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Fate vs. Destiny

Posted: Oct 26, 2012 4:05 pm
by Scott
Can anybody explain in simple language the difference between Fate and Destiny in Dramatica and how to illustrate such a conflict?
The Dramatica definition calls Fate “a future situation that will befall an individual” and Destiny “the future path an individual must take.” These sound the same to me, so I have been trying to wrap my mind around the difference between these two.
The longer Dramatica definition says that a Fate is a step on the path of one's Destiny, which is a series of inevitable events. That’s great, but it still makes Fate sound almost like the same thing as Destiny, whereas all other thematic conflicts (e.g., Morality vs. Self-Interest) are either opposites or clearly distinguishable, unlike Fate and Destiny.
I think it would be easier to distinguish between Destiny and Chance, which would come closer to a traditional thematic conflict, in which characters would be wondering if a series of highly improbable events were chance happenings or if they all add up towards some pre-engineered direction.
If the theme of a story is “everything is predetermined for the ultimate good of humanity,” would the OS Issue be Fate or Destiny?
Also, let’s say that a story is about psychics trying to predict peoples’ fates. Would that be an OS Issue of Fate (because of the inevitable events that the psychics predict will happen), Prediction (because the characters are trying to find out why the psychics’ predictions are all coming true), or Interdiction (the characters try to prevent their inevitable fate)?

Re: Fate vs. Destiny

Posted: Oct 26, 2012 10:11 pm
by Geoff1975
The definitions seemed clear to me. A destiny would be a path, a more permanent journey to something. A fate would be a state of being which could change. I got an impression of several fates dotting a line labeled a destiny.

It's been said several times in Dramatica articles and the guidebook, I believe, that the layers in the chart of quads are just reflecting the one same set of elements and relationships. Chris and Melanie just had to find the closest English words which would communicate those relationships in each context. So they're holographic. That's how you get weird Dramatica definitions of words. :lol: In general, it would be useful for all of us to get a good sense of these relationships in order to view them in the different layers.

In one of the Storymind videos on Youtube, Melanie mentions these relationships. The upper left is likened to Mass; the lower right to energy. It takes a lot of energy to form mass. Same way with thought. It takes a lot of knowledge to produce one thought, but one thought can equal a lot of knowledge. Fate occupies the upper left spot and Destiny (Mass) is in the lower right spot (Energy). So, it takes a lot of fates to equal that one path of destiny.