Flowers, Meth, Jedi, and Bugs

Flowers for Algernon is a book ahead of its time. It features the low-key sci-fi concept of altering a mentally disabled man’s intelligence, unintentionally setting him on a personal journey. This story is about empathy and the treatment of the disabled. In addition to a greater societal piece, it is also merely about the protagonist’s changes and development.

Breaking Bad is a series about one person who gained life and another who lost it. It's a gripping tragedy, with the protagonist being an embodiment of a dissatisfaction towards society, a semi-common state of mind. It’s about the common feeling by some that society has wronged them. It's about a man who drags all he supposedly loves into hell.

Star Wars is a culturally significant sci-fi escapist monster of a franchise. The original trilogy features its spin-off media, faced with varied reactions. Though some obscure novels/tv shows have received acclaim, both the prequels and sequels are seen as terrible. However, the prequels are redeemed by spin-off media, which amplifies thought-provoking ideas. These spin-off media (tv shows, comics) flesh out aspects that were not explained in the films. The same cannot be said for the sequels. Furthermore, the prequels, despite somewhat borrowing from the originals, did reinvent an element of the originals. The Jedi, initially thought of as wise monks, are revealed to be dogmatic and emotionally repressed theocrats blindly fighting a war. This was thought-provoking in making people see the originals in a different light.

The initial idea of the Sith vs the Jedi is that the Sith are consumed by negative emotion, which consumes everything else in their life, essentially destroying themselves. Inversely, the Jedi rise above their emotions. The dichotomy of good and bad through the Jedi and Sith is made more complex by the revelation that the Jedi, as depicted in the prequels, do several morally questionable things. They do not allow for romance, and essentially indoctrinate children. For this reason, some of the fandom has co-opted the possibly unintentional message that the Jedi purge allowed for the Jedi to be spiritually reborn, through the more unconventional Luke Skywalker.

Worm: A Web Serial is a different take on the superhero genre, mixing it with the greater societal politics of the time. It is expertly written, with stringent attention to detail and consistent world-building. It is about a bullied teen that can control bugs. She aspires to become a superhero, but ends up joining a supervillain gang, and her initial intent to spy fades away as she realizes what she has to do to preserve the most life. It becomes tragic in many situations, aided by the moral difficulty of the situations the characters find themselves in. A considerable element of the story is Taylor’s growing cognizance at the ineffective of the authorities, of “the system”, and her determination in getting the job done, at a personal cost in the tremendous guilt to bear. Like Watchmen, there is a level of ambiguity wherein it's up to the audience to judge the characters, not the story itself. It is a superhero epic wherein the stakes escalate and escalate.