Idiot plot

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In literary criticism, an idiot plot is a fictional storyline which is "kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot", and where the story would quickly end, or possibly not even happen, if this were not the case. It is a narrative in which the conflict derives from the characters not recognizing or not being told key information that would resolve the conflict, often owing to plot contrivance. In such plots, the primary preventative of the conflict's resolution is the characters' constant avoidance of or obliviousness to said conflict throughout the plot, even if it was already obvious to the reader (or viewer). All of the characters in such a plot are dubbed "idiots" for their being too obtuse to quickly resolve the conflict.

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