Wednesday, April 12, 2017

A King's Power

Abstract notion: Power
Author function: Screenwriter

INT. CASTLE - THRONE ROOM - EVENING
King Bastion is sitting on his throne, while his eight-year old runs around and plays.

LEONARD
So I’ll be king some day, father?

KING BASTION
(Smiles)
No king rules forever, my son. When my days are over, you will be king.

LEONARD
And I can do whatever I want?

KING BASTION
Well technically yes, but..

Leonard cuts King Bastion off.
LEONARD
(Speaks fast, excited)
Then I’ll arrest, Arthur. I don’t like him, and he took my favorite wooden sword from me. And I want all the gold and toys in the world! And I’ll make my own holiday, where all the villagers will come and give me a gift, like my birthday!

KING BASTION
(Chuckles)
Now, Leonard. With great power comes great responsibility. You should use your power to stir the hearts of your people. The success of your kingdom will reflect your power, and wisdom among all other kingdoms.

Leonard runs to his father, and sits on his lap.

LEONARD
But what does that mean?

KING BASTION
Sometimes bad people have power, son. That results in war, poverty, starvation, however a good ruler can create a kingdom, which is growing, happy, and healthy. It takes inner power to use your position for the people, but weakness to give in to your dark temptations, my son.

LEONARD I wanna be just like you

THE END



Reflection: If i had chosen to write as a poet, there would not have been any dialogues between the characters, however only thoughts from the speaker, which is the poet himself making it much more personal.  A poet would also appeal more to the emotions of the reader than the logic, which means that a poem does not have to make sense at first, however a screenplay is very thorough and makes sense at first glance.
The setting in this screenplay is very specific, as the reader is given the information that it takes place in the throne room in a kingdom, however if this was a poem the setting would not be that important and specific, its main focus would have been power.

2 comments:

  1. I can see where your text is about the nature of power, but I would suggest that it is easily equally as much about these two abstract notions: wisdom (the king's definition of good rulership) and love (the child's love of his father)...
    The reflection seems a bit shallow, focusing only on setting, as if that is particularly important in this text. Couldn't exactly the same dialogue have taken place around a campfire on the first hunt Leonard was allowed to participate in - and any number of other places?

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  2. At the beginning I imagined the scene from the Lion King, where Mufasa talks to Simba about the kingdom. This could be interpreted as a more realistic version of that scene, and I like it. Definately something I would like to see a complet version of. Nice Spider-man reference by the way!

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