MercurialBlack on Nostr: Stories are axiomatic systems. You establish the rules, the viewers establish the ...
Stories are axiomatic systems. You establish the rules, the viewers establish the model. Often, this leads to ambiguity in periphery elements - you can have shipping supported by the text, some backstories are vague and can be filled in, some mechanics may not be fully explained.
And that's fine, for multiple interpretations to exist! Good, even. An artist is trying to communicate a message, a viewer looks at the art and generates an understanding of what was being conveyed, filling in details with what makes sense to them. It leads to a lot of dialogue between viewers, presenting different interpretations of symbolism, talking about why their ships are valid, etc.
A writer has screwed up, however, if through their axiomatic system, they introduce a contradiction, or they fail to constrain the world of models.
In the case of the former, anything is then permitted, and that kills stakes and investment. If character A can have a broken leg in one scene, and it's fixed in the next with no time passing, what's to stop a similar violation from happening elsewhere?
For the latter, they are abdicating their duty in communicating a message, laying too much on their viewer. How could it be an attempt to communicate, when every sentence only has a single visible word? It isn't a story, it's multiple unfinished stories. Perhaps only one of them should be finished, perhaps a few.
Arcane commits both sins, characters contradicting their previously established motives, and such a lightning pace that anything could've happened in the gaps.
And that's fine, for multiple interpretations to exist! Good, even. An artist is trying to communicate a message, a viewer looks at the art and generates an understanding of what was being conveyed, filling in details with what makes sense to them. It leads to a lot of dialogue between viewers, presenting different interpretations of symbolism, talking about why their ships are valid, etc.
A writer has screwed up, however, if through their axiomatic system, they introduce a contradiction, or they fail to constrain the world of models.
In the case of the former, anything is then permitted, and that kills stakes and investment. If character A can have a broken leg in one scene, and it's fixed in the next with no time passing, what's to stop a similar violation from happening elsewhere?
For the latter, they are abdicating their duty in communicating a message, laying too much on their viewer. How could it be an attempt to communicate, when every sentence only has a single visible word? It isn't a story, it's multiple unfinished stories. Perhaps only one of them should be finished, perhaps a few.
Arcane commits both sins, characters contradicting their previously established motives, and such a lightning pace that anything could've happened in the gaps.