I have a question about the page itself: Why is it The P Restige and not The Prestige like it should be?
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The Problem with Pen Island. We have problems with the search capitalizing article titles weirdly recently.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
:(
Kalaong added this under the Historical Villain Upgrade entry:
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Edison was obviously never convicted of acting like a mobster, but his hatred of Tesla cannot be understated. He was a liar, a cheat, and a thief.
He was a brutal and opportunistic character assassin. All in all, history and science lost more to him than it gained from him.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Edison was obviously never convicted of acting like a mobster, but his hatred of Tesla cannot be understated. He was a liar, a cheat, and a thief.
I removed it because I believe this isn't the right place for Edison-bashing. What do you think?
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I have my doubts about it belonging under Reality Is Unrealistic; it's not really touching on the difference between how Edison was and how he is seen today. Maybe it could be rewritten to be more neutral.
"And the twin that is Jess's father is the only one to be cast in a better light than the other two. The other twin is a paranoid jerkass that drives his brother's love to suicide. "
Who's to say which one is the father? They've been pulling the double act longer than she's been alive, and even if the setting didn't predate DNA testing, they're genetically identical anyway. One of them certainly seems like a more loving father, but maybe that's just because he's a nicer guy in general.
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It's possible that the twins could have arranged it so only the loving one ever slept with Sarah, without breaking the deception.
Do most people agree with the theory proposed, that Angier's plan was to wait until Borden snuck backstage and then to disappear? I never got that impression myself. I figured that he simply planned to do his run of The Real Transported Man and then retire - returning to life as Lord Caldlow - and that Borden getting himself in trouble was a happy accident that he then improvised around. Is there any Word Of God that it was a trap all along? It doesn't seem Angier's style... for one, it's too clever and subtle, and he's a performer, not a planner.
On an unrelated though chilling note: the clones. We have Tesla's word that they are both the real, true thing - "they are both your hat, Mr Angier" - but even if we imagine that one is real and the other is an inferior copy, the original Angier is most certainly dead. If the original remains in place, he drowned. If the original teleports, he was shot.
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I have no Word of God to provide any proof to the theory but I think that the plan was to frame Borden from the start. If I'm not mistaken then the guise of Lord Caldlow one that Angier was forced to adopt after his public death. Therefore, he couldn't simply retire to said life.
He also seemed fairly resigned to the fact that his obsession would destroy him during his conversation with Tesla and as his obsession was with destroying Borden it seems logical to me that he was planning to frame him by killing himself over and over. I also think that was the reason he chose to do specifically 100 shows and allowed large sections of the audience to examine the machine, to ensure that Borden would take the bait when looking for answers.
Just my opinion though, you are correct on the chilling clone point. It's really quite a disturbing point.
I dunno - if he had been planning the frame job, he'd have planned Lord Caldlow too, surely? But, the way he says (something like) "I am Lord Caldlow. I always have been." Remember how he told his wife he didn't want to embarrass his family? Could that family be the Caldlows? Plus, a Lord isn't an easy identity to slip into - someone's going to want to have a look at his Barony credentials sooner or later.
I don't think he wanted to destroy Borden... he was happy to let him die, but I think what he really wanted was to have the better Transported Man. Such was his tragic idiocy that, even when handed the exact advantage Borden had - an identical twin - he still thought it better to kill a hundred clones of himself than share the limelight. Recall how he said "I would not want to live like that for long" - 'like that' being to live half a life, sharing with his clone, just as Borden did.
The idea of trapping Borden might have been part of his motivation for killing himself so many times, but I think we can be certain it wasn't the only one. Remember, when he was still testing the machine, just how readily he gunned down the first copy. I don't think a violent revenge was his primary motivation by the time of The Real Transported Man. After all, they'd traded injustice for injustice, but by that point, Angier was ahead - he'd got his machine, he had a trick Borden could never nut out, so he could display his final triumph. I think Borden got himself in trouble and Angier simply took advantage.
Just to clarify something: it was made quite clear in the film that Angier is the real Lord Caldlow, and has been basically slumming it as a stage magician because of his love for performing. That was indeed the "embarrassment" he referred to.
Who put Fun With Acronyms and Theme Initials on Borden and Angier's names? Where's the significance?
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I had to think about it for a minute, but maybe they mean A.B. and R.A. gives you ABRA (as in Abra Cadabra).
Hodor
I have removed two potholes from the article. They are Fun with Acronyms and Theme Initials, which were potholed into the names of the two lead characters, Alfred Borden and Robert Angier, respectively. These potholes are essentially sinkholes, because neither is explained anywhere in the examples below the main article nor anywhere in the trope articles for these two tropes; Readers are left to infer the connection themselves. If anyone can suitably explain either/both of the potholes at sufficient length in the examples, or on the articles for either trope, the potholes can be put back in.
Edited by Headrock