#propp

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Ok, who is Propp? He is a Russian folklorist, who analysed structure of fairytales, so Joseph Campbell, but Soviet.

I'm really interested in how he's different from hero's journey, since Campbell is more of Jungian reading of mythology, and unlike Campbell who's an easy read, Propp is terrifying dense, and I'd like to simplify it for myself

Gearhead Caramel’s Story Generator

I think story generators in the Gearhead series are currently the most complete story generator that is least talked about. While there are many exciting new approaches that people are trying, Joseph Hewett has had working procedurally generated plots in his games for well over a decade.

He’s recently written a blogpost about the story generator in the Winter Mocha release of Gearhead Caramel. It’s a good summary of his approach and how the current and previous Gearhead story systems work.

“La storia dell’anima è storia di schiavitù e di violenza. In quanto personaggio, Anima fa la sua prima effettiva comparsa, sulle scene della scrittura, nelle Metamorfosi di Apuleio. È Psiche, la fanciulla perseguitata. Certamente non la prima fanciulla perseguitata della tradizione narrativa, ma altrettanto certamente la prima fanciulla perseguitata a chiamarsi esplicitamente Anima sul filo di una incontrovertibile strategia allusiva alla scrittura e al pensiero in cui l’anima e le sue vicende sono diventate oggetto filosofico: i dialoghi e la speculazione platonici.

Se la filosofia di Platone, che pure tanti mythoi ha narrato, non ne ha raccontato alcuno sull’Anima –ed è un elemento che richiede spiegazione e inchiesta–, Apuleio ha invece voluto fabbricare intorno ad essa il celeberrimo intreccio che tutti conosciamo, colmando in qualche modo il vuoto o rompendo l’interdetto platonico. Il risultato dell’operazione apuleiana è una fiaba all’interno di un racconto più vasto il cui protagonista, come è noto, è un fanciullo perseguitato, Lucio.

Già l’esito dell’atto narrativo di Apuleio è in sé significativo. La storia di Anima-Psiche è un racconto chiuso nel racconto, clôture semiotica che allude alla situazione di effettiva clausura del personaggio: innanzitutto l’ascoltatore della favola, la fanciulla, Càrite, anch’essa perseguitata come Psiche, fatta prigioniera e ridotta in catene dai ladri, che l’hanno rapita dalla sua bella casa. Il luogo in cui la ragazza è reclusa è una caverna spaventosa, che funge da nascondiglio per i banditi.

L’altra reclusa è, appunto, Psiche: reclusa nel carcere d’oro dello splendido palazzo di Cupido, dove presta un vero e proprio servitium amoris, un servizio erotico, nei confronti di qualcuno che lei non conosce, che non vede né può vedere, un padrone o meglio, un carceriere invisibile, del quale è a completa disposizione. L’atmosfera incantata del palazzo magico non può ingannare sulla condizione di schiavitù sessuale cui Psiche è costretta. Propp ha chiaramente individuato il contenuto sessuale della storia di Amore e Psiche, dietro cui si adombra una vicenda rituale di rapimento, stupro e morte.

E se poi dovessero ingannare gli splendori del palazzo meraviglioso, ogni illusione svanisce nella seconda parte della fiaba, quando Psiche cade nelle mani di Venere...”

Massimo Stella - La schiava del filosofo: sventure dell’anima e della giustizia. Apuleio, Platone, Sade

I made this little video about narrative theory!!!! It’s all unscripted and full of stupid jokes so watch out for that. It’s also illustrated in a fun and dumb way...

Anyway if you’re new to story writing this might help ya out. It goes over the basics of how a story usually goes and the different bits that go into one in just enough detail with examples analysed from Fight Club.

**SPOILERS FOR THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT**

What is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an action role-playing game released in 2015 by the studio CDProjekt. It is an open world game based on the Witcher series of books written by Andrzej Sapkowski and is the 3rd in this series of games. The game received critical acclaim and holds many awards. It has since had 2 DLC releases, a Game of the Year edition, and an overhaul to improve performance and add new content for the current generation of consoles (PS5 and XBox Series X).

The Witcher 3, like many other RPGs, has a branching story that is influenced by the decisions the player makes during gameplay. Whilst this will, of course, have an impact on the narrative, we can still apply some of the theoretical narrative principles to this game.

The Characters - Propp's Theory

Vladimir Propp theorised that characters in a narrative can be placed into different categories depending on the role they play in progressing the story (Propp, 1968). This theory was based on his studies of many different fairytales and, although it now can seem somewhat outdated, it can often apply to current media with a little stretching of the definitions he developed (Author Unknown, 2023)(Piper, Algee-Hewitt, Sinha, Ruths, and Vala, 2017). Some have discussed how Propp's theories tend to reflect women as a passive character whilst the male archetypes have a more active role in stories, a schema that likely represents how male and female roles were distributed at the time (Roof, 2018).

Propp defined these categories as the hero, villain, princess, dispatcher, helper, donor, and false hero. There are limitations to these archetypes, as discussed by Bordwell (1988), including the limited range of tales from which Propp devised his theory. Additionally, these categories generalise and erase some of the nuances that characters can display.

Applying Propp's Theory to The Witcher 3

If we first look at Propp's hero archetype, we see that he devised 2 subcategories of hero: the seeker and the victim. The seeker is a very active character, and sets of to right whatever wrongs have been committed by the villain, whereas the victim is the one who has directly suffered at the hands of the villain. The hero role is fulfilled in this game by the player character, Geralt of Rivia. Geralt is not the classic hero character we may think of when discussing this archetype, as his grey morals and occasionally violent actions are not typical of the usually morally upstanding hero we see often in other media. He undoubtedly fits this archetype though, as he often finds himself standing up for the little guy and defending others from harm, though this is often left up to the player. Despite his sometimes morally grey actions, he acts in what he believes to be in the best interests of his family. His (and the player's) main quest for the majority of the game is to find his adoptive daughter, Ciri, and protect her from the imminent threat of the villain, Eredin, both of whom we will discuss later on.

Ciri, Geralt's adoptive daughter, best fits Propp's archetypal character of the princess. Whilst Ciri is quite literally a princess, the archetype doesn't necessarily have to refer to a royal character. The princess archetype fits any character who is seen as a "damsel in distress" and requires rescuing. This concept is patriarchal and, as discussed by Roof (2018), would see Ciri take on a passive role of waiting to be rescued. Whilst she undeniably is in need of assistance throughout the game, she takes on a very active role in her own story. She herself is an incredibly powerful person with excellent combat and magical abilities. Ciri also takes on part of the role played by the hero, and we could argue that, whilst Geralt fits into the seeker subcategory, Ciri fits into the victim category. That being said, it is refreshing to see the role of the princess overlapping with the hero to create a more three dimensional and dynamic character who doesn't wholly rely on others to rescue her.

As mentioned previously, the role of the villain is taken on by Eredin or The Wild Hunt, the wider group he is part of. The Wild Hunt are a group of spectral riders from another plane of existence, set on finding Ciri to make use of her magical bloodline. The villains are seeking to harm Ciri, the princess character, as is often the case with media that fits these archetypes. The villain does eventually get his comeuppance and is defeated by Geralt and his companions, Ciri included.

The dispatcher character classically either offers the hero a reward for defeating the villain or is the one responsible for sending them off on their adventure. In this case, both of these actions are committed by Emporer Emhyr, Ciri's blood father. He not only is responsible for Geralt finding out that Ciri has returned to the continent from a long time away, but also offers a reward for him to return her to him (an offer you can choose to accept or refuse once you've found Ciri).

The fifth of Propp's character models is the donor. This is a person who equips the player with the tools they need to embark upon their quest. In a literal sense, this role could be said to be fulfilled by the many vendors the player can encounter, who sell quite literally the equipment the player needs, such as swords and armour. But if we look more into what Propp means by "donor" in a metaphorical sense, we can link this model to Vesemir. Vesemir is another Witcher and acts as a father figure to Geralt. Whilst he does physically equip Geralt with a crossbow at the beginning of the game, his "donation" is more figurative. He has passed down all of his knowledge and skills by training Geralt, raising him from a young age as a Witcher. He also played a grandfatherly role to Ciri, training her for a brief time. WIthout these skills none of the plot of the game would be able to happen and it would certainly make for less exciting gameplay. Ultimately though, Vesemir makes the ultimate sacrifice, giving his own life to save Ciri's. Whilst this not only protects her in the moment, it also provides her with the driving force she needs to go after the Wild Hunt with Geralt and end their tyranny once and for all.

Another of Propp's classifications is the helper. This character - or characters - aid the hero along their journey, and is often thought of as a sidekick. There is no one character who is consistently at Geralt's beck and call whenever he needs help, with the exception of his horse, Roach, but there are many characters who weave in and out of the story to provide assistance when the hero requires it. The first of these character's is Geralt's long lost friend and lover, Yennefer, a powerful sorceress and Ciri's adoptive mother. She is just as desperate to find Ciri as Geralt is and meets him at points throughout the story to inform him of the results of her own search and to point him the right direction. In fact, Yennefer also partly plays the role of the dispatcher in the early game, as she brings Geralt to the Emperor in the first instance after herself learning of Ciri's return to their plane of existence. Another crucial character who plays the role of the helper is Dandelion. He is an eccentric and charismatic bard whom Geralt and Ciri both trust implicitly. He helps both Ciri and Geralt throughout the story, risking his life on multiple occasions, although he does get himself into more than his fair share of bother along the way. There are countless characters who assist our hero in some way throughout the game, showing that the theory can be adapted whilst still fitting with the basic principles that Propp originally devised.

Finally, we come to the false hero model. Propp describes this as a character who initially appears to be good but soon reveals themselves to be working against the hero or other characters. As with the helpers, there are several examples of false heroes in The Witcher 3, escpecially through side quests. The one most present in the story though is a character named Avallac'h, although he is not the classic example of a false hero. He acts as a friend and guardian to Ciri throughout, joining her when she firsts returns to the continent. He even teams up with Geralt at one point when Ciri has to flee Avallac'h's care, helping him find her when all other leads run dry. However, it becomes apparent towards the end of the game that Avallac'h has not been entirely honest with Geralt. Whilst his intention is truly to help Ciri, it has been with the aim of her potentially sacrificing her life to stop a cataclysmic event known as the White Frost. Ciri has accepted that this is her duty and happily goes with Avallac'h to fulfill her destiny, despite Geralt's insistence that she doesn't. So we can see that, although there are aspects of the false hero, Avallac'h doesn't quite fit the role perfectly, as his "betrayal" to our hero is in order to protect the best interests of his ward and, ultimately, the world.

To Conclude

There are limitations to Propp's theory, which can be seen with the characters present in this game that don't fit the molds perfectly, or span more than one. However, if we think of Propp's ideas as guidance rather than a strict structure to follow, it allows characters to be created with more modern audiences in mind and to develop them in a more three dimensional way than the model suggests is possible. What the theory does create is a basis from which writers can build their character. The model has the elements most narratives require to drive the story, with room to create further characters that partly fit one archetype or span multiple, as we've seen with The Witcher 3.

References

[Author unknown]. 2023. Vladimir Propp. Media Studies. https://media-studies.com/propp/. October 9, 2023.

Bordwell, D. (1988). ApProppriations and ImPropprieties: Problems in the Morphology of Film Narrative. Cinema Journal, 27(3), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.2307/1225288

Piper, A., Algee-Hewitt, M., Sinha, K., Ruths, D. and Vala, H., 2017. Studying Literary Characters and Character Networks. Digital Humanities Conference.

Propp, V. and Wagner, L. 1968. Morphology of the Folktale: Second Edition. New York, USA: University of Texas Press. https://doi.org/10.7560/783911