4 Thoughts On Modern Entertainment

For the past two weeks, I haven't posted anything. I'm fine, life has just been a little hectic lately. But I'm back!

I had a book planned for today's post, but I, being the smart person I am, returned it to the library thinking I would remember all the points I was going to make. Of course, I've forgotten all but one and procrastinated for so long the library is now closed.

So instead of a normal LFTM post, here's a list of things I've noticed in a lot of modern entertainment.

1. On diversity.

Considering entertainment from, say, Tolkien's time, diversity has improved by kilometres. All humans are beautiful in their own way. All humans have some kind of scar. Africans, Asians, Europeans, Americans, Australians. Males and females. What type of body we have. Stripped to our core, we're all the same.

Previously, most, if not all, of the main cast would be white dudes with maybe a few females. Even the white cast seems to be strictly British or a US American. (Or maybe I'm not reading the right books. I'm not too sure, so drop a comment below if I'm wrong!)

Now, casts are so much more varied. There's more colour in the cast. More females who kick butt just as much as the dudes. Sometimes even more so. One thing I particularly love is that body shapes are becoming more varied.

But I think there's still room for improvement. White dudes still seem to be the main character, despite having a character from a different racial background as a sidekick or something. There's other races and genders to pick from. How about a white girl? Or black dude? Or black girl? Who would've thought people would watch movies featuring a black girl as a main character?

Source: Giphy

On the topic of races, I feel like most of the pressure to lessen racism is on African-Americans. Firstly, they are beautiful people and #BLM! Secondly, I'm from Australia and I don't watch the news often, so I may not fully understand bad racism is in America. I don't mean to offend anyone with what I'm about to say, but if I do, please let me know!

Personally, I feel that people are pushing for more black people without remembering about other cultures. Like Asians, for example. I see more writing bloggers posting about why authors should feature more black people, but rarely have I seen them pushing for more Asians. Along with more black people, I would love to see more Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and native cultures.

As for white people, I think we can expand their cultures more too. I would like to see other cultures besides the English or stereotypical American. Celtic people are most definitely white, but their culture is vastly different from the British one. I think we can go beyond the mention (oh hey, I'm Scottish btw) but integrate their culture into the story.

Here's a few shoutouts to some series I think did this well. For no reason, I'm just in the mood. (Not an affiliate or sponsored.)

2. On beginnings.

A lot of beginnings are pretty eh. By beginnings, I mean the first 25% of whichever medium it is. In movies particularly, they're sooooooooooooooooo sloooooooooooooooooooow. Yes, they may set up everything they need to. That doesn't matter.

Be snappy. Be exciting. Be funny. Make me invested in the characters. Have conflict and start raising the stakes.

On the other side of the spectrum, don't rush it. I don't want to have to pause and think, wait, wot? One moment, they're in the real world and boom, they're in a fantasy world. Doesn't work.

Beginnings are hard to nail. Someday, I'll go deeper into (or rather, actually say) how to write your book's beginning, but for now, that's all I have to say.

3. On story structure.

Story structure is great. Most movies follow them to a T. In fact, it's so good that it's predictable. Tell me if this isn't what usually happens.

Yay yay yay, happy life. Oh except for-
Whoops I'm on an adventure.
*gasp* Realisation.
Self existential crisis.
Exciting stuff happens.
The end!

I like story structure. I think it's a tool authors can use to improve their writing. So why is it so much of a problem in modern entertainment?

The structure is not as much as a problem. Rather, it's more to do with Point 4.

4. On depth.

I find that classics have way more depth than most modern entertainment. Anyone else?

Sure, lots of modern entertainment has some kind of moral. But where do they fall flat? I believe it's execution.

Take "Friendship is my power" as an example. It's a common theme. We see this everywhere. Like in the video game series Kingdom Hearts and the ever famous My Little Pony cartoon. Characters from both these series declare some form of "my friends are my power!" While I can stand the one in Kingdom Hearts, the one in MLP makes me gag. (I haven't watched MLP in years. Neither do I endorse it. *bleh* If my facts about it are wrong, let me know in the comments.)

If you want to tell a moral, tell it good. Don't mention it in passing. You have to make it inherent to the plot. KH does this well. Hearts is a strong motif. Characters sacrificing themselves for their friends are major plot points. I could go on, but my mind has blanked out on me. In MLP, the message is forced down your throat. We have a bunch of friends against a usually mean, lonely bad guy. The good guys don't really have any major conflict challenging their friendship.

Source: Gfycat

Examine your planning. Does it have a theme? How are your characters driven by it? Their actions, reactions and motivations drive the plot. The plot too must be connected by theme. Surprising, I know.

Shallow entertainment is entertainment, deep entertainment is a story.

~

Thank you for reading. Come back to my TedTalk another week.

Do you agree with any of these? Do you disagree? Do you have anything else to add? Leave a comment below. If you liked this post, be sure to share, follow and eat chocolate for more content! (Eat chocolate anyway.)

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