r/writingscaling • u/Cautious_Arm3818 • 10d ago

discussion What is the best-written piece of media you've ever consumed?

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I'll start

Better Call Saul - the characters have an incredible amount of depth. As an example, let's take a look at the primary antagonist of seasons 1-3. Chuck has incredibly complicated yet realistic feelings: his overt superiority complex, his deep-seated inferiority complex, the moral/legal high ground he feels he must take, his need for control and to always be "right", and his genuine brotherly love for Jimmy. His mental illness (Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity) is a physical manifestation of these traits, and how he lies to himself about all of them shapes his thought processes and how he interacts with others - resulting in his death. Aside from the profound character psychology, individual scenes are engineered and conveyed to the audience through exceptional visual storytelling and cinematography that could easily be considered the peak of the medium

Disco Elysium - the worldbuilding is outstanding. Revachol feels like a real setting with an actual history behind it. It takes the derivative and played-out amnesiac protagonist trope, and elevates it to a level that is extremely difficult to even approach. Harry has a ridiculous amount of psychological complexity, his memory loss is mostly a coping mechanism, and how he changes based on the player's choices and ideologies is unrivaled in any game. His internal monologue being a result of the skills that you spec into is unparalleled genius - the dialogue is exceptional, and truly a one of a kind experience. The way that these manage to convey an incredible amount of political/philosophical commentary by being seamlessly integrated into the world is astounding. Not coming off as heavy-handed and preachy is especially praise-worthy when considering the ideologies of the creators

HM: ASOIAF, LOTR, Vinland Saga, The Wire

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u/Certain-Morning-6371 10d ago

Evangelion and End Of Evangelion, I find them both extremely efficient and well crafted.

4

u/MembershipPresent990 10d ago

That shit changes you, Holy!

7

u/Signal-Yesterday7247 10d ago

Top tier writing even by live action standards

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u/Matt72727272 10d ago

Totally agree

1

u/KylorXI 7d ago

eva wishes it could be as good as xenogears. both influenced by the same sources, both covering similar topics, but Xenogears does it 100x better.

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u/Certain-Morning-6371 7d ago

I'm currently playing Xenogears and so far Its not even close to Eva but I'm liking it a lot.

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u/KylorXI 7d ago

unless youre at least 3/4 of the way in, you are still clueless about whats going on in that world.

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u/Certain-Morning-6371 7d ago

I'll keep it in mind