Anyone that has written or read fanfiction knows that the AU is the Alternate Universe: the placement of a given set of characters that come from a specific IP or franchise or book or movie into a completely different setting, timeline, or even genre.

The LOTR cast might be thrown ...

Character Motivation

One thing I appreciate in well written stories is the hidden motivations of characters. Well written characters, just like real people, have contradictions to them. Desires and needs that are sometimes in conflict with each other.

Story structure tells us that a character has to WANT something. The ...

Last week’s post of the Fantastic Bestiary dealt with housespirits of ancient Rome. In this post we’re going to the far east, following up on another suggestion left by DD member marcorossi. We are going to study the Naga today. The Nagas are a race of serpentine beings ...

The first time I learned about the gentle sea cows of Florida’ everglades was through a Sierra computer game called EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus. Sierra was actively doing its part to help better the world through creating a series of games that brought to light the dangerous effects of ...

The Disaster Episode is a template that I noticed in the different Star Trek series from the 90's.

It's a neat way to separate a big cast of characters into different small groups. And when it's done well, it can be very powerful and show a different ...

Photo: Venus and Adonis by Peter Paul Rubens

There are few days more appropriate than today to write about Love as a topic. Aphrodite herself, the goddess of love, fell in love with the beautiful Adonis, before his ill-fated day when he encountered the wild boars.

Love comes in many ...

Critics, professional or not, identified a trend in many of the…lesser regarded manga and anime series.
It's the “everyman hero”.

This school of thought is that to make a lead character who is identifiable to everyone in the readership or audience. So the lead will be unremarkable, and ...

Holidays are approaching for roughly all mainstream religions, winter holidays for non-observers, and Christmas is generally the main theme for at least the western world. It's a festive season all around! People rush for Christmas shopping, make plans for vacations or leisure or gatherings, brace for meetings with the ...

Often when there are children in a cast of characters, especially in sitcoms or certain types of movies, audiences groan because they tend to be immensely annoying. They are a very special type of uncanny valley in the way they are written to talk and react. Usually, we get one ...

~Today we have a guest article from Andreas_Helixfinger! Enjoy the read!~

Hey everyone!

It’s you’re one vocal swedish guy on the the Duck Webcomics Andreas Helixfinger. I decided to tune in and do one of these sunday articles after discovering this smaller Youtube channel called TheBurgerkrieg, where the ...