From April 3, 2024
Like Stories of Old talks about “storytelling entropy” (his term) when it comes to the Marvelization problem.
Themes and meanings don’t mean as much as money… Lots of great ideas are being copied and even ripped off and crossed over. I don’t have a problem with franchises. It’s once they start becoming hollow… Marvel did pretty well up through Endgame for example. But now franchises are more marketing strategy than storytelling. Meta references to nowhere… Being self aware or offering meta commentary is fine when it’s done correctly. Specifically “nostalgia baiting.” Meme-ification of culture. Irony poisoning.
I’m not sure that “corporate passion” is the right term for the industry interference with storytelling. Visually things look right… but emotionally it’s hard to connect. The old stuff is great still. You could feel the passion especially in the making of documentaries. But what drives corporate “passion” is purely greed. Stories have become corporate products. If it makes money, you take stuff from it and integrate it in everything else. Like the matrix stunts… amazing in that franchise because it makes sense in the setting… nowhere else.
Breaking the cycle… I agree that Top Gun maverick is a great example. Take the original idea and refine it even further. Maverick is better than the original in so many ways. Alternative: Change the core idea on the same premise. Or build upon the original idea to be part of a bigger one. You also need to know when your story ends.
In “can we be heroes again” like stories of old talks about “organized irresponsibility.”
A couple great comments on this video: “I always liked how Tolkien said “it’s the small acts of kindness from ordinary people that keep darkness at bay” – disturbedfan545
This one really struck me: “he takes ideas I’ve always had and lays them out in a clear way I never could. It’s almost embarrassing. I think of myself as pretty smart and introspective, but then someone explains the weight on my heart better than I could, and I realize I still have too much to learn…” – feartheimpaler
Sometimes YouTube comments show me that people are still thinking out there…
“We should call this epoch of human history the misinformation age. It’s more fitting.”
In the “redefining the anti war video game” again the comments are brilliant as the video:
“Your point in the deconstruction of hero systems as an act of deconstructing meaning itself is spot on…” vaultscribe4501
My thinking going into this 90 minute masterclass was that war related video games are so popular because we are all waging a sort of spiritual war every day that we can’t possibly win alone… but in the games we can win a war, whether our role within it is fictional or not.
He does touch on this… but a lot of times the games will take away player agency at frustrating times… there’s more to combat than just pointing and shooting for example. There’s also keeping yourself alive. In fact he even calls these combat centric games as “hero simulators “
Aside: I was thinking about Beast Arena [an Apple Arcade game I played for awhile] and how frustrating that game can be when people don’t think strategically. I always do. I lay down suppressing fire, sacrificing myself for team members through diversion… I’m curious to see if that game gets a lot more serious as the leagues progress. (It actually got worse. Never grew like I hoped it would.)
