Character Development

Hello and thanks for reading and subscribing. I’m sorry for the recent delay in articles. I’ve kept busy and have more articles to come. Please consider being a $5 per month paid subscriber as this helps. Please like, comment and share 8)After watching Avengers End Game, some good insights came up. One is that mythology can inspire us.  Another, that these movies have amazing casting.  All the best actors in Hollywood are in the Marvel movies.  Sci/fi fantasy used to have b list actors and you could feel the difference.  Another insight was that the theme of time-travel is fun and allows the character to consider his/her life in a different way.It was fun to see how traveling back in time affected each character.  Some got to visit a parent or lover.  Some suffered deep loss in order to do what is right.  Others made the ultimate sacrifice.  Some found their purpose or a missing piece.But for each character, you could see how the events of this movie (and all the other movies they appeared in) changed them, developed them, broke them, healed them, polished them and revealed their true nature and character.  This is why we watch.  This is why we pay money and expend our precious time to sit still long enough to experience this modern take on the ancient undertaking of mythology. We see characters develop and grow and learn and feel and grieve.  We see ourselves in the most heroic and tragic of grand stages.  We see our lives mythologized.  We see our struggles in the toil of these heroes.  We see these others, these foils, experience our pain at the loss of love.  We learn to recontextualize our lives as we watch our heroes do so.Tangent: I also enjoyed how male and female characters were friends with each other. It was not always about sex and sexuality. They were friends because they fought and risked together. They supported each other. Their looks or their sexuality weren't avoided, but the characters were not overly sexualized. Or, in the case of Black Widow, her attractiveness was used as a weapon on unsuspecting enemies. Everyone was humanized.We can find all sorts of fault with Marvel or modern movies and Hollywood.  But we must give credit where credit is due.  The Avengers franchise especially has been amazing.  These movies are hilarious.  The actors are exceptional.  The movies constantly make fun of themselves.  The writing is mostly flawless.   The stories are captivating.  But all this really works because of character development.We come to know these characters for their changes, their struggles, the flaws and their growth.  And we see growth and progress and self-exploration as worthy goals because we see our heroes do so.  We learn by example.  A person could do a lot worse than watching the Avengers movies for inspiration.But however you find it, please consider letting literature, movies, books, fantasy, mythology, history or some artistic creation inspire you.  Let this art turn off your world for a couple of hours.  Escape into fantasy.  Not this social media trance.  Let a story captivate you.  Let the struggles of titans break you out of the humdrum.  Slip out of the dread, the demands, the sleep-walking.  I promise, you'll walk out of the theater emboldened. Story-telling is an ancient tool to help us embrace the mystery and link ourselves to our tribe, our community, our family and our ancestors.  Most of us don't live in villages anymore.  We don't know who we are.  We don't know why we're here.  But we can find out.  We can begin the search anew. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit greenmang.substack.com/subscribe