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Thursday, January 19, 2017

The meta story (not at all worked out idea)

Long have I wanted to do a story where people just call things what they are in a very meta/Doyalist way.  If you don't get that, go to the embedded video at the end of this, watch it, grok it in fullness, and come back.

Things like,
"We have to get the plot device and Mcguffin before the Nazi-Stand-in Evil Empire if we want to win this contrived and unrealistic conflict without doing any of the work that would usually go into defeating an empire."

"Well the only way we'll have a chance is if we use [Incredible Ship whose appearance is much derided]."
"What's so great about Incredible but Labled-Ugly Ship?"

"It's fast.  Superlatively fast."

"How fast?"

"It moves at the speed of plot, it always gets us their in a nick of time."
And
"I've been thinking."

"Dangerous indeed."

"Why did Generic Bad Guys not do Really Obvious Thing that would have collapsed our entire Unrealistic Plan?"

"That's a Plot Hole, if you fall into it you might never get out, but more importantly, if you think about it, it could expand and destroy our entire Narrative."
Except, perhaps, even more meta.

Lonespark suggested this as an example of using an existing narrative as a base:
Gandalf: It is in men we must place our hope.

Elrond: Men?  Men are weak.  The race of Men is failing. The blood of Númenor is all but spent; its pride and dignity forgotten.

It is because of Men the Ring survives. I was there Gandalf. I was there three thousand years ago . . .
*Flashback*
… when Isildur took the Ring. I was there the day the strength of Men failed.

I led Isildur into the heart of Mount Doom, where the Ring was forged, the one place it could be destroyed.  It should've ended that day, but evil was allowed to endure.

Isildur kept the Ring. The line of kings is broken. There is no strength left in the world of Men.
I don't remember what we discussed, so I'm just going to wing it here:
It is on Target Audience we must depend.

Target Audience?  I insult Target Audience.  Ominous declaration regarding entirety of Target Audience.  The Inheriting Medium from Good Mythical Precursor Race is almost gone; its Good Things forgotten.

It is because of Target Audenice that the McGuffin still exists.  I was there Powerful and Mysterious Old Guy.  I was there Unit Of Time ago . . .  Flashback . . . when Mythical Precursor took the McGuffin.  I was there when Good Attribute of Target Audience broke down.

I led Mythical Precursor to McGuffin Destination, where the McGuffin was created, the one place it could be destroyed.  The Plot should have reached its conclusion in that Interval of Time, but Bad Thing survived.

Mythical Precursor kept the McGuffin.  The Important Succession Thing has ended.  There is no Good Attribute remaining in the Domain of Target Audience.
Or something like that.  Don't have all the kinks worked out yet.

-0-We have to get irritable but critical individual to join our cause.

"Remember, whatever happens, don't do the reckless and stupid thing."
*later*
"You did the reckless and stupid thing!?"

So on, so forth.

-

Here's the trailer (content note for ableist language and, of course, the stereotypes it makes fun of):

2 comments:

  1. Wheee this is super fun I love it!

    It makes me have vague thoughts about scripting and memes and tropes and such. I've written a few vaguely related posts:

    http://lonespark.dreamwidth.org/70736.html "Quotes"

    http://lonespark.dreamwidth.org/60045.html "Ham and Burr at Weehauken"

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  2. "if we want to win this contrived and unrealistic conflict without doing any of the work that would usually go into defeating an empire."

    This? Brilliant. It's not that the world will end if the million-to-one plan fails, it's that the main characters will fall through the resulting plot hole into a more realistic version of the story, where several decades worth of complex, multisided conflict can't be instantly fixed by blowing up the Load-Bearing Bad Guy.

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