The Lord of the Rings films are an immensely popular early 2000s film trilogy. Yet the films’ popularity goes deeper than critical acclaim. The films have a cult following, enough for the films to have frequent theatrical re-releases and for Hollywood to begin producing more Lord of the Rings content starting in 2022 with Amazon’s Rings of Power. Why do these films, the first live-actions adaptations of Tolkien’s books, have such long-lasting appeal? Academic scholars have thoroughly attempted to answer this question. Some scholars have even utilized the theories of Carl Jung—including his theory of archetypes—to explain the purpose of certain characters within the films. Few, however, have utilized Jung’s theory of archetypes in great depth alongside his theory of the collective unconscious. This piece attempts to supplement the works of previous scholars in explaining the Lord of the Rings films’ appeal by emphasizing subconscious appeal, utilizing the theories of Carl Jung. Specifically, this piece analyzes the characters of Gollum as a portrayal of the shadow archetype, and the characters of Aragorn and Arwen as the anima and animus archetypes respectively. Further, this piece argues that Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious in humans not only be applied to the portrayal of the race of men in the films, but also to the races of elves and orcs. Elves and orcs are shown to have similar but different collective unconsciouses which viewers can then subconsciously compare to the collective unconscious of men portrayed. This analysis serves to explain a number of subconscious appeals of the Lord of the Rings films which explain their immense and long-lasting popularity.

Mind uploading is the process of uploading one’s consciousness into another entity, spanning across the internet or another body. This project analyzes the use of Freud’s theories of personality and his theories of the unconscious while understanding the appeal of mind uploading in two fantasy and dream-like films, Transcendence and Avatar. Mind uploading is a popularized concept with Transcendence and Avatar inspiring aspiring filmmakers and scientists with its imaginative and limitless qualities. Both films uniquely explore mind uploading with their own creative processes. The use of mind uploading in Transcendence highlights the blur between the realms of unconsciousness and consciousness, showing the destructive nature of mind uploading. In Avatar, mind uploading is shown as an evolutionary process in which the newfound unconscious has the potential to save and create new lives, giving characters within the film a second chance. These films reveal the interconnectedness of Freud’s theories of personality and how collaborative the mind can be to achieve a common goal.

Color Theory is an abstract strategy game, a genre that emphasizes decision-making and strategic thinking without elements of luck or hidden information. This game utilizes primary and secondary colors to represent players' pieces, with the objective to move each player's pawns to the opposite same-colored spaces on the board. Developed through rigorous playtesting, Color Theory introduces a color ranking track that dictates the synergy between the move and jump actions. Players must strategically maneuver their pawns, while also taking into account the position of their colors on the ranking track. It strikes a balance between clever movement and player interaction, providing an accessible and enjoyable gaming experience. In the end, the first player to successfully move three of their six pawns to their opposite spaces wins the game.

This essay analyzes the immense popularity of the online video game The Sims through the lens of Sigmund Freud’s theories about desire. Specifically, it utilizes the concepts of wish fulfillment, the pleasure and reality principles, and the life and death drive to draw conclusions about why the game is so appealing. The two main aspects of the game that this essay analyzes are the game’s extreme customization of the mundane and its endless design. It asserts that these aspects provide a unique opportunity for players to choose to engage in wish fulfillment, in either the pleasure or the reality principle, or in either the life or the death drive. These choices are unique to the game because, in the real world, these principles are inextricably linked, so the separation of these principles from each other allows players to fulfill their desires in unique ways. The essay challenges Freud’s theories by exhibiting how these principles appear differently in a virtual space, compared to reality. It explores how these challenges improve the player experience by providing a space for them to explore their desires and drives in a safe and controlled setting in their customizable, virtual world.

The Greek myths are foundational to Western culture. To this day, school curriculums dedicate portions of their time to teaching the names of the Greek gods and studying Homer’s The Odyssey and Iliad. Outside of an academic setting, countless retellings of the Greek myths have been created for pure enjoyment purposes. Such stories have been marketed to a large range of audiences and have successfully gained world-wide recognition. This project aims to evaluate the mass appeal of the Greek myths as they are retold through Sigmund Freud’s theory of the death and life instincts. These theories manifest in a few different ways, each of which is evident in the genre of Greek myths retold. Utilizing six examples of Greek myth retellings, this project will demonstrate how the theories of the life and death instincts are active in the process of retellings an age-old story as well as how the retellings of the ancient Greek myths, specifically, demonstrate the manifestations of those instincts.

This project focuses on the changes in levels of violence from original fairy tales to their Disney counterparts, specifically Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” and The Brothers Grimm’s “Cinderella”. It uses Sigmund Freud’s theories on the pleasure and reality principles and the life and death drives to analyze why the levels of violence in the original fairy tales became less acceptable over time. The analysis concludes that the original stories embodied Freud’s life drive and reality principle, whereas Disney’s counterparts emphasize his death drive and pleasure principle, and ultimately, modern consumers place more value on the latter. Research is provided to support the assertion that the numerous traumatic events that occurred in the first half of the 20th century caused consumers to make this switch in value. Further speculations are made on the impact this project has on the interpretation of Freudian theory, and how this paper interconnects with current research on disability representation in Andersen’s and Grimm’s stories. The project concludes that the shift in valuing the pleasure principle and death drive over the reality principle and life drive indicates that modern consumers would rather be pacified with pleasurable thoughts that taught important but stark morals about life, society, and themselves.

In September 2022, production company Netflix released their limited series Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, a series that focuses on the life and crimes of infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Shortly thereafter the series would become one of the most successful series in Netflix history. However, this popularity did not come without extensive criticism from viewers, critics, and family members of Dahmer’s victims. This project seeks to evaluate the mass appeal of Netflix’s Dahmer through the theoretical framework of Carl Jung’s collective unconscious and the shadow archetype. Scholars have previously tried to explain the appeal of true crime as a genre without reaching a consensus. This project analyzes the existing explanations for the appeal of true crime along with why these explanations are unsatisfactory when seeking to explain the appeal of Dahmer, followed with an analysis of how the shadow engages with Netflix’s Dahmer through the ability to become secondarily conscious through Dahmer and the projection of one’s shadow qualities onto Dahmer.

I love to work with numbers and data. Learning to solve equations and extrapolate points to predict outcomes will help me hone the talents I want to pursue a job based in an area I enjoy. Solving problems and creating solutions is like a puzzle or a game to me. Games are a big part of my life… from family game night to chess to computer games and math problems. This concept of problem-solving and solution-finding is what led me to this thesis. My Data Analytics and Supply Chain Management majors both involve these concepts as well, so revolving them around my thesis project helped to give me more experience that will help me in my future career. When looking into the field of games, people enjoy many different types around the world. Games can range anywhere from card and board games, to video games, and even sports and the Olympics. These are all considered games, and my goal in taking this thesis course is to become a game designer and start my journey into providing entertainment for my audience to play. Due to the already enormous amount of games in circulation today, I was creative and used the game-making skills I learned in this class when making my game. I focused on developing a strategy board game. Since I have played games all my life, I know that game development is not a simple task to undertake. That is why this Honors Thesis Course is important to me since it was beneficial to gain the skills necessary to create my own game. Making sure the game I created maintained the proper mechanics, story, aesthetic, and technology was paramount to creating an enjoyable board game. Figuring out a cohesive theme was also necessary to sufficiently market the game so people will want to add it to their collection, and more importantly, spend hours of their time playing. Those are skills I learned in my honors-directed study. I used my research by examining different genres of board games and determining which aspects in each influenced my own game design. Once I figured out the general concept of my project, I looked into how already existing games in this genre or other games that are related to my idea function and why they became popular. It was important to understand exactly how these games operate and function in order to be intuitive enough that most people can understand how to play them. I also had to make sure the game wasn’t so basic that people wouldn’t have fun playing them over and over. Once I figured these things out, I started construction of the game prototype, which served as the final deliverable for my Honors Thesis. My purchase list consists of the supplies I needed to construct my board game. I purchased a variety of materials that I needed for this project. I needed to make three copies of it, since my professor requested I give her and my second a copy if I was able. I needed a box, which turned out to be the most expensive single item on the list. The player cards I made doubled as a dice pad since I needed to use dice during the game. I bought plastic gemstones to simulate my currencies, of which I had five types. Four of those came from the same package while the diamonds I bought separately. The bags I bought are used for storage of each type of gemstone, and then they become the player bags when setting up the game. The little cubes I bought are for the quest boards so players can track their actions and certain quests. When constructing the board tiles as well as the quest boards, I needed to buy the wooden blocks, paint, brushes, glue, and lamination sheets. I first painted half of each block with either royal purple or gold to signify what tile it would become. Once I completed that, I printed and laminated the fronts of each tile and glued them together with the blocks. My goal for my thesis project was to create a board game that I would want to buy, and I believe I have accomplished this. Of course, many things will have to change when I work towards publishing my game, such as commissioning artwork, working on different marketing strategies, and lowering the cost of production per game. For a prototype though, I believe that I have done as well as I could with making as good a game as I could. Thank you for this opportunity, it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot that will help me in the future.