>>"We say "perhaps" because in most works of adventure fiction,
>..<snip>....,
>>you rarely see characters palpably improve over the course of their
>>adventures.
>Or, in Lord of the Rings, we don't get any direct descriptions of
>characters improving over time. But, when Merry and Pippin return to the
>Shire, they suddenly realise how changed they are from when they left.
Also, strangely, there seems to be a concentration on 'skill' type abilities (I say strangely since HW is supposed to represent all abilities equally). Conan might not be a vastly improved swordsman after some 20-odd books (although he did a lot of training in the movies...), but he's spent a FORTUNE in HP on relationships, Area Knowledge, Resist Magic, Followers, Allies, etc. Likewise almost every 'hero' spends more HP on these areas than on their primary abilities (which they started at higher levels, just like in HW).
And since HW is supposed to be so 'cinematic', why are we only talking literary sources here? Luke Skywalker might not have spent long learning to fly an Incom T-65, but he wasn't much good with a Lightsabre. Xena MUST have improved a lot, her Follower, Gabrielle, got a hell of a lot better!
Wulf
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