Star Wars is not about the Force.
Terminator is not about Time Travel.
Harry Potter, believe it or not, isn’t about Magic.
One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that you should never mistake a plot device for the reason the story exists in the first place.
I could go on.
Iron Man is not about How to Build a Suit of Power Armor.
Doctor Strange is not about How the Metaphysics of Magic Would Actually Work.
Lord of the Rings isn’t about the Rings.
In all the above examples and a hundred others I could name these elements help keep the story moving, perhaps even start it going. But this isn’t the same thing as being what the story is about. Confusing that leads to a lot of weird places.
One of the reasons the term Plot Hole is so overused is that it is often thrown at elements that are there to get the story going, but aren’t supposed to really be that important.… Read the rest “Dragons, Wizards, and Other Story Distractions”