I am borrowing the term 'ascension' from mystical traditions to point out quite an interesting stage in a character development that I have picked up on in various TV shows and movies.
In this article, Ascension is meant as a transformation of a character that can take place in the story. I call this transformation Ascension simply because of its symbolism. During Ascension. one encounters death or destruction and then undergoes a rebirth. Just like Phoenix, one sheds all that is old and returns brand new.
Pay attention not to confuse Ascension with traditional progress in a hero's journey. A character learning a new lesson and becoming broader and more dimensional doesn't mean the signs of Ascension.
Ascension itself involves a transition of a lower percieved archetype into a higher more evolved archetype that always makes sense and was always hidden right before our very eyes since the first time we met the character.
The easiest way to understand this is to notice that this occurs many times in fairy tales. The most frequent form of a character Ascension is when a prince or a princess' suitor becomes a king. This form of Ascension is so familiar to us that we overlook the significance of this archetypal transformation.
To some extant, Ascension should always be on you character developement to do list, that is if you want to at least break trough mediocrity.
The characteristics of Ascension
How can we recognize Ascension and why is it so important? The Ascension is a result of a character trying to figure out his or her complex by adopting a certain role in a world which provides a solutuion to the problem established by a core theme of the story. Ascension means that the character is succeding in his or her hero's journey and it also means that writer pays a very good attention to his or her character from a long term perspective, which is a very hard thing to do and only a few writers are able to pull off.
Ascension has to embody certain characteristics, such as taking the elements of the environment of a story, the core theme of a story and the character's core design into account.
Close to the end of the story (Ascension never occurs at the beginning), the elements of environment, core theme and character's core design (complex) all function as clues that point us to figuring out the archetypal destination of the character.
Figuring out the destination is like a rebus. It's never obvious and it takes an incredible amount of creativity and time to allow an already biased mind fixated on who the developed character already is, let go from the character's established role in the world and figure out who the character could and should become to assume a new role.
Another characteristic of Ascension is that it destroys the core theme. In order to understand this, we have to realize that the character embodies the core theme. If the core theme changes, the character changes as well and the other way around. And because the initial character ceases to exist due to trans-formative process of Ascension, the core theme cannot longer exist because it is now irrelevant since there is nobody to embody it. It actually took resolving the character's complex established by a core theme for the character to ascend. There is no longer a logical need for the old core theme since it cannot serve to the character.
A larva is being destroyed in a cocoon (it is being liquefied) so a buttefly can be created. The butterfly then doesn't concern itself with worries and duties of a larva and analogically that is why the ascended character is not concerned by the complex (set by a core theme) of the inintial character that the ascended character used to be.
Therefore, a new core theme has to be established or a previous secondary theme has to be made the dominant one.
Finding out what kind of character shoud the hero ascend to is never obvious, yet, when figured out, it always makes sense and seems very logical. It almost makes you think why haven't you figured it out yourself on your own since you met the character the first time.
Here are the examples of developmental character ascension I could think of, I would love if you added more examples in the comments!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1996—2003)
Buffy Summer ascends from being an unwilling and unaccepting recipient of great physical power and being a forced warrior into a willing power distributor and a leader of an army made of warriors like her.
- Elements of the environment: A girl fights demons in a patriarchal society.
- The core theme of a story: One girl in all the world has the power and resnposbility to fight evil.
- The character's core design: Buffy doesn't want to be the chosen one. She hates herself for not wanting to fight evil out of her own honest choice but only because she has to do it due to being the one with the power because a mystical force randomly chose her to have it.
Resulting in an archetypal destination (Ascension): Instead of being the one, she becomes one of many.
Buffy, in a way, destroyed the show at the end and there was no logical need for it and I can appreciate that it ended when it did. The story was about her being the pretty girl in high school who was given great physical power to be the only person in the world capable to fight demons. Now she gave this power to a large number of women and therefore, the core theme was destroyed and there was no longer a logical need for the show (with the same theme).
The show ended right after Buffy's Ascension. The story continues in a form of comics and in them you can notice that it took the writers quite a few years to get used to the new medium and find their way to continue with the story in a meaningful and a logical way. I would deduce, it is because they didn't get much clear on what the new core theme was supposed to be after Buffy's Ascension.
Community (2009—2015)
Jeff Winger ascends from an unwilling student into a dean at a community college.
There was an attemp for Jeff to ascend when he became a teacher, which made sense and worked but the true Ascension occurred, just as in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the last episode.
Well, it kind of did. Jeff becomes a dean only in a Jeff's fantasy version of how the show (accepting Abed's view of the world as a TV show) could continue and not end.
- Elements of the environment: A man attends a community college because he has to get a law degree to continue to practice law.
- The core theme of a story: A man disconneted from the world deeply connects to a group of people of various personalities, ages and backgrounds.
- The character's core design: A man who sees the world for what it truly is so discouraged by what he sees the world to be that he is OK with being emotionally repressed and disconnected from everyone around him.
UnREAL (2015—present)
Note: The show is still in running (at the time of writing the article) and the profile below is made only from watching the first three seasons and a trailer for the fourth one (where Rachel becomes the suitress).
Rachel Goldberg ascends from being a manupulative TV producer of men and women on a reality dating TV show into a suitress (the star of the show).
- Elements of the environment: Behind the scenes of a Bachelor and Bachelorette-like reality TV show.
- The core theme of a story: A woman struggles to fit in her social circle due to her manipulative tendencies and power abuse which on the other hand makes her a great reality TV producer.
- The character's core design: She wants acceptance from other people and be good and at the same time she is addicted to feeling powerful and in control which she gets from making other people do what she wants while making them think it was their idea.
I love the complexisty of Rachel's character. Even though she is the hero of the story she is predominantly such a dark (but not necessarily evil) power abusing character which is something that even shapes her own Ascension. The Ascension of previous two characters mainly involved the realization that they can possitively contribute to the world with their influence which means they had to believe in themselves and believe that they are exactly what the world needs which is something they battled due their own deep rooted self hatred.
In Rachel's case, it is very different. We know that her true influence to the world would be nothing but toxic. Sure, we love her and want her to do well because we know her and find her game of manipulation very entertaining and her background heart-breaking but I am sure we wouldn't want her to be involved in... politics for example.
In previous examples (and most of all stories match this), it took for the character to put an effort in believing in themselves and believe that they are good for the world, in Rachel's case, it actually takes giving up the effort to try to be good and be in her destructive nature.
This shows that Ascension doesn't always have to be the evolvement of heroic achetypes.
Apart from being the hero, Rachel embodies the archetype of Trickster. Her mother pointed out that she was able to make everyone around her do what she wanted them to do even when she was a child, even pre-rape. And therefore, the rape itself didn't cause her to treat other people like dolls she can control to overcome a trauma of feeling helpless during the rape, it only gave her a doorway trough which she could access the darker part of herself which gave her the power over other people. The reality TV show allows her to be in her nature which she cannot find in the real world where it is socially unacceptable to manipulate people to such extant.
Producing bimbos to fight over a good-looking douchebag on a reality TV show again gives her the opportunity not to suppress her 'superpowers' but to actually use them and feel worthy for them by being one the most valueable staff member on the set.
Given her producing and manupulative capabalities, she isn't an ordinary suitress, the Trickster archetype makes her like a suitress on steroids.
A typical suitress embodies the archetype of Seductress. Thanks to the Trickster in her, Rachel accessed and evolved into a more powerful archetype - Siren. Her manipulative techniques are like a siren's song to people around her. Men cannot resist. It's very unfair to her suitors and to the rest of the reality TV producers since she is unproduceable.
The flip side of this is that her Ascension exist only within the context of the show. Outside of the show, Rachel hasn't ascended. Rachel became so depended on the show that her character evolution and hero's journey occurs only on a set of a reality TV show. She merged with it and progresses only within it which is very unhealthy since she doesn't reach any real progress in the real world. The Trickster in her becomes tricked by her own trickstery. Therefore, not all Ascensions are good for the character but it is definitevely good for the viewer/reader, because in general, Ascension creates intereset to the content consumer and elevates the content itself.
Rules are to be broken
In conclusion, I would like to point out a couple of Ascensions I find unusual or interesting.
- Se7en: At the end of the amazing Fincher's thriller, Brad Pitt's character, who is a detective who during the movie is trying to catch a serial killer, is now fighting with the urge to avenge the death of his wife and murder her now defenseless killer.
- Possible De-Ascension from being a decent detective into a vengeful murderer which has all the characteristics of Ascension.
- The Neverending Story: The reader of the story ascends and becomes the hero of the story.
- This Ascension shows that the Ascension doesn't have to involve only the characters but that it can play with the narrative and trough that involve the reader himself.
- Game of Thrones: John Snow, the Bastard, becomes the most rightful heir to the Iron Throne.
- This Ascension shows that Ascension doesn't have to happen only trough character's doing or choice as in previous examples, it can occur only by revealing a secret as in case of Game of Thrones. The main thing is, it should always be linked to the character's identity quest and change the viewer/reader's perspective on the character to such extant that in his eyes the character assumes a whole new role.