#the point isn't Solving The Plot as efficiently as possible

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Could you keep a yeerk captive and forced to morph human or starve, then morph yeerk and learn everything it knows? Im suprised they didn't use the mind control possibilities of the yeerks morph more, tbh. It seems like a real game changer

I mean, the kids have these nagging little things called ethics. Wherein they don't kidnap, torture, enslave, and meat-puppet people. As Ax puts it in #47: they have to find a way to fight off the yeerks without becoming the yeerks.

#animorphs #yeerks #war crimes #i feel like this goes in the same bucket as 'why don't they just kill david' #because they're human beings??? #with a normal human range of emotions??? #like - animorphs is a war epic not a video game #the point isn't Solving The Plot as efficiently as possible #the point is the human impacts that occur along the way

[luvring]

YOUR TOUCHSTARVED HCS ARE GOD TIER I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU CAPTURED THEM SO WELL WITH JUST THE DEMO

If you want, could I ask for some with Vere and Kuras?? I feel in love with them in the demo and am in desperate need of more toushstarved content

GENERAL KURAS HCS

gn!reader | ?!!?!! GIGGLES..THANK U THANK U a girl never shares her secrets 😍🤫😘 jk ive shared characterization tips at Some point. KURAS TIME!!! ;3c

has a sense of humour where if you say something silly he Does find it amusing,, he just has a calm + direct demeanor. "can i climb you like a tree" > he blinks because he's caught off guard but smiles anyway. says you could definitely try, but he thinks it might be more effective to just pick you up, no?

the Look the others give him when he says a joke You often say that just...does not match him at all. awesome

he'd get you flowers. not in a bouquet of red roses way but in an i checked the meanings of all of these and personalized it to have your favourite colours and what you mean to me. i'll either explain to you the most devastating story of eternal love and our souls being intertwined or look at you and go :) who's to say what it means? and let you figure it out

next level putting things high up so you have to ask him for help. doesn't try to hide his amusement at all. "odd how it ended up there." ? Yeah i know right

but seriously if you're on the shorter side and you choose to get a chair instead of asking him he's a little upset. and worried. please don't hurt yourself

very serious if you hurt yourself or get sick. if you want to recover fast, let him take care of you. just know he's going to follow some strict rules to make sure you're healing as efficiently as possible

don't let this guy in the kitchen.... his lack of cooking skills make him very appreciative of any home cooked meals, and he knows some pretty good restaurants to make up for it

go ahead and hold onto kuras if you're stuck in a crowd again. like you Can trust him to not lose you, he meant that. but also he won't stop you from reaching for his hand/arm. asks if you're alright before continuing on

get him to relax by laying his head in your lap while you run your fingers through his hair

never minds bending down to kiss you. you can solve ths problem by getting him to sit down and standing between his legs by the way

forehead kisses are a go to!! and a hand on the small of your back

likes when the both of you talk about how your days went in the evening. i think he likes hearing about drama. he remembers names and stories and if he ever sees the person that pissed you off he's. a Little petty/passive-aggressive. he's really good at making it seem like it's accidental though. LOL

you know when you recommend something to someone and they figure out the big twist or mystery so fast you're like wtf. that's kuras. he pretends he doesn't know, especially the first few times, but eventually you just have to take the opportunity to make it a challenge. how fast can he do it y’know.

? glitter eyeshadow. give it a thought and come back to me.

morning person who gets breakfast for you by the time you're up

giving me words of affirmation and quality time vibes. inviting you out whenever he isn't working and making sure you know you're a priority... casually saying some kind of sincere, poetic praise..

sort of a dry texter but you know what. he's supportive. boyfriend who doesn't know what game you've started and are now incoherently ranting about but does his best to guess and support u. looks up the wiki to read about the characters and plot on his own time

when the game has a secret and kuras Offers a Suggestion. a Guess. and he's right. and ur like OMG :D and he :). pretends he didn't look it up because you told him you were stuck yesterday

#touchstarved game #touchstarved kuras #kuras x reader #🧾nia.answers #<3 anon #q

[avelera]

My head's kind of brimming with a bunch of writing advice thoughts so IDK instead of trying to make a nice formal post thought I'd just word vomit for a bit:

Hurt/Comfort: As a subgenre is attractive because it has a plot arc built into it. We start with hurt (inciting incident) and move to comfort (resolution). Many fic writers who don't think of themselves as being "good at plot" should realize that hurt/comfort describes a plot. A plot doesn't need to be saving the world. It can simply be "what problem (the hurt) is solved by the end of the story (with comfort)?"

On Emotional Character Beats: Some character introductions are more emotional on the re-watch. The one I'm thinking of is Dream's reunion with Lucienne in 1.01 of The Sandman. When they embrace, it's Dream's first physical contact with someone who cares about him in 106 years. It's powerful, but at this point, if one isn't already a Sandman fan, the moment doesn't land as heavily as it will on the re-watch because we haven't been given much reason to care about Dream yet. In part, because he's kind of an asshole for much of the beginning of the story. In part because he spends most of the first episode before that reunion either not speaking or speaking in a very cold, reserved way.

This speaks to a larger question (one I lack a solution to but which haunts me daily) of how to make characters likable as quickly as possible. The movie "Up" has an incredible intro where we learn to love Carl and know his entire tragic backstory in about 3-5 minutes. It's a feat of efficient storytelling. Yet with Sandman, I didn't feel that I very much liked Dream until episode 6, when we're introduced to people who like him, people like Death and Hob who were sad when he was missing and worry about his health, and we see Dream unbend enough to show he likes them in return. That is... quite a long time to ask an audience to engage with a piece of media before we're shown a reason to like the person who is, ostensibly, the main character. But after 1.06, 1.01 hits a lot harder.

Sometimes, there's no way around this. If the inciting incident for your story is something bad happened in the past and we open with the after-effects of it and then the plot is about unwinding what happened then, yeah, that opening of the character stumbling away from some horrible situation, bloody and in pain, isn't really going to land until the creator has earned the emotional connection of the audience to the character, and that might take a while.

But I can't help but feel that while liking the character from the start isn't always required (for example, Dream is meant to be an emotionally distant character who is hard to like, and it adds texture to the story that we take a while to like him, even if that might also lose some audience members before we reach that point) I can't help but think it is possible to earn the initial affection of the audience efficiently enough that we do feel bad, or are at least emotionally intrigued by learning how the hurt happened and eager to see the comfort happen for a character we just met.

One way to make an instant connection with a character is to make the character love something or someone. Not just love like dutifully love certain family members, but I mean adore another person, or a cause, or an idea. We love characters who love things/people. Having a character who loves the plot-relevant thing or the plot-central person, makes the audience see that thing or person through the eyes of someone who loves them. We learn to love Dream when we see people like Death and Hob love him. We learn to care about the plot-relevant cause (Enjolras and his obsession with the Revolution in Les Mis) or the plot-relevant thing (Newt Geiszler and Kaiju in Pacific Rim) when characters are obsessed with those things.

This is why, in theory, were I the one rebuilding Sandman from scratch (disclaimer: I am dirty shipper trash for Dream/Hob) I would want to see either before the fishbowl or immediately after it the people who missed Dream while he was gone. The people who saw him as a person and were worried about his absence. The people who love him and the people he loves such that 106 years of confinement was not just an inciting incident for the plot (ie, everything Dream needs to fix now that he's back) but an actual tragedy because of the amount of time that was stolen from him and the people in his life who were hurt and scared and worried while he was gone, so we can learn to like him.

(Edit: It should be noted, though, the reunion with Lucienne is the first moment we get of someone who loves Dream and missed him and suffered without him reacting to his return, which is an effective tool at making us like a character. We love Dream more through Lucienne's eyes and vice versa. I personally think we needed more moments like that before we, say, saw him dissolve Gregory in what was effectively our main character sacrificing someone's beloved pet in Ep. 2, but your mileage may vary. Different stories are making different points and Sandman doesn't require us to like Dream. That said, it's a risky move to have an unlikable main character and not one I'd suggest for anyone other than an expert at the craft of writing.)

And finally, last craft point that's in my head, this sort of relates to:

Don't open a scene with dialogue. Now, this is one I'm skeptical of, my teacher instructed me in this and I think it's not always correct. However, it was tied to a larger point, which was that dialogue unmoored from setup, character, setting, etc doesn't really earn the emotions that we're asking of the audience. It mostly confuses them. Setting the scene with even a single paragraph before the dialogue tells us who/what/where/why/when/how so that the dialogue actually lands as needed.

Similarly, to tie it to the above, we the author are often emotionally engaged in our characters, especially our OCs. By the time we finally introduce them, stumbling away covered in blood from the inciting incident that kicks off our plot, we are emotionally connected to them. The hardest thing sometimes can be to step back and realize the audience doesn't give a fuck yet about our super duper special OC. We have to earn that love, otherwise who cares about the fact this character has suffered? This requires setup, breathing space, time and an inherent arc of some sort (think: the intro to Up). It doesn't have to be before the character stumbles away covered in blood and kicks off our story, because that can mess up pacing, but it should be placed at such a time that when we think back to that moment, our hearts clench because we now have context to feel what the author wanted us to feel about the suffering of their special blorbo OC. And if you can manage to make our hearts clench at that opening scene of their suffering while it's happening, so that we don't need to backtrack and see the scene with new eyes, then you are IMO effectively a storytelling god. It's not easy. But it is possible!

#maggie rambles #writing advice #writing #the sandman #sandman meta

[amewinterswriting]

Ame Plays: Little Dragon Cafe

Very cute, but annoyingly short of the mark.

I want to love this game. You play a child struggling to run a cafe with their sibling and raise a dragon, with extra flavour thrown in by the wide cast of guest characters, all with their own problems that can be solved through the magic of a good meal.

There are some great elements: the aesthetic is cute and cozy, the dragon is adorable and does a lot to help and support you, the island is really well designed to give you a lot to explore in a relatively small space and the soundtrack is way better than it really needs to be.

The problems start when you realise that the game isn't quite sure what it wants to be. You are encouraged to be physically present at the café to help during rushes (and stop the staff from slacking) and failure to step in will lose you customers because after long enough waiting they will leave in a frustrated huff.

If you spend too much time not gathering ingredients, however, you will inevitably run out of ingredients for your dishes. In fact, towards the late game, even if you spend all your time foraging, you will likely run out of ingredients and have to swap dishes around in your menu - it's just mathematics. If you get 25 customers in a day, and each one orders a dish with three ingredients, that's 75 ingredients used. (You can choose to use up to six ingredients in a recipe, which would obviously deplete your ingredients faster) Which means you need to gather at least that many ingredients per day. The ingredients are somewhat randomly generated at gathering points, so even if you keep the numbers up, you might not get the specific ingredients that you need for the dishes you currently have on your menu. My best attempts at efficiently foraging result in under 120 ingredients in a day and that involves completely ignoring the cafe and any reasonable bedtime for a small child, gathering from dawn till midnight - or beyond. In fact, you don't have to sleep at all unless plot demands it - there's no passing out and being carried back home, there's absolutely no penalty for simply staying awake and gathering ingredients. Which I like as a game mechanic, but given you are controlling a small child, feels very odd and at odds with the cozy aesthetic. Just don't sleep and work yourself into the ground for the sake of your cafe feels like the wrong message to send, somehow...

The actual act of helping out in the cafe feels very cramped and clumsy, which doesn't help matters. You have to run around taking orders, submitting the orders in the kitchen, delivering the food and cleaning up the dishes afterwards, plus interrupting anyone who decides to slack off - and they will, frequently. Everyone gets in the way of everyone else, the little galley to clean up dishes is a particularly bad spot for getting pushed around by NPCs as everyone tries to get in and out of the small space.

Still, you can ignore the actual act of running the cafe with little penalty. Your approval never actually drops as far as I can tell, not even if you decide to skip the day to trigger the next bit of plot and go straight to sleep at 7am and have no customers for the day (because for some reason, the cafe is only operational while you're awake, despite your sibling being somewhat capable of running the place when you aren't there). This at least means you aren't losing ingredients that day, but it does present the best way of completing the game as...not actually engaging with the game and skipping as many days as possible as being the most rewarding way to play.

The perplexing part of the cafe is that the 'customers' don't actually pay for their meals. There is no currency in the game nor a shop to spend it in, so that makes some sense. One of the staff characters starts working for you to pay off his bill - he was just going to dine and dash - but apart from that one scripted mention of money, there's no actual exchange of money you see as the player. Which makes the bad reviews and frustrated customers really funny - like guys, you are literally getting a sit down dinner for free, maybe be nice to the kids?

The other half of the game is exploring the island with your little dragon companion, which does at least feel more relaxing and fun. There is a bit of an issue with the jump mechanic - occasionally the button will be unresponsive and occasionally you'll catch on ledges and not be able to get the full jumping height, which is mostly only an issue because there are so many little steps and ledges to jump up that you will run into both multiple times a day. Once your dragon grows a little, you can ride him to traverse and he can thankfully jump much better than the human kids. The dragon will also help gather some ingredients, and randomly emote around you and he's genuinely a delight to be around.

There are also monsters and egg-birds. The monsters will 'attack' you but given this is a cozy game, they'll only steal meals from your pockets - there's no health to lose. They can be hunted for their meat, which is a gamble (the dragon sometimes gets distracted and doesn't hunt the monster the first time you ask) or you can lure them into running headlong into a rock which also results in meat. The egg-birds must be collected and then they will live near the cafe and produce an egg a day you can pick up...for a few days. Then they'll return to where you got them from. Which feels like annoying busywork for no reason - you already know where the bird is, you just have to go back there every so often to get them back.

You do have a small garden that will produce ingredients as time passes, or instantly if dragon manure is used, but you cannot choose what it produces or how much, it will just randomly generate anything you have already gathered from elsewhere. Including meat, oddly enough. There is a fish hatchery that does the same. This is the best way of getting a lot of ingredients all at once, but in order to get dragon manure, you have to feed your dragon, and the larger it gets, the more food it needs to produce manure. And you need to cook every dish manually using a small rhythm mini game - no batch cooking. It kinda feels like the game just wants me to spend an hour cooking lots of dishes, then force-feeding my dragon to get the manure to spend on speeding up the garden to get the ingredients (which I am also spending on the food for the dragon, so the game is incentivising me to use as few materials as possible to maximise returns). That feels like no fun so I'm not going to batch cook 30 single scotch eggs (using just egg, no meat or breading here) and force-feed him eggs until he poops...at least not for very long.

There are also some short stories revolving around some guest NPC characters who usually show up with an emotional problem, stay in the cafe for a few days, open up about their issues, need a particular dish cooking for them to resolve their emotional conflict and then leave, leaving a space ready for the next character to come and stay. These are actually pretty well written compared to other cozy life-sims like Harvest Moon and the characters are really charming and relatable.

To be honest, it wouldn't take a lot for me to love this game. Like, let customers pay for their meals and then give us a shop to buy upgrades for the cafe or the staff (so that you wouldn't need to personally intervene when they start slacking, for example, or that they would slack off less often) or let us buy 'basic' ingredients like flour and rice, but still have us forage for more exotic food and the upgraded ingredients. That would help take the big pressure out of trying to forage more ingredients than you use daily. Otherwise, tweak forage spots so they give multiple ingredients per interaction, which would save time, or give us more options in the garden. Say, use materials to upgrade the amount the garden yields, or let us choose what types of ingredients we would like the garden to produce. Basically a little more customising in general and a little automation would turn the grindy chore bits of the game into something a little more interesting.

Because there isn't really a penalty for failure, there also isn't a reward for doing well. The game will mostly chug along at its own pace regardless of how well or badly the cafe does, only requiring an increase in customer satisfaction between NPC story episodes and that can usually be achieved in a single day. This is probably by design - to avoid frustrating younger players - but it does make mid to late game feel like a grindy chore that you don't actually need to deal with. You can progress quickly by skipping most days, only sticking around to trigger the scenes and then going straight to sleep. But at that point, why bother to still play the game?

#ame reviews #ame plays #little dragon cafe #ame talks

[twistedtavern]

i saw your Neige au posts and you said something about having other RSA dorm leaders? Care to elaborate?

Ah, yes. Shining Wonderland, my passion project in which I make an entire game cast and plot >:Dc. I have a few more students planned, but these are all the dorm leaders and their personalities/backstories.

Archer Brightown: Twisted from Alice herself, Archer is a bit of a wild card with how I've made his character. He's quite a bit older than he was in his first adventure in the Queendom of Roses, and had lots of experience with travel and different flora, fauna, and cultures all over Wonderland since. You could put him in any situation in any place and he would at the very least get out alive. Archer sort of has the personality of how a young child would view a kind older brother. He always carries around an enchanted white backpack containing all sorts of things, ranging from medicinal herbs, potions of all kinds, keys to the Sevens know where, and almost anything else you could ask for, and he will gladly give it to you if asked. The root of such generosity lies in his Unique Magic, Curiouser and Curiouser, which allows him to make a double of just about anything that isn't magically enchanted. He cares deeply for the safety and wellbeing of those around him, since he's faced many dangers himself, and is never one to turn down something that sounds fun and teach you how to do it safely and efficiently.

Ndege Mshauri: Twisted from Zazu, Ndege is an intelligent young man who takes everything seriously. Always one to take a dizzying amount of notes, he's one of the most studious, trustworthy, and attentive students at Royal Sword Academy. His family has been acting as advisors to the Kingscholars for generations, and he hopes to join the rest of his lineage by gaining as much knowledge as possible. Despite his haughty, almost pompous attitude, just about anything will pique his utmost interest, and he is very respectful and proper. His Unique Magic, Dawn Report, allows him to recall just about anything he has ever learned, though he insists on memorizing things properly. He will risk life and limb in the pursuit of information, but is quite easily startled or confused.

Rielle Okeanos: Twisted from Ariel, this young merman is well known for never taking into consideration a single word that comes out of his mouth. He means well, but by god it really doesn't sound that way. However, his blunt nature does lend itself to a lot of honesty on his part and tends to solve a few conflicts (as quickly as he starts them). He's bold, to the point, outgoing, and very impatient. If something's going on, you can count on him wanting to be there, whether it's a party, a fistfight, or right in the middle of something that does not involve him. Look away for one second and he's gone, and you had better hope he had thought to drag you with him. Rielle may be a little stoopid, but that boy's got the curiosity AND the spirit. He's finally got some legs on him and is ready to hit ALL the land towns.

Sariq Fibaa: Twisted from Aladdin, Sariq is a regular "eat the rich" pathological liar and resident kleptomaniac Robin Hood. However the first impression from that sentence may have been, don't worry. He means no ill will, but it's just how he's existed his whole life. Even as a child, Sariq was an orphan and wanted thief back home, and it's only through these lies that he has managed to survive. Despite his flippant, prank-loving exterior, it's very hard to get him to open up and be his true self, which is reflected in his Unique Magic, Nom De Plume, which allows him to shapeshift at will. But, the fast track to friendship with Sariq is definitely through his primate partner in crime, Radie, who frequently exposes his gentler side. Once you make it through to Sariq, you'll find that he'll jump at any chance to fuss over those he cares about like a mother hen. He's very gentle with anyone who's close to him and would do anything to protect them. Just be mindful to give him a gentle reminder whenever a lie slips out or he takes something that isn't his.

Neige Leblanche: I know he's already canon but let me go off about him dammit I love him. He's a very loving and caring person to anyone he meets, mostly because he has abandonment issues and can't bear to leave anyone in a vulnerable state alone. This boy has taken on raising seven children alone for a reason. Don't let that pretty baby face fool you, he's a hard worker through and through, and always tends to find some way to make any situation at least a little enjoyable. Neige is a very gentle and soft boy at heart, and he's spent half his life singing lullabies and kissing ouchies better for forest animals and small children alike, so trust that you're in good hands with him. His Unique Magic, Special Song, embodies a bit of the natural care in his heart for the wellbeing of others. Activated after a short lullaby, Neige can cast little blessings on things or people to help them towards a specific goal or give/boost a specific trait, called a Song, and these Songs can be pretty powerful. He isn't exactly stingy with this power, but will pry if your Song request seems strange or suspicious to him. He most commonly uses his power to make meals more nutritious or help injuries heal faster, but will absolutely indulge in using it for aid in the occasional prank or joke, as a treat. Having spent so much time unsupervised with no real other friends, Neige has cultivated a penchant for play and mischief, though he rarely indulges in it due to him having to be the most level-headed and gentle of the group.

Hop Litallaios: Twisted from Hercules, Hop wants more than anything to have those around him, and especially his birth parents, be genuinely proud of him. He figures the best way to do this is to become some sort of hero, just like his father, Zion. Hop is a very energetic, innocent, and sweet boy who grew up on a farm with his foster family his whole life, so he doesn't know much about the world outside of hard work and the simple things such a humble upbringing provides. He's got incredible natural strength from having to handle all the heavy lifting at home, but his Unique Magic, Zero to Hero, increases that strength tenfold for a brief period of time. He's always doing his absolute best at everything he does, whether it's helping out whoever he can at school, working out, or studying magic. Hop is secretly an absolute nerd when it comes to superhero media, it's actually really really cute. Complete himbo I adore him

Auron Briar: Twisted from Aurora, I definitely went ham with this one. Hear me out. Auron has been raised in a cottage separately from all of society his entire life by three fairy men pretending to be humans. He has been vigorously training, studying, and preparing to take on his destiny and inherit the throne as the sole ruler of Briar Valley. But how, might you ask? Simple. By killing Malleus Draconia, that's how. Why? Because the three fairies have been lying to him his entire life. They isolated Auron from anything that could contradict their teachings as a child and fed him lie after lie after lie about the world around him. He genuinely and wholeheartedly believes that it is his destiny to kill Malleus, and that if he doesn't, all of humanity will be destroyed once he is crowned king. And though a savior he believes himself to be, this perceived duty weighs heavy on Auron. He lives in constant silent terror of what will happen if he fails, but knows nothing but being shoved forward towards this inevitable end. To him, the literal fate of the world rests on him and him alone. Mind you, this boy has: exactly zero social skills, has genuinely NEVER met another sentient being outside of the men who raised him in his LIFE, has basically been living in the 16th century in terms of access to any kind of technology, has believed his parents were dead his entire life (they are not), has no concept of affection or emotional attachment, has never been hugged even once, doesn't know his own birthday, has never been given emotional support, has read exactly ten books his whole life, has never been told a bedtime story, and has never been smiled at before coming to RSA. Let that sink in. This poor prince is a pathetic little meow meow if I have ever seen one, and the only thing keeping him from withering away into shards of emotionally neglected dust is the feeling that his entire existence hinges on regicide. He could easily be done in by either a forehead kiss or a thingy of Pop Rocks. Your choice.

If you want to send in asks or requests about these characters, PLEASE send them I would be more than happy to respond

#shining wonderland #twst au #royal sword academy #twisted wonderland #archer shining wonderland #ndege shining wonderland #twst rielle #rielle shining wonderland #sariq shining wonderland #twst neige #neige leblanche #shining!neige #hop shining wonderland #auron shining wonderland

[chacusha]

ST: Discovery season 4

So yeah, I finished watching Disco season 4 and wow. I had so much difficulty making it through it at all, which is an experience I can't say I've ever had with any other season of Star Trek. So yeah, here is my Discovery season 4 rant. (Did I push through all my overdue TNG rewatch posts just so I could rant about the writing sins of Discovery while they were still relatively fresh in my mind? Yes. Yes, I did.) Lots of Star Trek: Discovery season 4 negativity:

God, where do I start?

Let me start with the positive: I appreciate the diverse and very LGBT cast of Discovery. I like the hope and optimism and No Villains ethos of the show. I like how different each season of Discovery has been and how they aren't afraid to completely alter the status quo of the show each season. The first half of season 4 wasn't great but it had some interesting plots and development of the characters. The second half was 😬 but at least its B-plot with Book and Tarka had some interesting stuff going on both in terms of plot and character interaction and backstory.

Another positive: I could tell that this season was trying to flesh out the bridge crew, which was a pretty glaring issue in previous seasons and this is definitely a step in the right direction. HOWEVER, they went about doing this in the clunkiest way possible. You had characters basically turning to camera and saying, "Hey, this situation reminds me of [my token hobby] which I totally 100% have, but have never mentioned up until this point! Look at that! I have one (1) trait!" First of all, having a hobby is not a personality trait/does not count as fleshing out a character. But more to the point, this is, like, the least effective and least efficient way imaginable to establish character traits/give characters dimension. I don't understand why they don't simply go with the tried-and-true route of giving each character their own episode. I'm not talking about a plotline where the fact that a character likes surfing or whatever turns out to be important for solving a science problem -- I'm talking about when you have a plot that only happens because of quirks specific to a character. You throw a character (or two characters) in a situation that stresses them and you show how they respond, and how their weaknesses and the solutions they come up with are unique to that character. This is an easy way to establish characterization. This is writing 101. Instead, all of the bridge members seem even more empty after this attempt at fleshing them out. It's like there's nothing there to explore.

The second cardinal sin committed by Discovery season 4 is that it's just boring. There clearly isn't enough story to fill all the episodes allotted. They really could use some wacky episodic hijinks where two characters go on a Character Establishing Adventure together because there isn't enough content otherwise. I kind of wonder if part of season 4's issues is due to being produced under COVID lockdown? Because season 2 of The Witcher, which was also produced under a similar timeframe, was also markedly bad, and there, too, there just wasn't enough story to fill all the time they had, in ways very similar to Disco S4. In any case, whatever the circumstances that might have led to the bad writing, I feel like the Disco writers need to go back to basics: if you cannot write a solidly entertaining 40-minute piece of television, there is no way in hell you are pulling off a remotely satisfying 13-hour piece of television. I think the writers really need to master the basics before trying something more ambitious.

Another thing exacerbating the "lazy fleshing out of supporting cast characters" issue above and something that I think really weakened season 4 in particular is that Discovery keeps on either (a) having characters complete their character journeys and turn into emotionally mature wise people rather than flawed characters needing to find strategies to compensate for their weaknesses, and/or (b) writing their fleshed-out supporting cast off the show. By the second half of season 4, most of the characters that Discovery has put actual effort into fleshing out (with success) have left: Lorca died; Sarek, Ash, Pike, and L'Rell are all left behind in the past; Mirror Georgiou went back to her world; Tilly completed her character arc and left; Saru completed his character arc and is still present but in a much-diminished role; Stamets has had a lot of his neurotic, abrasive characteristics filed off; Culber has marginally more going on with him than he had in previous seasons but the starting place was so low, so that's not saying much. At this point, Michael (who completed her character arc) is basically carrying the show, with some support from the relative newcomers of Book and Vance. There are a lot of dangers involved with this situation: (1) The show feels really different from its season 1 cast. I miss a lot of the characters, and the show is very different without some important Burnham relationships (e.g. Burnham+Sarek, Burnham+Georgiou, Burnham+Tyler). Especially Burnham+Georgiou -- I felt like that relationship was really core to Discovery and I'm not sure what the show is without it. Gabrielle is still around but they don't really make as much use of Michael's existing relationship with her. (2) I feel like it's a shame to write off a lot of the characters because I think a lot more could have been done with them. Rather than deep-diving into the characters, the show tends to just move on quickly, which means it's paying quite a steep opportunity cost where it COULD potentially make deep, multifaceted, memorable characters by giving them more to do and more room to grow and more things to bounce off of, but instead the show moves quickly onto another set of characters. (3) The show now has a lot of leftover lower-tier characters who have had to very rapidly step up and become interesting, but without the show having invested in them from season 1. (4) Characters with completed character arcs are just, well, less interesting. It was fun seeing some of Burnham's unique brand of neuroticism, for example. She is less interesting now that she is more psychologically stable.

Cardinal sin #3: "Show don't tell" is violated left, right, and center, with the multiple repeated speeches where characters just directly explain what is going on with them emotionally, about 5 or 6 times per episode. I can't believe that this is someone's idea of good writing. And yes, there ARE benefits to telling rather than showing but there's a reason why "show don't tell" is a general rule of thumb. It's just not as interesting to have everything spelled out for you. Part of the benefit of fiction and acting is that you can depict the emotions and the reader can understand and feel the emotions themselves without you needing to describe in words everything that is going on. Another part of what makes fiction interesting is when there are multiple layers of what is going on and what a character believes or admits is going on may not actually be what is really going on. Hiding information from the viewer and from the characters is key to driving narrative tension and dramatic irony, which is what makes fiction interesting and worth watching.

In some ways, I think Discovery suffers because it has a very realistic/verisimilitudinous way of writing their characters where (1) its characters who have similar backgrounds and training tend to have similar values, personalities, goals, etc. which makes them very generic and not distinguished from each other and utterly lacking in tension with each other, (2) they opt to depict a lot of boring stuff onscreen when it's not very interesting and could/should be cut in order to have an interesting plot each and every episode, (3) many of its characters are emotionally mature which is something that can happen in real life, and (4) in real life, people DO experience doubt and talk about their feelings with their friends -- that is normal. So having long, extended conversations where someone just says exactly what they're feeling isn't unrealistic. But this is another cardinal sin of writing, in my opinion: People don't read fiction because it's realistic -- they read it because it is unrealistic in interesting ways.

So for characters and characterization: Rather than have characters who are normal and unremarkable in every way, what people want in fiction is (for example) to see odd traits about themselves reflected in the characters, but exaggerated so as to be important and noticeable. Or characters who are puzzles with layers you have to figure out because they self- and other-deceive -- maybe this is not realistic, but it is fun. This is character-driven storytelling, which should be the centerpiece of your narratives. And it's not like Discovery doesn't know how to do this -- Michael, a human woman with a boy's name raised Vulcan who is a disgraced first officer now serving as a science officer... this is interesting. This is unfamiliar and fantastical and weird, but it provides a way to understand familiar human characteristics like socialization and what it feels like to have to navigate a society that does not accommodate you/your body/your brain in any way and the conflict between loyalty and detached ideas of duty and what it feels like to have to restart what was once a promising career. This is a character who you can slowly get to know over a season and in doing so you also understand more about the world she inhabits because of her unique perspective on it.

The characters should be unique rather than cookie-cutter and replaceable with each other. Compare the bridge crew of Discovery to that of TNG -- all of the members on both shows are confident, competent, psychologically well-adjusted, cool under pressure, etc. They've all gone to the same academy. But TNG also goes out of its way to establish that its characters react differently to the same kinds of situations. Take for example Wesley asking various senior officers for romantic advice in 2x10 "The Dauphin" -- every person he asks has a different reaction (Geordi: "Um look I don't have time for this, OK? *climbs up a ladder to extract himself from the situation*"; Worf: "*utterly contemptuous of human courtship ritual* Beg... like a human."; Data: "According to the definition of 'romantic compatibility'..."; Will: "*gets carried away whispering sweet nothings to Guinan*"). It's a bit of comic relief that isn't necessarily realistic. But having all the characters have a distinct way of trying to solve the same problem has the effect of establishing that they are not the same character. It's a bit of unrealism for the sake of having a more entertaining show.

And for "show don't tell" -- in real life, people ARE often just going to explain things as they are. And I can see what Discovery is going for in setting up as many opportunities as they can for characters to be emotionally vulnerable with people who they trust. This is realistic writing but it isn't good writing. Good writing keeps some things hidden from the viewer. Sometimes emotions are felt deeper because the character does NOT say them outright -- think for example of the how in TNG 3x16 "The Offspring," Data repeatedly laments that he cannot feel love for his daugther Lal. The episode doesn't spell out its themes, but if you watch it, you can understand that what Data is referring to and what he wishes to experience is the felt emotion of love. But for everyone else around him including Lal, what is actually more important isn't what is going on in your mind when you see someone but how you express your attitude toward someone with your actions, and Data's actions toward Lal are consistently loving. You don't need to have any character to say to another, "But in his own way, Data really did love Lal, didn't he?" It certainly is in-character for various characters to make this observation so you COULD put it in, but the viewer doesn't need to have their hand held throughout the episode to understand either Data's love or the rest of the crew's and Lal's conviction that Data loves her -- it is obvious in Data's actions, the way the crew fights so hard for Data to be able to keep Lal, and in Lal's own happiness and flourishing under him. Or another example, in TNG 3x15 "Yesterday's Enterprise," the episode ends with Guinan just saying, "tell me about Tasha Yar." In such a simple line, the show manages to convey many things such as (1) the way Guinan has interest in individual members of the crew (shown not told throughout the whole of the episode), (2) Guinan carrying the emotional weight of having asked a whole crew to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the future and her remembering that sacrifice when no one else does or can, something that is both an emotional burden on her but also hopeful and optimistic because it means their sacrifice is acknowledged and remembered by someone, and (3) that Guinan herself has gained something from this experience (she now knows about Tasha, a person who she can admire and respect). More importantly, there is some ambiguity here because the show has NOT directly told us what Guinan is thinking and feeling: how much does Guinan even remember? Given that she could not remember the original timeline, just had vague feelings that something was off/wrong, it's possible that Guinan herself doesn't actually fully remember Yar, only has a vague shadow of a recollection that is enough to prompt her to ask about a crewmember she otherwise would have no knowledge of -- but that doesn't matter. Because the viewer remembers all the events of the episode in crystal clarity even if Guinan may not. The weight and memory of honorable sacrifice I talked about above? It's not Guinan carrying that weight now -- it's the viewer. That one line can be pulling so much weight is not necessarily realistic writing but it is good writing. The viewer is then left with the weight of all the emotions of the show to process on their own, and that is what good, well-crafted art can do.

Anyway, it was probably a bad idea to watch TNG season 3 right before finishing up DSC season 4. The contrast in quality is just so stark. TNG is far from perfect but it has many of these basics down at least: One, it uses episodic plots centered around specific characters where that character drives the plot in order to establish the shape of various characters' personalities and the way different characters react differently to the same situation. Even plot-irrelevant teasers at the opening of episodes is used to flesh out characters -- a very easy kind of writing that Discovery easily has excess time to dedicate to. Two, each episode (for the most part -- there are some stinkers) is polished and worked on enough to meet the requirement of having an interesting and satisfying plot in itself. Three, it keeps characters around for long periods of time, which lets the audience come to understand them and what makes the character tick and see multiple aspects of their characters, which leads to more complex, multifaceted characters that you can really get attached to. Four, it trusts the events and the actors to convey the emotions of a story without having to spell everything out again a second time as a speech given by a character.

So yeah, in my opinion, Discovery is really trying and I appreciate that, but season 4 really fails at the most basic, fundamental level in terms of its writing that it actually provides an informative case study in how not to write fiction IMO.

#star trek #star trek: discovery #star trek: the next generation #st discovery negativity #st disco negativity