Dan Harmon’s universal theory of storytelling gets an animated explainer

The theory boils down to two sentences: 1) A character is in a zone of comfort, 2) but they want something. 3) They enter an unfamiliar situation, 4) adapt to it, 5) get what they wanted, 6) pay a heavy price for it, 7) then return to their familiar situation, 8) having changed. Harmon plots those eight points along the quadrants of a circle, but then overlays that circle with great dualities like life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, and order and chaos, and finds within that very literal geometry storytelling needs, like internal and external conflict.

If that all sounds a little much, well—that’s where the video comes in. Schoder sells it as part of Die Hard, The Lion King, The Lord Of The Rings, and, most aggressively, Star Wars, and Harmon has sounded off himself, in much more depth, elsewhere on the internet. But if you need more convincing, consider, perhaps, the journey you have gone on: 1) sitting around; 2) deciding to waste time on The A.V. Club; 3) clicking an unread article; 4) beginning to read it; 5) receiving the information promised; 6) realizing you need to get back to work and/or life; 7) closing this tab; 8) still thinking about the circle. It is everywhere—wheels within wheels.

[via Gizmodo]