Stories I Like

I like stories that focus on relationships in the barest sense. I don’t even necessarily mean romance despite that being the bulk of what I consume. I like the focus of what people are to each other. What someone is to someone else. As opposed to narratives that focus on a grand adventure or saving the world or kingdom or something like that.

I like writing where immersive descriptions of scenery are instead used to boost the narrative/character dynamics into a more tangible way. The main source of appeal is still the narrative and character dynamics. I don’t like writing where the worldbuilding is half of the selling point. I just like worldbuilding as an enrichment to the narrative.

That’s probably why I like The Mandalorian fandom. Din is someone who avoids grand adventure and his story is focused on community and fatherhood. Regaining morals through learning from helping others and adopting a child. Fandom describes him as some dude who just keeps doing side quests. His creators described him as just some guy trying to survive his day-to-day life.

The Mandalorian executive producer Dave Filoni called the Mandalorian a “survivor” just trying to make a living and “find his way on a day-to-day basis”, which he felt was unique from other protagonists in the Star Wars franchise, particular the Jedi. 1 2

That’s probably also why I like Moon Knight despite it being about superheroes that do save the world. There is an incredibly heavy emphasis to the characters—the relationship between the alters, their mother, estranged father, wife, the dynamic of being indebted to a god, reconciling their internal struggle with the external world and people, trauma and—yes, I seem to like stories including a focus on internal issues within one person (in this case, one system).

I guess what I mean is that I don’t like stories where the characters just feel like pawns to a higher purpose. Sure they might have personality. Sure they might have relationships. Sure their personalities might clash. But there is a difference between stories that include these things as a periphery to the “grand adventure” and stories that put weight to these things as much as the grand adventure–if not more.

Honestly, my tastes could probably be called “relationships with an epic backdrop.”