#and this isn't to say that indepth sci-fi/fantasy like Star Trek and Lord Of The Rings doesn't have its own value | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

friend-dispenser · 4 years ago

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Hey did you guys know there's a 30 tag limit on tumblr? I kinda went on a rant, so hit read more if you want to see it

Edgeworld doesn’t really work like that! There’s not really any such thing as being magical or biological; the world is nonsense and things happen because they should, rather than any kind of in universe logic.

Dragons breathe fire because that’s just what they’re expected to do. Elves do magic because fae are SUPPOSED to grant wishes and curse people. Peoples insides are entirely nonfunctional and don’t actually connect to anything, but work anyway because that’s just how bodies should work.

The entire setting is dependent on being a fictional representation of concepts and ideas people know about in real life, and doesn’t actually make sense to the people inhabiting the world. It’s there for an audience they don’t know exists.

The world is very confusing to your average Edgeworlder.

(This, by the way, is why it’s totally fine to scrap and change concepts in fan stuff; “I, the author, want this thing to happen” is already how things work in the first place!)

#i love this approach to worldbuilding so much #i know some people get annoyed when worldbuilding doesn't have an explanation for everything or is 'unrealistic'#but I fucking love when a creator just goes wild and comes up with super out there stuff just for the fun of it #and the key here is that this world DOES still have rules #the main one being having some kind of tie to tropes the audience would probably be familiar with #like the idea that dragons can breathe fire #but within that framework the creator can just fill in the details with whatever ideas are most interesting to them #or what works for the story they're trying to tell or just whatever they feel like #i love that #i see now why this artist has been showing up in my recommendeds for a month #another rant that I feel like typing right now feel free to scroll down if you don't care:#spoiler warning for the movie Your Name #i once had a surprisingly tense argument with a friend about the use of time travel in this movie #she found it really irritating the way it was executed cause of the way it allowed for paradoxes to form and split timelines and all that #and I get that that's a thing some people find hard to ignore #but if you're positioning that as a criticism of the movie's writing...what else were they supposed to do?#there is literally no other way you could tell this story #these characters having this surreal window into each other's lives and each being able to majorly influence the other's life #that's what creates most of the tension and intrigue in the story #and it explores so many interesting themes and emotions by asking what being a situation like that would feel like #so if they wanted to have a 'realistic' depiction of time travel based on theoretical physics or whatever #this story would be completely gutted #the incredible work of art that is Your Name simply wouldn't exist #and this isn't to say that indepth sci-fi/fantasy like Star Trek and Lord Of The Rings doesn't have its own value #this friend is a huge fan of both of those things and I totally get what she sees in them #we watched the lotr movies together and I really enjoyed them #but the idea that that kind of worldbuilding is superior #to exploring more out-of-the-box unrefined ideas for the emotional value or just straight up because it's fun #that makes me so mad. fiction can be anything you want and as long as somebody is enjoying what you create than you're doing something right #so yeah nonsense organ systems and dragons that breathe fire just because they're dragons are concepts that I can definitely get behind

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