Jemini
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- Jan 27, 2019
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You all know it. The classic plot of the hero summoned from another world to defeat the demon king.
At least half of all Isekai are based around this basic core plot, with various permutations on it. Various different ways they try to just off-set it a little bit from that basic core so it doesn't come off as too base and bare-bones, almost as though they are cleverly subverting it just a bit but really they're all just telling the same story.
But, after reading a while, I started to realize... are they actually referencing and trying to "subvert" a plot that has ever actually happened in history? Or did it just originate as a myth in someone's mind, one of the first to come up with this "subvert this basic plot" trope in Isekai, and then everyone else read that and thought it actually sounded plausible it could have theoretically existed somewhere at some time?
Well, I think it finally clicked for me what story this plot actually originated from. First off, for a plot this basic to possibly exist, it would have to be from the NES era of JRPGs, and it would have to be popular enough to actually have become part of the cultural subconscious.
Well, there are literally two franchises that actually fit those criteria. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. I didn't quite see a plot exactly like that core basic thing in either of those, so that lead me to thinking it was a myth still. But, it just occurred to me. That exact storyline may not have been something that existed, but what if it was a stripped down version of one of the plots in one of those games?
This is when it finally clicked. The original Final Fantasy features four warriors who suddenly wake up right outside of a small town with no memory of their past, and the only thing they know is that they have four crystal orbs on their possession, one for each of them. When they enter the town, they are told they are the heroes predicted to arrive in some legend, and those crystal orbs are the proof.
Sound familiar? They are said to have no memory of their past so they can be a self-insert for the player. If they are a self-insert for the player, that means they might as well actually be from Earth. They are literally Isekaied characters without it actually saying so.
As for their quest, it is to restore balance to the elements and defeat the force that has thrown them out in the first place. This force is called "Chaos," not "the demon king," but it is not a large leap in logic to see how later writers might want to strip off specific names in order to not make it too close to a copyrighted intellectual property held by a large corporation. And, it wound up being this more generic "demon king" version that got echoed through the rest of the stories.
So, in other words, the origin of this "defeat the demon king" plot we keep seeing over and over again was pretty much hiding in plain sight, in a game a lot of us hardcore fans might have even played several times, and yet it is a little hard to make that connection to the plot we keep seeing in Isekai due to the stripping down of the identifying content from the original, and then the little twists they keep putting on it in their retellings.
I just thought I'd leave this here, going over the thought process and the reasoning, for anyone else who was wondering and bothered by the same impression of a phenomenon of copies without an original that we seemed to have going on way too prominently in Isekai.
At least half of all Isekai are based around this basic core plot, with various permutations on it. Various different ways they try to just off-set it a little bit from that basic core so it doesn't come off as too base and bare-bones, almost as though they are cleverly subverting it just a bit but really they're all just telling the same story.
But, after reading a while, I started to realize... are they actually referencing and trying to "subvert" a plot that has ever actually happened in history? Or did it just originate as a myth in someone's mind, one of the first to come up with this "subvert this basic plot" trope in Isekai, and then everyone else read that and thought it actually sounded plausible it could have theoretically existed somewhere at some time?
Well, I think it finally clicked for me what story this plot actually originated from. First off, for a plot this basic to possibly exist, it would have to be from the NES era of JRPGs, and it would have to be popular enough to actually have become part of the cultural subconscious.
Well, there are literally two franchises that actually fit those criteria. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. I didn't quite see a plot exactly like that core basic thing in either of those, so that lead me to thinking it was a myth still. But, it just occurred to me. That exact storyline may not have been something that existed, but what if it was a stripped down version of one of the plots in one of those games?
This is when it finally clicked. The original Final Fantasy features four warriors who suddenly wake up right outside of a small town with no memory of their past, and the only thing they know is that they have four crystal orbs on their possession, one for each of them. When they enter the town, they are told they are the heroes predicted to arrive in some legend, and those crystal orbs are the proof.
Sound familiar? They are said to have no memory of their past so they can be a self-insert for the player. If they are a self-insert for the player, that means they might as well actually be from Earth. They are literally Isekaied characters without it actually saying so.
As for their quest, it is to restore balance to the elements and defeat the force that has thrown them out in the first place. This force is called "Chaos," not "the demon king," but it is not a large leap in logic to see how later writers might want to strip off specific names in order to not make it too close to a copyrighted intellectual property held by a large corporation. And, it wound up being this more generic "demon king" version that got echoed through the rest of the stories.
So, in other words, the origin of this "defeat the demon king" plot we keep seeing over and over again was pretty much hiding in plain sight, in a game a lot of us hardcore fans might have even played several times, and yet it is a little hard to make that connection to the plot we keep seeing in Isekai due to the stripping down of the identifying content from the original, and then the little twists they keep putting on it in their retellings.
I just thought I'd leave this here, going over the thought process and the reasoning, for anyone else who was wondering and bothered by the same impression of a phenomenon of copies without an original that we seemed to have going on way too prominently in Isekai.