6. Recognition
In the ancient world a favorite device for bringing about an emotionally charged reversal was a recognition scene, in which the disguised identity or secret relationship of a character is revealed, and the fortunes of the characters are reversed. These are scenes where long-lost lovers are united, where cruel tyrants realize they are about to execute their own sons, where the masked superheroes are unveiled, where the Prince puts the glass slipper on Cinderella's foot and realizes she's the girl of his dreams.
A mainstay of Robin Hood movies is a scene where King Richard, who has been creeping around England in disguise to see what's been going on in his absence, throws off his outer robe to reveal the rampant lions on his surcoat. Robin and all his men instantly recognize him as the King, falling to their knees in reverent awe. It represents a moment in the story when the tide decisively has turned.
A recognition scene makes a good climactic reversal when a character has been going around in disguise, like Tootsie or Mrs. Doubtjire. Often it represents the catastrophe of unmasking that the hero has dreaded but it also is the opportunity for emotional honesty and self-acceptance. That the apparent disaster turns out to be the means of dramatic fulfillment makes for a double reversal.
7. Romantic Reversals
A kind of current, like magnetic current or electric current, flows through the invisible lines that connect characters in stories and people in relationships. We feel a certain flow of energy with some people and want to be with them, and we can sense when the flow of energy is strangled, blocked, reversed, or completely cut off. We know when there is "good chemistry" or a "spark" between two actors in a romance, two buddies in a comedy, or two rivals in an adventure, and are disappointed when there isn't enough current flowing in a relationship. We feel something when the polarity of a friendship or romance reverses itself, flipping from a strong force of attraction to one of repulsion.
In stories of romance the two lovers may go through several cycles of reversal, alternating between attraction and repulsion or trust and suspicion, as in Hitchcock's romantic spy thrillers North by Northwest and Notorious, or movies like Body Heat, Casino, Fatal Attraction, etc. The romance may begin with attraction, based on noticing superficially similar tastes or sensing that the other person can supply the elements missing from one's personality. We perversely enjoy watching the reversal of this situation, as the lovers inevitably discover their partners are quite different than they first appeared and are temporarily driven apart. After several reversals of attraction and repulsion, the lovers usually end up in alignment, the forces within them lined up in harmonious energy that promotes their connectedness, unless of course you are portraying a tragic, doomed love affair.
On the other hand a love story might begin with initial repulsion and mistrust, which will gradually reverse itself to attraction as the lovers overcome their differences and discover common ground, although there may be several reversals of polarity and episodes of attraction and repulsion along the way.
8. Polarity and the Character Arc
One of the dependable polarized plot forms is the genre of buddy comedy/adventure, in which two mismatched heroes go through a two-tiered adventure together. On one level, the outer dimension, they are cops, spies, or ordinary people battling some external enemy, creating a polarized struggle between good and evil. But on another level, an inner or emotional dimension, they are in a polarized relationship with one another, usually turning on a sharp contrast in their lifestyles, philosophies, or background. They may want the same overall, external goal, but they go about it in wildly contrasting ways, generating conflict, drama, suspense, and humor through polarity. Examples include Trading Places, the Lethal Weapon series, Zoolander, the Rush Hour movies, etc.
These stories became formulaic in the 1980s and '90s, where I read a lot of them that studios like Disney and Fox were considering. However predictable they became, they were a fascinating laboratory for studying the myriad ways that writers deal with the kind of story they call a "two-hander," one that has two protagonists or heroes but in a polarized, antagonistic relationship with another.
The first written story we know of, the epic of Gilgamesh, is the prototype for all polarized buddy adventures to follow. A playboy king, Gilgamesh, is so out of control that his people pray to the gods to send someone to distract him. They send him a real challenge in the form of a huge wild man of the forest, Enkidu. They battle at first, become good friends, battle monsters together, and fully explore the polarity of two different kinds of manhood. The adventure takes a tragic and more noble turn at the death of Enkidu, which sends Gilgamesh on a spiritual quest for the elusive secret of immortality.
A polarized relationship, be it a friendship, partnership, alliance, or romance, allows for a full exploration of character as the two people, representing opposite ends of a spectrum of behavior, find their standards and habits intensely challenged by energy that is just the opposite of theirs, perhaps outgoing where theirs is shy and private, or highly organized where their lives are chaotic. Here is a partial list of possible polarities within a relationship. Entire stories could be built around each of these pairs of opposites. I'm sure you can think of many more.
THE DOCTRINE OF CHANGE
A polarized relationship of opposites may temporarily reach a state of equilibrium or balance, but most polarized systems don't stay balanced for very long. Energy is always flowing, creating change. One side of the polarity exerts force on the other. When a situation is extremely polarized, when the two sides have been driven out to their most extreme positions, there is a tendency for the polarity to reverse itself. According to the ancient Chinese philosophy of the I Ching, the doctrine of changes, things are always in the process of flowing into their opposites. Extreme idealists can turn into cynics, passionate lovers into cold-hearted haters. Abject cowards have the sleeping potential to become heroes, and many saints began as great sinners. This eternally changing feature of reality is described by the Taoist symbol of Yin and Yang, the two comma shapes flowing into one another, each with the seed of its opposite deep in its center.
The more polarized a system is, the more likely it is to reverse its polarity. This can happen little by little, in graduated stages, or it can come about catastrophically and all at once. Under the stimulus of conflict with a polarized opposite, a character will begin to oscillate, to swing like a pendulum, further away from the opposite at times, closer at other times. If the stimulus is continued to a certain tipping point, the character may flip polarity, and become temporarily aligned with the opposite pole.
The shy person, impacted repeatedly by an outgoing person, will retreat and advance, but if the stimulus continues, he or she will make a comical or dramatic reversal to experiment with the unfamiliar experience of being confident and highly social. Movies like The Nutty Professor or As Good as It Gets use this technique to explore the extremes of behavior and show us characters gradually and then drastically reversing their polarity.