I love charts and lists! I can’t get enough of them. Charts and lists about some of my favorites stories? Heaven. Although, I do feel the need to argue with them and correct them when they are wrong. This chart is okay, but has a few glaring errors. Of course, I have to correct them. Here …
Recently I was telling a friend who practices Aikido and likes Lord of the Rings about my blog and that I like to write about both. A joke went around the table about Frodo doing Aikido. I laughed but it got me thinking…Frodo *does* do Aikido! As do two of my other favorite heroes. It …
Today, May 2nd, is, in the Harry Potter world, the 15th anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. For those not in the know, the Battle of Hogwarts was the final battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. This is the Battle where Harry and Voldemort have their final showdown. My favorite …
How do we fight evil? With more force, bigger weapons, anger, hate? What do our stories teach us? Let’s look at my favorite three examples: Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings. In each story, there is a great evil pervading the land or universe. Great evil. Evil that wants to take over …
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the kids learn about boggarts. A boggart is, according to Hermione, a “shape-shifter…it can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most.” Professor Lupin tells the kids about boggarts (they have no form of their own, but take the form of your worst fear) …
There are many archetypes in literature, from the Hero to the Shadow, but the one I enjoy the most in the Shapeshifter. The Shapeshifter’s job is to confuse the Hero. Think of a character of whom the Hero is uncertain where his loyalties lie, the character who we (as readers or viewers) think, “whose side …
