Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Voranzovin" data-source="post: 8495172" data-attributes="member: 7020495">It seems to me that the question of whether or not Dnd was inspired by westerns is irrelevant. The question is whether it reflects particularly American ideals of heroism, which also happen to be exemplified by westerns.I'd say that it does. &quot;The hero goes out into the untamed frontier and carves out their own empire by their own effort, needing no ones permission&quot; might not be completely unique to America, but it's unusually central to American culture. A literal frontier isn't even necessary: consider the many stories of immigrants rising to power from nothing, including plenty of classic gangster films, and even recent examples like Hamilton. Dnd's leveling system has that idea baked in.Comparisons to LOTR made in this thread seem apt. Yes, Sam jumps social classes, but only because Frodo leaves him Bag End. That was entirely up to Frodo. A lot of European rags-to-riches folktales end with the peasant becoming a king and living happily ever after, but often because the hero demonstrated his qualities to an existing king (probably meaning he gets to marry the princess). The hero can't just go out and make themselves a king by their own effort.Westerns are just an obvious cultural manifestation of these ideas that's easy to point to. Dnd can exemplify them without any direct inspiration from westerns at all.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Voranzovin, post: 8495172, member: 7020495"] It seems to me that the question of whether or not Dnd was inspired by westerns is irrelevant. The question is whether it reflects particularly American ideals of heroism, which also happen to be exemplified by westerns. I'd say that it does. "The hero goes out into the untamed frontier and carves out their own empire by their own effort, needing no ones permission" might not be completely unique to America, but it's unusually central to American culture. A literal frontier isn't even necessary: consider the many stories of immigrants rising to power from nothing, including plenty of classic gangster films, and even recent examples like Hamilton. Dnd's leveling system has that idea baked in. Comparisons to LOTR made in this thread seem apt. Yes, Sam jumps social classes, but only because Frodo leaves him Bag End. That was entirely up to Frodo. A lot of European rags-to-riches folktales end with the peasant becoming a king and living happily ever after, but often because the hero demonstrated his qualities to an existing king (probably meaning he gets to marry the princess). The hero can't just go out and make themselves a king by their own effort. Westerns are just an obvious cultural manifestation of these ideas that's easy to point to. Dnd can exemplify them without any direct inspiration from westerns at all. [/QUOTE]

Verification