Breaking of Established Patterns and Rules

A New Order

Rebellion attempts to create a new, presumably better, order. It attacks the established order. It critiques that order, pointing up flaws and deficiencies. It may create a new order that threatens the control and orderliness of the establishment.

Rebels normally react to the overlords. They present themselves as improved versions of the powers that be. The elements of the overarching order are used to generate the details of the rebel order. The lines are meshed together. The priorities are inverted. The new is a mirror of the old.

Alternatively, the rebel order can be completely disconnected from the new order. Formed of its own ideas, ignoring the established powers, secure in its own truth. These "bauble" rebels are critical of the established order only to those who analyse them. They make no point of emphasising the differences. At the other extreme, the rebel can create an order that is an inflected copy of the establishment, extended, filtered, and made ridiculous. These inflections include the setting up a situation where a weak established order is held up by an extremely strong rebel order.

Creators using rebellion can easily wind up with overly simplistic designs. The process of filtering elements to set up a contrast between the protagonists can easily eliminate the detail and richness of the two sides, painting them in shapes too simple to hold the interest of the user. In return for the danger, the creator is given a ready source of easily read details, and a simple key for understanding their work. More importantly, the creator of a scene of rebellion is able to tap the shared cultural associations with rebellion, associations that are hot and strong, particularly in the North American tradition.

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Copyright (c) 1997 -- Mike Fletcher
Reproduction for other than personal use prohibited without express written permission from the author.