Watsonian Versus Doylist: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''Maybe [the Patrician in ''[[Discworld/The Colour of Magic|The Colour of Magic]]''] was Vetinari, but written by [[Self-Deprecation|a more stupid writer?]]''|'''[[Terry Pratchett]]''' on alt.fan.pratchett, wearing his Doylist hat.}}

'''Watsonian''' or '''in-universe''' commentary takes the reality of a work as given, and thus restricts itself to making statements that are sensible within that reality. Watsonian explanations are things like "Character X was lying", "He had plastic surgery over the summer", and "The main character fell off a cliff". A more precise technical term for this is ''intradiegetic''. Tropes which take a generally Watsonian perspective include:

'''Watsonian''' or '''in-universe''' commentary takes the reality of a work as given, and thus restricts itself to making statements that are sensible within that reality. Watsonian explanations are things like "Character X was lying", "He had plastic surgery over the summer", and "The main character fell off a cliff". A more precise technical term for this is ''[[intradiegetic]]''. Tropes which take a generally Watsonian perspective include:

* [[Author's Saving Throw]]

* [[Retcon]]

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* [[Wild Mass Guessing]]

'''Doylist''' or '''out-of-universe''' commentary considers the work as a created object, and prefers explanations based on the real-world motivations or circumstances of the creators. Doylist explanations are things like "The author had a Better Idea", "The actor died, so they had to hire a new one", and "The author got sick of writing those books, so he killed off the main character". A technical term for this is ''extradiegetic''. Doylist tropes include:

'''Doylist''' or '''out-of-universe''' commentary considers the work as a created object, and prefers explanations based on the real-world motivations or circumstances of the creators. Doylist explanations are things like "The author had a Better Idea", "The actor died, so they had to hire a new one", and "The author got sick of writing those books, so he killed off the main character". A technical term for this is ''[[extradiegetic]]''. Doylist tropes include:

* [[Author Existence Failure]]

* [[Depending on the Writer]]