Otherworldly Pockets

Why do depictions of realities unfathomable to us seem so interesting? When you're younger you watch shows of young adults living in the big city and find it fascinating. You read a scary novel about ten people abandoned on an isolated island with a murderer living amongst them and find it horrifying, yet you can't put the book down...and probably get it tattooed eventually. You watch movies in fictional far away lands, with magic and high castles and wardrobes you can only dream of wearing, and feel an odd sadness knowing those places do not exist. What might captivate us most, isn't necessarily the reality itself, but the opportunity to step outside of our own.

Stories give us access to pockets of elsewhere that we might never venture to, for better or for worse. Through them, we become soldiers fighting Titans, addicts trapped in cycles of self-destruction, purple-blooded royalty with dragons in tow, or geniuses capable of seeing patterns invisible to everyone else. We experience worlds that do not exist and perspectives that may as well be fictional to us. Perhaps we read, and watch media for entertainment, or as a guilty pleasure, or a manner of escape, but the underlying reason as to why we need to reach those otherworldly pockets, is to reach beyond ourselves. Even if the otherworld is only slightly different. It needs not to be mythical, or dystopian, just altered enough to reel you in. The reason we seek these otherworldly pockets tends to remain in the eye of the beholder. Maybe you want to dream, or solve a mystery, or cry, or seek the escape hatch between your life and the world within the pages. Personally, I have sought these pockets for all of the above. However the more stories you consume, the more you begin to notice the characters and archetypes that draw you in—and more importantly, why they do.

Some of the most fascinating parts of the these otherworldly pockets are not always the places themselves, but the characters who inhabit them. Characters become windows into experiences, responsibilities, and ways of thinking that we may never encounter in our own lives. A well-written character allows us to experience something beyond ourselves. Intelligence, for example. Just because the narrative tells you that a character is intelligent, does not make them compellingly so. One of the hardest archetypes to portray is intellect since the audience must feel the intelligence rather than just know about it. Some of my favorite depictions are Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, Spencer Hastings from Pretty Little Liars, Armin Arlert from Attack on Titan, and so forth. They notice things others miss and allow us to breifly step into a mind that works differently from our own. You don't think to admire an intelligent character written so well, until you come across some depictions of a "smart" person that are just done so horribly I have to laugh. Belle from Once Upon a Time, for instance, it broke my heart to see her randomly just be holding a book that they need at that exact moment, with the exact information they need, because of course. Or Nate Jacobs who thinks he's the smartest, calculated man to ever exist, but then doesn't think to simply move locations when being sought out by a loan shark who loves his toes. Bad writing aside, it is when you come across a character that speaks to you and gives you a peek into a mind that works entirely different from yours that keeps you reading.

Another archetype I love to read and/or watch being done correctly is that of leadership. It places characters in worlds where every decision carries consequence beyond just them, something most of us will never experience on such a scale. For example, Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones is one of my most beloved characters ever. Beyond being the Mother of Dragons, inhabiting a lethal face card, and inspiring millions of supporters from the ground up, what makes her so compelling is the unyielding faith in herself to be great queen. (I patiently wait for George R. Martin to finish the final book even if I have to celebrate it on my 50th birthday at this point). Commander Erwin from Attack on Titan is also one of the most compelling leaders I have ever read/seen. His world is one of constant fear and impossible choices, where death is the only certainty, yet his ability to inspire hope despite this inevitability is what makes him unforgettable. Boy, I am going to sound so stupid if you have never seen/read anything I have mentioned so far lol.

This post has become a bit long so no blog poll today, but honestly I might do a part two because I could talk about this concept of fiction for days. Characters like the aforementioned, that hopefully you hopefully recognize, keep us unvested not only because their worlds are unlike our own, but because their experiences allow us to explore emotions we many never come across firsthand. We many never command an army, lead a rebellion, or make decisions that determine the fate of thousands, but through fiction we can briefly understand the weight of those choices, and perhaps imagine what we might do when the sky starts falling.