Adaptation (2002 film) = Finished

According to the almighty memory of Twitter, I first watched Adaptation in June of 2016...Just before I announced the upcoming release of my first game, which would come out thirteen days later.

I remember admiring Charlie. The spurts of creative inspiration followed by deep malaise, relationships shriveling while he pursued true greatness, were relatable. I found his idiosyncrasy, and the struggles that arose from it, endearing. In my early-creative mind, Charlie's utter commitment to originality and quality was praiseworthy. I rooted for him against his brother, a seeming popular hack who bumbled into success despite doing nothing to deserve it in comparison to his obsessive brother.

I take it as a sign of creative and personal growth that, of the two brothers, I now admire Donald.

Donald is supportive, despite the verbal abuse of his pretentious brother. Donald is all about self-improvement. Donald is confident. Donald has a good relationship with his mother. Where Charlie gets lost in self-obsessed weeds with every single dang consideration in his working life, Donald approaches creative work with unburdened passion, enthusiasm, and iteration.

Despite Charlie ostensibly being the protagonist of the movie, Donald can actually be seen as its hero. He finds love. He grows from a layabout moocher to a soon-to-be-successful screenwriter after much study and collaboration. When the time comes, he even makes the ultimate sacrifice. Donald, despite his goofy earnestness and sometimes groanworthy extroverted behavior, isn't just a good writer within the fiction of its universe--he's a good person. A plateau Charlie still hasn't quite reached, as he masturbates over the jacket picture of the woman whose story he's adapting.

So...yeah. 

I don't want to be Charlie anymore.

I want to be Donald.