The earliest idea for “Strandead” came from imagining what happens when an ordinary worker is thrown into an extraordinary crisis. Blue isn’t a soldier, elite operative, or chosen hero, he is someone who signed up for space work and found himself facing a situation that no training fully prepared him for.
The question was simple:
How does a regular person react when the universe pulls them out of their life and drops them somewhere impossible?
Blue was intentionally written as emotionally grounded and honest. His reactions show:
confusion before courage
fear before capability
instinct before strategy
vulnerability before power
This kept the story human even as the environment grew stranger.
The planet Blue lands on wasn’t designed to be a richly researched ecosystem. Instead, it was built around:
emotional surrealism
immediate threats
atmospheric simplicity
symbolic rules tied to Blue’s inner life
It is alien in the ways that matter emotionally, not scientifically.
Blue’s unexpected power, the ability to manifest objects, is not superhero fantasy. It reflects:
the mind under pressure
subconscious memory appearing without permission
the way trauma resurfaces in crisis
desire and fear shaping perception
This made the power feel less like magic and more like psychology turned outward.
The moment Blue accidentally summons someone from his past acts as the emotional turning point. It reveals:
what he still carries
what he has not resolved
who he misses
and what he fears losing again
It also raises the stakes: survival becomes intertwined with emotional reckoning.
