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Writing Question - Mystery vs Mystique?
7 years ago
One thing that disappoints, frustrates, and in some ways motivates me is wasted potential. One of the most consistent ways of doing that is an unsolved, unresolved, or generally half arsed mystery plot.
One example is the game Destiny. The original plot was interesting and revealed that mythical and supposed savoir of humanity was evil, but that was cut in favour of vague non-answers that were on an external website.
However, I've recently seen people defend these practices. The excuse being that if they explained anything, it would ruin the "mystique", but I'm not sure I buy that. But I want to know what you think.
Destiny isn't the only thing that has done this. I remember a game, manga, and anime series called .hack which had a VR MMO that was putting people into comas, and this was being covered up. But each bit of media pointed to another and imply maybe the answer was there. I eventually realised that .hack had no intention of answering the mystery, and now I even doubt if there was ever an answer to begin with. I've heard Lost was like that, but I never watched it. Phantasy Star Online had a plot about an explosion that happened at a colony, causing everybody to disappear, but leaving the buildings unscathed and turning the wildlife hostile. It did eventually answer it's mystery, but the explanation was stupid. Spoilers, but apparently the devil did it.
Now, I understand you probably shouldn't explain everything, but more often than not it seems less like a deliberate obfuscation, and more like a cop out. But then, I'm not a writer, so maybe I'm wrong. What do you think?
One example is the game Destiny. The original plot was interesting and revealed that mythical and supposed savoir of humanity was evil, but that was cut in favour of vague non-answers that were on an external website.
However, I've recently seen people defend these practices. The excuse being that if they explained anything, it would ruin the "mystique", but I'm not sure I buy that. But I want to know what you think.
Destiny isn't the only thing that has done this. I remember a game, manga, and anime series called .hack which had a VR MMO that was putting people into comas, and this was being covered up. But each bit of media pointed to another and imply maybe the answer was there. I eventually realised that .hack had no intention of answering the mystery, and now I even doubt if there was ever an answer to begin with. I've heard Lost was like that, but I never watched it. Phantasy Star Online had a plot about an explosion that happened at a colony, causing everybody to disappear, but leaving the buildings unscathed and turning the wildlife hostile. It did eventually answer it's mystery, but the explanation was stupid. Spoilers, but apparently the devil did it.
Now, I understand you probably shouldn't explain everything, but more often than not it seems less like a deliberate obfuscation, and more like a cop out. But then, I'm not a writer, so maybe I'm wrong. What do you think?
