What Moves You?
When I woke up a few days ago, I found myself thinking about the three video series I’d want with me if stranded on a desert island (ignore the obvious problems with this survival scenario).
In no particular order, I’d want: Ted Lasso, Andor and Full Metal Alchemist.
I’d already picked these three a while ago, but on this morning, for some reason, I awoke asking why. Why, of all the shows, I’d choose to spend my last months or years with these? And did my book (the YA sci-fi one I’m currently revising) have any of the same qualities?
First, here’s a brief Wikipedia description of each for those unfamiliar with the shows, including the Wiki link, with additional info in the Notes below (my husband wonders when the length of my Notes will be overtaking the length of the posts…)
Ted Lasso*, an American sports comedy-drama series about the British premier “football” league (that’s soccer for us Patriots).
Andor**, part of the Star Wars franchise and a prequel to the anthology film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, itself a prequel to the original 1977 Star Wars film.
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood***, the second anime series based on the manga series Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_Alchemist:_Brotherhood
The shows are decidedly different on the surface but they share common elements.
They all acknowledge that grief and loss can be so deep that they inform most everything a person does.
They all deliver transformative character arcs and not just for the one or two leads – including some that go from good to bad and back to good again – or my favorite arc, the bad to good when push comes to shove.
They all make you care about characters enough to cry for them, either when they die, or when they have an impossible choice to make, or when they acknowledge the pain they’ve been carrying around, or realize the value of found family. Even though I’ve watched each of these series at least twice and know what happens, I still cry. (in fact, because I know what happens, I start crying sooner. How can I not?)
And finally, they all show how people working together for a common good against individual or societal ills can accomplish what seems impossible – whether the ill is:
1) a wealthy, philandering, manipulative club owner,
2) an authoritarian regime in a dystopian world using propaganda and violence to increase its wealth and discredit or eliminate the resistance,
3) or the existential threat of a man using human lives to fuel his rise to divine status.
I wouldn’t be so brash as to compare my novel to any of these masterpieces, but I was happy to realize it shares the elements above (though only time will tell if my character makes you cry as he does for me).
If you’re a fan of any of these shows, drop a comment below to say which scenes made you cry or moved you and if you’re willing to say – why?
Until next time.
–Kathie
Notes:
* Ted Lasso aired three seasons (and a fourth related season with Jason Sudeikis and many of the other principals is supposed to air this summer). If you haven’t yet watched Ted Lasso just do it already. I’m pretty sure you’ll be happy you did. I loved the series after the first watching. But each time I watch it, I love it more.
** Andor follows an ensemble cast centered upon thief-turned-rebel spy Cassian Andor during the five years leading up to the events of the two films, exploring how he becomes radicalized against the Empire and how the wider Rebel Alliance is formed (edited from the Wiki entry).
You don’t need to have watched any of the Star Wars movies to appreciate Andor. And full disclosure, I wasn’t such a huge fan after watching Season 1. It wasn’t until I watched the recap of S1 before Season 2 came out that I realized how good S1 was, and S2 is even better. Nemik’s Manifesto, Maarva’s rousing speech from the grave and Senator Mon Mothma’s Senate speech are brilliant calls to action and I just had to go watch those clips again!
*** Full Metal Alchemist takes place over 64 episodes, but they’re short! (only 24 mins. each). My son watched this on his computer when he was around 12, with me periodically looking over his shoulder, concerned, at all the fantasy violence. It looked dark. He convinced me it was an extraordinary story of good vs. evil and eventually we watched it together. He was right. Later, we re-watched it with my daughter. I will no doubt watch it again.
And you didn’t ask, but the scene in the book I would have with me in a desert island that makes me cry every single time — and it is not even in the movie — is Sam singing a song from the Shire up at the top of the tall tower of Cirith Ungol. He sings because all hope is lost, and he is comforting himself. And Frodo hears him. !!! My heart.
I do have a bedrock political belief that love is the only thing that can win over hate, over fear. I agree with Martin Luther King Jr., that hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. In the end, the stories are about the triumph of love over hate.