My fanfiction: princess mononoke continuation
Prologue
Irontown, which used to be a village ruled by lady Eboshi, has resulted in a clash with the rulers of the Great Forest Spirit, and badly damaged. It had been three years since the destruction of Iron town and the death of the Great Forest Spirit. Reconstruction of Iron-Town was well underway, and it was progressing faster than expected, though several months were still need before it was complete. The repairs were going smoothly; children's laughter rang across the street, reaching Ashitaka's ears. Ashitaka hasn’t changed that much. The same handsome face, the same black hair and still sympathetic. Without the presence and help of Ashitaka and San, people in Irontown would not take much progress. Yes, San has finally made friends with lady Eboshi- San has realized that Eboshi was a responsible leader like her, she has promised San never hurt the creatures in the forest. The cruse on Ashitaka has been removed after the destruction of Irontown. However, he still retained part of his demon-strength, and so he stayed with San to help rebuild the town.
Chapter 1
It was a beautiful day, Ashitaka and San were wandering around a lake in the forest, followed by their enormous buddy, Moro.
“San, I am sorry to let you help us with the reconstruction. After all, lady Eboshi used to hurt you so bad. " Ashitaka said.
“It’s not your fault. I have decided to make friends with her. She actually has a kind and caring heart. I can see how the leapers appreciate her. "San smiled.
“Just remember. I want to keep you warm and keep you safe your whole life. The first moment I saw you I fell in love with you. " Ashitaka whispered in San’s ear.
“There’s no need to worry anymore. Irontown no longer collected and refined Iron. Lady Eboshi told me that they converted to more environmentally conscious work, such as farming and fishing." San replied.
Suddenly, Moro stopped and halted, “Do you guys smell that?" He asked Ashitaka and San. San and Ashitaka looked at each other and they both found nothing. Then San sniffed the air warily. A sharp scent soon hit her nostrils.
“That smells like fire smog.” San shouted.
Suddenly the surface of the land started to collapse, Ashitaka and San felt like dropping into an abyss……
Ashitaka’s POV:
Pain. That is all I can feel. What happened to San and me? Is someone approaching to me? I must protect San. Who is talking? I can barely heat you.
Chapter 2
Takako and Shimizu’s POV:
Today is Nov 6th 1990. We have just finished examining a suburban development project. We are walking in the beautiful Tama hills on the outskirts of Tokyo. Before we came home, Takako has smelled the blood. We soon were able to spot to origin of the blood. Two young people were making their way out of the forest. It seemed to be limping heavily, and we could all see the trail of blood it was leaving. We made our way cautiously closer.
“The silver wolf!” Takako flashed out at me.
“What?” Shimizu stared at the giant creature; he remembered what he learned from the history book about Muromachi period.
“She is one of the ancient gods who dominate all the forest. Unbelievable! I can’t imagine that we see her real body!” Takako cried.
“Let’s take the two teens to the hospital! I think they are unconscious now!” Shimizu Said urgently.
Two days later, when Ashitaka and San woke up in the morning, they were confused by the surroundings, which they feel like in a completely different world. They looked through the window, and noticed that they have leapt through time!
“Hi, strangers from the past.” Takako and Shimizu smiled friendly.
“Who are you? How do you know we are not belong to this period?” Ashitaka clasped San tightly.
“We can see from your clothes.” Takako says, “You must come from the Muromachi dynasty.”
“Please come and help us. We are facing a big problem during the process of the development project. I know that little girl must have close relationship with the wolf goddess.” Takako requested.
San gazed at Moro’s eyes. The wolf mother’s eyes gained tenderness.
“Alright. We will listen to the story first.” San replied.
“There are many raccoons attempt to attack humans,” Takako explains, “they tried to frighten the construction workers into quitting. We believe that the development is cutting into their forest habitat and dividing their land-consequently, these guys are threatened and they think of some strategies to protect their home.”
“It shares the same situation with irontown. When we were in Irontown, the leader, lady Eboshi, has taken too much natural resources from the forest and she even shoot the forest spirit. However, in the struggle, numerous people died under the revenge of the forest god.” San said.
“Please come and give some suggestions to our project leader. He’s so scared now. After the raccoons saw their mischievous pranks don’t get the desired results, they started to killing construction workers. We have lost a company last week.”
Chapter 3
The wound on Ashitaka and San’s body has fully recovered. They were brought to Mr. Yagami, who took charge of the project. They were introduced to each other and Yagami allowed them to visit the head of raccoons in Tama Hills- Gonta.
“Mr. Gonta. We must apologize for our behaviour. Mr. Yagami told me he felt sorry for this development project- which unfortunately destroyed your habitat.” Ashitaka apologized.
“You have no idea how sad I felt when I saw the death of my relatives in the destruction and you have no idea how mercenary you human beings are!” Gonta cried angrily.
“I share the same feelings with you, Mr Gonta.” Ashitaka suddenly replied, “When I stayed in the Irontown, my girlfriend San, was threatened by the leader of the town. Those events made me think of the relationship between human and nature. While we were destroying the forest, we are the ultimate victims, for nature is seeking its revenge.”
“You human beings are smart creatures. But you are greedy-while you are distributing the natural order of the world, you will be punished on day.” Gonta emphasized.
In the end, Mr. Yagami has made an agreement with Gonta, to involve new settlements for the raccoons and required them to stop the attack. Ashitaka and San have further learned that the nature is magnificent and unique.
Commentary on my fanfiction
Christopher Vogler, who was known as a famous practicing writer, has summarized and classified characters into seven archetypes. Although numerous character archetypes in mythology have been mentioned by other writers, Vogler (1998) identified the most common ones: The hero, The Mentor, Threshold Guardian, The Herald, The Shapeshifter, The Shadow and Trickster. I initially planned my fanfiction to be about a completely different adventure for the two main characters in Princess Mononoke. However, the 1000 word limitation has restricted me to create a new plot and settings. In the end, I decided to involve some new characters and mainly focused on developing the relationship between human and nature.
I used third-person narration instead of first-person term, which I intend to be more authoritative and provide flexibility to the audience. I focused on Act 1 and Act 2 components of my fanfiction, which replicating Vogler’s ‘mythic structure’ (1998). The hero, Ashitaka and San are ‘introduced in the ordinary world’, the original location called Irontown in the movie. As Vogler (1998) states, “the story starts in the ordinary world where the hero is going about everyday existence, oblivious of the adventures to come.” Then Vogler (1998) indicates in Act 2, “the hero is next presented with a wrong done, a problem or challenge which they feel they must resolve.” According to Vogler (1998)’s theory, I tried to involve detailed description of the lives in Irontown after the death of forest god and the destruction of the town. I have added the ‘ordeal’-the modern Tokyo world to convey the theory of Act 2.
In regards to vogler (1998)‘s seven archetypes, Ashitaka and San obviously plays the role of ‘Hero’, typically ‘ willing to serve and sacrifice’ and ‘ search for identity and wholeness’ (Vogler, 1998). Furthermore, the wolf goodness Moro replicated the characteristic of ‘Threshold Guardian’, which proved to be ‘do the hero a favour in advancing his or her power’ (Vogler, 1998). Additionally, I have implied the raccoons, which appeared in Act 2, to represent the ‘Shapeshifter’ characters. The raccoons were given social structure and mystical abilities, after their habitat were destroyed by humans, they choose to fight back. As Vogler puts it, they are ‘dramatic function is to bring doubt and suspense into the story’ (1998).
In the end of my fanfiction, I chose a happy ending to my story because I want my audience to feel the significance of nature. As I mentioned in the story, human and nature are interactive forces. It is important for human to learn to respect to nature. If a have opportunity to create my fanfic into a sequel, I will certainly extend the story and involve more detailed descriptive language. Unfortunately, the word limitation is 1000 for this particular project.
Reference
Vogler, C. (1998). The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (2nd ed). Waltham, MA: Rata Press.
