Fiction with great “plot devices”
I’m going to bring up examples from a variety of mediums, so I couldn’t really fit this just under ~books or ~tv. Sorry about that.
Lately I’ve been thinking about just how much I love fiction with a good plot device, and I’ve been wondering what it is that makes these devices such great vehicles for telling an interesting story.
Death Note is the first example that comes to mind for me. The “plot device” (and I may not be using this term correctly) if the titular item, which is a notebook where, if one writes a name of a person, while imagining their face, along with a time and date, and then a set of realistic circumstances that lead to that person’s death, then it will occur as written. If nothing other than the name, time, and date are written, then the person dies of a heart attack (after 40 seconds, if I remember correctly). The main character was the right kind to have acquired the book, because it enabled the story to be told in the manner that it was. I think the author illustrated this well when, at the very end, another character, not nearly as intelligent as the previous owner of the Death Note, quickly got done away with.
Code Geass is probably one of my favorite animes of all time. It combines a lot of genres into one. The titular “geass”, however, particularly the one that the main character acquired—which allows him to give a one-time order to any person who looks in his eyes, which the person will see through no matter what—is also an excellent plot device.
*The Lake House, a 2006 fantasy romance film, staring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. It’s not a masterpiece or anything, but I can’t forget the whole plot device about the mailbox that allowed the male main character to send letters to the female main character two years into the past.
Dreamless is one of my favorite webcomics of all time. It’s crazy for me to think that this beautiful, entirely-colored webcomic was made available for free all the way back in 2009. I wish more people knew about it. The plot device, which is brilliant, revolves around a man and a woman who were born on the same day at the same time, but he in Japan, and she in the USA—a few years before the outbreak of WWII. From the very day of their birth, they were “connected”. Whenever they fall asleep, they begin to “see through eyes and hear through the ears of the other” until they wake up. If they both happen to be sleeping at the same time, than they see darkness but still hear surroundings. They became aware of this at very young age, learning each other’s languages and falling in love with each other since they were children. The time zone difference makes it relatively easy for them to observe each other’s lives as one sleeps and the other goes about his or her days. They embark on a quest to figure out how to meet each other, in the midst of a brutal war waged between their respective countries.
Severance is a show that everyone is talking about right now, so I don’t need to explain much to you, right? The plot device here is a chip that is implanted into people’s brains, and makes it so that their memories are split in two, based on location. At their work place, the character’s memories from the outside world are “shut off”, and they only remember what they experienced on the inside. I’m almost done with season two and this show is what prompted me to write this thread. I’ve been loving it.
Black Mirror is a show that I need to give a shoutout to, because many of its most famous episodes are centered around a very specific plot device. For me, the most impressive of these, was the one where they had these chips that basically recorded everything that they saw, and it was a normalized thing in society. I think that it was episode three. Episode eight was also interesting. It was about a society in which people’s social status was determined by their online social media rank.
I had an example in the back of my mind of a piece of fiction with a great plot device that I felt was not properly made use of. I’m sure that there are others like that, and it’s a bit sad when that happens, because there is a great idea right there, but it was wasted. I totally forgot about it though. Maybe you can think of some bad examples yourselves?
Edit: I remembered a different one, In Time, a 2011 movie about a society where people don’t age, but rather have their life spans written on a digital countdown clock on their arms. The way that people used their lifespans as currency that they could exchange was a neat idea. I didn’t watch the movie, but I read from other people about it, and it seemed to me like the concept wasn’t properly explored. Maybe I should give it a chance.
And maybe you can also think of some other good examples, plot devices in books, shows, movies, manga, anime that really blew you away. I’d be curious to hear about them because I’d like to look into them if it’s something that catches my interest.
As for what makes a plot device interesting for me, here are some points:
- It is a concept that is easy to grasp or an object the functions of which are easy to understand.
- It has strict limitations that the plot revolves around and the characters repeatedly run up against. These limitations are explained very early on in the story.
- The plot device and its origins gets gradually explained over the course of the piece.
- The story is largely centered around a small group of individuals.
A very popular one would be the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
I'm not too fussed about spoilers given the nature of the thread and the fact that the movie has to be pushing 25 years old now.
The plot device is a collection of gold coins that, when stolen, curse those that stole it to prevent them from dying until the coins are returned.
This ends up being an interesting plot device because it gives the antagonists effectively superpowers to allow them to hunt the piece of gold that one of the protagonists has in their possession (meaning they can't drown and need no rest). It is also turned on its head by one of the protagonists intentionally cursing themselves during a fight to ensure that they are not harmed.
One of my favorite short story collections is Machine of Death (and its sequel, This Is How You Die), based on this comic from Ryan North. The idea is that the machine can tell you how you will die, but it will be a short, vague, and often ironic answer. You can read it online but it's worth a paper copy in my opinion.
I really liked it!!
I read the first couple and downloaded it for later, thank you for the link!
Edge of Tomorrow? Borrowing a bit from Groundhog Day, but when an entity kills a certain type of invader (exposed to their blood) they gain some ability to reset time. Won't spoil further
Love that movie.
I comes from All You Need is Kill which I think I need to read.
Fate/stay Night's (and the rest of the series that they understandably milked's) whole shtick of the Holy Grail War always felt like a goddamn brilliant setup.
tldr for those unfamiliar
Seven magi Masters summon the spirits of legendary heroes - King Arthur, Heracles, Cu Chullain, Joan of Arc, etc - as a Servant to fight for the Holy Grail. They get assigned a class: Saber, Lancer, Archer, Caster, Rider, Berserker, or Assassin. The class gives them some particular powers and attributes, eg Berserker is strong but doesn't take basic commands and Assassin is a bit weak but cannot under most circumstances be detected by magic.
Each of the heroes comes with knowledge of the current world and languages, and they act of their own volition. However they're under ostensible command of their masters' three Command Seals, which can be used to force them to do something and which doesn't necessarily need to abide by time or space. If you use all three, the servant is free to act as long as their mana keeps them alive. Each Servant also gets a Noble Phantasm, which is a special power embued by their identity or a weapon they wielded; eg King Arthur has Excalibur, Cu has the Gáe Bolg. Masters supply mana to their Servants, so if a Master dies generally their Servant dies as well.
Whoever is the Master with the last Servant standing wins, and the Holy Grail will grant one wish of your choice.
There are just so many stories to tell of ancient heroes used in morality tales and how they interact in the modern world, and that's before you get excuses to have "who would win" historical fanfic fights as you try to suss out who is who or how many ways you can shoehorn people with questionable projectiles into the Archer class. Entire story arcs are just "what if this one piece of these rules broke" and it's still interesting. There are so many goddamn angles, the whole setup is so bleak and on-edge that it makes for great dark urban fantasy, and I've been itching to find an RPG system to throw a small 1 or 2 person RPG together through a Holy Grail War and see what it'd look like.
I liked the entire FgO: Absolute Demonic Front adaptation a lot. I'd already played those chapters of the mobile game (which is more fun and engaging than a gatcha game has a right to be, even as a FtP), and I fully agree with you, the storytelling conceit walks a great line between using characters from mythologies the world over, and somehow it all works together. The variety of characters is fantastic; as a giant mythology nerd myself, I just get a real kick out of watching the various authors of the series have their own fun playing in the world sandbox of stories.
I'd like to add one of mine, if I may...
I came up with an idea for a faster than light drive that makes use of the multiverse theory. When engaged, the ship is shifted into a parallel dimension that is orders of magnitude smaller than our own, but otherwise a perfect mirror. The ship retains its original dimensions and physics, allowing it to traverse incredible distances in the mirror universe under normal thruster power, then shifting back into our universe when it reaches its destination.
In my second book, I explore the possibility of accidental collision with a planet and the consequences of that on the crew. For reference, the size equivalences are planet = baseball and ship = school bus.
Dang, this is a really creative idea!
Oh dude! What's the name of the book and or how can I read this? That's a fantastic was of journeying faster than light!
Cartel incorporated : The Ballad of James Layne and The Aria of Cain Mezcal. Those are the first two in my series, I'm working on the third now 😀
Both are available in Amazon, just search Cartel Incorporated and you'll find them.
Maybe not what you are looking for but The House at Fata Morgana has probably the best use of unreliable narrator I’ve ever seen. It’s kind of like Rashomon on steroids; it’s a collection of four interrelated stories retold through different characters’ perspectives. You dont hear the whole story at once because it’s just from one person’s perspective. Sometimes the narrator is lying because of some painful truth they don’t want to deal with, and sometimes they don’t even know what the truth really is. So reading through it is like constantly building your understanding of complicated characters while dealing with tons of usually unpredictable twists.
Seems like you're a fan of The Truman Show!
Or the videogame Outer Wilds.
The Truman Show was amazing indeed.
I am aware of Outer Wilds but don’t actually know what it is about. Can you tell me more?
Outer wilds is a videogame about exploration and a grand solar system wide mystery that you must solve in order to see the ending(s).
The main character (you) is given the ability to reset the time once is dead... which happens a lot not only because of your mistakes but also because the sun becomes a supernova after 22 minutes you started to play. So you are basically trapped in a loop unless you break it in the end.
One of the best games out there IMHO.
I think The Truman Show was inspired by The Prisoner (1967) series. They have a similar thematic. I loved both.
I like Death Note quite a bit, especially the beginning. Maybe it's an anime thing, but I like how it is very particular about the rules and how things work. It's very legal and a bit like programming where the rules are meant to avoid certain things, and these rules are presented multiple times to the viewer.
A small thing that's frustrating about the story is that it kind of "chickens out" and doesn't show the most obvious use of such a device. That would be to make global changes by using it on evil world leaders. I thought about this more than usual in the last few years, but historically there is almost always somebody going around invading other countries or violating human rights, and it would be super tempting to do something about it. Seems like it would be a very interesting story to see how it would work out for a dictator to die, and then his replacement, and then after a few rounds of that the country has democracy. Or something. Maybe it would backfire spectacularly.
I wonder if the Death Note idea was influence by the Star Trek episode Mirror Mirror. In that episode, there is a parallel evil universe where an "evil Kirk" has a device called Tantalus Field. This thing can observe anyone remotely and just vaporize them with the touch of a button. It's how the evil Kirk rose in rank in the evil universe.
Well you and u/crissequeira are in luck because there was an official follow-up one shot! It's mentioned that Kira had a lasting effect on the world; even years later, war was rarer and global crime rates were lower.
Part of the story is that nobody comes away unscathed after using the Death Note. The story seems to take the position that killing and dealing in death will always have dire consequences.
I didn’t know! This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I’ll read it later.
Thanks! I enjoyed this very much.
You know what? This could be an excellent plot for a fanfic or a piece of fiction with a similar plot device.
I'd add TALES FROM THE LOOP to the bucket, a show hosted on amazon. More or less in every episode there is a particular gizmo that gives the characters special abilities (they can swap their minds and live each others lifes, stop the time, travel in another dimension, etc)... from there the show delves more on the consequences and the way everyone reacts. Its a really good show.
I watched this with my partner when the pandemic had separated us for a fair while and I have such bittersweet memories of it. It's such an intensely atmospheric show, my partner gifted me the artbooks that inspired the series, not so long ago, and it's just gorgeous to flick through and see some of those locations that were brought to life so well on the screen. I also have a soft spot for series that dare to do one short run and then stop. The runners did what they wanted to do and didn't make their audience deal with the quality/budget creeping down over time as ratings dwindle.
One of my favourite movies is About Time in which the central point is that the men in a particular family can travel in time. What I love about the movie is that while it is a movie that uses time travel as the main story telling and plot device, it is not actually a movie about time travel at all - it's a movie about love and life. It does miss out on one of the things you enjoy - it is never explained, it just happens - but I would recommend it just the same.
Stephen King's short stories are often micro-examples of these; they all have some minor plot point that is explored briefly. Again, they are frequently not explained, so maybe not what you're looking for, but almost all of his short stories can be explained by the plot hook. "What if the mob started a service to help you quit cigarettes?" is one of my favourites.
Your description of Dreamless reminds me of Brandon Sanderson's "Yumi and the Nightmare Painter," which has a similar plot device and is a lovely story. I'll have to give Dreamless a try.
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is really good! I'd second recommending it.
Thanks for the suggestion!
I think it's probably fair to assume that you've already seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, but just in case you haven't, the bending in that series would be right up your alley. It's an easy to grasp concept: waterbenders, earthbenders, airbenders, and firebenders can telekinetically control water, stone, air, and fire respectively. The limitations of bending are pretty intuitive, and the show pushes the boundaries of these elements in surprising, but believable ways. Without spoiling anything, Toph's unique earthbending techniques are especially surprising and satisfying.
Just in case you haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching it instead of reading about it, if only to see the exploration of Toph's earthbending techniques without knowing what she'll do ahead of time.
Haha. Yes. I have seen it. That’s actually an excellent example. I should have included it too. I love everything about the bending as a plot device. And indeed, the rules are strict but they always came up with new and interesting ways in which to expand upon what blending makes possible, such as turning water to ice or manipulating impurities inside of metal to bend it. One of my favorite moments from the first series was when Zuko gave his father the speech and then redirected his lighting back at him.
The Man from Earth is a low budget, single location, dialogue driven movie. The premise is that the protagonist has
spoiler
lived forever.Don't spoil yourself. Watch it. It's a great premise.
Maybe not the most skillful use, but one of my favorites: a plot device that lets a small group of individuals travel together and to literally merge two spirits into one body so they can punch their way to the Big Bad.
Have you ever played an RPG where you know you're supposed to play as the main protagonist, but you secret covet the AOE of the Water elemental, the sheer damage of the Earth elemental, the insane pyro bombs of the Fire elemental, and the precision sniping of the Wind elemental? Well then why don't we let you merge the main character with one of his / her besties ad hoc? Also means your guy has a transformation sequence and wear 5 different glamourous outfits in one battle if you want.
also allows fans to write all kinds of interesting fanfiction and ship whoever you wanna ship because plot device *cough
Name of RPG
Is Tales of ZestiriaStraight up Steven Universe fusion dance! XD
Haha! Yes! Except the Shepherds are still regular sizes and not giant women :3 Steven Universe takes the win on that one I'll admit.
🎵you might even like, being together, but if you don't don't it won't be forever 🎶
There's always The Ring and its series. If you watch the video you die, unless you get someone else to watch it first. It Follows is similar. I feel like there is another one I watched in the past year that requires you to "pass on the curse" to someone else, but it's not coming to me.
Attack on Titan is less about the plot device itself, but how the titans work does become crucial to the plot.
Cool question. I'll keep thinking about it.
Edit: Ooh, thought of another. Elric of Melniboné would be dependent on drugs and herbs to stay alive except that he has the sword Stormbringer, which will keep him alive as long as it's fed souls. The catch being that he might lose his soul to it as well--pretty thirsty sword. Now that I think about it, this is repackaged a little in the show Blue Eyed Samurai
The smile movies are kind of similar. You can brutally murder someone in front of a witness before the daemon possessing you makes you kill yourself infront of a witness. In either case the witness becomes possessed instead.
Another one where you have to "pass on the curse" is Truth or Dare (the one starring Lucy Hale). A group of friends are in Mexico and a charming fellow lures them to an abandoned church to play Truth or Dare. You can bring people into the game to avoid your turn for longer.
I was thinking of adding Attack on Titan, as the titular titans have certain very strict rules around them, and a rather fascinating origin story. I actually loved the manga (never watched the anime), but then I decided against adding it to the list, because the series also includes a lot of politics, warfare, a large cast of characters, etc., and I had already given Code Geass as an example, which also has a plot device that plays an important role but then becomes a much larger narrative as the story unfolds.