STRANGER THINGS MEGA SPOILERS AHEAD So I finally got to see the finale of Stranger Things. You know me, I like to come late to the game. The trick is avoiding spoilers. But there seems to be some disquiet about its conclusion, and I don’t know why. Something called “conformity gate“. I don’t think this refers to a gate to the Upside Down, but the traditional suffix for controversy (like “Watergate”). This meme refers to the disappointment some viewers had that, in the epilogue, all the main characters went on to lives that matched their goals or character arcs. They “conformed” to the roles expected of them. It was perfect.…
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Writers – Don’t Ever Use This Trope
I didn’t have to use such a click-baity headline, but I have an AI plugin that tells me how “engaging” my post title is and it always falls below 50%. And even this one it doesn’t like–it gives me 48/100. I hate fake-out endings. Only now did I realize just how much I hated them. I watched Cell with John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, a bad movie to be sure, but I’d read the book a long time ago so nothing was spoiled. Except the ending deviates quite a bit, even though it was written by the same guy (Stephen King). I can totally understand why an ending might…
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Avatar’s Ending Sucks
It’s been about five days since when I was supposed to be reading Avatar and now, yet, I still haven’t done it yet. I’ve been too busy obsessing over the niggling details that I feel are keeping my story out of publication (damn that editor guy). Mostly the ending. From what I remember about my critiques, about half thought it was too “deus ex machina” and the other half didn’t say anything, so I’m tyring to think of something more significant, something more resonant. But everything I come up with still reeks of some third party coming in and fixing everything. I can’t figure out how to end it that…
