Rex Kerr
2 min readMar 6, 2024

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Yes, because a key component of art is to build drama.

Imagine if you watch a drama about five people in a snowed-in mountain cabin trying to avoid starvation. Then, an hour and a half in, after all sorts of sacrifices, one of them opens the door to the heavily-stocked pantry, which they all knew was there the whole time, and takes out some chewing gum. Cause it looks so cool to be chewing gum in the climactic fight scene.

Or they just go outside and eat snow, which in that world, anyone can eat and be fully nourished, and they all knew it.

The drama was a lie. There is an art of lying to your audience, making them care about things that aren't important, but that's a rather more esoteric endeavor.

You can subvert all sorts of expectations with art. You can serve what looks like an elegantly garnished lobster mousse in a three-star Michelin restaurant, only to find that it contains ten grams of salt. Ha ha! That's the art! Salt in the sugar bowl, but for $350 a seat!

However, if you were expecting a delicious meal, not to be spitting and gasping and grabbing for water, you might not be very impressed.

The Holdo Maneuver isn't like the overly pedantic "you put the fuel intake on the left last time" stuff. That this was impossible was central to the drama of seven movies straight.

Drama absolutely requires that things happen in somewhat predictable ways. It is your reasonable expectation that things may go badly that builds tension. So I have to wonder whether you understand drama as an art form.

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Rex Kerr
Rex Kerr

Written by Rex Kerr

One who rejoices when everything is made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sayer of things that may be wrong, but not so bad that they're not even wrong.

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