Arbitrary Skepticism is a trope where a character believes something unbelievable, but not believing something less unbelievable. This is usually only pointed out when people or characters mock people or characters who have arbitrary skepticism.
This is usually valid, but there are 2 circumstances where it's not valid:
This is usually valid, but there are 2 circumstances where it's not valid:
1) A character mocks another character for belief in something normal to their world but not believing in something abnormal to their world.
Here's TVTropes.org's main example. It's from Firefly.
Here's TVTropes.org's main example. It's from Firefly.
Wash: Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.
Zoe: We live in a spaceship, dear.
Wash: ...So?
Zoe: We live in a spaceship, dear.
Wash: ...So?
Wash doesn't have any reason to disbelieve in space travel. After all, space travel is a normal part of their world. He does have reason to disbelieve in psychic people, since psychic people aren't a normal part of their world.
class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">This would be kind of like someone from our world saying "You can teleport?!" and the other person responding "You have an iPhone." Both those statements are true, and modern technology is pretty incredible, but having an iPhone has nothing to do with teleportation right now.
2) A real-world person is mocked for suspending disbelief for the premise of a story but not suspending their disbelief for other things.
i.e. Someone complaining about Star Wars breaking basic laws of physics or human nature, but believing in lightsabers and the force.
At first, it makes sense to criticize these, until we realize how exactly suspension of disbelief works.
The entire purpose of Act I of a story is to establish everything - characters, setting, rules, premise, etc. We will suspend our disbelief for whatever is established in Act I, whether it's a sponge living in a pineapple under the sea, a big red dog the size of a house, or an secret wizard school. We don't know anything else about this world, and we're just getting to know the world, so we'll accept whatever the world says about itself when we're in Act I.
Once we feel like we understand the world, we'll only believe things that support what's established in Act I or things that are given an in-universe justification.
i.e. Someone complaining about Star Wars breaking basic laws of physics or human nature, but believing in lightsabers and the force.
At first, it makes sense to criticize these, until we realize how exactly suspension of disbelief works.
The entire purpose of Act I of a story is to establish everything - characters, setting, rules, premise, etc. We will suspend our disbelief for whatever is established in Act I, whether it's a sponge living in a pineapple under the sea, a big red dog the size of a house, or an secret wizard school. We don't know anything else about this world, and we're just getting to know the world, so we'll accept whatever the world says about itself when we're in Act I.
Once we feel like we understand the world, we'll only believe things that support what's established in Act I or things that are given an in-universe justification.
We all assume that characters will engage in arbitrary skepticism. If we assumed that people would believe in or follow ANY rule once ANY rule of our world was broken, we would be asking things like "Why didn't Luke just travel back in time and convince Anakin to not go to the dark side?", "Why didn't The Doctor just use telekinesis to freeze the Weeping Angels?", and "Why didn't Captain America just teleport his team to Siberia instead of taking the Quinjet?" Those aren't established as rules, so we don't assume they'll happen immediately.
So when is arbitrary skepticism valid? When the character or audience member suspends their disbelief for something out of the ordinary for that world, but doesn't suspend their disbelief for something less out of the ordinary for that world.
So when is arbitrary skepticism valid? When the character or audience member suspends their disbelief for something out of the ordinary for that world, but doesn't suspend their disbelief for something less out of the ordinary for that world.
Just because one fantastical rule is accepted doesn't mean all the fantastical rules are accepted.
Comments
Post a Comment