{"id":6779,"date":"2012-01-03T18:26:49","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T01:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=6779"},"modified":"2012-01-03T18:31:50","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T01:31:50","slug":"trope-tuesday-xanatos-speed-chess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/trope-tuesday-xanatos-speed-chess\/","title":{"rendered":"Trope Tuesday: Xanatos Speed Chess"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, I can’t say any of this mess was part of my original plan, but it’s all working out so beautifully that I can’t complain.<\/p>\n

Tarvek, Girl Genius<\/em><\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Xanatos Gambit<\/a> is when a character plans out a scheme such that all possible outcomes (including abject failure) ultimately benefit that character. \u00a0Named after David Xanatos from Gargoyles, it is most often used by villains who are very good at evading karma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Xanatos Speed Chess<\/a>, on the other hand, is when the character relies not on setting up an only-win scenario from the beginning, but on being able to adapt and change their plans quickly enough to pull off a victory even after their first few attempts inevitably fail. \u00a0For this character, the important thing is not to keep everything from falling apart, but to outsmart their opponent even after everything already has.<\/p>\n

Both heroes and villains can play at this game, but the heroes generally tend to be better at it. \u00a0Part of the reason for this is that try-fail cycles are much more conducive to Xanatos speed chess than the Xanatos gambit. \u00a0The heroes might lose a pawn or two, or even the queen, but that doesn’t stop them from turning defeat into victory. \u00a0In fact, depending on the story, it may provide exactly the sort of dramatic tension<\/a> that makes the ending so awesome<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A good example of this in recent cinema would probably be the new Mission: Impossible movie. \u00a0Over and over, the mission falls apart–and the characters respond either by changing the mission or by crafting a new one. \u00a0It’s one of the things that makes it such a great spy thriller: the tension is always high, because you never know how they’re going to pull it off.<\/p>\n

The opposite of this trope is the Indy Ploy<\/a>. \u00a0This is because Xanatos speed chess is still chess; even though the plans are dynamic, they are still plans, and involve a large degree of calculation and forethought. \u00a0With the Indy ploy, the character is just wingin’ it, jumping into the thick of things and making it up as they go along.<\/p>\n

The main reason I’m interested in this trope is because my current project, Stars of Blood and Glory,<\/strong>\u00a0has a strong military plot, and I want one of the characters to be a magnificent bastard<\/a>. \u00a0Let’s just say that if Bringing Stella Home<\/strong>\u00a0is the Mongol conquests in space<\/a>, Stars of Blood and Glory<\/strong>\u00a0is the Battle of Ayn Jalut<\/a>. \u00a0It’s going to be challenging to pull it off, but that’s part of what makes writing so much fun…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I can’t say any of this mess was part of my original plan, but it’s all working out so beautifully that I can’t complain. Tarvek, Girl Genius. The Xanatos Gambit is when a character plans out a scheme such that all possible outcomes (including abject failure) ultimately benefit that character. \u00a0Named after David Xanatos… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Xanatos Speed Chess<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[68,569],"tags":[112,74,275,641,565,626],"class_list":["post-6779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bsh","category-sbg","tag-character","tag-plot","tag-thriller","tag-trope-tuesday","tag-tropes-and-cliches","tag-tvtropes","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1Ll","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6779"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6782,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6779\/revisions\/6782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}