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You have to feel the characters are somehow believable to empathize with them. Tom Send a noteboard - 02/12/2010 01:05:29 AM
Let me regress into geekdom to make my point, to avoid mixing serious literature and WoT. Take the first (in terms of release dates) Star Wars trilogy. Everyone understood the characters' motivations, generally. Sure, the people were a bit simplistic, but Lucas was following the Campbell myth concept, which borrowed Jung's archetypes, etc. Regardless, we understood, mostly, WHY people acted as they did. It didn't matter that the whole thing had aliens and robots and spaceships and even (gasp) Ewoks because the main characters had motivations that made sense.

Then look at the "new" series. Anakin's role was abysmally played, first by the little kid and then by the young guy, and his motivations never made sense to people. As an example (in my mind, one of the worst explanation of motivations in cinema), it took him about 5 minutes to go from wanting to arrest Palpatine to deciding to be evil and start killing kids, with ABSOLUTELY NO EXPLANATION of how he could make that decision so quickly and easily. Sure, they gave him a reason, but it wasn't really properly executed. In other words, the movies were crap because people didn't believe Anakin, all the way from the first movie. And when that happened, they started looking at a LOT of other things that were subpar. Jar-Jar. A little boy flying a spaceship. The racial stereotypes. And so on.

It is absolutely necessary to suspend some disbelief at some level and in some way to enjoy anything speculative, or else you can never internalize it enough to care what happens.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.

ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius

Ummaka qinnassa nīk!

*MySmiley*
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Easy life of Lightside heroes and pathetic incompetence of the Shadow - so what's new in Wot... - 28/11/2010 03:38:14 PM 2694 Views
Re: Easy life of Lightside heroes and pathetic incompetence of the Shadow - so what's new in Wot... - 28/11/2010 04:05:48 PM 1362 Views
Re: Easy life of Lightside heroes and pathetic incompetence of the Shadow - so what's new in Wot... - 29/11/2010 12:27:27 AM 1274 Views
Re: Easy life of Lightside heroes and pathetic incompetence of the Shadow - so what's new in Wot... - 29/11/2010 12:36:49 AM 1259 Views
Re: Easy life of Lightside heroes and pathetic incompetence of the Shadow - so what's new in Wot... - 29/11/2010 01:59:18 AM 1281 Views
Yes, she still lets herself be ruled by her desire to control everything - 29/11/2010 02:39:34 AM 1236 Views
I vote it has come to pass - 29/11/2010 02:48:26 AM 1101 Views
*facepalm* - good point, not sure how I missed that. *NM* - 29/11/2010 03:12:00 AM 655 Views
Re: I vote it has come to pass - 29/11/2010 09:42:51 AM 1100 Views
Prophecy never said she would be angry at the time, - 29/11/2010 11:36:53 AM 1173 Views
lol true, gg *NM* - 29/11/2010 11:52:54 AM 629 Views
Aviendha's vision doesn't automatically mean the Light will win - 28/11/2010 05:32:56 PM 1520 Views
She doesn't even see that. The arches just show a possibility. - 29/11/2010 07:12:05 PM 1056 Views
Indeed - 28/11/2010 06:16:41 PM 1176 Views
am i the only one who acknowledges that it's a jerk deal for jerks - 28/11/2010 08:00:23 PM 1377 Views
i think most people feel that way - 29/11/2010 09:06:44 AM 1206 Views
I agree with you - 05/12/2010 05:13:38 PM 1002 Views
Re: am i the only one who acknowledges that it's a jerk deal for jerks - 29/11/2010 06:40:18 PM 1139 Views
I'm sure that all the men Ituralde lost would agree with you about it being a breeze -_- - 29/11/2010 12:32:56 AM 1136 Views
Byar was compulsed - 29/11/2010 12:46:01 AM 1441 Views
I agree that he was part of Graendal's plan, but - 29/11/2010 02:16:45 AM 1086 Views
Re: I agree that he was part of Graendal's plan, but - 29/11/2010 09:44:05 AM 1061 Views
Re: Byar was compulsed - 29/11/2010 12:54:38 PM 1397 Views
Re: Byar was compulsed - 29/11/2010 12:59:31 PM 1117 Views
Re: Byar was compulsed - 29/11/2010 01:10:18 PM 1131 Views
He disbelieves in the Heroes - 29/11/2010 03:33:27 PM 1090 Views
I think that's his mind deceiving itself - 29/11/2010 07:19:05 PM 1143 Views
I didn't say he was necessarily Compulsed - 30/11/2010 07:40:51 AM 1045 Views
Do we have his reaction to the Heroes themselves? - 30/11/2010 11:55:42 AM 1167 Views
Re: Do we have his reaction to the Heroes themselves? - 30/11/2010 12:05:44 PM 1028 Views
he makes no mention of the Heroes. - 30/11/2010 10:42:13 PM 1141 Views
They did get another thing right - 29/11/2010 12:40:52 AM 1141 Views
Not Mat's fault, really - Verin didn't rehash her opinion of him. - 29/11/2010 02:18:17 AM 1096 Views
It's the WOT Red Shirt syndrome - 29/11/2010 04:29:12 AM 1222 Views
I don't want everyone to win and end up happily ever after though. - 29/11/2010 04:33:06 AM 1120 Views
The disney ending is not realistic - or at least not as believable - 29/11/2010 04:41:04 AM 1247 Views
You, good sir, are - 30/11/2010 06:53:49 PM 1027 Views
I also think Lan will be saved right before the end. - 29/11/2010 06:50:34 PM 1004 Views
Re: I also think Lan will be saved right before the end. - 30/11/2010 01:47:27 AM 1134 Views
It's a well told story with fun characters overall, but it's definitely not "War & Peace" - 29/11/2010 06:33:12 PM 1235 Views
+1 *NM* - 29/11/2010 07:18:13 PM 584 Views
it is. I love it anyways, though - 29/11/2010 07:23:24 PM 1028 Views
War and Peace was very thematic - 30/11/2010 05:00:30 AM 1467 Views
Doublethink for the win! *NM* - 30/11/2010 07:35:20 AM 612 Views
Re: War and Peace was very thematic - 30/11/2010 09:35:50 AM 1087 Views
I'm not really sure if or why any reader would need to suspend disbelief to enjoy WoT - 30/11/2010 10:31:49 PM 1074 Views
Please tell me what drugs you're on - 01/12/2010 04:04:39 AM 1182 Views
It's called 'reality' - I agree with LadyLorraine & Moratcorlm - 01/12/2010 07:57:35 PM 1092 Views
You are absolutely wrong. - 02/12/2010 04:53:52 AM 1064 Views
You are incorrect - you should read the definition you reference before posting it. - 02/12/2010 04:19:16 PM 1185 Views
No, I read the ENTIRE article, unlike you. You have to scroll down a bit. - 02/12/2010 05:47:13 PM 984 Views
No, you need to read and comprehend. That was a THEORY. - 02/12/2010 07:11:01 PM 895 Views
It's really very simple. - 04/12/2010 12:31:16 AM 1170 Views
mk, I think I understand more what you meant now after reading this exchange - 05/12/2010 05:42:47 AM 1104 Views
I still don't agree; sorry. I don't think this theory applies to everyone. - 06/12/2010 05:30:41 PM 1203 Views
No, those are disbeliefs that you must suspend. - 01/12/2010 08:18:25 PM 1008 Views
You have to feel the characters are somehow believable to empathize with them. - 02/12/2010 01:05:29 AM 1055 Views
I don't see how WoT's writing (Before, or now) prevents that - 02/12/2010 04:12:54 AM 912 Views
I'm not arguing that it necessarily does for everyone, just that YOU HAVE TO SUSPEND DISBELIEF - 02/12/2010 04:48:51 AM 1105 Views
That's a load of crap... - 02/12/2010 06:03:13 AM 1243 Views
Sure - 01/12/2010 01:30:03 AM 1029 Views
Black Tower - 30/11/2010 01:50:29 AM 1012 Views
Re: Black Tower - 30/11/2010 01:57:48 AM 1145 Views
I agree with everything. - 30/11/2010 01:37:11 PM 1168 Views
Hopper's death... oh god... - 01/12/2010 01:00:12 AM 1258 Views
while i miss hopper - 02/12/2010 04:19:28 AM 1050 Views
Re: while i miss hopper - 02/12/2010 05:30:52 PM 1155 Views
Hopper wasn't that important, either, though. - 03/12/2010 02:32:10 PM 963 Views
Re: Hopper wasn't that important, either, though. - 03/12/2010 03:10:54 PM 1005 Views
It would be awesome if it were, though. - 03/12/2010 04:41:42 PM 1130 Views
Re: It would be awesome if it were, though. - 04/12/2010 09:54:09 PM 1112 Views
- 05/12/2010 07:07:44 AM 969 Views

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