  As a child, it is easy to believe in magic and it would be heartbreaking to discover the magic was real after abandoning hope for cynicism.

One interesting note is that the unicorn is actually relatively unaffected by these adventures.  She claims to feel no regret for the death of Mommy Fortuna and is equally indifferent to the fate of Cully’s men.  She has no desire to change their situation yet does allow Schmendrick and Molly to accompany her.  If she truly did not care, she would abandon Schmendrick when Cully captured him and leave Molly to the forest.  It is the first signs of the changes which are being wrought upon her.

The next test is when they reach King Haggard’s kingdom and face the Red Bull.  The Bull overpowers the unicorn and threatens to capture her but Schmendrick performs a magic spell and turns her into a human girl.  This is one of the few points in the story where the unicorn actually displays a strong emotion.  She panics at the feel of a mortal body dying all around her, attempting to tear off the flesh.  When her fear subsides, she agrees to remain human to learn what has happened to the other unicorns.

7)      Approach/Preparation: The three of them stay with King Haggard and Prince Lir.  The unicorn adopts the role of Lady Amalthea.  They learn that Haggard ordered the Bull to collect all the unicorns and drive them into the sea where he could keep them for himself.

As the companions try to learn what they must to save the unicorns, Lady Amalthea slowly begins to forget her true self.  It becomes a race to find them before she becomes just another mortal woman.  As an added twist, Lir has fallen in love with her and Amalthea is tempted to remain with him and live a simple life without having to face her fears.

8)      Face Your Fear: There are two points which could qualify as facing her fears.  The first is when she denies she is a unicorn to Prince Lir.  He tells her she cannot abandon her quest and she agrees, allowing Schmendrick to transform her back.  If she had remained human, they might have escaped past the Red Bull but she returns to her true form, re-accepting her role in this quest.

The second point is after her confrontation with the Bull.  Initially, the Bull is able to drive and dominate her.  Lir attempts to rescue her but falls beneath the Bull’s horns.  When she sees this, the unicorn fights back against the Bull, eventually driving him into the sea and allowing the other unicorns to escape.

9)      Seizing the Sword: With the Bull defeated, the unicorn returns to Lir and heals him with her horn.  She must leave him but she has saved his life and accomplished her quest.

10)  The Road Back: The unicorn visits Schmendrick one last time before going home.  She tells him that “having been mortal, a part of me is mortal yet.”  She has learned to regret and she is afraid to return to the others since she is now different.  She tells him that she is overjoyed to have unicorns in the world again and her only sorrow is having to abandon Lir.  (This isn’t said outright but is strongly implied.)

11)  The Return: There is another montage of the unicorn returning to her home.  The colours are subtly different, suggesting a revitalized world.

12)  Elixir/Healing: The final shot before the credits is almost identical to the one where she leaves her forest.  She returns to find it intact.  She hesitates before re-entering but her horn glows with resolve and she gallops inside.  The credits finish with various scenes of a forest in spring.

The Blutsauger (German vampires)

This particular variation first caught my eye as part of a Cracked article on not-so-scary monsters.  According to them, it was a variation on a vampire.  It used to be human, preys on the living, can't tolerate the sun, is covered in fur and doesn't have a skeleton.

I don't know about you, but something which can squeeze under the cracks of my door to kill me is pretty scary.  So I decided to do a little Internet research and discovered that "blutsauger" is a name of a weapon in the video game Team Fortress 2 and that most of the pages featuring the word "blutsauger" are in German.

I did find some interesting information though.  Deliriums Realm told me that someone could become a blutsauger by not being Roman Catholic, dabbling in witchcraft, being immoral or committing suicide.  (The usual suspects in the don't-do-this-or-you'll-be-sorry speeches.)  You could also turn if you ate flesh which had been killed by a wolf or if animals jumped over your grave.

To kill them: drive a stake through their heart and stuff their mouths with garlic.

I couldn't find a confirmation that they didn't have a skeleton.

The idea of a monster without a skeleton is really intriguing.  I remember the first time I watched an octopus squeeze through a tiny crack.  I found a video on YouTube which demonstrates.

Now imagine it wasn't a tiny octopus but a giant man-sized blood-sucking monster sliding into your home.

Heroes and Anti-Heroes

We all know there are many types of heroes.  There are the inspirational heroes battling cancer or social inequality.  There are heroes who devote their lives to protecting others, like police and soldiers.  All good and worthy people, but not who I want to talk about.

The "hero" generally refers to the protagonist of a story.  The protagonist doesn't have to be male.  He or she doesn't even have to be a good guy.  But for this post, I'm looking at the four archetypes of male heroes common in film and books: Heroic Heroes, Anti Heroes, Alpha Male Heroes and Alternate Heroes.

Heroic Hero:

 

The Heroic Hero is the classic hero from the WWII era of comics.  Superman and Captain America were the two examples which leaped into my mind.

The Heroic Hero does what's right.  He is the good guy, he fights the bad guys, we all enjoy the thump when the bad guys hit the ground.  He may struggle with the scale of the challenge: volcano erupting, alien invasion.  But there is never any question of the necessity of the task or who the bad guys are. 

This is exactly the kind of person we want to have around when a school bus full of children is teetering precariously on a bridge.  Their costumes are bright and colourful, subconsciously suggesting optimism and possibilities.

Looking at the images, there is something that we rarely see in today's heroes: a smile. 

Neither Superman nor Captain America are overburdened with self-doubt.  They don't question their roles.  In a job satisfaction survey, if they had to rate themselves from 1 to 10, it would be an emphatic eleven.  It is a rare story that delves into their inner experiences.  Mostly, the stories are focused on the external challenges.  This can make them feel shallow to the modern reader.

I personally have a hard time getting into their stories now.  When I was a kid, I loved them.  The simplicity works when you're still in grade school.

It is interesting to note that there have been recent attempts to "darken" these shining beacons of goodness.   Captain America's prequel to The Avengers cast him more in the alpha male role.  Although he starts the film as a skinny, short man, after he takes the supersoldier serum, he smiles less and gets increasingly comfortable with issuing orders.  Compare the comic image with this movie poster:

Dark background, no smile, darkened colours.  Chin down, chest puffed, he's facing the audience (and challenge) squarely, suggesting he's entirely confident in his capability.

Anti Hero

The Anti-Hero is the antithesis of the Heroic Hero.  He's not fighting to do what is right.  He's fighting to stop the bad guys and doing it by descending to their level.  Often, like Batman, the Anti Hero has a line he will not cross but he's still willing to descend to places traditional heroes refuse to go.

I think the best description of antiheroes comes from The Chronicles of Riddick:

"In normal times, evil would be fought by good.  But in times like these, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil."

Superman doesn't torture bad guys to get information.  Anti-heroes do.  The characters are often fueled by their rage at injustice.  They justify their actions as "what needs to be done" and the audience backs them up.

The comic and movie The Watchmen does a brilliant job of unraveling the tolerance for the anti-hero by showing just how horrific some of their actions actually are.

These guys should be dark and terrifying for all rational individuals but not only do we love them, we also think they're sexy as hell.  Wolverine is my all-time favourite but even I have to admit, the man's entire purpose in life sometimes seems to be slice, dice and pulverize.

The Anti-Hero is the quintessential bad boy.  Men are attracted to the implied power of being able to break all the rules and get away with it.  (Women, too, if I'm honest.)  Women who are attracted to bad boys often cite their power and refusal to bow down to societal rules as the major part of the attraction.  Apparently, when the shit is going down, we all want someone who will get the job done, whatever it takes.

Alpha Male Hero

The Alpha Male Hero is the male protagonist in virtually all romantic fiction.  Although not in desperate need of therapy for violent tendencies, like the Anti-Hero, the Alpha Male is still a take charge, non-team player.  James Bond would be a classic Alpha Males or Man's Man.  He is the guy who is going to take a bullet for the girl and then yell at her for taking risks (before kissing her in his gratitude that she's safe).



Alpha Males aren't much on the talky-talky

emotion exchange.  They often show neither fear nor love (which can set up a great conflict where his romantic interest doesn't know how he feels, which usually leads to a dangerous situation where he can prove his emotions through actions rather than words).  They quip in the face of danger and smirk in the light of love.  They don't smile.

They are usually depicted as attractive but without paying overmuch attention to their appearance.  Day old stubble appears to be one of the preferred methods for showing this.
Alternate Hero

The Alternate Hero appears to be a relatively new player on the heroic stage.  Hugh Grant plays him constantly.

He's not competent when it comes to fighting.  (Music and Lyrics: I'm giving up ... my face is in the butter.)  In Notting Hill, he tries to defend Julia Roberts' character to a bunch of jerks in a restaurant but fails utterly.  She is the one who comes back and makes them feel their true jerkiness.

Time and time again, I ask myself why I like him so much.  He's certainly a far cry from Wolverine but maybe he is the answer for a new generation.  Again and again, he demonstrates two admirable qualities: his irrepressible wit and humour and his absolute loyalty.  He is invariably 100% behind his love interest, pushing her to do better and reach her full potential.  He is clearly not threatened by a woman with power.  In fact, most of his love interests could be seen as more powerful than him, which is not something I expect to see in a Wolverine film anytime soon.

Richard Castle from Castle is another great example.  Despite being the title character, he is clearly far behind his love interest, Detective Beckett, when it comes to the traditional heroic roles of shooting, chasing and putting oneself at risk.

He's funny, irreverent, and full of wild theories.  He can't shoot a gun and his bullet proof vest says "Writer" on it.  Tradition says he shouldn't be an attractive hero, but he is.

It's really great to see guys' roles branching out into new territory.  Part of Hugh Grant and Castle's appeal is their wittiness and emotional openness, two facets that have traditionally been restricted to female roles.

And you've got to love the smiles.