There are many different ways to diagram stories. One way to diagram a story is to graph the personal growth of the main character. A typical Hollywood movie maps out like this.

At the beginning of the story the main character wants something but the way the character thinks or what they are doing prevents them from getting what they are going after. The story builds to a crisis moment.

To get what they want, they must change. They must alter their worldview and do something that they would not have done at the beginning of the story. Their attitude about the situation changes. They reframe their beliefs. They transform into a better person. This new insight allows them to take the action that is necessary to achieve their goals. Sometimes they find out their original desire is a bad one and this new mindset helps them to figure out what they really need and how to get it.

The climax of the film occurs when the protagonist takes a new action based on this new understanding. The person they were at the beginning of the story couldn’t have done what this new “better version of themselves” is now capable of. The new belief leads to a positive outcome.

Sword-and-sorcery stories don’t work like this in many if not most cases. Conan doesn’t become a better version of Conan. He just does what Conan does. He barbarians his way through the problem. A character like Conan is sometimes given the oxymoronic nomenclature of the “flat arc protagonist.”

Conan doesn’t have a transformation. Conan transforms enemies into corpses.

Conan doesn’t change.

Conan never doubts himself. Conan is fully formed. He is confident in his worldview from beginning to end. When the direct approach doesn’t work, he’ll switch tactics and ambush an opponent. That’s not a significant shift in his worldview. He is applying tools he had at the beginning of the story.

A lot of adventure stories have “flat arc protagonists.” Westerns and samurai stories often have protagonists who are who they are and do what they do.

This is a very important structural difference between sword-and-sorcery genre and the high fantasy genre. The “hero” of a sword-and-sorcery story has a way of life that they stick to.

“And even when we serve, we make the rules. We bow to no man’s ultimate command, dance to no wizard’s drumming, join no mob, hark to no wildering hate-call. When we draw sword, it’s for ourselves alone.”

Fritz Lieber – Swords in the Mist

The hero of a high fantasy story goes on a journey of self-discovery as much as they go on a journey to thwart evil. Ged in A Wizard of Earthsea works to integrate his dark side with his light side. Drizzt Do’ Urden is on a continual journey to overcome his internal conflicts and the legacy of the evil drow culture.

Most modern Hollywood adventure movies suck

One reason they suck is that most Hollywood screenwriters and executives have bought into the idea that the main character must have a “transformation” no matter who the character is or what the story is about.

I suspect that’s one reason why they have never even attempted to adapt Robert Howard’s original stories into film. The producer gets done reading the script and gives the writer a note, “Conan just goes around breaking into temples, killing corrupt nobles and insane wizards. Where’s his transformation?”

They have come to believe every story must be an origin story or a growth story. They believe the only story that will be “commercial” is the story of the hero becoming “the best version of themselves.” They think, “We can’t have Conan going around being Conan. We have to show how Conan becomes Conan or a better version of Conan or becomes disillusioned and must recover his Conan mojo.”

Aspirational stories can be very good; great even. Star Wars would have been a very different film if Luke Skywalker starts as a fully trained and wise Jedi Knight. That character and that story needed a transformation. Just because that approach worked in that case, doesn’t mean it works in every story with every protagonist.

Conan is a character who is living his best life when he has a sword in one hand and a goblet of wine in the other. To transform Conan would be to make him something he is not.

Conclusion

Many of my favorite adventure stories are about a character who remains who they are at the beginning of the story and still get what they want. A Fist Full of Dollars, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Road Warrior, The Seven Samurai, Dredd, The Eyes of the Overworld all have protagonists who know who they are, what they want, and go about getting it without changing who they are or what they believe.

Not all stories need a transformation. Certain genres, like sword-and-sorcery, were built around characters who are who they are. Those stories are about how the protagonist’s belief in themselves and resilience is what gets them through their challenges.