I believe that writing is what is keeping me whole. I'll stay loud and proud for my beliefs, and I'll stay who I am for my art. Without being able to write freely I don't know who I'd be, but now I have a chance to figure that out. Watch as I paint the world in my eyes, so it could maybe give colors to yours.
Freedom is hard to come by in this age. It's difficult to just go out and speak in the streets your freedom because the world limits us. This blog is my form of a town square. Please find comfort in the town crier telling of dangers, or the court jester trying to give you a laugh. They had their purposes, and now I have mine.
Last blog before senior year. I don’t think I’ve really processed that, so I’m just kind of in awe. I looked back at some of my older poetry recently, and I am so thankful that all of you have been here to help me grow as a writer. Y’all are so nice because some of that stuff was straight up buns. At least I had enough passion to get here.
I guess I’ll give some life updates.
Stuff that’s stayed the same: My name is still Nick, my pronouns are still He/Him, I’m still transgender, I’m still ginger, I still play guitar, I still love The Walking Dead, I still love cowboys and the west, and I’m still working on the outline for the zombie book series I made with my friend. By the way, I’m not sure if I ever said the name of it, but it’s Reign of Decay.
Stuff that’s changed: I thought I wanted to be a lawyer when I got here, but as you guys know I want to be a doctor. I thought I was going to be a short story writer, but I actually much prefer poetry over anything. I’ve been getting into using the Joost Klein and like using him as my wake up music (but this is like a brand new change, I hope it sticks). I don’t hate my haircut too much anymore. I think I’m getting medicated over the summer! Oh, and I’m actually hyped to see what the future brings me!
This has been a freaking amazing Junior year. I just know I wouldn’t have had an even close experience to the joy I’ve had here if I stayed at my old school. All that joy has to do with all of the amazing gorgeous beautiful show stopping people that are in attendance here. I don’t think I could’ve made it though this year without seeing my classmates commit to their craft.
I have some goals for next year like writing a few chapters of RoD after I finish getting stuff actually in line, learning over 200 songs on guitar, and sticking to going to that gym on the second floor. I really hope I stick to these, and I hope all of you stick to your goals. Speaking of your goals, tell me about them! I wanna come back to this post after we reach our senior year.
Okay, so that’s been a lot of yapping for this year. Honestly, I’m gonna miss my weekly yapping. I think I’ll actually start blogging on SpaceHey so I can keep down this habit. Good luck on your exams, good luck on your move out, drive safe, eat something sweet, and don’t forget I love you guys! ByeBye!!
If you’ve heard me talk about my future over the past year, then you’ve probably heard a million different plans for my future. If it was possible, I would be both a doctor and a lawyer, but there’s no way I could make myself go through like 16 years of school. So, I’ve settled for being a doctor! I’ve also wanted to be a writer for years and have a million books I want to write, but I’m unsure of the time I’d have if I went through with that. So, I’ve decided to promise myself medical poetry!
I also want to live in Oregon with my best friend, and I want to live in a farm, maybe a ranch, maybe just have a very large produce garden. Oh and I wanna have a life in the city! How about life in a beach town? I want it all!
But realistically, I can’t do it all. I don’t expect myself to do it all. I don’t hold myself to expectations where I’d do all this in the one lifetime I have. In my future, I plan to be a doctor and poet and maybe live somewhere with a large garden, but I will not be angry with myself if I don’t reach one of those things. Sacrificing my passions and happiness to accomplish EVERYTHING would be pretty stupid. I’m not saying if that you the reader are stupid if you want to accomplish everything and sacrifice your happiness to get there, but I’m saying that if I myself did that it would be stupid.
I want to open a bakery too! I want to study history as a job! I want to be a musician and produce music! But honestly, I’m not going to do any of those things. I can read up on history if I have free time, and I can bake with my friends. I don’t write music, but I can always play guitar for a small audience. If there’s something that I really really want to do, I can make a simpler compromise! Again, I’m not gonna force myself into a box for my future.
This post for me is a little attempt at like hope. I want all of you to find things you want to do that may seem too big and then try to find some kind of compromise. We’re almost to the end of the year, and we’re reaching a point of where we’re going to be making big steps to our futures. Please, try to have a little peace in this last few weeks. Good luck on your exams, and good luck to your futures.
Okay, enough with the hopecore. Everybody watch Some Assembly Required on Netflix. It’s a kids show from Canada and I don’t think Netflix has all the episodes. It’s really dumb. ByeBye!!
I’ve been randomly remembering a lot of stuff lately. I think I’m finally at a point where my brain can process things because we’re about to be out of school. Whatever it is, things from my childhood are sticking out like a sore thumb to me. I’m not going to go into my past traumas or anything for this post, but I am going to talk about the things that are more fun!!
To start this off, I randomly remembered a game from when I was little. Now, I’m not sure why I remembered this or what version it was, but there are these two games on the app store called “Bread Kittens” and “Bread Puppies.” I think I played the cat version when I was little. Earlier this week I re-downloaded it and YEESH. It hasn’t had an update in six years, and the entire layout is glitched to high heavens.
It is NOT supposed to look like that. This is a screenshot from my phone
This is what the game is supposed to look like, picture from the Bread Kittens fandom wiki. I honestly have no clue how in the world it got that messed up.
I don’t remember much about the game or how little me came across it, but I vividly remember the art style of the cats and the types of bread. I think the game came out in like 2014 or 2015? Whenever it was, it was over a decade a go. I miss that era… maybe because I was like six.
Another thing I’ve remembered recently was this story me and an exfriend started writing. It was BUNS I tells ya. I mean, we started writing it during quarantine and it was all we talked about in sixth grade. The characters were generic, the romances were weird and abrupt, and it was sooo edgy. I need to go back and remake the characters that I had made because they’d be good background characters, especially the twins who were I think the main characters?? I think the girl in the pair of twins was the main character. That and her girlfriend… who was an absolute Mary Sue
If you don’t know what a Mary Sue is, it’s basically an overpowered character who is loved by everyone and can do nothing wrong. They still pop up today, but they were especially common in like the 2000s-2010s in the scene of making fan characters for media. Sometimes they were original characters for their own stories, but even in their origin they were fan characters.
Their origin comes from Star Trek of all things. Honestly, if you look back far enough into something fandom related, it’ll always link back to Star Trek. Anyway, Mary Sue was a character made by one of the writers of Star Trek to mock the fans! There was a fanzine that let fans send in their own fanfiction to be published. Sometimes these fans would submit a story including an original character that was loved by everyone on the ship loved and that saved the day every time.
In the short story that was created to mock these “Mary Sues,” they kill her in the end. I think she also wins a Nobel Peace Prize.
Sorry for that little Mary Sue rant, but I’ve got one more thing that I’ve remembered. My obsession with zombies! My family has always been a big fan of The Walking Dead. Actually, my mom’s roommate in college was in the first season!! When I was little, I used to sneak into my parents’ room to watch with them. In my brain I mixed a few things up. I very vaguely remembered a character dying only because I remembered her shirt being on a zombie. The scene I remember from when I was little was completely different from the actual scene. Also, little me was BLASTING “The Zombie Song” by Stephanie Mabey. I miss this era </3
Okay, shut up Nick. That is ENOUGH. Yappatron is being turned off. This week’s short story is gonna be zombie related by the way. Haha get spoiled NERDS. Jk ily guys. Okay I’m done now. ByeBye!!
I do NOT WANT TO WRITE THIS WEEK. I love ghosts, but I will have to postpone the ghosting. This week I’m going to talk about… er.. uh…. why I like zombies so much!! Not my usual dead people, but they’re still dead! That’s morbid, but I know you guys don’t care about morbidity.
I want to start this with the fact that the most realistic zombies are The Last of Us’s zombies, but I will be talking about the more known zombies akin to The Walking Dead and like Dawn of the Dead. They’re my favorite breed of zombie because the writers focus more on the world building and the characters rather than trying to make the zombies unique. This isn’t always the case, but from what I’ve seen that’s usually what happens.
Dead people just wandering around. I don’t think enough zombie media expresses how terrifying that would be. Honestly, I think with the way social media works these days the most recent generations are somewhat desensitized to the idea of people dying because of the early exposure to things like Instagram reels where you can see people being executed or YouTube where you can find literal recreations of these situations. It’s saddening and distressing, and I think it takes away an innocence that would make these types of zombie media more terrifying.
You’re walking down the street and you see someone who’s literally decaying just strolling towards you. I think written zombie media, which doesn’t really exist all that often, is the scariest because it can go deep into the feeling of the characters and the description of the zombies. With shows like The Walking Dead and All of Us Are Dead, you see the zombies so often that they kind of become less scary and more cartoonish. Not in a literal way where their costuming changes, but again it’s a desensitization. The only think I can think of that has stayed consistently scary is the 28 Days Later series. We see them less often, and their ability to keep going is just EW.
When you get into a zombie apocalypse, literally what would something like homophobia do. Genuinely, hey, there’s a dead lady over there that wants to eat anything that’s still alive. Who cares if I kiss boys, brother we are gonna DIE. I appreciate the way these pieces of media show people letting go of their phobias and isms until they find somewhere peaceful. People causing problems for themselves after so much fighting for everyone to stay alive is so interesting to me, and I think apocalyptic situations are such a good way to show that these are purely human concepts instead of instincts.
The instinct is to survive, that’s the base of us all. Shows where the big bad starts as zombies are able to explore these concepts so well in my opinions. I’m not saying that these concepts can’t be explored in different ways; I’m just saying that this way is one of my favorites.
Man, I feel like I didn’t say much this week! I mean, that’s around 500 words so it isn’t nothing, but it feels like I could’ve done more. Didn’t have the energy to do so though. I might go more into these thoughts another week. Anyway, I hope everyone had a good Easter Break. ByeBye!!
Great title, Nick! Thanks, Nick! Wow guys… season five. We’re in the home stretch now. Ghosts season five. The last season!!! I’ll admit to y’all now, this post is gonna be shorter than my usual ones. There are a lot of things that I don’t want to spoil this season! It’s a ton of very important reveals to everyone’s stories, so I’m gonna have to leave y’all on a little bit of a cliffhanger this time!
I do want to talk about this season, but really I’ve gotta keep my lips shut. Just know that my favorite episodes are the last two because…. UGH. Really, what I’ll be talking about this week is more of a drabble about the American version of Ghosts! For my own ease, I’ll be referring to the British version as BBC and the American version as CBS.
I don’t like the CBS version very much. While it is nice to be able to tune into the show like I used to, it’s just not the same. First, I’ll talk about the cast size.
There are just way too many cooks in this kitchen. I get it, big house and big history, but it’s way too many characters for what it’s supposed to be. I mean, there are multiple occasions of ghosts appearing for just on episode. One! In a show about dead people who shouldn’t be able to leave their property! The cast of main ghosts is already big enough. In looking for photos of them, it’s difficult to find clips of the show where they’re all together, but there’s only promo pictures! Also, they usually don’t have all the ghosts on set because there’s too many of them! They don’t feel realistic either.
They’re all way too modern for the time they’re supposed to be from. Genuinely an issue I have is that they don’t lean into the fact that they’re dead people from certain eras. Usually their timelines are used for one joke each, then they go to basically a sitcom without a laugh track, or hands. It’s like the writers don’t know what to do with the ghosts sometimes. There are multiple occasions of the ghosts just standing in a line saying quirky quips as Sam, CBS’s Allison, talks to a real person and looks mildly dismayed.
Look how bright everything is! This doesn’t look like a show about dead people. If you cut out the title it’d all look like a weird costume party. The show is funny don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not as charming. The cinematography is so bright and stiff, same with the costuming. These characters rarely have any growth, and when they thought one of the ghosts moved on they brought her back because she was a fan favorite! Ridiculous! They’re scared to do anything too major to their characters. Also, the show about dead people somehow managed to bury their gays.
If you aren’t familiar with that phrase, burying your gays is a homophobic writing tactic where a character is killed off shortly after they were on screen because they don’t want to have a queer character develop. Their Captain caricature, the one with the ruffled collar(his name is Isaac), has a whole plot line where he’d going to get married to a man! Then he falls in love with a living stripper! Then the stripper dies, but oh whoopty doo the dead stripper actually has a ghost power that lets him permanently leave the place he died! They don’t really bring back the ghost that Isaac was going to marry, and they just leave him. He’s a stereotype of a queer man and I don’t like him very much. It’s like they saw the jokes about the Captain being queer and thought “oh that means we can have a gay punching bag” rather than a complex man dealing with his internalized queerness! They joke about Isaac forcing himself to marry a woman if he never met Sam! Boo! Gross!
I need to calm down, I’m ranting a bit too much. Next week I’ll delve more into my thoughts on the Captain’s character. I needed to talk about my issues with CBS for a moment. So sorry for the long post this week! I’ll wrap it up there. Have such a good week, go see Mama Mia and tell me how it is because I won’t be able to go this weekend sadly. ByeBye!!
Still trying to make eye catching titles! I really want to get better at interesting titles, and I hope this one lands well! This isn’t a self deprecating post… I’m talking about the second to last season of Ghosts! I’ll ask this question early on just in case y’all don’t get through it; if you were to be a ghost and could interact with the living in some way, what would be your ghost power?
Season Four Episode Two, “Speak as ye Choose” Pictured: The Captain (Ben Willbond) and Kitty (Lolly Adefope)
Season four follows Mike and Allison’s endeavors as they open the gate house to the public as a BnB. The ghosts adapt fairly easily, this time it’s Mike and Allison struggling like crazy. The antics in this season are extra silly, but it evens out pretty well.
I can’t talk about my favorite episode. It’ll spoil a huge plot point, so I’ll talk about my second favorite. “Speak as ye Choose!” It’s a fantastic episode. This season we get to learn more about Mary, especially this episode. She’s actually gotten so far, that the beginning of the episode is all of the ghosts horrified by hearing about her death! The witch trialll yess!!! The whole A plot of the episode is Mary telling Julian how she as a past repressed woman gained her voice. The B plot follows the Captain trying to figure out life without a schedule, and he learns about just getting side-tracked with Kitty. He finds a bit of himself while Mary talks about how she found herself. Genuinely a beautiful episode!
This is another season where I don’t really have a least favorite, but if I had to pick it would be “Poached Guests.” There’s a new ghost that died just outside of the property, so their plot is just them bothering some poor dude. He fakes moving on so they’ll leave him alone. Then Allison and Mike’s neighbor, Barclay Beg-Chetwynde, tries to steal their BnB ghosts. This starts a whole fight between them that ends with Barclay getting reported for planting asbestos in Button House. It’s all a pretty alright episode. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it.
I think I’ll be able to get through this planned series of posts by the end of this year which makes me super happy. You know what else makes me super happy? A GHOSTS MOVIE WAS ANNOUNCED!!! THEY STARTED FILMING ON THE SECOND!!!!! I keep seeing behind the scenes pictures and it makes me so happy. I like to think that I manifested the movie by not shutting up about ghosts to y’all.
Top left to right: Laurence Rickard, Simon Farnaby, Mathew Baynton. Bottom left to right: Ben Willbond, Martha Howe-Douglass, Jim Howick.
My heart is just so so happy y’all. I know that during our senior year I’ll be able to post about alllll the ghosts. If I’m not mistaken I think all of the original actors have been confirmed to be returning. Very exciting! Okay, that’s it for me, season four, and the movie announcement. ByeBye!
That lured you in didn’t it? Well guess what, I’m not into really “Ghosting” people as some would say. Frankly I don’t really have anyone to ghost at the moment. What I mean by ghosting is… BBC Ghosts, the 2019 series that I only got to season 2 of. Well, I’ve watched it like 30 million times, but I only talked about it to the second season, so I think it’s time to continue. I know y’all don’t wanna read about my stupid ghost show, but PLEASE. Season 3 is like my favorite season you’ve gotta listen to me talk about it.
Season Three Episode Three, “Woodworm Men” Pictured: The Captain (Ben Willbond), Allison Cooper (Charlotte Ritchie), and Pat Butcher (Jim Howick)
This season has Mike and Allison being introduced to Allison’s long lost half-sister Lucy. That’s right, Allison has a sister! And she’s found her though a documentary they filmed at Button House about one of the ghosts’ past… Humphrey! The headless one with very small plot relevance! Little known fact, he’s my fourth favorite ghost. The main plot of this season revolves around Allison’s relationship with her new found sister while trying to avoid things such as inheritance and the fact that Allison can see ghosts. Won’t spoil much because this, again, is my favorite season.
My favorite episode this season? Oh I’m sooo glad you asked. Episode three, Woodworm men!!!!! Button House is being fumigated, so Allison and Mike decide to leave and not die from poisonous gasses. After a bit of squabbling, they decide to have a little bit of a camping competition. Who likes camping in Button House? My dear dear Patrick Butcher. The Captain is also there because, as much as he likes to be the smartest man in the room, he actually doesn’t know much about camping, so, to prove himself if a way, he goes out camping with Allison and Pat to learn a bit more. After the tent is put up, Kitty accidentally watches A Nightmare on Elm Street instead of Grease, Thomas gets bored of the house and struggles to describe Paris, Mary finishes blessing the house from the fumigating demons, and Julian and Robin scare themselves to death(second death?)they all listen to Pat tell campfire stories and spend time together. Allison gets sick of them and goes to Mike’s tent, admitting she cheated in their competition by having help. Captain gets some character development, Julian and Robin duo at their peak, and Pat (my goat) gets more screen time.
Honorable Mention: “Something to Share?” Basically all of the ghosts sit around and get vulnerable. The Captain almost comes out… but is interrupted a few times and he stops himself before he can get there. We learn about Kitty’s past and about her evil sister as well, her sister plays a very important part to her character later on and kind of explains more about her character. I love Kitty so much, my sweet sweet daughter.
What’s my least favorite episode this season? Honestly I don’t know. The Bone Plot gives up more insight on Humphrey’s character; A Lot to Take In introduces Allison’s sister, Lucy; The Woodworm Men, my clear favorite; I Love Lucy shows Kitty’s jealousy, we get Julian and Robin hijinks, and more Captain content; Something to Share is an important look into most of the character’s backgrounds; and Part of the Family is a beautiful closure to the season and we get to see how smart Fanny is! Fanny’s knowledge is shown more in the Christmas episode for this season as well. Honestly I don’t have a least favorite. At all. I guess it would be I Love Lucy, but again it’s a great episode. I guess this all just speaks for how good this season is.
Well, that’s it about season three. Season four was actually when Ghosts was taken off of HBO max and I was going through a bit of a withdraw haha!! I mean I had been a fan since 2021 and then it all just disappeared!! It’s all on Prime and Apple TV now which is great! I think I cried when I realized I wasn’t gonna have access to those new episodes… Well that’s over now, who really cares! The show’s been over for almost three years now and I don’t even careee I’m finneeeeee. Okay really, that’s enough. ByeBye!
If you’ve talked to me recently about college or future work, you’d know that I have a keen interest in going into medicine! For a long time I was throwing around law, social work, teaching, and a whole bunch of other things. I never wanted to go into culinary like my mom and brother, and medicine just seemed super intimidating. Then I started this show called The Pitt. I was never someone to watch medical dramas, they didn’t make sense and stressed me out. I also was not in a house that watched shows like that, they either made my dad queasy or were just medically inaccurate.
After watching the first season of the Pitt, genuinely it made me realize what I wanted to do with my future. My main goal was “helping people’ through maybe tough times, family law, or anything of the sort. I wanted to have a direct impact in a positive way. In being a doctor I would be able to accomplish that! Also, I’d be able to have more guidance through school because of all the doctors and nurses in my family.
Because of my interest, I started looking into colleges, medical schools, and going more into my future more than I ever have. All of this, because of… DA PITT??? Ridiculous, really. Noah Wyle your kind smile and beautiful brown eyes have captivated me.
If I’m just talking about The Pitt, then why did I say “Medical ShowS” you may be wondering (I know you’re not, just stick with it please). Well, after finishing the second episode of season two of The Pitt, I realized that…. uh oh I’m bored I need my fix. I then realized that Noah Wyle was somewhat known for medical shows. That being in an ER was his bread and butter. ER…. er….. the show ER!!! I’m on the second episode and it’s really good so far! If you have an interest in the Pitt, you should also watch ER. Peak I tell you.
Side tangent, but they really don’t take promo pictures like they used to. I get that The Pitt has a huge cast even in the first season, but can you please give me a shot of them making inquisitive eye contact with the camera? Enough with these action shots and behind the scenes out of character pictures! I need clear references of my favs from their promo material!! BOOOOOOO!!!!!! Okay, I think that’s all I have to say. ByeBye!!
To celebrate almost a year of guitar playing and 100 songs learned, I wanted to make a post on why I love guitar so much. Just about everyone in this class has probably seen me around campus playing guitar with a group of people. Music seems to bring a small crowd wherever it is, and I enjoy that aspect of the instrument. As I’m typing this, there are guitar tabs open on a different window haha!!
Me Playing Guitar Outside
Taylor, Taylor GS Mini, Fender (i think)
Banjo-like Guitar, 12-String Taylor, Yamaha
I’ve been playing guitar since January of last year. I was grounded for a few weeks because I hadn’t completed an assignment and it tanked my grades a bit. I decided to take the time I had and put it into something that I had been interested in doing since I was very little.
There’s an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia where the gang ends up going to a music store. Charlie sits down at the piano and without having played one somehow understands the process saying, “I don’t really know, man. I just get keys.” That’s how I was when I took to the strings of my brothers Taylor GS Mini, which was later given to me in a series of hand-me-downs.
After learning a few songs and getting un-grounded, my dad started telling me about the many guitars that I had grown up around. Pictured to the left is a banjo that was built like a guitar so my dad would have an easier time learning how to play it. The guitar at the bottom was my grandfather’s. He didn’t play it as much, so he gave it to my dad. I’m not a fan of it though, the action is too high (meaning that the strings are high above the neck of the guitar) and it hurts my hands.
Most of the music I learned was alone during the beginning of the year. I didn’t know many other people who were interested in guitar, and none of my friends lived near me. I was self taught and used it as a way to calm myself or maybe just stop myself from being so bored. My parents love to hear me play, but having such a small audience made it difficult for me to push myself when it came to new songs or new techniques. I would stick to my comfort level and never move past it.
In march of last year, I auditioned to attend here at MSA just like the rest of you did. There I met Sarah and CJ. CJ wanted to start a band with the three of us plus David and my friend Em. Though this didn’t work out in the end, CJ brought back my passion to play guitar and learn more music. During orientation week, we spent a lot of time in the lounge playing guitar together. I was pushed by my peers to listen to music by artist I didn’t hear much of in my own playlists and play more complicated things. People sat and listened to us play, and really it brought me a type of happiness I hadn’t felt much. Maybe it was a bit prideful, or maybe it just felt good to make people smile when they heard music they liked. Whatever made be feel that specific type of happiness, I can thank guitar for it.
I’m getting closer to the word limit so I think it’s time for me to cut this. Now, just because I know 100 songs doesn’t mean I’m good at all of them. Some I’m still learning, and others I’m just REALLY rusty on. I think I’m going to start playing in the lounge and on the patio if possible. I miss playing around people!!!! Okay, that’s enough for now. ByeBye!!
(This posts starts with talking about Stranger Things, but it is used as an example for lack of media literacy. I tried to exclude as many spoilers as possible. Please stay and enjoy!!)
Taking a quick pause to the ghosting(hehehehe get it?) because OHHH MY GOD season five of stranger things. When I tell you this is on track to being one of my favorite seasons I MEAN IT!! All I’ve seen negatively about it are social media posts while the season(or one of the episodes, I can’t remember) has a rating of 9.8 out of 10!! What??? I will not be spoiling much if any of the plot of season five or any of the big events, because if you haven’t seen it yet you definitely should. There are a lot of call backs to season two(the best season) and it’s just found itself back to its more humble roots which is amazing.
As the season has released, there have been a lot of realizations from the GA(General Audience). Such as the fact that Will, “in fairyland with all the other faries, all happy and gay,” Byers is gay. Such as the fact that Will, “survivor of the upside down,” Byers is strong. Such as the fact that the show about losers has losers that act like losers in it. Such as the fact that when people are traumatized their personalities change up a little.
What cannot be pictured at this moment is me looking around for cameras. Because what do you mean you didn’t realize the premise of the show? There is a character brought back from an earlier season that many people didn’t know, even though she was very important to one of the character’s arcs. Someone recently posted that their mom, who had watched the entire series, didn’t know what the Upside Down was. Y’know, the main bad place that the story REVOLVES around. All of this has led me to realize a real issue, people aren’t enjoying shows anymore. They’re just watching them.
Nick, what do you mean by “just watching them”? Well, have you ever just left a podcast on while doing something? Has a documentary been put on during your class that you didn’t particularly care about, so you just zoned out while it played? Have you watched a show like Big Bang Theory or Rick and Morty so many times that you know what happens so it can be background noise? Well, the GA is treating new shows like those things stated previously even though their new shows linear and have a heavy important plot. They aren’t getting excited about shows and their stories, they’re just consuming them to say they’ve watched them.
There are some shows that you literally can’t watch without absorbing them and fan theories.Creating a fandom or community space where you can make friends is kind of the POINT of some of these shows. My favorite examples are Lost and From, which are two series created by the same people that relied on fans interacting and making theories. Even Stranger Things needs a fandom to survive. I mean, why include A Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy love triangle if the fans aren’t suppose to choose sides? I mean, they did this back in the day with Twilight, those team Jacob and Team Edward shirts weren’t ironic.
The only way a series will survive is not just by viewer ship, but by fans. The Walking Dead, while not coming from the main series anymore, is still continuing because they have fans talking amongst themselves! Most members of the GA will stop at the main series and go “Yeah I like the walking dead.” An actual fan will watch the like eight spinoffs and go “Oh I love TWD!” They’ll contribute by following the actors’ other works, going to conventions, buying merch. They’ll make friends because they’re a fan.
But now, people need things spelled out to them. Audiences don’t think, they just observe. I think what’s to blame is AI and the constant usage and assurance needed from things like Chat GPT, but maybe I’m just too woke. I mean, this one person thought a character introduced in season 4 was Will’s dad………… as if we don’t know Lonnie Byers abused him and the rest of their family, like this was stated in the FIRST EPISODE OF STRANGER THINGS. If you’re having AI do EVERYTHING for you, then you WILL lose your media literacy and your writing WILL suffer.
AI today is used for EVERYTHING, and I really hope that my fellow writers aren’t the type to rely on it. Your average Joe not having basic media literacy is already bad enough, but the people here not having media literacy? That would be HORRIBLE. Please please PLEASE my fellow literaries, do not rely on AI, especially not when it comes to your writing. Read a book, watch a show, watch a movie, listen to some music, then discuss those things with your peers! Get opinions, have conversation, don’t just sit idly while taking in media and actually do something with your brains!!! Don’t fall in with the crowd that can’t enjoy something without the joke being explained. USE YOUR BRAIN SOMETIMES. IT’S OKAY.
YIKES. I yapped a lot this week. I’m just very passionate about participation and media literacy….. clearly. I’ll get back to my ghosting next week, PLEASE interact with those y’all, even if it’s telling me to shut up (crying emoji). Okay, ByeBye!!!!