Many stories begin with a Call to Adventure that takes the hero out of their natural environment, often on a grand quest. But all things come to an end, and one day, the quest is over and it's time to go back to normal life. Many heroes might get something out of their quest: riches, allies, a magic trinket to remember their accomplishments. But sometimes, the main thing the hero finds is a new attitude.
An attitude? What good is that?
Well, on returning to their previous life, they can see things from a new perspective. Returning from an adventure is as big a change as embarking on one, and everything feels new and unknown again. In that moment, our hero isn't yet absorbed in their former life and is thus willing to make big changes. They might cut relationships that had grown unhealthy, tell the truth after trying to hide it for a long time, pursue their dreams or change them, or generally resolve any stuck situation they started out in. The change also tends to shake up the whole world around them. ((this paragraph could use potholes, since a lot of this stuff is bound to be individual tropes))
Often this involves growing a spine, but it might also mean admitting mistakes and making amends for them. This can be shown through returning to a minor original threat after the main plot, as in a Post-Climax Confrontation, or through Bookends. Contrast So What Do We Do Now?, when ordinary life looks dull rather than easy.
Notes
- just a start of a quick rewrite. the point is to remove Example as a Thesis and produce a more standard trope definition that does a better job at explaining what examples count.
- together with that, i must reexamine the current examples. i'm afraid that a few of the very well flippy ones would go if this description were used (because they don't explicitly involve going *back*), and that would be a shame. really, now is the time to draw the boundaries, and that is the most painful part of the process.
- possibilities:
- a character revisits an old problem after a long absence, shattering it (but that is also about skill... is that a problem?) (would require a rewrite of jumanji to be more specific about the return, would be awkward with lions (no long absence, just an intense event), and matt might (which lacks a direct revisit))
- the change through a hero's journey is shown by contrasting similar situations before/after (throws out 21, throws out the more traumatic stuff (lions, garry))
- Conclusion: the interesting trope within this mess is the original outlier concept, brought on by an outlier situation a character gets into. The interesting and notable aspect of the trope is the unexpected resolution of an established problem by a changed character. I would build the trope around that.
- The trope *is* that somebody makes grand changes in ordinary situations after having confronted an extraordinary situation.
- Commentary on current examples:
- 21: Was never a good example to begin with. There is no meaningful character development there, just a cool story being told at the end.
- Interstate 60: Clear example. Extraordinary: Interstate 60. Ordinary: Ned's family life.
- Stardust: The fencing part is just skill growth, but the Victoria half is a good example.
- Jumanji: With the specific aspect of playing a different role. That's actually a good example of a forced change of perspective.
- Lions: Clear example. Extraordinary problem: Lions. Ordinary problem: Insurance.
- Neverending Story: The description is merely so-so (nonspecific about the details), but the quote is perfect.
- Life is Strange: The original motivating example. The change is crisp clear, because the situation before and after is literally the same scene, revisited across time. A lot of it is having new information (mainly who the villain is and general character relationships), but a part of it would have been perfectly possible with Max's information on Monday.
- MLP: The extraordinary situation is unclear, and could use specifics. But maybe it's the kind of dramatic-decision-driven plot (like the HTTYD shows) that invokes this trope without fully going through the motions.
- Matt Might: A little awkward in that work on the extraordinary problem directly resolves the ordinary problem. But maybe it's just an extreme case of trivialisation of the problem, showing it not to exist at all.
- The potential new examples:
- Into The Broken Lands: Invocation of the trope. After this rewrite, the next step to naturally space out edits will be to add in the invocations and other variations.
- Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Hmh. Just a reminder that things could be worse, without any reaction, just not worrying anymore. Probably technically an example, but not a very illuminating one.
- Also useful to do now: find a couple indices to put this on. A good one: This Used to Be an Index.
