On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 10:07:03AM -0500, Noam Izenberg <noam.izenberg at jhuapl.edu> wrote: > David Brin wrote a critique of Star Wars in this very vein - Luke > starts out the > innocent every-farmboy, but you find out he's really basically the only > one in the > galaxy (or one of the two) who could eve have pulled off what he did. > Regardless > of what else I think about Brin, the article crystallized this > preordained hero problem > for me. I've read the article, and agree it makes some good points. However, stories about "prophesied heros" can be very well written as well. I think what you are really getting at is the conflict between expectations and results. If you go into a story thinking, "Here's this ordinary guy who's struggling to sink or swim on his own", and you find out in book 5 that he's really *not* an ordinary guy, you feel betrayed. But if you go into the story knowing (or reasonably expecting) that your hero has some kind of Special Destiny, then it's not a betrayal, it's a way to build tension. (And you can still appreciate the accomplishments of a "prophesied hero" if they are written in such a way that they don't come cheaply). To merge two threads, doing the destiny thing is something that Jordan really does well. In the first couple books, the destiny bit is handed straight off to the reader, but the characters still have to struggle both to accept what they have been told is their fate, and to actively strive to bring it about. Nothing is dimished by the presence of the Prophecies of the Dragon; indeed, much of the story depends on that. Star Wars, on the other hand, doesn't give you the boot to the head until the second movie. Not that that particular aspect of the story is poorly done -- it adds depth and a personal touch -- but it does betray the everyman ideal that's set up in the first movie. And the recent prequels take it the other way around, by putting too much weight on the "destiny" idea, to the point that it becomes the only plot driver. A more compelling flaw in the Star Wars universe, which Brin also describes, is the "Jedi Nobility" argument; ie, if you can't use the Force, you are constrained to be a peon. But I don't have to like the political ramifications of the Old Republic's form of governance to recognize that they can make a good storytelling framework. As for Vlad... the Destiny card was played way back when, I think even in Jhereg, when Aliera tells him about his soul. I don't think it cheapens any of his accomplishments to date. On the other hand, it DOES cheapen (potentially) his friendship with Aliera, Sethra, and Morrolan! -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp