In the reading materials provided in Week 2, The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler talks about the different characteristics of various archetypes that exist in storytelling and with the structure of how the audience would follow the hero’s journey or the character’s journey as well. Namely, Vogler presented a variety of distinct archetypes such as the hero, mentor, threshold guardian, herald shapeshifter, shadow, ally and lastly trickster. With analysing the character Peter from the newly released Hulu TV series, it is concluded that the character is identified as a hero that is under the sub-category of an anti-hero archetype. This is because, though Peter‘s character is viewed as self-centred and outlaw. But he seeks sympathy from the viewers as he experienced a sad childhood and lack of affection to others as they get to know and explore more on his backstory and viewing him in another light as a wounded central figure.
To compare to the description from Vogler has provided, he mentions that anti-heroes could be tragic heroes whose story may not be likeable or admirable. For instance, on the final episode of the first season of the show when Peter discovers that Catherine the Great was planning a coup to execute him and take over Russia behind his back. He then felt this sudden rush of betrayal from the wife that he once trusted and loved. In addition, Vogler (2007) explained in his book stating that anti-hero is more like the classical idea of the tragic hero, these types of heroes are flawed and would never overcome their inner demons and from what had brought them down. However, they may be charming and have admirable qualities. Similarly to Peter’s characterization, his character’s image is being presented as a maniacal who is drunk with this overflowing wealth of authority and acts recklessly without asking for opinions and refusing to think about the consequences that might backlash and affect his country, Russia. Despite those unlikable personality traits and recklessness, he is also seen as a smart man and he still manages to overthrow and cause a huge twist in protecting and gaining what he desires. For example, in episode eight of the series when he was negotiating a peace talk with the king of Swedish in halting the war. However, when Sweden demanded that they would be taking St.Petersburg during the negotiation he rethinks, refused and walked away after a childish fight from making that the decision as St.Petersburg was the part of the country that his father, Peter the Great had battled for and protected during his reign. This particular scene in the series shows an admirable side of the character, Peter. As although he is being constantly overseen by the shadow of his father’s reign, he still respects and wants to protect the lands of what his father had remained. To summarise, in viewing and creating a character for stories there are a vast variety of ways in characterization that can transform the character to become interesting, unique and one of a kind to the audience as well with the help of basing the production of the characters on Volger’s identified archetypes.
Word Count: 524 words
Reference List
Burton, A 2020, ‘The Great Recap: First Lie Wins’, Vulture, viewed 06 August 2020, <https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/the-great-episode-8-recap-meatballs-at-the-dacha.html>.
Ellwood, G 2020, ‘Huzzah! Nicholas Hoult On Playing A Fratboy Peter III In ‘The Great’ [Interview]’, The Playlist, viewed 06 August 2020, <https://theplaylist.net/nicholas-hoult-great-interview-20200514/>.
Moser, J 2020, Nicholas Hoult On the Maniacal Whims of a Royal Manboy for Hulu’s ‘The
Great’, Awards Daily, viewed 06 August 2020, <https://www.awardsdaily.com/2020/07/03/nicholas-hoult-interview/>.
Vogler, C 1998, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters, 2nd Rev. ed, London.
IMAGES
Cinema Blend 2020, How The Great’s Nicholas Hoult Feels About People Thinking He’s ‘Stolen’ From Hugh Grant, n.d. photograph, viewed 6 August 2020, <https://img.cinemablend.com/filter:scale/quill/f/8/6/6/7/3/f86673b71d1085d291838592a14aa9f132fbe22c.png?mw=600>.
Audiovisual
BrightAutumnStars 2020, The Great (2020) | Peter Finds Out About Catherine’s Plan, YouTube, 19 June, viewed 06 August 2020, <https://youtu.be/mMBL1PCi160>.
Ciccio29can 2020, The Great – Peter vs. Hugo, YouTube, 3 June, viewed 06 August 2020, <https://youtu.be/F8nLmJIFoWY>.
Hulu 2020, The Great – Trailer (Official) • A Hulu Original, 23 April, viewed 06 August 2020, <https://youtu.be/hJGedvRfHYg>.
Hulu 2020, The Great – Teaser (Official) • A Hulu Original, 23 March, viewed 06 August 2020, <https://youtu.be/CWaJ6pzrV5U>.
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