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jessiarts · 1 month ago

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Ok, so you guys know by now that I post art, what you may not know is that I also write a little- though I've not posted a whole lot of it here (because I hardly ever finish writing anything 😅)

Anyway I wanted to share some fantasy writing ideas (tips?) with you all- specifically in the oh-so-popular revolution genre.

Like anyone, I also enjoy watching the trope of the Good Guys overthrowing the Tyrannical/Dystopian Government. It's an exciting story, with a satisfying ending! There's a dramatic revolution and The Evil King gets overthrown and the people rejoice. They're stories of hope and resistance, and of standing up for what's right.

However, I do wish more stories would explore the other ways a revolution can happen. I feel like we're sleeping on some really compelling and interesting storylines here!

But before we get into those, let's break down some history and the reason most "Overthrow the Tyrant" movies usually end right after our heroes win and we only get a brief glance of how the sun is shining down upon all the people again before the credits roll. (besides the fact that the Bad Guy is dead the story is over lol) The first thing you'll want to know is that, historically, the violent, dramatic, revolutions typically aren't as successful or sustainable as the movies make them seem. In fact, movies have the unfortunate side effect of giving many rose-colored glasses to what revolution looks like. Hence the reason the movie usually ends right after our heroes win the "glorious battle," because to write what often happens after (historically) would probably put a bit of a downer on the story... Anyway, the afterward usually looks like:

Dramatic overthrow often leads to more oppressive systems:

The leader(s) of said dramatic revolution will often gain all the power for themselves- and that rarely ends well as they are often grossly under-prepared and under-qualified for everything that needs to be done to run not only a stable political system, but a stable society in general.

No one knows who's in charge, and this leads to chaos. Typically said leaders (and followers) of such revolutions have (usually well-meaning) ideas and visions of freedom and prosperity- but no plans on how to make that happen safely- or at all. This can lead to in-fighting from within the new regime as the new government fights over who should be in power- which typically results in further corruption of systems. (i.e: economic, judicial, the military, etc.)

To use the French Revolution as an example, seeing as people love to reference it so much lately, the revolutionaries succeeded in overthrowing the French Monarchy, but the new government they replaced it with only brought about more violence, fear, paranoia, corruption of systems, famine, and the death of tens of thousands of innocent people.

The violence typically does not stop with "Those in Power."

Again, we saw this in the French Revolution. After the beheading of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette came what is known as the "Reign of Terror." To sum up, the revolutionaries' anger didn't end- killing the monarchy wasn't enough. They also came for the priests, anyone with wealth, and anyone else they considered to have "Elite" status. (This included, but was not limited to: People who owned a business, Librarians, Educators, Those who even just had an education and/or could read, writers/artists/musicians) They also went after pretty much anyone else who opposed, or was even rumored to have opposed, the New Republic.

Also, more often than not the most vulnerable (the elderly, the disabled, young children/single mothers, etc) get left out in the gutter as they often depended on the previous systems (i.e: healthcare, food, sanitation, and many others) to survive, even flawed they were under the previous regime. When the systems then further under-perform, or even disappear, because the new leaders are busy figuring everything out, discovering all the intricacies of various systems they weren't prepared for, and/or appointing those under-qualified to run them which often leads to further corruption of said systems, many innocent people do just… die.

The new regime fails and society collapses:

Due to this instability, these new regimes become vulnerable to collapse or external threats, leaving them short lived with a trail of tragedy in their wake.

To once again use the French Revolution as an example, while the New Republic was struggling Napoleon Bonaparte ravaged Italy, Egypt, and other countries. When he returned to Paris, he and other leaders staged a coup. (And, despite him being a fierce Tyrant, many in France still considered him a hero- if that tells you anything about how the New Republic was going)

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(I know that was a lot- I really did try to make it shorter 😅) Now, none of this is to discourage you from writing another Dramatic "Overthrow the King" type of Revolution story! I'm not trying to say any of these stories are dumb or invalid just because they may or may not 100% adhere to our historical reality! They very much do have a place in literature and education- they appeal to hope and standing up for what's right, and that is SO important! But I do encourage you to keep the above points in mind when writing yours! It could make for a infinitely compelling story!) Moving on to that point- if you want to try writing a different kind of revolution or rebellion story, historically the more successful and sustainable ones happen gradually. Again, I know the "glorious overthrow of the evil tyrant" is a very interesting and exciting story- but don't underestimate the drama of a gradual revolution! Sometimes the biggest causes of change happen when no one is looking!

This can look like a combination of the following:

Revolutionaries working from inside the current political systems to make them better.

Yes, these unfortunately do usually take longer than a giant dramatic overthrow of The Evil King, but in the end the result is usually better for those who rely on essential systems (again, like food and healthcare) because the systems improve over time, instead of disappearing completely with nothing to replace it, leaving those dependent in the gutter with nowhere else to turn to. (i.e: those who need medicine won't suddenly find themselves cut off with no way to access what they need to survive.)

I thought this was actually touched on pretty well in Carnival Row- especially in season 2- even if we didn't get to see a whole lot of it (we were so robbed of a third season! 😭)

Picture maybe a young woman who's worked her way into the system finding ways to make the changes she wants to see- and part of the reason it works is because she's able to get the rest of the kingdom to believe and put public pressure on her colleagues and others in charge to make the changes. Or even a man who's basically been handed his position due to circumstances of his birth, coming to see the injustices and, because he knows the ins and outs like the back of his hand, finding ways to manipulate his selfish elder colleagues into doing the right thing.

Everyday, ordinary, people helping each other and getting involved in their own communities.

Townspeople coming together and finding ways to support each other. This can look like the townspeople collectively boycotting certain greedy merchants until they lower the prices of their goods, and trading goods and knowledge among themselves so as to become less dependent on said less-honorable merchants. Maybe they form community gardens and/or collaborate directly with the farmers. They all help to grow the food and feed each other for free, and teach each other how to preserve the food for the oncoming winter- creating a plentiful food bank.

This can also look like things where the people in your story know the laws are corrupt, and they choose not to help their government punish those arrested for BS crimes, or for crimes one might consider justified, like those committed in self-defense on behalf of oneself or others. (IRL I believe we call this "jury nullification"- but you can find something else to call it in your story!) That might look like, I don't know, one of your characters having murdered the owner of the town apothecary for hoarding all the life saving potions (which he didn't even make) for himself and forcing the citizens to fork over their homes in payment if they want even one vial because they don't want grandma to die- and the rest of the town pulling an "I'm Spartacus" moment so that character won't be arrested for the crime because they all know the Apothecary Owner was wrong and was hurting the community.

People watching out for each other, especially for those most at risk of being victimized by a tyrannical government. Let's say a Mad King wants to gather up a certain group of people and force them into work houses. The subjects of said kingdom might decide they won't stand for that, and either help hide them until they can escape, and/or warn them when they see the carriages of the royal guard coming to seize and take said people away. (Remember Anne Frank and her family? Or the Underground Railroad? Kinda like that.) Or, say the citizens are pressured to rat out their neighbors- told to report any "foreigners" to the constable so they could be arrested and sent away. However, everyone instead decides to waste the King's time by reporting the King's Royal Advisor to the constable as a "foreigner" instead, causing the king to give up on that endeavor.

My favorite though might have to be where the characters manage to help reform the oppressive regime through collective tiny acts of weaponized incompetence- probably because this trope is so versatile! (And also funny!)

Picture a man (for some reason Detective Benoit Blanc comes to mind lol) who accepts a position in the royal court as one of the king's courtiers or advisers or assistants. Only he hates the king and everything he stands for- so he just starts making really dumb mistakes- on purpose.

He passes along instructions from the king ever so slightly wrong- or in a deliberately confusing way, so that when the task gets done incorrectly- Oops! The game of telephone has struck again! The cook must have just misunderstood him- they provided Boysenberrys for beggars outside the palace, instead of the Poisoned Sherry the king had requested!

Or he's meant to pass along a letter to the kingdom's best weapon maker, but it never makes it to it's destination. Maybe he accidentally set it down on the wrong pile of papers and it's now been thrown away! Or perhaps it got lost in the mail! Don't worry- tomorrow he'll definitely make sure to get that order in for the new weapons for the king's guards. (Only wouldn't you know it, the best weapon maker in the kingdom left yesterday to visit family three countries over! Oh darn- if only Medieval Benoit Blanc had remembered to pass that message along to the king last week!)

He's got such a charming personality that the King never punishes him for all his faults (at least never harshly)- believing that there's just been a string of bad luck going about. After all, Medieval Benoit Blanc always feels sooo bad that he's practically drawn to tears whenever he realizes one of these shortcomings might have been his fault! Especially that time when the king instructed him to go to the library and tell them to get rid of any copies of scrolls that contained history of the old king- and Medieval Benoit Blanc mistakenly told the librarian that the king requested they give copies away to the public...

Or, picture a woman who's taken on a job as a guard in the prison of a corrupt Queen who throws anyone with red hair into prison, forcing them to perform labor for their "crimes." Our hero knows this isn't right, and decides to take matters into her own hands.

One day a prisoner is set to be executed- but darn, she can't find the paperwork anywhere to tell her which one! Looks like execution is delayed until we can get this sorted!

The next day one of the older prisoners fails to meet her quota of hats knitted. The guard knows the punishment is meant to be a beating- but oh shoot, her club just got snapped in the door. It's useless now. Guess this prisoner gets off easy today!

Then another night a door is left open... must have been that fiddly lock again- this castle is so old, after all! But gosh, that allowed about 15 prisoners to escape into the night right under their noses! The guards are so understaffed, you know- Any of them was bound to doze off during their watch eventually!

Maybe she also has friends among the guards, who begin to quietly follow her lead, also uneased by the Queen's decline into corruption. Oops- a key has gone missing- Oh no! Another prisoner has escaped! Oops- someone forgot to sweep up the horse dung- Oh no! The meanest guard slipped on one pile and fell face first into another, bigger, pile- and is going to be leaving for the day! Oh no- there was a terrible accident near the torch barrels! No one knows what happened, but that one guard who was In Charge of Torturing seems to have accidentally set himself ablaze and will no longer be with us!

In these cases we'd see multiple characters working in various systems subtly weaponizing their weaponized incompetence, of course. It really helps to build a web of overlapping story lines of all these characters failing spectacularly. Bonus points if you add peeks at how the Bad Leader is just pulling out their hair because nothing is going right no matter what they do- there's always something falling apart somewhere!

Or, you could take the funny route, where a guy genuinely is trying his best at his new job- but he just can't seem to get it right no matter how hard he tries! Becomes a folk hero by the end of the story completely on accident. Picture Mr. Bean getting a job aboard the Death Star. Or Mr. Bean getting a job inside The Capitol of Panem. Or Mr. Bean getting a job... literally anywhere.

Paperwork is getting lost or destroyed.

Machines are breaking down because maintenance was forgotten, or done incorrectly.

Computers are rendered useless because he tripped with his coffee- and someone forgot to make backups of the information stored on them.

Servers get unplugged because he tripped on the cord- and they stay down for hours because it never occurred to him to check that everything was still plugged in.

Other workers quit because they just can't deal with his shenanigans anymore.

They would fire him, but they're short staffed so they just can't get rid of him! Also he's somehow the only one who knows how this one specific thing works and it'd cost too much to train someone else.

Somehow he winds up getting promoted- and things only get worse.

Again, I'm not saying the type of revolution stories we're most used to are bad or anything- but I do believe we're missing out on some really interesting storylines by adhering mostly to the model of "Evil King took over years ago with little to no opposition, and ruled everyone with fear until a Group of Special People decided "No More!" and stormed the castle with an Epic Battle, dethroned the king, and now everyone can Rejoice!"

I know there must be more stories that explore other types of revolution or rebellion, but we just don't really see that much of it in the mainstream, and when we do it's not really the main focus, usually written to be more of a b-plot to the Big Boss Battle- and honestly I think we're missing out. (To a point it also almost feels like propaganda- like we're being taught that there's absolutely no way anyone can oppose or fight back against tyranny and win, without "the chosen one" organizing and fighting a big boss battle for everyone.)

I want to see more stories where everyday people are making it hard for Tyrants to even get into power by saying no, and absolutely refusing to comply in advance. I want to see stories where the heroes make the regimes of Evil Tyrants crumble from within simply by making it hard for them to get literally anything done. I want to see stories where the our heroes manipulate their old cronie colleagues into passing laws that help the people of the kingdom by any means necessary, even if that means beating them at their own games and choking them with their own metaphorical red tape. (Again, if I'm remembering it correctly, I feel Carnival Row actually did a nice job of showing this happening as a decent part of the plot)

I want to see Mr. Bean get a job building the second Death Star- and watch it never get built because he keeps losing the building plans, and fucking up the material orders, and losing the keys to the heavy machinery, and accidentally ejecting the assembly droids out the airlock.

Anyway, I know this was all really long. Sorry about that- I got a little carried away thinking about all the different characters and the possibilities for the parts they may play in a rebellion story 😅

I'm going to try to post more of my writings here sometime- let me know if you guys want anymore story ideas along this kind of genre. Maybe someday I'll even turn one of the above ideas into a drabble if anyone is interested lol

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