Thursday, November 9, 2017

Week 12 Storytelling: General Arthur

There once was a young man whose spirit was unmatched. His name was Arthur Pendra. Despite always being a troublesome student, some people still believed in his potential. Arthur was always a gifted athlete, so much so that a college recruiter was impressed with his athleticism.  Merlin, the recruiter, ended up offering Arthur a scholarship to play football for the nearby university: The Knights. Arthur was, above all else, flattered. He was never one to be praised, so the fact that a man from a respected school would even suggest that Arthur could be successful with anything was a welcomed surprise.

Upon accepting the scholarship, Arthur said goodbye to his adopted father and his brothers to embark on his journey as a college student. Upon arriving, Arthur's rise as a starter was meteoritic. Within his first few games with the Knights, he was able to present his talents and land himself the job as starting quarterback. As a starter, he lead his team to several championships. His ability to play the game and his natural-gift as a leader for his team eventually allowed him to gain fame throughout the country. Upon graduating, Arthur was drafted number one overall to play professionally for the Kings. As a King, Arthur continued to play successfully. Eventually, Arthur even manages to win several different awards. One award was the Award of Excalibur, given to a player whose offensive capabilities were unmatched throughout the league. Eventually, all of his hard work paid-off. Upon his final year, Arthur lead the Knights to the national championship to play for the Holy Grail, the national championship trophy that the Knights had been striving for since the team's creation. It was here where the Knights faced-off against their sworn rivals, the Dragons. After a long game that went well into the night, the Knights finally won the game, but only after Arthur bravely rushed for a touchdown that ended with him snapping his throwing arm. This marked the end of the great Arthur, the greatest quarterback the country has ever seen.

Bibliography: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table. Andrew Lang. Link.

Author's Note:
For this week's storytelling, I wanted to retell the legend of King Arthur, but to put in a special twist. Instead of the it being set in ancient times, I wanted to move the setting to the modern era, and instead of being a king, I wanted to make Arthur a quarterback instead. The main thing that I took out of reading the King Arthur unit was the ability for the story to develop King Arthur as a character by looking at his whole life, from being to a lowly citizen to one of the greatest kings Britain has ever seen. For my story, I wanted to try to replicate this development by following my Arthur from being a high school athlete to one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. In my story, you can see several nods to the original legend, like the Offensive Player of the Year award being dubbed Excalibur, and how his final game ended with a career ending injury, like in the original story where he dies in his last story.

Image result for king arthur
(Hall of Famer, Arthur:


6 comments:

  1. Hi Kevin,
    Making the story of King Arthur about football instead of knights worked quite well! You did a good job with the parallels. I think it would make the story if there were more dialogue or if the reader got more of a look into Arthur's emotions or possibly how his family felt about him. Was he disappointed after he broke his arm? Did he already know it was going to be his last season? It seems that way.

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  2. Hi Kevin! I also read the King Arthur section and I like how you made it your own. I am a huge sports fan, especially college football, so I like how you incorporated college football into this classic story. It was clever how you made the team he played for the Knights. Overall, this was an enjoyable story which shows your creative writing style.

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  3. Hi Kevin! I really enjoy reading stories that take old, sort of inaccessible stories and set them in modern times. You did a great job using this storytelling style! Setting the story in terms of college and professional football was creative and relatable, and I like that it's something you are passionate about yourself. Also, I like that you followed the format of the original story by telling Arthur's whole life story, since that was something you appreciated in the original.

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  4. Kevin,
    the tales of King Arthur are pretty known to everyone, even if you did not do then for the reading in the class. When I was reading your story, it made me smile every time you mention a term from the original King Arthur tale but changed it to fit a kid getting to play college football on a scholarship and going to join the NFL. Really great writing and very clever.

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  5. I was intrigued by the idea of the story being a modernization of the tale of King Arthur. I like how you included little details like the name of the teams, which tie it back to the original tale. I’m not a fan of sports but I enjoyed reading this story. I also like that you gave an end to Arthur in a way that seems fitting to the setting of the story. Great work on this story!

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  6. Hi Kevin,

    This is a really awesome story, I enjoyed getting a chance to read and comment on it. I also appreciate the weather icon at the top of the page because it's way too cold outside today. I liked the characters you chose for this and you did a nice job of incorporating them into your plot. Great work and keep it up.

    Brooks

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