hot take: Countries should never be run like businesses, because people are not commodities, and communities are not assets to be bought, sold, and traded away.
yhat episode of spongebob where mr krabs was like on his deathbed and the doctor was like wait a second he cant afford this room and then the nurse kicked him down a hill
One thing I’ve learned about writing is ”give everything a face”. It’s no good to write passively that the nobility fled the city or that the toxic marshes were poisoning the animals beyond any ability to function. Make a protagonist see how a desperate woman in torn silks climbs onto a carriage and speeds off, or a two-headed deer wanders right into the camp and into the fire. Don’t just have an ambiguous flock of all-controlling oligarchy, name one or two representatives of it, and illustrate just how vile and greedy they are as people.
it’s bad to have characters who serve no purpose in the story, but giving something a face is a perfectly valid purpose.
