#narrative consistency

[canonical-transformation]

*sudden realization*

remember when you linked the *possibility* of lisa’s future death to the fact that she doesn’t appear in noelle’s hangout event (even though most of the other knights of favonius do), because it would mess with the logistics of the game, since hangout events can be replayed at any time, and it wouldn’t make sense for an already dead character to show up in one?

what if that’s why she doesn’t have a TCG card?

Asgsdglksfhdjkjfsg

I am eyeing Childe and Lisa's missing cards with great suspicion

[ancientroyalblood]

How to Write a Series: Planning and Execution

Writing a series requires more than just a compelling first story. It takes thoughtful planning, character development, and a strong sense of direction to keep readers invested book after book. Whether you’re dreaming up an epic fantasy, a mystery saga, or a sci-fi adventure, crafting a series allows you to create a larger, more immersive world. But it also presents unique challenges that single…

[words-and-threads]

So...for Reasons, it is very important in this particular bg3 playthrough that, rather than deciding to go into the crypt, my party just happens to fall in through the cracked floor and get into a fight with the rest of Gimblebock's crew. I am essentially trying not to metagame: my Tav has no reason to go tomb raiding right now, nor to pick fights with random strangers. I want the loot and an in game explanation for the mummy in my camp. The collapsing floor was a bit of narrative convenience.

I know this CAN happen. Or rather it could. I have repeated the process a few times previously. I know that you can break the floor intentionally and jump down, but that isn't what happened. I just ran over it and we broke through.

I fear this may have been patched out. I've been running over that floor for 20 minutes.

So do I break it on purpose and lie to myself about what happened, just go in the main door and do the damn fight, or propose that someone smarter than my Tav (not difficult) found one of the 2 alternate ways in and the party considered it a good use of their very limited time? Because I don't like that either.

OR do they leave the crypt alone entirely? And Withers just shows up because fuck you that's why. He sensed our presence and went "well, time for this bullshit."

I'm leaning toward jumping down and pretending we fell. It's the funniest option by far and Tommy is nothing if not a walking farce.

[docexe-mx]

Basically, what ultimately matters in a story is not realism but “narrative consistency”. 

You can establish in your fictional world that “2+2=5”, which is obviously not true in our real world, but in a fictional setting, it absolutely CAN be. Of course, if you do that, then every subsequent time that someone in the story brings up “2+2” it has to be “=5”. You have to respect the rules you have already established for your fictional universe, otherwise you risk breaking the audience “suspension of disbelief”.

Now, that being said, there are certain types of works where you can actually disregard narrative consistency. In particular, stories where the primary aim is to produce a surreal or comedic effect, as the nonsensical and the absurd are very useful tools to make the audience laugh or to otherwise unsettle them. 

It’s the reason why, for example, old classic cartoons often don’t follow a particular narrative logic, given their primary aim is to ultimately make the audience laugh. So, depending on what’s the primary aim of your story, there will be occasions where you can indeed break your previously established rules.

However, if your aim is to produce a story that’s meant to be taken seriously, then yes, you have to abide by narrative consistency as much as you can.

I think it’s interesting to look at a moment from a movie or show or something and go “in real life, it would actually happen like this” (for example, explaining how ace attorney cases would actually go down in a real courtroom) but the second you start acting like something being unrealistic for the sake of the plot is inherently a bad thing then I kill you I kill you I kill you

[moonsun2010]

5 June - The Dracula Drought begins

a redraw of this art from DD2023!

[monriatitans]

Realism is Bad, Actually

Offset your carbon footprint on Wren: https://wren.co/start/zoebee The first 100 people who sign up will have 10 extra trees planted in their name!

* Description: * We say we love "realistic" fiction like Batman, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Horizon: Forbidden West. We say we love when our characters "act like real people" and "have realistic dialogue." But it's worth asking: Are these things ACTUALLY realistic? And if not, is realism even worth trying to capture?

* chapters: * 00:00:00 - Intro: Concrete Monsters 00:04:17 - Part 1: Using Realism 00:10:34 - Part 2: Investigating Realism 00:17:27 - Part 3: Criticizing Realism 00:40:32 - Intermission 00:43:17 - Part 4: Replacing Realism 00:59:16 - Conclusion: Sounds Good 01:08:39 - Outro & Poem

* Sources: * ---Books ------“Gamic Realism”: Player, Perception and Action in Video Game Play - Hanna Sommerseth ------Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds - Jesper Juul ------Hunting the Dark Knight - Will Brooker ------Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist - James Gurney ------Maps of the Imagination - Peter Turchi ------Method and Madness - Alice LaPlante ------reality tv: realism and revelation - Anita Biressi and Heather Nunn ------Rules of Play - Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen ------The American Monomyth -  Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence ------The Militarization of Childhood - ed. J. Marshall Beier ------The Rules of Play - Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman ------What is Cinema? - Andre Bazin 

---Articles ------“A Grounded Investigation of Game Immersion” - Emily Brown and Paul Cairns ------“Foley Sounds vs Real Sounds” - Stefano Trento and Amalia De Götzen ------“Footsteps with character: the art and craft of Foley” - Benjamin Wright ------“Making fictions sound real – On film sound, perceptual realism and genre” - Birger Langkjær ------“Perceived realism and the CSI-effect” - Logan A. Ewanation, Susan Yamamoto, Jordan Monnink & Evelyn M. Maeder ------“Reading Realism: Audiences’ Evaluations fo the Reality of Media Texts” - Alice Hall ------“Realism in FIFA? How social realism enabled platformed racism in a video game” - Sam Srauy and John Cheney-Lippold ------“Selling Marvel's Cinematic Superheroes through Militarization” - Brett Pardy ------“Skeleton Keys: Teaching the Fiction of Narrative Truth” - Douglas P. Felter ------“Social Realism in Gaming” - Alexander R. Galloway ------“The One Measure of True Love Is: You Can Insult the Other” (Interview) - Sabine Reul and Thomas Deichman ------“The Perceived Realism of African American Portrayals on Television” - Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter ------“Videogames of the oppressed: critical thinking, education, tolerance and other trivial issues” - Gonzalo Frasca 

---Videos ------"Reality Isn’t Always Right" - Solar Sands (   • Reality Isn't Alw...  )  ------"SHUT UP ABOUT PLOT HOLES" - Patrick (H) Willems (   • SHUT UP ABOUT PLO...  )  ------"What's the Point of R-Rated Superheroes?" - Patrick (H) Willems (   • What's the Point ...  ) ------"Why Do We Care if Movies Are "Realistic?" - Patrick (H) Willems (   • Why Do We Care if...  )  ------“MASSIVE sound design breakdown of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” - INDEPTH Sound Design (   • MASSIVE sound des...  ) 

* Further Watching: * ---"How Animal Sounds Are Made For Movies And TV | Movies Insider" - Movie Insider (   • How Animal Sounds...  )  ---"Does Representation Matter?" - Legal Kimchi (   • Does Representati...  ) 

* quote reads (in order of appearance) * ---Caelan Conrad ------Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaelanConrad ------YouTube:   / caelanconrad   ---Mica (Ponderful) ------Twitter: https://twitter.com/PonderfulYT ------YouTube:   / @ponderfulyt   ---Little Hoot ------Twitter: https://twitter.com/hoot_little ------YouTube:   / littlehoot   ---Aranock ------Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aranock1 ------YouTube:   / @aranock   

* edited by Charlie Flowers * YouTube:   / @xxinrealtimexx   Twitter: https://twitter.com/xXinrealtimeXx 

* To Support Me: * ---Become a channel Member! ➤   / @zoe_bee   ---Join the Patreon! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/zoe_bee ---Make a one-time donation! ➤ https://ko-fi.com/zoebee ---Join the Discord! ➤ https://discord.gg/8GBmS9Qug9 ---Check out my second channel! ➤   / @zoecee   ---Watch my D&D game! ➤   / @thejaycorn   ---Watch my Blades in the Dark game! ➤ https://www.twitch.tv/itucrew 

(disclaimer: This video was sponsored by Wren.)

[demigods-posts]

i am not understanding rick's thought process behind the characters consistent mockery of percy's intelligence. especially in light of knowing that the characters do value percy as a friend and demigod. he was the child of the prophecy. he jumped into the river styx to better prepare for defending olympus. he used his gods-given wish to build a better future for demigods. he plays an active role as camp counselor at chb and is a respected confidant at cj. he is evidently held in high regard in his absense. but the surrounding characters seem to treat his presence like a hinderance to their peace. it's rather disappointing to read.

[nicollekidman]

it’s so. good. that buffy has to feel self loathing about what she’s doing with spike specifically because the underpinnings of the show require that vampires be Bad Monster Creatures who Cannot Feel and are just Lifeless Demons otherwise everything comes into question. about everything. except that spike is the crack in the foundation of the show itself and in that, he makes the show better! he’s the only end that makes sense for her because he sets her free!!!

[daisyssousa]

daniel sousa character development from agent carter ⇆ agents of shield

@lgbtqcreators creator bingo challenge - parallels

credit to @wandas-apologist for the one about him telling stories!

[psalmsofpsychosis]

Me: yeah no i can cook gutwrenching Batman headcanons

Gotham TV: baby Bruce curls besides Alfred's hospital bed after Alfred gets stabbed in the heart, never leaves his side for one moment to the point that Gordon has to bring him food, he's red faced and hicking up all the time, whispers to Gordon "i can't lose him; he's all i have," and after Alfred comes back to life he brings books from Wayne Manor and softly reads horror bedtime stories to Alfred during the day until Alfred eases down and falls asleep

Me: god nevermind

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I think what particularly annoys me with the "zelda was always gameplay before story" is that... it's not true? At least I don't think it's true in the way people mean it.

Zelda games were always kind of integrating story based on the standards of the time. When game stories were in game pamphlets, Zelda's stories was in the pamphlets. ALTTP tried to tell a pretty complicated stories with the limitations of the time. OoT was actively trying to tell an epic, cinematic tale packed with ambiance and expand what 3D could offer that 2D games struggled with. Majora's Mask is deeply character-driven in many, many ways. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are both pretty concerned about their stories, down to the point that some people were bored by TP's cutscenes in particular. Skyward Sword, from what little I have played it, is very very invested in its characters and their journey (and 2D Zeldas have Link's Awakening, Minish Cap... None of them are visual novels, but they are concerned with emotional journeys, character arcs, mysteries about their own world...)

What is true is that the narrative wraps around the mechanics, and not the other way around. The mechanics drive themes, aesthetics, emotional beats and character journeys; and that's great. The world is a puzzle, and the world is delightfully absurd when it needs to be, full of heart when it calls for it, dark and oppressive when it suits the player experience.

That does not mean the games aren't invested in their stories. Even BotW has a pretty complicated story to tell about an entire world rather than one specific tale or legend --all of it at the service of the gameplay, which is exploration and mastery of your environment.

So. Yes, none of the Zelda games are million-words long visual novels that care deeply about consistency and nuance; but stories don't need consistency or deep lore to be meaningful and serve an emotional journey. Again: gameplay is story. The two cannot be so easily parsed from each other.

And Zelda as a franchise obviously care deeply about story, characters and setting (and still does right now --otherwise there wouldn't be a movie), even if it doesn't try to imitate prestige narrative-driven games, which is great and part of why I love this series so much. Doesn't mean it couldn't have done better in the past, it obviously could have, but I feel like pretending that nobody ever cared about story or character is just... false? It's a huge disservice to the devs too. Some of them obviously cared immensely.

The "gameplay above story", at least in the extent to which it is paraded today to defend TotK, mostly, is a really recent development. And I think it's one that deserves to receive some pushback.

[canonical-transformation]

Addendum, v3.7: now that Sumeru is mostly done: especially after 3.4's Second Blooming, Lisa's prospects are looking better (for avoiding on-screen death).

Survival flags:

Her Second Blooming dialogue doesn't mention the cost of Visions, the fear of the truth, the power she's accumulated turning back on her, etc.

...and it could have, because she specifically talks about her seachange to Mondstadt but focuses on the "price of seeking wisdom" and the Akademiya's culture instead.

Death flags (but really minor/tiny/mild):

Putting more of her backstory in a limited time event cuts down on potential fluffy topics for later Story Quests, etc. (But that was true for Kazuha too and he's fine.)

She did talk a lot on the tempus fugit theme, and on wondering what the future will hold.

Meta flags re: Hangouts:

Kaeya is getting a Hangout Event now, so this rules out "the only reason Lisa doesn't have a Hangout is because she got a Story Quest".

Meanwhile, we're yet to see anyone get significant character development after a Hangout, which gives some credence to the "HYV wants hangouts to take place at any point with minimal plot holes" theory.

See also discussion on other characters — 1, 2. I may have missed others.

Neutral flags:

Hey "bottoms" (i.e. subs), Lisa would really like an obedient doggie as a pet. Oh but she's too chronically fatigued to clean up after a pet. If only there was a solution. 😐

She even rocking the dead/dying mom hairdo.

Lisa is going to die sometime in canon.

(Yeah, I'd give... at least a 20% chance she dies before the end of Travail, 40% chance she dies or has a major death-averted moment like Xiao in Perilous Trail.)

The real kicker? Hoyoverse is weirdly focused on narrative consistency, not letting characters be in two places at once, adding event quick starts as a "yOu'Re dOiNg iT wRoNg" option, etc...

I have a hunch that they're not currently planning to kill off the characters who have replayable Hangout events... or appear in them. Because then there'd be plot holes in the dating sim! (The horror!)

In Noelle's Hangout Act II, she tries emulating a bunch of different Knights.

Guess which Knight Noelle doesn't mention at all in that quest?

[monabee-draws]

Narrative themes this, OOC that. I don't care. Let Vax live. Set everyone in VM free from his death including him. What's the point of playing D&D if you don't use it to give your friends just a little bit of light and joy in the end?

[robbyykeene]

So let me get this straight. Johnny can verbally berate and bully his students, throw them in a cement mixer, hogtie them to a punching bag to punish them for successfully landing a hit on him, set a pack of rabid dogs on them, and hurl glass beer bottles at them all in the name of “training,” and we’re supposed to laugh and clap and cheer. But then I’m supposed to think the hot new sensei from China is the epitome of evil because he cuffed one of his students with a foam pad?

[cleradinel]

they were insane for writing this 1 minute 25 seconds scene. the juxtaposition of lucas insisting mike obviously likes el so much vs troy and james showing up to say homophobic shit about will is insane.

[zukosdualdao]

i will never understand when people act like zutara shippers are reaching when we say the crystal catacombs scene is intensely romantically coded because like... ignoring literally all other context (which does have other hallmarks of romantic coding, but literally pretend you don't know anything about the show or scene for a second)... what would you think happened in this picture?

would it .... would it maybe be an interrupted almost-kiss