What comes first, the character or the story? 🤔
Narrative chicken-egg conundrum.
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IMO at least several (core) archetypes may well predate humanity, even hominids, e.g. "Ruler/powerbroker"~="alpha"(m/f) or "Siren"(m/f). Hence the deeply embedded "firmware" images/instincts, that come before verbal/language-based storytelling, tho each is a micro-story of sorts
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Common trope in fantasy. Idea of ancient vintages of sophisticated intelligence. It’s projection with most species I think (though of an interesting sort), but I think higher mammals generally do have the requisite neurodiversity for actual archetypes to be meaningful.
There’s also the idea of lizard people ruling the earth, Cthulhu etc. Old discredited idea of triune brain. There’s an ontogeny-recapitulates-phylogeny aspect to archetypal variety. There’s less variety in older layers of the tree, but they differ in bigger ways.
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Ie there’s fewer distinctions like lizard vs ape archetype classes vs say INTP vs ENFJ, but the differences are much bigger. And some distinctions like good vs evil belong in older archetype layers unlike ones like extrovert vs introvert. “Elder traits” or something.
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I don't think the core archetypes as I define them require that much sophistication to operate. I know you use the term a lot more loosely most of the time, closer to 'trope'. I care mostly about the supposed firmware where the tropes join/originate
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