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Forked Thread: On the Value of Uncertainty
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<blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4444684" data-attributes="member: 710"><p>I don't mind happy ends so much. They have their places.</p><p></p><p>But what's getting a little annoying sometimes is when I can predict the outcome just because I know the tropes and rules of a show.</p><p></p><p>For example, shows like CSI or Bones often feature the "surprising" suspect in a short scene before he is finally identified by the investigators. Way too often mere "meta-gaming" allows me to identify the real criminal. "Okay, Suspect A and B make all sense, but here was this guy C that was somewhat related to the plot that I saw in that scene with the janitor - I bet it was that guy!"</p><p></p><p>The ride to the expected end should contain few more twists and turns then that. Or at least a twist or turn you wouldn't expect. </p><p></p><p>One trick of course for such shows is to be aware of these tropes and sometimes use them and sometimes consciously not use them. </p><p></p><p>One of my favorite shows these days is still Battlestar Galactica (mild spoilers for anyone not into the 2nd and 3rd season) - you don't really know what will happen (and part of this was because the writers itself didn't know when the show started). You can predict some stuff, but other things come as a surprise. They never killed off one of the primary characters (IIRC), but they killed off enough secondary characters to make you sometimes think it's just a matter of time. And since you have built a certain familiarity with these characters, their is always a feeling of real loss, as opposed to the typical "Redshirt" that keep dying in other shows. Pegasus wasn't destroyed shortly after it was introduced (like you might expect by typical genre tropes and the original show) - it sticked around for the remaining season and even until the start of the new show.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mustrum_Ridcully, post: 4444684, member: 710"] I don't mind happy ends so much. They have their places. But what's getting a little annoying sometimes is when I can predict the outcome just because I know the tropes and rules of a show. For example, shows like CSI or Bones often feature the "surprising" suspect in a short scene before he is finally identified by the investigators. Way too often mere "meta-gaming" allows me to identify the real criminal. "Okay, Suspect A and B make all sense, but here was this guy C that was somewhat related to the plot that I saw in that scene with the janitor - I bet it was that guy!" The ride to the expected end should contain few more twists and turns then that. Or at least a twist or turn you wouldn't expect. One trick of course for such shows is to be aware of these tropes and sometimes use them and sometimes consciously not use them. One of my favorite shows these days is still Battlestar Galactica (mild spoilers for anyone not into the 2nd and 3rd season) - you don't really know what will happen (and part of this was because the writers itself didn't know when the show started). You can predict some stuff, but other things come as a surprise. They never killed off one of the primary characters (IIRC), but they killed off enough secondary characters to make you sometimes think it's just a matter of time. And since you have built a certain familiarity with these characters, their is always a feeling of real loss, as opposed to the typical "Redshirt" that keep dying in other shows. Pegasus wasn't destroyed shortly after it was introduced (like you might expect by typical genre tropes and the original show) - it sticked around for the remaining season and even until the start of the new show. [/QUOTE]
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