je712

Hero

The main hero in this story is obviously Richard, although Kahlan and Zedd eventually become as important parts of the team as well. Together they rid the world of evil and bring balance back, while helping people in trouble along the way.

Plot Summary

The story tells of the journey of the Seeker of Truth; Richard Cypher, who has no idea of his true identity in the beginning of the series. He grew up like a normal kid because the only person who knew who he was, a wizard named Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander (Zedd for short), who was also his grandfather, never told him in hopes that he could grow up without a burden and maybe even evade the prophecy that states that one day he would be the one to bring down the evil tyrant ruling their land; Darken Rahl. Richard's normal life ended when Kahlan Amnell, a Confessor (a woman blessed with the power to see through lies and "steal" the soul of anyone she "Confesses", making them obey her unconditionally), crosses the boundary of the lands from the Midlands, where magic dwells, into Westland, where Richard lives. She risks her life to bring the book that will tell Richard how to defeat Darken Rahl once and for all, and that's when he could evade his destiny no longer. And so the journey of the Seeker begins accompanied by the Wizard and the Confessor.

Departure

Call to Adventure: Richard Cypher, our hero from Legend of the Seeker, received his call to adventure from Kahlan Amnell when she crossed the boundary between the Midlands and the Westland, where Richard lived. Up until that point, Richard had no idea about his true identity, and it was only after he showed up hurt by a mysterious magical plant in Zedd's house, where Kahlan had also gone to, that Kahlan and Zedd explained to him who he really was and what he was prophesied to do. Zedd had been watching him grow up as a normal kid, hoping this time would never come, but the threat of his enemy, Darken Rahl, had become more pressing and it was finally time for Richard to accept his destiny.

Refusal of the Call: Naturally, hearing all this nonsense about magic all of a sudden after years of a normal life didn't go so well with Richard. There's no magic in Westland, unlike in the Midlands, so he had no idea what half the thing they were talking about were, nor did he believe most of it. And most of all, he couldn't care less. He had his own problems to deal with and wanted only to go back home and find his father. He had no idea what a Seeker was and, suddenly being told that it was something he had to do, not to mention with this huge mission of killing someone with some magical sword, it overwhelmed him and he left Zedd's house, telling him and Kahlan that maybe they got the wrong person after all, because he certainly was no Seeker. And maybe he also secretly thought they were crazy.

Supernatural Aid: The Book of Counted Shadows that Kahlan brought from the Midlands was supposed to be the Seeker's "help book". Unfortunately, Richard had to burn it in order to prevent it from falling to the wrong hands, so he didn't end up using that particular supernatural aid. However, there's another more important weapon that a Seeker ought to have, and that is the Sword of Truth. Zedd had been keeping the sword all this time too, and it was only when he was telling the truth about Richard's destiny that he showed it to him. This sword would be the Seeker's weapon and the tool for him to defeat Darken Rahl. Of course, with Zedd and Kahlan along in the journey, to some extent they also are his supernatural aids, because they have magical powers of their own.

Crossing of the First Threshold: This could be best illustrated by the literal crossing of the boundary between Westland and the Midlands. By crossing that boundary, Richard is literally leaving his old normal world behind and entering the new and unknown one to fulfill his destiny. Of course, there was nothing left for him in his old home because his father was killed and his brother was manipulated into thinking he was evil, so he didn't have much choice but to go. It was the only way to fix things. Still, the moment he crossed that boundary and entered the Midlands, it changed his life forever.

Belly of the Whale: Though he had been wandering in the Midlands for a while after crossing the boundary, I don't think anything really constituted as belly of the whale until Richard got captured by a Mord'Sith, one of Darken Rahl's servants and the most dangerous kind, and brought back to their temple. This is where he got to learn so much more about his new world, the Mord'Siths, and Darken Rahl. Everything there was so unfamiliar and belonged to a different world, and it wasn't until then that the horrors that he was facing became real. That he truly realized who his enemy was, what he was willing to do, and what he was capable of.

Initiation

Road of Trials: Richard's first test when he arrived in the Midlands was to fight the people who were hunting him. Now that Darken Rahl was aware that the Seeker had risen, he'd set a bounty on Richard's head, and a lot of bounty hunters went after him. Not to mention D'Haran soldiers who were loyal to Darken Rahl. Even though he knew nothing about battles, Richard had to learn to fight using the Sword of Truth in order to defend himself from these people, and he was pretty successful during these first trials.

Meeting with the Goddess: It's pretty obvious that Richard's true love was found in Kahlan. The two have been traveling together for quite some time now, and naturally they developed feelings for each other. It soon became apparent that their love was forbidden, however, because if a Confessor consummated their love with someone, the man would be enslaved to her much like if she confessed them. So for Richard's safety and the fact that the world needs him, the two of them could not really be together.

Woman as Temptress: Although one could argue that Kahlan herself could also become a temptation that swayed Richard from his quest, he never really allowed that to happen, so I'm going to say that the better temptation was finding his real mother. In one of the episodes, he ended up wandering into Brennidon, the town where he was born, despite being told that he wasn't supposed to, because he couldn't help his curiosity and hope to find his mother. In the end it got him into a lot of trouble with the D'Haran soldiers there - got himself caught and nearly executed if not for some help he got from the son of the woman whom he mistook for his mother. It turned out that she wasn't his real mother after all.

Atonement with the Father: Although he isn't the one with the ultimate power in Midlands, Zedd is definitely the father figure in Richard's story. He's actually his grandfather, and he was also the one who initiated Richard as the Seeker, as only a wizard could do that. As a First Wizard he's also very powerful, so he fits the role perfectly. Aside from helping Richard along the way, he also tries to be the voice of reason and gives him advice when he needs it.

Apotheosis: Richard actually did die in the last episode of the series. In a state of rage in which she lost herself, Kahlan ended up killing him, and he died before Cara, a Mord'Sith that had chosen to travel with them and take up their quest, revived him with the Breath of Life. At that time, the Stone of Tears, the object needed to defeat the Keeper (the antagonist of the season) was gone, and it was only through Richard's death that Kahlan's tears were able to form a new one that they then used to save the world.

Ultimate Boon: In the first season, the ultimate boon is the death of Darken Rahl and Richard's victory, and in the second season the goal of the quest was to get the Stone of Tears to repair the veil between the world of the living and the Underworld so the Keeper couldn't cross it and claim the entire world. Once this Stone of Tears was acquired and used to repair the veil, the world was saved and the quest was fulfilled.

Return

Refusal of the Return: This stage was not present in Richard's journey. He seemed pretty content to return to the real world (mostly because, I suspect, he wanted to settle with Kahlan and while he still had a quest that's an impossible thing to do). Although, after the first season, he hadn't gotten a chance to return home to the Westland yet, so he was still in the Midlands when the new quest arose. After the end of the second season we didn't get to see him coming home either as the episode ended right after the world was saved.

Magic Flight: This didn't exactly happen either. In the end of the first season, Richard managed to get the boxes of Orden, the weapon needed to defeat Darken Rahl, without having to magically transform anything or transform himself to escape. If anything, one of the boxes was actually smuggled out in a piece of cake, which is hardly magical (although, Zedd did create a replica on its place using magic). And in another occasion, Richard's sister Jennsen was sent to retrieve it who happened to be immune to all sorts of magic, so she was able to go through the magical protection around the box easily and took it out of Darken Rahl's palace. In season two, the Stone of Tears was guarded by a group of people chosen by the Creator (this is their goddess), so it didn't need to be stolen or anything, although Zedd did have to use a spell to get it out of their place (apparently they thought the Stone had to remain there while the world collapsed so that they could start a new world there).

Rescue from Without: In the first season, before he killed Darken Rahl, Richard got sent to the future 50 years ahead and Kahlan tried to help him from the present time. Although that failed, eventually another witch, Shota, who was also still alive in the future, told him how to get back to the present, and with the help of Cara, who had inadvertently gotten sucked into the future as well, he returned and set things right again, killing Darken Rahl (Cara also helped by betraying Darken Rahl in the end). In the second season, Cara again rescued him from death by giving him the Breath of Life, and Kahlan created a new Stone of Tears from her own tears, enabling them to go on and put the stone where it belonged and repaired the veil between the world of the living and the underworld.

Crossing of the Return Threshold: As I've said, Richard never really returned to the "normal" world or his home, Westland, neither in the first season nor the second season. In the first season he didn't have the chance to before his new quest appeared, but in the second season we didn't get to see where he went after he saved the world. He might very well returned there, although we would never know.

Master of Two Worlds: Obviously, by the end of the second season, Richard has become the true Seeker more than he ever had in the entire series; he knew how to fight well using his Sword of Truth, even had magic of his own at one point, and knew more about magic than he would ever care to know. He learned so much about the magical world and the kinds of magical beings in it, encountered so many strange creatures that existed in the Midlands and learned so much about them. He was even supposed to take the throne of D'Hara following Darken Rahl's demise (it turned out Richard's his brother after all), and I believe he could've done that if his second quest did not come up because even by then he has become so well-versed on the life of magic. And of course deep down he would still be able to become the old Richard, and I'm sure he could've lived without magic as well, just so long as he gets to spend it with Kahlan.

Freedom to Live: We don't get to see this either, because the show didn't show us the happily ever after ending, but I think it's pretty easy to assume that, if another crisis doesn't show up, Richard and Kahlan would live happily ever after somewhere. Especially since at the last episode they discovered that it was impossible for Kahlan to confess him after all (because he already loved her too much), so now they could totally have a physical relationship without harming him, and I'm sure they would have totally taken advantage of that if they don't have to go off saving the world again.

Final Thoughts

It has been really fun doing this project and especially because my love for Legend of the Seeker is so new so I'm still very excited to talk about it and get more people into watching it. Honestly, it's just one amazing story with all kinds of theme in it; drama, comedy, romance, angst, action, and even horror occasionally. It's pretty much got everything, and it's the first story I encounter where I love nearly ALL the characters. In fact, the villain is one of my most favorite characters in the entire series, and can I just say I'm glad he's still around until the end! They have really awesome heroes AND villains. 

I think the story really followed Joseph Campbell's Hero Quest quite closely, seeing that it IS a heroic adventure after all. It only gets less accurate in the end but that's just because, I think, Richard's journey never really ends (or well, it's supposed to be so much longer had the series not been canceled) so we don't get to see much of an actual ending. It is implied though of course that he does get his happy ending in the end (I just don't like to think it's so soon!)

I think the elements of Monomyth can be found in nearly every other heroic adventure stories or movies. Every superhero story (Spider-Man, Batman, etc) follow the same pattern, and not to mention Harry Potter, Narnia, and especially this new movie I watched a while ago; The Sorcerer's Apprentice. That one follows it really closely I think, and if I could do over this class I would have liked to analyze that story as well since it has roots in Arthurian mythology too even though it's very loosely adapted from the original. Oh, and Merlin (BBC)! That's definitely another good one. Hm... this is all just a ploy to get me to retake the class so I can do a dozen more different projects, isn't this?