I got a TV antenna while back, and Cyberchase (on the PBS Kids channel) is probably the most interesting thing that comes on, and I've been trying to catch it whenever it does. I like the idea of people going "into the Internet" to solve problems, and the premise is still cool to me even though the show doesn't actually do as much with it as other media built around the same thing. The characters and worldbuilding are also really good!

I've been trying to push for more nonviolent and lighthearted plots in roleplays and such (it's surprisingly hard to find anyone who wants to do anything that isn't dark!), which probably also means I need to have a good grasp on how to build out a plot that's interesting without taking the lazy route and using violence as a source of conflict. That way I can actually have some sort of answer when it comes to an alternative and I can guide things toward something better instead of just saying what I don't want. So I try to learn what I can from stuff I enjoy.

Surprisingly, I think I'm picking up inspiration from Cyberchase even though it's an educational TV show?? Like, inspiration that would actually be applicable to that specific kind of writing too. Some episodes do just kind of put characters in a situation where they can use math to save the day, but in other episodes there's actually an interesting premise in there. And honestly, basic math or science skills can naturally come up in stories in problem solving anyway. Like one episode I saw involved trying to predict where a storm was going to go, or interpret a graph in a situation where communications equipment failed and that graph was all they had to look at, and I could imagine writing stuff like that. Later seasons shift the focus from math to science topics (usually environmentalism) and in those it's even more natural feeling.

The ideas in the plots can also apply to different settings and different characters better than the ones in a lot of other media I like. Cyberchase will have some problem happen without the protagonists' involvement and then drop them in to fix it, so the problem itself isn't built around the protagonist' traits, unlike something like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic where stories are pretty often heavily built around character flaws and miscommunications, so its ideas are specific to characters with those kinds of flaws. Similarly, while I love Hamtaro and how cozy it is, the plots definitely are super specific to the characters being pet hamsters and I'm not going to learn much from it haha. In Cyberchase, protagonist flaws and traits don't cause the problems, but they do end up being very important to the solutions, where someone's interests and experiences may save the day. I feel like that fits roleplay writing better, where you may not even know what characters are involved until they show up and you do the thing.

Outside of having specific examples of interesting nonviolent stories (or interesting story ideas that could be executed better in a non-educational setting), I've been looking for storytelling tools that I can apply in writing, and I noticed that trickery is actually a pretty good alternative to violence in a lot of cases. Also, cleaning up problems that the antagonist has already caused seems like a great source of conflict that's more indirect, where you can't just fight someone to fix the problem, because it won't undo whatever happened. I've seen episodes where Hacker causes some sort of problem and it's just a side effect of some sort of an evil plan, and then there's more emphasis on fixing the problem than on stopping him, which might be more of a subplot.