Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1255374-20151023223507/@comment-995426-20151027225030

Hm, I guess you're right about how they each coped in Within the Woods.

Still, show-don't-tell is pretty important for helping you actually believe characters are feeling, suffering, growing, trying to cope, etc. It helps not just to see them cope, but also to see consistent, believable signs that they actually have a reason for needing to cope. Know what I mean? And it's not just enough to know they have cracks, but also not to send mixed signals by having so many other scenes with the effect of strongly suggesting they have no real depth (Mikey's scene in the Triceraton mind-sucking machine being one of the worst examples), because it's a negative form of character development that actually unravels the effects of other scenes that try to give them depth. The show has developed a gross imbalance in this regard&mdash;too much character derailment, not enough character development. The 1987 series had that imbalance too, which is one of the biggest reasons I have no real fondness for it. Show-don't-tell keeps it feeling real, rather than forcing the viewer to go long stretches on faith and credit (and increasingly making excuses for the story's flaws) until it is simply no longer possible to maintain a suspension of disbelief.