July 21, 2005

TV Tropes & Idioms - Frequently used plots and devices.
posted by Chyren 19 years ago
  • You're an idiom.
  • "Characters struggle to survive in a familiar environment that has suddenly become dangerous. Some characters must deal with situations outside of their expertise, because the appropriate person is unavailable." The correct answer is... (a) The Poseidon Adventure plot (b) Metafilter
  • Bravo!
  • Frequently is an understatement. God I hate television.
  • key sentence: The idea is to provide a resource for writers to spark ideas. Finding a cliché to subvert is always fun this is a resource, and quite a useful one, not a "gee tv sure sucks lets all be superior and listen to NPR" site.
  • Might be useful to anyone still enjoying RPGs around a table.
  • Well, I posted it as a writer's resource. You'll find me doing that occasionally. But having said that, there are only 30-40 elements and a handful of plots in drama, and the Greeks already covered 'em all; we just remix 'em and put 'em in new costumes. This here is either a guide to what to avoid, or a blueprint for avoiding this week's looming script deadline.
  • 'Tis good. I would have preferred to see it called "narrative..." instead of "TV...", but I'm not really griping. And if anyone dares to suggest there are only 7 plots, I will shriek. I will.
  • No, about 12. ;)
  • Overly crude and reductive assertion which would have (for example) Hippolytus and Frankenstein in the same category -- if, that is, you consider a) man commits hybris b) is punished for his presumption to be a "plot", which I would suggest it is in only the most minimal sense. Further, the most interesting and, gasp, novel aspects of Frankenstein (or approximately 90% of it) are those which fall entirely outside of this schema. We've covered this before, btw. On preview -- thank you, skrik.
  • Frankenstein's monster would be a twist on the tale of Pygmalion, Wol. ;) Or Talos, even. Perhaps Baron Frankenstein can be equated with Asclepius. (No, I don't really think there are that few archetypal plots or elements, but I certainly think they're finite)
  • There are only two plots, according to some. The Odyssey, and The Crucifixion.
  • Oh, that Jesus thing was a total ripoff of Krishna.