Fundamentals Course Navigation
<< 04. Comedy vs Tragedy || 05. Kind vs Cruel Universe || 06. Pick a Route >>
Kind Universe
Most story Universes are kind. This is another way of saying they are morally just. In a kind universe, characters with a good moral compass survive and/or thrive. The good guy wins. Examples are all Disney movies, most superhero films, romantic- and broad-comedies, most blockbuster action films etc. In fact, most stories take place in a Kind Universe, probably because most people (writers and audiences) think that the universe is (deep down) a fair/honest/good place. Or at the very least want to believe this to be true.
No matter how high or low the stakes, in a Kind Universe, the morally better character wins; whether characters are fighting over the ownership of a restaurant, the winning of a trophy or the future of all living beings, the end result is the same: good triumphs over evil.
Kind Universe Comedy
The most common stories in Kind Universes are traditional comedies, or as I like to call them Kind Universe Comedies: stories with a recognizable happy ending. Stories where a talented underdog Hero beats all the odds and achieves all his dreams. Ratatouille, Aladdin and In Bruges are good examples but so are Star Wars, The Matrix, Clueless, Wonder Boys, the Game and there are countless more movies, books, comics, plays etc. of this Story Type.
Kind Universe Tragedy
But as we have seen before, there is another Kind Universe type of story too. Look at Training Day, which focuses more on the goals of the Villain, Alonzo. The Hero character in this movie (Jake) is not the most compelling character. He is a young cop, has a good heart, quite literally can't do anything "wrong" and beats himself up when he gets forced to do something that doesn't fit his moral code. He is a nice guy, a typical Hero, but he doesn't fundamentally change and thus he is a little boring. Especially next to Alonzo who has much more fascinating decisions to make. Who keeps us on our toes. In a Kind Universe Tragedy the Villain is the one with the big decisions to make - the Villain is the Protagonist. And because a Kind Universe rewards characters who make the right moral choice and punishes those who don't, this Villain Protagonist will die trying to reach his evil (or in the case of Alonzo, more selfish than evil) goal.
To identify this as a structural Tragedy, take a look at THE Tragic Theme:
THE (Tragic) Theme: To reach Heaven on Earth, our Protagonist should fundamentally change their ways, but they refuse to do Y instead of Z, so they die trying.
Training Day's Theme: To reach a life of safety and happiness, Alonzo should have been a good cop; protect and serve the people - be a sheep dog to the herd. But instead he refuses to stop being a wolf; selfish, vicious and out for blood. So he will not reach his Heaven on Earth, the people choose Jake's side, and Alonzo literally dies trying.
You see this structure - the Kind Universe Tragedy - a lot in action films and mysteries; the killer decides where we (the audience) get taken, the detective just follows until they catch the Villain. The detective, even though he is the Hero of the story, doesn't fundamentally change their character or their approach. He is trying, from the beginning, to do the right thing and he will often get better at doing that. But getting better is not the same as changing your approach. Meanwhile the Villain does get an opportunity to change their ways, but they are usually so obsessed with whatever or whomever has wronged them, that they die a tragic death. At least from their perspective - from where the audience is sitting, it is often a deserved death. This is also common in a series of stories where we know exactly what the Hero is like, they just have to fight new different Villains (think James Bond, Marvel/DC, LifeTime films, etc). In these stories, the good guy/gal doesn't change and still wins, and it is because they are not the Protagonist.
Ultimately, if in your story you want the good character to win and/or the bad character to lose, you are writing a Kind Universe Story.
Cruel Universe
Okay, sure, but now consider the movie Nightcrawler. Jake Gyllenhaal’s character Lou, in the opening sequence, gets caught stealing metal fencing and ends up killing the security guard and taking his watch. Heaven on Earth for Lou is to “Come Out On Top” by any means necessary. And by the end of the movie, he is doing exactly that. He has killed, stolen, lied and cheated, but he has also out-hustled every other character in the film and he got rewarded for all of it by owning a successful news-gathering business. He has reached his Heaven on Earth: he starts the movie asking for an unpaid internship and he finishes the movie as a successful business owner. For him, it is a happy ending, but most audience members won’t really consider it as such. Lou is most definitely the Protagonist of this movie as he is the only person that fundamentally changes, even if it is not a nice change: he reaches his goals when he stops trying to help his "friends". And thus Nightcrawler is structurally a comedy; the Protagonist reaches Heaven on Earth. But it’s hard to call Lou the Hero of Nightcrawler. And I wouldn’t call this a happy ending. Would you? So while Nightcrawler is structurally a Comedy, his moral compass shows us the second differentiator of Story Types - with Comedy/Tragedy being the first.
In a Cruel Universe, the bad guy wins and/or the good guy loses. Stories like this, taking place in a morally wicked universe, are often more political in nature. Their writers try to say something about a specific part of the world; and how messed-up it is. Their Story Worlds are ones where no matter how hard our good hearted Hero tries to save the one they love, the Universe is always against them. Or the mean-spirited Protagonist has to shed their final bit of kindness, before they can achieve what they want. If these are the facts of life in the Story World you are writing about, then you are dealing with a Cruel Universe.
Writers creating Cruel Universes are holding a mirror in front of their audience, and as a result, these stories are usually harder to take in (and probably harder to write as well), have more particular audiences, and are not very happy tales. These stories, by definition, have no hope for a happy ending. But that doesn't mean they can't have a satisfying ending, or that they can't be successful stories.
Cruel Tragedy
The most common stories taking place in cruel universes are traditional Tragedies: Stories in which the good hearted Hero can't win, no matter how hard they try; the deck is stacked against them (or better: the universe is just too cruel). Sicario is a good example; Kate does everything by the book, even after she gets told repeatedly that the rules don't apply to her anymore. And exactly that reluctance to learn the lesson the Universe is sharing with her, is what ultimately causes her demise. It is because she does everything by the book that she dies. This type of story, I call a Cruel Universe Tragedy.
We looked at THE Tragic Theme of Sicario in the previous chapter.
Cruel Comedy
The other option in this category is a story where the Protagonist, in their fight against this wicked world, loses their last bit of "goodness" and ends up "the bad guy". This is probably the Story Type that is least common and that is the most difficult to put together. But Nightcrawler is a great (and successful) example. Where in a Kind Universe Comedy the Protagonist has to learn a morally just lesson (i.e. Ratatouille: Don't steal, Aladdin: Be honest) to achieve Heaven on Earth, in a Cruel Universe Comedy the Protagonist has to learn a morally wicked lesson: Lou tries to make friends, tries to be a good boyfriend, tries to help others, (remember; in the second scene he asks the guy who buys his stolen metal for an unpaid internship!) but in the end when he sheds that last bit of humanity and blackmails or kills everyone that stands in his way for selfish reasons, he gets rewarded with his Heaven on Earth.
Again, let's look at THE Comedic Theme to make sure:
THE (Comedy) Theme: To reach Heaven on Earth, our Protagonist should fundamentally change their ways and do Y instead of Z.
Nightcrawler's Theme: To come out on top, and be the most successful News Gathering Service in Los Angeles, Lou needs to fundamentally change his ways and stop being kind and helpful to the people around him. Once he does that - he kills his partner and blackmails the woman he desires - he achieves his Heaven on Earth and rules his Universe.
Notice how in both Cruel Universe examples, the writers show us what they think of the very specific corner of the world they are writing about through THE Theme: Sicario poses a question with two answers: How does one win the war on drugs? A: Play by the book? Or B: Devolve into lawlessness. This writer's answer is "Not A". And he hints at the idea that option B will also not solve the problem, but rather create a vicious cycle of violence. However, according to him, there is no other option. That's quite a bleak prospect. Meanwhile Nightcrawler asks: "How does one get ahead in the world of sensationalist news? A: Be kind and helpful. B: Be ruthless and forgo all scruples. In this case the writer's answer is "definitely B". Equally bleak. Both themes are very specific to a corner of the universe and thus neither film is trying to teach broad lessons that everyone everywhere should take into account - they are very specific to their Universes or Communities.
Meanwhile the Kind Universe examples I mentioned are teaching broader lessons: Ratatouille teaches us to be honest about who we are instead of lying and stealing. Training Day teaches us that people in power should be Sheepdogs instead of Wolves. Both are lessons one could apply in everyday life, even when you are not a Cooking Rat or an LA Cop. I think this is because, no matter how gloomy we get, we still think Planet Earth is a fundamentally Kind Universe.
So now we have defined the four Story Types there are to write. You are ready to pick a route and start writing!
Fundamentals Course Navigation
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