Captain Kirk’s adventures would be a snoozefest if the Klingons just rolled over for him. No one would care about T’Challa taking back his throne unless Killmonger could match him blow for blow. Batman’s investigations would be pointless if the Joker just turned himself in.* What’s … read more »
Drama is a cornerstone of storytelling. Even the most action-heavy violence-fests need an emotional core if they want to be more than a forgettable special-effects reel. We have a number of articles covering how to get the right feels in your story, from character arcs … read more »
Special powers are a cornerstone of speculative fiction. Whether they come from ancient magics or alien evolution, we love to see characters with abilities that humans cannot possess. Such powers provide excellent novelty and wish fulfillment. But sometimes storytellers don’t think about how their powers actually … read more »
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn is an urban fantasy story about a young Black woman infiltrating an order of all white mages, fighting demons, and uncovering her own heritage. I just finished reading it, and to the surprise of all, I am impressed. Not with everything, … read more »
Sometimes a story is created as one thing, but you want to make it into another thing. Books to movies, TV shows to video games, graphic novels to roleplaying games – all of this is adaptation. Today, we’re nerding out on how adaptation works, how … read more »
It’s very common for storytellers to accidentally make their big conflicts too easy. But what if I told you the reverse can happen too? These conflicts are too difficult for the hero to credibly overcome, forcing the storytellers to resolve them in an unsatisfying way. This … read more »
Heading up to the release of War of the Spark: Ravnica, expectations from Magic: The Gathering (MTG) players ran high. Ravnica and its sequel, Forsaken, were touted as MTG’s version of Infinity War and Endgame, a culmination of the years-long Gatewatch saga and the epic … read more »
When it comes to film adaptations of classic novels, people have, shall we say, strong opinions. A common refrain is that the movie is always worse than the book. Fortunately, that isn’t true. While plenty of film adaptations are indeed worse than their source materials, … read more »
You might be tired of dark stories, I might be tired of dark stories, but, nonetheless, the dark stories just keep coming. Since that’s apparently the state of things, we might as well try to get dark stories right. Oversaturation aside, there isn’t anything inherently … read more »
This is it, friends. We’ve made it to the end. We started our journey oh so many years (months) ago with the MCU’s phase one climaxes, and now here we are with the second part of phase three. Will these final films stick the landing, … read more »
