Thoughts on plot device...

[digital_opium]

Just as a random rant...

I hate the plot device in books and tv that makes us question the 'reality' of the story/stories.

For example, in season... six, I believe, of BtVS, Buffy is scratched and poisoned by a demon. As a consequence she starts hallucinating. Or does she?

Buffy starts to imagine that she's in a psych ward in the 'real' world. A world in which she isn't the Slayer at all, she's just imagined everything as part of her mental illness.

At the end of the ep, we're meant to be asking whether we've just been following along some poor, mad girl's insanity for the past six years or not.

Yes, it's a valid plot device, and can be used cleverly, but I dislike being pushed out of the reality that the writers have spent so much time pulling me into.

The only time I've seen this done in a way that I liked was in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. They did several episodes where the cast played the producers, writers, directors of the series, but at the end, we were still left with the idea that the stories they told were REAL.

Just finished watching ST: DS9 and they did such an episode, and yes, I know that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the space station, and its crew don't really exist. But I watch these shows to be drawn into another world. That's what fantasy, science fiction does; it gives us a different reality to play in and to enjoy.

I guess there are people (the writers, obviously) who like this plot device, but as for me, it ranks only slightly less obnoxious than the "It was all a dream" plot device.

... Come to think of it, it's pretty much the same thing, only painted a different color. Blah.

Comments

[ladyofbrileith.livejournal.com]

I'm not overly fond of it myself. I was reading some commentary where they were discussing Labyrinth as a dream, along the lines of Wizard of Oz. But in the books, while no one ever believes Dorothy, L. Frank Baum does NOT use it as a device. Oz is v. v. real in the end, the movie just...twisted that. I loved the movie, but I always got grumpy, 'cause I loved the world so much, I didn't want Dorothy to have dreamt it and when I read the books, she didn't, so. Possibly I just got pissy at the Labyrinth commentary 'cause I don't want Jareth to be a figment of Sara's imagination, nevermind that she has the damn book and all the characters and even the plot in it.

I like it better how it is in fics and RP--an intricate dance between them. But also, yes, that Buffy episode was v. v. annoying and cast an uneasy pall over everything.

Bah on them.

*goes back to studying after joining rant, 'cause OMG just 5 more days 'til Bar*

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Wizard of OZ is a perfect example of the dream plot device. I wonder if that's not where my dislike of the device originates. I hated it then, that this magical place was immediately disbelieved as a dream. My reality says that such places exist. :P

[ladyofbrileith.livejournal.com]

In my reality, too.

[dossier.livejournal.com]

I think that one movie that questioned reality effectively is "Identity". I found it fantastic, fading in and out, and the slow reveal of what is truly happening.

But yeah--The dream fakeout was cheezy when "Dallas" did it, and it hasn't gotten better since.

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Identity. I'll have to look it up though. I'm always willing to check out recs. :D

I don't know. I don't want my shows to puncture their own reality, for lack of a better way to say it. I want the world that's created for me to remain intact.