#Also not a fave episode of mine but avatar's beach episode
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does filler exist? sure absolutely
is excessive filler annoying? yeah kinda
but that's not the problem that's happening. They're not cutting FILLER they're cutting CHARACTERIZATION moments. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to say that ONLY FOCUS ON PLOT/CHARACTER/ETC CUZ THAT'S ALL THAT MATTER, that's not my point at ALL. Absolutely write your fluff. The same way that we need humor in a horror movie to take a moment to breathe and then the horror hits that much harder when it returns because we had a moment to relax, fluff serves a similar function to take a break from the plot
but that's not what I think the main problem is. A lot of things that are considered "filler" nowadays are actually really important characterization moments. Moments that makes us see that the characters are human. That they have feelings. That there are things they enjoy and things they fear. That there are situations where they could be silly, or serious. And if these moments are what's getting cut because you're only focusing on plot, then OF COURSE the story feels empty! At this point they aren't even people anymore they're just characters trying to carry a story from point A to point B and that's not enjoyable
Who cares if the characters aren't currently trying to obtain the macguffin, now we know how much they care about each other, or how much their relationship means to each other. Or we just see them having fun and it reminds us not only of our own relationships where we have fun, but also TO HAVE FUN IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS, and then if something happens to those characters that changes that relationship, that's going to hit so much harder going forward, especially if it affects the plot
I hear all the time "People don't remember what you were wearing, or what you said, they remember how you made them feel" and that applies here too. The most important part of any story are the characters, and if we remember the characters having happy good times, then idk it just makes the story so much richer and that's NECESSARY for a good story
everyone's been getting tired of shorter and shorter and more condensed shows, and it's because of this. There's a REASON why all the avatar adaptations keep getting backlash, and it's not just cuz of *gestures vaguely to dumpster fire*. It's because they're cutting out all the fat. They're cutting out all the fun characterization. We don't see the gaang having fun. We don't see them bonding with each other. And it suffers
to borrow from the poster above me, sure you can trim the fat off your beef, but it's not going to taste nearly as good then if you cooked it WITH the fat on
as with everything, there is a balance of course, but please, for any aspiring writers or even just fan fic writers
keep that fluff. it's good for the story
Working on my novel and couldn’t figure out why it felt so empty. I didn’t have any filler. It was all 100% plot. The characters only interacted when necessary. I didn’t prattle on about the scenery or how the birds sounded. I had all my fuller stuff that I loved saved in another file because I “didn’t need it”.
Y’all, I knew this existed in TV shows but it didn’t hit me until this that everything is being whittled down. We are so starving for filler that we snap up anything. I unload all mine on Tumblr or keep it in a massive Google Docs. It SUCKS.
Honestly? Death to plot necessity. Revive filler. Revive unnecessary interactions. Revive just vibing with characters sometimes. I don’t want to just consume the plot and I don’t want to just create the plot either.
#writing#filler#fluff#I have so many thoughts on this#I am personally of the boat#a scene matters if it moves the plot forward#AND/OR#gives us characterization#which a lot of the stuff getting cut nowadays does#true filler imo does neither and those are the annoying ones that people complain about and use as proof to not do fillers#kinda a weird point to make#especially since I'll never engage with the star wars fandom#BUT#my favorite episode of Star Wars rebels?#was considered filler until the final season hit and brought something back from it#(space whales in case anyone was wondering)#my favorite episode from avatar is the Ember Island players#Also not a fave episode of mine but avatar's beach episode#is FULL of characterization#and it's so good#and yummy#I should point out tho#the OG definition of a filler comes from anime#when the anime catches up with the manga#and it can't cancel#so it just makes filler for the manga to release more chapters#so they can make more canon episodes once they have enough material gathered after stalling with a bunch of filler#that's the origin of filler#but nowadays people take it to mean like#anything that doesn't further the plot
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