What Doris Kearns Goodwin Can Teach Whoever Makes the Elder Scrolls Television Show About Story...
What DKG, GOT, and Mad Men Can Teach About Narrative Structure.
INTRODUCTION
Every few months a rumor seems to start that an Elder Scrolls television show is in the works. Todd Howard and the people at Bethesda have shown themselves to be masters at their craft and should have a lot of goodwill among fans. The Elder Scrolls is one of the few series that deserves to be called ‘epic’. A television show could be a cultural moment like Harry Potter was in the 2000s, like Game of Thrones was in the 2010s, and like Star Wars was in the 1980s (and 2000s). But with such a lofty goal, there are many perils in writing and making a television show, especially on that scale. The last few years we have been witness to many adaptations that didn’t live up to the hype or were excruciating to watch, even though the source material was good. Here are my ideas of what could make an Elder Scrolls television series must-watch television and the use of one of the greatest plot templates of all time. Or what Doris Kearns Goodwin can teach Netflix about story…
OVERVIEW OF NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
After a long career as an academic, political commentator, sports journalist, and biographer, the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin published possibly her most famous book detailing Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and relationship with those in his cabinet as he attempted to corral multiple factions into supporting the Thirteenth Amendment, while attempting to win the Civil War: “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”. It might not be able to be seen, but in this academic work we have one of the greatest story structures for a long-form work that has stood the test of time. The structure is as follows: an overarching Plot A of seemingly impending doom, though it does not have to be immediately apparent, and a worldly Plot B. In other words, a plot A that seems larger than the characters themselves and a worldly plot B filled with the characters and their machinations. But over time, the plot A begins to more forcefully come to the forefront of the series causing the characters in individual plots to begin to later their decision-making as they react to the plot A slowly engulfing their lives and world.
A few examples of the structure of an overarching plot A of impending doom and the heavy machinations of characters in the worldly plot B are: Game of Thrones, Team of Rivals, and the Master and Commander book series that the Russel Crowe film is based off of.
In the television show, Game of Thrones, along with the books, we have an overarching evil that threatens to destroy the entire world of the characters- a large army of White Walkers and the corpses they have reanimated. This is a slow-burning overarching plot A, as the quick-moving plot B is a civil war for the throne of the Seven Kingdoms, which becomes Six Kingdoms and ‘the King in the North’ for a while.
In the book ‘Team of Rivals’, Doris Kearns Goodwin also follows this structure, though history itself informed the plot. Doris Kearns Goodwin deserves credit for writing a great narrative. In ‘Team of Rivals’, the overarching Plot A is the Civil War. The Plot B is Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, specifically his dealing with his cabinet, the political machinations of multiple factions, as he, and his cabinet, try keep the country together, play politics, and pass the Thirteenth Amendment.
In the Aubrey/Maturin book series that the Russel Crowe film, Master and Commander, is based off loosely has the same structure that we have been discussing. The characters’ lives are set on the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. The Napoleonic Wars is the overarching plot A and many times informs the plot B outright with missions and assignments. The plot B is the relationship between friends Captain John ‘Jack’ Aubrey and the ship’s physician Stephen Maturin, the lives of those under Aubrey’s many commands, and the personal lives of many of the characters who are in multiple books. The Napoleonic Wars are always a concern throughout the series, in many books the Napoleonic Wars directly cause the plot B.
Using this structure, ‘Team of Rivals’, Game of Thrones, and the Master and Commander series have proven to be enduring works and are generally rated high in their respective categories of (1) history, (2) fantasy, and (3) historical fiction. The structure had resulted in strong narratives filled with fascinating characters that must juggle multiple conflicts and interests as many other factions have differing motivations from the main characters as the plots begin to converge. It is one of the best set-ups for long-form narratives. The structure can keep an audience glued to their seats for multiple seasons because there is ample material for talented writers to mine from. The structure works especially well on a massive scale, while still giving the writers and creators the ability to dissect human nature, develop characters, and reinforce the themes of their works.
CONFLICT AND TENSION
The overarching Plot A is the background of the series before it comes to the forefront, but it is implicit in the nature of the world and what the characters are doing. It slowly bubbles to the surface. At first, it is only a few bubbles in a calm lake. It can’t be seen, but inferred. The plot A, such as Game of Thrones, is the slow burn of a story like the Night’s Watch and Jon Snow. While, the plot B, are the frogs on the lily pads, the fish coming to the surface, the children swimming in the lake. The things are happening and they are fast paced. The plot B is more worldly, it deals with the specific characters individually and their specific plots threads. As the tension slowly builds from plot A, the plot B conflicts begin to arise. And, then, the plot B slowly arrives, turns out their was a hippo at the bottom of the lake and its angry.
Impending doom seems to give story a shot of steroids. It makes the actions of characters pale into comparison due to the grave consequences, but also entreats them to act, showing us who they really are. It creates a way to reveal their psychology, their motivations, but also supplements the stakes.
In one episode of Mad Men, the Cuban Missile Crisis serves as this ‘sense of impending doom’. This results in a deft character study, but also the sense of impending doom is a great way to give action and tension to otherwise, not particularly action-oriented or tension-filled plot threads.
Matthew Weiner was centering this episode around the crisis of the Cuban Missile Crisis intentionally. The possibility of doom weighed heavy on those characters as well as a parallel to the smaller crisis happening within each character: Don returning home and the effects of that on the Draper family and the pregnancy Betty is struggling with. Another crisis that is outlined is Peggy’s internal crisis of having given birth to Pete’s child and him not knowing. A third crisis that is happening was the unknowingness of what is happening to Sterling Cooper and the merger with PPL. Almost the entire Sterling Cooper staff is unaware of this and the details which can relate to the chaos that the Cuban Missile Crisis bestowed on those in the United States. Weiner states “This was an opportunity to show that in a crisis it can be an excuse to behave badly but it can also be a moment to face the truth.”1
With the Cuban Missile Crisis as the backdrop of this episode, a scene between Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) represents the era, and the crisis. Simultaneous with President Kenny negotiating with Krushchev from Washington, Pete alerts Don about the merger, which up to now he was out-of-the-loop. Pete chooses sides and Pete says to Don, "You know they stopped a ship this morning. I bet the Russians are reconsidering, now that we made a stand." It's a metaphor for how Pete wants Don to approach the merger.
"You're going to be in a stand-off, but you should hold your ground," Weiner said. "That to me ... that is the Cold War."
Matthew Weiner expertly used the Cuban Missile Crisis as a backdrop of the episode to examine his characters’ lives. As characters panic, deathbed confessions start to take place, Weiner explained.
"I used (the crisis) as a jumping off point to say, Don, a survivor in a crisis, is trying to resolve his relationship in the best way possible. His business is up for grabs in a very strange way and, of course, business goes on as usual. That’s one of the themes of the show, too, is that Americans in particular always respond to crises by going to work," Weiner said. "Betty Draper ... has to face the fact that she’s pregnant with a baby that she doesn’t want, and there are no rules."
The structure was used amazingly in this ‘Mad Men’ episode and showed how swiftly character development can happen when choices have to be made at this point of conflict in a season. These characters, previously, had been slowly developed to great effect, their motivations teased out, tension began to come closer to the surface, until…the plot A threw everything into live or die mode, fight or flight. It is a very effective way to make stakes higher than they were before. Imagine the episode differently if the merger was the only thing there. The side stories of Betty and Peggy might have dropped by the wayside. And the merger would have been the only thing giving tension to the plot. A decent episode, but not ground-shaking for the characters as much as the one we got. With the Cuban Missile Crisis in the background, everything became charged with conflict, tension, character development needed a release, unresolved issues needed resolution. It was one of the heights of the series and was made possible by the same narrative structure as the previous examples. And the structure can do just as much work with an entire season and show built around those types of plots and conflicts.
ELDER SCROLLS SETTING
The Elder Scrolls setting is one aspect of the series that can be enhanced and superbly reimagined for a television audience, while keeping to the roots of the video game series. The ‘cities’ of Skyrim were expertly designed and made by the team at Bethesda Studios. As many of the mods have shown, fans desired more substantial cities to walk around in and discover. In the original release of the Skyrim game in the Elder Scrolls series, the cities had grand exteriors, but their interiors were a bit limited, though still wonderfully designed. The cities’ interiors generally had two to four shops, two to four houses, and a few other locations before the Keep. A television show should expand some of these locations in Skyrim so we can see them as expansive cities like they should be. Imagine the fans seeing Solitude as a massive sprawling capital, Windhelm as a giant, age-worn city, and Markarth with its labyrinthian layout extended from the mountain walls. All of these locations could be huge cities with different factions, groups, and a colorful cast of dynamic characters hiding secrets in the dark underbellies of the cities, looking out at the picturesque coasts from the docks, or leaving the safety of the gates to venture out into the deep wilderness of Skyrim. The television show can give art design, set design, and other production departments a lot of material to work with to show their creative side as they build the locations in the region of Skyrim, but still keep to the series’ roots. The locations of Elder Scrolls should be epic as the inhabitants deal with a grand conflict that could consume the entire world.
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE FOR ELDER SCROLLS
Elder Scrolls should accept the narrative structure that ‘Team of Rivals’, Game of Thrones, and ‘Master and Commander’ have used. Skyrim itself is built around that narrative as their is a civil war in Skyrim (plot B) as dragons have begun to reappear due to Alduin’s reemergence.
A studio that develops an Elder Scrolls television show would do well to have a large plot A that can build for a few seasons, as the characters interact with their world in the plot B. The plot A could be a calamity the has mysterious origins (rips in space-time, a new star appears, dragons returning, the dead rising), an event in the world that speaks to a once-forgotten prophecy (the Dragonborn), or some ancient artifact has been found. These are a few ideas, but the fantastical should be kept more to a minimum like Game of Thrones- an army of the dead is a classic trope and not too fantastical compared to when people have to go to different realms.
WARNINGS FOR EARLY ELDER SCROLLS SEASONS
My reservations of having too much fantastical stuff in the early seasons is well-founded. It simply takes away from the stories of the characters and in poorly written shows starts to breed deus ex machinas to the point of becoming silly. But the Elder Scrolls show should also tread lightly on making the show too busy with too many plot threads, because this can result in fragmentation, working against character development, and result in story lines that have little pay off.
In addition, the series should shed some of the more silly tropes or legends. The introduction of species and characters that are ‘too weird’, ‘too Dungeon and Dragon-y’ would likely ‘not have broad appeal’ and simply make the world clunky and unappealing. There is a reason the ‘World of Warcraft’ movie did not do too well.
Instead, the world should be a more gritty, realism, but with magic of the mages. The story should center around Nords, Bretons, Redguard, Imperials, and Elves. Orcs, Argonians, and Khajit should be kept to a minimum at first for monetary concerns, but also to not clutter the screen and take away from the central character in an already expansive world. It might also be weird to have two characters argue in a bar and then pan to a humanoid cat drinking an ale, but not be doing it for comic effect.
The hinted at creatures like ‘The Sloads’ and the Monkey people on the alleged east continent should be kept out of the television show entirely. How many people can really say Jabba the Hutt or Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars was a good idea? But, more so, it clutters up the screen, gives less weight to the central characters (likely an ensemble with different threads), and makes what is happening in Tamriel less important. That is not a good idea for a story, instead of reinforcing the story it dilutes its appeal and power.
Elder Scrolls should not be like World of Warcraft or Dungeon and Dragons where they just went overboard with the different types of creatures and such. A broader audience wants to have a more grounded show. There is a reason Game of Thrones was so successful. It had broad appeal among fans and a broad audience who had not read the books. The Elder Scrolls series needs to have a fine balance by sticking to its roots but building a show for a broad audience. The show will still have Nords, Bretons, Redguard, Imperials, and Elves regularly giving the audience its fantasy appeal, but just grounded in a more realist epic like the medieval epics and, both non-fantasy and fantasy, martial arts films.
Finally, it is best to have the the Daedra or gods in the background only being hinted at by stories and legends at first. Of course, this is a world with magic, so gods and Daedra are not far off. Besides budgetary concerns, the gods and Daedra should be kept to a minimum at first so it is clear that some a deus ex machina type conclusion, which would be unsatisfying, is not going to happen. It demonstrates that the show will be in a world of gritty realism pushed forward by character-driven plots that allow for high-level character development, fast-building tension, and conflicts on an expansive, grand landscape.
It could be one of the greatest shows on television.
Give me your thoughts in the comments!
https://www2.amc.com/shows/mad-men/videos/inside-episode-213-mad-men-meditations-in-an-emergency--11396.