The “5” is the spine, or foundation, of
your story. These are the five external elements that establish the different landmark
stages of your Main Character’s journey.
When
I’m analyzing your script, I’m going to tick off each of the five elements of
the spine as they occur. If even one of them is missing, you and your script are
both a “Pass.”
The
“3” was about how your Main Character changes on the inside. The “5” is what
your Main Character experiences on the outside that makes that change happen.
The
five elements of your script’s basic spine are:
These
truly are like the five courses of a dinner, and your audience expects them to
unfold in this order (unless you’re Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction ’94) or Christopher Nolan (Memento ’00), and they only got away with that – albeit brilliantly
– once.
To
make it simple, the spine is the five
stages of the Main Character’s journey that show how s/he has changed.
Let’s
open by debunking a big myth. The classic Hollywood tale is not “boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl,
boy-wins-girl-back”! Those are only three of the five elements necessary to
tell a classic Hollywood tale. As you proceed, see if you can figure out which
stage of The “5” each one is.
The 5 – SPINE
#1: The “Set-Up”
The
“Set-Up” opens your screenplay. It is not
the time to introduce every character in the script and show all of your
different settings and relationships. Quite the opposite! You want to make it
as short as possible.
The Set-Up establishes
the normal existence and expectations of your Main Character. But not every
minute and action and person in every typical day! Just the specific values and
relationships necessary to give meaning to the upcoming Unexpected Change.
A
Bond movie has an explosion, a car chase, a cool gadget, a discarded sexy woman
and an ingenious escape in every Set-Up. That’s all we need to know about Bond
to make his new assignment seem like the hardest one ever.
In
Kramer vs. Kramer, we see a rising ad
exec schmoozing his boss into the evening while his weeping wife anxiously packs.
By the time he saunters home late, expecting dinner and praise for bringing
home the bacon, we understand what he cares about (his career) and what he
doesn’t (his family). It takes approximately three minutes.
The
Set-Up is the last part of the “5” you will finalize. Jot down notes of all of
the information you think is important for your audience and story analyst to
understand the Unexpected Change…then move on. You will be able to whittle down
the Set-Up more effectively when you’ve gotten through the rest of the story.
You
have ten pages (which translates to ten minutes on screen) to set up your story.
Shoot for five. Any longer than that,
and your audience and story analyst will utter the hated words, “When is this
movie going to start?” They are waiting for the Unexpected Change!
#2: The “Unexpected Change”
The
“Unexpected Change” is the single most important element of story structure. Page
One is the beginning of your script, but the Unexpected Change is the official
beginning of your story.
There
are endless names for the Unexpected Change you may already be familiar with:
the Call, the Inciting Incident, the Monkey Wrench. All fantastic! I like to
keep things simple. So I call it the Unexpected Change.
Once
the Set-Up has established the daily existence and expectations of your Main
Character, it is time for the Unexpected Change. The Unexpected Change is the single
event near the top of the script that upsets your Main Character’s normal life and
launches his or her journey.
Here
are examples from movies that aren’t all structurally perfect – but the
Unexpected Change sure works!
·
Unexpected Change: In
The Truman Show, a light falls out of
the sky and clocks Jim Carrey in the head.
·
Unexpected Change: In
Big, Tom Hanks wakes up in the body
of a grown man.
·
Unexpected Change: In
My Best Friend’s Wedding, Julia
Roberts’ reliably besotted best male friend calls to announce he’s about to marry
someone else.
The
audience understands the potential impact of these Unexpected Changes because
of the information provided in the Set-Up.
·
Set-Up: In The Truman Show, we know Jim Carrey is a
happy-go-lucky family guy living in a perfect universe. Then comes the Unexpected
Change: Ouch! Did a light just fall out
of the sky onto my head?
·
Set-Up: In Big, we know Tom Hanks is a
self-conscious adolescent who has no freedom at home and is too little to ride
carnival rides and impress the cutest girl in school. Then comes the Unexpected
Change: Hey, is that stubble on my face?
·
Set-Up: In My Best Friend’s Wedding, we know high-powered
Julia Roberts takes for granted that her best male friend is her fallback
fiancé. Then comes the Unexpected Change: Excuse
me, you’re marrying someone else?
The
Unexpected Change does two key things. It launches your character’s journey. And
it introduces the audience to your Main Character’s Main Opponent in the movie.
The Main Opponent who is whoever or whatever caused the Unexpected Change. Take
note of that – we’ll be back to visit our Main Opponent again!
Now
how do you decide what the Unexpected Change should be? It’s time for the next
neat trick.
Take
a moment to consider human nature. How do you and every other red-blooded
person you know respond to change? Do you immediately run smiling towards it
through a field of lilies, arms wide open? Or do you…at first…say it with me
now…REJECT it?
Does
that word sound familiar?
The
Unexpected Change immediately launches the first part of your Main Character’s
arc: “I REJECT .”
So
how do you decide what event will be the Change in your script? You already
know what issue your Main Character has to reject. Your job now is to create an
original way to introduce that into their world…so s/he can reject it.
If
you know your Main Character needs to reject commitment, you might set up a big wedding and have your bride run
out on the groom (Runaway Bride). Or you
could have a bed-hopping cad meet his dream girl…but introduce himself with his
“fake name” (50 First Dates). It’s up
to your imagination! And your character’s values. And the setting. And the
realities of the time period.
Be
creative as you upset your Main Character’s dreary daily routine! Just be sure
your theme is the issue at stake.
Let’s
see how your spine looks with this second step:
|
THE
“5” – SPINE
·
The
Rejection |
Think
of it this way. It is human nature, when faced with changes to normal
expectations, to immediately take steps to restore life to the way it was
before the Unexpected Change. Is it any wonder that is also how classic story
structure operates?
But
life already has taught you that running away from change never resolves it. In
fact, ignoring change usually makes things worse. It causes even bigger
problems. That is the chain reaction that your Main Character unleashes by
Rejecting the Unexpected Change. Whatever step s/he makes to make life like it
was must trigger a slightly bigger counter response. And that dance will
continue for about fifteen more pages/minutes, at which point your Main Character finally accepts that the change
is not going to go away…and commits
to just trying to muddle through life with the Unexpected Change.
That
shining moment is called “the Commitment.”
In
Kramer vs. Kramer (yep, here we go
again…), Kramer gets a letter from his missing wife…and discovers she really
isn’t coming back. He spends a quiet scene finally removing her presence from
the apartment, tossing her toothbrush, taking down her pictures, committing to
being a single father.
So
now your spine is looking like this:
|
THE
“5” – THE SPINE
·
The
Rejection ·
The
Commitment |
#3: The “Reversal”
Once
your Main Character stops fighting the Unexpected Change and commits to it,
little things begin to happen that make the Unexpected Change seem not so bad
after all! “Hey, this fatherhood thing’s a bit tricky, but wow, what fun we had
eating donuts for breakfast the other day!” Just as in life, these little wins
push your Main Character to invest more deeply in this new life of Change
because there’s an increasing upside for him or her – albeit sometimes at the
expense of others. And before you know it, your Main Character has…say it with
me…EMBRACED the Change!
What?
Did you say “Embrace”? As in “I do want?” Yep. It’s time for the second part of
your Main Character’s arc! The Reversal is the halfway point of your script
when your Main Character fully embraces the Unexpected Change for
purely self-serving reasons.
So
now your spine is fleshing out to look like this:
|
THE
“5” – THE SPINE
·
The
Rejection ·
The
Commitment
·
The
Embrace |
Again,
it’s a favorite industry ploy to shoot a high-energy, good-time, fun-loving
montage to represent the Reversal, ending with an intense emotional scene,
without much dialogue, to show the Embrace.
·
Reversal: Kevin Bacon/Kenny
Wormald-and-a-brand-integrated-karaoke-machine teaches the gloriously oafish
Chris Penn/Miles Teller how to dance in the central montage of Footloose.
·
Reversal: Richard
Gere endures relentless physical training in a rainstorm and proves even his
spittle is sexy when he confronts Lou Gossett, Jr. in order to stay in Officer Candidate
School in An Officer and a Gentleman.
PITFALL ALERT!!! Many writers find themselves “blocked” at the Reversal,
thinking that, at 80 pages, their script is too short. Actually, you’re script
is running long because you are only halfway
through! If your Main Character only shifts from “I don’t want” to “I do
want”…that’s a big ole “Pass.” You must complete the character arc with a
Sacrifice.
Congratulations
– you’ve sketched out the first half of your spine! But where on earth do you
go after this Reversal Embracing love fest? Don’t worry. This is where everyone
gets stuck in their screenplay – the second half.
How
exactly do you get from the Embrace to the end of your story? By remembering the mission: your Main Character is here to learn something
via personal sacrifice.
Understand
this – right now, your character loves the Unexpected Change because it’s
making his or her own life better, sometimes at the expense of others. It’s all
me-me-me! So it’s time to kick a little Main Character butt.
Immediately
after the Reversal, you must shock your Main Character with a serious obstacle.
What’s the obstacle? It is always the Main
Opponent, who caused the Unexpected Change, in a newly empowered version.
It
can’t be that simple. Yes, it is. And wait, your job gets even easier!
The entire second
half of your script will be an increasingly focused and escalating duel between
your Main Character and the Main Opponent.
·
In the second half of The Truman Show, Jim Carrey tries to
uncover the mystery of his bubble world and is thwarted by the production
company who mounted the light that initially dropped on his head.
·
In the second half of Big, Tom Hanks is in a race against time
to track down Zoltar, the carnival machine that initially turned him into a
grown-up.
·
In the second half of My Best Friend’s Wedding, Julia Roberts
squares off in an escalating battle against Cameron Diaz who initially “took” Dermot
Mulroney by becoming his fiancée.
Oh,
what the heck, let’s keep going!
·
In the second half of Jaws, Roy Scheider and company head out
to open water to kill the shark that initially ate the skinny dipper.
·
In the second half of Kramer vs. Kramer, Dustin Hoffman fights
for custody of his son against Meryl Streep after she’d initially left him to
raise their child alone.
·
In the second half of fill in the name of your favorite sci-fi
flick here, bold young man/hot young chick leaves his or her world to
fight on the intergalactic home planet of the bad guy who initially caused the
Unexpected Change.
The
first half of your script pits your Main Character mainly against self and
obstacles in the world s/he knows. In the second half, your Main Character must
now battle the newly powerful Main Opponent, hopefully on new and unfamiliar
territory. Ideally, in fact, this battle
happens on the home turf of the Main Opponent!
Yes,
secondary plotlines will develop in the second half of the script, but they
must serve the central battle, too. In Pretty
Woman, Richard Gere’s increasingly hostile takeover battle with a father
figure triggers jealous reactions from his lawyer that nearly cost Gere the
love of his life.
One
tip: don’t let your Main Character
actually see the Main Opponent immediately after the Reversal. Let the audience
know they’re out there and badder than ever, but briefly build to that first
face-to-face reunion.
I
know you are saying right now…hey, wait a minute. The bad guy is in almost
every scene of the movie in a lot of films. It felt like Jane Fonda had more
screen time in “Monster-in-Law” than Jennifer Lopez. And I am asking right now…is
“Monster-in-Law” on your top ten list? (No offense to its insanely attractive
stars!)
Listen
to me: if your Main Opponent is in every
scene of the movie, you are relying too heavily on one source of conflict. You
are not going to get a “Recommend.” (If you’re still confused about how bad
movies get made, please re-read page 22.)
One
more thing: remember, the Main Opponent
is not always a “bad” person or thing; he, she or it just wants something that
conflicts with what your Main Character wants – and is increasingly more powerful
in pursuing it. The truth is, the Main Opponent may love your Main Character to
pieces – but if that love gets in the way of your Main Character’s mission,
then you’ve got yourself an opponent.
Get
it? Okay, so now your spine is looking like this:
|
THE
“5” –SPINE
·
The
Rejection ·
The
Commitment
·
The
Embrace ·
The Return
of the Main Opponent ·
The
Escalation |
All
right, let’s bring this baby home.
#4: The “Final Battle”
You
did it. You pushed your Main Character off the cliff of change and s/he has
sped through hanging branches and bounced off of rocks and is speeding with all
the force of gravity towards the ground that is the end of your movie.
Is
that how your screenplay feels? Please?
Now
it’s time for your Main Character to face the Main Opponent at its greatest
power in a Final Battle. Remember, your Main Opponent is whoever or whatever
caused the Unexpected Change at the top of the script.
The Final Battle is
the moment when your Main Character physically faces the Main Opponent and
fights for his or her biggest need, on behalf of self and a greater cause.
Entering
the Final Battle, what your Main Character – and the Main Character’s world –
stands to lose is the biggest possible loss of the whole journey. In fact, your
Main Character now should be fighting for more than self-preservation; there
must be other people, possibly whole planets at stake!
So
how do you create the most tension, the highest stakes and the most impact in a
battle between two entities? You put them in the ring together. So this is
key: the Final Battle must be an
extended face-to-face confrontation
between your Main Character and the Main Opponent.
In
The Empire Strikes Back, Luke doesn’t
call Darth Vader on a smart phone and talk trash to him about the dark side of
the Force. He whips out his light saber and confronts his enemy face-to-face
and all alone, high on a freezing cold platform in Vader’s own city.
A
quick note: the Final Battle also is the
right time for what we all know as “the twist.” The twist is an additional revelation, a surprise ambush called a
“reveal,” that increases the power that your Main Opponent has over your Main
Character during the Final Battle. For instance, this is good time to let
Luke know you’re his father!
Twist
or no twist, near the end of your Final Battle, your Main Character should
appear to have hit “rock bottom” in the fight and in the overall journey itself.
S/he is at the moment of greatest weakness, internally and externally, as
compared to the Main Opponent.
Here
are some great Final Battles:
·
In Kramer
vs. Kramer, Dustin Hoffman confronts his ex, Meryl Streep, in a vicious
courtroom battle – where he learns that after having been an invisible stay-at-home
mom, she now makes more money than he does (nice twist)! He loses custody of
his son, and his attorney tells him he has to give up custody or put his son on
the stand in a brutal appeal…
·
In Big,
Tom Hanks faces off against wish-granting machine “Zoltar the Magnificent” with
a quarter in his hand and a high-strung girlfriend and politically rocky job on
his mind. He drops in his quarter, and Zoltar commands him to “Make a Wish” –
if he’s really ready to be little again…
Are
you seeing a pattern, here?
In
the last moment of the Final Battle, your Main Character must be faced with a
Final Choice. Good news – this is simple, too! Just give your Main Character
exactly what s/he wanted in the Rejection statement…in an exaggerated form.
In
other words, the Final Choice always
forces your Main Character to choose the theme of your movie…or give it up. Guess
what happens?
The
Final Choice is your cue as a writer to make your Main Character face giving up
a self-centered pursuit of their dream to complete personal growth and make the
world a better place. Hmm…smells like…a Sacrifice.
That’s
right! The Final Battle ends in a Final Choice that leads, of course, to the third
part of your character arc: the
Sacrifice.
The Sacrifice must be the next decision
made after your Main Character is faced with the Final Choice. It is the moment of selflessness that proves the lesson has
been learned. It is so important to your audience, your movie will be
incomplete without it. You certainly cannot sell a script without it.
But he is a real father now, and he’s learned to put his
child first. He can’t put his innocent child on the stand to face that
brutality. So he sacrifices.
Sacrifice: The
next time we see Kramer, he is walking with his son, explaining how great life
will be living with Mommy.
But he is a real man now, and he’s learned that childhood
still has a lot to teach him before he’s ready to be a true adult. So he
sacrifices.
Sacrifice: The
next time we see Josh, he’s wishing he was small and facing a crushed Elizabeth
Perkins in the empty fairgrounds.
Now
let’s fill in your spine with the most important part of your story, the Final
Battle:
|
THE
“5” – SPINE
·
The
Rejection ·
The
Commitment
·
The
Embrace ·
The Return
of the Main Opponent ·
The
Escalation
·
The Twist
(optional) ·
Rock
Bottom ·
The Final
Choice ·
The
Sacrifice |
The
Final Battle through the Sacrifice has a common term in writing: it’s called the “climax” of your movie.
How
huge is the Climax? Think of it this way. When people ask, “How does the movie
end?,” they aren’t talking about the final wrap-it-all-up minutes of the film. They
are talking about the Climax, the final test of your Main Character’s
commitment to the journey, sealed with the ultimate sacrifice. And if it
doesn’t happen face-to-face against the Main Opponent, with your Main Character
making a selfless sacrifice, your audience and story analyst will utter the dreaded
words: “That movie didn’t really end.”
I
smell a “Pass.”
Again,
the last page of your screenplay is the end of the script, but the Final Choice
and Sacrifice are the end of your story. Missing the Final Battle is an
unforgivable omission in a script – and the kiss of death in the theater.
Now,
here’s my favorite “secret weapon” use for the Final Battle. If you are writing
a biographical script, look first for that person’s greatest moment of
sacrifice in life. That will instantly establish the end of the story and your
theme. Once you plug that Sacrifice and Theme into your Character Arc “machine,”
you can review earlier choices in the person’s life that fit the Rejection and
the Embrace stages. Fill those in, and you have the timeline of your story!
#5: The “Reward”
You’re
bracing yourself now. This is the part you will fight the most: the idiotic,
mandatory “Happy Ending” – peh!
Wrong!
“Happy endings” aren’t simple enough.
Your
Main Character has just battled the biggest change of his or her life, faced
the biggest conflict of that battle and made a huge personal sacrifice to prove
what s/he’s learned along the way.
Your
audience and your story analyst don’t want a happy ending. They demand a just reward.
The Reward
is what your Main Character deserves to get as a result of the Sacrifice s/he just
made.
If
you have been precisely following the rules of The “1-3-5,” your Main Character
has just made a selfless personal Sacrifice in a Final Choice, in order to become
a better person and make the world a better place. So the Reward for that
action pretty much has to be…a happy ending.
But
hey, if the Final Choice is selfish, if your Main Character is Keanu Reeves in Devil’s Advocate and his choice after
the Final Battle is to take a bite out of the reporter’s apple and go for
glory…then the just reward for that pretty much has to be…that the reporter is
really the devil…and Keanu is going to go through Hell with Al Pacino’s Milton
again.
So
craft a just reward for your Main
Character – and make it speedy! Don’t get carried away with a bunch of
dialogue, and never bring in new information or characters here unless they
directly and critically relate to the reward.
You
have about five pages/minutes to pay off your Main Character’s journey. Shoot
for three.
Let’s
look at some very effective rewards:
Reward: The moment after that choice, Meryl Streep arrives, but
instead of taking their son with her, she acknowledges that Dustin has become a
great father…and lets him keep his son.
You are crying at this point, no matter how many times you
see it, because that is a just reward for Dustin’s loving choice.
Reward: The moment after that choice, his girlfriend drops him off
at his suburban home, shuffling in his giant suit, his mother’s agonized cry of
“Josh?” greeting him at the door.
You are crying at this point, no matter how many times you see
it, because those are just desserts for such a mature choice.
Your
spine should now look like this:
THE “5” – SPINE
·
The
Rejection ·
The
Commitment
·
The
Embrace ·
The Return
of the Main Opponent ·
The Escalation
·
The Twist
(optional) ·
Rock
Bottom ·
The Final
Choice ·
The
Sacrifice
|
Do you think now you can fit the three
steps of “boy-meets-girl/boy-loses-girl/boy-wins-girl-back” into the “5”? Incorporate
them into the sample spine above!
|
REAL SCREEN REINFORCEMENT |
|
|
Let’s
look at a completed sample spine: Kramer vs. Kramer 1.
The “Set-Up”: Late at night, Kramer schmoozes
his ad exec boss and is promised an important campaign. Meanwhile, his wife
Joanna tearfully packs and says goodbye to their son. 2.
The “Unexpected Change”: When Kramer gets
home, Joanna announces she’s leaving him – and leaving their son Billy in his
care. ·
The Rejection: “I don’t want fatherhood.” Kramer
calls Joanna’s best friend and tells her to send Joanna home then unpacks the
suitcase he wrested away from her when she left. ·
The Commitment: Kramer finally stores
away the last of Joanna’s visible belongings. 3.
The “Reversal”: Kramer has managed to fit Billy into his
busy lifestyle, and they’ve begun to bond. ·
The Embrace: “I do want fatherhood.” Kramer
teaches Billy to ride a bike, clapping and snapping proud photos. ·
The Return of the Main Opponent: When Kramer
drops Billy off at school, Joanna is watching through the window of a nearby
coffee shop. She’s baaaaa-aaaaack. ·
The Escalation: Joanna sues Kramer for
full custody of Billy. Billy has a playground accident, and Kramer gets fired
for neglecting his job to do fatherly duties. 4.
The “Final Battle”: Kramer and Joanna face
off in court. ·
The Twist: Kramer learns in the court
battle that Joanna now earns more money than he does. He’s toast. ·
Rock Bottom:
Kramer loses full custody to Joanna. ·
The Final Choice: Kramer must give up
Billy or try to win him back by dragging him into a vicious court appeal and pitting
him against his mom. ·
The Sacrifice: “I give up fatherhood to make myself
a better person and life better for my son and ex-wife.” Kramer rejects his
lawyer’s appeal proposal and accepts the court order of maternal custody. 5.
The “Reward”: On the day Joanna is to come
take Billy home, she instead says that Billy already is home with Kramer, his
dad. She goes up to say goodbye. Kramer gets to keep his son. |
|
Do
you understand the journey of Kramer vs.
Kramer without having read the whole script? Are you compelled simply by
the spine of the story? Don’t you kind of want to see the film now, if only to
understand the structurally sound presence of JoBeth Williams’ then-scandalous
bare butt (even if you can’t grasp that bare butts were ever scandalous, don’t
you kind of want to see one that actually advances story)?
And
do you now see what you need to do and know for your own story before you can
begin to type (or re-type) “FADE IN”?
|
PITFALL ALERT!!! Some
of you are dying to know how all of this “arc”ing and “spine”ing works if you
have MULTIPLE MAIN CHARACTERS. Yeek. Don’t try this at home, not on your
first script or first submission! If you must initially submit a script
with more than one Main Character, remember these two things: 1) all of your Main Characters must fully
arc (Reject/Embrace/Sacrifice). And 2) all of your Main Characters must arc
distinctly in response to the same Unexpected Change and the same Final
Battle. NOTE:
If only one character is Rejecting, Embracing and Sacrificing in your
story, what you really have is one Main Character surrounded by an ensemble
cast. |
That,
then, is “The 1-3-5 Story Structure Made Simple System.” You absolutely must
know and utilize this to create or evaluate a strong, sellable first submission.
And
if that screenplay precisely adheres to The “1-3-5” in an original way, with fresh
dialogue and a stunning surprise twist at the end, well, that, my friend, is a
“Recommend.”
But wait – you’re not ready to start
writing the screenplay just yet!
I
know you feel that after you turned yourself over to the simple process of
story structure…you should have been justly rewarded. Instead, you still don’t
get to type “FADE IN”!
Breathe.
Now that you get The “1-3-5,” it’s time to learn the simplest process for
implementing it most effectively. “The
1-3-5 Writing Process” is coming up next!
Creating/Identifying The “5” –The Spine
|
“CLEAN SLATE” To
flesh out your story’s spine, start with a blank basic spine (copy the one
from this chapter, if you like). Fill in the theme in your character arc
statements. Put in the motivating
moment if it still compels you as a scene. Then brainstorm each of the stages
of the spine, dreaming up scenes and choices, to build the story you most
want to write. |
|
“FIX-IT” MODE To
double check your story’s spine, start with a blank basic spine (copy the one
from this chapter, if you like). Fill in the theme in your character arc
statements. Then fill in the
characters, actions and choices that represent each stage of the five. Now
answer these questions: ·
Does the Set-Up give meaning to the Unexpected Change?
·
Is the Unexpected Change immediately followed by
the Rejection? ·
Does the Main Character reluctantly Commit to the
Change? ·
Does the Reversal lead to the Embrace of the
Change? ·
Does the second half of the story escalate the
war between the Main Character and the Main Opponent? ·
Does the Final Battle pit the Main Character in a
face-to-face battle with the Main Opponent? ·
Does your Main Character hit “rock bottom” near
the end of the Battle? ·
Does the Final Choice reflect the theme? ·
Does the Main Character make a Sacrifice in
response to the Final Choice? ·
Does the Main Character get a just Reward for the
Sacrifice? ·
Can you clearly state what the Main Character
learned? ·
Are you satisfied at the end? Better yet, are you
teary-eyed? |
Now
back to the Research Lab! Watch each of your selected films only for the five
parts of the spine. See how character arc ties into spine? If your favorite
flick isn’t working with The “1-3-5”…test it against the “Fix-It” Mode tips
above. Could you have made it a better movie?
THE ROAD TO “RECOMMEND”
|
P |
Pledge #4:
My spine will set up a Main
Character, expose them to a difficult Unexpected Change, shift them from
rejecting to embracing that Change, jeopardize the Change by pitting them
against the Main Opponent, force them to sacrifice the Change to grow and for
the good of others, then justly reward them for that Sacrifice. |