{ { DISPLAYTITLE:Mythology of Carnivàle}}Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression. The series traces the disparate storylines of a young carnival worker named Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin Crowe, a preacher in California. The overarching story is built around a good and evil theme, which serves as a human-scaled metaphor within a complex structure of myth and allegory. Samson, the carnival's dwarf manager, sets up the show's mythology with a prologue in the pilot episode, talking of "a creature of light and a creature of darkness" being born "to each generation" preparing for a final battle.
Most mythological elements in Carnivàle relate to so-called Avatars (or Creatures of Light and Darkness), fictional human-like beings with supernatural powers who embody good and evil. In its first season Carnivàle does not reveal its characters as Avatars beyond insinuation, and makes the nature of suggested Avatars a central question. By the second season it is established that Ben is a Creature of Light and Brother Justin a Creature of Darkness. Other than through the characters, the show's good-and-evil theme manifests in the series' contemporary religion, the Christian military order Knights Templar, tarot divination, and in historical events like the Dustbowl and humankind's first nuclear test. Show creator Daniel Knauf did not respond to questions about the mythology but did provide hints about the mythological structure to online fandom both during and after the two-season run of Carnivàle. Nevertheless, many of the intended clues remained unnoticed by viewers. Knauf left fans a production summary of Carnivàle's first season two years after cancellation. This so-called Pitch Document, originally written to give HBO and Knauf's co-writers an overview of the intended storyline, backed up and expanded upon the assumed mythological rules.
Avatars
The term Avatar (also spelled Avatara) originates in Hindu mythology, where it most commonly refers to the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of a higher being or the Supreme Being on Earth. Carnivàle's story never clearly establishes the meaning of this term, yet HBO and the writers used the term interchangeably with the Creatures of Light and Darkness of the series' opening monologue. The series portrays Avatars as human-like beings with supernatural powers who embody good and evil, and whose constant and age-long struggle serves to explain the Dark Ages and Ages of Enlightenment in humanity's history in the real world. Carnivàle represents this Avataric duality as Light and Dark in several instances. The surnames of the main characters, Ben Hawkins and Justin Crowe, suggest a symbolic link to hawks and crows, the winged Creatures of Light and Dark. The last two Tarot cards seen in the [[Carnivàle#Opening title sequence|Carnivàles opening title sequence]] are "The Sun" and "The Moon", standing for God and the Devil. By the same token, the show's title card and the logo of the carnival depict a sun placed opposite a moon. Show creator Daniel Knauf designed this logo.
Characteristics
The characters Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin Crowe are revealed to be Avatars through the usage of their supernatural powers; however, viewers did not find it immediately apparent whether a suspected Avatar served as good or evil. The series gave clues, such as depicting the Creatures of Darkness with coal-black eyes (according to Daniel Knauf, Creatures of Light have an invisible aura). An Avatar's nature is determined by the type and application of his powers. As the Pitch Document states, Avatars draw their talents and powers from the same pool. These abilities may vary in type and strength, and include but are not limited to the manipulation and transfer of life force, spiritual healings, telekinesis and telepathy, and granting small measures of powers to a mortal. Although the series showed the powers of Ben and Brother Justin, reviewers were still unsure about the main characters' Avataric nature by the end of the first season. When Ben's good nature and Justin's dark heritage became clearer in Season 2, reviewers began to describe Carnivàle's underlying message as "essentially the opposite of spiritual belief: fatalism". Daniel Knauf disputed any theory of determinism, and repeatedly pointed to the characters' free will to overcome their destiny. Free choice allows the story to portray Avatars as deliberately not making use of their powers or as acting contrary to their nature; an Avatar would however still have to put consistent effort into not lapsing back into his defined moral behavior.