Shadowheart as an Antihegemonic Figure in Videogame Storytelling
When video game writing emerged as a necessary part of the rapidly evolving games industry, writers quickly latched onto the concept of ‘The Hero’s Journey’ (THJ) developed by Joseph Campbell (2008) and adapted for screenplay writing by Chris Vogler (2017). Becoming an industry staple, it brought along with it the Jungian archetypes (JA) present in each stage of the journey—many gamers know of archetypes such as the wise old man, but few know their roots Jungian philosophy. Larian Studios (2023), with their central character Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3), created a narrative that opposes the hegemonic values inherent in THJ and JA which have gone mostly unquestioned in the games industry; this is achieved through a multitude of deviations that uproot the philosophy of THJ and JA, and the role of interactivity in Shadowheart’s story cannot be overstated.
The number and order of THJ stages vary between every proponent, from the 12 popularised by Vogler (2017) to the 11 taught by Lebowitz & Klug (2017). The journey maps travel through the ordinary world, over the threshold to the special world, into the Abyss, and back home again after new triumphs and with new tools (Campbell, 2008). This course aligns with the myth of the hero in the Jungian school of thought, and it focuses on the ‘development of the individual’s ego’ (Henderson, 1964). Prominent Jungian archetypes appear throughout various stages: the shadow (representative of rejected character traits), the soul image (unattainable desires), the wise old man/woman (a figure of wisdom or spurning authority), the child (a prophetical hero with supernatural abilities and an ordinary beginning), the ego (the only conscious part of an individual’s psyche, attempting to form a harmonious whole), and the self, the goal of ‘psychological wholeness’ (Basssil-Morozow, 2018).
Shadowheart’s shadow is Isobel, cleric of Selûne, the ‘moon witch’ (Larian, 2023), that Shadowheart was taught to hate for ‘betray[ing] her sister’, Shadowheart’s patron Goddess Shar. Shadowheart’s soul image can either be the player character (PC) if they are together or the druid Halsin; consistently, Shadowheart approves of them being protective of nature, affectionate, and open: all attributes that are ‘frowned on’ in Sharrans (Shar worshippers). Viconia DeVir, Mother Superior of Shadowheart’s cloister, embodies the negative sides of the wise old woman, whose tutelage comes in the form of her ‘relishing [in] wielding the rod’ of harsh discipline. Shadowheart herself embodies the archetype of the child, having been abducted from her parents and trained to sit at Shar’s ‘right hand side’.
In BG3, as with many stories, the stages of THJ occur multiple times over in a grander arc (Vogler, 2017). In the grand narrative of BG3, the first act sees Shadowheart called to adventure via unwillingly incubating deadly larva, aided by a supernatural dream figure, and crossing the threshold into the world outside her cloister. In the second act, BG3 focuses on Shadowheart’s journey to become a Dark Justiciar of Shar in the new unknown world of the cursed lands. She makes it through a series of trials. In the Abyss—Lady Shar’s realm of the Shadowfell—she experiences death and rebirth to be transformed into either a Dark Justiciar or a newly independent agent. She is then granted the Gift of the Goddess, either Selûne or Shar’s spear. After this, she is called to adventure once again; she experiences the stages in micro again in the climactic act 3. Depending on player choices she may die at any point, but if she survives the climax, she returns to her known world in the epilogue.
JAs representative of Shadowheart’s psyche can be identified in her Hero’s Journey, but vary due to interactivity—different PCs could be soul images, shadows, or mentors. Critically, the JAs and THJ so far discussed predicated on male heroes, based on bigoted assertions including the ‘dissimilar psychology’ of women, the gendered binary of the soul image (Laffey, 2019)—archaically the anima and animus (Bassil-Morozow, 2019)—and ‘a pattern of values which naturalizes the dominance of the European patriarchal elite and the sub-ordination of other[s]’ (Reay, 2023). These values clash with Larian’s storytelling, Shadowheart, and the interactivity of BG3 in a way that makes applying JAs and THJ fruitless.
Lebowitz & Klug (2011) state that THJ is ‘the story structure’ (emphasis in original); other academics attest to this, including Barros (2021) who says that ‘[it] will continue to resurface’ (in reference to THJ archetypal analysis). The assertions made by academics such as Lebowitz, Klug and Barros are the result of what Reay (2023) calls a ‘chicken-and-egg scenario’ in which the games industry has become saturated with THJ-type stories due to pioneers of the industry following THJ—it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy to label THJ vital, as it has become ‘absolutely fundamental to the training that aspiring game designers receive’ (Reay, 2023).
Another proposed reason for using THJ in video games is that it ‘support[s] a large amount of external conflict’, which Lebowitz & Klug (2011) categorise as ‘fighting and strategy, exploration, puzzle solving, or some combination of the three’. Buchanan-Oliver and Seo (2012) conducted a survey of Warcraft players—only four, all young western men—and Warcraft neatly fits Lebowitz & Klug’s definition of a ‘proper game story’. This study found that the players identified ‘elements of th[e] plot’ that ‘resembled … a hero’s journey’. This case study is a perfect example of the correlation between THJ and the aforementioned worldview that believes in a dominant ‘European patriarchal elite and the sub-ordination of other[s]’ (Reay, 2023): one participant said ‘It’s like an action movie, with a good guy and a bad guy’, while another said they embodied ‘what heroes might have been in the days of Christ, like King Arthur’—a statement with zero factual basis that instead relies on a distorted evangelical Christian worldview. This unnuanced view of conflicts is a tool of dehumanisation and colonisation, a common element of THJ and video games that follow it.
Larian created a story with Shadowheart that focuses on her growth towards healthy interdependence and community, unlike THJ stories that prioritise individualistic conquests. BG3 does not sit tidily within the THJ, or alongside its Jungian values. In studying games that featured ‘intersubjectivity, shared responsibility, [and] compromise’, Reay (2023) identified game mechanics that further those themes, including ‘restor[ing] their characters’ health by contributing to a communal supply of plasters’, encouraging ‘players [to] become more proficient at assisting one another’. BG3 contains multitudes of interactive elements that encourage co-operation in the vein of those that Reay discussed: inter-player buffing spells, health potions to use on others, and co-operative teamwork to focus enemy attention on healthy PCs. It is also vital to Shadowheart’s story that she is mechanically the best at healing among the companions—she is a cleric, a class typically described as a healer, which is a role she can eventually emotionally fulfil.
Shadowheart’s story in BG3 utilises interactivity in a manner contrary to the function of interactivity in games that follow THJ, and does masterfully. It furthers themes of interdependence and communalism, in contrast to the regressive function of THJ.
The interactivity of BG3 enables Shadowheart’s story to exist in a quantum state—it is the ultimate ergodic text, in which it is virtually impossible to create two experiences within the game that are identical; this extends to Shadowheart, meaning that there exist infinite equally valid permutations of her.
THJ as a story structure foregrounds one exceptional hero—BG3 uses its interactivity to ‘resist the idea of heroism as an essential quality and instead emphasize the relationality of identity’ (Reay, 2023): this is the result of co-operative game mechanics, and this critically includes the element of narrative player choice. THJ follows the ‘development of the individual’s ego—his awareness of his own strengths and weaknesses’ (Henderson, 1964, emphasis added), but Larian uses BG3 to posit that the development of the individual is a result of how they engage in relationships with others.
In the most critical moment of Shadowheart’s story, when she has the choice between her Goddess Shar and saving an innocent, the actions of the PC up until that point (Shadowheart’s approval rating) will impact her decision. If she has grown close to a virtuous PC that encourages her to nurture her best self, she will save the prisoner—if she has grown close to an amoral PC or not at all, she will choose herself and Shar over the prisoner. Shadowheart has changed, not due to delving into her own psyche, but by coming to know others intimately, and reevaluating herself amongst a new community.
This interactivity is why Shadowheart can grow from remarking that ‘sharing’s bad for [her] complexion’ to being glad that her ordeals ‘brought [her friends] together’. Shadowheart depends on the community she surrounds herself with—as do all people. Shadowheart may instead end her story on ‘The Dark Lady’s Crusade’, if she has been encouraged to swear fealty to Shar and grown colder to her companions: she will believe that ‘there is no need to seek the favour of others’ and that ‘it will all be taken away from [her]’. This version of Shadowheart exists as a result of not fostering warm interdependence; rather than the hero THJ would suggest an independent protagonist grows into, Shadowheart’s independence leads to her loneliness and dedication to an evil Goddess.
Shadowheart’s interactive story in BG3 uses narrative aesthetics familiar to the monomyth structure of THJ, and contains identifiable JAs, but the resemblance doesn’t reach the depths of meaning contained within. Larian’s narrative ultimately works against the individualistic and heteropatriarchal line of reasoning that runs through THJ and Jungian philosophy: Shadowheart’s journey does not exalt an independent hero that forgoes reliance on community, nor does it relegate women and minorities to being the conquered other. The interactivity present in BG3 is a key aspect of its counterhegemonic ideology, supporting practical demonstration of the values it promotes, through cooperative gameplay and important emotional decisions.
References
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Barros, M. (2021). Fantasy Video Games and Archetypal Criticism. Academia Letters, 2.
Buchanan-Oliver, M., & Seo, Y. (2012). Play as co-created narrative in computer game consumption: The hero’s journey in Warcraft III. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 11(6), 423–431. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.392
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Laffey, B. J. (2019). Honoring the Feminine: The Path to a Conscious Masculine. Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Larian Studios. (2023, August 3). Baldur’s Gate 3 [Video game].
Lebowitz, J., & Klug, C. (2011). The Hero’s Journey and the structure of game stories. In Interactive storytelling for video games: a player-centered approach to creating memorable characters and stories (pp. 39-70). CRC Press LLC.
Reay, E. (2023). Videogames as an ‘Unheroic’ Medium: The Child Hero’s Journey. Games and Culture, 18(5), 559–577. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120221115395
Vogler, C. (2017). The Memo that Started It All. The Living Spirit. https://livingspirit.typepad.com/files/chris-vogler-memo-1.pdf
