killing plotholes (together)

[WeThePeople...]

Through all the years i've been thinking of ideas for sff, certain plotholes still annoy me. For example, a flying race or mount in a middle ages era fantasy story can ruin certain ideas. Why not just fly wherever you need to go? What use are walls? Take LOTR, for instance: why not the Eagles carry Frodo over Mount Doom, fighting their way past fellbeast, and Frodo drop it in the lava? Helluva lot easier than walking.
Anyway, my idea was that people could tell others of plotholes or situations which create plotholes in their stories, and everyone else could give their ideas on how to fix them. Thank You.

(by the way, the flying issue still needs an answer)

 

[Nik]

LOTR: EverOpen Eye ??

IIRC, getting too close, air-borne, would bring into 'line of sight', and summarily fried.

While going 'Manhattan Project' and carving a new 'Anti-Master' Ring would not suit...

Um, I've a quarter-written tale that is stuck because, months further along the time-line, the heroes must torture a captured enemy unto death. Or at least destroy his mind. Witnessed by representatives of those who've condemned him...

First snag is scruples: Crew have killed, will kill, but quick and clean. Second snag is Strategy: 'My Enemies' Enemy etc'. I gotta figure a plausible way for them to fake it, then back-weave the makings into the plot...

 

[ice.monkey]

(by the way, the flying issue still needs an answer)

Depends on the scenario. If you're talking LOTR then sending Frodo on the back of an Eagle would've been very risky. They would've been spotted miles off and then the wraiths would've been amongst them at the least.

If you want to use flyers in your plot then I'd have to know a few more specifics in order to overcome a 'plothole'.

Nik, I don't know if your snag is actually a snag. It would create an incredibly interesting situation and enable you to explore the characters. If torturing this person is the only option availabe to them then you can really create one hell of a scene with some for it and others against. Sounds to me like it could really prove an asset rather than a drawback as you'd be exploring quite a taboo subject for heroes!

 

[Nik]

Smoke, mirrors and the Take-Away from Hell...

Um, given that the traditional punishment for a self-serving Adept is, at best, a full-frontal lobotomy *without* anaesthetic, the Red Tower crew must devise something drastic. Given that I'm squeamish, this is hard...

Was it a 'Tales from the Crypt' where 'Olde Tyme Music Hall' Magician saws two-timing Assistant into quarters after multiply impaling her ?? Audience applauds her screams and dripping gore as so *very* realistic. No-One Expects The Spanish Inquisition...

 

[Melanie Nilles]

Nik, we all endure scenes that make us squeamish, but we get through it for the sake of the story. ice.monkey is right that it presents an interesting opportunity to show your characters' reactions and feelings. It's a point of conflict. Nothing should be easy for your protagonists if you want to keep a sense of suspense. (Easier said than done, I know.)

Write it and see what happens. You don't have to use it, but you won't know how it can work until it's done.

 

[Nik]

Drastic and, um, Drastic...

Um, at the start of my Plausible Vampire prequel, I de-populate a triply-disputed corner of Central Africa to explain why the medic hero is skinny, bald and on 'Light Duties'. As Chris later admits, one advantage of working to exhaustion in a HotZone is that faces & cases blur...

Racking an unfortunate youth is rather more personal. I've written some 'Dark', but too carefully sanitised. It might help if I had the stomach for Horror movies !!

I've yet to find the right McGuffin to make this work. But, with a bit of luck, I'll see something 'unrelated' and go, 'Aha !!'...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

If it's totally out of character for your characters, they shouldn't do it, period. Find something else for your characters to do that would move the story where it needs to go, or change the plot as necessary.

Sometimes when you struggle over something in a story it's not because your imagination fails you, it's because your sub-conscious mind is telling you that you're going off in the wrong direction. This torture scene sounds like that to me.

In my own experience, once I relax and let go of whatever it was I was trying so hard to make work -- even though my sub-conscious mind was jumping up and down and waving its arms for me to stop -- something much, much better usually comes along.

As for the eagles in LOTR, they aren't like cars or airplanes, you can't just start them up and ride off on them. And they aren't dogs or horses to come when called. They are sentient creatures with their own agendas (and as Tolkien says elsewhere, they are not kindly birds). They are helpful when they want to be; otherwise, not. Obviously, the folks at Rivendell didn't feel comfortable bringing them into their councils or enlisting their help.

Not to mention what others have said about riding on an eagle being a good way to attract attention. There were quite a few birds acting as spies on the other side, and something as extraordinary as humans, hobbits, dwarves, or elves being carried about in the sky would surely be duly noted by the other birds, even if the eagles managed to avoid flying over areas where humans, orcs, or Nazgûl would notice them.