Tanisha Madhukar - Blog #2 - The Knight In (not-so) Shining Armor.
Last weekend, I was relaxing in my room when my brother suddenly burst through my door holding a glowing console. As I looked at him in confusion I caught out of the corner of my eye what read in illuminating white letters, “Hollow Knight: Silksong” with music blaring in the background. Hollow Knight is a 2-d action-adventure video game that was released in 2017. Just last week the sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong was released. My brother convinced me to start playing and I immediately fell in love with the intricate art style and complex background music. However, fighting the enemies, not so much. Despite that, I became really invested in the story line. I realized though, I did not know anything about the actual character I was playing.
In games such as Hollow Knight you are going through the story not really knowing much about yourself. It is because as you are progressing through the game you are not trying to learn more about the character you're playing. Instead, you are either trying to solve whatever problem is occurring in the game, or trying to explore the new world that you are in. But I want to change that narrative. I want to know more about the traveler that I am.
For even something as trivial as a video game there are a thousand possibilities that can occur from one decision. To provide an outcome that is compatible to yourself it is better to know what things you like, what is best for your character, and what you think you can handle in order to further your progress in the game. Similarly in life, knowing who you are, your values, and your ideals can assist you in difficult decisions throughout your day. Having a baseline of what is right and wrong is not only helpful for cognitive thinking but also a necessity. It is essentially a survival skill that allows you to choose the best possible outcome for any situation.
“The Hero’s Journey” is described as the phenomenon where a character is pushed out from their ordinary life into a situation with various challenges they must overcome in order to solve a problem. As a plus, the hero ends up learning something about themselves that they never knew before, essentially a new perspective. However, how are you supposed to learn something new about yourself when you don’t even know who you are? That is why it is important that you create a narrative for yourself, something that you can keep on improving as you grow. Even though there will be new challenges and hurdles to overcome, knowing who you are can make it easier to keep progressing.
When you mentioned that there are a thousand possibilities that can happen from one decision, two things came to mind: Doctor Strange from Avengers: Endgame, and the butterfly effect. I've often zoned out thinking about all the possibilities that could've been with just one different action, one different word, or one different choice. It's definitely a rabbit hole of negativity that I shouldn't fall into. However, I definitely agree that having morals, values, and knowing who you are as a person helps you throughout your life, every single day. It helps with those actions and choices; perhaps there was no other way but for life to turn out a certain way. In other words, fate. Also, I can definitely relate to getting absolutely hooked onto something, and I think that was a great way to start your blog. It really hooks the reader in and has them wondering where this is going to lead.
ReplyDeleteI admire how you dug deeper into a simple game and wanted to know more about the character rather than playing the game itself. I think you could have added a personal example to connect this more to yourself, although you stressed identity well. Usually when someone asks, “What is your identity?” I jump straight to hobbies, physical traits, and other things I like. Your post made me realize how much of what we do bases our identity and the things we know about ourselves. I agree with you that personal narratives are a key to understanding yourself so you can improve. I also liked the connection you made to “The Hero’s Journey”, it was really powerful and improved my understanding on what message you are trying to bring forth with your post. I really enjoyed reading your post, maybe I’ll check out the game!
ReplyDeleteHi Tanisha! I was kind of surprised to see one of my video game character as the thumb nail for a blog. Your explanation on the "butterfly effect" really ties in well with Hollow Knight as many actions you commit throughout the game can have different outcomes. I also like the idea of your values and ideals guide you throughout the day. In the later part of Hollow Knight, you eventually find out what you are and that you were created by gods to have no feelings, morals, and values. That really questions why the Knight even does the things he does if he has no values to appeal to.
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