hushicho at 3:50PM, Aug. 27, 2021

I've always said that as long as what some consider "filler" has some development in it or does something to make the setting come alive or add depth to the characters, I often prefer it to the breakneck plot-heavy nonsense where you can't get a break to breathe for a moment. I would always rather enjoy stories that tell us more about who the characters are and what the world is like than what mega-plot the writers want to shove down our throats this week, and the rest of the season, without any moments to sort of take it all in. It's why I love "iyashi-kei" or "healing genre" stories, since they often eschew the frantic umbrella plot nonsense in favor of just events that may not have a real conflict to speak of in them at all. But everything that happens enriches the story, crafting a tapestry that the reader can feel living around them, and can experience and immerse themselves in.

Banes at 6:37AM, Aug. 27, 2021

Very true - the mundane needs can add a LOT to the worldbuilding! I like bravo's scene with a guy avoiding a monster attack because he's in the bathroom xD

Ozoneocean at 12:32AM, Aug. 27, 2021

Many of my breakfasts are pretty epic ocasions. They'd make great fodder for a comic :)

PaulEberhardt at 11:34AM, Aug. 26, 2021

I think very much like bravo. Mundane activities can form a backdrop for some dialogue, and as a bonus they also characterise the universe the story is set in. I remember a Star Trek parody where the crew indeed had just one restroom per corridor. Unrealistically, the captain and the first officer are talking tactics in the men's room, where one urinal is at nose height and used by an alien whose long nose very obviously isn't actually a nose... Why unrealistically? Because of men's room etiquette. You just don't talk tactics or about anything else at the urinals. Still, this illustrates how a plot can - umm - flow on while at the same time you can add some incidental details to your world, illustrating how strange it is. This works just as well with breakfasts and other things - think of Bruce Willis' character's morning routine in the Fifth Element, with odd details like the long-filtered cigarette.

bravo1102 at 4:40AM, Aug. 26, 2021

So what I'm saying with these multiple posts is that mundane matters can be made into plot points and world building just like mentioned in the article about the show Dexter. His eating alot was part of his characterization. Bankjob it was important that one character always took cold showers and ate saltpeter to keep his concentration.

bravo1102 at 2:41AM, Aug. 26, 2021

Running water could also be a luxury in space travel. Water would be a valuable resource on a spaceship where everything has to be accounted for and you just can't waste gallons of it on bathing when there are waterless alternatives. So again a water shower could be a luxury only available on larger ships and stations as I depicted in the Belle's Best story GOOB.

bravo1102 at 2:38AM, Aug. 26, 2021

A post apocalyptic world usually includes the end of running water. So showers and working bathrooms become a luxury. And every one if those skimpy cars has a bucket and a shovel just like tanks in the field do. See a tanker with a shovel he's off to the shitter.

marcorossi at 1:41AM, Aug. 26, 2021

In Fist of the North Star (and many other post-apocaliptic stories inspired by Mad Max) characters are aleays going around desert with skimpy cars. Where do they shit? Can you imagine Kenshiro taking a dump behind a dune? Won't they stink horrendously?

bravo1102 at 12:48AM, Aug. 26, 2021

There's only one bathroom on the bridge. It's on the opposite wall you never see. Since it's a great way to show characters naked I have plenty of shower scenes. Even did a communal barracks shower room so there could be reactions to what was going on. In Belle's Best whenever the cameras stop rolling everyone has a bottle or cup in hand to stay hydrated between takes. There was a running gag in Attack_of_the_Robofemoids about coffee breaks and in Interstellar Blood Beasts there was the scene where the doctor went to the bathroom and missed an attack by the monsters.