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Prof. Juan G. Noblejas

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39<br />

phase, making sure that the character is consistent<br />

throughout.<br />

Howard Suber<br />

“All conflict is about power”:<br />

-- who’s got it,<br />

-- who wants it,<br />

-- who or what helps them get it, or<br />

-- who or what gets in the way.<br />

If there is no power struggle, there is no conflict.<br />

If there is no conflict, then there is no story, because<br />

everyone has what they want or is unwilling to try to get it.<br />

In essence, a power struggle (Howard Suber dixit) is made<br />

up of three elements:<br />

-- a goal,<br />

-- an obstacle,<br />

-- an unwillingness to compromise (in the struggle to defeat<br />

or overcome that obstacle or opponent): story occurs when<br />

there can be no agreement.<br />

== If the protagonist is willing or able to compromise in any<br />

way and does, the conflict is over and so the story.<br />

== The power struggle at the heart of many movies has<br />

moral connotations: there is good power and evil power.<br />

[But not in a “Manichean way”].<br />

== Love, morality and personal convictions are good, while<br />

selfishness and ruthlessness are evil.<br />

== These polarities imply (sometimes) that at the heart of a<br />

story is a reversal:

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