Trope Analysis- Doomed Hometown

The Doomed Hometown is a story element, or Trope, wherein the destruction of a city or town that the hero is attached to one way or another serves as the catalyst to begin or otherwise inform the Hero's Journey. The Trope can be done well just as it can be done TERRIBLY, no matter the medium. This includes video games, of course. But what is it about the Trope that makes it so pervasive? Today, we talk about this.

Let's start by talking about the Hero's Journey, itself NOT a trope, but one of the fundamental stories in fiction. In any Hero's Journey there is a "Call to Adventure" as it were, a force that propels the Hero to take their first steps onto their epic quest, their lives forever changed one way or another. Sometimes that Call is one's desire for adventure, to broaden horizons and see sights unseen. Sometimes its the desire for wealth and fame. The Doomed Hometown Trope, likewise, is a Call to Adventure in itself, but somewhat different.

A Hometown is the place where the Hero has a form of emotional attachment. Maybe they grew up here, having lived a quiet and unassuming life. Maybe this is the town where they decided to settle down after a tumultuous life of struggle. In any case, it's a place where the Hero feels relaxed, welcomed, maybe even loved.

The Doomed Hometown Trope is when said place gets destroyed. Most likely, it was the Main Antagonist's forces that have destroyed the hometown. The Hero almost always, as not to say ALWAYS, survives the destruction, almost always by forces outside their control. Perhaps they were far away by chance. Perhaps Divine Intervention played a role. In any case, the Hero lived.

The destruction of the hometown removes an important choice away from the Hero: that of staying home. If there is a Call to Adventure that the Hero had previously rejected, doing so is no longer an option. Often however, the Hero will swear vengeance and either begin, or begin anew, their journey to defeat the Antagonist.

The Trope serves a number of functions, many of which can be used at the same time. It's a demonstration of just how evil the Antagonist is, willing to destroy an entire village of presumed innocents over some goal. It's the Call to Adventure, as I stated before. And likewise it's the Inciting Incident that first shapes the Hero.

For many stories, the destruction of the hometown helps motivate the Hero on their journey(s). This journey, in turn, helps the Hero grow exponentially as a person. Of course, character growth is essential for most stories anyway, but the point I'm trying to get across is that the destruction of one's hometown is, in fiction, a turning point in a person's personal story. It's the loss of safety and comfort that we often associate with home, and in certain cases, it's the permanent loss to one's innocence and/or childhood.

This is what makes the Doomed Hometown so often used in Fiction: the loss of home is an idea that strikes a nerve for readers/players/viewers, and to some, often hits (pardon a terrible pun) too close to home. Few ideas disturb people more than the notion that you cannot ever return home, to the place where you feel safest, most comfortable, most welcomed.

In video games, this Trope is used no differently than in any other form of fiction. Like any book or movie, the Doomed Hometown can be used right, or used terribly. How?

Consider Legend of Dragoon, that PS1 classic. We see the Doomed Hometown trope used right off the bat; literally, it's the FIRST SCENE of the game! It's a damn impressive scene, it looks cool, but there's something missing: an emotional connection. Throwing the player right in the middle of the town being destroyed can serve as an excellent In Media Res; our familiarity with the trope allows us to fill in any and all blanks about the villains without needing so much as a word of dialogue. And yet, in spite of its flashy presentation, the destruction of this town (whose name escapes me) is but an inconvenience for Dart! What matters more is that his girlfriend Shana's been kidnapped, so he has to find her!

Shana herself isn't motivated to avenge her hometown either; she follows Dart around because she's in love with the guy. I could (probably should) write an entire blog entry on her, but that's for another time. My point is, the destruction of THIS town doesn't quite inform Dart's journey beyond driving him to save his girlfriend.

Compare this to how Final Fantasy 7 uses the trope. There are three characters motivated by the loss of their hometown: Cloud, Tifa, and Barret. The latter two use their loss as fuel for their vengeance: Shinra destroyed their hometowns, so they'll destroy Shinra. This is a typical response, in spite of the fact that the player doesn't learn of their motivations until hours into the game. By then, however, the player has seen enough of Shinra's evil that they can understand the characters better. Why is this important? Because Barret and Tifa are terrorists. Nope, there's no other word for it, they are terrorists, and in this post-9/11 world, that label carries a LOT of weight and none of it is good.

Shinra destroyed Barret's town of Corel for incredibly petty reasons, even with the Compilation in mind. A Mako reactor blows up (the Compilation establishes this was a deliberate act by a terror group) so what does Shinra do? Destroy an ENTIRE town of innocent civilians. The original game heavily implied the reactor blew up by accident, inarguably making Shinra's reaction WORSE.

But the WORST use of this tropes has to be Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. One line of dialogue. One. That's all we get about Benjamin's backstory, and it pertains to the destruction of his hometown, which is:

1. Never visited
2. Never SEEN
3. Never alluded to beyond the first scene in the game!

There's using a trope, there's abusing a trope, and then there's THIS! Zero impact, zero importance. It all leads me to ask "why bother with the trope?" All in all, the misuse of this trope is one of the many reasons for why the game is a giant misstep for Square.

In regards to the BEST use of this trope, I can't go to a video game; rather, it's a movie. In this case, it's Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It might not be a home TOWN, but it's still Luke Skywalker's home that gets ravaged by the Empire, cutting off everything that was holding him back from starting his journey to become a hero. It helps we got to meet Luke, as well as his aunt and uncle, before the tragedy. We saw that what held him back was his love for his family, his loyalty, and his responsibilities. But when his family was killed by the Empire, it was STILL a tragedy; he was free, but at a price. And THIS is what made the use of this trope so effective: there was a feeling of Fate guiding Luke to fulfill his destiny to be a hero, with his aunt and uncle being a worthwhile sacrifice to get him to do so. The deaths of his aunt and uncle weren't Luke's fault, but one still gets a sense of "this was fated."

That loss of innocence, familiarity, and comfort is what makes the Doomed Hometown so damn effective as a storytelling device. THAT is why we still use this trope, and why it'll never grow old.