Villains are tremendously important for a story. They set the framework and standard for a lot of things in an unsaid but definite manner: how far your villain is willing to go sets up audience expectations for how big and how dire the stakes will be in the story.
If ...
The Slippery Slope (Or How to Make a Great Villain Origin Arc)
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, May 6, 2023Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Uses Genre Tropes Against You
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, April 1, 2023
Recently I have been revisiting a sitcom that I used to love but, funnily enough, never finished. The last season of the show dropped during a hectic period of my life and by the time I had, well time, to watch it, I had lost the plot. But thanks to ...
Yuppie Horror
Banes at 12:00AM, Oct. 6, 2022
the happy family with a tear/slash between them is the perfect visual for yuppie horror stories!
Yuppie Harra
This name for this category of horror is taken from the horror movie podcast, “With Gourley and Rust”, which I've been enjoying lately. I'm not sure if Gourley and ...
Mind Tricks 2 - The Phantom Life
Banes at 12:00AM, June 9, 2022
On the last “Mind Tricks” discussion, we talked about false memories, where a characters' true nature is hidden from them because of memory loss or artificial memories.
The Phantom Life is similar, certainly in the two examples that I thought of initially…but the stories play out
in a different ...
Steph’s Story “Wavelengths” Shows the Untold Beauty of the Nine to Five
kawaiidaigakusei at 12:00AM, May 2, 2022
Photo: Life is Strange 3, bonus episode “Wavelengths”. Square Enix, Deck Nine.
The studios at Square Enix and Deck Nine have delivered a third installment to their Life is Strange series, titled True Colors due to the protagonist’s ability to see auras, that is both sobering and surprisingly critical ...
Fantastic Bestiary 5: Witches
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:00AM, April 24, 2022
As Easter has come by to melt away the final vestiges of a long, cold winter (at least up in these parts where I live) it feels like a good time to bring up the mythology of witches. Witches have a central role in the Easter that we celebrate here ...
Another December and Another Gift to Fans
Banes at 12:00AM, Dec. 23, 2021
Last December saw the return of iconic hero Luke Skywalker in the Mandalorian. It was a shockingly well-kept secret and I can tell you that I sure didn't see it coming. As a fandom-dweller, it was a beautiful moment that still brings a smile to my scraggly, wrinkled face ...
QUACKCAST 561 - You are being manipulated
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Dec. 14, 2021 LISTEN on our new player!
Listen on Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/drunkduck-quackcast
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/
This interesting Quackcast topic was influenced by a DDer who has been subsumed by anti-CoVid conspiracy. This inspired me to delve into the reasons for the massive ...
Consequences & Familiarity
damehelsing at 12:00AM, Sept. 19, 2021
How many of you write serious/drama filled stories? Or even characters that truly suffer consequences?
I think it’s often that we, as creators and almost like parents, don’t want our kids/creations to suffer terrible consequences, but I think that’s one of the reasons that makes ...
The Torture of Watching
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Aug. 7, 2021
Greece is burning, as I'm writing these lines.
There is fire everywhere, and it's only getting worse. It's probably going to extinguish itself in the sea, when it gets there, in all areas, from central Greece to Attica to Euboia. The ecological disaster is enormous. The consequences ...