The Importance of Format in Novels

Marlin and Dory, I think would be the main relationship in a movie like Nemo. Marlin literally says in hanging in the whale at the end of act two, Nemo, you just can't do it. And she says to Marlin, but if nothing ever happens to him, nothing will ever happen to him. So often the main relationship is unwittingly, unknowingly carrying the solution for what has to shift this or that. What works for one person doesn't work for the next.