You Say Escapism Like It’s A Bad Thing
Like my friend Katherine Walcott, I’m a science fiction junkie. I like her take on the appeal of dependable SF archetypes, even if I don’t completely agree (Farscape, for example, is one series which liked to take two-dimensional villains and turn them inside out, even make them sympathetic or change sides on occasion).
Also, Ben Browder is exceedingly easy on the eyes. Just sayin’.
Science fiction and fantasy gets it in the neck for being shallow. Critics have it the wrong way round. The lack of depth is not a bug, it’s a feature. What is the point of escaping to somewhere if it looks just like the place you left?
In SF/F-land, the teams are obvious. The guy in the black armor who sounds like an asthmatic vacuum? He’s bad news. Avoid him. You are completely justified in taking him down. You are morally obliged to interfere with his plans as much as possible. Oh, sure he gets Redeemed, but he does so by turning his hat from black to white. The Dark Side doesn’t suddenly become sympathetic.
In the real world, your team depends on where you are standing. Fighting the government is illegal. Unless you win and establish your own country. They you are called a Patriot and have a day…
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Writing From the Right Side of the Stall 
Thank you.
Octavia Butler would be a counterexample in books. I deeply admire everything of hers that I have read. Yet when it comes time to open a book, I find myself reaching for Scalzi or Butcher.
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You shouldn’t be surprised at the shortage of comments … that says more about my blog than it does your post! Your readership is considerably more vocal than mine, for whatever reason. I don’t think ANY of my posts have garnered more than 30-odd comments, and half of those were generally my replies. C’est la guerre. But I do grok (see what I did there?) the notion of getting too invested in the analytics, and feeling deflated when the numbers plummet. Why don’t they like me MORE (especially when you see some blog that is absolute rubbish getting thousands of comments, however inane)?
I try to tell myself that quality always triumphs over quantity.
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