[ SECRET POST #2438 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2438 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 012 secrets from Secret Submission Post #348.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - sjwtroll ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[elephantinegrace]

How would you be able to tell if a character is strong or not if the character is not torn down? Besides, ordinary life makes for boring stories. It takes a conflict to actually set up a plot.

[deadtree]

well said!

[(Anonymous)]

Your entire comment makes me sad. There are so many ways to show a character's strength without tearing them down or breaking them or killing them. And what makes an interesting story is a good writer - ordinary life can be an awesome story, it's just about how you tell it. And conflict is not always needed to set up a plot - it's an easy and common way, but definitely not needed.

[(Anonymous)]

Ordinary life? You mean suffering in love, family, death, financial crisis, etc? Sorry but ordinary life "breaks people down" too. The only difference in Joss' work is that vampires and super-villains and magic and stuff gets thrown in too. REAL LIFE is full of conflict, it's HOW people get strong. We aren't all just BORN strong, shit happens to us. In the universes Joss writes in some of the shit can be different but at its core it's still about overcoming life and coming out the other end of it stronger for it. But it's suddenly bad because, what, it's not ordinary? You want ordinary go watch ordinary. But ordinary isn't suddenly without tragedy, death, conflict, and pain.

[(Anonymous)]

Finally! A comment finally makes sense.

[(Anonymous)]

Your comment makes me a little sad.

No, I take it back. It makes me very sad. Plot is conflict. Any writer will tell you that. That is literally what it is. You can't have a story without conflict. You can have a character study, I suppose. But without conflict, you certainly won't be able to show their strength. Character is defined by how someone (real or fictional) acts under pressure. You have to put your characters under pressure to show who they are and...more importantly...you have to put your characters under pressure to make it worth anyone's time to listen.

If you can name an actual story without conflict, I will give you an invisible cookie.

Remember: "First act, get your leading character up a tree; second act, throw rocks at him; third act, get him down".

[(Anonymous)]

This. That other commenter clearly has no idea how story telling works.

[darkmanifest]

I kinda disagree, there, there's a difference between challenging a character to display their strength, and breaking them down to revel in their powerlessness. It's all in the execution, and, with female characters especially, the execution tends towards hyperfocus on her shattered vulnerability, with any strength before or after being an vague afterthought.

+1000

[(Anonymous)]

Well said. I think that's why the secret op targeted Joss Whedon.

Because damn.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you, I was struggling to make this distinction in words but you phrased it perfectly. Challenging a character is awesome, breaking them down to watch their pain is... well, it can be very effective and poignant, but sometimes it can make you feel icky depending on how it's done.

[(Anonymous)]

I see what you're getting at, but agree with previous anon-- there's more ways to show how strong someone is without tearing them down. It's more of a challenge, sure (and might lead to far more complex, nuanced stories and characters!) but both you and Whedon are in error if you think that tearing a character down is THE only way.