9/11/2023 0 Comments Trickster archetype![]() It’s usually written as “scatological humour” or “breaking of taboos around sexual conversation”, but basically Tricksters are known mythologically to be horny on main and always ready with a poop joke Agents of change: they use their trickery to make a mess of pre-established systems and power structures (we’re getting into this today).Boundary crossing: connected to the above point, Tricksters have an ability to cross borders-be they social, physical, magical, spiritual, etc.Liminality: Tricksters exist on the fringe, outsiders in their story-world in some way.The archetypal Trickster is a a selfish culture-hero, a clever dumbass, a sympathetic bastard, and a sacred figure who regularly does really profane things (see “dirty jokes”) ![]() Contradictions: just as they’re kind of good and kind of bad, they’re also a mess of paradoxes.Magic and shapeshifting (which can tie into gender fluidity/ambiguity).Moral ambiguity and self-motivation: they’re neither wholly good nor wholly bad, though they may swing in the direction of protagonist or antagonist depending on what happens.Emphasis on cleverness and trickery as dominant traits.From asking (or at least reading) a bunch of different people, here is the list of characteristics I deduce you can generally expect to find in a Trickster and their tales: So, what are we looking for when we look for a Trickster? As with most of these things, it’s a little different depending on who you ask. We’re not telling stories of gods and monsters so much these days, but this ancient character type is still strolling through our popular culture, though perhaps in slightly different shapes and sizes. One of them is the Trickster, which, in my view, is entirely fair-after all, it’s one of the most blatantly fun character archetypes out there, brimming with cheekiness and social commentary and a degree of unpredictability that you don’t always find with stories about, say, Heroes or Lovers. In this long tradition of tale-weaving there are a few structures and archetypes we just keep coming back to, from ancient mythology to modern movies. Storytelling has been an important part of life for essentially all of human history. ![]()
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