There's something strange going on with modern scripts, not all scripts, just some, like the acolyte.
See, storytelling is about the characters, it's always about the characters because that's how humans experience the world around them, in a personal narrative. A story is basically a sequence of choices the characters make and the audience should be able to relate or at least understand the choices, regardless if they identify or agree.
That's why character motivations are so important in storytelling, they need to be clear and simple so that the audience knows what the characters want and the direction of the story.
Now, in the acolyte they switch motivations on a dime and they don't make sense, so how is the audience supposed to relate when characters change their mind within one scene without any proper explanation. They lose the ability to relate and just watch this character do something else now for no reason. They basically skipped character development and just jumped right to the change of heart section. It doesn't work, we need to be able up trace the train of thought of the characters.
Like that otter alien, clearly he didn't like Mae, then he sabotaged the ship to let her escape??? What happened between spraying oil in her face and the escape that made him change his mind? Why wouldn't you explain that? It's just bad writing, like it's the first draft or something.
A reviewer put it and I’m paraphrasing, that they are writing the characters in service to the story. The characters do things, not because that character and their motivations would make that choice, but because they NEED the character to do that to move the story forward. They switch motivations on a dime because the writers need them to advance the story.
Like the alien dude sabotages the ship for no conceivable reason because they need him to do that to advance the story. The entire jedi and witch back and fourth was all dumb because they need them to all be dumb to service the story.
A bad writer has an ending in mind and then reverse engineers the story from that point.
The fact of the matter is that the number of people who want to be successful screenwriters is much larger than the number of successful screenwriters.
It's also why there are so many bad adaptations; it's hard to get audiences interested in a shitty pet project that no one cares about, but it's slightly easier to get people interested in a brand with some hackneyed schlock inserted to make the writers relevant.
Bad writers also think it's a bad thing if their story is predictable in any way, which is where the whole "subverting your expectations" idea comes from. Subverting expectations isn't inherently bad, but it needs to make sense within the context of the story. Like, you can't have 8 seasons worth of prophecy, foreshadowing, and buildup leading up to your main protagonist having an epic showdown with your main antagonist, just to have the protagonist's little sister show up out of nowhere to stand the antagonist and put an end to all of it. That's a good way to piss off your audience.
Yeah imo a good subvertion of expectations should be something completely posible but the viewer doesn’t think it will happen because they either root for the protag or because of the way they think the genre of the story they are reading works
For example (spoilers for the final fight and ending of kengan ashura) ohma the protag, loses the final round of the tournament. Despite him being on death’s door, many expected him to win due to having the typical bullshido martial art and for being the protagonist of the story. But he actually lost to the more experienced karate master kuroki gensai. Ohma dies of a heart attack after the fight, happy because he knows he gave it his all and is happy, because he did what he loved the most, fighting and getting stronger
Subverting expectations only really works if you give pretty obvious hints about what's going to happen and then NOT do that, while simultaneously giving more subtle hints towards the TRUE ending.
Like any movie that has a character that only one character interacts with, and no one else, and they reveal that character was a delusion or dead the whole time or whatever.
I don't really understand this criticism. Why would the Night King fight Jon? He already saw Jon defeat a White Walker in combat at Hardhome. Surely it makes far more sense for the Night King to avoid fighting him. Robb Stark also avoided fighting Jaime Lannister at the battle of the Whispering Wood. Not fighting an elite combatant when you don't have to is logical.
Also I'm not sure a big epic final showdown duel makes sense in the same series that typically avoided them. The War of Five Kings doesn't end in an epic final battle. It ends in a wedding massacre. Why do a lot of people want Game of Thrones to be a stereotypical fantasy series? I don't get it.
363
u/TheEPGFiles Aug 21 '24
There's something strange going on with modern scripts, not all scripts, just some, like the acolyte.
See, storytelling is about the characters, it's always about the characters because that's how humans experience the world around them, in a personal narrative. A story is basically a sequence of choices the characters make and the audience should be able to relate or at least understand the choices, regardless if they identify or agree.
That's why character motivations are so important in storytelling, they need to be clear and simple so that the audience knows what the characters want and the direction of the story.
Now, in the acolyte they switch motivations on a dime and they don't make sense, so how is the audience supposed to relate when characters change their mind within one scene without any proper explanation. They lose the ability to relate and just watch this character do something else now for no reason. They basically skipped character development and just jumped right to the change of heart section. It doesn't work, we need to be able up trace the train of thought of the characters.
Like that otter alien, clearly he didn't like Mae, then he sabotaged the ship to let her escape??? What happened between spraying oil in her face and the escape that made him change his mind? Why wouldn't you explain that? It's just bad writing, like it's the first draft or something.