The Balancing Act Plot???

This type of plot happens when the main character has to balance two lives/roles like a scale and has to decide for themselves which role suits them more along with other things that come with it. Will they choose side A or side B or will they try to choose both in the end somehow?

I am certain that there is a proper word for this trope yet I don’t know it and don’t feel like looking it up to see.

My Turn:

From Project Succession, the whole plot is Aeris playing two roles, a Knight and a Princess. The goal I intended for the plot was that Aeris works as a Knight and takes on a job where she ends up learning about her heritage and where her lineage is with the Thornwood Dynasty and her being a hybrid child is something she unravels more of. So, she has balance being a Knight and being a Thornwood princess while dealing with familial drama and scandals and a divided dynasty fighting for the throne and to unify everyone and everything. Aeris is simply balancing two roles and two lives which is going to be hard since she needs to decide between the two, both roles/lives are filled with wondrous things.

That is what I am planning to do. So, what about you all?
Is your character doing something similar to my Aeris or nothing like that at all? Will you write a story like that where you MC has to decide between option A, option B, or both?

Thoughts and feelings?

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Want to let me know if you have any? Explain in detail, if you can!

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I suppose Alma’s story could kind of fit with that trope. He is an A.I. so, he has to decide between being his own person and being the machine his creator expects him to be. He kind of walks the line for a long time, balancing between expectations of being subserviant and his own free will. This isn’t even resolved in the first book and will be an ongoing theme throughout the series.

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Yours sounds great!

This isn’t really something that has come up yet :sweat_smile:

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Come back when you do. :grin:

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I’ve never heard of this trope before, but I’d say no? One of my characters is a lazy good-for-nothing hedonist who doesn’t want to do anything at all with his life, except maybe leech off his brother, but he becomes a Hussar in order to be near the prince. The prince becomes a Hussar in order to be in a position to kill his uncle, who’s usurped the throne. Neither of them is really torn between roles, though. ( ^◡^)っ✂

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I think there is a better name and explanation for whatever this trope is supposed to be. This is all my thoughts and whatnot. So, I can’t be too sure if this is a trope or not, but I was wondering still.

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She can’t be a knight and a princess? What is stopping her from being a princess that fights her own battles?

If one life has to be secret from the other for some reason then I understand she’ll have to balance them. Kind of like Miley Stewart and Hannah Montana.


Jack Ogswold is like this. He’s a successful gallery owner until his old life catches up with him. He used to be a notorious murderous thief alongside his previous crime partner. The crime partner has escaped prison and hunted him down to expose and murder Jack. Now exposed as a sought-after criminal, Jack can no longer be a gallery owner (and con artist) as it endangers his friends and trusted colleagues, and could also put him in prison with a death sentence.

However, somewhere down the line and taking care of loose threads, he thinks he is able to put his past behind him once more and tries to get back into the art gallery business and being all charismatic again, but it doesn’t work out for him because his past comes to haunt him again.

So then Jack has an identity crisis and a mental breakdown. He has to decide who he wants to be and stop lying to everyone and to himself. In the end, who is Jack?

That’s the turning point in the story.

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She can? It’s just when she learns about her family history and lineage, it was while she was working as a Knight and ended up getting pulled into Thornwood Dynasty’s mess.

Aeris was supposed to take on a mission that will last for weeks to months, but winds up learning that she is royalty and has to fight to reclaim a throne she never knew. She is doing this while working undercover as a Knight and trying to do a job that ties in with what her family is going through.

So, Aeris is playing two roles, but she needs to figure out which one is most important to her later as the series progresses.

She’s fighting her own battles and fighting to understand her family’s secrets and problems.

Does that make sense or no?

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I think that Infernal Parade is going to be a story about balancing dreams and reality, and what happens when one leaks into another…

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And that is what again?

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It is an alternate translation for Night Parade of 100 Demons.

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Oh, that’s your story? Thanks for letting me know.

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:+1:

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So her family doesn’t know she is related to them? They just think she’s a knight serving them?

But in truth she’s related, and only she knows it, and is also looking to overthrow her family to create a better world?

Did I get that right? :stuck_out_tongue:

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No. Aeris doesn’t know that she is a princess or comes from royalty. She is a Knight from the Knighthood Union Alliance that serves the entire world of Alagossia, not her family.

Her family didn’t know she existed until she summoned Mal’gel and bear a royal crest in the form of a tattoo.

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No. She just want to know her family and learn about the truth behind the Succession Trial and more.

So, she is working as a Knight while learning about her royal heritage.

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So her family sees her summoning Mal’gel and sees the royal crest as a tattoo that appears on Aeris’ body, and think “omg, she’s related to us! what are we gonna do about it?”

So, how does Aeris find out that she’s a royal? Does her family tell her or do they keep it from her until she happens to find out somehow on her own?

Does her family want her to be part of the royal court or do they want to keep her away?

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Yes in a way, because only a Thornwood can summon Mal’gel.

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Does Aeris know this?

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