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-TAKE #2- After being fired for accidentally killing the Hero, a disgraced 'minion of the warlord' is conscripted by the local village to become their champion and face his former evil boss.
Richiev: Another thought, a Plan "B" if you encounter too much resistance to your story because of it's exotic setting (in time and geography): Convert the premise of your plot to a sci-fi or western genre story. Precendents: The Seven Samurai ---> The Magnificent Seven Yojimbo ---> A FistfulRead more
Richiev:
Another thought, a Plan “B” if you encounter too much resistance to your story because of it’s exotic setting (in time and geography):
Convert the premise of your plot to a sci-fi or western genre story.
Precendents:
The Seven Samurai —> The Magnificent Seven
Yojimbo —> A Fistful of Dollars, Last Man Standing
Hidden Fortress —> Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
The conversion worked for those films and (imho) will work for yours because at the core of the stories is an archetypal character and/or situation. And archetypes work independent of cultures or genres.
In the case of your story, the archetype I see is the transformational arc of a loser nobody into winning somebody. The story of a minion, picador, second fiddle, bit player who by chance and fate is given one last chance to overcome his circumstances, his own doubts and weaknesses to become a paladin for the downtrodden, a valiant hero.
That core conceit of your story is a universal that can be translated into other contexts, other genres. (And frankly, more than the location or time period, is the hook of the story for me. It’s what stirs my imagination, my emotions.)
fwiw
See lessActing in concert, birds start attacking people for no apparent reason.
Of course, the whole movie plays fast and loose with history. And the plot threads are kind of thin in places. All Marcus Aurelius had to do was NOT confront Commodus until he had Maximus locked in. And then have Maximus at his right side to guarantee his safety, and his daughter, Lucilla, as a witnRead more
Of course, the whole movie plays fast and loose with history. And the plot threads are kind of thin in places.
All Marcus Aurelius had to do was NOT confront Commodus until he had Maximus locked in. And then have Maximus at his right side to guarantee his safety, and his daughter, Lucilla, as a witness when he confronted Commodus.
But then, there would have been no movie about gladiators.
Anyway, I find it an interesting example of how to plot an Act 1/Act 2 reversal of fortune of a strong, decent character.
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>>If he were less loyal, honest and confident, he would be more suspicious about Comodus. Marcus Aurelius: "Commodus is not a moral man, you have known that since you were young. Commodus cannot rule. He must not rule. You are the son that I should have had." Maximus doesn't deny this. His nexRead more
>>If he were less loyal, honest and confident, he would be more suspicious about Comodus.
Marcus Aurelius: “Commodus is not a moral man, you have known that since you were young. Commodus cannot rule. He must not rule. You are the son that I should have had.”
Maximus doesn’t deny this. His next statement is: “I need some time, Sire.”
I think that is his fatal mistake, his hamartia, if you will. If ever there was a moment to Carpe Diem… but Maximus hesitates.
Why does Maximus hesitate? He didn’t become Rome’s greatest general by being the kind of guy who vacillates.
It seems to me he hesitates because Marcus Aurelius has set him on the horns of a dilemma. On one horn: if he declines the offer and goes home, Commodus becomes emperor.
On the other horn: if he accepts the call, he can’t go home, and he becomes ensnared in Empire politics. Which he loathes. It’s not his strength: he’s a general, not a politician. (In contrast, playing politics is Commodus’s long suit.)
Marcus Aurelius errs in having such a low opinion of his son’s character he also underestimates his son’s ambition and ruthlessness: “Commodus will accept my decision. He knows that you command the loyalty of the army.”
Yeah, right.
>>And at the end when Comodus wounds him with his dagger before the fight.
Maximus is in chains; he can’t defend himself.
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