**Why this new trend of shoehorning woke agendas into entertainment is objectively terrible writing, using the Hero's Journey and Story Circle as comparisons for how good storytelling works, with amusing metaphors!**

When stories are too busy pushing an agenda, it’s like trying to make a smoothie with a hammer – wrong tool, messy results. Let’s mash this up with the Story Circle and the Hero’s Journey to see why:

1. Comfort Zone & Call to Adventure: A story usually starts with a character in their world, minding their own beeswax. Then comes the call to adventure. But, if the story’s too busy waving its agenda flag, the adventure feels more like a lecture. It’s like being invited to a party and ending up at a timeshare presentation.

2. Entering Unfamiliar Situations & Refusal of the Call: Good stories toss our hero into new situations, making them face challenges. But if the story’s got an agenda heavier than a sack of bricks, the hero’s journey becomes predictable, like reading a manual. The refusal of the call turns into a refusal to engage with complexity or nuance.

3. Adapting & Meeting the Mentor: Here, our hero learns and grows, often with a mentor’s help. But when a story’s pushing an agenda, the mentor often turns into a mouthpiece, spouting off the agenda like a broken jukebox, and the hero adapts less to challenges and more to the script.

4. Approach to Inmost Cave & The Ordeal: The heart of the story, where the stakes are high. In agenda-driven tales, the ordeal can feel more like a soapbox than a climax. The narrative’s more about proving a point than the hero’s battle, and the inmost cave feels as shallow as a kiddie pool.

5. Reward & Resurrection: Our hero should come out changed, wiser. But in a story with too much agenda, the reward often feels unearned, like getting a trophy just for showing up. The resurrection, instead of being a transformation, turns into a reaffirmation of the agenda, as subtle as a neon sign.

6. Return with the Elixir: A great story ends with the hero bringing something back, a change that impacts their world. But, when the story’s been too busy preaching, the return feels hollow, like coming back from a journey where you only talked to people who agree with you.

The art of storytelling is as old as time, and the most memorable tales are those that resonate with us on a human level, not just because they’re trying to hammer in a point.

When a story’s too preoccupied with an agenda, it’s like a chef who forgets about flavour because they’re too focused on the plate’s presentation. The essence of storytelling is growth, challenge, transformation. If a story sacrifices these on the altar of an agenda, it’s like a meal without seasoning – it fills you up but leaves you craving some real spice.

Entertainment, at its best, should be a buffet of experiences, ideas, and emotions, not a one-flavour dish served cold.