MacGuffin/Headscratchers

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• The joke on the main page. I don't get it.
  • A macguffin, under the premise of the joke, is a tool used to hunt lions in the Scottish highlands. If there are no lions in the Scottish highlands, one cannot use a tool to hunt lions in the Scottish highlands. Ergo, it is a tool not used to hunt lions in the Scottish highlands, and thus not a macguffin under the definition in the universe of the joke, and does nothing but drive the plot of the story.
  • Another interpretation is that the person holding the package is using a roundabout way to tell the person who asked what the package was to mind his own business.
• The name MacGuffin bugs me. It makes it seem like no matter how essential to the plot whatever device is, it's not needed- just an extra thing.
  • If it's truly important to the story, then it's not a Macguffin.
    • We call the Omnitrex a MacGuffin and it is the plot.
    • What defines a true Macguffin is the ability to completely change and have no effect on the story. Just like the uranium in "Notorious" could have been diamonds or money or documents or anything else that could fit in a wine bottle, the Omnitrix could've been a gauntlet or a magic word or a serum or anything else that would let Ben turn into different aliens.
      • No the Omnitrix plays a role in the plot by turning him into different aliens, you couldn't replace it with say a sack of gold. It has a 'on-screen' use while you can't use a true MacGuffin. It's the goal not the means.
    • Then it's been improperly labeled as a MacGuffin. The definition is quite clear here -- if it matters at all what it is (besides gross characteristics like, say, weight) it's not a MacGuffin.
• I don't really understand the whole "interchangeable" idea, especially in the context of Indiana Jones (which is typically used as an example of what a MacGuffin is). Is the Holy Grail, from "The last Crusade" a MacGuffin? The main page says it is, which means it doesn't really do anything major, but it does effect the plot (namely healing Henry's wounds, which is something, say, a bag of Gold couldn't do.
  • It could have been the Rod of Asclepius, or a piece of the Alatyr, or a unicorn horn – there was nothing in the story that required it to be the Holy Grail specifically.

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