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Q&A How do I do literary research on an unresearched topic?

Maybe I don't understand, but (I think) the whole point of a Guardian is that they DON'T change, they DON'T undergo a journey. At least, classically. The hero is the one who changes, who undergoe...

posted 11y ago by dmm‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:11:45Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/9452
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar dmm‭ · 2019-12-08T03:11:45Z (about 5 years ago)
Maybe I don't understand, but (I think) the whole point of a Guardian is that they DON'T change, they DON'T undergo a journey. At least, classically. The hero is the one who changes, who undergoes a journey, who experiences peril. The Guardian is above all that, which is why the Guardian is usually a god or demigod of some sort.

For example, Gandalf the Grey is a mix of Guardian and Hero. To Bilbo, GtG is unchanging, a Guardian. GtG pops in and out of "The Hobbit," almost as a deus ex machina. Only in a few places does GtG exhibit Hero attributes. In contrast, to the Fellowship in LotR, GtG is more Hero, less Guardian. After his death and return, he's undergone an apotheosis (sort-of). Gandalf the White is almost pure Guardian. His limitations are self-imposed. He is only allowed to aid the Heroes, not do everything for them. (In the books, that is. The 3rd LotR movie has GtW as a defeatable UberHero, a more powerful version of GtG.)

My point is that, once you have Guardians undergoing journeys, you're just writing about Heroes. That is why you can't find anything about "The Guardian's Journey." However, Guardians and Heroes are archetypes. Clearly you CAN have mixtures of them in a single character. Perhaps what you really need is "The Journey from Hero to Guardian."

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2013-11-18T22:57:11Z (about 11 years ago)
Original score: 3