For me, the biggest takeaway is that every character has their own goal, wants/needs, and change arc. Each of the Wives has their own desires and changes in different ways. They are not "the wives", they are individuals. Furiosa is such a strong "mentor" that she steals the show :) Immortan has very specific wants and needs, and from his point of view he is the good guy - saving people from the harsh wasteland, creating and sustaining a functional civilisation. Nux the failure of a warboy - oh my god does he have a character arc! etc etc This really hit home the "make every character the protagonist of their own story".

For me, it's that you shouldn't pander to the lowest common denominator. You don't need to explain everything, which is a typical problem for genre stories. Your audience will be smart and your audience can happily fill in the blanks, inferring the world-building work that's been done and appreciate it without having the exposition rammed down their throats. Focus on one solid story, focus on the present moment.

Kenny, as we've discussed often, the value of looking at each character as the protagonist in THEIR individual story can reap significant benefits, everything from clarity of purpose and personality to built-in conflict between characters due to opposed goals. Riffing off your comments, there's also this: If we look at each character as a participant in their own subplot(s), looking at subplots as RELATIONSHIPS, and not just a narrative device, we can end up with strong secondary storylines like Nux who in some respects has the most compelling metamorphosis of any of the primary characters. And that goes back to looking at the story universe through THEIR eyes as they see themselves: A protagonist in their own story.

Agreed, nillyp. As long as your script tells a story in an entertaining and effective manner, you don't have to write down to the presumed audience. When the studio buys your script and tells you to add in all that exposition, fight those battles then - when you're getting a paycheck. But when you're writing for yourself with a spec, you can respect your audience's intelligence and story sensibilities, and give them room to figure things out. That not only keeps from dumbing down the script, it can engage the reader in your story more by having them participate in the unfolding of the narrative. We see this in MM:FR. Do we need to know how Immortan Joe came into power? Do we need to know how Nux found himself in his original state? Do we need to know how the Wives became the Wives? No. And even when we do get backstory such as with Furiosa sharing the details of her past with the Vuvalini, we get just enough to stitch together a narrative, one which has enough heft to it to carry both emotional and plot significance. A final point re your comments: We see this over and over again in MM:FR when characters DON'T offer lines of dialogue to explain stuff. How many sides of dialogue did Max have in the entire movie? 40? 50? The ending exchange between Max and Furiosa, the wordless look they share, says more than any dialogue. Again, respect the audience. They can get way more than most studio execs give them credit for.