Tag: fiction

It Can’t Be All Swamps and Marshes

Feb 16, 2026 12:30 AM PST

I cannot write about serious topics all the time.
I need to write about light stuff if I’m to write without real purpose but just to practice. The heaviness takes a toll.
Besides, things are not always so dark and gloomy and worth ranting and raving about.
So with this in mind, I will write about silly TV shows and movies from time to time.

Today’s post is about Legacies. I like to pronounce it Le-GAH-shees just to give it an exotice feel.

The first thing I need to get off my chest is the terrible amount of sex that drives the plot at times.
I do not mind the teenage angst or greed or jealousy but the sex is terrible.
No one seems to be able to keep their diks in their pants and it is frustrating when not even the adults in the show can set a standard for the kids. Okay maybe not everyone is having sex all the time but they want to and it is annoying.

If you know me, this may seem like a weird contradiction but I hate sex in movies and shows because I feel that the time it takes to talk about sex and even worse, show it on screen takes time away from the real point of the show. Rarely does sex and nudity do anything for the plot in this new era of entertainment. If you cannot write a show in such a way that you can imply the sex, maybe… I know. Who the hell am I to tell a professional show writer how to do things? I’m sure it has a lot to do with likes and watch hours but man, I still hate it.

Some of the best movies and shows before the 80s did not have any actual sex on the screen and were very much implied. Then came Porky’s and the like. That said, Legacies is not a terrible show.

At the surface it really is a sort of mash up between a few anime shows and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show does enough for those of us who watched BTVS the first time around to keep us around. The acting is not terrible. The writing ain’t bad except for the sex driven plot at times.

I tell you what does stand out for me is the camera work and the lighting.

Without trying to sound like a complete nerd/dork, I really appreciate some of the lighting experiments the show tries to pull off like not using reflectors to fill the shadows in certain shots. I believe the actual scene in real life would have looked that way to the characters in the show so they went with that look. That or budget issues. Either way I really appreciate the boldness of the camerawork.

The major point of frustration for me is the disobedience and lack of respect towards the adults from the kids. I don’t like that and truly think that this has to be a cultural thing.

In my house that type of disrespect and disobedience would not be tolerated. In fact I would not be here today typing this if I ever acted out like those kids. This sort of trope seems to be the same in a few shows and the plots are written in such a way that whatever the kids decide to do just happens to be the correct choice time and time again. There are no real consequences for disobeying not only authority but the better educated.

In these plot situations, it is not the fact that the adults have been around longer and know better but are better educated about the things in the plot and need to be listened to and obeyed instead of waved off. The situations these kids are placed in are not normal and they cannot be allowed to have normal teenage reactions since they are being held to a higher standard in the script and overall story timeline.

I can totally understand and accept the teenage reactions in films like Mean Girls and anything written by John Hughes but in shows where kids are on another level they should be held to a higher emotional standard since the power they wield is intense. But that’s just me not accepting the writing as is and getting frustrated with how these characters are written sometimes.

One of the great things about the show is the diversity of characters. I do believe the show is a metaphor for racism at times using monsters and witches in place of cultures but it does an excellent job of not making it the only thing. It does spotlight many times the advantages of teamwork and the importance of forgiveness.

I associate forgiveness with diversity because it somehow gives more weight and value to the act of forgiveness when it involves not just other cultures but other species.

I tell you what else I don’t mind: the ridiculousness of it all. Not just the monsters but the Deus ex machina aspects of the show. The convenience of “outs” to the danger scenes and the emotional ones as well. There are a lot of teenage relationships as one might expect from the show’s general entertainment purpose but aside from all the unnecessary sex and overdriven hormone actions, the show does a reasonable job navigating the teenage emotional disaster scenarios.

The music is pretty cool too.

I just started season two and I am actually very impressed at the reset button used to introduce new points to be explored and adventures to get into.

We’ll see how it goes from here but so far, I have been easily entertained.

The problem with writing is the problem with anything else.

The problem with writing is the problem with anything else.

I’ve read almost 2,000 pages the past two weeks and written about 5,000 words the past seven days or so.

I write this not to brag but as a cautionary tale to consumption and creation. If what you consume and what you create are garbage, then there is no real artistic contribution to the world.

The books I’ve read the last couple of weeks are not great works of literature by any means. They are works of fantastical fiction which are meant to kill time and not exactly change your life or make one a better person for having read the works. While the books, like any decent novel, portray normal things in life like emotions and situations, there is no real zing or epiphany in the conclusion of each book. On the contrary the books leave you with an unresolved cliff hanger to ready you for purchase of the next volume. Nothing life changing for sure.

As far as writing so many words, the only real thing I have gotten good at is typing on a laptop. I’ve never really typed for extended periods of time and at first the keyboard seemed really awkward but I am starting to get the hang of it now.

The words I’ve written lately are out of frustration and despair with nothing really productive or insightful to leave any reader engaged or transformed. Maybe a little informed but nothing really transformative.

There are writers that can make a walk into a novel or the process of trying to catch a fish into a religious experience. I am not one of those writers and probably never will be.

The words I have written so far are probably not meant for mass consumption but that probably won’t stop me from publicly sharing the garbage.

I had a coach that preached that practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. This applies to just about anything you do.

I can practice writing all the words in the world but that is never going to make me a great writer. This is a direct translation from me being a photographer.

Just because you take a thousand pictures does not in any way make you a photographer.

We have to learn properly how to convey ideas if you want to become an artist of any type. You do, in a way, have to study magic to move mountains or an X-Wing Fighter from a swamp.

And while I have known this for sometime, it has resurfaced again with my attempt to kill time by writing out my frustrations which I’d like to add has not done much to make me feel better.

I’ve written so many words but it really hasn’t done much to clear my head, or alleviate my current mental anguish if you will.

What I have is a current frustrated journal of the last few weeks in a hellish place.

Maybe once I’m out of here, look back, reflect, and process what has happened, I can take all this imperfect practice and convert it into something that can be processed by someone who could not care less about my life at the moment.