Last month I finally got around to watching Adult Swim's Rick and Morty since Hulu has all three seasons to watch, which is like 30 episodes. It's been such a hit for Cartoon Network that they placed an order for about 70 more episodes already.
The show was created by Justin Roiland (who does the voice of Rick) and Community creator Dan Harmon. It's kind of a wacky jumble of sci-fi plots that I think largely takes its cues from Doctor Who, though I've only watched 1 episode of that so don't quote me.
Most of the show centers around mad scientist Rick who takes his grandson Morty on bizarre adventures to alien worlds and parallel dimensions. In one adventure they screw up so badly they have to transfer themselves to a parallel universe to resume their lives.
As you might expect it takes a couple of episodes to start getting into it. Like most Cartoon Network shows the animation is fairly crude and a fair amount of the jokes cruder--not that I really mind. Probably the most annoying thing to me is that especially early on they had Rick belch during like every other line. I like a belch as much as anyone but every other sentence gets to be too much. I think they cut back a bit over the three seasons.
There was one episode in the first season that got me thinking about what really makes a good story. In the episode Morty is sick of Rick's dangerous adventures so he gets Rick to agree to let him pick one. It's a take on a fantasy role-playing game where they go on a quest, but everything goes wrong. All through this Rick has been haranguing Morty about admitting that this idea was a failure. But in a bar while Rick is playing cards with some aliens, Morty is attacked and almost raped in a bathroom. When Morty escapes, he's finally ready to throw in the towel on this adventure. Seeing how down Morty is, Rick decides to use his card playing winnings to complete the quest. One of the few times he actually acts like a decent grandpa and human being.
It occurred to me then that crazy hijinks are nice but for me an emotional core is what really makes a story. Even if it's something as simple as a grandpa deciding not to be an a-hole to his grandson, it's the little emotional touches that allow me to feel a kinship with the characters and that makes the story resonate more.
And if that's true with an animated comedy well then it must be true for books, right? You need to have an emotional core in your books if you want readers to identify with characters and to like or dislike them and by that to get involved with the story and like or dislike it.
That is I think the problem with a lot of erotica stories: it's just some cardboard cutout fucking another cardboard cutout. If one of those cutouts turns from a man into a woman, so what? So many of these "authors" are so focused on writing hot sex scenes that they don't bother creating characters or situations I can care about or involve myself in. I guess hot sex is all a lot of people need, but I'm a little more particular.
No matter what you're writing, try to find some heart in it if you want your readers to care.
4 comments:
There is one method called "pet the dog" to get readers to care about a character. You have the character help someone, and it's even better if helping someone puts the character in danger. Since I found out about this method, I recognize it in movies.
It's called Pet the dog, because it can be as simple as helping a dog.
Great point and that’s what sets Marvel films above all other superhero movies. They always have a strong emotional core. DC learned that with Wonder Woman. Hopefully they can continue learning that.
PS Yeah the belching really annoys me and I’ve only watched one episode.
Good observation.
I really like Rick and Morty, although I've only seen a few episodes
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