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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1375 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 26, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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If an apple fell up once so conveniently that the entire plot happened, I'd consider that bad writing unless, I suppose, the irony of this one unexplained anomaly is the entire premise.

This seems obviously correct to me, except that empirically it's just wrong. Off the top of my head I can't actually think of any other examples in which it's wrong, though; is there some meta-irony here about how there's this one unexplained anomaly in the category of narrative quality of anomalies?

It's hard to explain in unimpeachable terms why Groundhog Day doesn't count as timeloopslop. I suppose one aspect is that it was literally the first, or among the first examples. The trope hadn't yet become a boring device for gaining power and waifus and actually had themes to explore. It's also a work where the anomaly encompasses the entire work, rather than being a vehicle for other plot points. It's not a deus ex machina if a deity suddenly interfering is what kickstarts the plot rather than solving crucial parts of it.

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