i am extremely depressed and arguing with someone on discord about whether it is ok for stories to mix reality and fantasy or not

as you can imagine i am big on the end of 'mgs2 is actually good'

but the other person is saying 'explain everything' and 'nowadays you have to be clear if you are using fantasy or reality in your setting'

and i just want to scream

imagine being this boring and not liking the vampire

I mean I do think it's a problem if you are say, watching Mad Men and in the final season everyone is suddenly vampires? If they didn't tip that off at some point?

But on the other hand I'd probably respect the hell out of that choice.

Sorry I have no context for this particular conflict.

there actually is a show in the uk which famously did it and pissed everyone off

the first season of Gangsters was this really realistic gritty 70s cop drama. the second season of Gangsters involved the gritty 70s cops fighting against a load of people with supernatural powers

the writer had been trying to make a point that 'Realistic' cop drama is not actually any less of an unrealistic power fantasy than fantasy. people hated it though and the BBC cancelled the show

that owns and that's a fantastic point

im interested now in that gangster show

I mean, I think it's an interesting question--there are ways to like, telegraph that "oh we're in a world where x/y/z is not impossible" but I think it's not a hard and fast rule how explicit you need to be.

I think you need to not violate the rules of the game?

But like, I just watched all of the Fast & Furious movies and at at certain point you're like "okay whatever cars fly now" and move on.

one of my fav things of mgs2 (before mgs4 trying to retcon /almost/ everything) was how vamp would throw knives to your shadow to stop you from moving and that's it

nanomachines can't explain thAT

i love it