Just on the basis of this quote, I couldn’t disagree with this more as a core assertion or as a gross over-simplification. The presentation that doing the right things for the right reasons is undramatic and boring is arguably immoral and uneithical, and an abdication of the power of media.
Reposted from
The Spaceshipper 🚀
“Characters need to be doing the right things for the wrong reasons, or the wrong things for the right reasons. If they’re just doing the right things for the right reasons, they are boring; and if they’re doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons, you don’t identify with them.”
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The challenges the characters face, and their struggle to overcome them, can be independent of their reasons for engaging in the struggle. That can still be very dramatic and is the core of plenty of exciting stories.
It seems that looking cool is more important than authenticity.
Today, a presidential candidate can be a scumbag, swear, lie and appear cool if he is "anti-establishment".
Genuinely good people like Gandhi, MLK, Mandela wouldn't be well accepted today.
As a 80s/90s kid, I did the ironic detachment judo we all learned as a coping mechanism. Only as I got older did I really start to value earnestness in expression.
As a reader/watcher/listener/creator I think ignoring 1/2 of the right/wrong motivations and actions possibilities is limiting.
People are enigmatic.