Lie Truth Pairs (aka Motivations)

Lie/Truth Pairs via Trauma/Aspect Pairs

Rootless-Ability

• LIE: I need to keep running, and as long as I’m good at X, and X can finance (and help) my running, I can keep running and never face my past, my home, my roots.
• TRUTH: I need to face my past and be OK with what happened, stop running and face my demons. I need to realize that I’ve been running out of fear, out of this constant threat and until I’ve faced it, I will always feel insecure and afraid. OR: I need to realize my perception of the people I left behind, the people who are waiting for me back home, the reason I left was wrong. That there was a misunderstanding. That I need to stop punishing myself. That I was angry for the wrong reasons. That I was lying to myself to justify me running away. That maybe I just need to accept my past and I came from a shameful background (or not – e.g. Great Gatsby/Don Draper).
• The ability the Prot gets really good at in this MTVN tends to be something that helps them mask. It’s either performative (musician, actor) or removed (salesperson, marketer), or translocated/diverted (doctor, guardian, samurai). It’s a skill set where they get fed by attention and importance and never have to deal with their own trauma. They’re trying to fix others, impress others, help others, but always at a distance. ↩

Rootless-Loyalties

• LIE: I have no home, my crew/gang/band/tribe/team that I travel with in my rootless existence is my family and home. They are my everything. We’re a team of weird loners who look out for each other.
• TRUTH: My surrogate family is great, but it will never fill the hole I have from whatever it is that made me run away from home in the first place. I am the estranged child/parent/guardian figure that needs to go home and make things right eventually. Or apologize. Or accept my past. Or admit I’m running because I actually love being on the run more than being responsible to my family at home. And until I do, my adopted family will always be slightly toxic and/or never fully vulnerable and a true family.
• Each and every member in this crew probably has past they need to deal with before they can truly be a family. I’m thinking Cowboy Bebop (both Spike and Faye are running away from a past), I forget what Jet had. Did he have a dead wife trope? At a smaller two-person scale, Gravity (2013). Sandra Bullock’s character ran all the way up into space to numb herself from the pain of losing her daughter. Starlord realizes who his real father figure is in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). Could we argue that Angel (1999-2004) works here too? They make Los Angeles their home, but it’s really each other they made home, and they all have a “past home” they need to deal with. Or is that in a different GST/STS/ARC? ↩

Rootless-Status

• LIE: My status and power as a freelancer, mercenary, travelling non-committed free agent gives me a lot more value than if I were to commit to one place/client. I see more of the world, the market competition, I get to taste a bit of everything, a variety of things, I can bring all this varying knowledge to bear. I would never be able to do this if I had stayed home.
• TRUTH: Being a part of a team or family is actually something I actually want. To be loved and feel accepted and to have a place call home. But the last one didn’t end well. ↩

Rootless-Identity

• LIE: Being a restless wanderer is who I AM. I never wanted anything more than to go from place to place and experience a diversity of life, culture, people. What’s the point of having a single home with the same people? I am doing X work, and X is most important.
• TRUTH: Doing X work is actually wearing me down, but I don’t know what else to do with my life. X is who I am. How do I switch to a new X? (e.g. Up in the Air (2009)) ↩

Prison-Ability

• LIE: I need to stay constantly VIGILANT of all potential dangers to my loved ones in my castle. I must pay attention to all security measures, protocol, and resources. Making sure they’re never harmed. Making sure they’re well trained. Making sure I’m the best I can be. Making sure we have enough food/water/supplies during a siege/crisis. If I don’t, all my loved ones will die and/or be harmed.
• TRUTH: I’m actually a paranoid freak who is harming the people I love. The work I’m doing is actually a net-negative and I’m not allowing them to learn on their own and I’m pushing away people. I actually need to deal with my fear and insecurity or I’ll burn out with my obsessiveness. ↩

Prison-Loyalties

• LIE: I need to PROTECT my loved ones from the dangers outside. They are all under my protection and I can’t let them down. I will lie to them to ensure they are kept safe, to keep them close to me, to protect them from the dangers outside. I need to build walls, barriers, and security systems around them. Manage their relationships. Create access codes.
• TRUTH: I’m not really protecting them so much as ensuring everything stays the same. I might be stifling my people and preventing them from growing up and learning, I might be simply scared of letting them go. I may also be afraid of them facing the same trauma I did of losing their home. This home I built is safe and secure, they should appreciate it! ↩

Prison-Status

• LIE: I need to maintain the STATUS QUO, otherwise, everything will fall apart. This current power structure works. Why mess with it? It’s not that I’m king of the castle, even though I am, it’s more that with this power, I am protecting my people from the dangers outside. We must stick to the rules and protocols I’ve built. There’s a possibility I don’t really care about the people under my position either. The only think I worship are security protocols. If you break the rules, you’re on your own.
• TRUTH: The rules were really something I’m leaning on as a crutch because it’s the only way I can control this chaos. I’m sorry I’m implemented it on everyone else. But I can’t let go of how life without rules went off the rails and there are people dead in my past because of broken or lack of rules. ↩

Prison-Identity

• LIE: Being hyper-vigilant is what I am. There are always threats, external and internal, and protecting this land, this territory, these people is what I do.
• TRUTH: Either “nobody ever asked you and you brought this on yourself” or “you don’t have to do it all by yourself and be this martyr about it”. A good DSR would be to take away their land/home and force them to go somewhere without something to protect. Getting Jack Shepherd from Lost (2004-2010) vibes here. Or Iron Man 2 (2010). If they wrap their entire identity around proteching a place and they no longer have to anymore, who are they? ↩

LoneWolf-Ability

• LIE: I don’t need anybody else. Everyone else is more incompetent than I am. I need to keep everyone at arm’s length. I’m good at what I do, others are incompetent.
• TRUTH: What they do actually requires a team and that team who’s been abused, for better or worse, are their family. They need to drop the ego to recognize the value of people around them. ↩

LoneWolf-Loyalties

• LIE: I can’t commit to one social network. I need to be everywhere and nowhere. I have groups/people I can run to when I overstay my welcome. I have groups/people fight for my attention. This is how I control them.
• TRUTH: I’ve left a trail of broken relationships, estranged children/spouses/colleagues, abandoned/neglected children/spouses/colleagues behind and I’m actually really lonely and exhausted with this juggling. I actually need to either consolidate my social networks or pick one. ↩

LoneWolf-Status

• LIE: It’s my job to parachute in and save you. I’m the best at what I do. I do what I do, I get paid, I leave.
• TRUTH: You’re a jerk and everyone puts up with you because, yes, you’re good at what you do, but the moment we can get rid of you, we will. You are a tool. A very useful tool, but a tool. Will we use you for “one last job” each and every time? Yes. People who get attached to you just get hurt. ↩

LoneWolf-Identity

• LIE: Being alone is who I AM. I am doing this to protect others from me. I am an asshole, unserious, or curmudgeon because I’ve hurt people and I’ve betrayed them, and people who get close to me get hurt. So just leave me alone.
• TRUTH: There was a time when I connected to people. There was a time I trusted people and people loved me back. Those people are gone now. I have settled with being alone. But maybe. Just maybe there’s someone who will break through this exterior and I’ll remember (e.g. Up (2009)). ↩

Famiglia-Ability

• LIE: I will do anything to keep my family together and that includes dirty tricks like playing them against each other, guilt trips, gaslighitng, creating drama triangles, sending mixed messages, withold love on conditions, and ignoring all boundaries. I do this because I LOVE THEM and believe us being together is ALWAYS better than not. The external enemies are out to get us.
• TRUTH: It’s toxic as fuck and you’re pushing everyone away but you don’t see it. You blame the breakdown of society and loss of family values on this, when you truth, you’re just a horrible person. Maybe you were abused and exploited in the same way and maybe you didn’t have the resources to leave, the courage, or culturally, you would’ve been a pariah in a different time. ↩

Famiglia-Loyalties

• LIE: I will follow my family NO MATTER WHAT. They gave me everything, my life, my identity, my materail possessions. I don’t care if it’s toxic. Managing and dealing with them is part of the deal. They are my XXX.
• TRUTH: They are toxic, abusive, and taking advantage of you in a way that’s so negative that you don’t even see it. You need to walk away. ↩

Famiglia-Status

• LIE: As the patriach/matriach/inheritor, there are responsibilities I must fulfil. Of course, it comes with benefits (control and inheritance), but I’m doing it to fulfil my role as XYZ.
• TRUTH: Has it occured to you that the position itself doesn’t confer the loyalties you think comes with it built-in? Has it occurred to you that you still need to earn your position? The position of XYZ itself doesn’t give you carte blanche to act the way you do. OR – do you only see this position as a job? And what happens when your kids are grown up? Do you just stop? Do you quit and estrange yourself if it gets too hard? ↩

Famiglia-Identity

• LIE: I am the patriach/matriach/inheritor. I do XYZ. I have always done XYZ for my family, and when XX dies, I will step into that role to do XYZ. You do not question who I am.
• TRUTH: But do you really have to be that identity? Do you really have to step into the role? Do you have to follow in their footsteps? Is this a reputation thing or blind allegiance to a bloodline, or what? Why are you so hung up on this tradition that goes back multiple generations? Can you let go of this role? Is being a black sheep too much of a burden? Can you make it your own? ↩

Outsider-Ability

• LIE: The skills I have don’t fit inside the hegemonic system/institution/organization/group/government (insiders). I will never be a part of their group. They may hire. They may even put on a semblance of friendship because I’m really good at what I do, but at the end of the day they will close ranks and close the doors behind them.
• TRUTH: Either you’re pining to be part of something you can never be and you need to accept that. OR you accept that this division is something you need to spend your life tearing down for future generations OR you’ve created a us/them scenario that simply doesn’t exist and you need to calm the fuck down and/or realize that your abilities isn’t your identity and people actually like you for who you are.. This is all story dependent. The first and second one are real life scenarios where prejudices thrive. The first is unbridgeable, second one is, third is inner struggles. ↩

Outsider-Loyalties

• LIE: The system/“insiders” left me out in the cold, but I now have a found family of survivors who took me in and/or that’s what makes our “outsider group” (cultural/race/minority) stick together. I will die for them because they would do the same for me.
• TRUTH: Your outsider group isn’t actually loyal to you and the power dynamics that happen there are just as bad, if not worse, or a different flavor from the inside/outside prejudices you face. In fact, if the setting is where the insiders have more privlieges, then the outsider-on-outsider prejudices might be more judgemental and critical. OR are you actually loyal to the person or the cause. You can be both, but a fun reveal could be the character realizing it’s more one than the other in the LOW. OR you actually test the character to see if they would indeed die for their cause/leader. ↩

Outsider-Status

• LIE: It is my job to resist (organize, rally, set up communication lines, get funding, root out traitors, drive the vision, whatever). We have a common enemy to fight and there is work that needs to be done.
• TRUTH: What happens if you lose? Or win? What happens when you catch the car? What happens if you get betrayed? What happens if you get recruited from the insiders/system? What do you do with your life when you can no longer lean on the job you think defines you and your trauma? The greatest threat to the outsider’s status is when the rebellion is over. Their job and all the accountrements that come with it ends, ↩

Outsider-Identity

• LIE: Being an outsider is my identity. I am a misfit, a weirdo, a rebel. Fight the system. Stick it to the man. I will never work inside this capitalist structure and be an artist, man.
• TRUTH: You grow up. You either realize the system is all encompassing and you simply be a slave to it and you vent on social media about it, OR you get crushed and develop a victim mentality about it, OR you realize you’re holding on to the identity of the outsider more than what you actually hate. You don’t even have causes anymore. You just hate the insiders or love being an outsider. ↩

Climb-Ability

• LIE: I play the game and I’m good at it because it’s the only game in time. I say shit like “don’t hate the player, hate the game”. I know exactly what rules to break, which ones to bend, and which ones to follow in order to move up on the ladder.
• TRUTH: Either realizing the game is destructive, exploitative, or abusive and leaving the game OR realizing the game will never love you back nor even reward you for what you need OR that as good as you are, the game will never give you the highest positions because of WHO you are and not HOW WELL you play. ↩

Climb-Loyalties

• LIE: I need to be loyal to the right people in order to get ahead, even if they’re a sinking ship.
• TRUTH: I either go down with them as a sacrifice or know the game well enough to switch sides at exactly the right moment without being dragged down while getting a new patron. The game (and your survival) is everything. AND/OR it’s recognizing when you’ve committed yourself to the wrong person and knowing how to manage that without showing the world/game that you can’t handle mistakes like this. There are even times when betrayal is correct, but still nasty. (As I write this a month after Biden got ousted by his own party). ↩

Climb-Status

• LIE: The job and responsibilities I have in the game is everything. My job is clear. I do these things for power, I get the rewards of wealth, status, titles.
• TRUTH: But what’s the cost of this game? And are the rewards truly worth it? Maybe a simpler life is better. Why did you chase power so hard in the first place? What are you holding on to? ↩

Climb-Identity

• LIE: I am useful/productive to the system. This is what I was built for. Climbing, wielding, manipulating power is the only game. The game is everything.
• TRUTH: Lazy tropey one is for them to realize at their end of life that it was all for nothing (Rosebud) OR the game changes on them so much they’re irrelevant OR they realize they can take their experience/skills and transfer it to a different game that’s more fulfilling or helpful. ↩