All true stories should be about ambitious men, and their ambitions conflicting.
All of them are protagonists. All of the visions should count as happy endings, but endings that conflict. Endings that cannot happen at the same time.
A counterexample: romeo's ambition is to pork juliet. It's petty, mean. Any number of ambitions can coexist with this goal. The conflict comes from an equally tiny ambition. Their fathers both recognize it as a bad match.
There's no glory in defeating evil. It's too weak, too pathetic.
An epic is a story about two men who both wish to improve the world. Men of cosmos-spanning ambition, who fight because they recognize honour is more important than life. Who wish to test themselves. Who know glory comes even in defeat. Men who know the only way to live in a world worthy of awe is to do it themselves, to grow into awe-inspiring titans
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