Category: Simple Tricks

Sometimes it’s better to propose questions than to provide answers. When an episodic television series starts, the creative minds behind it are foremost concerned with establishing the setting and characters, familiarizing the audience with the cast and locations in order to use that established status quo as setup for changes and developments as the show goes on. People are introduced with little backstory, leaving their pasts a mystery, and events are referred to without being elaborated upon at first, all of it being fodder for future stories.

The issue with this is that sometimes plots and ideas can be brought up and not referred to again, especially if the show has numerous characters and ideas moving in all directions. One has only to bring up Firefly or Star Trek: Enterprise or one of numerous other examples to instantly make science fiction fans fume at the potential that was wasted with plots and ideas that went nowhere, either because the show was canceled before its time, or because the showrunners did not handle their own creations well. Read More

Ben: Noble intentions are traditionally what differentiate the “good guys” from the “bad”. The heroes of a story are altruistic, working for the good of others, while the villains are selfish, working only for themselves. Protagonists look out for their friends, families, comrades in arms. Antagonists carve a swath through whoever stands in the way of their goals.

But this sort of binary story structure is often deconstructed with a simple scenario: a hero is placed in a position where, to do the greatest good for the largest number of people, they must do something they would not normally do. Something morally questionable, or even outright against their morals or beliefs, but something that would protect others, stop conflicts, save lives, the examples go on and on. The drama lies in how the hero deals with this sort of problem, either taking the moral high ground and living with the ultimate outcome, or doing what they deem necessary and having to live with their conscience. Read More

“Maybe it’s a good thing the old religion died.”

Ben: What sort of galaxy would there be without the Jedi? Without its foremost peacekeepers, its moral compass? What if the guardians of justice for generations simply vanished overnight? What if the ones to replace them sought to sow fear where the Jedi had sown hope, to control and dictate where the Jedi had let the Force and life take its course?

When the Emperor ordered the Jedi exterminated, he instantly turned the galaxy-wide war against the Separatists into a sideshow and brought the entire Republic under his personal dominion, to be shaped as he saw fit. Everything changed. The galaxy became a darker, more materialistic place. The Force became a forgotten term for an outdated and mocked religion. The Jedi were whispered about in the dark for a time, then slowly forgotten. What few Jedi survived the purge live a lie, hiding in such deep, dark places from which they might never emerge. An entire generation of beings emerged who were raised in a galaxy without its brightest light. Read More