The Nature of Things...

Okay, before we get too far I want to give you a spoiler alert. If you haven't played the games or watched the show The Last of Us and you are planning on it you need to skip this blog. The second warning is that if you have played the games please don't tell me anything that happens as I'm only watching the show so I'm only the equivalent of being a few hours into gameplay of The Last of Us Part 2. I'm still going to be somewhat vague because I know some of you will read it anyway, but you have been warned.

Okay, that out of the way let's start the real blog.

I read an article a few years ago about nature documentaries and how we identify with the animals in them. They were talking about predator and prey specifically and how our rooting interests change depending on which animal they show us first.

Basically you are watching a hawk trying to catch a rabbit, do you want the hawk to be successful and catch the rabbit or do you want the rabbit to get away? And it comes down to which animal you started with. Is it a story about a hawk? Or is it a story about a bunny? Which one do you have the first interest in?

We humans are invested in the story. And the story changes depending on which viewpoint we have. Are we worried about the little baby birds in the nest that the momma hawk is out there trying to find some breakfast for? Have we sat and worried about them since they were eggs? So scared that the late snow storm was going to stop them from being able to hatch?

Or have we been watching the rabbits in their den? Adorable little fuzzy faces peeking out and looking for sweet grass to nibble on? Frolicking baby bunnies with momma bunny trying to keep them all corralled and safe?

Who is our hero? Who is the villain?

Our stories about people are the same.

So back to the game and the show. On Sunday morning I was talking to Katie about the show, she isn't watching but played the games. I told her my theory for what was going to happen this season. That as a storyteller when I saw certain things in the first episode of the season I thought about how I would tell the next part of the story. Turns out my theory (or at least part of it) was correct. The thing I got wrong was the timing. I was not expecting it to happen during the second episode of the season.

So how does that tie to a nature documentary?

Well right now our loyalty as viewers is in one place. We have a clear villain and a hero or heros. We know who we feel like the bad guy is.

But...that's because we saw our heroes first.

We started with the hawk so the bunny wasn't a character, it was a means to an end. But the bunny has their own story and if we had started with them we would have been horrified by the hawk and cheering for the bunny.

I think the rest of the season is going to be crossing those lines over and over again. Who is the bunny? Who is the hawk? Who do we identify with? Does it matter who we started with? Can we sympathize with both of them? Can we identify with one and then the other? In a world where there is a clear enemy, the infected, how do you judge who the human enemies are?

And, honestly, this narrative, these characters? They are mirror images of each other. Our bunny and our hawk. They are the same. With the same motivation. That's where I think we are headed. I'm not sure that the characters will realize it, but I think as viewers we will all see it. Probably more accurate to think that they are all hawks and there are no soft fluffy bunnies at all.

It's a good show. I recommend it. I watch a lot of it sideways or through my fingers because it's also really scary, but it's really good.

(and yes, there is a whole real life parallel here that I could expound on about how what you believe is mostly due to where you started, but I'll skip it for now, I think you can get the gist)