PLOT PRECEDENCE

Concepts, themes, origins, trends, and tropes in literature and media • THERE MAY BE SPOILERS AHEAD, but where else will you find your fandoms compared head to head like this?

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Hunger Games come in Threes

Theory: We're getting a third prequel, and it's going to be about...

>!...District 13.!<So far, each prequel has been a call-back and "arc welder" for its equivalent original trilogy release:

* **TBOSAS vs THG:** Centered on the games, establishing how they work, what their "purpose" is, focuses on district 12, female tribute from 12, star-crossed lovers plot

* **SOTR vs CF:** Quarter Quell, reaping works in a way nobody actually expected, features >!Beetee, Mags, Wiress!<, has a subplot that involves >!breaking the arena and a rebellion attempt.!<Plutarch is also involved heavily.

We know that Suzanne loves to work in threes, so I don't think it's unreasonable to believe a third prequel is going to come out. Assuming the pattern above is true, a third book would re-contextualize and give more lore/information about events in Mockingjay, but from the past. A District 13-focused book seems really likely to me.

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What’s In The Garage

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and Drive (2011)

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Kids Who Know Things

The genre of child-driven, especially incredibly high-stakes, plots. Super 8 (2011) and Stranger Things (2016-) are very similar examples.

A group of friends are experiencing supernatural phenomena beyond their control, and often seem to be the only witnesses to major information. Though some adults around them may try to help, it’s the kids who lead the resolution.

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2004 Disney Trainstopping

Audiences of Spider-Man 2 (30 June 2004) may find similarities between Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man’s famous elevated tracks rescue scene and an early sequence of The Incredibles (24 October 2004) featuring Mr Incredible in the same situation.

Anyone familiar with New York will recognize that elevated tracks like those in Spider-Man 2 do not exist in real-world Manhattan, but do strongly resemble the track configuration in fictional Metroville.

[shittymoviedetails]

In the movie Spider Man: No Way Home, Doc Ock is canonically gay. I know this because if you move the space in his name, it says “Do Cock”

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Hey There, Delilah

Dear Maria

Roxanne

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The European Sequel

A common trend in western series, especially trilogies, is an Eastern Hemisphere installment. The Cheetah Girls 2, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Oceans 12, Pitch Perfect 2, and Cars 2 all follow this pattern.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I need this movie ASAP

[cactus-pat]

[pawpels]

Is this not the plot of Shark Tale

[skysfandomnonsense]

Saw this post by @the-corpsewitch and made this

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Boys Just Wanna Have the Best of Both Worlds

Both Disney’s High School Musical (2006) and HBO’s Barry (2018-) feature male leads (Zac Efron as Troy Bolton, Bill Hader as Barry Berkman) in stressful roles (competitive basketball, professional killing) who long for different roles… on the stage.

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Surprise Death Duel

Sometimes, characters unknowingly consent to a traditional duel unaware that the tradition is a death match. In Star Trek 2.1 “Amok Time” and Firefly 1.4 “Shindig”, this trope is seen when Captain Kirk is thrust into a traditional Vulcan marriage ceremony by Spock’s would-be wife, and when Mal Reynolds challenges a client of Inara’s to a fight, then accepts what he doesn’t realize is a sword fight at dawn to a bloody end.

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The Brigadoon Principle

Brigadoon (1947 / 1954)

Two American tourists stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years, and, thus, the population only ages one day per hundred years. Tommy, one of the tourists, falls in love with Fiona, a young woman from Brigadoon, and must decide if he will stay in the heaven-blessed bubble with her.

Trope appearances in other media

The Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020)

Santa and Mrs Claus explain that “time stands still” in the North Pole, which is protected by the captured power of a star, which generates a protective field around the magical village. Mr Claus also explains that he has resided in the North Pole under the star’s protection since the early 300s AD, leaving just one (or few) day(s) per year. At the time of the movie, that leaves Saint Nicholas having aged just nearly five years in his tenure as the chosen friend of the elves.

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Star Trek (TOS) Episode 1.8 “Miri”

The Enterprise happens upon an identical Earth planet that has been broadcasting an SOS distress signal for a few centuries. A landing party of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Yeoman Rand, and two guards beam down to the planet, which appears to have stalled at the developmental parallel of the United States in the 1960s, and find only children. A girl named Miri explains to the party that all of the “Grups” (grown-ups) died very suddenly of an illness that caused violence and rapid aging. McCoy and Spock determine from records and calculations that the humans of the planet were attempting to make an essential immortality virus that would slow aging to equal a month of growth every hundred years. They determine that the pre-pubescent children around them are older than the distress beacon, and haven’t aged much since their initial exposure over 300 years before. However, when they reach puberty and undergo metabolic and organic changes, they die in a matter of weeks. The crew races the clock to develop a vaccine, especially for Miri, who is undergoing the transformation right alongside them.

[tedllasso]

Steve Rogers in The Avengers (2012) // Buzz Lightyear in Lightyear (2022)

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Roaming the halls, weeping

In Star Trek (The Original Series) episode “The Naked Time”, crewmen are affected by a strange madness contagion spread by perspiration. Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) experiences a drastic mood swing to depression, and roams the halls of the Enterprise weeping until he stumbles into a briefing room and cries out about his shame at having emotions, and a human mother.

In Star Trek (2009), Spock (Zachary Quinto) is unaffected by an emotional stress on the crew. He tells Dr McCoy, “If crew morale is better served by my roaming the halls weeping, I will gladly defer to your medical expertise.”