What Wreck-it-Ralph taught me about TC

[pkfridley]

A couple weekends ago we went to see Wreck-it Ralph, the latest Disney/Pixar movie. It was pretty good. And, since my reading-life is knee-deep in Thomas Covenant -- I'm into the first few chapters of Fatal Revenant, reading the Last Chronicles for the first time -- I couldn't help but see some similar themes. Especially comparing the First Chronicles to Ralph. Both stories, generally, could be described thusly:

"In pursuing his own self-centered motives, a social outcast makes things much worse; but once he begins forming his own moral center, and acting on that morality in his own flawed manner, he makes things much better in a way that no one else could have."

Cool, huh?

The only problem is that I kept thinking about Ralph, and the conclusions I formed kind of spoilered Fatal Revenant for me (I think -- I'm only about 100 pages in).

I'll try not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie, but there's a big plot twist towards the end that I didn't see coming. It totally hit me by surprise. And I was really disappointed in myself for not catching onto the clues, especially considering that the movie was otherwise a pretty straight-forward Disney cartoon. So, in case I'm ever confronted by such a twist again, I formed a "story-telling rule" to keep myself on guard, to watch for clues:

"Whenever a 'new' character enters the plot, whose motives are ambiguously-defined and against the motives of the main character, ask yourself: are all the 'bad guys' accounted for?"

I was pretty proud of myself. The only problem now is that last night I read the scene in FR where Linden finally has a pow-wow with Covenant and Jeremiah in Revelstone and my little "rule" worked 100% accurately and I'm pretty sure I spoilered the rest of the book for myself.

No one needs to confirm or deny this for me, but considering the Mahdoubt's words about love "casting a glamour on the heart," I'm pretty sure that Jeremiah wasn't the only "son" in the room, if you know what I mean.

So, those of you who've already read FR: I hope you got a good laugh out of this. I'll continue reading, and let you know what you already know when I get there, namely whether my suspicions are true or not.

[Krazy Kat]

"Whenever a 'new' character enters the plot, whose motives are ambiguously-defined and against the motives of the main character, ask yourself: are all the 'bad guys' accounted for?"

Triock always baffles me. The way he enters the story and the role he plays out. I keep asking the same old question: what's so curious about his epaulettes?
It sometimes casts a shadow on Atairan, even Lena. And Trell? <heavy sigh>

[wayfriend]

Have no worries, PK. I quite think you'll enjoy the way it plays out, even if you did manage to figure something out.

(It seems to me that, if an author chooses to leave little clues so that an astute reader can guess what's coming, they should be quite prepared to entertain those readers that do. Have faith that Donaldson will hold up his end.)