Dan Harmon's Story Circle | Rick and Morty | adult swim

the so-called story circle is my attempt to remove all of the hard and repeated work from the task of breaking a story we do an eight-step story process here I call it an embryo you've got a character that you can identify with it has some kind of need wish incompletion causes them to go across a threshold where the story changes direction they go down a rota trials searching for something they find it whether they like it or not it kind of kicks their ass and they come back to the world they started in having changed you need to go search for something find it take it and then return changed episode 202 Morty's circle is that he exists in comfort until he finds out that Rick is an arms dealer you sell weapons to killers for money you've got with the intergalactic call a very planetary mindset Morty this is an ethical quandary for Morty you can undo it if you wanted that makes him go across a threshold and search for a way to undo the ethical damage that he perceives Rick is doing so that's why he takes bricks car keys and then he goes and accidentally kills the assassin but saves fart he saved my life what I'm in great pain don't do it the second half of the story we start finding out that the act of saving that life is gonna cost a lot of other people they're alive your choices I did the right thing we pass a return threshold getting fart to his portal miss you we will be back flail cleansing at which point Morty realizes that saving farts life is gonna cost all carbon-based life you said yourself that life must be protected too even through sacrifice so Morty makes the decision to change into someone who's willing to kill just just just because it's a bad show it's a bad show for kids well look at this fella aren't you handsome thank you I'm Jerry oh I know you are the Jerry story in the same episode Jerry resents being left in Jerry daycare he wishes he was special worth more than that but he does cross the threshold into surrendering to Jerry day care because he has no choice he's a pretty ineffective guy when he resists he spends some time adapting to Jerry day care then he finds out he may be there forever he is angry about that so he tries leaving I'm leaving finds out and can't function in a larger universe so he goes back to Jerry daycare and is now changed not gonna put up that much of a fuss when Rick comes to pick him up also he may be literally changed because he may have gotten swapped with a different Jerry and will never know [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Adult Swim

Views: 232,992

Rating: 4.9649391 out of 5

Keywords: rick and morty, adult swim, dan harmon, story circle, hero's journey, rick and morty season 4, mortynight run, rick sanchez, morty smith, oh mama, goodbye moonmen, pickle rick

Id: RG4WcRAgm7Y

Length: 3min 21sec (201 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/triangleplayingfool]

The episode in the final season where he rips the piss out of the story circle is hilarious. Him and Justin are on a whole new level.

Edit: a name Edit: The same name! Ha.

[u/futurespacecadet]

This is awesome. Do most episodic shows follow this sort of structure? I feel like having known it now, things could get predictable and tired, yet when you can turn expectations on their head and mask what is actually happening under layers of character development and interesting plot like Rick and Morty does, the circle structure fades away and you don’t see the strings as much. Maybe that is the sign of good writing?

[u/Kronschnabel]

Dan has a series of blog posts on this if anyone wants a deeper look at the theory and stuff he’s referring to

https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_Basic_Shit

[u/nastytuna]

This is a treasure every time i see it

[u/dwhamz]

I'm sure I'll get downvoted but I still think it's wild that everyone on this sub credits Dan Harmon with teaching them the "story circle" and not like screenwriting 101

[u/SkinnieSumthin]

Wow, I've never seen this on this page before

[u/Extravagant-40]

Someone that I know recommend a article that talked about this to me before the video, and now that I think about it, would this also go under video games too? or just for episodic stories such as this?

[u/Hoonta-Of-Hoontas]

this is a more simplified 'hero's journey' of Joseph Campbell.

[u/Helter_Skelet0n]

Might just be me, but I always struggle with the second half of the circle. The 'find' & 'take' part is especially confusing to me. The 'take' part in some instances is changed to 'pay a heavy price'. I mean, huh? It just kinda falls apart for me at that point.

If anybody can clear this up, would be helpful. Examples would be great, cause Dan's in the video weren't good.