this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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I feel like every story has a plot hole.

Especially time travel stories, none of them ever has a consistant rule of time travel.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

TBH, most fiction have 0 plot holes. Most people who use the term 'plot hole' in commentary on the internet are using it incorrectly. They tend to use it to mean "something happens which I personally dislike or don't understand" rather than it's real meaning, "something that directly contradicts previous plot points and leads to a logical inconsistency." That is, it's only a plot hole if it literally cannot happen because it would negate some other plot element.

A character making a decision that feels out of character isn't a plot hole. Someone not choosing to use the sci-fi magic tech to solve a problem when it exists in-universe isn't a plot hole. It might be bad writing. But it's not a logical inconsistency.

A plot hole would be something like a plot point centering around a character's illiteracy (in a manner where it's clear they're not faking) after a scene where the character is shown reading.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

One of the biggest ones in mystery is “Why didn’t X simply Y”

They can literally just be stupid. Or ego driven. Etc.

There’s a great series of mystery games where the final villain even admits this exactly. He found evidence of a murder plot against the sister of his dead girlfriend, and instead of reporting it or detaining those involved, he let it almost happen. It was literally all so he could feel like a hero saving them at the last second, and he says as much directly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

It can also be bad writing. Like, an author can just write inconsistent characters. That doesn't mean it's a plot hole.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Blade Runner 2049 doesn't seem to contradict itself or the original.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago

Ex-wife and I saw that in a theater by ourselves. Not another human came or went. What an experience.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

Closest I can think of is the magnet thing in the season 5 pilot would definitely not work IRL

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Nobody has called for Quentin yet?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago

Quentin! Oh Quentin Darling! Be a dear and bring me some of that white dudes dropping the hard r.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 17 hours ago

Primer is a time travel movie with no plot holes. But I don't think you're looking for plot holes, there are plenty of movies, even time traveling ones, that don't have plot holes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 18 hours ago

ITT: Edgar Wright movies

[–] [email protected] 21 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (2 children)

First, we have to agree on what a plot hole is.

My definition of a plot hole in a story is something that simply can not happen given the existing rules of the story, or something which could only happen in an unexplained and if not literally impossible than at least so unlikely it is practically impossible way that defies everything else we know about the story.

This would be an item inexplicably jumping locations, a character having knowledge they could not possibly have, or a character or item being in two places at once. Things like that which gnarl the story.

What it isn't: A character making a bad decision, a character acting unusual (even to the point of acting out of character- that can be bad writing, but not a plot hole), a character forgetting something, a plot contrivance, an unlikely coincidence, something being unrealistic but consistent within the context of the story.

I commonly see poorly written scenes, or scenes where someone thinks a character was acting irrationally, or scientific or legal or other plot points that are intentionally written to serve the story described as plot holes.

With that description, I'd say quite a great number of works of fiction don't have plot holes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

A character acting out of character may not technically be a plot hole, but for the consumer of the media, it is tantamount to the same thing. The character's previous characterization is equivalent to "the existing rules of the story".

Not to say that characters cannot change, but you can tell when a character suddenly does something out of character simply because the author decided that some event has to happen for the plot to work, and it makes the plot seem impossible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

Yeah, say you have a story about Gandhi, and in act 3 he stabs a British soldier in the neck, and chomps on a hamburger. I'd call that a plot hole, even if the events are entirely possible.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago

I 100% agree with this.

One of the classic examples often given (and one of the top results if you search for "famous plot holes") is from The Lord of the Rings. "Why don't the Eagles just fly them to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring, allowing them to bypass all the trouble getting there?" It's often cited as a well-known plot hole and given as an example to define what a plot hole is.

Yet it's not a plot hole at all. It's just characters making decisions the reader might not agree with.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 20 hours ago

Shrek, of course

[–] [email protected] 22 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Real life is riddled with plot holes, you cant expect a work of fiction to be perfect.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

By definition, no it's not. If it's a thing that can actually physically happen, it's, by definition, not a plot hole.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

"Wait a minute, so you expect me to believe a politician blatantly and openly do corrupt things and still won over the voters? Twice?" 🤣

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

Perfect example, if it was a book people would tell you no one could be that dumb.

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