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Subtly: A Storytelling Myth
🕑 Added 2024-10-19 02:02:46 +0000 UTCThis isn't about defending the most obnoxious writers, scenes, or characters ever to be witnessed...
Oh whoops, there seems to be a random image of David Cage games, bizarre.
No, instead what I'm focused on is the counter to obnoxious storytelling, a common piece of advice given in many circles, particularly amongst people who don't see the irony in writers telling other writers what to write, making rules in a craft where the whole point is that there are no rules… which I'm writing about.
Call the irony police!
The best stories out there often credited for their subtly, the layers of craft and commitment they have reinforcing the themes of their plotlines and characters, even in ways that most people will never notice after multiple rewatches, let alone the first time when they're struggling just to keep track of each character's name.
When you've got a line of dialogue, a notable character, or a storyline that evokes something interesting but is also, for lack of a better word, loud, someone's likely to tell you…
"Make this more sublte."
I think we've all read, watched, played, or heard a thing that we shut off because it felt like we were being preached to by a randy, instead of being immersed in a world removed from our own.
Thing is... this advice can also be given to anything that's in the slightest bit daring, and whether or not the dare is brilliant or obnoxious, is going to vary from person to person. What to one person is preaching, is to another, confirmation bias reinforcement.
And this all hit me when I happened to be rewatching clips from multiple of my favorite shows. Arcane, Sopranos, The Wire, Castlevania, Black Lagoon, Ghost in the Shell, all shows that unlike films, don't need to spell out the core of their message for the sake of a two hour run time.
They could spend 60+ hours or more layering and layering and layering a particular point they want to make without you even noticing.
Classic example is how many people argue (to the point where it's now a meme) of when Walter White broke bad in Breaking Bad. That is phenomenal storytelling, and a big part of the show's appeal, it's restraint, it's respect, it's subtly…
Breaking Bad also has Walter White holding a talking pillow to say "I never actually make any of my own choices." Jessie Pinkman screaming from a hospital bed "I have no one!"
In the Sopranos, Tony cries to his therapist that he's having panic attacks at the thought of losing his family. Christopher says out loud to Paulie that he doesn't have a character arc.
Arcane's Silco says to Vander's face he's fighting "Top Side" even at the cost of his own people "for respect."
The Wire, a show that's flat out called the GOAT, might be even more on the nose at times. Even some of its quotes at the start of each episode has the subtly of Omar Little.
Thinking about the Star Wars prequels, there's lines that've arguably been steeped into all of pop culture. "This is how democracy dies, with thunderous applause" is a genuinely great line, it eschews all the suggestions, parables, and veils for simple, honest, direct, yet poetic language that's hard to forget once you've heard it.
The problem is, every single line of dialogue in the Star Wars Prequels is this transparent. There's no build up to the moment a character says exactly what's on their minds, because that's what they're always doing in every scene of every film. Every other example meanwhile is built up, sometimes over the course of multiple seasons, making it all the more cathartic when a character says exactly what we've been thinking for ten, twenty, or thirty hours.
Although, now that I think about it, I'm not even sure that's the problem. Maybe it's just entirely down to the performances of the actors, because when I think back to it, Avatar : The Last Airbender is more like Star Wars than Arcane. Zuko's entire monologue on the beach with Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai leading up to "I'm angry at myself!" reads like something George Lucas would write for Anakin Skywalker.
"For so long I thought that if my Dad accepted me, I'd be happy. I'm back home now. My Dad talks to me. Ha! He even thinks I'm a hero. Everything should be perfect, right? I should be happy now, but I'm not! I'm angrier than ever and I don't know why!" -Zuko
The major difference is the Actor's not directed by George Lucas…
Point is, if you're writing anything, an essay, a script, a novel, a fanfiction, don't be overly concerned with making your writing "subtle", especially not when you're in the development phase. Nobody is going to see it except you and the people you trust, that first draft is the time to make your themes, characters, plot-line and/or point as loud as possible, and you can decide in the second draft is it's something you wanna improve, change, or drop entirely.
Before making it subtle…
Make it good.
Comments
johnny1248
what's a video game whose vibes prevail over gameplay? For me, it's been Tekken 4 lately. While the gameplay was rough back then in 2001 and still is but damn it, it has an awesome vibe. Tekken 5 on the other hand controls like a dream and is more balanced compared to its predecessor.
NephyrisX
Kohima games are about subtle as a brick to the face but many praise it for the story, or at least have topics worth discussing about.
