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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45582
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

They say you shouldn't show gore, if you want it to have an emotional impact. Instead, show a teddy bear, or some other child's toy, sitting abandoned, or placed by a grave.

The same can hold true for the opposite. You want to show it isn't grimdark, then show hope, show life. Kids playing in the streets as their mothers call them in for supper. Show women hanging their laundry in their back yards. Show a festival, with happy faces and music and dancing.

If the fiefs are now 'independent', show one of them thriving. Show a market place with fresh foods and goods. Show adventurers' guilds thriving (if that's part of the world). Show trade continuing.

But also show that some of the fiefs don't get along--disparaging comments about 'those' people kicking up trouble. Show petty squabbles between neighbouring towns, even.

It has to make sense in the bigger picture. So, don't show that life is just dandy, but don't let it be misery porn either. There needs to be something worth protecting, but there needs to be something that needs to change as well--that's where the story comes from, after all.

Original score: 2