Drama

Not to be confused with the genre by the same name.

The element of seriousness in fiction. It involves characters' heavy emotions such as sadness, anger, and despair. It can also include those like fear and apathy in the right contexts. It's best that drama is written into scenes that aren't too close to comedy. It tends to come after moments of defeat, failure, a hurtful realization, loss confidence, or someone's sudden departure. Drama lines the air during times of betrayal, rifts in once-close relationships, and the death of someone close. Anyone can be affected by drama's weight, even if their personality revolves around humor. Individuals with clashing roles, like the Everyman And Dumb Idiot, are more prone to intense disagreements that can split them apart. In both adventurous and familiar franchises, these scenes can cause upcoming events to become unpredictable or take a turn for the worse. But not all drama occurs between two or more people. Some of the most compelling heavy moments consist of a person having conflicts with themselves. Somebody can have doubts about an action they plan to or have already carried out as it clashes with their morality. People aligned with Lawful Good, Neutral Good, and Neutral Neutral are most affected by this problem. This Man Versus Self type of drama can intensify if the person subjected to it can't find a resolve to it before it repeats itself many times over. They may later find themselves questioning their own decision-making abilities and how corrupted they've become.

The power drama has to push a story forward is hard to exaggerate. Even when poorly handled, it can do much more for the story than any other concept in fiction. As mentioned before, it can bring up several kinds of emotions, but it goes beyond what the introduction mentioned. Suspense leans greatly on drama for functionality. Characters can act drastically different when under the influence of their wilder feelings, which makes their following actions unpredictable. They're also prone to acting on the spur of their current emotions after being clouded with rage, heartbreak, misery, or shock. These choices aren't known to be the ones characters regret the least. What makes matters worse for someone is if their mistake was exceptionally ruinous to the environment or harmful to the feelings of those they care for. An apology to somebody hurt in the confusion is rarely enough in well-written stories. Past events may seem to have built up to the Emotion Explosion although the acting individual is truly over how they felt back then. These situations and more can stick with a person for a long time and alter their personality immediately or progressively. The audience can learn about a person and how they react to different influences on them, more so if they're pushed to their absolute limit and forced to act in full honesty. Roles like the Jerk or SOB that display one constant negative behavior can do a Complete 180 on themselves once all the joking is over. Life-or-death situations like Near-Death Experiences (as well as any similar problem) are great at pushing people to this point. They strip characters of the resources they rely on like food, water, and technology, causing them to fall back on natural instincts. Those more resilient in physique, emotion, and mental state will suffer much less than the Weakling, Hothead, or Psycho.

Drama tends to strike protagonists much more than it does anyone else since they are the ones the story invested in the most. If they aren't feeling good, that can stop the story from advancing as there is now a major problem that has to be fixed before anybody can move on. That doesn't mean that drama always Pauses The Universe — antagonists behind the scene may use this as an opportunity to continue in their plans against the protagonists with no opposition.

It's important to time drama correctly in a story. If it seems to Suddenly to the audience, it has the unpleasant impression of being forced for the sake of feelings. The scene needs to first set up a dramatic mood using tools such as foreshadowing or UnTrashes like Calm Before The Storm or Seed Of Misery. This way, the audience can have a sense that things are about to go wrong, which is a prediction often rewarded with everybody being unhappy. Proving this read incorrect with Got Your Expectations makes the previous set-up feel pointless. However, this can be negated by bouncing the drama from one set of characters to another. Someone's happiness can be the direct cause of someone else's displeasure. Imagine that Guy and Jessica, who aren't supposed to be together, appear to be on the verge of a break-up, which is what Hugo and the boys want for Guy's good. Aware of the danger he's in, Guy comes up with a way to prevent matters from worsening and patches things up with Jessica. This fills Hugo and the others with hopelessness watching their friend actively sticking to the wrong girlfriend.

We don't think it's possible to count how many UnTrashes involve the subject of drama. In addition to those that lead to dramatic moments, there are UnTrashes like Sad and Angry Montage, Friendship Break-Up, Low Point, Overheard And Hurt, and Get Ogred whose plays depend on it to function. The presence of these UnTrashes signals a lower atmosphere than when in progressive or comedic times. Though they can slow the story, there are many times when the story rides off of the tensions or miseries of its leads. The main characters aren't feeling sad to feel sad — their emotions are actually important to the story for once.