Fantasy horror author
Does the tradition of Christmas survive a world-ending event like the Cordyceps pandemic in The Last of Us? In this short video, I talk about how Ellie and Jackson keep Christmas, how Abby and Owen mark it, and what it might mean to a world where society has collapsed and survival through winter is no longer certain.
In this video, I talk about the way human nature is interpreted by The Last of Us, The Walking Dead and similar franchises, and how this doesn't stack up with reality. Cooperation and mutual aid is a key part of how we survive, not something forced upon us by social order, and the complete collapse of that spirit would threaten true extinction for our species. This is something that the Last of Us series could choose to lean more into in future instalments, offering true hope for humanity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LX8EuUPL5I The first rule of good writing is "eliminate unnecessary words," so let's talk about that using "the classics" as examples. “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”… Continue reading Eliminate Unnecessary Words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j0oo-YKYfQ&t Ellie's decision to spare Abby's life at the last moment in The Last of Us Part 2 is one of the reasons why the story works so well. In this video, I talk about what this decision means for the narrative and for both Ellie's and Abby's character arc, including the importance of an… Continue reading The hope in The Last of Us Part 2’s ending
My spoiler-free review of the new Resident Evil movie after seeing it in the cinema when it came out in the UK. There is mention of some plot points, which were referenced in the trailers and character vignettes that came out ahead of the film's release.
Philip Dickens 