Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Misused
, started by SeaRover on Jan 31st 2021 at 6:30:59 PM
Not an example, but too cool a story to delete altogether:
"The 20th Anniversary Edition of Heir to the Empire features an anecdote by Timothy Zahn, right at the point where Winter improvises code words with which to tell Han about what's going on on Coruscant without alerting too many people. Zahn relates that in 1989, after being given the assignment to write in the Star Wars universe, he shared his first-draft outline with some trustworthy friends whose input he wanted, and met them at a science fiction convention to discuss it.
- But as we sat there, we realized that we had a problem. All around us were other SF fans from the convention, and at the first utterance of the names "Han", "Luke", or "Leia" ears would rotate like radar dishes, and I would be in big trouble from Lucasfilm.So we did exactly what I had Han and Winter do here; we came up with names on the fly. Luke and Leia became Brother and Sister; Han became Friend, Chewie became Copilot, and so on. Names like Mara and Thrawn weren't a problem, of course, since they would be meaningless to anyone else.I was actually surprised at how well we all pulled it off, especially without any prior consultation. They say "write what you know". In this case, I certainly did."
"Low budget horror movies with no-name stars lead to Anyone Can Die. Alien may be the best known example. A cast filled with great character actors, but none of them is a big enough star to guarantee their character's survival. Almost everyone dies. The sole survivor is perhaps the least known actress at the time."
...No. No-name stars don't "cause" Anyone Can Die. It's the other way around: the desire to have an Anyone Can Die plot leads to no-name actors being cast.
Edited by 174.49.249.222
Is the entry for It Came from Beneath the Sea an example? It doesn't explain how the octopus only having 6 legs actually factors into the plot.