Balancing Coolness and Believability in Fiction

Daystar and Alexander discuss the Rule of Cool trope, and how rational fiction tries to create organically cool moments without sacrificing the story's integrity. Timestamps: 0:40 What is the Rule of Cool? Is it inherently good or bad? 5:45 Swords vs Guns, Lightsabers, Waif-Fu 11:07 Why avoid it in Rational Fiction? 13:00 Ways to minimize negatives of Rule of Cool 19:20 Breaking the world 26:40 Is it better to fully explore an idea, or minimize its role so as not to "cheat" the plot? 29:40 When to kill your darlings 34:15 When to run with the craziness 37:55 Recap of the three approaches to mitigating loss of coolness when rationalizing.