27. No-Win Scenarios are Tense!

Last week, we talked about how Zero-sum games result in two opposing characters being at odds at one another because they want the same thing. They both see themselves as the ones who should have it and the two characters grow at odds with one another because they see each other as mishandling or incorrectly using or deserving that one thing.

But what does it look like when No one wins in these situations? What does it look like when the hero doesn't come out on top or when the antagonist is always at an advantage?

No-Win scenarios are really cool because we all love to read them - even with its to the disadvantage to our protagonist. Why? Why do we enjoy these so much?

Let me give you two examples:

Example 1: The hero goes on their journey, fights the Big Bad, with the power that they gained through their journey or the friends made along the way, the hero is able to defeat the Big Bad, the hero solves the Big Problem that the Big Bad set up because of the "CONVENIENT STONE OF TRUTH KEY OF PROBLEM SOLVING MACHINE SWORD" that they found during their journey, the hero returns home unscathed, having gained friends and new allies along the way, and the realm is saved, and people remember our hero as the greatest of all time because they were the only ones who dared fight the Big Bad. The End

Example 2: The hero goes on their journey, fights the Big Bad, Realizes that the Big Bad set up a difficult moral choice that will cost the hero something important (Their health/life, their humanity, or the lives of countless others), the hero is forced to lose something - at great personal cost of course - but the Big Bad is defeated, the Hero returns - but with grave injuries to their physical, mental, spiritual, or social selves, the realm is saved, but the hero questions if they even made the right choice and has the weight of their decisions hang over them until the day they die, the people remember the hero as someone who should have done better to save the realm. The End.

Which sounded more interesting? Which sounded more realistic? Which story were you more invested in?

Well I hope you enjoyed them both! BUT you're probably more interested in reading Example 2, right? Why?

Well it's because, yes the hero was able to beat the Big Bad ( a "Lose" for our villain), but the Hero also lost something (a "lose" for our hero). A No-win scenario.

The key is to make every decision, every choice difficult for our Hero. Every thing that the antagonist throws at the protagonist should be geared to making the hero struggle and choose impossible choice after impossible choice.

Think of the early 2000's spider man movie where the Green Goblin has Mary Jane and a bus full of kids on the bridge. The actual ended = Spider man is able to save them both, and he is able to go on and defeat the Green Goblin. But It's because he's the hero!

How would you fix this? How would you create a truly emotional ending that resulted in our hero having to live with the guilt of his choices forever? Well, you'd likely have Spider-Man be unable to save both and must choose. Have him give up the woman he lives or let the innocent die. The Green Goblins monolog has the answer, yet we the audience never got to see a real impactful choice. Then seeing Spider-Man live with that choice and struggle with the guilt makes for a much more compelling character.

And that is a great No-Win Scenario!

Next time, we'll take a look at how we can write strong characters that keep us readers rooting for them the entire time!