My real name is Cameron Moon (Nick Paras is by BFF!)
This is a list of stock characters within the heroic archetype.
Must typically fulfill an ancient prophecy to save the world, often requiring the help of a Wise Old Man or Elderly Martial Arts Master to fulfill this destiny. Almost always of apparently humble origins or (often is discovered in the story as being) from a noble family. Requires multiple sidekicks, often with radically different skills. Some people believe that a chosen person in reality is to be God's 'favourite'.
Examples include:
The Christ Figure is an extended metaphor where a character is strongly associated with or stands in for the religious figure of Jesus Christ. Narratives often present Christ figures as conspicuously moral and innocent, or as broken or wicked persons who find redemption in the act of sacrificing themselves to a hostile world. This figure overlaps considerably with others such as The Reluctant Hero or The Fool.
Examples include:
Often overlapping with the Chosen One, this hero is usually an ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances beyond his/her control that will require a great deal of effort and peril on his/her part. This hero has reservations about fulfilling their heroic obligations for various reasons, such as disbelief in their importance, or the desire to live a simple life.
Examples of the reluctant hero include:
A well-meaning person who often accidentally injures friend and foe alike, seeing through their blundering outside, the Clumsy Hero generally has a righteous purpose to achieve and only wishes to help others around him/her self, nevertheless it often results in disorder.
One of the most common heroes in literature, film, and other media. Someone whose parents were killed by the antagonist, evil people, an accident or simply died when he or she was young. He or she is often adopted by their uncle and/or aunt who either plays a villainous role (as in Harry Potter or Cinderella) or a mentoring one (as in Spider-Man), and usually overlaps with one of the other categories (chosen one, reluctant hero, etc.). Examples include:
The Haunted Hero must deal with a traumatic or tragic past or some supernatural power or curse, which has usually been with them since childhood, before he or she can triumph. Examples include:
A very friendly and considerate fellow with whom the audience is meant to sympathize. He (occasionally she) means well, and works very hard to achieve his goals only to fail miserably through no fault of his own, and constantly gets victimized by both his peers and Fate. Examples include:
Can do anything well; repair a machine, fight, cook a meal, build a house, etc. A Jack-of-all-Trades. The heroes (and heroines) of Robert A. Heinlein's fiction are generally Competent Men, especially Lazarus Long.
The most famous examples of Competent Men include
The opposite of the Competent Man; an ordinary person often thrust into extraordinary circumstances who must find a way to triumph without the benefit of special abilities or the variety of skills possessed by the Competent Man. The Everyman is often an audience identification figure.
Examples include
An athlete with raw talent, but who must rely on the guidance of a Wise Old Man or similar character in order to overcome internal limitations in order to triumph. Examples of this are:
A reckless cop forced to bend the rules to see justice served. Sometimes overlaps with the anti-hero. Examples include:
An elderly character who offers advice and guidance to the protagonists. Examples include:
A more specific class of the Wise Old Man archetype, is typically an extremely old Asian man who is nonetheless a near invincible master of the martial arts, in the case of some anime the male wise old man may end up being a pervert, for example:
Only steals to live or for vengeance on the rich. Typically gives to the poor. Often suave or cheeky. Archetype depicted as a fox, may overlap with the Repentant Traitor and/or the Trickster. Examples include:
Full of confidence and friendly, but doesn’t recognize local customs and isn't overly sophisticated. A few good examples are:
A cold-blooded desperado, as opposed to the Honest Thief or Lovable Rogue, but could become either type. A few examples are
Starts out as a rich and powerful, but arrogant and selfish, character. He soon has his fortunes reversed, and he is forced to befriend a firm but honest and kindly companion as he struggles to get his status back, becoming a better person in the process. Examples include:
Always with his pocket protector, spectacles, and usually a strange or old-fashioned name. Often also struck with a speech impediment. He frequently has an ardent, futile crush on the Pretty Ugly Girl but can’t get her attention because she herself has a crush on The Jock or the Nice Guy. Examples include:
An intelligent and antisocial character that is either a main character or has some of relation to one. He usually no longer interacts with the outside world and antagonizes the main characters for most of the story, but provides crucial support at the story's climax. Examples are:
A brainy sidekick to the hero. Often the weakest physically of the group. As a result, he can be useless in a fight, but knows his way around computers and technical stuff. Often witty, in an erudite way. Typically uses complex technical jargon in his or her speech. Examples:
Often used in children's books and films, he starts out as a clear-cut villain, who is sent to infiltrate and betray the "good guys", but is won over by the kindness/goodness of the good guys and builds up a rapport or changes their actions to save a loved one on the "good guys'" side. Sometimes his defection is caused by abuse or a betrayal from the main villain. Changes side to join them, but in this almost always loses their trust in admitting to having worked for the enemy, and at this point becomes a true traitor in betraying his (or her) original side. Almost always killed or severely wounded in this change to the good guys. A repentant traitor can also be someone who was the main villain but was betrayed by someone who worked for them and helped the good side after being treated with kindness. Examples:
Often young, bright, and eager to please. Typically fresh out of school and often at the top of his/her class. They tend to act “by the book” because it is all they know; thus, they are often disturbed by the hero's sometimes unorthodox methods. Although the hero may occasionally lose patience with them, he knows that the rookie is valuable raw material with potential, ready to be shaped and molded. Examples:
Very persistent and invariably pursues the hero with a personal vendetta. Usually a flunky of the main villain or a petty criminal acting on their own. They are usually shown as incompetent and not taken too seriously by either their enemies or allies (this is less common in anime or other Japanese-based series such as Power Rangers, where the same archetype generally starts out as a powerful adversary). Like the Repentant Traitor, they have been known to reform when the hero treats them with compassion having witnessed their progressive fall into disgrace and humiliation. Also, they have acted as early placeholder villains who inevitably join with the hero when the true villain of the story comes on stage. Examples include:
He is often invoked in American contexts to indicate wholesome, unassuming, or "average" masculinity; he is the male counterpart of the " girl next door." He is a young man who is just discovering his physical and spiritual strengths, and still maintains an innocent wonder about them. There are a whole set of typical relations he may maintain in the story. The boy next door is often, but not always, the protagonist of a story. As such, his innocence, sincerity, and common origin will often be contrasted with the cleverness, hypocrisy, and privilege of the antagonist. The boy next door may have a sidekick. Often a femme fatale or a girl next door will be pulled between love for the boy next door and her desire for a luxurious life offered by the villain. Examples include:
The Nice Jock excels in athletics, while often being low on intelligence. His name usually only has one syllable. He tends to be the muscle of the group and is usually found on the outskirts of the Misfits. Examples include:
The male counterpart of the Bad Girl, the Bad Boy/Rebel is usually a troubled and rebellious adolescent or young adult, often the black sheep of the family and a sort of outcast in school. His preferences in music, fashion or lifestyle are unconventional, alternative or non- mainstream. The Bad Boy is sometimes loud or obnoxious, and is not afraid to stand out in a crowd, an individual who doesn't care much about what anyone else thinks. Examples include:
The bad boy is an archetype in popular culture for a rebel who is impulsive, brash and undeterred by social restrictions. Examples in film and entertainment include Tommy Lee, Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Vin Diesel, Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis and various rock stars. He is characterized by mysteriousness, non-conformity, extreme confidence, a seeming lack of concern with the restrictions of a moral compass along with apparent indifference toward what others think of him.
In seduction literature, the attraction of many beautiful women to the "bad boy" archetype is attributed both to his confidence, the rarity of this type of personality which makes him stand out, his intriguing mysteriousness, and his seeming indifference (perhaps springing from an overabundance of sexual options) [1] and unavailability, which challenge her to "chase" him. This is in contrast to supplicating men who come off as needy and desperate to please her, which suggests lower value and thus ironically makes her less interested in them. [2]
The bad boy is an extremely common archetype in romance novels. [3]
Bad Boy type, he excludes himself from popular social circles and avoids people acting idiotic. His story is centred about a new life for him and how he gets into trouble with the new society. Examples include:
The jock stereotype is used often in the mass media to portray a relatively unintelligent and unenlightened, but nonetheless physically and socially well endowed character. Rich, spoiled, popular and - usually a tall, physically fit, male in his late teens or early twenties - well-known for his athletic abilities. An antagonist who is often regarded as bullies to his peers, especially those who are not athletically inclined or don't play sports and does not have much of a tolerance for outsiders. Examples include:
Often a geeky teen, socially awkward. A person who is out of place, or outside the mainstream.
Assistant to the hero. Sometimes acting like a comic relief but can be surprisingly brave and resourceful. Examples include:
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The Middle-earth Fantasy writings of J._R._R._Tolkien have had a profound and wide-ranging impact on Popular_culture. This is especially true for The_Lord_of_the_Rings, ever since its publication in the 1950s, but especially throughout the 1960s and 1970s, where young people embraced it as a countercultural saga, and its influence has been vastly extended in the present day, thanks to the live-action film trilogy by Peter_Jackson. Many of the following references are directly inspired by the latter films rather than the book. ==References== ===Movies, television, and radio=== {{spoiler}}
*In an episode of the sitcom Friends, Ross and Chandler speak about a university friend, called "Gandalf (-the Party Wizard)." When Joey asks why they call him Gandalf, they reply, "Didn't you read the Lord of the Rings in high school?" to which Joey responds, "No, I had sex in high school." *In addition to spoofing elements of The Lord of the Rings, South_Park has a nurse with a conjoined twin fetus on her head called Nurse Gollum. * The South Park episode "The_Return_of_the_Lord_of_the_Rings_to_the_Two_Towers" is a parody of the movie version of The Lord of the Rings. * The TV show Babylon_5 (1993-1998) includes occasional homages to The Lord of the Rings, as well as epic themes drawn from similar mythological roots. See Babylon_5_influences for a more detailed exploration. * In The_Grim_Adventures_of_Billy_and_Mandy episode Here_Thar_Be_Dwarves, Billy finds his way to the Dwarves stronghold Boringya. There Dwarves leader "Beardbottom" tells him about the on-going Dwarves' war with Elves over the monopoly on the cookie industry, and asks him for an aid in the big final assault on an Elves Cookie Factory. A flashback about the origins of the war is a nod to the Council_of_Elrond, where the races are shown dividing up a monopol on the fast-food industry. * In another episode of The_Grim_Adventures_of_Billy_and_Mandy, Beast and Barbarians, The_Hobbit and The_Lord_of_the_Rings are parodied: Mandy acquires a ring from a Gollum-like creature by solving a riddle ("What's black and blue and red all over?" "That would be you if I don't get that ring pronto!"), with that ring she gains power over an evil army. * The TV show Gilmore_Girls often has references to The Lord of the Rings in various episodes. * In an episode of The_Simpsons, the family goes to a dude ranch. While there they are taken on a picnic by Cookie, the ranch owner. After finishing Cookie calls "Cleany" to come clean up. Cleany's movements and mannerisms are modeled precisely after Gollum and he refers to the garbage as his "precious." Cleany was voiced by Andy_Serkis. *In Disney's sequel to The_Emperor's_New_Groove, Kronk's_New_Groove, Yzma causes people in a retirement home to become addicted to a "youth potion" that is actually green water. When Kronk buys out the retirement home, Rudy (the old man that Emperor Kuzco had thrown out the window in the first movie) comes and begs for a spot. When Kronk takes out the "potion," Rudy jumps up and takes it out of his hand and then bends his back, rubbing the potion. Imitating Gollum, he then said, "My precious...Kronk just wants it all for himself!" * In an episode of Family_Guy, Stewie is at the park. When he sees another kid at the jungle gym Stewie pushes the kid on the ground and says "Cry, cry like Sauron when he lost his contacts." The scene then shifts to a cutaway showing the Eye of Sauron frantically searching for his lost contact. * On another episode of Family_Guy, there is a scene that also parodies the movie Poltergeist as well as The Lord of the Rings. Chris is thrown from his bedroom window into the clutches of a living tree. The scene eventually parodies the epic confrontation between Gandalf and the Balrog as seen in The Lord of the Rings when Herbert the Creepy Old Pedophile shows up to save Chris. Herbert recites the film trilogy Gandalf's line, "You shall not pass!". * In the episode "Whoever Did This" of The_Sopranos, two children play with bows and arrows while quoting lines from The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring. As a result, one of the children (the son of capo Ralphie Cifareto) is fatally wounded by an arrow to the chest. * In the episode "Two Birds of a Feather" of Magnum,_P.I., a scene showing Magnum and his friends during the Vietnam War, his team uses the codename "Frodo" while trying to contact "Gandalf" to get air support. * In the show Odd_Job_Jack, episode 2.02 (Lord of the Three Ring Binder) spoofs The Lord of the Rings, with Jack as Frodo (and Déagol, when Jack was in his College years). * The episode "D & DD" of the animated series Dexter's_Laboratory spoofs Dungeons and Dragons in general (even mentioning a warrior called "Gygax"), but inserts references to Middle-earth. Dexter is forced to play as "Hodo the Furry-footed Burrower", a hobbit/halfling whose name is possibly a combination of "Hobbit" and "Frodo". * Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report has made several references to both The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth and Dungeons and Dragons on his show. * In the movie Clerks_II, Randal equates the Lord of The Rings movies as being 3 movies about walking. The first movie is demonstrated by Randal taking an exaggerated step while blank-faced; the second by tripping and looking back and down mid-walk; the third consisting of the same walk, culminating in a gesture to remove the ring from the finger and toss it downward. Before the film was made, director Kevin_Smith had done the exact same thing during an appearance on The_Tonight_Show. * Talk show host Rush_Limbaugh once described himself as a black smoke from Mordor (as if hindering the political party considered left of center). * In the Stargate_Atlantis episode "Critical Mass", Dr. Bill Lee uses the lighting of the beacons of Gondor to explain his idea of relaying a message to Atlantis. * In the Foster's_Home_for_Imaginary_Friends episode "Partying is Such Sweet Soiree", when Mac goes on a sugar-high rampage, he pets sugar-related objects and says, "My precious..." immitating Gollum. * An episode of MADtv did a parody of Lord of the Rings known as "Lords of the Bling" where Bill_Cosby played Gandalf and said, "We have to take the ring to Mordor, by the MotoPhoto!" Frodo was now Froho. * In the W.I.T.C.H. episode "G is for Garbage", when Irma and Blunk go to Blunk's hideout, Blunk says, "My precious..." while loving his trash, and he even sounds like Gollum. ===Music=== * The_Beatles' song "She_Said,_She_Said" includes a passing reference to The Lord of the Rings, and writer John_Lennon was known to have been a fan of them. During the song's fade-out, Lennon can be heard singing a series of seemingly nonsensical sounds; these phrases are either a Lennon pre-taped vocal played backwards, or Lennon imitating the sound of a reverse-tape voice. At the start of the fade-out Lennon can clearly be heard chanting the words "Ash Nazg", the first two words of the Invocation engraved on the Ring_of_Power. * Leonard_Nimoy's music: "The_Ballad_of_Bilbo_Baggins" (1968) is based on The_Hobbit. * Tom_Rapp set most of the verse of the One Ring ("Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky...") to music as "Ring Thing" in Pearls Before Swine's second album, Balaklava (1968). * Led_Zeppelin's music: "Ramble_On" (1969) refers to Gollum and Mordor, "Misty_Mountain_Hop" (1971) is named after Tolkien's Misty_Mountains, and "The_Battle_of_Evermore" (1971) is an actual allegory from the "Battle_of_the_Pelennor_Fields" from The Return of the King; while "Over the Hills and Far Away" (1973) refers to "The Hobbit". * Swedish keyboard player Bo_Hansson recorded an entire Concept_album titled The Lord of the Rings in 1972, which was performed mostly on electronic keyboard instruments. *Australian_jazz musician and composer John_Sangster undertook an ambitious three-volume jazz interpretation of the trilogy in the late 1970s, using most of the best Australian jazz musicians of the time as session players * Genesis' song "Stagnation" (from Trespass, 1970) was about Gollum. The most direct references being "And I will wait for ever, beside the silent mirror. And fish for bitter minnows amongst the weeds and slimy water." and "To take all the dust and the dirt from my throat, To wash out the filth that is deep in my guts." * Rush has a song called "Rivendell" (1975) on their Fly_by_Night album, and a song called "The Necromancer" on their "Caress_of_Steel' album * Styx has a song called "Lords of the Ring" on their Pieces_of_Eight album (1978). * Sally_Oldfield has a group of songs called "Songs of the Quendi" on her Water_Bearer album (1978, Bronze Records Ltd.). * The Austrian musician Gandalf (Heinz Stobl) chose his name with reference to the hobbits' wizard friend. He has composed several pieces of music which deal with themes and characters originating from The Lord of the Rings, some of which can be found on his second album, Visions (1981). * Johan_de_Meij’s first symphony The Lord of the Rings is based on the trilogy. The symphony consists of five separate movements, each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the series. The symphony was written in the period between March 1984 and December 1987, and had its première in Brussels on 15th March 1988.
The movements are: I. GANDALF (The Wizard) II. LOTHLORIEN (The Elvenwood) III. GOLLUM (Sméagol) IV. JOURNEY IN THE DARK a. The Mines of Moria b. The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm V. HOBBITS
Lord of the Rings in popular culture Lord of the Rings in popular culture