User:Joekido/Archetype

An Archetype is an analysis or writing of stories in the same structure. Common in mythologies.

In One Piece, the story and characters are archetypical in an colorful way.

When providing what archetypes are, there would be three people to provided an example; Christopher Vogler, Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell but it was Akira Toriyama who serves a fine example.

Carl Jung
Carl Jung claimed the existence of archetypes in the “collective unconsciousness” of the human race, as well as theorists on writing and mythology. Oda has his characters have different personalities and ideals.

Christopher Volger
Christopher Vogler provides the concept of an archetypical characters which is clearly found in One Piece; such as Hero, Trickster, Mentor, Threshold Guardian, Herald, Shapeshifter, and a Shadow.

Hero: Luffy. Even when he’s a pirate, he never does what common Pirates do but he had did many good deeds throughout the series, he freed an island, saved a kingdom, saved sky island, beat up the CP9 but all of that was only because if his crews or friends are in danger, he will do something to help them.

Mentor: a person who guides a protagonist, sometimes throughout the series or for a short amount of time. In One Piece there are mentors for each crew member, except for Brook. Each mentors has inspired the specific Straw Hat to go and fulfill their dreams. However the role of the mentor can be played by everyone with proper knowledge irrespective of moral alignments.


 * Robin: Clover, Saul and Olvia
 * Luffy: Shanks, Sabo, Ace, Jinbe, and Rayleigh
 * Zoro: Koshiro and Mihawk
 * Sanji: Zeff
 * Chopper: Hiluluk and Kureha
 * Franky: Tom
 * Nami: Bell-mère and Haredas
 * Usopp: Yasopp, Brogy, and Heracles

Now the mentors with knowledge:


 * Hatchan: serves as a mentor of how to cross the Red Line and guided the Straw Hat Pirates to Sabaody and gave a warning not to strike the World Nobles.


 * Conis and Pagaya: serves as mentor for the workings of Skypiea.


 * Vivi: serves as a mentor on how the weather pattern in the Grand Line works. However Oda later parody this when she failed to give the crews any warnings on the dangers of the Arabastan desert.

Herald: a herald announced a piece of information, story element or a new direction(s) in the storyline that will make the main character act. Such as Nyon who told Luffy about the execution of Ace in Marineford, causing Luffy to change his mind about going back to Sabaody to reunite with his crews and instead goes to Impel Down to rescue him but ended up going to Marineford.

Threshold Guardian: Pell and Chaka. Both were Vivi's guardian and both were heroes in return

Shapeshifters: a character with identity or allegiance is unclear, thus letting us know that it's not what it seems to be. Hancock, Squard, Vivi, Aokiji, and Robin serves as a good example.

Shapeshifters would provide an unpredictable love interest of the opposite sex to the hero. Since romantic is toned down to the subtle level, it's difficult to find that unless Hancock counts.

Also it can be a quality of other archetypes, however the closest to this is Aokiji who spoke in a manipulative way, causing characters to act yet his intentions were not clear until after Robin’s flashbacks.

The Zoan fruit users are literal shapeshifters.

Shadow: opposing force of the hero, also provides fear and danger to the storyline, the good example of an shadow is between the Straw Hat Pirates and the Blackbeard Pirates. On the larger scale, the Baroque Works, CP9, Marines, and the World Government fits the role.

Trickster: a person who serves a comedy relief and wit. Usopp fits the role as he was known for many humorous moments and is known for his sharp wits with his sniping skills.

Damsel in distress: Keimi is the perfect example as she is always getting kidnapped.

Brash, angry, young kids: kids who shows up mostly to whine about how they hate pirates/marines, yet whatever bad pirates/marines showed up, the Straw Hat Pirates would save him/her, changing his/her view on them. They often have dead parents, or they lust for revenge. They are often found in One Piece anime, perfect examples would be Apis. In the manga there are only few of them, such as Coby and Chabo. Chabo himself had a dead father and swore revenage on Arlong. However Oda twisted this archetypical pattern on most kids by having them actully play a role such as Rika who appeared to serve ori giri to Zoro and Kappa who was angry at the king and was willing to fight but he end up witnessing something that ended the war.

Mysterious, solitary person: a person with a tragic past, has unrequited love. He/she often journeys with a lead character but would be obessessed to surpass the lead character, they would be emotional often but in One Piece, there are few of them but none of them wanted to beat Luffy. Dragon and Robin serves a good example. Nero was a parody of this archetype.

Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama, best known for his Dragon Ball series provides the archetypes that is found in One Piece. Toriyama himself wanted to break free from the western influences and focus on bringing back the eastern influences and decided to write a story basing on Chinese folk novel by Wu Cheng’en called "Journey to the West" which is Dragon Ball. Because Oda loves the series, he often boosted that.

Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell serves as a fine example due to Hero with a Thousand Face that stories such as Star Wars. One Piece has its own archetypical chapter.

So what is it like with Campbell? In Hero with a Thousand Face, it's like this:

Departure


 * Call to Adventure


 * Refusal


 * Something bad happens


 * Give up to Fate


 * Hero is Reborn

Initiation


 * Roads of Trials


 * Belly of the Whale


 * Meet the Goddess


 * Woman Temptress


 * Atonement with Father


 * Aware of an new reality


 * Aware of your goals and good

Returning


 * Refuse to come back


 * Magic flight and pursuit


 * Rescue


 * Threshold of returning


 * Masters of old and new


 * Granting of the boon

Here is Oda's storyline:

Chapter 1: Departure


 * Luffy was willing to go out into an adventure, he was influenced by Shanks


 * Luffy had to wait for 10 years before setting out


 * No bad things needs to happen to change his mind.


 * Luffy was not reborn a hero


 * Only Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, and Franky refused to join Luffy, yet something needs to happen to get them to finally join.

Chapter 2: Initiation


 * Gathers his crews


 * Beats up pirates and bad marines


 * In a literal manner, being eaten by Laboon upon first entering the Grand Line is a perfect example of the hero's journey archetype. Being enveloped by the unknown upon setting out, the first step into the true adventure, etc.
 * Meets higher authorities: Luffy ends up meeting then Fleet Admiral Sengoku on the execution platform while Luffy is saving Ace.


 * Meets hardship down the road: Example is when Luffy and Usopp was aruging over Luffy's decision of leaving the Going Merry behind, leading Usopp to quit the crew and challenge Luffy to an duel.
 * Luffy has yet to meet his father but he has no issues with him


 * Hancock is in love with him

Chapter 3: Return
 * Luffy was aware that he was too weak to be Pirate King. He decided to sent a message to his crews back in Marineford to tell them to stay where they are and become stronger.


 * Dreams fillfulled