Questions tagged [plot-device]
An element introduced into a story, film, play etc. to advance the plot.
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Is it important for the plot that Leia is Luke's sister?
As everybody knows, Luke and Leia are Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader's children. The fact that Luke is his son is important plotwise:
Being Anakin's son, the Force is strong in Luke, making him a ...
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Why did the Americans just lock away the Ark and never study it?
At the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark it is shown that the Ark is in a big army warehouse among thousands of similar looking crates, and it is hinted that this means it will never be opened ever again ...
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Why did they have to take the Ark to the mountain in the island to open it?
In Raiders of the lost Ark Belloq and the German army take the Ark on top of a mountain in an island to perform a ritual to open the Ark and look inside
I must have missed something in the movie ...
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First science-fiction/fantasy story that converts its exposition to a fictional language?
I'm pretty certain that there are works of fiction purely in a fictional language. For instance I'd be surprised if some uber-geek hasn't written some fan fiction entirely in Klingon. I also know ...
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Short story on a blog which makes fun of plot armour
I once read a short SF/F story on the blog of a Stack Exchange member, which I'd like to find again. (If you are the person with that blog, please do answer this question!)
It was basically a big ...
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What is the significance of Chewie's white patch?
In the novel Crystal Star by Vonda McIntyre, Leia and Chewbacca stumble upon a fleet of Imperial slave ships. At that moment, the following exchange occurs:
Chewbacca touched the thick chestnut fur ...
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Why don't C3PO and R2D2 have each other's designs?
If R2's job is repairing and C3PO is mainly for translating, why does R2 have the more circular body with wheels which is probably more inefficient for grabbing tools and repairing? Wouldn't it be ...
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What happened after Alderaan blew up in A New Hope?
In A New Hope, Princess Leia sends R2-D2 and C3PO to Obi-Wan who is supposed to take R2 to Alderaan where Leia's father is supposed to decode the Death Star blueprints out of R2's memory.
Then ...
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Why was Quaid so sure about starting the reactor (Total Recall)?
In Total Recall, Quaid, after meeting Kuato, seems to be certain that starting the reactor was a good idea
This idea seems to have been given to him by Kuato (his final words were to start the ...
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About the subliminal message in Serenity
I have a question about that. In "Serenity", River Tam is shown a subliminal message in an advertisement, a code that was floating around for weeks.
Now, here's my question, broken into short ones. ...
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What caused the execution by dementor at the end of Goblet of Fire?
Although the dementor's kiss is a major turning point at the end of the fourth book, which serves as a premise for Fudge's attitude in the 5th book, the execution itself seems somewhat unnatural and ...
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Why does Skynet take prisoners?
In the Terminator franchise, extermination camps are often mentioned. But from a machine-logic POV, wouldn't it make more sense to just kill all humans on sight, period? Or herd them into small areas ...
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Why is Caleb trapped at the end of the movie?
When Caleb first enters Nathan's facility/home, he learns that in the event of a power failure all the doors will lock.
So
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Were the Mark VII Vipers ever retro-fitted and used?
In the reimagined Battlestar Galactica pilot, a major plot point was that the Cylons now had the ability to hack or disrupt networked computer systems, thus forcing the Colonial Fleet to rely on older,...
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Predestination (movie) - predestination or bootstrap paradox? [duplicate]
In the movie Predestination:
Is Jane's birth because of a predestination paradox or bootstrap paradox?
which one is it?
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Why didn't Voldemort make harder-to-find or indestructible horcruxes? [duplicate]
In the Harry Potter series, Voldemort splits up his soul into 7 pieces and puts the "pieces" in objects that he hides, called horcruxes, so that one would have to "kill" all 7 horcruxes in order to ...
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In the TV series Gotham, do Cat's goggles do anything?
In the TV series Gotham, other than giving her a vaguely cat-like silhouette do the green-tinted goggles that Cat wears serve any purpose? I've been binge-watching the series (I'm up to episode 9) and ...
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When exactly was the Sword of Gryffindor imbued with basilisk venom?
It is assumed that the Sword absorbed basilisk venom when Harry killed the basilisk using the sword in the Chamber of Secrets, but is there any proof that this was the point when the sword got imbued ...
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How does Shrek's rescue party reach him so fast at the end of Shrek 2?
In the beginning of Shrek 2 it is shown that it takes a long time to reach Far Far Away from Shrek's swamp. Although not explicitly mentioned, from the visuals it seems obvious that the distance is ...
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What are the Animus death scenes, in-universe?
I'm a big fan of abstract storytelling, so I've always enjoyed the Animus death animations in the Assassin's Creed series, where a major assassination target has a few moments to sum up their life and ...
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How independent of each other are the different copies of Smith?
How independent are the copies of Smith from each other?
It seems that mostly the copies are subordinate to him. For example, they come only after the real Smith appears, they do not make other ...
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Why were the "Monsters, Inc." monsters told that touching kids would kill them?
Throughout the start of the movie the monsters are told again and again that touching a kid would/could kill them.
Eventually everyone finds out that isn't true, but the movie never gives a reason as ...
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Did Madame Maxime really just have big bones?
In Goblet of Fire it is heavily implied that Madame Maxime is half giant, but never explicitly mentioned.
In The Order of the Phoenix, this is further enforced by stating that she went with Hagrid to ...
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Wouldn't Aunt Petunia know that Harry couldn't use magic outside school?
The answers to this question got me thinking. Aunt Petunia probably spent her childhood with Lily and though she was bitter, was probably in close contact with her at least until she finished Hogwarts....
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How did Neo end up in the train station?
At the end of the second movie Neo feels the sentinels and stops them just by his mind, then collapses.
At the beginning of the third movie he suddenly wakes up in the trainman's station
How did he ...
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Where is Platform 9 3/4 located?
King Cross's Platform 9 3/4: we can go "there" by throwing ourselves on the wall between Platforms 9 and 10.
But where is that "there"?
Is it on King's Cross? Then where at King's Cross?
What is ...
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how does becoming "the One" work in the Matrix?
According to the Architect, the emergence of the One is predictable and inevitable, it has already happened 5 times before, and the current iteration turned out to be Neo
If it is inevitable, when ...
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Why doesn't Neo take a more advanced gun with him when going to save Morpheus?
While going back into the Matrix to save Morpheus, Neo and Trinity are sent to a huge room with lots and lots of guns, but in terms of technological level, they are all the same types of guns that ...
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What was Filch doing during the battle of Hogwarts?
I can't remember whether Filch was even mentioned during the last book.
Given the Ministry's strong rules against Muggle-borns, it could be assumed they might have somehow tried to dispose of squibs ...
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Why isn't entry through the floo network protected like entry through apparition?
In Half Blood Prince Dumbledore said that apparating inside a house is rude, and usually wizards will have protection in place to prevent unwanted guests entering this way:
"Professor, why couldn'...
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How does removing a memory work in Harry Potter?
There seem to be two ways of taking memory out of the mind in Harry Potter
One is what Prof. Slughorn did, that is, give Harry a copy of his real memory of telling Tom Riddle about Horcruxes. It is ...
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Why didn't Malfoy's wand pass its allegiance to Ginny?
Towards the end of Order of the Phoenix, after Umbridge has been carried away by the Centaurs, and when they have to get away from Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad, Ginny overpowers Malfoy in Umbridge's ...
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Could the Marauder's map show two sets of Harry and Hermione?
Prof. Lupin explains to Harry in the Shrieking Shack that he was looking at the map when they went to meet Hagrid before the execution of Buckbeak. Three people went in, but four came out. Why didn't ...
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What kind of beings are shown by the Marauder's Map?
The map definitely shows people (humans) inside the castle, but I remember reading about Harry watching Peeves bouncing around in the trophy room and Peeves is not human. I don't remember if I had ...
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What did the Howler to Aunt Petunia mean in Order of the Phoenix?
What does "Remember my last, Petunia" mean in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?
From what I gather, most people seem to think it refers to the letter Dumbledore left for Aunt Petunia when ...
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Significance (or otherwise) of the Headless Spiro Agnew
There have been many disembodied heads depicted on Futurama, some of which have obtained some form of body at one stage or another (e.g. Nixon procuring 1st the body of Bender then of a Transformer, ...
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What makes wood resistant to various fictional items?
In this question, the reason the Doctor's Sonic Screw Driver 'doesn't do wood' is covered. It's weakness is described below:
As such, throwing in an arbitrary weakness, like being unable to do ...
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Does the character of Jar Jar Binks serve an actual purpose in Star Wars?
I'm not asking about just an in-universe explanation. I'm talking about it from the point of view of a writer or of someone analyzing a film or written story.
I recently re-watched all six Star Wars ...
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