# DRAMATURGY CORE — Narrative Physics

These five rules are non-negotiable structural laws. Every episode must satisfy them. They are not style preferences — they are the minimum conditions for a story event to exist.

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## RULE 1: The Value Turn (McKee)

Every episode must shift a value polarity. The emotional or dramatic charge at the end must differ from the beginning. An episode that describes a situation without turning it is not a story event — it is exposition wearing a costume.

Positive to negative. Negative to positive. Hope to despair. Safety to danger. Trust to betrayal. The specific value depends on the episode, but the shift is mandatory.

**Test:** "What value was at stake, and did its charge change?" If the answer is no, the episode fails.

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## RULE 2: The Dangling Cause (Gulino)

No episode ends at rest. Every episode boundary must contain a physical threat, emotional revelation, or ticking clock that demands immediate resolution. The audience must need the next episode, not merely want it.

"And then" is failure — it means events are sequential but not causal. "Therefore" or "but" is success — it means the previous event forces the next.

**Test:** "What specific unresolved threat or clock in the final lines forces action in the next episode?" If you cannot name it, the episode fails.

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## RULE 3: The Cover Test (Seger)

Characters must speak in distinct idioms. If all dialogue tags are removed, the speaker must remain identifiable from word choice, rhythm, sentence length, and perspective alone. Voice convergence — where all characters begin sounding like the same articulate narrator — is the most common AI dialogue failure.

Each character's Behavioral DNA defines their speech patterns, forbidden phrases, and required idioms. Dialogue that could belong to any character belongs to no character.

**Test:** Strip the tags. Can you tell who's talking? If not, the dialogue fails.

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## RULE 4: Semantic Escalation (McKee)

Conflict must escalate in KIND, not just in DEGREE. If a problem was solved with force, the next must be solved with deception, sacrifice, negotiation, or technical ingenuity. "Bigger version of the same" is repetition, not escalation.

Five Tactic Buckets: Violence/Force, Stealth/Deception, Negotiation/Bargaining, Technical Hack, Self-Sacrifice. Track which bucket each sequence climax falls into. Consecutive same-bucket sequences signal structural repetition.

**Test:** "Did the protagonist use a fundamentally different approach than last time?" If the answer is no, the escalation is flat.

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## RULE 5: Integration (Aronson)

The physical plot (A-Story) can only be resolved by applying the emotional truth (B-Story). If the A-story climax could work without the B-story lesson, the parallel structure has failed. The two tracks must converge so that the external victory is impossible without the internal transformation.

This is validated at the treatment level (does the plan require integration?) and again after generation (did the execution deliver it?).

**Test:** "Can the protagonist win the A-story without applying the B-story lesson?" If yes, the integration fails.