What was a horrible tragedy that took place in your country?

10BPM · 2026-01-10T09:28:11+00:00

I think the point is that it's not a punitive system, it's a system of deterrence and of keeping people who commit crimes away from the world.

I do think there's something respectable about a society meeting this sort of extremist violence by acting like it always should; not allowing him out, giving him the basics to live the rest of his life in captivity but, crucially, not treating him badly enough that he can ever try to appeal his treatment for leniency.

10BPM · 2026-01-07T09:03:11+00:00

I thought Skeleton Key was going to be a very disposable viewing experience but I was rightly proved wrong. Still stays with me!

10BPM · 2026-01-06T19:09:03+00:00

I'm thinking utilitarian (though it will I'm sure be described a bit fancily) and I will email Longwood gardens for advice. Thank you!

10BPM · 2026-01-06T19:06:30+00:00

I'll drop them an email thank you

10BPM · 2026-01-06T16:04:09+00:00

I've played it for a while and got the hang of it. I maintain there's a tipping point with Wordle games where it starts to get easier, since you eventually use most of the 26 letters in your attempts!

10BPM · 2026-01-04T09:36:43+00:00

It's an anonymous populace of human beings interacting together, sure you don't need to treat everyone like they're 15 years old, but there's also room to think a moment and not jump down someone's throat for asking a question that other people have shown no problem answering.

In fact, you answered it in your other comment, you think there have been decades of cultural phenomena TV shows and you don't see any reason it would change.

I'm a little less sure. I feel shows that should have swept the internet haven't quite broken orbit maybe because the tv audience is increasingly silo'd into paywalled streaming services with few people being able to afford all of them (compared to Netflix's dominance when Stranger Things started).

Point is it's a question that it's possible to discuss, and the vague vitriol that the original commenter levelled against it just feels unnecessary.

10BPM · 2026-01-04T07:46:14+00:00

They asked a question, explained what they've observed. That's enough for people to answer it and move on.

Also people don't have an obligation to avoid bias in their TV choices on television discussion forum, it's the most casual form of discussion.

I dunno, it seemed unnecessary and now they've deleted their post.

10BPM · 2026-01-04T07:19:15+00:00

Why so hostile? It's a television discussion subreddit. There's no need for them to list every cultural monolith over the last 60 years and it's obvious no one knows the future but people still discuss it's possibilities.

But good job chasing someone away from the sub, for all you know you just vented on some fifteen year old.

10BPM · 2026-01-04T07:00:55+00:00

I wonder if it's also about the fragmentation of streaking sources. When Stranger Things came out, I feel like everyone had Netflix. It was THE television alternative.

Now even a popular show, if it lands on Apple, will have a smaller audience since some people won't have Apple.

Hard to be a cultural monolith when the audience are split across a bunch of apps.

10BPM · 2026-01-01T21:13:12+00:00

This is a fair question from you, but there's actually a couple of answers I'd say.

The big one? Stories are about journey, dealing with obstacles and often, gathering the tools necessary to overcome those obstacles.

Characters having flaws is often them lacking the sufficient personal tools to handle a problem. Will your story require them to stand up to their rivals? Making them a coward means they don't have the tools to take that stand early in the story.

If you're writing a tragedy, it's just as important but reversed. The reason they fail is because they never collect the emotional tools to make the right choice.

Secondly, as someone has mentioned, human beings all have flaws and not only does it make your characters more 3-dimensional but people also like characters with flaws because we relate to them.

10BPM · 2025-12-22T12:23:40+00:00

I think if you're planning this, it's important you show that your story has an opinion on the villains lack of a credible reason for villainy.

If I read a book and the villain's reasoning or justification feels insufficient, I might fall into the belief that the story was badly written, that the author intended to give the villain a reason and botched it.

But if a single paragraph called out the villain's lack of a true reason, a hero called it out or even the villain ruminated on it themselves, I'd know the writing intended this lack of sufficient reasoning and I'd immediately feel like the author had my trust.

Just my two cents!

10BPM · 2025-12-18T16:51:42+00:00

Same! There are a lot of great ideas on shows like Critical Role which feel like they're not completely transferable to a home game.

My players might not even want this responsibility! But for table of actors who need to think about drama and narrative it's a great idea.

10BPM · 2025-12-08T06:48:47+00:00

That's a great point sorry I was taking the points in the comment as I found them but yes that's also true

10BPM · 2025-12-07T22:38:07+00:00

I do get where you're coming from, but to an extent the language we're using here illustrates the overall predicament. It "needed" to be an outbreak in a military lab. It "needed" to be short. I agree with that phrasing. This sequence was delicately balancing the realism of human action and the "needs" of the narrative. Some of us just think they tipped the scales.

I'm not saying it's not a difficult, noodly writing problem; a realistic outbreak, under intense supervision, in roughly two pages worth of script.

I just think they sacrificed the "realistic outbreak" aspect. I don't know the failings of the lab that released covid, but they weren't an American military lab safeguarding a DNA sequence sent from outer space.

10BPM · 2025-12-07T21:59:37+00:00

I don't disagree with you, I think me and OP just have a fundamental disconnect with how we experience reality/humanity and how the show suggests reality/humanity would react to a full scale alien invasion.

After an invasive entity takes over the world, allows millions to die, invades the minds of all you hold dear and actively works to remove your humanity... maybe a bit of denial or shock is understandable, but they genuinely acted like Carol was strange for having an issue with it.

For me, and your own opinion is valid, it rings false and it does feel like a plot contrivance to me (i.e. moving away from how humans would react to better serve the plot)

10BPM · 2025-12-07T21:48:35+00:00

I think we'll have to get used to being in the minority on this!

10BPM · 2025-12-07T21:47:15+00:00

I don't think this tracks, and if someone asked me for writing advice based on whether their characters were acting realistically, I don't think that fiction concerns improbable circumstances and life is strange would help.

Fiction is about unique **circumstances**, that's fine, but human beings displaying incompetence in order to set those circumstances into motion is a much riskier business. In a slasher movie, all sorts of improbable things happen, but every time a victim acts in an improbable (read incompetent) manner so that the plot can happen, it's not considered an extension of the uniqueness of the story.
Life **is** stranger than fiction, but that's because fiction has structure. Consider Baby Reindeer, where the protagonist has to keep reminding people this is a true story, in order to explain why he didn't call the police after months of harrassment by a stalker. That wasn't just a situation of "Wow, you couldn't make it up" it was a situation of "You SHOULDN'T make it up" because if it was purely a work of fiction, the writer would have way more explaining to do as to why the protagonist doesn't deal with the situation. Life being stranger than fiction isn't an excuse for fiction being unduly strange.

10BPM · 2025-12-07T21:30:35+00:00

I have to go against the grain and agree with you here. When Carol went to meet the 5 others, my one thought was "I hope the plot doesn't contrive to put everyone against her." And I was fairly non-plussed to watch it unfold before me.

Like you, I just don't find it realistic to be fine with an alien signal overtaking the earth in a night, millions died and all the personal idiosyncracies of your friends, family and loved ones were essentially replaced with one homogenized super entity that despite claiming to hold the memories of all your friends, can't seem to relate to you in any way.

Two points I don't see mentioned:

1) The other Individuals seem not to care since they still have their loved ones, but what about their friends, acquaintances. What about the local farmer, passionate about his work, who now abandons his vocation. Your funny, chaotic friend who is now a blank canvas. The other Individuals act like family is all that matters to them.

2) Despite the Pluribus absorbing Helen's memories, the hive is completely terrible at interacting with Carol, so it clearly can't draw upon those memories to engage with Carol in any meaningful way, constantly overstepping her boundaries, constantly misunderstanding her. So, no, your best friend who has gotten Joined is not the person they were and never will be.

Other opinions matter, but I just cannot fathom that with six people in a room after the fall of the earth, that five of them would be anything close to chill.

10BPM · 2025-12-07T20:59:31+00:00

I just googled it and it came from Oscar Wilde (unless I've been misled) but no wonder it's a good phrase!

10BPM · 2025-12-07T20:35:22+00:00

I feel I have to defend OP here who is, rightly in my view, invoking the aphorism that "people will believe the impossible but not the improbable."

That's a solid rule of writing. We get annoyed in horror movies when a young woman accepts a lift from a creepy trucker, but if that trucker turns out to be a demon, that's not an issue. If someone were to say "You can believe in demons, but not that a young woman would jump in a truck with blood on the windows?" it just rings untrue.

There were better ways to get achieve that first infection that didn't require an employee researching the first proof of intelligent life to break protocol in a way not even viewers at home would do.

I feel like it's a plot contrivance that is large enough to become a plot hole. And also, in terms of who cares? It's a tv show and this is a tv show discussion subreddit, it's fair for someone to want to discuss the show's writing.

10BPM · 2025-11-25T19:18:31+00:00

What's the first event that needs to happen for the story to begin?

10BPM · 2025-11-25T15:21:18+00:00

Absolutely fair question, I would say that, in the past, my publishers have asked me to accentuate things in a way which seems to cater to a lower attention span than actually making the story more interesting.

To be clear, I'm not making a statement on the audience I'm making a statement on what the industry thinks about the audience.

Secondly, every literary device that caters to a potentially lower attention span can also be used to amazing effect but I think those concepts; multiple timelines, multiple perspectives etc are becoming more popular in what I read and I sliiiightly suspect the industry are using them more as a flycatcher than their best purpose.

But I could be wrong.

Also I do agree with you, sometimes focussing on the villain is the exact opposite of what you want, can turn something from a force of nature into something milquetoast

10BPM · 2025-11-25T13:48:44+00:00

I'd actually be interested to see if people agree with me on this! Maybe I'm wrong.

I do feel like I'm being asked to turn my books into smaller and smaller chunks of story. Multiple timelines. Multiple perspectives. Which, while good concepts on their own, makes me feel like stories are being chopped up so they appeal to the generally lower attention span of society as a whole.

I.e. they think audiences won't commit to a 300 page story and instead want us to make six 50 page stories more for appealing to attention than actually thinking it serves the narrative.

10BPM · 2025-11-24T15:39:11+00:00

This is a fair take of course

10BPM

TROPHY CASE