In our two-part series on plot devices, we explored how and when to use plot armor, deus ex machina, and plot holes. Now let’s go a bit further and take a hard look at story issues that are best to handle with care or avoid altogether. These are issues that weaken a story and undermine the characters. While the following list is not exhaustive, it does reflect some of the most glaring issues facing stories today. Ignore them at your peril. Three are character based and the final issue affects every aspect of story.
Plot-Induced Intelligence/Stupidity
Plot-induced intelligence and stupidity relies on contrived knowledge. It refers to intelligence that slides up and down as the plot requires.
It happens when you run into characters who succeed only because of that scaled intelligence. It’s wizards who forget they know magic. Excellent fighters who fail to use their strongest moves. Seemingly smart people who ignore logic or fact, which is the only reason they end up in a predicament. Their intelligence is not set within the character, but shifts with the story.
These are issues of plot-induced intelligence or stupidity. The character’s intelligence grows and ebbs in order to serve the plot and for no other reason. They haven’t been hit over the head or succumbed to a brain tumor. They haven’t suffered a mental break or are recovering from a traumatic brain injury. They just can’t figure out the simplest of mysteries, because if they did there would be no story. Of course, at the end of the story, they recover their full faculties and can solve the most difficult of clues.
There is no consistency.
These types of issues work in both directions. Sometimes the character gets smarter to advance the plot or they get dumber to stall progress. Their inherent abilities (i.e. intelligence or common sense) relies solely on the plot not on the characters themselves. This is a problem because readers approach stories with their intelligence intact. It does not ebb and flow with the plot, which is why these types of issues result in books being thrown across the room or remotes being tossed at the screen. Audiences are not dumb. They know what is happening. The writer is not fooling anyone.
Plot-induced stupidity would be like Sherlock Holmes missing a bunch of obvious clues at a crime scene only to solve the crime by noticing something esoteric and obscure in the end. It’s not consistent. The reason people love Sherlock is because of his unrelenting powers of observation and intelligence. If it came and went at a whim, no one would care about him.
Any change in intelligence for the purpose of story that renders the character as acting “out of character” is a problem and highly annoying to fans.
You find this type of problem everywhere. Keep an eye out for it. On example is in the Dragonball series. Goku’s intelligence shifts from series to series. In the original series, he is capable of making plans but then is incapable of doing the same in Dragonball Super. Why? Because plot. The plot made him stupid. There’s no other reason.
Plot-induced intelligence and stupidity shifts the brain power of a character only to suit the story, not to remain consistent with how that character has always been. You find it when characters are forced to make decisions they normally wouldn’t make only to serve the story. They might react on impulse or make stupid choices they wouldn’t normally make. It would be like Hermione not going to the library to research something beforehand. That would be out of character for her and enrage her fans.
And fans are part of the problem for writers, which we’ll discuss this later when we get to problems with canon. But first, let’s look at the most closely related issue to plot-induced intelligence.
Plot-Induced Strength/Weakness
Plot-induced strength and weakness works the same way as shifting intelligence. A character’s strength becomes dependent on what is needed to move the plot forward, which means the character’s strength is no longer fixed. It is not that they are bested by strategy or skill, but win or lose to serve the story. This would be like Hulk losing to, well, Captain America in a fight because Marvel needed him to lose. Or Goku getting bruised by a regular bullet. It doesn’t make sense. The only reason it happened was because the writer needed it to happen. It’s why most heroes lose their early fights only to defeat the villain in the end. It’s to heighten tension, but unless that hero gains strength somehow during the course of the story, it doesn’t make sense that he’ll win in the end.
In Anime and gaming, you will find plot-induced strength and weakness when a character starts losing and then randomly gets a power boost (that is rarely explained). It just happens. This happens a lot in Fairy Tail. Natsu gets power that inconsistent with series just so he can win the fight in the end. But then he’ll later lose to weaker people, which makes no sense. His strength and abilities change to serve the story.
This happens in many stories. You could say that Harry forgetting he had a wand and magic is both plot-induced stupidity and weakness.
It is not plot-induced strength or weakness if there is a clear reason the person lost. You could argue that Kylo Ren lost to Rey in their first fight on the Starkiller Base because he had just killed his father and been shot by Chewbacca. He was far from his best and could not defeat Rey. Some people point to this as plot-induced weakness. Others argue the above reasons. I’m not going to go into which is right, but it does show that with reasons you can put your characters in a vulnerable position, but be careful how you do that or you will face pushback. Make it clear why they are weaker or stupid for that scene. Make sure it fits the story and the character.
The plot-induced issues above are the result of bad and lazy writing and should be avoided.
In the next blog, we’ll focus on another character-related issue that signals poor writing.