Raising the Stakes
Scene Purpose:
The Antagonist causes an event or decision which makes the goal seem impossible to reach, and makes disaster likely for the Protagonist/Main Character if he/she tries.
Plot Information: Costs — Changing One’s Nature
Kō has to ignore her core impulse to love by fighting against it. She lose some innocence in the process.
Aroha wants to support Kō in her quest, but also hates seeing her in constant danger of death. Maybe there’s a tension here where at some point Aroha will demand Kō stop, but Kō will go on despite Aroha’s feelings. In this way, Aroha will succumb to her feelings instead of her normal mode of applying reason to a situation — logically, Kō MUST go on or everyone will die, but Aroha is overcome with anxiety, and has something like an emotional meltdown which forces Kō to explicitly choose duty over love in that circumstance.
Ingo is a brute who must come to terms with the fact that his “wife to be” does not need him to be “the man” of the relationship, and the farther Kō goes, and the more she succeeds in her quest, the more immasculine he feels. He has to learn that men are not superior to women in order to make peace with the situation.
Mōhio fears losing Kō both physically and emotionally. Everything that happens that pushes Kō toward her more balanced outlook makes Mōhio feel sort of guilty — he’s glad that she’s seeing things his way, but feels like her innocence was valuable, or in his heart of hearts wishes “true love” really could conquer all.
Tāwhiri assaults the World Tree.
He gathers a storm over the water, then dips under the water, emerging moments later with an erupting volcano. He is part of the ash cloud, like he’s tall and skinny, with his head near the top. He stretches out his arms to either side, with massive lightning erupts from them. He directs the wind toward the world tree, on land. Shot from the vantage point of the world tree, the ocean receeds quickly, leaving crags and sea creatures flopping around.
Switch to a shot of the characters in an “oh shit” moment. (Where are they? How can they see it but not be killed by the incoming wave? )
Shot switches back to view of the ocean, Tawhiri towering in the background, the world tree is buffeted by gales , and a swell begins to rise out of the ocean. Up and up and up, until it towers, dwarfing everything on land, nearly as tall as the world tree itself.
The wave slams into the tree, cracking it in half.
Also, I may have to move most of this to the all is lost scene–if the tree breaks right now, the sky will fall pretty much right away, but we want Maui to have been rescued first.
About Pete
Plucky polymath, software engineer by day, dreamer of dreams by night. Longing to behold and beget beauty and love, Kōtiro is an expression of my passion for the magic of the world in which we find ourselves.