#politics are bleaugh but ok

[this-is-how-i-study]

Politics and Structure

Ok, not studying here because my exams are over (woohoo!), but I want to get something new up on this blog.

I figured out how Doctor Blakk gets away with all his infamousness. In this world, AKA the Surface, what he's doing is closely related to producing illegal chemical weapons, but while here we have laws that make it, you know, ILLEGAL, in Slugterra he can't get caught because either there aren't any laws to make him an official criminal, or the actual leaders are all turning a blind eye on his actions.

Ghouls are resources of power, just like guns and bombs and other whatnot. However, they're not mechanical weapons, so they're more like genetically engineered weapons like viruses. Anyone read "Russian Roulette" by Anthony Horowitz? Spoilers: Yassen's hometown was infested by an airborne chemical virus that killed everyone and then the town was wiped out by the government to cover up the illegal activities.

Yikes.

But here, Blakk's activities in using Dark Water - a strange substance that Slugterra has barely any information on except for a few ancient cave troll legends - on slugs, Slugterra's literal lifeblood, is hardly considered as a threat by any leaders.

This implies to me that Slugterra has no official leader, no government to distribute laws or any status. It only comes down to which individual or group has the most power in their hands.

Blakk has power over weaponry and also political power, having learned commerce and also being very manipulative, as shown when he told Eli how he forced people to give away their land, hence how he stole Slag Rock Cavern and turned it into his own cavern.

On to the Shane Gang.

The Shane Gang have referent and expert power as they are well known to be excellent slugslingers and are also trusted to help because of them carrying the Shane mantle, which is like a symbol of hope and justice. Everyone trusts them, and that might be why Blakk sees them as such a threat to his power. Not only do the Gang mess up his industry, they also try and expose how he's a bad guy to the public.

A flaw in the show is that they don't show much on the rest of Slugterra. We don't know who else is pulling the strings, so it's either a big bag guy or a bunch of kids grouped together to defeat him. There should be other leaders out there, like the King of Sling who doesn't do much apparently, or Judge Logan, but he also doesn't do much and is also a corrupt leader who is under Blakk's influence.

So, the worldbuilding could've had more details. The base is good, having slugs being vital to the world and the whole code for slugslingers, but we needed to see more structure, not just the sci-fi structure.

Some ideas are maybe there could've been a government, but it's extremely disorganised, allowing people like Blakk to thrive and take over without blinking an eye. There should be an actual police force to take down Blakk, but some of the officers are corrupt and the ones who aren't are killed off or have their careers destroyed by Blakk and it's up to the Shane Gang to help them and fix things up with the government.