What’s going on between them, is it an internal thing, or an external one?
Do THEY make Riggan float, or is HE doing it? When Riggan makes the vase move, Birdman states, “Look at that. These people don’t know what you’re capable of.” Is it related to the relationship, or to Riggan’s supposed superpowers?
Does the question Who are you? suggest an internal struggle, or an external one?
I know the subjective RS Throughline is the hardest to swallow especially when it’s the Id vs Ego but it’s magical realism and I’m back in my favorite corner of Doing. To me it’s a very active struggle.
Did Riggan make the light fall and hit the actor or did Birdman? I’ll argue they did it together. The story takes an internal struggle and makes it external.
To me the overall story is concerned with acting/playing a role/being.
As far as floating and flying and moving objects, I will say they have to do those things together. Without the other they could not do those things.
Maybe, but feels a bit convoluted. Simpler answer might just be that Riggan thinks he’s responsible because his sense of reality is completely warped.
I’ll add that this is not a U.S. mind kind of story. it definitely feels like a Euro-thinking mind to me.
Does anyone have any issue with Riggan in Situation and Birdman in Fixed Attitude?
So that would leave Activity and Manipulation of either RS and OS, right?
OS - Activity (Staging the play, involves all characters)
MC - Situation (Riggan eing perceived as a star or a serious actor)
IC - Fixed Attitude (Birdman insists on being a star)
RS - Manipulation (Riggan vs. Birdman trying to convince each other of who is right)
Sounds good to me.
Activity for OS and Manipulation for RS sounds good but the more I think about where the problems are stemming from I feel that Birdman is in Situation and Riggan is in Fixed Attitude.
Riggan’s problems come from both the Fixed Attitude that he has about himself, that he’s washed up and his best performances are behind him as well as the Fixed Attitudes that are forced on him, that he is a Celebrity and not an Artist. Memories and Innermost Desires stick out to me as more of what Riggan is about.
Birdman is physically stuck. He is a figure of Riggan’s imagination, stuck in Riggan’s head, as well as stuck on Broadway when he really wants to soar the skies of Hollywood. And he can’t do that unless he gets Riggan to change his mind. He impacts Riggan by forcing him to remember his Past, consider his Future. Always being a Present voice and a nagging commentary about how Riggan is failing at trying this Broadway route.
MC - Fixed Attitude
IC - Situation
If Riggan were to change his attitude, would all his problems be resolved?
We’re pretty much led to understand he could go back to Hollywood and do the next Birdman anytime he wants, but he has his mind set on making a comeback his way.
If he changed his attitude about his place in the universe all of his problems would be resolved.
Riggan knows he couldn’t do another Birdman. As he puts it, “I look like a turkey with leukemia.” Super hero stuff he no longer is – situation.
hah! That’s a perfect example of Main Character Situation, forgot about that line - “I look like a turkey with leukemia.”
Also, note too that we have already agreed that Riggan is a Do-er which means his Domain must fall under Situation or Activity. That’s kind of a cheat to do it that way, but it helps to keep all our other choices in mind. The storyform works together like one solid holistic machine, all the parts working in harmony. If we were to try and put Riggan in Fixed Attitude the machine would break down.
Well, we certainly wouldn’t want that to happen. So are we agreed? OS: Activity, MC: Situation, IC: Fixed Attitude & RS: Manipulation? Itching to get to the OS concern. The next three steps I find impossibly difficult.
And if he changed his Situation would all of his problems go away? It seems like from that line all he needs is a gym membership and a tan.
Are we agreed? 
Let’s wait for Jim’s definitive moderator judgment. Anybody else want to weigh in?
Would him making another Birdman movie solve his problem? Yep. Which is exactly what he does at the end. Give the audience blood and carnage.
EDIT: at least, that’s how I’m interpreting it
I feel like you’re on to something and I’d like to understand it but right now those to me seem like actions as if the MC throughline was in Activity. He, for all intents and purposes, makes another Birdman, activity, He gives the audience the blood, activity.
If the source of the MC’s problems stem from something external and static what is that? And how does it change at the end? And how does that resolve his problems?
And I’m not asking just you Jerome, my intention isn’t to single anyone out but just anyone who agrees with that Throughline assignment.
The question is really about why he feels he needs a real gun
Actually, I think I need to take a step back. I might’ve been looking at it with the wrong glasses.
From the software, MC Situation reads; “Situation as the Domain – What it is like to have the Main Character’s physicality? For example, his sex, skin color, attractiveness, unattractiveness, size, condition or disease (though not debilitating), any sort of distinguishing physical attribute. Exploring the essence of having the Main Character’s physicality will illustrate Situation Main Character Domains.”
I think that’s why Jim wrote:
And it also ties in with Mike’s post above…
Birdman’s last lines before Riggan flies off to the theatre are, “Listen, let’s go back one more time and show them what we’re capable of. We have to end it on our own terms. With a grand gesture. Flames. Sacrifice. Icarus. You can do it. You hear me? You are…” And then someone off screen yells, “BIrdman!”
@Dan310 I think that since activity is the overall story throughline and is most present on the stage (putting on a play), that means that when Riggan is on stage, he’s also an OS character, so he’s “allowed” to be active. (Though I’m still not sure if that’s how that works.)
This quote supports my argument that the RS is in the Activity Throughline. “…let’s GO back one more time and SHOW them what we’re CAPABLE of. We have to END it on our own terms. With a grand GESTURE. You can DO it.
Then I’ll argue that “You ARE Birdman” is an Overall Story statement.
The argument that Birdman is a figment of Riggan’s mind negates the fact that we’ve chosen him as the IC and accepted the magical realism of the story. I interpret this that we’ve accepted him as an external influence on Riggan.
The definition of Situation fits for a person who’s problems stem from their physicality such as someone who can’t run a race due to a broken leg or can’t win a beauty contest because they’re ugly. Riggan’s turkey/leukemia body isn’t holding him back from anything, if that line supports his Throughline there’d be more evidence of it. If he wanted to do Birdman he could get a physical trainer to solve that problem real quick. But he doesn’t want to do another Birdman.
He could be active as a protagonist but we cease talking about him as a MC at that point.
I hear you on this but i think there’s gotta be a difference between talking about activities and actually engaging in them. Birdman to me feels like the devil on the shoulder type where he is always whispering temptation into the ear which would fall in line with Manipulation.