Writers' Room Rejects

On today's episode, we discuss two musicals, an anime series, and a book - what do they have in common? They are about very morally gray, in some instances disturbing, lead protagonists. Our main focus is Jesus Christ Superstar. It is an incredible musical that took a huge risk: Discussing tabboo topics and forcing the audience to grapple with the humanity of Christianity's central figure. We both love this musical, but we think that the narrative could have been clearer, especially for those people who are not familiar with the story of Jesus. Using Hamilton, Attack on Titan, and Dune as comparisons, we discuss how to provide narrative clarity in a morally gray story.

We are kicking off our show with a big one—Jujutsu Kaisen. In the world of JJK, many beloved characters are killed off very suddenly. But, death is not always the end. And this leads us to our main question: From a storytelling standpoint, how impactful is death if some characters just bounce right back? Does it cheapen the stakes? This question will spur even more queries: What if certain characters actually stayed dead? What if characters were given more agency away from their bloodlines? And what if Yuta Okkotsu was the main protagonist instead of Yuji Itadori? Join us as we dive into these questions and more.