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Mar. 22nd, 2013 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1.Book Meme from heck continues: Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Can't think of one? Can you think of one? Mind is a complete blank.
I guess...Agatha Christie's Curtain. See here's the thing...I have a tendency to read a head in a lot of books, so it is rare that I will be surprised. Kindle has admittedly changed that, so I was sort of surprised by a plot twist in the latest Harry Dresden novel - regarding Molly Carpenter, also somewhat surprised by a character development in the Rachel Morgan series. But nothing worth writing about.
Also not really a fan of surprising plot twists. The reason is - if they are surprising then they are often badly written. Because a well-plotted twist is often something you can see coming - if it's plotted well enough and built well enough it won't be shocking or surprising. And in many cases plot twists either are gimmicks or at the sake of the characters, the writer will often sacrifice the character arc they've been building for the twist. I prefer books without plot twists. Because the twist in most cases is anti-climatic or disappointing, and hurts the story. It's a comic book/pulp writer crutch. See it a lot in those genres...and most of the time, find it to be disappointing.
A good plot twist, in recent memory, was in a book that I despised and was principally about the plot twist - the whole book was based on the twist - this was Atonement. It did not work without the twist.
That's not to say they aren't fun. They are - lots of fun in soap operas, comic books, and genre novels. Just saw a great plot twist on General Hospital today. Best plot-twist that I saw in a long long time, and I didn't predict it. OUAT also does good plot twists. TV tends to be better at this sort of thing than books are...but like I said, I can't really remember any off-hand.
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time
2. And the end of the far more entertaining Tv Meme
Day 30 - Saddest character death.
Eh. I'm odd about character deaths. Most of the time I believe character deaths in tv series are necessary - they propel the plot forward. Also I've been watching daytime soap operas, fantasy shows, and sci-fi shows most of my life not to mention reading comic books off and on, you sort of get used to character deaths after a bit. Both mediums kill characters off right and left, with little remorse and often not much foreshadowing. Wait...they just killed off Cyclops? WTF? Or wait, you just killed off Buffy? The Lead? Seriously? Whoa. And after teasing me about it for five years. No less.
Not only do they kill characters off without flinching, they bring them back to life. I kid you not. So after a while, the audience gets tired of the whiplash, shrugs, and decides..eh, the character is only dead until the actor decides to reprise them or the writers change or they run out of ideas and decide to resurrect the character. Sort of takes the sting off of the whole thing.
That said, there are characters whose deaths...are more permanent and gut-wrenching. But they too fall into categories. 1)The death that is written in such a manner that regardless of how you felt about the character, you are sobbing during the episode. You might not even have liked them all that much - but you are sobbing watching that episode. 2) the actor dies so they have to kill off the character, often prematurely, with the episode becoming a sort of homage to the actor that played the character, and 3) the character you adored and they killed them off, damn them, and did it in a realistic and painful way - which worked with the character's arc but wasn't overly manipulative.
1. Joyce Summers - in The Body. I did not care about Joyce all that much, to be honest. Was rather ambivalent about the actress and the character. I also knew she was probably going to be written out at some point. But the writing of that episode makes me bawl every damn time.
It may be the best episode regarding grief and death that I've seen on TV.
2. JR Ewing (Larry Hagman) in Dallas and Leo McGarrity (in The West Wing) - both actors died off-screen, and their characters had to die off-screen as well. Both were great losses to their series and you felt their loss in your gut. Neither series was or can be the same without them.
3. Wallace, D'Angelo,Poot Bodie (The Wire) and Juliet in LOST. Characters I adored yet whose deaths actually worked in the story in regards to both their arc, the characters around them, and felt sad at the same time. Also I didn't see their deaths coming - in quite the way they did. The kids in the Wire are sad - because of the wasted opportunity. All three are tragic, yet representative of kids killed every day in the city. Most recently, KiKmina Gray, a 16 year old street tough who was gun-downed by two cops who claimed he was waiving a gun when in reality he wasn't. The Wire's deaths are admittedly less tragic.
Juliet in LOST was a character who had grown on me and over time became my favorite female character on the series. I adored her and Sawyer. And her death was tragic - it also in some respects furthered Sawyer's story, and her own. She dies trying to fight fate. Trying to push the reset button - to reset time, to give Sawyer a chance, if not herself.
Eh fun meme. Now I want another one. All I see are fanfic memes, and I can't do fanfic memes.
The other's are personnel memes about your personal life, and I hate those. Too bloody revealing - also half the answers are things you have to use as security questions - so hacker territory.
Can't think of one? Can you think of one? Mind is a complete blank.
I guess...Agatha Christie's Curtain. See here's the thing...I have a tendency to read a head in a lot of books, so it is rare that I will be surprised. Kindle has admittedly changed that, so I was sort of surprised by a plot twist in the latest Harry Dresden novel - regarding Molly Carpenter, also somewhat surprised by a character development in the Rachel Morgan series. But nothing worth writing about.
Also not really a fan of surprising plot twists. The reason is - if they are surprising then they are often badly written. Because a well-plotted twist is often something you can see coming - if it's plotted well enough and built well enough it won't be shocking or surprising. And in many cases plot twists either are gimmicks or at the sake of the characters, the writer will often sacrifice the character arc they've been building for the twist. I prefer books without plot twists. Because the twist in most cases is anti-climatic or disappointing, and hurts the story. It's a comic book/pulp writer crutch. See it a lot in those genres...and most of the time, find it to be disappointing.
A good plot twist, in recent memory, was in a book that I despised and was principally about the plot twist - the whole book was based on the twist - this was Atonement. It did not work without the twist.
That's not to say they aren't fun. They are - lots of fun in soap operas, comic books, and genre novels. Just saw a great plot twist on General Hospital today. Best plot-twist that I saw in a long long time, and I didn't predict it. OUAT also does good plot twists. TV tends to be better at this sort of thing than books are...but like I said, I can't really remember any off-hand.
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time
2. And the end of the far more entertaining Tv Meme
Day 30 - Saddest character death.
Eh. I'm odd about character deaths. Most of the time I believe character deaths in tv series are necessary - they propel the plot forward. Also I've been watching daytime soap operas, fantasy shows, and sci-fi shows most of my life not to mention reading comic books off and on, you sort of get used to character deaths after a bit. Both mediums kill characters off right and left, with little remorse and often not much foreshadowing. Wait...they just killed off Cyclops? WTF? Or wait, you just killed off Buffy? The Lead? Seriously? Whoa. And after teasing me about it for five years. No less.
Not only do they kill characters off without flinching, they bring them back to life. I kid you not. So after a while, the audience gets tired of the whiplash, shrugs, and decides..eh, the character is only dead until the actor decides to reprise them or the writers change or they run out of ideas and decide to resurrect the character. Sort of takes the sting off of the whole thing.
That said, there are characters whose deaths...are more permanent and gut-wrenching. But they too fall into categories. 1)The death that is written in such a manner that regardless of how you felt about the character, you are sobbing during the episode. You might not even have liked them all that much - but you are sobbing watching that episode. 2) the actor dies so they have to kill off the character, often prematurely, with the episode becoming a sort of homage to the actor that played the character, and 3) the character you adored and they killed them off, damn them, and did it in a realistic and painful way - which worked with the character's arc but wasn't overly manipulative.
1. Joyce Summers - in The Body. I did not care about Joyce all that much, to be honest. Was rather ambivalent about the actress and the character. I also knew she was probably going to be written out at some point. But the writing of that episode makes me bawl every damn time.
It may be the best episode regarding grief and death that I've seen on TV.
2. JR Ewing (Larry Hagman) in Dallas and Leo McGarrity (in The West Wing) - both actors died off-screen, and their characters had to die off-screen as well. Both were great losses to their series and you felt their loss in your gut. Neither series was or can be the same without them.
3. Wallace, D'Angelo,
Juliet in LOST was a character who had grown on me and over time became my favorite female character on the series. I adored her and Sawyer. And her death was tragic - it also in some respects furthered Sawyer's story, and her own. She dies trying to fight fate. Trying to push the reset button - to reset time, to give Sawyer a chance, if not herself.
Eh fun meme. Now I want another one. All I see are fanfic memes, and I can't do fanfic memes.
The other's are personnel memes about your personal life, and I hate those. Too bloody revealing - also half the answers are things you have to use as security questions - so hacker territory.
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no subject
Date: 2013-03-23 06:47 pm (UTC)But I got spoiled on Manhattan - I found out that Michael Raymond-James who plays Neal was in that episode and in the rest season. So I thought, okay, he's Baelfire. They didn't tell me that - but nothing else worked.
Flameraven saw the same spoiler and viewed it as a mislead, and that Neal was Henry's Dad end of story.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-23 07:10 pm (UTC)Or worse, a sign the fan had just NOT been paying attention to past canon at all.
But since I'm so relatively unspoiled, any spoiler or spec I read has the potential to like, Ruin My Optimism.
Or worse, Create Unwarranted Optimism. Hate that.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-24 12:39 am (UTC)I remember the Buffy fandom spoilers...which were always incomplete, and some were just flat-out wrong. (Reminds my of spoilers for daytime soaps and comics actually, where the writers actually plant false spoilers to confuse the fans - long time serial writers are very good at this. Actually back in the day, apparently Louisa May Alcott and Charles Dickens played the same games with readers - they published Little Women and David Copperfield serially in magazines back then).
It's why I swore off spoilers for tv series I care about. You just torture yourself. Also swore off spoiler boards, mainly because you run into crazy fans who decide to either interpret the spoilers as the worst thing ever or the best thing ever. Marti Noxon had a lot of fun playing with the fans.
As did David Fury. They'd plant false spoilers right and left and drive people crazy.
With OUAT...unlike you, I see the previews for next week - which are shown as commercials all week long. So even if I missed them at the end of that episode, I'd see them while watching another ABC series - I'm watching at least four at the moment. And they are always misleading. I can't tell what the heck they are doing next week - looks like Snow White hunts down John Henry (you know the lumberjack from American Folklore - can't quite remember his name)...which just makes no sense whatsoever.
Also its more fun to speculate without them, to be honest.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-24 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-24 12:49 am (UTC)Or Doctor Who fans for that matter - dissecting those previews.
Fans, I think, like to drive themselves crazy.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-24 02:20 pm (UTC)Which is weird, because when you are in the world of streaming TV, the one thing you're still fully trained to expect, and feel the absence of palpably as the episode ends, is *the lack of previews*. It's like a big, gaping hole in the experience.
And yet, I don't want them at the same time.