About: You Can't Thwart Stage One   Sponge Permalink

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Finagle's Law meets the Rule of Drama. Any time the villain is putting together an Evil Plan, we can always expect it to reach its final stage, no matter what the hero or heroes do to try to stop it. If the villain is trying to collect the Three Cosmic Keystones that will allow him to become a Physical God, he will assemble them all. If the villain is trying to unseal a Sealed Evil in a Can, it will break free and need to be defeated or re-sealed. If the villain is planning to disgrace the king, Hypnotize the Princess and rule the kingdom, he will accomplish the first two before The Hero stops him. And so on.

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  • You Can't Thwart Stage One
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  • Finagle's Law meets the Rule of Drama. Any time the villain is putting together an Evil Plan, we can always expect it to reach its final stage, no matter what the hero or heroes do to try to stop it. If the villain is trying to collect the Three Cosmic Keystones that will allow him to become a Physical God, he will assemble them all. If the villain is trying to unseal a Sealed Evil in a Can, it will break free and need to be defeated or re-sealed. If the villain is planning to disgrace the king, Hypnotize the Princess and rule the kingdom, he will accomplish the first two before The Hero stops him. And so on.
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  • Finagle's Law meets the Rule of Drama. Any time the villain is putting together an Evil Plan, we can always expect it to reach its final stage, no matter what the hero or heroes do to try to stop it. If the villain is trying to collect the Three Cosmic Keystones that will allow him to become a Physical God, he will assemble them all. If the villain is trying to unseal a Sealed Evil in a Can, it will break free and need to be defeated or re-sealed. If the villain is planning to disgrace the king, Hypnotize the Princess and rule the kingdom, he will accomplish the first two before The Hero stops him. And so on. No matter what the hero tries, the forces of villainy will inevitably come within inches of victory, forcing one final showdown with everything at stake. This does not mean The Hero must be completely ineffective until this last battle -- Dragons may be defeated and minor complications may be done away with. But as for the brunt of the threat, there's no averting it until the eleventh hour. Naturally, once the eleventh hour arrives, The Good Guys Always Win, but they'll cut it close. This is especially painful to watch when The Hero or otherwise a good guy will attempt to foil the Evil Plan in a way that In-Universe seems like a perfectly good idea, but from a Doylist point of view is too anticlimactic to work. In the best case, they fail at the earliest opportunity in a relatively harmless way. Otherwise, they may appear to be making progress -- obstacles will be cleared and the stakes will rise -- only for the story to inevitably Yank the Dog's Chain and pull the whole thing into catastrophic failure. You Are Too Late is often involved. Hostage for Macguffin, MacGuffin Delivery Service and Xanatos Gambit are frequently employed to make the hero effective without routing the villain. Team Rocket Wins can give the heroes more of a challenge and justify failing at first. Compare Your Princess Is in Another Castle. Examples of You Can't Thwart Stage One include:
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