#it’s some of the best most in-depth forethought writing I’ve ever seen

[laz-kay]

Mythic Quest have this inevitable use of backstory that makes us love their characters so deeply because they give us no deep lore about anyone at any given moment except for their specific backstory/trauma based episode.

E.g. We perceived Brad as a cold, manipulative, sociopathic, closed off guy. His abusive brother turns up for 8 hours and he loses his shit so much it was the best acting Danny Pudi’s ever portrayed in his goddamn life.

We see C.W as a drunk, old, infamous writer - well past his sell buy date - until we see him in his youth. The struggles he entailed as an aspiring novelist, the way his mind used to work, the visions he saw that no one else understood.

We see Poppy and Ian as narcissistic, elitist creatives, always at each other’s throats. Then we see them as vulnerable children. Kids who had to work to get to where they are. Fighting so many hardships to find each other and to have a kindred spirit for once in their lives.

We see David as a completely open book. An executive producer who gets walked all over and tries to see the best in everyone. A man who’s so optimistic despite the fact he’s a child of divorce, had a drunk, abusive father, and had a traumatic divorce himself.

We’re so blind-sighted by the fact he’s also a suicidal depressive who drinks a bottle of wine every night to help him get to sleep because everyone else’s trauma is more transparent than his.

Which says a lot - considering we know next to nothing about the actual lives of these characters and what their exterior relationships to the company look like in reality.

It’s a hyperbolic realisation about coworker relationships, which is a stunning way to portray a TV show about the people who produce a fantasy role playing video game.

We don’t see what happens to David after a shitty day at the office. We have no idea where Jo lives. Does she live with her parents, or alone, with a partner? Brad?! That man is so ambiguous he could live in a junkyard for all we knew! Not that he would.

Their lives are kept so under wraps that we can’t perceive them in any other light other than their work personas a lot of the time. Which makes the idea of backstory so much more impactful.