In literary theory, what is "the hero's journey?"

Slaying the dragon and winning the princess’s hand in marriage.

Leaving home, getting a quest/saving the girl, journey deeper into unknown, slaying the dragon/gaining the knowledge/object, return journey and new life as hero at home.

The path of the sun god.

It's a journey of change, redemption, and ascension.

Luke Skywalker, Odysseus, Donald Trump...

They all go through it.

with treasure in hand!

Slaying the dragon is conquering yourself and serving your wife is how you marry the girl because there's always a woman out there that wants you but you think you can get better so aerobos is yourself and you conquer your inner demons and your desire to f*** every woman in the whole world and that's how you get the princess because the woman that likes you is the princess and you didn't know it and that's where the true treasure lies is finding out

Hero at home isn't really the way it ends. It's just what you assume.

When Scooby Doo and Shaggy unmask the villain and then eat Scooby snacks and drive off in the Mystery Machine.

groomed to do a job, hated for doing the job, loved for finishing the job

All movies and songs are based on it.

Even the bible is based on it.

Donald Trump is the personification the anti-hero journey. Refining your experience more and more to be only about you and your glory over everyone else.

You pick up a good fantasy novel?

Heros journey.

You watch a movie?

Heros journey.

You read homer? The illiad? Heros journey.

You watch TV shows?

Heros journey.

You watch a movie?

Heros journey?

You listen to music?

Heros journey.

It's in everything.

It's a jungian archetype.

It what inspires, and it's in everything, the age old balm to masses.

Why?

Hero’s Journey, popularized by Joseph Campbell.

This is the basic blueprint for all TV shows, movies and novels, as I discovered by studying the top thirteen books on screenwriting in detail.

Films such as Star Wars, E.T., Alien, Dances With Wolves, The Lion King, Matrix and Avatar all follow this ‘structure’ so closely as to be almost like paint-by-numbers classes — and yet it works.

We laugh, cry, gasp and cheer at all the right points in these movies. It feels oddly familiar, and yet it never ceases to delight.

The Hero’s Journey is the core pattern of all good storytelling. It is also the spiritual DNA of our own journey through life, with all its ups and downs.

It is very important to remember that the All is Lost point is NOT the end of the Hero’s Journey. It only appears to be that way.

In a screenplay, it is expected to happen somewhere around page 85 out of 120. I had one of many during the apex of the Teddy Bear attacks, as my channel went down during Christmas.

The hero must appear to have been completely defeated and destroyed, and to have exhausted all hope of completing the Quest.

The screenwriting books even recommend that the hero, or at least his or her quest, should appear to have literally died… for five full pages of script.

Then as you hit page 90, you move into the Third Act, where the Setup and Conflict launches into Resolution, Victory and the Hero’s Return.

I do argue in the book that this is an archetype, and it holds true in any and all situations. It is, again, our spiritual DNA.
Every good book, TV series or movie in the spy, thriller or mystery genres relies upon a “Big Twist” in the plot.

The Big Twist is what really makes things exciting and generates the All is Lost point.

It’s all about a seemingly decent character suddenly being unveiled as the embodiment of pure evil.
You, as the viewer, are trying to figure out who the villain is.

You take the clues the movie is giving you, study them carefully, and still hope to be surprised by the Big Twist.

Then you find out…. oh my God, it’s THAT DUDE! 
In screenwriting, there is something called “The Law of Economy of Characters.”

This means that the betrayer in the Big Twist is someone you will have met from the very beginning of the movie or series.

Once you understand this and begin applying it to all works in this genre, it becomes much easier to see the Big Twist coming.

In many of these setups, the villain appears to be helping out the very groups who were working to expose their crimes.

As a planet, we have just hit the Big Twist with what YouTube has done.

we are all heroes, meant to look for others to save us

DONT

ASK

WHY

Joseph Campbell
[link to www.amazon.com (secure)]

No return home is literally part of the heros journey

Lol, no shit.

Someone who deserves happiness and bliss and instead has to suffer, endure, overcome and sacrifice all because everyone else are a bunch of dumbasses and failures who are incapable of doing what the hero does.

AND THAT"S THE FUCKING DAMN TRUTH.

The hero always sacrifices himself for others.

Every time.

Return home and "hero at home" aren't the same thing, though.

I’d say that it has to do mainly with the Sixth and Twenty-First Major Arcana of the Gnostic Tarot.

Yep.

He always has to suffer so that others can see, and then they kill him for making them see.

Lol.

Do not use foul explitives.

Less is more.

son of the sun god ;]

Ten ox
[link to en.m.wikipedia.org (secure)]

The story of Perseus, is archtyepal heros journey.

Heros journey, just one example.

All modern media is based on it.