Task 5 (Fairytales and their uses)

There are thousands of games out there that can fit into some of Propp's functions - which one to pick, however, I had difficulty doing. I decided to pick a game that isn't too well known for it's story (in fact, it's a little criticised for its story) due to it's 'cookie cutter' ideas and presentation. This means that it should fit quite well into Propp's functions, and that game is Destiny 2 (the base game, not the expansions).

 The set up is rather typical for modern action games. The player, returning from an unknown mission, comes to the home city to find it being invaded by an unknown enemy force. After landing and fighting through a variety of forces, the player discovers that the one leading the assault is on a large ship. After encountering the main villain, the player is defeated, stripped of their powers and left for dead. Afterwards, the player leaves to retrieve their powers and figure out a way to defeat the main villain, which they do, after overcoming numerous challenges. 

While this is an extremely general overview of the story, the story itself multiple functions, although not in the same order that Propp lists them:

1. A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced);

6. The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim’s belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim);

8. Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, commits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc);

9. Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimized hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment);

11. Hero leaves home; 

12. Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);

14. Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);

15. Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;

16. Hero and villain join in direct combat;

17. Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);

18. Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);

19. Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);

20. Hero returns;

21. Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);

22. Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognizably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);

23. Hero unrecognized, arrives home or in another country;

25. Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks); 

26. Task is resolved;

27. Hero is recognized (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);

30. Villain is punished;

All of these occur within the story at one point or another - and it's likely that more occurs that I did not think of at the time. Because this story involves a large number of these functions, the story doesn't do anything unique or different. The characters also fit within propp's character types.

The Player - The Hero

The Ghost - The Helper

Ghaul - The villain

The Traveller - The Donor, Victim, Dispatcher, False Hero (The traveller is regarded as an all powerful being that does a lot of things in the story, including finishing the villain off in the final battle).

Pretty much any of the characters could be changed without affecting their sphere of action too much - the only exception for this would be the Traveller, which is a pivotal character that pretty much drives the entire story forward one way or another.