I’ve been pondering a lot about the return of King Arthur in the new zeitgeist. I am starting to wonder if Arthur will return, and specifically, if he will return to America.
America has had two kings and neither of them were Arthur. Our kings were Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier and Elvis Presley the king of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Crockett is the ultimate 1st turning hero and he may be who brings us from the fourth turning’s crisis mode (grim dark, destruction, dystopia fatigue) to the first turning’s high, where we’re building institutions, restoring hope, and craving noble heroes who pull swords from stones… or in America’s case, maybe coonskin caps from raccoons.
King of the First Turning
First off, the Arthurian legend is quintessential first-turning stuff. You could see Arthur as the sheriff in a western, riding in to build civilization out of chaos. In the myths, Arthur unites a fractured Britain after the Roman collapse Saxon invasions, lawlessness, the whole bit. He’s the noble dark champion who forges Camelot, a beacon of justice and chivalry.
It’s not grimdark where everything’s hopeless and everyone’s an anti-hero. It’s about constructing something lasting, with a thread of hope even amid the darkness. And as we’re pivoting out of this fourth turning—think post-2020 chaos, pandemics, political upheavals—people are hungry for that. We’re seeing it in games like Minecraft, stories like Epic the Musical, even the resurgence of westerns where the hero tames the wild.
This brings us right to the Crockett mania of the 1950s, a perfect historical echo of that first-turning energy. Sparked by Disney’s TV miniseries “Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier,” it exploded into a nationwide craze from 1955 to 1957, with kids donning coonskin caps, singing “The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” and snapping up over 300 merchandise items—from toys to educational tie-ins.
It wasn’t just a fad; it was a pop cultural milestone that boosted interest in American history and frontier spirit, embodying the post-WWII optimism of that era’s High (first turning). A time of strong institutions, conformity, and hopeful rebuilding after a crisis.
Crockett, as the “King of the Wild Frontier,” became the avatar of that vibe: taming the wilderness, fighting the Indians, making peace with the Indians, fighting the Mexicans at the Alamo, symbolizing manifest destiny and building a nation from untamed land.
But America? That’s the twist. Arthur’s a British archetype, rooted in Celtic lore, but myths migrate. Look at how we’ve Americanized everything from Robin Hood to Sherlock Holmes. If Arthur “returns” in the zeitgeist, it wouldn’t be a literal king. America was founded by overthrowing the king.
Instead, it’d be through cultural avatars, stories, or figures who embody that pull-the-sword, unite-the-tribes energy. And we’ve only had two “kings”: Davy Crockett and Elvis Presley.
Let’s start with Crockett. “King of the Wild Frontier”
Crockett represents pure first-turning heroism. Born in 1786, right after the American Revolution (a classic fourth-turning crisis), Crockett emerges in the early 1800s, which lines up with a first turning high. He’s the frontiersman taming the wilderness.
It’s Arthurian: pulling Excalibur from the stone is like Crockett skinning bears or wrestling alligators mythic feats that inspire unity and expansion. And yeah, in a vibe shift toward construction and hope, Crockett could totally return. Think reboots of frontier tales, or modern stories where a rugged individualist rallies people against chaos. We’ve seen hints in shows like Yellowstone or even Mandalorian—lone warriors building safe havens.
Elvis King of Rock ’n’ Roll
Elvis, though? He’s more second-turning awakening vibes, or maybe third turning unraveling. The 1950s-60s were post-WWII high turning into awakening—cultural rebellion, youth energy. Elvis shakes up norms, embodying charisma and excess. He’s less about building institutions and more about personal liberation, romance, and vibe. Ties into our romance boom talk women swooning over the bad boy with a heart of gold. But Arthur? Elvis is closer to Lancelot: charming, flawed, ultimately tragic. If Elvis returns, it’s in rom-coms or musicals, not nation-building epics.
Will Crockett Return?
So, does Arthur return to America? In spirit, absolutely especially as we lean into this first turning. But he’d be reimagined as an American archetype: maybe a tech visionary uniting divided states (like a Musk figure pulling the “sword” of innovation), or in fiction, a hero in a post-apocalyptic western rebuilding society.
Authors, this is your cue. If you’re writing fantasy or spec-fic, infuse Arthurian nobility with American grit. Swap Camelot for a frontier town, Excalibur for a legendary rifle. Crockett’s return? Bet on it. We’re seeing pioneer vibes in survival games, homesteading trends on TikTok. Stories where heroes like him—self-reliant, honorable, community-builders—will resonate big time.
And don’t forget the dark side. If we get stuck in grimdark, like the Soviets did, Arthur might show up as a ronin-type, wandering hero like in Magnificent Seven. But yeah Arthur’s knocking. Skate to where the puck’s going: noble bright, construction over destruction.
Remember that Crockett statue at the Alamo? It’s brand new. While the Alamo is 200+ years old, that statue was dedicated in the last few years.
Davy Crockett, Ruthless Heroes, and Where Our Stories Are Headed Next
Video Summary
This conversation starts with Disney’s Davy Crockett and “Crockett Mania,” then zooms out to American myth-making, heroic archetypes, and what our favorite heroes say about the cultural moment we are in. Along the way it touches on King Arthur, John Wayne, Dune Part Two, John Wick, Reacher, video games, AI, and why the next great frontier story might be in space or under the ocean.
Key takeaways:
- Disney stumbled into “lightning in a bottle” with Davy Crockett, accidentally creating a national myth and then killing it too soon.
- Davy Crockett functions as an American Arthurian figure: noble, hard, frontier-born, and both peacemaker and warrior.
- The title “king” is rare in American culture, and the few who get it reveal a lot about each generation’s values.
- Our taste in heroes is shifting away from pure destroyers of evil toward figures who both fight and build something better.
- Westerns, action movies, and video games act like cultural weather vanes that show which heroic archetypes resonate in each “turning.”
- Some beloved modern heroes, like John Wick and Reacher, are “noble dark,” while emerging stories are reaching for ruthless yet constructive leaders.
- Understanding these shifts can help creators design characters that match where the “puck” of culture is heading next.
Rediscovering Disney’s Davy Crockett and “Crockett Mania”
While we were on vacation, we watched the Disney Davy Crockett show. The movie is Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, and I am realizing a lot of people have been watching it again recently.
That show was crazy popular when it came out. It created what was known as Crockett Mania. For about two years American children were running around in coonskin caps. It was everywhere.
I think it even showed up at one of the presidential inaugurations. It really was a mania that swept the country.
And then we get one of the biggest blunders in Hollywood history. Disney killed Davy Crockett at the end of the first Davy Crockett movie. At the end he goes to the Alamo and he dies, instead of having him go on more adventures.
They did not know they had lightning in a bottle. They had no idea what they had created, which is why they tried to make a second one. Davy Crockett and the River Pirates is just not great. It would have done well if it had not been that awkward “midquel,” because it does not really fit in the narrative.
The films themselves are not evil. In fact, they are quite well made, especially given the budget and the fact that they were initially TV shows. They simply did not realize what they were sitting on.
They did not know they had created lightning in a bottle.
King Arthur, American “Kings,” and the First Turning Hero
I have been talking a lot about whether King Arthur will return. I do not think he will, at least not to the United States.
King Arthur is not an American hero. He is an English hero. He is uniquely Celtic. He is from Wales, the one place that was not conquered by the Saxons and that resisted even the Danes and, to a lesser degree, the Normans. They persist to this day, and they long for the return of Arthur.
We, in the United States, have only had a few “kings.”
- Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
- Elvis Presley, King of Rock and Roll
- Maybe Michael Jackson, King of Pop
- Maybe King James in sports
We do not throw that title around very often. Maybe four Americans in the history of the country have been given the title “king” by their fellow Americans.
If you can think of somebody else who was titled king by his fellow Americans, post it in the chat.
Davy Crockett was the first. Before Elvis Presley was King of Rock and Roll, Davy Crockett was the King of the Wild Frontier.
He is very much a first turning hero. He is fighting Indians, but he is also making peace with Indians. He is fighting the Mexicans. He is taming the frontier. He is bringing order to chaos.
He goes and fights Congress.
Davy Crockett Versus Congress: Law, Treaties, and a Famous Exit Line
It is interesting. He goes to Congress and he fights both political parties of that time.
He goes as a Jacksonian, but while he is there he turns on the Jacksonians. He does not want to violate the treaties with the Indians, because he was one of the people negotiating those treaties. He refuses to violate them, and he breaks with his own political party.
That is a powerful detail. Where do we most need law and order right now? In Congress.
In the film Congress is very much presented as a wretched hive of scum and villainy. That portrayal checks out more than we would like.
It is a little sad that it was that way back in the 1840s, and it has definitely continued being that way. Eventually he gets so fed up with the political process, and he gets pushed out by his own party after he turns on them.
He says, “Y’all can go to hell. I’m going to Texas.”
That is a very famous quote. I know we try to keep things family friendly, but I have one exception and that is for Davy Crockett quotes. He can say whatever he wants.
We finally built the statue for him at the Alamo within the last five years, which is interesting. We are moving from the fourth turning to the first turning, and it is only now that we are looking back at Crockett again.
Crockett is very much that Arthurian character, but with an American twist. He is from the frontier. He is born in Tennessee.
Why Crockett Still Matters: Archetypes and the Western Boom
Gosh, the comments are going crazy. I am not reading these.
I am reading them. It is okay.
Okay. Just interrupt if it feels appropriate.
If you want to understand where we are headed, really look at where we came from, and specifically the character of Crockett. Ask why Crockett was such an appealing character.
You can almost say that all of the westerns in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the heyday of the western, were trying to recapture that Crockett Mania from the mid 1950s.
The westerns all time shift forward a little bit.
Crockett is not your typical western character. He is not wearing a cowboy hat. He is not out in Arizona or the Dakotas. He is fighting over Tennessee, the lawless Tennessee. He is fighting river pirates on the Mississippi River. Those are places that were very settled by the golden age of westerns, which usually take place in the late 1800s.
That American story is powerful. I posted a whole essay on this on author media.social. I will not go over the whole thing, but one person commented and said, “What if the wild frontier is actually in space or under the ocean?”
I really think that needs to be explored. In fiction that is a real opportunity.
Video Game Trailers as Zeitgeist Thermometers
One way to see how the first turning, or any of these turnings, shows up at a certain time is to look at video game trailers.
Video game trailers try to make the maximum amount of impact in the shortest amount of time. They use visual cues, music, and subtext to tell you exactly what kind of hero this is going to be. You can see if people get excited about it.
For instance, I am normally a big Star Wars guy. I did not care about Star Wars Outlaws because they did not portray the hero in a way I wanted. I did not want to be that hero. That was not the kind of person I wanted to be.
On the other hand, take Doom. You have the hero walk out into hell with a bunch of demons snarling at him. He is just walking forward. He does not stop. He never hesitates. There is no fear. He just keeps going.
That is exactly what I want to be when it comes to facing evil. That is what I am looking for in an experience.
Davy Crockett did exactly that.
He went into the frontier fearlessly. Every time he confronted something, he pushed forward.
He has a shooting competition with a guy. He wrestles a bear after trying to calm things down because the officer would not shut up.
I am sensing some latent resentment here.
Oh no. There is no latency. No latent resentment. My ping is good.
Then Crockett makes peace with the Indians after going into their camp. After fighting them, he makes peace. It is not peace through concession. It is peace through victory. Peace through strength.
He goes to Congress and does the same thing, because it is what needs to be done. He does not even want to do it, but it needs to be done. It is the right thing for everyone around him.
He goes to the Alamo because it needs to be done. That fight needs to be fought and he is the man to fight it.
That is a powerful archetype. You can see it repeated in multiple genres. That style of hero shows up again and again.
You see it in Doom. You might think you would see it in Elden Ring, which feels similar to Doom, but Elden Ring does not actually present that same kind of hero.
You want heroes you want to be. You want to be part of their story and experience that story, because that is what you want to happen in your own life.
Ruthless and Noble: The Essence of a First Turning Hero
Crockett is ruthless and noble.
He is noble in that he is a man of his word. The various Indian tribes know he is a man of his word, which is why they are willing to negotiate with him.
He is ruthless in that he is willing to fight with tomahawks man to man. That combination is the essence of the first turning combination.
That is very different from Elvis Presley, who is a second turning king. Maybe even more of a third turning king.
Elvis is about creative expression and challenging norms. He is about fighting stagnancy.
He shows up when everything around you has grown complacent and dead and fake and artificial. People start to feel like church is just a performance they are obligated to attend once a week. Elvis challenges that.
Justin is saying, “But Davy Crockett is real though.”
Davy Crockett is real, but he was also a myth even in his own day.
He was awesome, absolutely. The most recent Alamo movie actually captures this very well. It shows the real Davy Crockett going to a theater production about Davy Crockett and rolling his eyes the whole time.
The myth needed to exist. Davy Crockett just happened to be the best fit for that myth. He was a better fit than Daniel Boone, who was the earlier version of that figure.
You have Daniel Boone as the forerunner, the John the Baptist version of that myth. Davy Crockett is the ultimate version of that myth, and he persists.
For a long time Daniel Boone filled that role, then he was replaced by Davy Crockett, and no one has replaced Davy Crockett as that archetypal character.
Yes, he is a real person. But if you dig into the actual history, suddenly he has body odor, he makes mistakes, he makes judgment calls that are not perfect. That is not what we want from a first turning character.
We do not want the realistic, grounded, gritty, grim dark version where everyone is evil and depraved. We want the noble hero. We do not want to hear about the depravity. We want to hear about the nobility.
John Wayne as Fictional Crockett and the Three Texan “Nations”
So what is John Wayne to you then?
John Wayne is the fictional version of Crockett in every movie he is in.
Once Hollywood finds a formula, it will follow and copy that formula until every dollar is squeezed out of it.
John Wayne actually had, like Crockett did, a whole generation of men looking at him as the icon of what a man is supposed to be.
He literally played Davy Crockett in The Alamo, which is actually the best of the Alamo films in terms of capturing the spirit of the Alamo. It is not trying to be historically accurate, but it does a really good job connecting the three different nations that are represented in that story.
Let me connect this with my very first Zeitgeist episode, which was about the American nations and the different super regions in the United States.
Texas has three.
- The Deep South
- Appalachia
- El Norte
In The Alamo:
- The Deep South is represented by Travis. He is uptight, honorable, very much by the rules. Straight laced. “This is how it is going to be.”
- Appalachia is represented by Davy Crockett. He is rough and tumble and rugged and ruthless and willing to do whatever it takes to win.
- El Norte is represented by Jim Bowie. He is married to a Mexican woman who dies halfway through the story, which is a major turning point in the plot.
The conflicts between those three men capture the conflicts between those three nations, all of which are represented in the people of Texas.
Texas has southern cities like Dallas and Houston. Houston is Deep South. Fort Worth is more like greater Appalachia.
San Antonio is El Norte. It is a totally different place.
A lot of people have no concept of the El Norte flavor of Texas. San Antonio is like our gem that we keep to ourselves. We do not tell people about it.
It has a bigger party than Mardi Gras that is more fun and more family friendly, and almost as well attended as Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Nobody outside of Texas knows about it, because we do not make a big deal about it. We are happy to keep San Antonio to ourselves. Thank you very much.
You never see San Antonio featured in TV shows. You never see it featured in movies. It is one of the oldest cities in the country. It is older than the state of Texas. It is older than the United States. It has an amazing pedigree and a very different cultural influence.
What made that Alamo movie work so well is that it captured those regional differences. Three different men, in conflict the whole movie, represent those three different regions.
The movie is not about Texans versus Mexicans. It is about Appalachians versus Southerners versus El Norte.
Dune Part Two and the Ruthless Savior
Recently I watched Dune Part Two again. I really enjoyed it. I like both of the new Dune movies.
I hate what they did to Chani. We do not have to talk about that.
In the context of what we are discussing, Paul is represented as the ruthless hero in this one. He starts reluctant, but he is the chosen one. Then he gets the visions. He gains knowledge from taking the water. He turns into something ruthless.
He stalks into the middle of thousands of hostile Fremen and upends their traditions. He refuses to kill Stilgar in the way everyone thinks he should, in order to be allowed to speak.
He says, “No, this is wrong. We are going to do it my way, because I am the opener of the way.”
At the end of the movie he forces the emperor of the universe to kiss his ring. That is not something we usually associate with “good guys.”
This is a ruthless hero. This is a man who will change a decadent, stagnant, dying, oppressive world. The movie ends with war beginning.
The great houses in orbit refuse to acquiesce to him. So he says, “We are going to bring you to heel.”
And not just any war. A jihad that kills billions of people.
“We are going to change the world to save it.”
John Wick, Reacher, and Noble Dark Heroes
Paul has an interesting question. He says, “Would John Wick and the TV Reacher fall under the same style of hero?”
Those are not the same hero.
John Wick is reluctant, but he is acting out his own vengeance. He was a killer who tried to get out. There is no higher purpose.
He does get out. He marries his wife. His wife dies. She sends him a dog. Someone evil comes in and kills the dog.
It starts as a vengeance story, then turns into a survival story.
I love John Wick, but he is not the same archetype. He is more about how you should be treated as a man.
John Wick is not really a Zeitgeist story in the sense of embodying a specific turning. It is connected to a very core universal psychological motivator, which is vengeance.
You could say John Wick is the exact same movie as Taken, but with the daughter replaced by the dog.
No, I do not agree. It changes.
It starts with vengeance, but it becomes about how a man should be treated. What kind of man are you?
He just keeps going. He keeps going.
“I am out. I got to fix it. Now I am back. Now I did this, and now they are hunting me.”
“Yeah, I guess I am back.”
He is stuck trying to work inside this impossible world. John Wick 4 had an impossible task ahead of it, and they plot armored it hard.
He is still noble.
No, no, I am not saying he is ignoble. I think John Wick is a good man, but not in the way a first turning hero is good.
Part of me feels like John Wick is the last of the great third turning and fourth turning heroes. He is not noble in the sense of building something new. He is not fighting to create anything. He is not trying to rebuild the table and take it over.
He is just trying to destroy evil and get out.
He is not building. He is not taming the Wild Frontier. He is just destroying.
That is part of why the later John Wick films are not doing as well commercially as the earlier ones. That archetype of “destroy evil, period” is less appealing now than “destroy evil and build something good.”
People want the hero who destroys evil and then builds something that is good. Build your own assassin society built on honor or whatever you want to call it.
John Wick is not doing that. He is not trying to build something new. That makes him less appealing as a character in this moment.
Equilibrium is similar.
Equilibrium was the same way. Do you remember Equilibrium?
I have not seen that.
Oh, you should. You need to watch Equilibrium.
Equilibrium came out around the same time as The Matrix, which is why it got overshadowed. It is Christian Bale as a gun priest who does “gun-fu.”
The world is dystopian. Emotions have been banished. Everyone takes pills to suppress emotion. Bale’s character misses his dose. He starts feeling. There is an underground resistance.
He connects with the underground, but the underground does not have the power to break the system that oppresses everyone.
He does.
He has the training, the skills, and the ruthlessness to do it.
The whole movie is about the Tetragrammaton Clerics trying to stop Christian Bale from breaking everything.
That is a third turning movie. It treats the hero more as a weapon, the level of force needed to break the system so you can build something new.
The movie ends with him killing the main bad guy. Explosions go off as the resistance destroys the dose centers. The idea is that the population is released from the enslavement they have been under.
So where would you put Reacher in this?
Is Reacher trying to build anything?
No. Reacher is trying to enact justice within a restrictive system, but he has the courage to not be restrained by it.
The bad guys are the ones who use the system. They create and reinforce the system for their own benefit.
Reacher has the courage to stand against the system and suffer whatever consequences it tries to put on him.
I think you could say John Wick and Reacher are “noble dark.” As heroes, they are noble dark heroes.
John Wick is grim dark.
You think John Wick is grim dark?
Yeah. He is a dark man in a dark time, doing dark things in a dark world.
You are right in one sense. He is not a “good man” in the Davy Crockett sense. He tried to be good.
He is a dark man, but he is a good man who has done bad things.
That is an interesting question the story explores. He was a bad man. He got married, and his wife inspired him toward goodness. In his grief, and in seeking revenge, he forsook that goodness and went back to his dark life of ruthless brutality.
He is still honorable in the sense that he does not kill everyone at the nightclub. He only kills the bad guys at the nightclub, but he kills all of the bad guys at the nightclub. So many headshots. There is no mercy.
By John Wick 2 you start asking, “Why are you still running this way?”
You can also see how our appetite for this kind of hero is changing.
AI, Archetypes, and Creating the Next Great Hero
We only got to a fraction of the stories I wanted to cover. I had a whole bunch of AI stories. We did not get to them, other than the existential dread question.
Is AI coming for our jobs?
The answer is yes. It is coming for jobs around you. Whether the AI grim reaper comes for you is up to you.
Will you use AI to survive, or will you be culled?
This whole conversation has been really interesting. I am enjoying your comments.
If you want to comment more on this, I took my Davy Crockett thoughts and posted a whole piece on authoria.social. You can explore it there.
Understanding where the puck is heading is crucial. If you were going to create a new character, creating a new John Wick is not the right move. He is a character who is losing steam.
A character built on the Crockett archetype is gaining steam.
Crockett is not dark. He is ruthless and noble, but he does not have that same darkness in his core. As an archetype, he is seeking the good, the true, and the beautiful, and he is willing to do hard things to achieve them.
We often use the word “hard” instead of “ruthless.” “Hard man” fits better for some people. People hear “ruthless” and attach negative connotations.
Crockett is a hard man so that when the bad guy steps up, Davy Crockett does not move.
Yeah.
Crockett does have mercy, so you could argue that “ruthless” does not fully apply.
I still like the word “ruthless” because it is so challenging to our value system.
None of the Marvel heroes, at least in the cinematic universe, are ruthless in that sense.
They kind of are. Captain America was chucking dudes out of the plane.
True. But it is why they will not make a Punisher movie, and why they keep scrapping the Blade movie.
Those are ruthless heroes. The current Disney leadership is uncomfortable with a ruthless Punisher. If you take the ruthlessness out of the Punisher, you remove the Punisher from the story.
You can give a ruthless hero a point of hope to keep him human.
- John Wick has his dog, which is his memory of his wife.
- Batman has Robin.
You can have points of light within the darkness.
The Crockett archetype is different. He is not grim dark. He is a hard, noble, frontier hero who fights evil and builds something good.
As we move from the fourth turning into the first, that is the style of hero people are going to want again.
