So, here's the scene. MC and brat in a magic school setting fight. Mc challenged brat because brat insulted MCs sister. Brat sets the rules to no magic, just bare handed fighting. MC loses.
Part of the fight was, if I win, you leave the school. However, there were no time constraints on that, so the MC says. "I have obligations. I will leave at the end of the semester in three weeks. Then never return.
The brat is a little confused., but agrees. He assumes the MC is just trying to save face. He can't imagine the MC actually leaving. He was expecting the MC to beg to stay.
Then everyone finds out he went to the headmaster and dropped out of the school. It will be his last semester.
Now, at first the brat is happy, but quickly finds out that everyone the MC helped now Hates the brat. The MC has been working with the crown advancing the science and magic studies of the country so now they are afraid of losing the most powerful elementalist they have to another country.
A lot of people was the brat to drop the bet, but the MC will honor the bet, no matter what. He agreed. He lost. The only thing the MC has that is his own is his word, so he won't back down on leaving.
He won't accept a rematch, because he can't be sure the brat won't throw the fight. He won't change the terms of the bet, because he's not a cheater.
Given this situation, under what conditions do you think the MC could be convinced to stay, because a METRIC TON of people get screwed by the mc leaving the school, including the badguy.
I'm okay with the story going south, but I was just trying to think of a way out of this and I'm drawing a blank.
Thoughts?
This one's actually quite easy. Don't. As in, don't reverse it. You did not write yourself into a corner or screw over a bunch of people by having him drop out, you actually saved your story from falling into a bad trope that has never made sense since it's inception.
If he's actually smart enough to advance the magic science studies of the country and is the most powerful elementalist they have, then he shouldn't be a student at their school in the first place. Why's he a student at the school if he's that awesome? What does he have to learn from them? Is it just because of some kind of convention or tradition that he's there? It doesn't actually make sense for him to be in school at all.
Just have the crown offer him a position as a court magician and royal scientist, assign him as an apprentice under a senior mage to shore up any minor areas he may be lacking in due to his early withdraw from school, and then play off his leaving the school as an early graduation in recognition for his skills.
Extra points for the brat getting crapped on by fellow students for forcing this situation, but it removes any larger political entities as the brat's enemies, which would have really made for a strange and difficult to believe scenario in your story.
I mean, maybe those political entities will still look down on him. It is in the nature of nobles to have their ear to the ground for gossip, and if the MC continues making major accomplishments after getting out of school, the MC's success will result in an equal and opposite reaction blowing back on the brat as nobles start giving him the cold shoulder as they see him as an enemy to the MC. That could also make for an interesting re-emergence of the brat villain trope, this one actually somewhat understandable since it can be completely justified that the MC's success really IS a big part of the reason the brat's life sucks here.
I start at the end and work my way backwards. There are 3 acts, 6 plot lines, and 18 key scenes.
You seem to think that Fx is more important than the spirit of a scene.
Err... wait, what? You're claiming to be a plotter here, but you wrote yourself into this kind of corner?
I'm sorry, but I don't think these two follow together all that well. I was assuming you were a pantser when you described your problem, but if you're claiming to be a plotter now, then I think you might need to re-think your process a bit. Plotters are not supposed to have these kinds of problems... unless you're saying you haven't even started writing the story yet and this is still part of your outlining phase.
