2:41, like Harry Potter

1:10, like Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Inheritance Cycle

What lazy plot devices all have in common is that there is some understanding of how things work, either in reality, or in that world, that gets suspended temporarily for the sake of the plot device.

Favorite movie is Logan, and it hooked me right at the beginning, when Logan tried to scare off the gang jacking his car and his claws come out all messed up. And then that absolutely excellent fight kicks off and i was sold. Its the best kind of action - one that marries character, story, and world building altogether

Storytelling is one of my favorite topics. And some of my favorite shows about that topic are Pinky Dinky Doo and Tinga Tinga Tales.

Is the rock in 127 hours a great villain? It does such a great job of cornering the hero, leading to difficult decisions and character development.

Best plot twist has to be S1 of The Good Place

vegeta :v

Don't know if you'll see this or not, but what do you think causes writers to make mistakes like these? In particular, saving Finn at the end of the Last Jedi. It seems obvious to me - nowhere near a professional writer - that they should have let him die even as I watched the movie. Surely it occurred to someone on the team that they could just let Finn die. So why wouldn't they? What prevents them from doing something bold like that?

No scene can be all that good, if it features Andrew Garfield.

Several superbly crafted scenes in EX MACHINA, which ultimately disappoints as a whole.

Luke's response to Vader asking him to join him after the big reveal was also silence followed by action in the end

The video clip of Joffrey's excruciating demise earned millions of views within minutes of being posted on the web. Not only comeuppance for a super-hateable villain, but a brilliant performance by Gleeson.

I never bought the speech at the end of Rocky IV. I'm glad someone agrees with me. One of my favorite speeches is Lou Diamond Philips' monologue in Young Guns in response to "I guess that means nothing to you."

The diner scene from Heat. "Maybe we'll never see each other again."

Dementors are pretty scary

Primal Fear, Fight Club, The Usual Suspects and Prisoners come to mind quickly. And after reading the comments, definitely the first Saw movie. Red Wedding in GoT is a classic of a shocker. LOST was also very cool - until it went overboard.

Sanwise Gamgee’s speech to Frodo in the ruins of Osgiliath.

7:55 Is that why so many movies omit "Goodbye" when the character ends the telephone call? That has always slightly aggravated me.

Action without stakes? I hate the intro to Dragon's Dogma. I know it's a tutorial and all but the premade character means nothing to me and the lengthy fight against the manticore is really annoying. It's one of the worst introductions to a game I've ever played, which is surprising since I absolutely love the game otherwise (not the DLC so much, but it's "OK").

Thanks Agassi

I really hate it when a series has the trope of a protagonist who has to relearn a lesson again and again. It's like every week the show's writers forgot the hero already learned to depend on others, believe in themself, etc.. in a previous episode. WHY!?!

Tywin Lannister. Best character intro ever.

Some good ways to do these IMO: 1: The villain's (or villains) interest in the protagonist being due to their relation, even if it comes later as a plot twist. 2: The character is established to be good at learning skills, or has the time to do so. Examples include Loki (season 2), 5th Element's Leeloo, and Short Circuit's Johnny #5. 3: The villain takes the choice away from the hero by killing both victims, or time runs out. Or it can also be a great point in the story where the hero must rely on others for help to do both. 4: If a hero has no consequences for failing it could be fun if it's a delayed cost. Like a reverse deux ex machina. Let's say some bank robbers are caught and then bailed out but not told why or by who until much later in the story when they have other things going on. That ship Rey destroyed probably had other passengers, prisoners, etc.. on it. The deads' relatives could have confronted Rey later or even hired bounty hunters. It could have also been a great plot point if they lost critical allies that switched over to supporting the First Order due to her actions. In this way the audience doesn't lose a beloved character, Rey still has a reason to try and stop the ship, AND there are dire consequences. 5: I like hero resurrection or a hero returning at just the right moment, but I agree the hero should be damaged, different, or otherwise changed in some meaningful way. LOTR's Gandalf and Final Fantasy 2's Rydia are both great examples of heroes who returned after their seeming demise, but were both changed in dramatic ways. It would have been great if John Snow had constant ghost pains from his death wounds and also been more of a violent anti-hero. Even better if the hero is resurrected to stop the threat, only to end up becoming the greater threat themselves after.

I am not a writer but this was the most entertaining narrated powerpoint presentation i have ever seen.

Subbb❤❤ solid advice

Great video! So much information in such a short space of time! I love it! Just what I needed today. I shall be watching all of your videos! Shout out to all my fellow writers! I hope you guys are having a great day filled with inspiration! I'm off to write 2500 words! 😎🤟✍

I would love a video about direct and indirect dialogue and how to use them. 🌺

I find that Star Wars' bad dialogue sometimes just adds to that galaxy far far away feeling. Like in the prequel era every one just talks differently than planet earth and it can, sometimes, create immersion. This felt more apparant to me after watching the Sequels which very much just felt like normal people on earth because of the modern way they spoke.

Can you do more videos about writing flaws?

Mcnutty

My friend and I created a drinking game we called flashback. We watched the TV show "the flash" and had a drink every time there was a flashback (and a few other rules). It worked well for season one, but when season 2 came out we got drunk too quickly and had to give up the game. That could be a flashback of my life, please have a drink.

I can understand abandoned subplots in a TV series. But a movie? I thought the whole movie is planned out before shooting. Or if they changed something midway, they could remove it in post.

9:17 Seeing yourself as evil does not preclude seeing yourself as a hero. It's actually a powerful archetype rising out of a villain's despair, freeing themselves from worrying about salvation to do what they view as necessary, and maybe spare others the burden of getting blood on their hands. You can think of the Operative from Serenity: "I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done." More heroically, there's Mei in Honkai Impact 3rd's Lament of the Fallen: "If rescuing you is a sin, I'll gladly become a sinner."

"On the Nose" As someone who has done exactly what Anakin did (vocally, not killing Sand People), I can say that sometimes this IS natural. However, I am an "Asperger's", so... that might affect things. Perhaps Anakin did that because he is stunted in some form? And... #4... That sort of communication? Yeah, very similar to me in my teens, and early 20s. Really starting to think Anakin might have just been an "Asperger" lol However, add in the Hound quotes... Starting to wonder about whether you have ever REALLY been put to a stressed situation for long enough that you just drop pretense, and start speaking exactly as you think. Eventually, most people face that, and start understanding why those characters just said "F-IT!" and started saying exactly what they were thinking, because... why not? No more strength, or energy, to keep up the BS masks etc. So, when people ask, or challenge... they get it straight. No pretense, no hiding.

was he being serious about Morbius? Wasn't that movie a mega flop?

The exchange between Hans Gruber & Holly McClain is absolute GOLD. Eat S and live MAY get added to my personal lexicon. 😏 And thanks for the reminder about your book! I noticed it was out a few days ago but didn't get to it. Just bought it!

The Star Wars sequels were the kings of bathos. It seems like every five minutes or every time something serious is happening, there would be some cheap or unnecessary joke that would completely break the tension. That first phone with Kyla Ren, the moment Finn walks into the hanger with his back to suit spraying water over everywhere, Ray not actually being able to answer Luke’s question about what the force is… It’s honestly what killed the films for me. I can’t even think of any moments in the third film because I didn’t bother to fucking watch it.

My favorite dialogue of all time has to be the first scene in Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" where Hans Landa is introduced. There's so much to learn from it.

Many great stories start with someone waking up in bed. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the perfect example.

15:49 bro just ignored her name is EVIL LYN......noob

The first Evil Dead movie from the 80's is also a good example of writing a good jump scare when you want to write a story about demons.

Fuck. I fell to 4 and 5

Cosmic horror is a great genre, I have always loved the idea of how it has humans not being able to handle the existence of aliens being way more intelligent then you because you are nothing compared to them. Humans are just bugs crawling and causing cancer on this Earth. We are destroying ourselves in the process, but aliens can quickly get rid of humans in the books, (And possibly in real life) causing them to go mad, tragic endings in sci fi stories will always work. Humans could never beat them, and I like that about the cosmic horror genre!

Not sure if this counts, but I really despise when different characters learn a critical truth independently. It feels lazy as hell, and is never followed up with a "wait how did you know about this?"

I was always bothered about the scene in The Crow, a movie I love. The "Mother is the name..." was so powerful and impressive. Then it was followed with "bad for you" comment. I just siphoned off the epic feel of the first line.

Nobody physically "rolls" down their window anymore, but I bet you still use it. I don't have to be on a farm to say, "needle in a haystack"

would you make a "comic relief" one where we see bad examples and good examples of comic rilief? Obviously first showing that one starwars scene.

Me writing a story : Character A : Hey, wonderful day we having right ? Character B : Are you attacking me ?

For the resume point, a piece of dialogue that does this well is the entire office exchange that introduces Phillip Seymour Hoffmann's character in Charlie Wilson's War.