AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - Toradora! Writers Challenge: Unraveling the Riddle

***relentlessflame*** · 2009-03-29, 23:09

By the way, this thread wasn't actually about the riddle at all. The riddle is just a symbol; a representation of the story's theme, moral, and message. With all this "let's not analyze the riddle too much" and "there's no right answer/they're all correct", we risk missing the forest for the trees.

Consider the great lengths people go through to analyze, dissect, and critique the various aspects of the plot, the characters, the writing, the adaptation techniques, the directing... The episode threads are full of such pedantic trivialities. In a few days, there'll be an "Overall Impressions" thread where, I'm sure, people will write pages upon pages discussing all this stuff in almost-mind-numbing detail. They won't hesitate to tell us all the things they liked, all the things they didn't like, and all the reasons why the show wasn't what it should/could have been. And yet, when it comes to what's really important -- the actual purpose and meaning of the show's message; the main thing the author was actually trying to say -- people say "let's not think about it too much; it means whatever you want it to mean". Reams of opinion, pebbles of insight.

Doesn't that mean that the author completely failed in their attempt to communicate?

Toradora! isn't just a well-done tale about "something about love, happiness and friendship". They spent 25 episodes providing specific evidence so they could drive home exactly the message they wanted to deliver about it. What is that message? What does the show mean? Or at the very least, what does it mean to you? If you can't figure that out, then all the time you spent watching the story basically amounts to a string of random disjointed events featuring a cast of enjoyable characters that (presumably) left you with warm feelings at the end... but that's it. You took it all in, but learned nothing from it other than "well, that was a nice show". And if that's really all stories are to you... well, then I guess there's nothing to say in this topic after all!

Food for thought, anyway. If it doesn't mean anything to you, then just ignore it. But what I'm really asking in this thread is "What is the moral of the story, and why?" The riddle was just the symbolic framework for the question; a way of thinking about it.

2009-03-29, 23:09	Link #18
*relentlessflame* 　 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2003 Age: 41	By the way, this thread wasn't actually about the riddle at all. The riddle is just a symbol; a representation of the story's theme, moral, and message. With all this "let's not analyze the riddle too much" and "there's no right answer/they're all correct", we risk missing the forest for the trees. Consider the great lengths people go through to analyze, dissect, and critique the various aspects of the plot, the characters, the writing, the adaptation techniques, the directing... The episode threads are full of such pedantic trivialities. In a few days, there'll be an "Overall Impressions" thread where, I'm sure, people will write pages upon pages discussing all this stuff in almost-mind-numbing detail. They won't hesitate to tell us all the things they liked, all the things they didn't like, and all the reasons why the show wasn't what it should/could have been. And yet, when it comes to what's really important -- the actual purpose and meaning of the show's message; the main thing the author was actually trying to say -- people say "let's not think about it too much; it means whatever you want it to mean". Reams of opinion, pebbles of insight. Doesn't that mean that the author completely failed in their attempt to communicate? Toradora! isn't just a well-done tale about "something about love, happiness and friendship". They spent 25 episodes providing specific evidence so they could drive home exactly the message they wanted to deliver about it. What is that message? What does the show mean? Or at the very least, what does it mean to you? If you can't figure that out, then all the time you spent watching the story basically amounts to a string of random disjointed events featuring a cast of enjoyable characters that (presumably) left you with warm feelings at the end... but that's it. You took it all in, but learned nothing from it other than "well, that was a nice show". And if that's really all stories are to you... well, then I guess there's nothing to say in this topic after all! Food for thought, anyway. If it doesn't mean anything to you, then just ignore it. But what I'm really asking in this thread is "What is the moral of the story, and why?" The riddle was just the symbolic framework for the question; a way of thinking about it.