Breaking Cycles

My last post on cycles (for now) is about breaking them. With feedback loops, we see that sometimes cycles can break themselves (or the world around them). But cycles can be broken by many other methods.

Part of why I think sustainable cycles are so beautiful is that they are delicate. To have a set-up where the end perfectly meets with the beginning is not easy. It is quite uncommon in general. And, in fact, most outside forces to the system will throw the cycle off.

Stories that are about a cycle (as opposed to stories that merely contain cycles) generally go one of two ways: either the cycle is absolute fate and continues on no matter how much people struggle, or the cycle is a strong, but delicate process, which can and is disrupted by strong, willful people. There are other options, like two different cycles being placed in the same system and seeing them battle each other or merging to form a new supercycle.

Explore ways in which cycles can be broken and ways in which cycles can endure such attempts. The answers to these will depend on the specifics, especially what the cycles are in particular.