An Update from the For Normal People Puppet Mastery Division Writing Room

S2025 E165 *contains spoilers*

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Hi there,

We’re really hoping everyone is enjoying this timeline. With infinite universes running concurrently, we’re glad to have you following along with ours.

It was at the tail end of the Dark Ages when we at For Normal People’s Puppet Mastery Division (FNPPMD) introduced plot-driven narrative.

Audience data consistently shows that Planet Earth performs best when we prioritise plot over character development or world-building. Both Earthlings and Viewers respond more viscerally to chaos than to order — and yes, we’ve heard your notes about The Ice Age.

By now, Earthlings have developed little regard for their past or for the infinitely forking paths of their futures. See season 1440, episode 24 Spreading the Word for one of several piecemeal attempts made by the FNPPMD Writers’ Room to encourage the spreading (and the safeguarding) of acquired information among Earthlings separated by space and time.

The Gratification Directive

Unlike ants or bees, Earthlings are driven by the compulsion to satisfy immediate, individual needs — be they material or emotional. One example of a material need is the need to consume high-calorie foods for energy. An example of an emotional need might be the need to consume high-calorie food for pleasure or pain avoidance.

Among Earthlings, the instinct or drive to accommodate needs produces a drug-like experience known as gratification — a reward produced chemically in the brain.

How this works is simple: experiences resultant from the drive to need-fix are relayed via an elaborate sensory apparatus, through a network, and into a CPU.

Imagine powerlines running beneath an Earthling’s skin, connecting their fingertips, tongue, or frenulum to a computer behind their eyes. Each signal that reaches an Earthling’s brain carries a recipe — or a set of instructions — for which chemical ingredients to combine to produce a particular emotional response.

Gratification is therefore a uniquely individualised exploit. It asks nothing of the collective. It requires no understanding of how or why it works. And as you all noticed long ago, it drives every aspect of human behaviour.

In effect, Earthlings exist in a state of mutual emotional ransom. Each Earthling’s needs — and the pursuit of their own gratification — exert tangible effects on uncountable other lives. We have written superstructures like law, government, and ethics into the Earthling experience in an attempt to best balance their illusions of free will against their capacity to destroy each.

Despite many Earthlings’ increasing resentment towards these future-securing superstructures, they remain well observed the moment that imagined or cosplayed struggles become real.