Wishfullfillment in Entertainment -

[Getting tard comed]

Not sure if this belongs in Multimedia or deep thoughts considering the topic but here it goes.


Recently I've been listening to Send in the Clowns from the musical "A Little Night Music" by Stephen Sondheim. Now until recently I've only really listened to it sung by Frank Sinatra. Then I found out Babs sung it, then July Collins, Sarah Vaughn, and Bernadette Peter's. Then I find out it's from a musical written by Stephen Sondheim. The songs emotional impact hits harder for me when I listen to a woman singing it than a man, but it's meaning also changed slightly, for me atleast, when I heard it sung by a woman.

Lo and behold when I look into it a little bit I find out it's from a musical! Which led me to realize so much of entertainment is wishfulfillment for the audience, both male and female. Now theres nothing wrong with that. But it did lead me to wonder this: Why is this never mentioned in writing classes or anyone giving advice to writers? A Little Night Music is one of Sondhiems early musicals and while he is absolutely amazing at what he does part of his success is definitely due to the wishfullfillment audience members (in Night Music's case women) found in his early work.

This is true for action movies as well for men. Why don't writers or writing classes ever mention how much success is kind of tied to satisfying the fantasies of the audiences? Is this an unspoken thing that writers implicitly are supposed to know? What's going on here?

 

[Dom Cruise]

I guess it's seen as tacky to openly talk about it, but you're right, a lot of media is based on wishfullfillment and there's nothing wrong with that, it can still be good, provided it doesn't go too far and forget to tell an interesting story with well rounded characters as well.

The original Star Wars trilogy is a perfect example of wishfullfillment done right, every kid wanted to be Luke Skywalker, but Luke doesn't have an easy time of it, his victories are very hard earned.

Contrast that with the sequel trilogy for a clear example of it done wrong.

 

[Jar-Jar Fanboy]

What a coincidence, I'm actually writing a novel about wish fulfillment right now; it's called The Author of this Book is Mega Rich and Badass and Also, He Has a Giant Dong, And He Uses The Aforementioned Giant Dong To Beat Filthy Pinko Commies To Death Before Plowing Supermodels: An Autobiography

It makes sense for creators to use their works to provide wish fulfillment, and for consumers to seek it out. I can't travel through the stars, or pilot giant robots myself, but I can sure imagine what that would be like, and seek out media that provides me with that sort of content. The broader the fantasy is, the more people you'll attract with it

 

[Bugs_Galore]

I don't know if I'm right as I am definitely not any sort of writer but I would wager that they don't teach about wish fulfillment because it's kind of like playing with fire when you are trying to write a good story. A good story definitely has some elements of wish-fulfillment in it but you can very easily go overboard.

Very often writers tend to create works that are essentially nothing but wish-fulfillment fantasies masquerading as a story. I don't know if you know anything about anime or manga but a good example of going overboard would be the entire subgenres of Harem or Isekai. Most of those stories are essentially about featureless and characterless protagonists who get transported to wonderful and fantastic worlds where they are fawned on by hordes of beautiful women.

Or if you aren't a fan of anime you could always look at the western equivalent, harlequin romance novels. Writers make tons of money writing books about helpless 20 somethings who are whisked away by Fabio like men with stunning bodies on the journey of a lifetime.

I think that it's not taught in writing classes because wish-fulfillment should be something that comes naturally to a well-written story, not something that is explicitly written into it. You should want to be like a character because they are a strong and well-rounded character who has admirable traits that are gained throughout his journey, not because he was written as wish-fulfillment.

That's just my 2 cents on the matter at least.

 

[Lensherr]

In my opinion, the best stories don't resonate solely, or even mainly because of whatever wish-fulfillment that they offer. That's more like the icing on the cake of a well-crafted story with interesting characters that manages to elaborate on some greater truth or themes that resonate with the human condition.

Two examples of what I'm talking about are Goodfellas and The Wolf Of Wall Street. Both of these movies depict a very alluring lifestyle (that of a mafia associate in the former and a stockbroker in the latter) that draws the viewer in, inviting them to indulge in their more base desires. However, Scorsese eventually pulls the rug out from under the viewer in order demonstrate how destructive these lifestyles and what horrible people the protagonists are in order to comment on how we tend to glorify these kinds of people. In particular, The Wolf Of Wall Street ends with the protagonist, a convicted felon, teaching a seminar to an eager, wide-eyed audience that is indicative of the audience of the film and their adoration of his antics. In other words, these films trick you into thinking that they're wish-fulfillment initially before showing the destructive path that the characters go down (at least, that's my interpretation of them).

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Trying to do a wish fullfillment for the audience is a recipe for disaster for multiple reasons:
1. The average audience member is a retard who doesn't know what he wants. Whether it is the most simple bombastic cgi-fest like modern Marvel films, muh diversity/fan-theory like the LGBT pairing in Korra or even the "so dark and deep" in Star wars the last jedi or TLOUS2. At best the writer is appealing to a small group out of many.
2. Trying to do it invites plot holes since the audience doesn't care what kinds of things need to happen in the plot to get their wish. If two characters from two sides of the continent need to fight to resolve their petty rivalry then it will happen.
3. It alienates the writer from the story, since he now needs to cater to other people aside from himself.