Subverting Expectations: Putting the "Con" in "Consistency"

"Dany Kind of Forgot About The Iron Fleet"

Ah, the phrase made infamous by the last season of Game of Thrones. Once a term used to denote a clever spin or twist, "subverting expectations" has become little more than a code name for lazy storytelling, poor writing, the undignified insertion of modern themes, or some unholy combination of the three.

One might ask how this happened. How did we get from writers taking bold, hot takes meant to flip a genre on its head to story threads that go down such increasingly improbable avenues that we're ripped out of the experience, leaving us as hollow and unfulfilled as a heckin' good pupper that's been denied their belly rubs after dutifully rolling over.

You Forgot About Ghost Again, Didn’t You, Jon Snow?

Personally I blame shock value.

Writers always want their stories to be memorable but lately the trend has been to replace masterful execution with cheap violence or revelations that come entirely out of left field. Why? Why, to make it unpredictable of course! It's all meant to jar you out of your comfort zone, make you think that this story is different! It's fresh! It's hip! It's not your granddaddy's fairy tale!

Yet for all their pomp and delusions of being "memorable," stories that utilize such cheap tricks achieve quite the opposite, being instantly memory holed as soon as New Product rolls off the assembly line as readers/viewers crave something that's actually fulfilling.

Throwing a curveball into your narrative at the 11th hour may sound like a good idea to spice up the plot but just don't, dear reader. It's always an awkward affair, distracting at best and perplexing at worst. Most importantly, it robs the reader of that most cherished of story telling elements: set up and payoff.

You see, dear reader, stories should always be building up to something. A grand finale if you will.

Writers should have a plan, a reason for something to happen in their story as it drives toward the ultimate end game of the plot.

The very telling of a tale necessitates trust between Reader and Writer. The Reader must trust that the Writer knows what they're doing and not simply wasting the Reader's time. If that Writer happens to go on a multi chapter joyride that winds up being nothing more than a creative wankfest the Reader may remember it, yes, but only as a bizarre oddity that detracted from the overall experience.

Think back to Game of Thrones, dear reader. Think back to the cultural juggernaut that was- the merch, the theories, the excitement! In one season, arguably in one episode, the storytellers undid eight seasons of character development and story build up leaving fans so utterly disgusted that the entire franchise might as well have committed seppuku in all our living rooms.

So don’t be like Game of Thrones. Be good. Be consistent. And, most importantly, be true to your story. Trust the tale you’re telling can stand on its own merits and, if you must inject certain “shock items” at the very least ensure you’ve set them up properly.

It’s a cautious dance, dear reader, the balancing of drama with pacing and while you may be forgiven for stepping on pacing’s toes every now and again doing so repeatedly will only get you sequestered off the dance floor that is my bookshelf.

Don’t Give Me That Look. You Know What You Did.