The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth: Crash Course World Mythology #25

[@chillsahoy2640]

Tolkien definitely didn't ignore that third stage of the return home, and you can tell he fought in a war by the honesty of Frodo's post-adventure reaction. He can never go back to the Cave, to the simple life in the Shire, because his journey has changed him too much. It makes his victory bittersweet: Frodo is able to defeat the big bad for the sake of everyone, but it comes at a price; not just the loss of his finger, but the loss of himself, his pre-journey life is gone for ever.

[@randzopyr1038]

And Bilbo had the opposite reaction - he was able to return home and live a peaceful, if occasionally more adventurous, life.

[@Ganymedescup]

Aang as Hero (Based on the Three Books on TV): - Call to Adventure: Aang is born as the Avatar. - Refusal of the Call: Aang runs away from being Avatar and gets stuck in an iceberg for a hundred years, and as a result, the Fire Nation throws the world out of balance. - Supernatural Aid: Aang finds Momo at the Southern Air Temple. - Crossing the First Threshold: Aang enters the Spirit World and discovers that Roku has a message for him. - Belly of the Whale: Aang communes with Roku, the previous Avatar, who gives him the deadline of stopping the Fire Nation before Sozin's Comet arrives. - The Road of Trials: Though an excellent airbender, Aang has yet to master waterbending, earthbending, and firebending. Aang and the gang encounter many obstacles along the way. - The Meeting with the Goddess: As the Avatar, Aang allies with the Ocean Spirit to take revenge on the death of the Moon Spirit. Yue sacrifices herself to become the Moon Spirit, and Aang regains his humanity. The balance of Moon and Ocean is restored. End of Water. - Woman as Temptress: General Fong tries to cut Aang's journey short by forcing Aang to enter the Avatar State instead of allowing Aang to master the elements in due time. - Atonement with the Father: When Aang and the gang uncover the knowledge of the Fire Nation's darkest day from the Spirit Library, Wan Shi Tong, the library's keeper, sinks the library into the desert to keep them from using this knowledge. As a result, Appa is lost for a long time. The father figures get progressively better, going from the angry spirit to Long Feng (treacherous but human), the Earth King (clueless but well-meaning), and Guru Pathik (wise and helpful). Also, Appa eventually returns. - Apotheosis: Aang trains with Guru Pathik and learns how to enter the Avatar state at will. - The Ultimate Boon: Underground, Azula nearly kills Aang while he is in the Avatar state, and consequently, Aang cannot enter the Avatar state. However, Aang does not die, for Katara uses her healing waterbending along with healing spirit water to save him. End of Earth. - Refusal of the Return: Aang allows the world to believe that he died when Azula attacked him. He changes his appearance and throws his glider in volcanic fire. - The Magic Flight: Aang has nightmares and daydreams from his anxiety over the planned attack on the Fire Nation. The attack fails, but Aang and the gang escape to the Western Air Temple. - Rescue from Without: Having decided to help Aang, Zuko joins the gang at the Western Air Temple and helps them defeat Combustion Man, whom Zuko had sent after them before his change of heart. Together, Zuko and Aang improve their firebending through the aid of the last two dragons. Aang has a good deal of power over all four elements now. - The Crossing of the Return Threshold: The Ember Island Players show Aang and the gang a distorted vision of the events of their journey thus far, embarrassing and frightening Aang. Although Aang was going to wait until after Sozin's Comet to take on Firelord Ozai, he springs into action when Zuko discloses Ozai's plan to use the enhanced firebending possible under the comet to wipe out the Earth Kingdom. - Master of Two Worlds: Alone on an island that turns out to be an ancient and enormous lion-turtle, Aang consults his past lives for advice, yet he receives the most help from the lion-turtle, who reveals energybending to him. Aang truly becomes Avatar Aang when he is able in the Avatar state to halt his attack on Ozai in order to use energybending to take away Ozai's firebending, thereby neutralizing Ozai as a threat while still sparing Ozai's life. - Freedom to Live: With Ozai neutralized and Sozin's Comet passed, Aang is free to start a happy life with Katara. End of Fire.

[@Anti-HyperLink]

Momo isn't supernatural. Are you high?

[@Anti-HyperLink]

How is that a refusal of a return?

[@barrocaspaula]

Awesome!

[@jakelile3161]

Bravo

[@shogun1650]

@@punchforpound2808 The stage "The Belly of the Whale" doesn't actually have anything to do with Pinocchio, it's actually a reference to a biblical story. However, it still applies. The belly of the whale is simply a dangerous place or trial that the hero faces right after crossing the threshold. In the belly of the whale, they experience a metamorphosis and a rebirth of sorts. In Pinocchio's case, he literally enters the belly of a whale, where he "struggles" to survive. His metamorphosis is in the form of him going from a constant liar into a better person after finding his father.

[@mglenadel]

Nice showing some respect for Dipper on the title card.

[@treenutspeanuts]

Marcelo Glenadel YESSS WAS JUST ABOUT TO COMMENT THAT

[@visionplant]

Oi, I see some Mystery brothers and sisters here. Nice!

[@Infernoraptor]

I didn't catch it. Where?

[@mglenadel]

8 seconds in, on the title graphic.

[@aymenhalassi5321]

Gravity fallssss yessss

[@Rocketboy1313]

I feel like the "FEAR!" test should have been the first test for the Aboriginal women. It seems like the one that is the least physically harmful and does the most to prepare them mentally for the other tests. If I had already been starved and tortured I am not gonna feel a shiver at some campfire stories.

[@dhborregales]

I think that's the point. Can you imagine being starved for years, then tortured and still have fear left for spooky stories?

[@Nightcoffee365]

Joshua Pelfrey responding to "we're going to boot you into the outback for years, starve you, death-march you, smash your teeth, cut you up, ash the wounds, stab your face and throw you in an anthill" with "cool, that should work!" Should be, in itself, the fear test. 😂

[@aussietom85]

Story telling and supernatural ghosts are a pretty big part of aboriginal culture, I think it might have been consider a more real threat than we appreciate today.

[@Gunbladefire]

Unless those stories are HP Lovecraft levels of existential crisis stuff, but yea I get the point.

[@lynce21]

I agree with Daniel

[@siddhiraskar5464]

Crash course is building an *education Empire* !! And it's Awesome

[@OblivionWonderlust]

*an

[@sayanibalmikighosh5934]

snapseed a i

[@couchtheoryy]

if you made that error on purpose than *clap*. If you didn't, well...

[@eruyommo]

Obviously, they don't forget their motto. DFTBA.

[@utkarshed]

So they don't forget to not forget to be awesome? Awesome.

[@barbpetr2941]

Mike--as a school teacher I was hoping to use this video as part of my intro into "the hero's journey" for my students--and I was very happy to see your use of "communing with the goddess" rather than the literal statement--this is a very student-friendly video. Thank you for that! Barb from Baltimore

[@Kayclau]

What I've learned so far: - Everyone has a thing for Aphrodite. - Loki is the worst. - Thoth is a cool pal and his name is cute. (Θώθ) -Yu can be a hero. - I really want some Mapuche myths. - Ragnarok, Guitar Solo.

[@literallydeadpool]

What?! A stand??!

[@yajursharma9305]

@@literallydeadpool Did I miss something? Except for Thoth he doesn't mention anything Jojo

[@literallydeadpool]

Krusty Kiwi exactly. Thoth is the reference and I have a theory that if thor originated from jojo, he would have his stand do the magic electro hammer thing and can make the boomerang go back to him.

[@yajursharma9305]

@@literallydeadpool I like that theory.

[@kayleighc3159]

the Return part reminds me of in my anthropology class when we learned about rites of initiation. they actually follow a similar formula: leaving society, changing, and reintegrating as a changed person with a new status

[@bingdoodle1]

me trying to guess which words are going to light up when he's talking

[@lam-ben-yam4015]

There was a weird KZbin glitch where the comment section to this video was replaced with the one of a video I just watched and now my cringy jokes about Heracles are in a completely different video's comments.

[@turtlesyay8381]

The only way I know of to fix the glitch is to reload the page.

[@ImmortalNature777]

Thank you for talking about the Dreamtime, it's so cool to see it getting the attention it deserves; also the story of the Pleiades sisters is wonderful and I wish I had heard of it when I was a kid, it's very inspiring! :)

[@erwinschrodinger8075]

I am actually learning about the Hero's Journey in school. Thanks for making such an awesome and helpful video!

[@bill18286]

Erwin Schrödinger I strongly advise Vogler's The Writer's Journey as a sort of superposition on Campbell"s Hero. Those books changed the way I live my life, never mind how I read and tell stories :-)

[@annabelle414]

I’m sooooo happy you included some indigenous Australian myths! It’s the worlds oldest living culture.

[@leog.467]

I really want a poster with the Hero's Journey. You have really overcome yourself with all those tiny and beautiful pictures to make this hell of a structure more understandable!

[@ninamarie177]

we could be heroes, just for one day.

[@koatam]

An hero?

[@cruye9633]

"Are you immortal?" You can only answer that question once.

[@stocktonjoans]

beat me to it ;)

[@ninamarie177]

busi magen seine Aussprache ist so lustig, aber ich finde es echt cool, dass er das Lied auch auf anderen Sprachen aufgenommen hat.

[@Bejunckt]

I loved that ending!! 👨‍🎤 _We could be heroes for ever and ever_ 🎶

[@LeriObba]

So the key to heaven: Go through terrible things and say "Now U"

[@Valdagast]

I hope they'll do the Gilgamesh epic - it's one of my favorite tales.

[@Aleph-Noll]

didnt they do it already?

[@Valdagast]

A quick look says they might have done the flood part, but the epic is _so_ much more than that.

[@SiimLand]

"Mastery is the freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live" - Joseph Campbell

[@dracofan7]

Might you do a segment on the differences between Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey and Annis Pratt's Heroine's Journey? I find Pratt's take on archetypal analysis much more engaging and insightful.

[@TarksGauntlet]

Thanks for this. I'm around 200 pages into Cambells books right now, and this is exactly what I needed to double check I was understanding it all right. Thankfully I am, but man is his book ever a word-soup. Not for average reading.

[@LiquorWithJazz]

"How do you go on when, in your heart, you begin to understand there is no 'going back?'"

[@howedelamitri]

The universe speaks to itself through stories. You are the center of the universe experiencing itself! You are the hero of your story

[@Chloe-kw5ic]

"and you ma'am, have heroine in your veins"

[@awizardintraining]

Nice Bowie reference. I've really enjoyed these videos. Keep it up Crash Course!

[@MegaChickenfish]

There's probably thousands of stories I've heard that fit that model in some way but I think to Brothers: A Tale of two Sons in particular as being one that includes that "challenging return home" aspect.

[@nghia_win]

thank you for the video and the entire series! I'm learning thanks to the visual aid and your charisma

[@BrunoTP]

A Pokémon known as Duskull apears at 10:25.

[@feynstein1004]

Duskull used curse. It's super effective.

[@hatface9339]

Isn't curse a status move?

[@feynstein1004]

+HatFace I have no idea what those are

[@BrunoTP]

Yes, it is a status move, it causes no damage, it can't be super effective. But the joke stands. =)

[@NanaBowana]

I remember having to compare Link's Journey in Ocarina of Time to the Hero's Journey. It was surprisingly straightforward.

[@anirudhakumar1653]

I the best episode till now. I didn't ever think that each hero story has so much in common.

[@njdj64]

Love the Bowie reference at the end and with the title

[@hooey7159]

0:08. I SEE A DIPPER HAT

[@цветок-ш7п]

Ava Acevedo Yeeeees

[@KanaidBlack]

I see a couple of waffles, that's from Steven Universe!

[@TimBagels]

That made me smile.

[@betabunny_bs]

Ava Acevedo YASSSSSSSS #GravityFalls

[@Thrythlind]

The further in time and space from Ancient Greece you get the more you have to do some mental gymnastics or make things to overly vague to be useful in order to fit them in to the Hero's Journey pattern. Also, the Hero's Journey also encourages the idea that a society is incapable of protecting itself and depends on an outsider coming in to save things with knowledge or power gained that only he could get. This has been getting undermined more and more where the end solution requires bringing the society to protect itself or for the hero to join and become part of the society and they fail as long as they remain separate from it despite the power they seek or even acquire. In fact, a lot of modern storytelling makes the Hero's Journey into a mistake that threatens the overall goes of the hero. This is why scholars of mythology in general consider Campbell very far from the universal model he tried to claim it was. He also depended a lot of his theories on many of Freud's theories which were later discredited due to Freud making stuff up to appease rich parents of his patients.

[@idnyftw]

psst, it's just a pattern...

[@JoanieDoeShadow]

Luke Green Thank you!

[@AlikiOfTheWolves]

Top gun, die hard, big trouble in little China and so on...

[@spookyhood]

You are putting so much enthousiasm and energy in these courses that they are always fun to watch! f

[@lawrencescales9864]

I like how people will cite old stories in western canon to go ‘see! Only x type of person can be strong or heroic it’s only natural.’ Meanwhile, traditional stories like the one from Australia exist... proof anyone can and has been a hero. Great story and informative vid!

[@kaity4088]

So happy to finally see some mythology from Australia!

[@CapybaraGT_Offical]

This was really helpful, Thank you CrashCourse!

[@alainaasteria36]

00:08 The Legend of Zelda, Gravity Falls, and Captain America idk where the waffles are from

[@LlamaKing9000]

Alaina Asteria Waffles are from Stranger Things

[@Chloe-kw5ic]

stranger things. its almost like you havent gone on the internet before. its the very internet famous waffles of Elle

[@alainaasteria36]

Chloe Davis i should install tumblr

[@KanaidBlack]

Steven Universe also used the waffles

[@Chloe-kw5ic]

he, however is not going through a heros journey and isnt even technically a hero. Also he just had waffles once while Elle's whole thing was that she LOVED waffles. And its not like no other shows or movies have waffles in them, waffles are a pretty damn common food

[@laythibrahim1306]

I think In the aboriginal tale at the end "going to live in the starts" was a metaphor for the elders killing them because they didnt want to go the the same torture they put the girls through.

[@zac8033]

this is my favorite course 😍

[@isaacdiakiteba1009]

Yorthos Same.

[@skyepitts6921]

Thanks for the shout out to the dreaming!!!! Along with the Australian Indigenous flag!!!

[@Aichomu]

Came back to see if there were new episodes, please, make more, you are my favorite videos ever :(

[@andrewimms7676]

That was so awesome, while he was describing the steps I was ticking off scenes from LoTRs.

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

Wow,the seven girls are amazing to withstand those trials.

[@alancarter7663]

Happy monstrous Father's Day!

[@shahdhammouri180]

Can not stress how much I love this course, so much that I have been reading mythology books in the metro.

[@ajmoore9758]

I'm aware of a myth of the 7 sisters that freatures them as moral tricksters against men

[@biggmissy]

I love hero story's and I'm currently studying Odysseus and man he had some obstacles to over come

[@jafersorianocamargo6723]

Once I heard about the difference between the hero's journey and the heroin's journey is the acceptance of the call, like the hero at first is reluctant (refusal of the call) but the heroin decides to go in search of whatever the quest demands, among other differences

[@yashiAR]

This was a wonderful episode. Thank you to Mike and the entire team.

[@lizziejorgensen2582]

I love Crash Course!! They have taught me more things than high school

[@annikboyer3395]

Nice to learn more details on the hero's journey!

[@FuZandy]

By far of of my favourite series!

[@DariaDorothea]

AHHHH I yelled at the lil' Bowie at the end. Thank you for that!!

[@feelingfelt]

i really love thoth. hes so sweet and kind. i wish he was my friend'

[@artzfreak]

This is bringing up such fond memories of my AP Senior English thesis paper, which painstakingly tracked Harry Potter along the hero's journey .The last book had just come out the summer before. Which was ten years ago. Yikes, I'm old.

[@jamesmorgan9258]

Crash course mythology is keeping me alive after Idea Channel ended.

[@monkeyslapper65]

It's nice to see someone did something constructive with some of Freud's hypotheses

[@johnhrock1009]

The movie The Kid who Would be King follows the hero's journey formula for sure.

[@Lazy_Llama]

Fantastic episode and a really interesting story from aboriginal culture

[@GRAHFXENO]

Joseph Campbell has always been my hero

[@kasturi-725]

Didn't Siddharth leave his Kingdom because he saw suffering and wished to end it and find the true meaning in life and not just because he was BORED? oh well...

[@BrownRiceBunny1]

Not quite. Siddhartha left his palace because it had gotten boring but once he left the gates he THEN saw the suffering around him. He chose not to return to his old life after he saw what he saw.

[@MrApplelovin]

This is amazingly applicable to decent fantasy such as Eragon, awesome :)

[@mangofelipe]

AWESOMEEEEEEEEE!!!! The best of the best! Thanks!!

[@liu_hou_yu]

0:08 I saw the cap of Dipper Pines from the Disney Show Gravity Falls.

[@timothymclean]

Three years of near-starvation! A day of constant torment! A night of ghost stories and campground pranks! It would take one heck of a cultural context for those trials to not be in the exact wrong order.

[@Becca-bm8rt]

Makes you wonder how terrifying Aboriginal ghost stories can get, right? I imagine living in a land that inhospitable probably helps create some good ones.

[@EvilTreeFrogs]

Mike's father makes birdhouses!? That sounds awesome.

[@ramashah5128]

Need more videos of methodology from CrashCourse.

[@lightningmcgee]

aw the dipper hat made me smile :)

[@starvinmartinamg]

This video really help me I'm having a hard time writing this manga story about two different people who are chosen to be heroes who are very different from each other culturally

[@Luboman411]

Whoa, the monomyth can be grafted onto the Lord of the Rings movies and these movies have practically all the 17 sub-parts of the monomyth. Frodo receives "the call to destiny," then has a "refusal to the call." Frodo is afterwards helped by a protective "supernatural aid", then the "first unknown zone with the threshold" he must cross is a literal gate to the town where Frodo first discovers the power of the ring, he meets Stryder for the first time, and he and his companions are almost killed by the evil wraiths. And so on and so forth. Fascinating.

[@phoebemurtagh3059]

Thanks for the David Bowie references!

[@kimone6831]

These girls are an inspiration...

[@mva2997]

I love Mike so much, my heart hurts

[@Mononoke99]

I was waiting for the David Bowie reference. Very impressed, very.😍

[@stevencoker7652]

Been waiting all day for this!!!!

[@alecfowler2261]

Really sad this CrashCourse came to an end. WE WANT MORE. Or at least I do.

[@DivoGo]

Campbell does point out that the Wizard of Oz is the Heroines journey. I would add the current version of Wonder Woman and the live action version of Cinderella, and Drew Barrymore’s version called Everafter. Why use the 7 sisters instead of the previous? It’s one thing to crash course the Hero’s/Heroine’s journey, completely different to live it everyday. Not just for one day. ✌🏾👍🏾

[@zach1279]

Love the Bowie reference!

[@cheaterman49]

I'll be honest, the structure resonates quite well with me and my lifestyle, and sounds like a great framework for storytelling, even if not a perfect scientific tool given the necessary grains of salt to take it with. EDIT: Applies to novels, movies, and even videogames. Legend of Zelda anyone?

[@MRedwood82]

I feel like the moral of that fable was “Dont let the elders babysit”

[@Nightcoffee365]

Here's an idea: a bonus video of some type just about the Pleiades. Whole planet paid attention to that cluster.

[@Micahlee_19]

I love the seven sisters story! Too few people know it

[@blainev1596]

I can't be the only one who thinks that the "ghost" in the story of the seven sisters looks more than a little bit like Duskull, right? Ha ha! A Pokemon, Zelda, and Star Wars reference in one episode? Awesome!

[@moishtar]

Good stuff.. im really into the heros journey stuff.. i write story songs that all fit together and i see so many parellels with my songs and myths/the journey.. it all did seem to just come to me from some subconscious mystical force too..

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Dammit. I saw that end line coming early in the episode, but when he didn't use it the first opportunity, I figured it was passed. Nope, hits us with it at the end. D-oh! Now I'm humming that damn song...

[@twistedtachyon5877]

Crash course is back, baby! After such a disappointing "apocalypse" segment, presumably included purely because they felt they had to and they like Ragnarok, it's great to get an episode with real educational value again. More like this crash course! Superficial storytelling is worthless. If you aren't going to unpack the cultural significance of the myth, do like you did here: use myth to talk about trends, tools, and theories we can use to understand both stories and the world better. Now *that* is a worthwhile KZbin series.

[@second0banana]

Moana follows this path almost exactly. My nieces were having fun comparing the two last night.

[@lauraradio2]

Been hanging out for some dreamtime stories 🙌🙌🙌

[@AirborneSurfer]

Love me some Campbellian mythology!

[@MonsterHealthandFitness]

This was easily one of the best vids I've seen on the subject. I will be linking my followers to it in a future video on my own channel, but I'm reeeeaaally wishing I found it earlier for a video I did a few weeks ago on the subject. lol. In any case, this was great work! Keep it up!

[@iAmTheSquidThing]

I just watched _Kubo and the Two Strings_ before this video, and it hits all these beats almost exactly and very deliberately.

[@Aleph-Noll]

yeah its a very simple story on purpose

[@marcusfung70]

wonderful channel and perspective thanl you

[@gregoryfenn1462]

Another great video :) thank you!

[@shaun_rambaran]

The only (somewhat) recent movie I could think of which featured a hint of that re-integration aspect was 'Cast Away'.

[@xmosskin]

I saw the 7 sisters in the sky a few nights ago and was wondering why they were called that so now i know! Thanks!

[@spiritsongtress]

Suggestion speak about Hamlet in the Bush, for a part 3 of the Hero's journey how cultures interpret myths differently!

[@darpcat9836]

The hero title of a thousand references.

[@AvailableUniverse]

When I saw the title I thought of Blackbeard in Black Flag. In a world without gold we could've been heroes.

[@juicebythedeuce8056]

Great episode

[@pyotrleflegin7255]

A brilliant series! Thank you so much for explaining things so well. Subscribed with thanks!