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Blog, Creativity 101: November 5, 2009 : 11:05 pm

The Importance of Loss

Scifi Wire posted this story (Warning: Sanctuary Spoilers) about a recent plot twist on Sanctuary.

What Really Happened To (Spoiler Deleted)

Here’s the excerpt I want to focus on (emphasis mine):

Creator Damian Kindler: “Once we know for sure about a third season, there is definitely an Ashley story in there that we’re developing…(snip) The intention was to never kill her off with any finality. It was always to kill her off in a way that was dubious at best and fraught with inconsistencies and fraught with mystery and isn’t completely solved even when they have to put her to rest and move on.”

Let’s start with some disclaimers.

I haven’t watched the show beyond a few clips.
Because of that, I may have missed some essential piece that would change my forthcoming opinion.
Mr. Kindler may have come up with an innovative way to break the rules.
I really, really doubt that 2 or 3 is the case. Therefore…

I would pose that Mr. Kindler’s statements are incredibly destructive, and harmful to his own show.

WHAT WE KNOW…

There’re no Hollywood secrets anymore. As an audience, we all know storytellers will lend our favorite characters a bit of immortality, for the sake of our love and their ratings.

IS NOT WHAT WE NEED TO BELIEVE…

We need to believe this storybook world is real, with real consequences. We need to believe terrible things could happen to our protagonists. It makes their triumph over adversity that much more exciting. That’s what makes them so memorable, and our time with them so special.

The threat of loss is an essential part of storytelling, simply because safe people are not interesting to watch.

What Mr. Kindler has made clear, in his innocent wink to the sci-fi audience, is death is only as permanent as his whim: any hurt undone, any tragedy repealed. Not interesting.

WE WANT THE MAGIC

Storytelling is a kind of magic act. It’s about misdirection and suspension of disbelief. You see something amazing and you want to believe in it. Stories give us that permission.

We know it’s all a trick, from the first moment. But the best magicians convince us the illusion is truth and the danger is real.

How magical would it seem, if the magician began with, “Now, if you’ll look carefully, I have a spring-loaded sleeve with a rabbit in it…”