{"id":7689,"date":"2012-08-28T18:03:19","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T23:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=7689"},"modified":"2012-08-28T20:36:41","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T01:36:41","slug":"trope-tuesday-the-trickster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/trope-tuesday-the-trickster\/","title":{"rendered":"Trope Tuesday: The Trickster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After the hero<\/a> crosses the threshold of adventure and finally sets out on his journey<\/a>, he passes through a long phase that Campbell called “the road of trials<\/a>.” This is often where the meat of the story happens, but it doesn’t fit squarely into any one trope because of all the possible directions where the story can go. \u00a0For that reason, I think it’s more useful to think in terms of who the hero meets, not what the hero does.<\/p>\n

The Trickster<\/a> is often (though not always) one of the first characters the hero encounters upon entering the lands of adventure. \u00a0He is almost always male, though sometimes he can change shapes and even sexes (for example,\u00a0Loki<\/a>, who turned into a mare and conceived Odin’s horse<\/a>). \u00a0His role in the story, though, can range from mentor<\/a> (Merlin, Yoda, Mary Poppins) to bad guy (the Joker, the Homonculi, Grand Admiral Thrawn) to the hero himself<\/a> (Prometheus, Bugs Bunny, Bilbo Baggins).<\/p>\n

Obviously, the Trickster is a very slippery character. \u00a0You can tell who he is, though, by whether he meets these two basic criteria:<\/p>\n