Grimm's Fairytales Reimagined-Female Empowerment

Original Text: Grimm’s Fairy tales

I thought it would be interesting to take the tales of Snow White(Snowdrop), Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty(Briar Rose) from Grimm’s Fairy tales and recreate them into a video game.  What I have noticed is that many adaptations of these classic tales such as Disney’s versions and some modern versions such as A Cinderella Story(2004), Once Upon a Time(2011-2018), and Snow White and the Huntsman(2012) all possess some of the same elements or what I would call an adapted version of the “hero’s journey” by Joseph Campbell.  Cinderella’s call to adventure comes in the form of wanting to go to the ball/festival and being guided by her fairy godmother or spirit of her dead mother in the original tale.  While with Snow White, it is the threat of her evil stepmother wanting her dead.  In Sleeping Beauty, it is the lure of the evil fairy’s curse that is triggered on her fifteenth birthday.  All these women or girls go through a version of the hero’s journey, but ultimately they do not complete the process.  It takes a man or prince in most of their cases to save them from their fates.  Especially with the me too movement and the overall movement for women’s rights that a video game geared towards women would be a good idea to create a modern adaption of these fairytales.  It seems that a lot of video games out there are geared towards a male dominated audience, I know there are some role playing/interactive apps with a female protagonist. 

Proposed Title: Twisted Fairytales  

Plot Idea:  I have a general idea for the plot.  I want the video game to give back a sense of power and individuality to these princesses by allowing them to go on their own adventures.  Perhaps each character would be playable and their story would have multiple levels to pass before they could “win” or get their happy ending.  In the case of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, up to the point where they fell under their respective spells should be the backstory.  The game starts when they are asleep; it is in their dreams that they have to work to free themselves from the spell.  The prince could still exist but they might first encounter him in the dream world.  Cinderella could be in an alternative version of her world when the fairy godmother casts her spell.  In all their stories, the wicked stepmothers and fairy are trying to take over the kingdoms.  It is only in defeating them in the dreamworlds that they can be defeated when the spell breaks.        

Image Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/373376625353832927/

Star Wars and Joseph Campbell

This was the very first time I have ever seen a star wars movie. I enjoyed it for the most part. The movie was long but it held my interest. I found the fights humorous. The red light of the bullets were interesting. Older movies do not have access to the graphics we do nowadays. I was generally impressed by what was available for the time period. I am sure this movie was still very expensive. Sci fi movies are very creative and make you thing about the future in a sense. This future is nothing like the movie has projected, even though many years have passed. It is interesting to see the costumes and how the movie is really put together. The story was pretty engaging Luke Skywalker is the hero in Star Wars. Strangely enough Star Wars follows Joseph Campbell's idea of a hero's journey. Hero stories do have a similar structure now that I thought about it. There is always an issue that arises and the hero declines until he sees that he is needed. When the hero sees what is at stake he has a purpose to continue and he does. He continues until the task is finished. In most cases the hero survives. This is when you know another movie will be made.


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                                                       Luke Skywalker on the Scene

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

“Hence the dependent child and its mother constitute for months after the catastrophe of birth as dual unit, not only physically but also psychologically.  Any prolonged absence of the parent causes tension in the infant and consequent impulses of aggression ; also when the mother is obliged to hamper the child, agressive responses are aroused.  Thus the first object of the child’s hostility is identical with the first object of its love, and its first ideal is that the unity of the Madonna and Bambino.”(6)

As I was reading this passage, I was curious about how this dynamic.  How did Luke not having a connection to his biological parents potentially shape his growth and development and put him on a path to being a “hero”?  Could Princess Leia be seen as this guiding mother-like figure?

Star Wars: Mentor & Hero

When reading/watching/reviewing the different things for tonight class, what stuck out to me was something said during the 2 minute youtube clip from Bill Moyers' The Power of the Myth. When talking about the point in the movie where Ben Kenobi's voice is in Lukes head saying, "Use the force Luke. Let go. Luke", he says that "this thing communicates. It is in our language that is talking to young people today. And that's marvelous". My first thought: what is "it"? I found this to be very confusing, yet also making a lot of sense. I know that sounds odd; it is something I can understand but I am unsure how to explain why I understand it. I am just lost on what "it" is.


When reading on the "cheat sheet" about the mentor and the hero interactions it states, “The Hero meets a Mentor to gain confidence, insight, advice, training, or magical gifts to overcome the initial fears and face the Threshold of the adventure." This is what happens with Luke and Ben, Ben gives him the lightsaber and helps him to train with it and fight with it. In that Youtube clip it is also said that, the mentors of the heroes often give them some type of instrument or tool to use as well as a psychological center. I interpreted this as the mentor giving the hero a weapon or object in order to complete whatever their journey is, and offering them the tools they need to get past their mental blocks in order to be successful in their journey.
 

The Enigmatic Journey Within All of Us

Star Wars! And Freud! And Oedipus, oh my! What I really got from "The Monomyth" reading was not the journey of the hero--but rather, what makes that journey possible. With Star Wars, we get the classic hero with Luke Skywalker. He's orphaned from birth, and he then saw the burned bodies of his only other relatives who raised him. He then has a mission, with nothing to lose, because he's never had much. Heroes tend to be born not from upbringings of privilege or excess, but rather they have struggled, continue to struggle, and are able to overcome it through their determination and resilience they have formed from childhood. A quote that particularly stood out to me from this reading was:

Full circle, from the tomb of the womb to the womb of the tomb, we come: an ambiguous, enigmatical incursion into a world of solid matter that is soon to melt from us, like the substance of a dream. And, looking back at what had promised to be our own unique, unpredictable, and dangerous adventure, all we find in the end is such a series of standard metamorphoses as men and women have undergone in every quarter of the world, in all recorded centuries, and under every odd disguise of civilization. 

So what is important here, is not only the journey of the individual, but how every individual journey is affected by each other. This article touched a lot on motherhood and how we as humans are more reliant on our mothers from birth than any other mammal. The compassion we have from a loving mother affects us. The loss we have from an absent mother affects us. What we have, what we have lost, and what we have never known through our relationships and intertwining journeys is paramount. The journey of the hero is only possible, not because of the individual themselves, but because of other journeys that preceded them. Our existences are but fleeting, and is both in our control and out of it.

Heroism Played Out

Campbell, in arguing against the "happily ever after" conclusion, outlines several outcomes for the hero on pages 36-37:

"The return and reintegration with society, which is indispensable to the continuous circulation of spiritual energy into the world, and which, from the standpoint of the community, is the justification of the long retreat, the hero himself may find the most difficult requirement of all.  For if he has won through, like the Buddha, to the profound repose of complete enlightenment, there is danger that the bliss of this experience may annihilate all recollection of, interest in, or hope for, the sorrows of the world; or else the problem of making known the way of illumination to people wrapped in economic problems may seem too great to solve.  and on the other hand, if the hero, instead of submitting to all of the initiatory tests, has, like Prometheus, simply darted to his goal (by violence, quick device, or luck) and plucked the boon for the world that he intended, then the powers that he has unbalanced may react so sharply that he will be blasted from within and without - crucified, like Prometheus, on the rock of his own violated unconscious. or if the hero, in the third place, makes his safe and willing return, he may meed with such a blank misunderstanding and disregard from those whom he has come to help that his career will collapse."

Is there no satisfying ending for the hero?  Is the longevity of memory all that he can hope for?

What's the big "secret"?

Question:  Thinking about this quote: ". . . myth the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestations."  What's so secret about it?  Who's withholding information from whom?