Call For Comments: Why Are Plot Twists?

From Mav: It’s the episode you’ve been waiting for. After Katya’s sudden and surprising death via plot device, on next week’s show we’re going to explain which of Hannah, Wayne or Mav is the secret traitor and did her in!!! Will the others make it out alive? Or will they fall prey to the VoxPopKiller that has plagued us all season? By the way, on a personal note from Mav… there’s not much drama here. It’s Hannah. It’s clearly Hannah. Everyone can tell it’s Hannah and we’ve been building to this all along. And I’m totally not saying that as a distraction because I’m the real murderer. Because I’m not. Because if I were why would I even put that doubt out there. Or am I?!?!? Is this a plot twist or foreshadowing? Is this important or is it a cheap ratings ploy? Only time will tell… dun dun dunnnnnn!!!!

We’ve talked about plot twists a bit on a few epsiodes recently. On our MCU shows we’ve talked about things like “It was Agatha all along” or “It was Sharon all along” and whether or not they were successful, but we’ve also talked about the twists and turns in stuff like Bridgerton and Queen’s Gambit. But even outside of that we’ve talked about things like “the sudden revelation that all of St. Elsewhere was a dream” and we could look at detective stories and plot twists as a trope become a basic construction block for the whole genre.

But we thought it was time to discuss plot twists as a concept. What are they? WHY are they? Sure, a narrative has to progression, but that doesn’t seem like enough to justify the concept of “a twist”. So what makes something a twist? Is Darth Vader being Luke’s father a twist… or is that just the story of Star Wars? And are twists good or bad? Does it improve the story or is it just a convention we’ve come to expect? What are your favorite and least favorite plot twists? This is going to be a more wide open show, so give us your comments about what you want us to discuss (we may even ask you to be a guest).

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