A Response to "The geography of story"

http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/93779 - In deference to the ideas of intelligent men.

Movement defined as any kind of progress whatsoever, I would say, is the key in writing a good story. Physical movement, I would say, is useless if the character is not moved by it. However, I do agree in part because making sure there is physical movement in a story would be at least a partial guarantor that there is that sort of movement that I assert is essential.

As for stories that do not have this kind of physical movement (I prefer displacement, that is, final location relative initial location; as opposed to distance traveled), I cite all of them . There is not one single story that I can think of where the character doesn't end where he started in some way. In Star Wars, Luke really started his journey with the rebel alliance, not on Tattooine, and he does end up back with the rebel alliance at the end of the series. In the Lord of the Rings Frodo and the hobbits return to the Shire. Ang returns to the Southern Air Temple, if you remember. Goku still lives in his grandpa's shack, albeit with an addition. The mane6 haven't moved out of their homes in two, going on three, years (I assume it's because they've paid down their mortgages already). Francheschina in the Dutch Courtesean and Tartuffe in Tartuffe, it is implied, both end up exactly where they started; in the whore house and prison. In short, every story ends where physically it began.
I see a criticism. 'But there are a great many books, plays and movies that do not end where they began'. Yes, and those we call book ones and part twos and middle sequels and act threes. They are, if you haven't guessed already, books, plays and movies that are not the end of the story. The main characters always want to go back home, if they have one. If a story actually ends with the hero not going home, or being unable to go home (I take Halo 3 as a very poorly written example), then it is not a story that can be considered over. These are stories, if you will, that the actual ending, that is, coming home, cannot be written or the writer does not know how to write it. There is always a tension when a character can't go home. After all, the only reason Frodo left the Shire was so that one day it would be safe for him come home to; it is miserable fate to him that he cannot stay, in the end. It is often true that one has to change, that someone's soul or mind has to go reside in a different place in order to be able to remain (physically) at home. A soldier must banish his naivete and have his soul travel from it's former country, innocence, in order to have the ability go out and protect his body's native land, so that he may return to that land and live there, presumably forever.
And that brings me to my final point that proves my argument finally. The goal is always to come home, that is, to get back to where you started. This is because home (if it is our true home) is good. In fact it is the best place to be, that is why it is called 'home'. The movement we see in stories is really a character progression whose end is to protect (physical) home, or return to it. This is most evident in stories concerning martial arts masters. They are at home, they are at peace, they are good people and their lives are therefore complete. But often they are attacked by ninjas and jealous emperors. These masters, then, are seen leaving the temple to fight the bad guys, but they fight them so that they may safely return to the temple in the end. The novice must leave the temple to bring his mind to knew knowledge in order to fight the bad guys, but this progression of character is all done so that he might be wise enough and strong enough to return to the temple.
Note that the mane6 are all good characters; that is why they can remain at home, and in fact why they start out at home, whereas many other characters do not. But that is a point for another post. In the mane6, though, we also see the proof that home, where we started, where we belong, is good (would you not want to live in Ponyville?) Therefore in FiM we must conclude that every time the ponies leave home it is to protect it, or to grow so that they can in the end return to it.
That Twilight ends up in her library, Spike beside her, and Rarity in her Boutique, at the end of every self contained MLP story, proves finally that physical movement is not the thing that's important. Another sort of movement is, but the truth about the topic at hand is that every story ends with the character being exactly where he started.