The Hero's Relationship With the Sick King

The hero arc, like all the masculine arcs, lends itself most obviously to plot driven stories in which the primary antagonists are those faced in the external conflict. But it is to be recognized that the dragon and the sick king are also both internal forces with which the hero starts out, unwittingly identifying. And this can present a wonderfully layered set of conflicts as well as many opportunities for raising the stakes. In their book, romancing the shadow, conizeg and steve wolf note this by saying, in countless tales, a young male full of bravado makes a perilous journey, which typically includes a descent to darkness.