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Question on Outcome / Judgement

Posted: Sep 15, 2010 12:07 pm
by alexgcohn
I am writing a sci-fi / action / superhero story where I want the hero to succeed in his original mission of stopping the renegade villain from bringing down the government, but the hero learns that he has really just been a stooge of the fascist corporation that controls everything from behind the scenes. I want the story to end with the hero breaking away from the corporation, hinting that he might end up challenging them in the same way as the villain.

However I am struggling in deciding the Outcome / Judgment of the story.

The hero succeeds in his original mission, but it ends up being possibly a bad thing, so Success / Bad would seem obvious. But then it is ending with the hero realizing his mistakes and vowing to change for the better, so it seems like it could also be Success / Good. However the change isn't coming until the very, very end of the piece, and the consequences of the hero's change aren't being fully resolved.

Is it a Success / Bad story with an Epilogue outside of the Dramatica storyform, in which the hero begins to fix his mistakes?

Or does the fact that success in the original mission turns out to be a bad thing make the Story Outcome one of Failure?

Thank you for your help.

Re: Question on Outcome / Judgement

Posted: Sep 16, 2010 9:04 am
by Chris Huntley
Two examples of Success/Bad stories are The Silence of the Lambs and The Dark Knight.

I think you are correct in identifying your story as a Success/Bad story. The NEXT story might be the redemption story (wanna bet that's what happens in the next Batman movie?), and you may choose to set up that sequel in the epilogue, but, as they say, that's another story.