Lesson 14

[Margaret]

Margaret Delivers Irony!

What I learned: I created a prompt I can use A.I. to discover opportunities for irony in my script.

Irony in my Script:

1. Irony of Deception as Protection
• Opposite Experience: The Nazi’s belief in order and control vs. the chaos of resistance
• Ironic Twist: Lise, known for talking too much, becomes the most effective spy precisely because of her ability to chatter and distract
• Insight: Sometimes our perceived weakness can be our greatest strength
• Example: When the Nazi officer comes to inspect the doll, Lise’s endless talking saves Suzanne, turning her talkative nature from a potential liability into a crucial survival skill

2. Irony of Identity and Sacrifice
• Opposite Experience: Margot’s initial reluctance vs. her eventual commitment to the resistance
• Ironic Twist: She begins by feeling too old and incapable, but becomes a critical link in saving Jewish children
• Insight: Purpose often finds us when we least expect it
• Example: The scene where Margot rips off the button to protect the message, demonstrating her transformation from hesitant grandmother to courageous resistance member

3. Irony of Familial Betrayal
• Opposite Experience: Klaus’s loyalty to the Nazi regime vs. his mother Helene’s resistance work
• Ironic Twist: The son who seeks to expose and arrest resistance members is unknowingly thwarted by the very people he’s trying to catch
• Insight: Family bonds can be more complex than political allegiances
• Example: The scene where Klaus plants a spy in the sewing circle, believing he’s protecting the system, but actually helping the resistance adapt and continue their work

4. Irony of Religious Collaboration
• Opposite Experience: Different religious backgrounds (Catholic and Calvinist) uniting against a common enemy
• Ironic Twist: The very system that often divides people becomes the means of their unified resistance
• Insight: Shared moral courage transcends religious differences
• Example: The use of biblical quotes to justify and encourage their resistance work, showing how faith becomes a unifying force in the face of oppression

5. Irony of the Seemingly Weak Becoming Powerful
• Opposite Experience: Elderly women seen as harmless vs. their critical role in a dangerous resistance network
• Ironic Twist: Those least expected to fight become the most effective agents of change
• Insight: Underestimation can be a powerful tactical advantage
• Example: Marie-Claude’s ability to feign dementia to avoid Nazi detection, while simultaneously being the brilliant mastermind behind the resistance’s communication code

[Paul Penley]

Paul P's, Delivering Irony

What I learned: This excersize opened up a few scenes and allowed me to build them better. .

With your list of the New Ways / Insights you want audiences to experience, go through these steps:

1. Irony – using Motivation to get a desired outcome fails.
Step 1. What is the New Way / Insight you want to deliver?
Lord Turin motivated Johnny to kill his brother with a position of General in his Army of doom/ Family is more important than status.

Step 2. How could you deliver that insight through opposite experiences?
Instead of trying to kill eachother the two brothers destroy the Mission and burn down the town.

2. Irony – Greed
Step 1. What is the New Way / Insight you want to deliver?
The Outlaws go to the mission to recover their stolen gold. / They depart the mission with something more valuable. ( their souls )

Step 2. How could you deliver that insight through opposite experiences?
The Angels have set the mission up for recruiting soldiers for their demon army. They didn't expect the outlaws to fight back and destroy their mission and their plans to destroy mankind.

3. Irony – Jesus died to rise again and save the world.

Step 1. Where could you build opposite experiences into your screenplay?
BIlly has to die and be born again to become a skin walker. Lupo makes a joke out of BIlly dying.

Step 2. What is the New Way / Insight you want to deliver through them?
Billy must be reborn in order to fight his way out of Hell and defeat the Angels. / You must shed your old skin in order to grow into what you need to become.

4. Irony- Motivation/ Revenge
Step 1. Where could you build opposite experiences into your screenplay?
Johnny has devoted himself to revenge against the angel that killed his father.

Step 2. What is the New Way / Insight you want to deliver through them?
Johnny dies realizing that his brother's life was more important than revenging his father. / Life is more important than revenge.

5. Irony -Is Immortality a gift or a curse?

Step 1. What is the New Way / Insight you want to deliver?
The Angels promise their future prospects the gilft of Immortality if they kill their way to the top.

Step 2. How could you deliver that insight through opposite experiences?
The immortality that the Angels deliver is one of a living hell that cannot be escaped unless they are burned, or killed with salt, iron or wood.

• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by  Paul Penley.

[Jennifer Quintenz-Berry]

Jenn Delivers Irony!

What I learned doing this assignment is: This is a good way to look at all pivotal moments of the script to see if irony could heighten the moment. I think it could also be a good way to look at every scene. Not that it has to be present in every scene, but if you take the time to run every scene through this exercise, you might discover new and powerful moments you would otherwise have missed.

New Ways/Insights:
Love and Loss Are Intertwined, but They Give Life Meaning
True Love Isn’t Just About Holding On; It’s About Recognizing When Letting Go Is the Most Loving Choice
No One Can Live My Life for Me
What If Everything Happens for a Reason?
Vulnerability Builds Connection

Irony Delivers Insight:
A curse becomes a blessing
In a low moment, Taylor breaks down and calls her time-travel lapses a curse. Riaz delivers a powerful counterargument, saying, “I don’t think so. These lapses are taking you back to moments you deeply regret, moments you’ve lived over and over in your head, wondering “what if” you’d done something differently. They’re providing a roadmap to traumatic moments you need to work through.” Taylor, “what are you saying?” Riaz: “They’re not a curse. They’re a blessing. You can’t fix something unless you know where it’s broken.” Riaz means it as addressing the root of the trauma, but it becomes even truer when Taylor realizes she can use the lapses to save Sydney from dying in the first place. What Taylor believes is the source of her suffering—her lapses—becomes the tool that allows her to rewrite the past and save Sydney.
Insight: Everything happens for a reason. What feels like a curse may actually be a gift in disguise.

A rescue that becomes a rejection
After the terrifying lapse where Taylor nearly dies, Strove and Riaz insist that she must take medication to suppress her emotions in order to prevent another lapse that will most likely kill her. Taylor refuses, shattering the vial of medication. She has a purpose now, and she has to see it through, even though neither of her doctors understands.
Insight: No one can live Taylor’s life for her; she alone must take control of her fate.

Strength to face Carrie’s death comes from asking Carrie for advice.
Taylor has finally learned to let people in again, and she learns Carrie is dying. At first she’s pissed that Carrie didn’t tell her before this—but then she realizes she wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on Carrie’s friendship. She goes to see Carrie in the ICU and asks her how she survived after her husband (and best friend) died so many years ago. Carrie knows that Taylor is asking how she’s supposed to survive losing Carrie, but Carrie gives her the advice she needs to hear.
Insight: Vulnerability builds connection—Taylor discovers unexpected strength and deepens her relationships by letting people in.

A farewell that leads to a reunion
Taylor succeeds in going back in time to save Sydney from dying in the car crash. For a fleeting moment, they share a heartwarming reunion. Sydney, alive and unaware of what Taylor has sacrificed, hugs her and says something joyful like, “I knew we’d get through anything, Tay.” Taylor has saved Sydney but realizes that by altering the timeline, she will disappear or be erased from her current reality (a “death” of her own). Saving Sydney means losing herself.
Insight: Love and loss coexist—Taylor gives up her own existence because the meaning of her life is tied to saving Sydney.

An intimate moment that leads to separation.
After a serious lapse, Riaz looks almost panicked. He notes the physical toll these lapses are taking on her body, and brushes her hair back from her face. She instinctively feels comforted by his care, taking his hand. He quickly shifts gears, creating an emotional distance by calling her “Ms. Donlan.” In this moment of close physical proximity, Riaz pulls back emotionally, in an effort to curtail his own budding feelings.
Insight: Vulnerability leads to stronger connection.

~ end

[Mark Roeder]

Mark Roeder Delivers Irony!

What I learned doing this assignment is to put two opposite experiences together to create irony and deliver insights. I discovered new insights like one where Rosemary learns she can understand Kyo’s chirps as clear as English as she finally mothers him and believes he is the Promised Panda that will stop the invasion, before she hears him trigger the alien panda invasion.

1. Insights: Blaze filmed the alien pandas inseminating Rosemary/Blaze believed Rosemary was destined to be the mother of the Promised Panda

Lena tells Rosemary Blaze filmed the pandas inseminating Rosemary. He didn’t stop it because he believed she would be the mother of the promised panda. It was a glorious experience for Blaze, while Rosemary was suffering.

2. Insights: Incisor inseminated Rosemary/Lena betrays Blaze

Lena shows Rosemary Blaze’s footage of Blaze’s wife’s hybrid panda/human son squeaking. That’s when Blaze hallucinated and heard him say the mother of the Promised Panda would be a panda preserver who hates pandas, which is Rosemary. Lena asks Rosemary if the hybrid’s chirps and growls sound like English to her. Does it sound like he’s saying your son is the Promised Panda that will stop the invasion?

Lena doesn’t believe this nonsense about Kyo being the promised panda and asks why Rosemary left him alive. She makes a special deal with Rosemary to take care of Kyo while Rosemary watches the footage of the alien pandas experimenting on her.

As Rosemary watches it, it triggers flashbacks and becomes clear in the flashbacks and the footage that Incisor inseminated her.

Kyo’s heard whimpering. Rosemary goes into a trance with the flashbacks. Something triggered.

Then she wakes up. Goes into other room and sees Lena killing Kyo, maybe strangling him, or about to euthanize him, and she kills Lena to save Kyo.

As Lena lies dying, she says the pandas all need to die. You don’t know what you’ve done.

(This is a special deal that turns out to be worthless)

3. Insight: Kyo stowed away with Rosemary

Incisor, the scarred panda, knocks Rosemary to the ground. She swings her syringe at him, but he kicks it out of her hand.

Incisor steps on Rosemary’s syringe, destroying it, She opens her backpack. Kyo pops out. Leaps on her. She’s freaked, throws him off. Then laughs. Stowaway!

When Incisor sees Kyo he leaps for joy. Kyo looks at him in fear and awe, maybe love and fear and hides behind Rosemary. Incisor sees Kyo cuddle her, and runs away.

She reaches in her backpack for a syringe, but sees Kyo stomping on them. Crushing them all. Looks at him in anger.
(She got her need, Kyo, and a chance to be his mother, but lost her want, to kill Incisor.)

4. Insight: Rosemary understands her son’s alien panda language

Rosemary cooks Kyo bamboo soup. He chirps and she hears him say “peel the shoots first” and she does. He tries some. “I like Blaze’s better.” Oh, you do. Do you. It’s not even done yet. They need to boil more. Wait, I understood you.

(She gives up on the dream of joining Blaze’s team and fighting aliens, but she pleases her son Kyo.)

5. Insight: Kyo sends a signal to trigger the alien panda invasion

Rosemary brings Kyo soup and overhears him send a signal to Incisor and alien pandas to attack while humans are vulnerable. She understands what he says.

She throws the soup on him. Burns him.

(Now that she decides to be a mother and believes he is the Promised Panda that will stop the invasion, and even comes to understand his language and bond with him, Kyo sends a signal to trigger the invasion.)

6. Insight: Kyo was created to trigger the invasion

Rosemary watches the doc of Blaze’s hybrid roaring and now understands what he says: Kyo, the first full panda born to a human, is destined to start the invasion. To trigger it.

Blaze says he’s the promised panda that will stop the invasion, but she understands that he was created to trigger the invasion.

No: he’s the promised panda. He’ll stop the creation. Incisor created him to trigger the invasion. You heard what you wanted to hear in your hallucination. The reality is he’s here to trigger it. And he did.

Aliens attack. Lasers hit. Women fly into the air. It’s happening all over the world, all over China, all over the world.

Rosemary: he did this. Your promised panda began the invasion.

[margo meck]

Margo Delivers Irony!

What I learned doing this assignment is…?” That I don’t “get” irony. Even with Hal’s description and examples, I struggled coming up with these examples and they might not even be true irony.

Insight I want the audience to experience – Things aren’t always what you think they are.

1 Deal: Brandi’s friend dares her to have her DNA tested to find out who her father is. She finds her father alright, but finds he is her uncle.

2 Credit (but I changed it to Blame): Brandi is on a go-fer errand for her boss. Her ex-fiancé puts a hole in her bicycle tire which makes her late and she gets chewed out for not doing her job.

3 Credit (but I changed it to Blame): Brandi blames her mother for intentional incest with her brother, but we find out her mother was gang-raped while she was unconscious and she didn’t know who the father was.

4 Identity: As Brandi wins more competitions and comes into her own, her relationship with her mother goes south; that is, she loses sight of what’s important.

5 Deal: Brandi’s coach enters her into her first competition against her wishes. But she goes along with it. To everyone’s surprise including her own, she places in the competition. She is better than anyone thought (except her coach).