Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-69.31.108.252-20140715042738/@comment-24477929-20140715223322

74.103.246.167 wrote: I think the problem is one of writing. If Scott is super strong and can easily beat anyone in a fight the is hard to create any sort of dramatic tension. In order to create a drama worth watching there needs to be risk and the hero needs to be in danger. A very powerful scott woul not have many real risk.

This, this a million times over. The irony being that making Scott lose every fight has had the exact same effect. Many of us feel no dramatic tension simply because we know Scott will lose, BUT the good guys will somehow survive.

Let me break this down into smaller pieces;

"In order to create a drama worth watching there needs to be risk and the hero needs to be in danger."  *

I absolutely 101% agree with the first half of this sentence and completely, undeniably, vehemently disagree with the second.

Of course there must be risk. Risk is what creates drama. However, Mad Men is a drama, and its not overly common that Don Draper and Co are in life or death situations. The same holds true for Bones, or the OC, even Lost. Sure there were episodes where characters lives were at stake and, cast members died in all of them, but these weren't dropping left and right. However, I will concede that the vast majority of dramas deal with death and danger regularly, and provide the bread and butter of the genre. Let's discuss why.

Drama, risk, tension, they all play in to one thing FEAR. And what is the most common fear (at least in fiction)? Death. Thus, you have an easily relatable center piece for your story that is digestable and accessible to all audiences. Lesser drama plots, will they/won't they get together, can she keep her terrible secret, will he maintain his decency in an undecent world, what is the the backstory of mysterious character number 11124, also deal with fear, of rejection/inner demons/the unknown etc. Generally these have less widespread appeal, but help round out the story, as a good drama dips its fingers in each and thus, panders to the people who are interested it.

Now lets narrow our focus. There does need to be risk for drama to work. However as demonstrated above its hardly exclusive to physical danger related to the protagonist. Are there any 24 fans out there? Post season 1 (maybe 2) it was generally accepted that Jack Bauer** wasn't going to die. Like, ever. Why? Well for one thing, he still got the shit kicked out of him at least once a season. But more importantly, the writers realized that the main tension for Jack wasn't, whether he would live or die, or even if he would save the day, but how much of his soul and his life he would have to sacrifice to do so. Friends died, missions were failed. Innocents lost, morals compromised. There were life and death struggles, Jack often tried to save the lives of loved ones, but sometimes failed, or even chose to sacrifice them. It took big balls on the writers part, to kill of major characters, but it worked. It created drama. And even if one had to suspend disbelief (How could Jack possibly survive all those times), it maintained clear and consistent rules in all other aspects that kept things tight and dramatic. It was never cheap or flashy, just good honest drama.

Let's focus even more, onto Teen Wolf, the most dramatic scene in recent memory (or at least what ATTEMPTED to be the most dramatic scene) was Allison's death. Here was a main character who was going out the door. Not moving to England or hiding out in SA. Dying, and never coming back. There was plenty of tension there, and none of had anything to do with whether or not Scott was beating the Oni (he wasn't).

What this all builds to is that the main drama of a show like this SHOULD be will someone die/be maimed/horribly disfigured in most episodes. However it doesn't ALWAYS need to be Scott (especially when doing so chips away at suspension of disbelief). Espeically now that he's had character growth and an in universe upgrade its perfectly ok to switch the personal danger to other characters, and have the main source of Scott's drama be more existencial, such as a moral decay, a fear of failure/leadership,  hubris or even a fear of loss.

Your post is quite apt. This is a problem of writing. Lazy writing. Its much easier to simply plod along with little to no development, taking no risks and using predictable done and done again methods to score easy drama points. It's much harder (and better) to weave a complex story with highs and lows, and risk that includes more than just the physical, but the mental and moral.

To all those who disagree, let me ask you something. We've seen Scott in terrible danger time and time again. He's made powerful enemies and yet is perhaps at his most vulnerable point yet. My question is this; does anyone actually worry that Scott will die?

Because if you don't, then theres no drama anyway.

TL:DR - Go back to the top and read it. I won't summarize.


 * I'm assuming you meant physical danger, if not I wasted 10 minutes writing this post.


 * Jack Bauer is the lead character of the drama show 24.  He is hyper competant and increasingly uses morally suspect actions in pursuit of his (mostly) noble goals.  Because of his in universe skill he is very rarely in real danger.  Be the 2nd and especially the 3rd season, it is quite obvious that while he may be hurt, he will never die.