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To start off, I should say that I like happy endings. I read and watch stories with happy endings. If there isn’t a happy ending, I try to avoid it. (I am forever scarred from the time I went to the movies with friends without asking what movie and wound up seeing House of Sand and Fog. A very well-done film, but frankly that just makes it worse.) That said, however, a rabid plot-bunny is trailing me around with a decidedly unhappy ending, so I am going to release it to pasture and hope it goes away:
I was recently watching a Torchwood episode in which one of the characters dies. It’s all very shocking and sudden: at the very end of the episode, it looks like everything is going to be fine, the future is looking rosy, and the bad guy manages to kill one last person, one of the main characters. That’s not an unusual TV idea. The same thing happened in NCIS. A rather needless death right at the end of the episode for maximum shock. Cue the credits.
This inspired me to think, what about if such a death happened at the very beginning of the episode/show. Then the rest of the show has it’s regular plot intertwined with the characters trying to come to terms with the dead-guy’s death.
And because Highlander is my favorite fandom, I’ll use those characters, but the idea is pretty universal.
Adam Pierson dies.
Joe and Mac aren’t all that distressed because they always knew that Adam Pierson was going to have to die sooner or later, most likely sooner, because there’s only so much Methos can age his appearance.
Then they learn the details: it was a car accident. A hit-and-run, that completely crushed Adam’s car, beheading the driver. Extensive burns on the body make solid identification hard to achieve, but all signs point to it being Adam.
Joe and Mac don’t really believe it. I mean, he’s Methos. It must be a trick of some sort. And boy are they going to rip him a new one when they find him for putting them through this stress. They suppose there’s some logic to arranging a beheading death to ensure the Watcher’s don’t think “Adam Pierson” could still be around as an immortal. Although where Methos found a body to use like that, neither of his friends want to guess.
They start by tracking down the hit-and-run driver, because surely Methos would have had to be the one. He probably used someone else’s car, but it’s still a lead.
They find the hit-and-run driver and it’s not Methos. It’s not even some evil immortal. It’s just some kid who was drunk at the time and confesses to everything before they’ve even started asking about who had borrowed his car. They wind up escorting him to the police station for his confession.
But still, this is Methos we’re talking about. He can’t be killed by just random chance. The death must be a trick. Mustn’t it?
Then Adam Pierson’s will gets probated. And his other will. And his other will. And there are oddities. More and more hidden resources come to light.
Resources that Adam Pierson didn’t have but that Methos did.
So the reader and the character spend the whole story trying to work out what the trick was, what the motivation was, how it’s all going to turn out all right… and yet in the end, there wasn't any trick, there wasn't any motivation, and it’s not going to be all right. It was just bad luck.
You could do this same plot with all sorts of characters:
Jason Bourne (The Bourne Identity)
James Bond (007)
Sydney Bristow (Alias)
Jarod (The Pretender)
I was recently watching a Torchwood episode in which one of the characters dies. It’s all very shocking and sudden: at the very end of the episode, it looks like everything is going to be fine, the future is looking rosy, and the bad guy manages to kill one last person, one of the main characters. That’s not an unusual TV idea. The same thing happened in NCIS. A rather needless death right at the end of the episode for maximum shock. Cue the credits.
This inspired me to think, what about if such a death happened at the very beginning of the episode/show. Then the rest of the show has it’s regular plot intertwined with the characters trying to come to terms with the dead-guy’s death.
And because Highlander is my favorite fandom, I’ll use those characters, but the idea is pretty universal.
Adam Pierson dies.
Joe and Mac aren’t all that distressed because they always knew that Adam Pierson was going to have to die sooner or later, most likely sooner, because there’s only so much Methos can age his appearance.
Then they learn the details: it was a car accident. A hit-and-run, that completely crushed Adam’s car, beheading the driver. Extensive burns on the body make solid identification hard to achieve, but all signs point to it being Adam.
Joe and Mac don’t really believe it. I mean, he’s Methos. It must be a trick of some sort. And boy are they going to rip him a new one when they find him for putting them through this stress. They suppose there’s some logic to arranging a beheading death to ensure the Watcher’s don’t think “Adam Pierson” could still be around as an immortal. Although where Methos found a body to use like that, neither of his friends want to guess.
They start by tracking down the hit-and-run driver, because surely Methos would have had to be the one. He probably used someone else’s car, but it’s still a lead.
They find the hit-and-run driver and it’s not Methos. It’s not even some evil immortal. It’s just some kid who was drunk at the time and confesses to everything before they’ve even started asking about who had borrowed his car. They wind up escorting him to the police station for his confession.
But still, this is Methos we’re talking about. He can’t be killed by just random chance. The death must be a trick. Mustn’t it?
Then Adam Pierson’s will gets probated. And his other will. And his other will. And there are oddities. More and more hidden resources come to light.
Resources that Adam Pierson didn’t have but that Methos did.
So the reader and the character spend the whole story trying to work out what the trick was, what the motivation was, how it’s all going to turn out all right… and yet in the end, there wasn't any trick, there wasn't any motivation, and it’s not going to be all right. It was just bad luck.
You could do this same plot with all sorts of characters:
Jason Bourne (The Bourne Identity)
James Bond (007)
Sydney Bristow (Alias)
Jarod (The Pretender)
