[UA] Archetype evolution

[S. Ben Melhuish]

So I get my copy of UA and start reading it.  Tasty, indeed.  I may even
play this game one day soon, rather than put it on my shelf to collect
dust with the other games I own (other than Ars Magica).

As often happens when I'm exposed to a work of intense creativity, my
own muse starts talking to me.  For no apparent reason, I think about
D.B. Cooper.  (For those who don't know about him, he's a bit of a
legend, an anti-hero, around the Northwest.  I don't remember the details
of the story -- perhaps someone can correct or elaborate -- but in the
early '70s, he hijacked a plane, somehow ended up with a suitcase or two
full of cash, and parachuted out.  The only trace of him that has been
found was a handful of the money that he stole, washed up on the banks
of the Columbia River.)

Well, it's obvious that he ascended at some point in his parachute
descent.  (Note the drastic rise in airline hijackings since -- a
resonance of his ascension.  Nice, too, that his metaphysical ascension
was triggered by a physical descent.)  This gets me thinking, however.

What archetype did he become?  The first choice is obviously the
Hijacker, but that's not really universal enough.  So perhaps he replaced
the old Highway Robber, he-who-preys-on-travelers, who didn't keep up
with the times and became irrelevant.  He updated the old archetype with
a new take on the same basic principle.

This gets me thinking even more, however.  If D.B. Cooper could update
the Highway Robber and become the Hijacker, could someone else supplant
D.B. Cooper as, say, the terrorist Hijacker?  Yes, this is quite
different from the Highway Robber, but not so far from D.B. Cooper's
Hijacker -- the difference being the reason for taking over the airplane
(political vs. personal).

Can archetypes evolve in this way, eventually becoming something
completely other than what they started out as?  Anyone have any thoughts
on this?  (My personal take is, sure, if you (the archetype) don't change
with the times, it's off-to-the-House-of-Renunciation with you.  And if
there's eventually enough of a drift from the original archetype, well,
I'm sure there's someone around who'd be happy to become the new
predator of travelers, in whatever form that takes.  Of course, come to
think of it, a terrorist Hijacker is still a predator of travelers....)

-- Sben
sben at pile.org