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Poll "Small Universe Syndrome" - Yay Or Nay?

Do you enjoy fiction that has Small Universe Syndrome?

  • Yes! I love when my favourite characters all end up connected!

    Votes: 27 67.5%
  • No, it breaks my suspension of disbelief

    Votes: 13 32.5%

  • Total voters
    40
Meeting my wife might be small universe syndrome. We first met at the place we worked and she became the girlfriend of a good friend of mine. We became friends, but when they broke up we lost contact. Nearly a decade later, she dropped her car off to get some work done and needed a place to kill time. She went across the street to a chain bookstore. Noting the name of the bookstore she recalled that I had just begun to work the company around the time we last saw each other. So she asked a clerk if she knew me. The clerk did, because I was the manager of that location, but she said I had gone home for the day. So my future wife began to write a note with her name and phone number. At that moment I walked up and saw her. I hadn't left yet and was in the back talking with a coworker. The rest, as they say is history.

Afterward we discovered a few "near misses". My best friend family lived in Sonora, Ca, near a place called Crystal Falls and I would spend summers there. My wife's family had a cabin there. where they spend the summer. She would often cross my friend's property to get to Crystal Falls, which was a popular hangout spot for kids in the area. Then when she was a teen she worked at her mother's gym. The same gym where my mother exercised. (We lived in neighboring towns). She probably led the group my mother was in. Finally, when I took my SATs, I had to go to her high school for the test. She was attending the school at that time.

Coming soon to the Hallmark Channel. ;)
 
. One of the biggest things I have noticed with properties like Star Wars and Star Trek is less of a moving forward attitude and more of a recapturing youthful feelings attitude.


Oops, sorry, I missed seeing this before my last reply. Good observation. I think that may sum up how I feel these days about them. You're right. And it's frustrating to those who want a bit more and would like to see them move forward. It's like the gears are stuck and there's no momentum. And that means that they end up not being as satisfying as they should be.
 
I gotta disagree. He's Leia and Han's kid, and Luke messed up. He *had* to be redeemed IMO. Honestly, I loved how that was done. It showed Rey as a little bit different kind of Jedi.
Maybe, but it was too easy, too fast, and the whole Palaptine thing just cheapened it on several different levels.
It took Anakin a quarter of a century to make it back to the light. Kylo has a sad because his mum (who he's been trying to kill) dies and then does a 180 because Harrison Ford's cameo says so? Sure...OK!

I don't have a problem with a redemption arc in principle, but the execution was a mess and if it weren't for Driver's performance, it would have been unwatchable.
 
In real life, synchronicity does feel like it's a thing - as does déjà vu. While my rational mind tells me to reject such magical thinking, I do fantasise that events we experience could become correlated through the convolutions of an E8 or similar polytope that might underlie our reality, which is parameterised by fibration. What we experience is thus a quasicrystal projection from unseen dimensions. Or maybe, shit just happens and it makes for quirky, diverting stories...
 
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Maybe, but it was too easy, too fast, and the whole Palaptine thing just cheapened it on several different levels.
It took Anakin a quarter of a century to make it back to the light. Kylo has a sad because his mum (who he's been trying to kill) dies and then does a 180 because Harrison Ford's cameo says so? Sure...OK!

I don't have a problem with a redemption arc in principle, but the execution was a mess and if it weren't for Driver's performance, it would have been unwatchable.
It didn't take Anakin a quarter of a century to make it back to the light, it wasn't a continuous journey from dark to light. He was just evil and then his actual redemption happened in 5 minutes because the emperor zapped Luke with lightning and he pleaded for his life. Anakin's 180 was just as sudden as Kylo's, neither had a good redemption arc.
 
Well, no, Vader was conflicted and torn by his own emotions long before the final moments of the Emperor-Vader-Luke battle on the second Death Star. You can see Vader's obvious internal struggles and pain in the scene where Luke is delivered into his captivity on Endor:

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In real life, synchronicity does feel like it's a thing - as does déjà vu. While my rational mind tells me to reject such magical thinking, I do fantasise that events we experience could become correlated through the convolutions of an E8 or similar polytope that might underlie our reality, which is parameterised by fibration. What we experience is thus a quasicrystal projection from unseen dimensions. Or maybe, shit just happens and it makes for quirky, diverting stories...
OW! My brain hurt just looking at those pages! :lol:
 
Maybe, but it was too easy, too fast, and the whole Palaptine thing just cheapened it on several different levels.
It took Anakin a quarter of a century to make it back to the light. Kylo has a sad because his mum (who he's been trying to kill) dies and then does a 180 because Harrison Ford's cameo says so? Sure...OK!

Everything about the sequels happened too fast. That points to an overall production issue where thought wasn't put into that kind of thing, and it's also connected to the lack of foreshadowing. Everything just sort of happens when the script says it should happen, which is then unsatisfying. Well, we know the writing in SW hasn't been great, but this just seemed lacking in its execution compared to the others, which at least had foreshadowing. When characters have arcs throughout the different trilogies and then suddenly there are no arcs, it's kind of noticeable.
 
Rey had a great character arc, in my opinion, as did Kylo. I do agree it is a bit rushed, and that is more a symptom of current production styles than anything else. And, as much as the ST struggled with foreshadowing, the more I learn about the OT the more I realize that a lot of things just happen in there, and not a lot is foreshadowed. The fact that it all works together as well as it does points to well crafted stories. Again, I like the ST but the stories do rely too much on "and this happens, and then this." It's not as strong.

But, in comparison to the PT, it feels more cohesive in terms of characters. The PT is definitely "this happens because it has to happen." The PT feels driven by fate, that Anakin will become Vader, and everyone is powerless to do anything about it. As far as satisfying stories go the PT is far from it.
 
Coincidences happen in real life, not because of some magical force, but because we underestimate the odds of, if we pass a few hundred people a day, one of them being a person we are acquainted with.
 
OW! My brain hurt just looking at those pages! :lol:
These should make it easy...
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Well, no, Vader was conflicted and torn by his own emotions long before the final moments of the Emperor-Vader-Luke battle on the second Death Star. You can see Vader's obvious internal struggles and pain in the scene where Luke is delivered into his captivity on Endor:

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Which, again, isn't years of struggling. That's like, only a few hours before he chooses Luke over the Emperor.

It wasn't really redemption at all, he didn't care about the Jedi he betrayed or the INNOCENT KIDS he murdered. He just wanted to protect his son he barely knew.
 
Just following the train of thought in the thread.

More on topic:
I wonder if the Ancient Greek discussed "small universe syndrome" when reading Jason and the Argonauts?
"Wait, Theseus and Heracles are on the Argo?"
"Yeah, Orpheus too."
"Come on!!!!!"

;)

"What? Atalanta, too? What sort of woke, SJW bullshit is this? Of course, they had squeeze in a kick-ass warrior woman, even if they had to borrow her from a completely different story!" :)
 
These should make it easy...
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Yeah, Sting was (is?) a big fan of Carl Gustav Jung.
 
When "Dark Empire" (the EU story dealing with the Emperor's resurrection using cloned bodies) first came out, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Now I find the whole story rather silly. And to me, the Emperor's sudden return in TROS felt kind of like a lazy copycat of that.

Kor
 
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