Unstuffing the Fridge

[ysabetwordsmith]

... leads to better writing.

Though I have to admit, I am often entertained by the reversal -- killing a male character to motivate a female -- which I like to call Stuffed into a Dryer.

Comments

re: stuffing/unstuffing

[(Anonymous)]

I wonder... there's a book on writing I skimmed and have heard referenced in other medians. "A hero with a hundred faces" I think that's what it's called. Regardless it serves as a discussion of how story structure traditionally works in a heroic tale.

Part of that structure is "the call" and the "rejection of the call" where the hero/protagonist is informed/discovers they are meant for greater things and reject it for the security of the normal world, where upon they get a plot related wake up call, usually a tragedy of some sort.

Since killing off a venerable person close to the hero literally changes everything for that person, and women tend to be easier to kill than men, I almost wonder if "stuffing the fridge" isn't a off shoot or corruption of the traditional plot kick off.

I'll admit it's cheep, and I tend to disregard it as a back story prop when I can. If it's a canon established back story for a fanfiction I'll grudgingly use the device... but I'll put it off, build up the relationship, the characters, before the offing has to be so that way if it does change the character/kick off the story it's bloody /justified/ and the victim is recalled by the surviving characters and not just a forgotten note.

I actually sculpted a stuff in the fridge set up and adverted it in a fanfiction once.

Genis Sage, who accidentally sets off a chain of events that kills someone he's fond of. He gets little in story screen time with this person, but little mentions get put up. He's changed a recipe of his to match hers, he makes little comments about missing someone, and is subdued in the beginning of the fic when he's established to be quite bubbly. Then he meets up with the extended family of his victim and everything he's been holding in just comes out and it impacts not only him, that family, but leads to a bigger chain of events that further separate him from who he once was.

She's his ghost, a tolerable one, and he grows from it instead of being warped.

Other characters in that series (really the game deals so much with grief and the aftermath when the characters are powerful and shattered and lose someone) don't recover so well, or are so warped by their loss they become unrecognizable or inhumane. Symphonia, the game Genis is from, is a rather nasty deconstruction of the whole "fridge" idea once ones looked at it after completion.

I've honestly not encountered a stronger case against casually killing off characters for back story or other reasons than that game. So many other medians treat death as drama points the more a character suffers, or losses loved ones, or has to kill, or watch others be killed the better the work supposedly gets.

This is definitely not a view I share as a writer but it's one I see far too much both as a reader and a writer.

Re: stuffing/unstuffing

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Part of that structure is "the call" and the "rejection of the call" where the hero/protagonist is informed/discovers they are meant for greater things and reject it for the security of the normal world, where upon they get a plot related wake up call, usually a tragedy of some sort. <<

There are actually different options: the person can accept the call immediately, refuse it but accept later, refuse it and get dragged through the whole story, or refuse it and pursue a different story. A majority of stories are refusal/acceptance, with some immediate acceptances and some refusal/drags.

Actually allowing the character enough intelligence and agency to stay the hell out of somebody else's stupid fight is rare. The problem with any kind of refusal/force is that it establishes a pattern of railroading the characters. This does not make for the best storytelling.

>> Since killing off a venerable person close to the hero literally changes everything for that person, and women tend to be easier to kill than men, I almost wonder if "stuffing the fridge" isn't a off shoot or corruption of the traditional plot kick off. <<

It's probably related. And they both tend to be lazy plot devices. What, you couldn't come up with a better motivation than that? Pff.

>> I'll admit it's cheep, and I tend to disregard it as a back story prop when I can. <<

Good for you.

>> If it's a canon established back story for a fanfiction I'll grudgingly use the device... <<

I actively resent fridging and will edit it out of things.

>> She's his ghost, a tolerable one, and he grows from it instead of being warped. <<

Cool.

>> So many other medians treat death as drama points the more a character suffers, or losses loved ones, or has to kill, or watch others be killed the better the work supposedly gets. <<

Pointless deaths bore me. Undeveloped or unmotivated characters bore me. I got bored with the Game of Thrones books for those reasons. Can we just freeze the planet solid and be done with it? I have laundry to do.

Re: stuffing/unstuffing

[(Anonymous)]

laughs.

Thanks for that.

I've found no one else who shares my opinion of the Throne franchise.

Re: stuffing/unstuffing

[ysabetwordsmith]

*hugs*

I was also bored with The Mists of Avalon, which Pagans in general and Pagan women in particular are supposed to love. However, the television adaptation was lovely.