I'm not sure where they are going with Allia. So far the show has steered clear of religion, delving into it here and there, but not in too much depth.
Religion is tricky. There's a tendency to get on a soapbox with it. Also to fall into cliche, overdone tropes, and get a wee bit extreme. (Sigh, see Joss Whedon, Ron Moore, and the writers of Lost) The trick is not to write about anything you don't understand yourself -- which is tricky with religion, because everyone assumes they understand other's religions and are therefore qualified to judge them. Hence the tricky.
And how we perceive God is both a cultural and individual thing that varies.
That said, I've seen it done well in a few places. Star Wars handles religion rather well, as did Star Trek. Which may explain the continued popularity of both. Like I said, tricky. Lost, BSG, Caprica, and Revolution made the mistake of going the cliche route and turned off a good portion of the audience, myself included.
They could do it with Allia, but I fear they will either fall into the Jasmine (the loving God who devours you) trope and/or the controlling authoritarian where there is no free-will trope (which is also in a way Jasmine), or the out-to-lunch, do what you will on earth, in heaven you can just frolick trope. Both of which have been done to death and aren't that interesting to me. So if they go that route, I may go wander to another tv show.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2016-02-21 06:39 pm (UTC)Religion is tricky. There's a tendency to get on a soapbox with it. Also to fall into cliche, overdone tropes, and get a wee bit extreme. (Sigh, see Joss Whedon, Ron Moore, and the writers of Lost) The trick is not to write about anything you don't understand yourself -- which is tricky with religion, because everyone assumes they understand other's religions and are therefore qualified to judge them. Hence the tricky.
And how we perceive God is both a cultural and individual thing that varies.
That said, I've seen it done well in a few places. Star Wars handles religion rather well, as did Star Trek.
Which may explain the continued popularity of both. Like I said, tricky. Lost, BSG, Caprica, and Revolution made the mistake of going the cliche route and turned off a good portion of the audience, myself included.
They could do it with Allia, but I fear they will either fall into the Jasmine (the loving God who devours you) trope and/or the controlling authoritarian where there is no free-will trope (which is also in a way Jasmine),
or the out-to-lunch, do what you will on earth, in heaven you can just frolick trope. Both of which have been done to death and aren't that interesting to me. So if they go that route, I may go wander to another tv show.
I'm hoping it doesn't become too cliche.