We talked about Rocky in my workshop class years ago, actually. This for those who are interested, was lead by the writer of the latter Godfather books.
Yes, Rocky is about an underdog. It is also a love story. Rocky can be both of these things, they are not mutually exclusive.
Story analysis is subjective on the point of quality.
For example: The majority of people like Naruto and think it is a good Manga. You think it's bad. Let's say the average aggregated score is 8, and you give it a 4. Which is objectively right? Neither.
There are objective points: Grammar, does a plot exist, does a theme exist, does a scene exist, etc. But the majority, if not all of the discussion I've gotten into so far is subjective analysis.
Once again wrong. When you analyze a story, you objectively look at it. Why? Because like I said before we humans have created stories for a very very long time and over time we've narrowed down what goes and what does.
We've learned how to write/tell a good story. We don't start doing dumb things, like making the plot of the story completely irrelevant.
Something that happened in Naruto.
You see the simplest way to find out the plot of a story, is to ask a simple question. That question is: Why?
Of course some stories are more complex and thus it's more difficult, but for the most part asking and answering that question will get you the plot of a story.
For example, why does the main character do the things that he or she are doing?
Because he/she wants to save the world.
Because he/she wants to help their family.
Etc.
Let's apply that question to Naruto, shall we?
Why does Naruto do the things that he's doing? In order to save Sasuke and bring him back to Konoha.
And that's the plot.
Now as much as I don't like to say this, because it really annoys me. In part 2 of Naruto, the plot changed to saving Sasuke and bringing him to Konoha.
A good portion of part 2 was Naruto going on and on about saving Sasuke, saving Sasuke. He can't do anything until he saves Sasuke.
Even though apart for his promise to Sakura, there is really no reason for Naruto to get go after Sasuke. Just some lines of dialogue of Sasuke being his friend, even when he clearly isn't. Because Kishimoto never bothered to show us why Naruto likes to kiss Sasuke's arse so much.
He just wanted his readers not to think at all. The less thinking the better. If no one would use their brain, then that will be perfect.
Guess what happened in the end of Naruto. If you guessed that all of it was for nothing, then you sir are a winner.
Because that's exactly what happened. It was all for nothing. The plot itself is destroyed, because in the end Naruto didn't save Sasuke. Sasuke just gave up, returned for a bit to Konoha and leaves immediately and the worst part is that Naruto after spending all these years of chasing after him, gives up as well.
This is a perfect example of how not to write a story. And how to destroy your own plot.
Subjective analysis as you call it, is preference. It's what you like or don't like. That does not mean a story is good or bad because you liked it or didn't like it.
It's either bad or good, if it follows certain rules.
Thanks for the video recommendation. I think I've watched some of his videos before. Sawyer7Mage I would say does better analysis though, based on what I've seen of the various channels I've gotten different perspectives from.
What Sawyer does is not an analysis, it's a summary. All of his reviews are just summaries of what happened in the chapter combined with some jokes that may or may not land and the end.
I still remember his video when Itachi started using Izanami, and Itachi was explaining how the technique works and why it was created and who can use it.
And Sawyer kept saying it's bad, it's bad, it's just so bad. But not once did he ever mention why it was bad.
It was bad because it was contrived and more importantly a retcon. Two words that I seriously doubt Sawyer even knows what they mean.
Edited by Nostradamus, 17 July 2017 - 01:42 AM.
