I broke up with a perfectly nice woman because of 4WAAF. Apropos of nothing. Suddenly thrown into a panic because she wasn’t my true love. Can a movie be TOO effective 
I don’t know. How did it work out in the long run?
A lot of mistakes and couple of real nightmares. Perfect for a writer 
She was a lifetime ago. 1992 or 3.
Lest we leave on a gloomy note, I ran into my actual True Love in London last summer after 32 years, and we had a lovely couple of nights out. Pure serendipity. I’d just returned from walking on Christo’s Floating Piers in Sulzano, Italy. It was quite a trip.
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This is related to the Fake-Opponent Ally and Fake-Ally Opponent: Truby’s concept of the Four-Corner Opposition.
I recently watched this video about Batman Begins. Ignoring the guy’s comments about Acts and Perfect Structure, I found his application of Truby’s Four-Corner Opposition concept interesting. Especially if you take the protagonist-antagonist opposition and main-influence-character “opposition” into consideration. According to @jhull, Bruce Wayne/Batman is the MC, while Ra’s al Ghul is the IC. Presumably they are also protagonist and antagonist, respectively. In the video, Batman represents “Scaring Criminals for Altruistic Reasons” while Ra’s al Ghul represents “Scaring Innocents for Altruistic Reasons”. But then there are the other two corners: “Scaring Criminals for Selfish Reasons” and “Scaring Innocents for Selfish Reasons.”
I suppose the potential questions are:
- Ignoring Dramatica for a moment, do you agree that this is the theme (or Moral Argument) of the film, and that these particular characters represent these positions?
- Is this idea of four-corner opposition also ‘just’ story telling or is it also part of the story structure?
The Four-Corner Opposition fits rather nicely into Dramatica’s obsession with quads ;).
Another film/play that has both a Dramatica Analysis and Truby’s Character Web Analysis is A Streetcar named Desire. Here a summary of Truby’s thoughts (mostly direct quotes from his book Anatomy of Story):
Central Moral Problem: Is someone ever justified in using lies and illusion to get love?
Variations and Justifications:
Blanche (MC, Hero): Blanche lies to herself and to others in order to get love. (…) Blanche feels that her lies have not hurt anyone and that this is her only chance at happiness.
Stanley (IC, Main Opponent): Stanley is so brutally honest when it comes to exposing the lies of others that he actually tears people apart. His belief that the world is harsh, competitive, and underhanded makes it more so than it really is. His aggressive, self-righteous view of the truth is far more destructive than Blanche’s lies. (…) He thinks Blanche is a lying whore who has swindled him. He believes he is just looking out for his friend when he tells Mitch about Blanche’s past.
Stella (Fake-ally opponent): Stella is guilty of a sin of omission. She allows her sister to have her little delusions, but she cannot see the lies her own husband tells after he brutally attacks her sister. (…) Stella is not smart enough to see that she is part of a process that is destroying her sister.
Mitch (Fake-ally opponents): Mitch is taken in by Blanche’s superficial lies and is therefore unable to see the deeper beauty that she possesses. (…) Mitch feels that a woman who has acted as a prostitute can be treated like one.
Thoughts?
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Something I love about Truby is his method works best for storyweaving. The Four corner Opposition isn’t quite new. Dramatica has the Dramatic Triangle and the Dramatic quad even. Truby is still subjective in his approach. Dramatica is still best for both views. Objective and Subjective.