You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain…

Author George R. R. Martin famously stated that the true battle between good and evil is not fought between men cloaked in white against hordes of twisted, dark creatures - the true conflict lies in the human heart. There is good and evil in everyone, although fiction would often have us believe otherwise. I definitely take this sentiment to heart, especially in my chosen genre fantasy which all too often falls prey to this age old cliché.

But I think all too often people misinterpret what this means and I am by no means saying a story with good vs evil is a bad one. A story with shades of grey adds complexity, depth and an increased sense that these people are real, given their three dimensional characterization. On the other hand having wholly good and evil characters adds a sense of tension, raising the stakes and making you root for the good guys – after all if everyone is just shades of grey, who the hell are you supposed to root for anyway?  

For the record I’m with House Greyjoy, pirates and all.

I mean as much as I love Game of Thrones, the inherent flaw, by which I mean the unavoidable flaw considering how it is written is that there really is no central protagonist, because all the warring factions have POV protagonists, and they’re all fighting each other. In a way they’re all heroes and they’re all villains. Confusing, huh?

With this in mind, that is how both good and evil lie in the hearts of all people I bring forth the theme of this week’s discussion, an age old archetype and one of my personal favourites- the fall of hero to villain, from light to dark. There is something endlessly fascinating about this.  Now there were lots of example I could have used, all intriguing in their own rights. Some that came immediately to mind are,

Michael Corleone from the Godfather…

King Arthas from Warcraft 3

Harvey “Two-Face” Dent from Batman…

And of course the greatest of them all, Citizen Kane 

But do you know what the most intriguing example I could discover was?

George Lucas 

I think some people reading this will be fairly surprised by this. The guy who created Star Wars? Surely not? But when you look at the facts in recent history no man has gone from so iconic, so beloved…to so absolutely, universally panned. George Lucas’s story arc is so poetic, so utterly haunting, he’s practically a real life Citizen Kane (by the way if you don’t know who Citizen Kane is, that’s fine, it’s kind of obscure, but just wiki it, and look smart, it’s widely regarded as the pinnacle of American cinema).

Born in Modesto, California, May 14^th 1944, hotshot George Lucas originally wanted to race cars, and spent much of his youth racing and hanging around garages. His love for cinema came later, at a most crucial juncture. You see, Hollywood, just like the publishing industry has gone through several radical changes over the years and when Lucas was coming up, it was at just the right moment when Hollywood studios were all on the hunt for young directors to mix up the formula and re-energize what was largely perceived (and correctly) as an ailing industry.

With the critically acclaimed THX 1138 and American Graffiti under his belt, George Lucas Along with his buddies like Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, set about creating the kinds of films that had never been made before, but none more so than Lucas. You see Lucas had long been a fan of Flash Gordon and desperately wanted the chance to make his own version, but being the poor indie director he was, he couldn’t quite afford the rights. So he set about making his own space epic…which was pretty crap to be honest. The original script for Star Wars was a mess and (little known) was actually mostly a complete rip off of the early space opera Dune.

The original sci-fi masterpiece, a must read for all with any interest in sci-fi, though like everything else a little slow by today’s standards. 

What followed was an insane struggle of a single man’s vision. I can’t possibly explain it all without going on for pages, so I’ll just get to the point. Before Star Wars, there was no big budget sci-fi, no special effects, no Industrial Light and Magic, no Pixar, zilch. All of these things were created by George Lucas – independently. He had little to no support from any of the big players in the industry…or even his own cast and crew. Everyone thought the movie would fail, thinking it was some weird children’s story with really odd dialogue of “Jedis” “lightsabers” “Darth Vader.” Money was just pouring into this thing, and nothing was happening, it went way over budget and timescale too.

But Lucas held strong. He wrote the script, he directed, he even fired his editor, and did it all himself. He was pushed to the limit, but he just kept going because he had this insane vision and more importantly he was going to do things on his terms. You see, he’d always hated big corporations, which was why he did it all himself, created all these new companies and technologies. He wanted freedom from the system, pushing himself past breaking point. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I don’t need to tell you what a huge success Star Wars was, that’s a matter of public record. What isn’t so widely known is that The Empire Strikes Back, one of the highest rated and highest grossing films of all time is an Independent Film. That’s right, forget the Cannes Festival, Empire was entirely funded by Lucas himself off his profits made from Star Wars. Why would he do this? Why would he risk it all? Because he wanted freedom from the system and corporations and big business and he wanted to do things his way. And once more the rest is history.

It’s been over thirty years since a young George Lucas defied the odds came out an impossible winner. He’s still, to my mind, a living legend. And yet if you say his name today all people can think of is Jar Jar Binks, that god awful Clone Wars film and the endless merchandise that has turned this,

Into this,

 

#whoateallthepies

A little off topic but how awesome do pictures look in black and white?!

What turns a young independent, maverick director who hated corporations into well, to put it bluntly, everything he once hated? And with the sale to Disney in excess of $4 billion and even more Star Wars films, one has to ask, just what happened?

George Lucas freely admits he has become what he once despised. Does that make him a bad person? A sell-out? Should he be vilified? I leave my own judgement outside the door and yours to ponder on,

If nothing else the tale of George Lucas a long time ago, in a place far far way gives hope to any new storyteller – the industries don’t always have it right and if they had things their way Star Wars would never have even been released. And wouldn’t we all be poorer for it? 

P.s - I swear to the great Dragon God, that I will talk about my own story in the next post!! 

Jack of all trades, master of all….

Have you guys ever heard of Solid Snake? 

Now you’ll either have reacted to that question with 1) Errr…no? or 2) Oh yeah, isn’t he that guy from…that game… or 3)Duh, of course I have, he’s only the most badass video game character of all time!

It’s no secret that I love video games, and as I’ve previously looked at two characters from novels, I thought I’d shift gear, Snake being a beautiful analogy to how I’m feeling right now.

So let’s start things off with a brief bio to get y’all up to speed. Now this is pretty complicated so I’ll try to keep things as simple as possible. Solid Snake is a soldier, he is the soldier, facing down entire armies and their evil commanders…right, I hear you say, just like every other video game character.

Ahh, just wait. You see what makes Snake special is that more often than not, he is sneaking past his enemies rather facing them head on, using his wits rather than his guns to infiltrate the enemy stronghold and save the day. Throw in political intrigue, the negative effects of warfare and more plot twists than all of M. Night Shyamalan films put together (but please never talk about The Last Airbender, I still wake up crying at the inhumanity of it) and you have something that has long regarded been one of the greatest characters of all time.

Right, so what does this have to do with anything?

  

You see, as well as being well known for all of that, Snake’s game Metal Gear Solid is also legendary for its boss fights. Over the course of the story, Snake has to face down his old unit, the elite FOXHOUND, six men and women who are each the complete masters of their chosen area.

Psycho Mantis – Psychic forces

Revolver Ocelot – Small arms  

Vulcan Raven – Heavy weapons  

Decoy Octopus – Camouflage and Deception

Sniper Wolf – Sniper

Liquid Snake – Snake’s twin brother, and genius tactician.

Over the course of the game Snake has to take each one and beat them at their own field, a sniper battle across a snowy field with Sniper Wolf, a mental struggle against Psycho Mantis, a “fastest gun in the west” stand off against Revolver Ocelot and so on.

I absolutely loved this, and can remember it with blinding clarity even now, eleven years on. I loved the way Snake adapted and took oneach one, beating each master of their discipline, and coming out stronger. I wanted to be Snake, Jack of all trades, master of all.

Well, eleven years on, I’m twenty three, and being master of all is proving far harder than I thought. To be honest most days, I pretty much feel like this,

So it’s no secret that although I have been training to be a doctor for almost five years, I don’t really want to do it as a career. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m bad at it, I’m actually pretty damn good (well some days at least, at other times I feel like the aforementioned picture) but it just takes so much of my life up. I’ll leave home at 830 and won’t get back till 1830, then I’ll need to study for around two hours at home. Argghhhhh.

And the more I put into medicine ( I really don’t want to fail) the less I have for my TRUE passion, my writing. My editor is currently looking over my manuscript, and I’ll have lots of edits to do when it gets back (fun….).

I’ve also just finished planning my next novel. I don’t know how other people plan stuff, but I really go to town, ended up writing around 11,000 words for it. That’s almost as long as my dissertation last year,

 

 I know Psyduck. It hurts my head too. 

So I guess that’s why I feel like sometimes it’s all a little too much. It’s not like I can talk to anyone about it either, I don’t know any writers. On the other hand if you wanted to talk to a nurse, a physio, a healthcare assistant, a medical student, a doctor (any kind, trust me I’ve met them all) I’m your man.

I guess I just feel kind of alone sometimes, struggling on, trying to juggle all of this, some semblance of a social life and of course find time to play Skyrim (for what is life without Skyrim???)

Do you ever feel like this? Writer or otherwise? I guess you’ve just got to keep true to your vision and remember what you’re doing it all for. And don’t even get me started on whole neuroses on “will anyone even want to read my book???”

Thanks for listening to my rant. I promise that in my next blog post I will actually write something pertaining to my actual novel. Till then, let’s take a leaf out of Squirtle’s book and just chillax, huh? 

 

 If only Squirtles. If. Only.

The Lost Odyssey ; Augustus Waters

As always spoilers ahead, so read at thy own peril

Augustus Waters

From John Green’s The Fault in our Stars. An articulate, handsome, cocky sixteen year old boy and one of the two main characters of the novel. 

 

It begins with a glimmer, a look. An intense look at our protagonist. From that point onwards the things move at a dramatic pace as it often does in matters of the heart, from the stolen glances, traded words and those last thoughts in the moment before she falls asleep. He seems altogether perfect but I respect John Green for his portrayal of a three dimensional character. As one of only two central characters he is of course a lynchpin and his likeability underpins the strength of the entire novel itself.

On paper? He is defined by his love of this girl. His cocky nature and wise (read pretentious) beyond his years expounding of existentialism and the nature of the being. He is, as is described within the first few pages, hot. HAWT.

You see, as is well known to all who have pondered on such things, his is a classic and enduring archetype – that of a character who enters the narrative, and brings with him excitement, tension and a shattering of the mundane. From the Terminator (The Terminator) to Trinity (The Matrix). From Ford Prefect (The Hitchhikers guide) all the way back to Zeus in mortal form as he stirred with lives of mortals. They enter the story, fundamentally and profoundly alter the protagonist and then, inevitably they die (figuratively or literally).

But what makes him of interesting note, is that in truth this is not his function at all. John Green pulls such a beautiful bait and switch that you may feel yourself touched without realizing why. You see, although on the surface, it seems as though Gus is this classic archetype, he is not. He is pretending to be. In his final hours he is so desperate to leave his mark, that he panders up to this effortless character, although Hazel to her credit, see’s through this act and therefore so does the audience.

As the story progresses you begin to realize that the roles are reversed – it is Augustus who is the protagonist undergoing to Hero’s Journey, as his façade is stripped away more and more, leaving nought but faith and flesh and it is Hazel who has entered his life.

Whether intentional or not (And I suspect it was intentional) this play on such a classic archetype was nothing short of genius.

***

In other news….

I have now officially signed my contract and sent it off. There is now no turning back as far as my novel goes. My everything goes with it.

In between freak outs over Finals (Thank God for mnemonics…and Skyrim) I have been planning the sequel to my debut The Kingdom Lights. Now I know what you’re thinking “oh there’s an original thought a sequel. Geez can’t this guy write anything else?”

Ah Skyrim.

But wait naysayer!! Whilst I think it incredibly arrogant to reveal plot points, especially when debut is already out, I am a fan of being unbelievably vague. So all I’ll say is I have written out 10,000 words in the preparation of the sequel, with more than twice the cast and story. I always hate sequels that simply rehash the original, sequels should enhance, push the story along or they should not be made at all (So many examples, where would I even start???)

Thank you for staying with me. You have done me a great kindness.