Jemini
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So, I just made a post in "looking for" a short time ago asking if anyone knows of a "kicked from the party" based story that doesn't follow the 9 point plot that absolutely every single one of them follow.
It's ludicrous how every single one of those stories follows that exact cookie-cutter plot down to the letter. But, while griping about that plot outline they all follow, I came to a rather shocking and sudden realization. There actually IS an absolute gem of a litenovel series that follows this plotline, and it's one that's become very famous lately. The reason it's good is because it adds so much extra stuff that it's almost unrecognizable to this core story plot.
The series I'm talking about is one the majority of you out there should know. I'm talking about Rising of the Shield Hero.
The worst part of this, however, is that it was written back in 2011, before this plot theme became such a major thing. In other words, it's not that Shield Hero took this dead plot and dressed it up and made something good of it. It's the other way around. Someone looked at shield hero, stripped it of absolutely everything that made it interesting, and for some twisted reason thought it was a good idea to make that their story.
Think about it.
So, yeah. This is a rather shocking realization, but it actually reveals that this cookie-cutter plot actually does have some solid viability. It doesn't have to be such a stripped-down and stale plot. The reason it seems so ridiculous and cookie-cutter is because everyone who's doing this plot these days seems to be giving us nothing but the emaciated skeleton of the plot structure. If you want to make an actual gem like Rising of the shield hero, you need to feed this plot skeleton and give it some skin, bones, muscles, and organs. To stop using figurative terms here, I mean dress up the plot a lot so that it's not so easy to see those bare-bones of the plot. Because that's what all these copy stories are giving us, literally just the base bare bones of the plot used in Rising of the Shield Hero.
1. MC is under-appreciated by the hero's party (possibly even bullied) because they under-appreciate what they contribute.
2. MC is kicked from the hero's party.
3. MC strikes out on their own and immediately start succeeding now that they are free of the hero's party.
4. Hero's party starts falling to pieces when they discover just how much the MC was really contributing.
5. MC starts to make a major name for themselves.
6. Hero with the possible addition of all or some of the Hero's party start actually BLAMING the MC for their down-fall after they were kicked out of the party.
7. Hero or Hero's party start on some kind of deranged vengeance plot against MC.
8. Hero's party is soundly defeated upon their first attempt at misguided vengeance, thus cementing in how much more OP MC really is compared to their old party.
9. Hero's party makes a 2nd attempt, this time aided by evil powers of some form or another, often at a heavy price to the "hero" character.
It's ludicrous how every single one of those stories follows that exact cookie-cutter plot down to the letter. But, while griping about that plot outline they all follow, I came to a rather shocking and sudden realization. There actually IS an absolute gem of a litenovel series that follows this plotline, and it's one that's become very famous lately. The reason it's good is because it adds so much extra stuff that it's almost unrecognizable to this core story plot.
The series I'm talking about is one the majority of you out there should know. I'm talking about Rising of the Shield Hero.
The worst part of this, however, is that it was written back in 2011, before this plot theme became such a major thing. In other words, it's not that Shield Hero took this dead plot and dressed it up and made something good of it. It's the other way around. Someone looked at shield hero, stripped it of absolutely everything that made it interesting, and for some twisted reason thought it was a good idea to make that their story.
Think about it.
1. The Spear, Sword, and Bow heroes don't understand how this world's system works, and therefore believe the Shield is the weakest.
2. Princess makes false-rape accusations against MC, thus depriving him of his hero position and ostracizing him.
3. Naofumi (the MC) resorts to whatever he needs to do to survive, and manages to somehow scrape together the ability to gain power.
(Note, he's not automatically strong. He starts weak and needs to build his strength from zero, with a severe handicap compared to the rest.)
4. The other 3 heroes start making messes all over the kingdom without realizing it.
(Note, the other 3 are not coming to a realization here, they genuinely and blindly think they are still doing good.)
5. Meanwhile, Naofumi goes around cleaning up their messes and earning the adoration of the towns people while the other 3 worsen in reputation.
6&7. When the King and Princess see how well Naofumi is doing despite their harassment, they start egging the other 3 heroes on to join in on tormenting Naofumi.
8. Naofumi begins out-performing the other 3 heroes again and again. (This is not a single instance, because it's not so simple and black-and-white as in these tired old plots.)
a. King arranges a tournament between Naofumi and the spear hero, which Naofumi wins quite soundly.
b. Naofumi heavy-carries the other 3 heroes HARD during the 2nd wave.
c. Naofumi protects the 2nd princess when the 1st princess tries to assassinate her... on multiple occasions.
d. The queen discovers what the King and Princess are up to, and puts an end to it.
9. It's not the other 3 heroes who appear in the "power at a price" fight, it's The Pope, because the other 3 heroes played a "rest of the party" role in this plot, while it was the king and the 3 heroes church that played the "hero/party leader" role. In the "power at a price" fight, the "price" is the fact that the church is suddenly sticking their neck out and making a power grab. So, it's not all that severe a price other than the fact that if they're defeated then there's no future for them. In this fight, Naofumi winds up having to team up with the other 3 heroes in order to defeat The Pope.
2. Princess makes false-rape accusations against MC, thus depriving him of his hero position and ostracizing him.
3. Naofumi (the MC) resorts to whatever he needs to do to survive, and manages to somehow scrape together the ability to gain power.
(Note, he's not automatically strong. He starts weak and needs to build his strength from zero, with a severe handicap compared to the rest.)
4. The other 3 heroes start making messes all over the kingdom without realizing it.
(Note, the other 3 are not coming to a realization here, they genuinely and blindly think they are still doing good.)
5. Meanwhile, Naofumi goes around cleaning up their messes and earning the adoration of the towns people while the other 3 worsen in reputation.
6&7. When the King and Princess see how well Naofumi is doing despite their harassment, they start egging the other 3 heroes on to join in on tormenting Naofumi.
8. Naofumi begins out-performing the other 3 heroes again and again. (This is not a single instance, because it's not so simple and black-and-white as in these tired old plots.)
a. King arranges a tournament between Naofumi and the spear hero, which Naofumi wins quite soundly.
b. Naofumi heavy-carries the other 3 heroes HARD during the 2nd wave.
c. Naofumi protects the 2nd princess when the 1st princess tries to assassinate her... on multiple occasions.
d. The queen discovers what the King and Princess are up to, and puts an end to it.
9. It's not the other 3 heroes who appear in the "power at a price" fight, it's The Pope, because the other 3 heroes played a "rest of the party" role in this plot, while it was the king and the 3 heroes church that played the "hero/party leader" role. In the "power at a price" fight, the "price" is the fact that the church is suddenly sticking their neck out and making a power grab. So, it's not all that severe a price other than the fact that if they're defeated then there's no future for them. In this fight, Naofumi winds up having to team up with the other 3 heroes in order to defeat The Pope.
So, yeah. This is a rather shocking realization, but it actually reveals that this cookie-cutter plot actually does have some solid viability. It doesn't have to be such a stripped-down and stale plot. The reason it seems so ridiculous and cookie-cutter is because everyone who's doing this plot these days seems to be giving us nothing but the emaciated skeleton of the plot structure. If you want to make an actual gem like Rising of the shield hero, you need to feed this plot skeleton and give it some skin, bones, muscles, and organs. To stop using figurative terms here, I mean dress up the plot a lot so that it's not so easy to see those bare-bones of the plot. Because that's what all these copy stories are giving us, literally just the base bare bones of the plot used in Rising of the Shield Hero.
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