Briar Bond, Journal Entry #6, Tricksters

 The trickster archetype is one of my favorite topics we have touched on in the course. They hold such a uniquely neutral position within the hero's journey. They are a wild card, frequently as destructive as they are helpful, which makes them incredibly interesting in my opinion. However, this course has forced me to examine my definition of what is and what isn't a trickster. 

Prior to this class, my idea of what a trickster was was distinctly magical. Is this preconception a product of my ongoing obsession with the fantasy genre? Maybe. Nevertheless, when I thought of a trickster I always pictured a god or fairy, or crossroads demon. The supernatural elements of a story often fall into trickster territory, but the more I thought about it the more I decided that it wasn't a requirement.

I really started thinking about this when I was working on my artifact paper. I wrote my paper on The Pirate of the Caribbean because it is one of my favorite movies. I was curious what new elements I could uncover in such a familiar story. What I found was that the character Jack Sparrow perfectly fit the trickster archetype. He is not magic in any way, simply a character driven by his own motivations. This observation led me to the question, is a trickster simply a character whose motivations are hidden from the hero and in turn the audience? Would those same characters still be perceived as part of that archetype if their actions were explained in a little more detail. The lines between different archetypes and elements within the hero's journey seem to get blurrier the more I look at them.

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