This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Emotional Torque: From YKTTW
KJMackley: I know that this didn't get a lot of replies, but I really did like this principle and those that did respond gave it a lot of praise. Instead of doing a perpetual YKTTWBump or trying to resubmit it for discussion later, I decided to just launch it and hope the Wiki Magic helps me out.
Lale: "Built upon" and "exist because of" are redundant.
Lumbargo: So... what is it? I get what it's... about... but what is it?
KJMackley: I understand your confusion, partially because I have no idea how to describe this trope any better unless I add a personal example. For instance, when I took a drama class the first assignment was to give a 5 minute monologue from a play or book. We were to give an introduction on the story and then continue from there. I decided to take an excerpt from Frankenstein and for the intro, I described to the class about the dangers of a man obsessed and of science taken too far. Once I had finished the monologue, the teacher sat down and we discussed the performance with the class. The entire class tore me apart, criticizing every problem and mistake that I made. I was a little sad about the experience, but my teacher quickly told me not to take it that way. The reason was most of the other performances got maybe one or two responses because of general teenager inattentiveness. I had set such a mood that everyone paid attention and had something to say about it, even though the actual performance was lacking. I learned that the simple fact that they cared about the performance meant that I had done my job as a storyteller.
Every trope on this wiki exists because someone cared enough to write it. Every trope is used in a story because they want a reaction from the audience. (Hopefully positive) Like I said in the YKTTW, this trope is about as meta as it gets.
