Black Widow Concerns

analysis
#1

Quick question. I’m thinking of using Black Widow to help teach Dramatica and wanted to see if others who saw it agreed. Obviously, SPOILER WARNING.

spoilers hidden at Jim's request!

I thought the subjective throughlines (MC, IC, RS) in this film were all super strong – fun, touching, emotional, meaningful. You’ve got the superhero who left everyone behind, the assassin who’s still somehow a baby sister, the family that wasn’t real but maybe it was.

Then the OS felt tacked on. A cookie cutter “control the world” antagonist, and not much that made a lot of sense.

On top of the OS’s storytelling issues, I really feel like it was a story with Concerns in one quadrant (maybe top left*, despite being a Marvel movie) and threw in a bottom-left Obtaining OS. Did anyone else feel like this?

* The Past seems right for Natasha’s guilt over leaving everyone behind and what she did to get out (killing the daughter) – so trying to make up for past mistakes (and Universe fits her Avenger status). The sister influences through old times, old photos, memories. And the family relationship is all about how they all picture or imagine that relationship – do they conceptualize themselves as a real family, or at least having been a real family? Meanwhile the OS is only a “kill the badguy and help the widows escape” plot.

1 Like
#2

Haven’t read this yet…is it worth watching?

#3

Yes. It’s cool and funny with great characters, and my kids loved it.

If you’re still on the fence, there’s another reason to watch it, but I didn’t want to even hint at anything Dramatica wise for fear of confirmation bias. But let me know – I can be purposely vague.

#4

Can you wrap the spoiler information in detail tags above? (the gear icon)

#5

Without going into detail, this observation feels spot on and explains why the OS was the least interesting part of the movie.

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#6

Done. You should probably avoid looking at anyone else’s posts too!

Without giving anything away, I think this movie could be very helpful for teaching certain aspects of Dramatica.

#7

I agree that the RS was much more compelling than the OS, but this is the structure of a romantic comedy as well, if I’m not mistaken. The RS gets front and center.

So here’s what I’d like to know. Is the OS Activity? There is action, yes, but it seemed to be more about manipulation.

If OS is “Obtaining,” that means RS is “Changing one’s nature” which doesn’t seem to sum up the RS tension.

On the other hand, RS might be tension over “Playing a Role,” in which case the “Action-OS” isn’t about obtaining as much as about “Doing: (Wisdom/Skill/Experience/Enlightenment)” which seem to be what the parents are dealing with on some level in their OS roles. If the Issue is “Enlightenment,” then the drug they have isn’t about Obtaining it as much as opening the minds of the widows with it. Keep enlightening.

That puts MC in “Situation: How Things are Changing” and IC in “Fixed Attitude: Impulsive,” which seems to fit their issues.