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LovelyOne
Senior Member
 Gender: Female
Location: Giving dirty Mr Sparrow a sponge ba |
 The reset button technique?
he reset button technique (based on the idea of status quo ante) is a plot device that interrupts continuity in works of fiction. Simply put, use of a reset button device returns all characters and situations to the status quo they held before a major change of some sort was introduced. Often used in science fiction television series, soap operas and comic books, the device allows elaborate and dramatic changes to characters and the fictional universe that might otherwise invalidate the premise of the show with respect to future continuity. Writers may, for example, use the technique to allow the audience to experience the death of the lead character, which traditionally would not be possible without effectively ending the work.
The term is based on the reset button found on a video game console machine. When pressed, such a button automatically ends the player's current status in the game, and brings everything back to the start.
Effective use of this device depends on the audience being unaware of the continuity status, or successful suspension of disbelief that continuity is or will be interrupted, and the eventual communication of the status of continuity to the audience. It is usually employed as a plot twist that effectively undoes all the happenings of the episode. Common uses of this technique draw liberally from science fiction and metaphysical ideas, perhaps contributing to its widespread use in those genres. Examples of the reset button technique include dream sequences, alternate-history flashbacks, daydreams, time travel and hallucinations.
Continuity-wise, there are two types of television shows: serial and episode-by-episode. In serial shows, each episode not only follows but builds on previous material, and so the RBT is not needed - and although it can still be used, any use generally leaves a negative imprint on the general continuity. In episode-by-episode works, on the other hand, the RBT is necessary to eliminate dangling plot threads. Soap operas are almost universally serials; cartoons and sitcoms are almost universally episode-by-episode.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reset_button_technique
Uhh...I hope they didnt use the "reset button thingy" in PotC 2  which is like a series kinda thing..
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Sep 2nd, 2006 01:31 AM |
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LovelyOne
Senior Member
Gender: Female
Location: Giving dirty Mr Sparrow a sponge ba |
Ok wait..no its usually only used with TV shows...lol sorry
wasted thread..feel free to delete..
PotC is a trilogy which is one story..its not like a continuing thing after the last movie.. you know PotC4 isnt going to make it a seris..its a seperate story..probably a prequel
its not epsiodes..its chapters of a story..
Last edited by LovelyOne on Sep 2nd, 2006 at 01:44 AM
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Sep 2nd, 2006 01:40 AM |
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sailorleo
Mrs. Admiral Norrington
 Gender: Female
Location: United States |
yeah...three in fact lol and it'll be all about how bootstrap ended up on the flying dutchman (plays starwars opening theme music)...lol
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Sep 2nd, 2006 01:48 AM |
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willofthewisp
Savvy did my sig
Gender: Female
Location: at the second star to the right |
I have a question. You know those stories like Alice in Wonderland where we see all these fantastical things and the character is put into all these various situations and then learns it was all a dream? Is that fitting of the reset button effect?
You strike me as a very intelligent, or at least very studious person, LovelyOne and I love having discussions with you. So I will share with you what I have learned. I'm a psychology major, but I have taken several literature classes (but POTC is wonderful for someone into psych.) I've been working on The Odyssey and these are the criterion for an epic.
1. repetition and stock phrases: repeated descriptions and sayings to help people be able to recite the story. In other words, quotables. Hello? Everyone knows the "this is the day you ALMOST caught Jack Sparrow" and he totally brought back the word savvy. There are countless others. Aye, sea turtles! And descriptions repeat too, like how he is either the best pirate one has ever seen or the worst.
2. Epic simile (still working on this one)
3. Invocation of the muse (this is a prayer to the muse before it starts for inspiration, still working on this)
4. Un Mediaries: this means the story doesn't have to be in chronological order. In fact, epics usually start in the middle. Lots of things have happened to Jack before we first meet him and we learn about them later. We didn't know how he got the Pearl in the first place until the second movie.
5. Elevated language and grand pace: The language in POTC is so clever. It is fitting to the time period, so there are often more intelligent, wittier quotes than now, and the pace? Oh my gosh, every angle of the Pearl on the ocean or Jack's famous entrances almost make him seem like royalty in the pirate world.
6. Intervention of monsters, gods, and creatures: enough said
7. Key events such as battles, journeys to the underworld, and life changing events: again, enough said
8. Aristocratice in scope: epics are almost always about royalty or upper class people: Liz is the daughter of a governor, Norrington is an important commodore. While pirates are by and large poor, this is their world where the best pirates are the royalty and the rest are under their rule.
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Sep 2nd, 2006 03:06 AM |
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ibd4eva
Ivebeendepped 4 ever!
 Gender: Female
Location: Decreasing worldsuck |
lol
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Sep 3rd, 2006 05:27 AM |
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