#using filler when you mean setup encourages shitty writing and tilting into marvel-esque emphasis on flashy surface thrills

[knowlesian]

normally i’m against prescriptivism and i know colloquially “filler episode” is used differently than the technical meaning but S T I L L like my god i am gonna take the word filler away from critics and set it on the top shelf until they use it right

filler is wasted space! it is BAD WRITING. filler is what you do to pad out word count or screentime when you’re out of good ideas. filler can be taken out from the story and would not render it impossible to understand.

placesetting is not filler! you have to do some setup to get to payoff like that’s just how good writing works and i am begging big critics to stop calling episodes of tv that do the necessary work of setting up later explosions filler