tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66625289875708474672024-03-06T01:51:43.269+01:00Vicsor's OpinionVicsor's opinions regarding various subjects such as video games, art, cinema, comics, poodles, whatever. Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-20897164330238264652020-08-24T16:30:00.000+02:002020-08-30T13:58:19.538+02:00Why I Hate Frozen II's Ending - Into the Unknown<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'm pretty on record saying I love <i>Frozen I</i> but it suffers from massive problems that mean it doesn't quite live up to the standards of some of the best Disney Animated Canon movies (for more detail on that, <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.com/2017/11/split-ice-apart-frozen.html">go here</a>). I have watched <i>Frozen II</i> only once recently, so my feelings on that one are still settling down.What I do already know is that I hated the ending so much that it actually ruined my weekend. <i>Frozen II</i>'s ending made me angry, but not just angry in a way that it was an unsatisfying sequel to a movie that I rather liked (in many ways it wasn't, it was actually rather good). <i>Frozen II</i>'s ending hit a much more personal nerve.<br />
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<b><u>Spoilers for <i>Frozen I</i> and<i> Frozen II (obviously)</i>.</u></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Into the Unknown</span><br />Why I Hate Frozen II's Ending</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhix4dm-m2ia9vnSN1A019dDPPCbKhzDAuc4xG0yFVy_kMsGQdZQmR25YdUvbtmhbip8PlYVsa6YqAK8BceEaEGvmJXOBQ2yVWh0o_twAJj0yxm4AmNZY3Qhyphenhyphent6SUSPDzYzw_iQr_ru5TeT/s1600/Frozen+II+Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="1600" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhix4dm-m2ia9vnSN1A019dDPPCbKhzDAuc4xG0yFVy_kMsGQdZQmR25YdUvbtmhbip8PlYVsa6YqAK8BceEaEGvmJXOBQ2yVWh0o_twAJj0yxm4AmNZY3Qhyphenhyphent6SUSPDzYzw_iQr_ru5TeT/s320/Frozen+II+Logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In the first <i>Frozen</i>, an accident with Elsa's ice powers causes the King to keep her from away the outside world until she learns proper control. Instead what happens is that her growing anxiety and depression worsen her condition, so by the time she comes of age and is crowned Queen Elsa of Arendelle a small spark was all that was needed for her first public appearance in years to go horribly wrong. In order to protect everyone, and being goaded by the Duke of Weselton, she then decides to exile herself into the mountains so she can't hurt anybody (while her kingdom unbeknownst to her freezes over). In the end Elsa learns that locking herself away <i>was</i> the problem itself, and so thanks to the love and support of her sister she starts opening up and finds that everyone does in fact accept her the way she is despite still being introverted, suffering from anxiety and depression, and of course having ice powers. Her place is home despite being different from everyone else.</div>
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Then comes <i>Frozen II.</i> We learn more about the backstory of Anna and Elsa's parents and how they were actually more involved with Elsa's powers than the first movie led us to believe. In their own way they were preparing the young girls to deal with them but their temporary solution and untimely deaths ended up causing more harm than good, leading up to Elsa's state in the first movie. In the present Elsa starts hearing voices calling her to a mystical place thought lost during an incident years ago that magically closed off sections of the land from Arendelle. There they discover a lost civilization, remnants of Arendelle soldiers locked in with them, and four spirits raging over a mysterious past event Elsa and Anna must discover and find a solution to. In the end Elsa discovers the reason for her powers, what actually happened to their parents, the sisters settle a conflict that has existed since their grandfather's time and in the end save both Arendelle and Northuldra. All is well.<br />
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But then ...</div>
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Suddenly one of the new characters suggests Elsa's place isn't in Arendelle but within the Enchanted Forest among the Northuldra. Elsa somehow agrees to this and the movie ends with her living happily among the forest spirits with people she knew for a day while Anna is crowned Queen Anna of Arendelle instead.</div>
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This made me angry in a way I imagine longtime <i>Star Wars</i> fans must have felt when the sequel series showed them their childhood heroes lived a life of failure and misery after having defeated the Empire. This is casting a very dark shadow over everything that preceded and people put personal stock in. First of all, breaking up the sisters after spending the entire franchise building up that they truly belong together is apparently in line with the current popular and unoriginal plot twist of splitting up teams, after twist villains and true love not necessarily meaning romantic love (both of which appeared in <i>Frozen I</i> before it, albeit poorly executed) so an eye roll is already warranted. It was a bad decision for <i>Ralph Breaks the Internet</i> and it was a bad decision here. True, there is nothing preventing them from teaming up for future adventures and they still maintain a healthy relationship, but at the same time this movie is telling us that their relationship has irrevocably changed in a way that would never have happened if the characters were a romantic couple (with the exception of Pocahontas and John Smith but even there the first movie ended up separating the characters and historically she ended up with John Rolfe anyway) and in doing so made it feel more empty than is appropriate for an escapist fairy tale world where sisterhood ended up being the solution to everyone's problems. The adventures of the sisters as a team are now over and condensed into a mere three-year time frame.<br />
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However that part might just be my personal preference in having a certain status quo established by the first movie maintained. What truly struck a nerve with me was taking Queen Elsa out of Arendelle. Again we have been hammered with the message that despite Elsa being different and suffering mental issues, she still had her place among her people with friends who loved her. Now suddenly the sequel shifted that into telling us that no, she's different so she actually doesn't belong among regular people in Arendelle. It's not that she's suffering from the mental consequences of having lived a life in isolation scared she would hurt the people she loved, no, the real problem is that she simply isn't physically in the place where she would be happy. Her true place is in the forest with people she only just met (wasn't this also a point where the first movie mocked Anna mercilessly for?) where suddenly her mental issues seem to have disappeared because that's where a fire lizard, a breeze of wind and a water horse live.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi03f_4iwGEMJppkv4qzN4nSI8QlU8-vYX0UiGuBc_-2Y-2QHJnZ8HUJHN91gFCR73RnLLu5YtsguqbVfVUJ4b9bNLgpue_VrUP_PzeFewk_TdHegOoFD78zw3TX4pdkahBFDSlYxARJLgB/s1600/Aladdin+Return+of+Jafar+Genie+Its+A+Small+World.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1052" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi03f_4iwGEMJppkv4qzN4nSI8QlU8-vYX0UiGuBc_-2Y-2QHJnZ8HUJHN91gFCR73RnLLu5YtsguqbVfVUJ4b9bNLgpue_VrUP_PzeFewk_TdHegOoFD78zw3TX4pdkahBFDSlYxARJLgB/s320/Aladdin+Return+of+Jafar+Genie+Its+A+Small+World.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>It's a small world after all</i></td></tr>
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So that in the end is what really made me angry about the ending of <i>Frozen II</i>. After the previous movie repeatedly made clear that being a depressed socially anxious introvert in a world of extroverts does not mean you don't belong, doesn't mean you can't be loved for who you are, and that you can thrive just by being who you are as long as you open up to the people who support you, <i>Frozen II</i> suddenly says we really do not belong and tells us to travel.<br />
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Therefore in my mind Anna is only the regent queen while Elsa is in the forest learning to properly control her powers before she returns to Arendelle as its queen. Kind of like how the Genie had an emotional departure from <i>Aladdin</i> at the end of the first movie where he left his friends to see the world but promptly returned to reset the status quo at the beginning of the sequel. Screw the previously unmentioned destiny, Elsa already has a place where she belongs.<br />
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I expect my opinion of the movie in general to improve over time, as it really was okay overall. The visuals were breathtaking, the characters were (mostly) still who they were supposed to be, I actually laughed at Olaf's antics several times, and the soundtrack was ... frankly a bit underwhelming (<i>Let It Go </i>might have had a fanbase who misunderstood the point of the song somewhat but <i>Into the Unknown</i> and <i>Show Yourself</i> simply didn't measure up to it). I just would have been much happier had they simply allowed Elsa to return home instead of making her a poorly-defined elemental goddess who needs to stay in the forest because of reasons.</div>
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Now we can only hope Walt Disney Studios corrects this grievous story error in <i>Frozen III: The Search for Samantha</i>.<br />
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Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-22230061450838899262019-11-29T20:12:00.000+01:002019-11-29T20:12:04.028+01:00Princess vs GeneralThis article is a more elaborated version of a Twitter thread, which you can find here: <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/1125803662922665984">https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/1125803662922665984</a><br />
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<i>When people are insulting you, there is nothing so good for them as not to say a word—just to look at them and think. Miss Minchin turns pale with rage when I do it. Miss Amelia looks frightened, and so do the girls. When you will not fly into a passion people know you are stronger than they are, because you are strong enough to hold in your rage, and they are not, and they say stupid things they wish they had n't said afterward. There 's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in—that 's stronger. </i><br />
-<span style="text-align: center;">A Little Princess (1905), Frances Hodgson Burnett</span></blockquote>
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To start with I would like to make it absolutely certain that I do not dislike the characters that I will be talking somewhat negatively about (and I will repeat that several times). I think it's great that there are women in modern movies that aren't traditionally considered female roles. My problem is the narrow praise that gets heaped upon only a narrow subsection of current "subversive" roles while tearing down previous efforts. Especially since I think many of these new character types still feel like they are in their infancy written by writers who don't yet know how to properly handle them. Culturally this has the negatives of a) women being built up by tearing down others and b) female characters that are being hailed as positive influences actually not being all that positive, just something new the critics didn't grow up with. Hollywood especially is a bit trapped in the "girls can do stuff too!" phase, while a lot of us are well aware of that fact and waiting for them to catch up with stories that go beyond basic focus-tested pandering.<br />
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A Tweet that gained some traction summarized the sentiment as "<a href="https://twitter.com/Fizzygrrl/status/985211966963662848">My generation had princesses to look up to.Our daughters have generals</a>."<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Princess vs General</span><br />How glorification of the female general<br />archetype might not be all it's cracked up to be</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sara Crewe; or, What Happened at<br />Miss Minchin's</i> (1888)</td></tr>
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More female military ranks in fiction is fine. By itself that simply means there's more balance in what roles male and female characters can occupy and as such that's a good thing. Where the sentiment loses me is in the value judgment that princess characters are inherently <i>inferior</i> to high-ranking military characters. The military characters apparently being better suited as role models for young girls. As a Disney Princess enthusiast and defender, I take umbrage with that idea and feel that it is deeply rooted in how princesses are judged <i>memetically</i> rather than based on context (which ironically could be construed as a misogynistic reaction). As such the princesses tend to be judged harshly based on misconceptions and outright falsehoods rather than what is actually presented in the movies (a classic example is the 'common knowledge' that <i>Beauty and the Beast</i> (1991) is really about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome">Stockholm Syndrome</a>, when that <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-stockholm-misinterpretation.html">description would fit Cogsworth more than Belle</a>). Likewise these new military characters supposedly being awesome, empowering and good role models run the risk of <i>also</i> being more a memetic judgement rather than based on context, which could horribly date them when the next wave of progressive characters hit and previous ones are reevaluated. People who judge history harshly would probably do well to remember that future generations will do the same to us, because what is actually beneath the woman with a military rank as currently presented?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Black Panther</i> (2018)</td></tr>
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Monarchy Bad, Military Industrial Complex Good</h4>
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A standard response to why <i>Disney Princesses</i> are supposedly bad is because they <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=disney%20princess%20monarchy&src=typd">support the concept of monarchy</a>, which in the eyes of many is apparently an inherently evil institution. However I can't help but wonder how much of that is a genuine sentiment and not a post hoc rationalization just to hate some more on Disney Princesses. Maybe it's not <i>Disney Princesses</i> that are bad because the monarchy is bad, but monarchies are bad because <i>Disney Princesses</i> are supposed to be bad. After all in the Western world monarchies are hardly the authoritarian oppressive regimes of yesteryear anymore. If anything the system is unfair to those born <i>into</i> the nowadays largely ceremonial role (1).</div>
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However princesses being supplanted by military leaders is where that train of though becomes especially odd. Suppose that we accept that princesses are bad because promoting monarchies is bad. What then are female generals promoting when we live in a world that is suffering heavily under rampant militarism? In the Western world monarchies have no bite, but reckless military intervention causing disaster is still our daily reality and shows no sign of stopping. Isn't it then more pernicious to have characters that serve as pro-military propaganda rather than to have characters that are largely relegated to symbolic fairy tale constructs anyway and have been for decades, if not centuries?</div>
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Looking at the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie <i>Black Panther</i> (2018), Okoye, general of the Dora Milaje is certainly a cool character, but her morality is also largely overruled by whoever sits on the throne she has pledged loyalty to. Unlike Shuri who, in line with the princess archetype, gets to rebel against injustice as she sees it, Okoye's character is defined by duty to a post she might personally disagree with and requires T'Challa being revealed to still be king for her to switch sides based on a technicality. Meanwhile the struggle between the possible kings of Wakanda explores the morality of Erik Killmonger's destructive goal and T'Challa's efforts in course correcting his father's historic mistakes. This is because monarchy in modern fiction isn't about adoration of the concept of monarchy, but about the morality of a person wielding great power. Which is why the shift from stories about royalty so effortlessly shifted into stories about superheroes (which is especially true for Black Panther since the king of Wakanda also takes on the mantle of the Black Panther). With great power comes great responsibility after all. General Okoye meanwhile is restricted in her ability to be moral.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizoOzr7j-lncfzhQICGo6jTIwAohwRC2vaCPGfwrdBgIVZjZi7zzDjGMQuRst_GQCDUaDX_dpEdPN1-oA02vh1lJsGsQ5q5Zse1I-OO2eJ-kDnFbADhSlB1_mQCT8ul3VvAh8KZuaKQNKj/s1600/Deus+Ex+The+Revision+JC+Denton+Sam+Carter+Honest+Soldier.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="766" data-original-width="1584" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizoOzr7j-lncfzhQICGo6jTIwAohwRC2vaCPGfwrdBgIVZjZi7zzDjGMQuRst_GQCDUaDX_dpEdPN1-oA02vh1lJsGsQ5q5Zse1I-OO2eJ-kDnFbADhSlB1_mQCT8ul3VvAh8KZuaKQNKj/s320/Deus+Ex+The+Revision+JC+Denton+Sam+Carter+Honest+Soldier.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Deus Ex</i> (2000)</td></tr>
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In the action role-playing game <i>Deus Ex</i> (2000) the dynamic of loyal soldiers having restrictions on their morality is called out during JC Denton's escape from the compound of his former employers after he discovered that the anti-terror organization is actually just a front for the global conspiracy spreading a deadly virus in a plot to tighten their power over the world's governments, and the terrorists while employing imperfect methods actually have a justifiable and noble goal. When encountering quartermaster Sam Carter (a former general, ironically) JC urges him to defect UNATCO along with him. Carter refuses arguing the only way the organization will survive is for the good people to say, to which Denton responds with<br />
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"<i>What good's an honest soldier if he can be ordered to behave like a terrorist?</i>"<br />
- JC Denton, Deus Ex (2000)</div>
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With Leia Organa in the <i>Star Wars</i> franchise the shift from Princess Leia to General Leia hardly
changed anything at all about her position (except if you buy into
adoration of the monarchy being inferior to adoration of the military, I
suppose). Given Carrie Fisher's age and reduction in prominence in the new trilogy it is
hardly surprising, but nevertheless funny how her 'promotion' from
princess to general seemingly causes her to be <i>less </i>active in solving conflicts.
Meanwhile the new trilogy centers itself on a girl who due to being born
with her great powers takes up the mantle as successor to Luke
Skywalker (himself technically a prince).<br />
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Fa Mulan from Disney's <i>Mulan</i> (1998) avoids many of these pitfalls by virtue of the soldier aspect of her character arc not actually being a glorification of her rank or the military, but simply a stepping stone into figuring out who she really is. Throughout the movie Mulan is shown to be <i>terrible</i> at meeting imposed expectations as they are presented, both as a future bride and as a soldier. It is only when she applies her own cunning and creativity to a situation that she meets success. After all, she defeated Shan-Yu and the Hun army not by being the best soldier, but by explicitly <i>ignoring</i> orders, and the very act of being a soldier as a woman is a rebellious act in her society. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39350210-reflection">Elizabeth Lim's <i>Reflection</i></a> (2018) at one point plays with the idea of Mulan being made a general in the Emperor's army, but nevertheless reinforces that Mulan's true self lies outside of the restrictions imposed by either being the perfect wife or the perfect tool for the Emperor.<br />
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The worth of the female general as a character archetype runs the
risk of being less focused on the character's individual actualization,
and more based on how well she performs in service of the person
pulling her strings. The princess rebelling against her conditions vs the general simply being the best tool under her imposed conditions. Adoration of a defunct ruling system it was only loosely connected to in the first place vs adoration of a system currently wrecking the world. It seems like an odd thing to celebrate as an inherent improvement.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Little Princess </i><br />
(1917 illustration by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Franklin_Betts">Ethel Franklin Betts</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4>
A Little Princess</h4>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Little_Princess">A Litt</a></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Little_Princess">le Princess</a></i> (1905) by Frances Hodgson Burnett tells the story of Sara Crewe, daughter of the wealthy Captain Crewe. The girl is sent to a boarding school in England where she is given special treatment due to her father's status (even though she is heavily disliked by the jealous headmistress Miss Minchin). Despite her privilege, Sara is nevertheless kind, generous, smart, helps those in need, does not speak ill of those she dislikes and stands up to those who do wrong. She holds herself to that standard by pretending to be a princess, and believes every woman has the right to be a princess no matter their circumstances (which is a point very much missed by movie adaptations who retitle their version <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Princess_(1939_film)"><u>THE</u> Little Princess</a></i>).</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"It 's true," she said. "Sometimes I do pretend I am a princess.<br /> </i><i>I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one."</i><i>- Sara Crewe</i></blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Unfortunately the story takes a dark turn when Sara's father dies (of brain fever after having lost a lot of money, because that was a thing in literature back then) and she loses all of her wealth, of which she is informed during her birthday party no less. Having no other family or guardian to turn to, Sara is forced to work for Miss Minchin as retribution for the cost of Sara's lavish lifestyle which now won't be reimbursed. She is routinely starved, abused, is given very poor clothing and has to live in a small uncomfortable attic. The true test of her character then becomes whether or not she can maintain her kind nature even through her unhappy circumstances, which of course she does.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Whatever comes," she said, "cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.</i><i>- Sara Crewe</i></blockquote>
</div>
<br />
She continues to help those around her and although no longer having any status to back her up, she nevertheless retains her strong personality and refuses to bow down to people who are unkind to her. Which gives us passages like these where Miss Minchin is continuously on the receiving end of blows to her ego because Sara refuses to be cowed down by an abusive bully.<br />
<div style="text-align: start;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"What are you laughing at, you bold, impudent child?" Miss Minchin exclaimed.<br />It took Sara a few seconds to control herself sufficiently to remember that she was a princess. Her cheeks were red and smarting from the blows she had received.<br />"I was thinking," she answered.<br />"Beg my pardon immediately," said Miss Minchin.<br />Sara hesitated a second before she replied.<br />"I will beg your pardon for laughing, if it was rude," she said then; "but I won't beg your pardon for thinking."</i></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Sara Crewe leans so close to the archetype of the <i>Disney Princess</i> that it astounds me Disney never tried to make their own version (although there have been several other adaptations, the most prominent recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3WJrWZ_npg">one from 1995 starring Liesel Matthews and Vanessa Lee Chester</a>). Even over thirty years before Snow White had her introduction, Sara Crewe already embodied the ideals of a princess far removed from the concept of adoration for the monarchy. True, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette">Marie Antoinette</a> is a personal idol to Sara, but always as inspiration on how to act both from a position of privilege or as downtrodden. Disney Princesses, even early ones such as Snow White and Cinderella, also embody the same quality of largess under duress. When not careful that can certainly turn into the much more unfortunate messaging of "take abuse with a smile" (the <i>Cinderella</i> (2015) live-action remake struggles with trying to answer why exactly she even stays with her abusive step-family and is rather clumsy about it), but by itself the strength to be kind under hard circumstances should not be mistaken for a character flaw whereas punching your way out of bad situations is always the supposedly "stronger" alternative. Sara's victories where she shows Miss Minchin for the petty and sad woman she really is wouldn't be nearly as satisfying without Sara's strong character.</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXdy5eVqX103ARG0ZrfRoqBdesPZYp6boEHSYUOaOc8tx9avwD6uhBhu7dNhKB2jcFz_XIr_ZekuspI5VgeFxQrzpKE1p8tF4bANzKPl-S5PEf3tgl65LPjRdRl-oQAwgy2BsX64SNvDZ8/s1600/Brie+Larson+Captain+Marvel+2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="1488" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXdy5eVqX103ARG0ZrfRoqBdesPZYp6boEHSYUOaOc8tx9avwD6uhBhu7dNhKB2jcFz_XIr_ZekuspI5VgeFxQrzpKE1p8tF4bANzKPl-S5PEf3tgl65LPjRdRl-oQAwgy2BsX64SNvDZ8/s320/Brie+Larson+Captain+Marvel+2019.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Captain Marvel</i> (2019)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h4>
Captain Marvel vs Rapunzel</h4>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Since both of them have blonde hair that occasionally glows, I at <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/1107597609491988481">one point</a> pictured Rapunzel in the Captain Marvel suit. Turns out I was not the only person who made that connection so I went to the Google machine to check on other people making fanart. Some of the content however seemed more based around the idea that Rapunzel was the tired old boring princess while Captain Marvel is the new exciting hotness (mirrored by some <a href="https://twitter.com/ocdisney/status/1103739243468226560">forget Disney Princesses</a> headlines on Twitter). And that annoys me just a bit too much.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now please do not mistake what follows as me hating Captain Marvel or Brie Larson, <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/1101923183299571712">as seems to be the style</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/1101923694480375808">around certain parts of the Internet</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/1124356093063389187">that for some reason survive on daily videos</a> on how awful both are. I have on multiple times called out people who have made hating on the movie their entire online presence. I like the movie (although the sound design left a lot to be desired and it ruined several crucial scenes) and I have no personal problems with Brie Larson. What I will be doing is take shots at how "inspiring" she supposedly is.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Captain Marvel</i> was heavily marketed around Carol Danvers being the inspiration for the Avengers Initiative seen in chronologically later films (which the movie itself confirms, both by showing Nick Fury starting the project after having met her, and titling it after Carol's callsign), "<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LHxvxdRnYc">Everything begins with (a) her(o)</a></i>" being a prominent tagline. However the actual character seems to be a fairly standard power fantasy who is deemed inspirational because she punches harder than the other Marvel heroes. When learning that she has been brainwashed and aided genocide and spending half a movie indiscriminately murdering people who are only trying to survive, Carol Danvers seems more bothered that the Kree had the audacity of lying to her. Her turn to the good side comes at no personal cost since her powers
make her unstoppable and her bond with the villains was never that
strong to begin with, and everyone is suddenly okay with her switching sides even though she murdered their friends. Being on the good side feels less like something Carol works towards based on her conduct and more like something she is owed because she's the protagonist.<br />
Meanwhile in the same universe we have Bucky Barnes who was brainwashed into becoming a HYDRA assassin. His response in <i>Civil War</i> to Captain America protecting his life is a regretful "<i>I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve</i>" and his character is further defined by his self-loathing because he could still be made to commit atrocities. Captain America himself, while no slouch in the ass-kicking department, is consistently characterized as being inspiring because he's just a skinny guy from Brooklyn who will do the right thing regardless of what it costs him (which in that regard actually makes Thanos his ideal shadow). His title of "captain" is almost ironic considering this military man spends more time loudly questioning and disobeying unjust orders than following them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There's a montage of all the times in Carol's life when she stood back up
after being knocked down, which is good but ultimately rather pointless
to her character since she uses the memory to unlock powers that ensure she'll
never be knocked down again. For Captain America his recurring "<i>I can do this all day</i>" scenes occur both before and after he gained his superpowers. For Carol adversity comes off as more of a hurdle that she has conquered and now doesn't have to deal with anymore.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It seems like what makes Captain Marvel inspiring is thus actually very shallow. She's powerful and her supersuit is full body. That's about it. That's not necessarily a problem and there's plenty of other male heroes whose morality seems be centered entirely on them, but it seems rather odd and hypocritical that one of the figures that's touted as progressive and inspiring has more in common with unstoppable 80's action heroes who today get called out for promoting toxic masculinity for precisely the reasons that make Captain Marvel admirable.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbt8AbbPorKrk1I166yFHNfeGpmg9NgSeA4aD0QY3EAjFR6MWwIG1Uk81s6cOLINxKBGCuNkQyC_7va_L7dyzJv3V18JYQZeyxSVao4XRW9GPNGsyYxMQgWnys4knkmW82W2Ge4GbIsOqw/s1600/Rapunzel+Mother+Gother+Disney+2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="1185" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbt8AbbPorKrk1I166yFHNfeGpmg9NgSeA4aD0QY3EAjFR6MWwIG1Uk81s6cOLINxKBGCuNkQyC_7va_L7dyzJv3V18JYQZeyxSVao4XRW9GPNGsyYxMQgWnys4knkmW82W2Ge4GbIsOqw/s320/Rapunzel+Mother+Gother+Disney+2010.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Tangled</i> (2010)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now let's take a look at Rapunzel from <i>Disney's Tangled</i> (2010). Rapunzel was kidnapped as a child and grew up locked away in a tower with her abusive kidnapper pretending to be her loving mother, who fed her anxiety and fear about the outside world. Nevertheless her dream of one day seeing the mysterious floating lights lighting up the night sky on her birthday up close (that unbeknownst to her <i>are</i> meant to guide her home) causes enough of an impetus for her to escape her tower and in he process learn that her kindly mother was actually the danger she was supposed to fear all along. So like <i>Hunchback of Notre Dame</i>, the core message of the movie is that some abusers will pretend to be your only supporters. Regardless of the fairy tale setting, that <i>is</i> insight many people need.<br />
Rapunzel is also hardly a passive participant in her own movie. Despite her significant fear and anxiety about the outside world, she is the one actively planning her own escape (although originally planning for it to be temporary) while forcing the kingdom's greatest thief to be her guide. Practically every bad situation they find themselves in is the result of Flynn Rider's past catching up to him while he needs <i>her</i> help to get by.<br />
<br />
See the idea that Disney Princesses only sing all day while waiting for their prince to save them is an odd cultural construct not actually present in the films (2). Rather the princess movies tend to be about girls and women trying to find their place in the world because their assigned roles are too restrictive. The prince "rescuing" them, rather than the woman in the tower being a reward for the brave knight, tends to be reframed as a cooperative effort because the characters are people and people occasionally need outside help. <i>The Disney Princess</i>, especially the modern variety, are more rounded people than the morally-questionable asskickers we are supposed to see as inspiring (and <i>Frozen</i>'s criticism of Disney's earlier princess movies ends up <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.com/2017/11/split-ice-apart-frozen.html">subverting cliches that were already being subverted more effectively decades earlier</a>, while itself actually <a href="https://medium.com/disney-and-animation/the-problem-with-false-feminism-7c0bbc7252ef">falling trap to a bunch of them</a>). The cultural messaging angle ends up being very odd: TOXIC MASCULINITY! But also women are only valuable if they are good at punching people.<br />
<br />
This is exactly why I think many of the supposed good and subversive modern female role models are actually going to be judged very badly by history by the same types of people who side-eye the princess archetype right now. The one thing that isn't subverted are the insane standards that women are expected to meet, because only a select number of culturally-approved female characters meet them. The answer to this probably lies in a more balanced approach that accepts ALL kinds of character types without Regina Georging whatever lies within the very restrictive currently accepted norm. Burying historical achievements does a disservice to the people who fought for them. Remember, you might not think early Disney Princesses are especially empowering, but what <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.com/2018/02/defending-disney-part-4-walt-supposed.html">about the fact that Disney Studios' Ink & Paint Department was entirely made up of women</a> at a time when women were barely able to get jobs at all? Snow White as a character might not be the most progressive compared to our modern sensibilities, but EVERY FRAME of those early movies was touched by pioneer women. It does them a massive disservice to ignore that.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnYzmP3AyM91egiXzUtk4qRUWXFDQz0wV8B66Myo1kDFRIz_E3f9EaP0QAzDnwUUUjyn7tnOz6b8Suy5wGtXRPVEiUB64QjH7E1aAL0c0pqy7brKeMgKCMqpg1nCjzdBQ9DbBV6By9Zwmg/s1600/The+Reluctant+Dragon+Ink+and+Paint+1941.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="1192" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnYzmP3AyM91egiXzUtk4qRUWXFDQz0wV8B66Myo1kDFRIz_E3f9EaP0QAzDnwUUUjyn7tnOz6b8Suy5wGtXRPVEiUB64QjH7E1aAL0c0pqy7brKeMgKCMqpg1nCjzdBQ9DbBV6By9Zwmg/s320/The+Reluctant+Dragon+Ink+and+Paint+1941.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Reluctant Dragon</i> (1941)<br />
Ink & Paint</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
Conclusion</h4>
The takeaway to all this should be one thing: like what you like or don't what you don't, but stop tearing down old female characters to build up new female characters in the name of social progress. Not only are you doing a disservice to the uphill battle those generations had to go through for that recognition, you also lose the high ground for future generations who will judge our generation just as harshly as we do previous ones. Furthermore you are limiting the range of available female roles and implicitly telling fans who are inspired by those kinds of characters that they are wrong for being so. Snow White is no less valuable as a woman because she's kind and occasionally frightened, Captain Marvel is not inherently a stronger character just because she punches harder, and the dialog surrounding it is very stifling.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h4>
Notes </h4>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1) My bias here is that I personally I still see the value in having a permanent representative of the people overseeing a temporary elected government, and the symbolic aspect of a royal family promotes societal cohesion similar to religion without having to invoke the supernatural. I thus can see why constitutional monarchies where the monarch's bite is limited are still a valuable thing and not inherently bad. Just imagine the deterring effects it would have on egomaniacs such as Donald Trump if the US Presidency did <i>not</i> enjoy the acclaim of the position as the highest office (and which culturally <i>still</i> enjoys a certain unfortunate 'appointed by God' quality), but one that needs to account to a higher one.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2) Although Tangled is a Disney musical and as such songs are an intrinsic part of the movie, ironically the stereotype of the singing princess is given a very dark twist. Rapunzel was kidnapped because her hair has healing properties that are activated by a song, which Mother Gothel uses to stay young forever. In story-relevant instances of Rapunzel singing thus tends to be a form of abuse rather than whimsy.</span></div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-90618056550839205832019-08-09T22:05:00.001+02:002023-09-24T12:02:00.852+02:00Charlie's Angels - Playstation 2<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj85NnHjq6HIrejh5KZv_ZcrMX7bJ8mK3ZAvEWA8u2SPRBNUepqxj3w9Cz0vOM9ts9Y2S0m6ZfpeYEgk6Bn_dyByNctePO5lq0eoFQGlgzna-dffA4rLMZ-CRRfMtfimxX1aPvIvsGugzm6/s1600/Charlies+Angels+Playstation+2+Banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="1338" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj85NnHjq6HIrejh5KZv_ZcrMX7bJ8mK3ZAvEWA8u2SPRBNUepqxj3w9Cz0vOM9ts9Y2S0m6ZfpeYEgk6Bn_dyByNctePO5lq0eoFQGlgzna-dffA4rLMZ-CRRfMtfimxX1aPvIvsGugzm6/s400/Charlies+Angels+Playstation+2+Banner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Charlie's Angels </i>(2003) for <i>PlayStation 2</i> (or <i>GameCube)</i> is a game that I for the longest time avoided despite me generally keeping an eye out for video games with female protagonists since it's notorious for being one of the worst games ever made and I'd rather not fill up my library with shovelware. That is until I saw <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Vch_OsyZI"><i>Angry Video Game Nerd</i> Episode 153</a> and didn't really understand what was supposed to be so bad about the game in the first place. Heck even the Nerd's rage felt forced compared to what was actually shown on the screen. <a href="https://www.metacritic.com/game/gamecube/charlies-angels">The Metacritic score</a> of the game stands at 23/100, which in an industry where everything below 70 is "bad", I interpret as "game is literally unplayable". So imagine my surprise when out of curiosity I did end up buying the game and it turned out that I <i>liked</i> it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Now I like a lot of things that are considered bad so it doesn't exactly surprise me when I end up enjoying something generally deemed awful (short list, I like the <i>Street Fighter</i> movie, <i>Batman & Robin</i>, <i>Duke Nukem Forever </i>and <i><a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.com/2015/11/metroid-other-m.html">Metroid: Other M</a></i>). However that probably means I'm not exactly in a place to recommend it to anyone else, but I will say that its bad reputation might have been overly exacerbated due to being a tie-in to a goofy movie series with an already less-than-excellent reputation. I mean a few critics went as low as giving the game a 0/10. Seriously? Heck, I would have already awarded the game a 2/10 simply for the title screen opening up with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asOvnGHwtDU">Get Free by The Vines</a> because that is one kickass opening song. However instead of a recommendation consider this an argument to have the game moved slightly more into "more okay than expected" territory.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-wMwclJzfw09BZZIRYrYQIoRc4vgE4WhdIX9h35g9cf07oYiyg0bh4_GhLjJSKWc4-2k1TODsa0deLURNsDGn_yzPazEm5JxGRSGLGAhkk-73Scr1Nl4w-PVM_3E-mRp8nD1zHr8_3Ef/s1600/Charlies+Angels+Playstation+2+Characters+Natalie+Alex+Dylan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="893" data-original-width="1194" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-wMwclJzfw09BZZIRYrYQIoRc4vgE4WhdIX9h35g9cf07oYiyg0bh4_GhLjJSKWc4-2k1TODsa0deLURNsDGn_yzPazEm5JxGRSGLGAhkk-73Scr1Nl4w-PVM_3E-mRp8nD1zHr8_3Ef/s320/Charlies+Angels+Playstation+2+Characters+Natalie+Alex+Dylan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Graphically it looks okay by <i>PlayStation 2</i> standards. The levels look good and solid, if sometimes a bit uninspired. The quality of the character models fluctuates. Every level has the Angels in different costumes and some of them haven't been polished as well as others. Cameron Diaz/Natalie's model in the first level is one of the worst ones with a lighting issue on her hair making it look like she has a massive bald spot, which is especially unfortunate since she's the first in-game character we see and we see her up close (although I don't know what was going on in the AVGN episode because her face didn't look nearly <i>that</i> distorted on the PS2 version. Maybe it's worse on GameCube or it might have been an emulation bug). Otherwise the models tend to look fine though.<br />
The gameplay is very straightforward. Each level consists of the three Angels having to fight their way to a specific target. When they reach the end, or when they require a door to be opened to proceed, control switches to a different Angel (which can also be done manually though is not really needed) until all three are where they need to be. Along the way you have to fight groups of (named) enemies to progress. All three of them have visually distinct fighting styles, but mechanically they control the same. You learn a couple combos and throws, and as you fight a bar fills up that gives you a special move which slows enemies down (which is apparently called "Angel Enhanced Time"). You can pick up a variety of dropped weapons such as knives, baseball bats, shovels and even grenades, and there's healing items and extra lives hidden in breakable crates ... It's <i>Streets of Rage</i>, it's just 3D <i>Streets of Rage</i>. It's not buggy, frustratingly difficult or hard to figure out, it's simply a barebones-but-solid 3D brawler.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1MsbLXAeA0WLpxNYWsxFXYxi_F7wI3ww8JrTRpsbYwOKa7eIIDKccelqrpzgW0YpRCEvULnL94nmHTgIp4Gs8N3E3hooqvfEkC0T-GbRM-22Lh8CX2ajACIfplSZWg70VjsbdfVSZ2dfI/s1600/Charlies+Angels+Playstation+2+Screens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="893" data-original-width="1194" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1MsbLXAeA0WLpxNYWsxFXYxi_F7wI3ww8JrTRpsbYwOKa7eIIDKccelqrpzgW0YpRCEvULnL94nmHTgIp4Gs8N3E3hooqvfEkC0T-GbRM-22Lh8CX2ajACIfplSZWg70VjsbdfVSZ2dfI/s320/Charlies+Angels+Playstation+2+Screens.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The game <i>does</i> have an annoying camera that jumps around at times and which can't be manually moved. Also invisible walls provide a very restrictive playing area (even blocking off areas you previously could go), but the only reason to actually explore a level is to find CDs and memory sticks that unlock hardly-compelling images from the production of <i>Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle</i> (2003), which Google images and IMDB would provide in better quality should you be in anyway interested. Ultimately the biggest problem with this game is that by 2003 standards it was simply outdated. It doesn't push any boundaries and certainly can't be held in the same category as say <i>Primal </i>(2003), <i>Metal Gear Solid 2 </i>(2001) or <i>Grand Theft Auto III </i>(2001), it's simply a 3D version of <i>Street of Rage</i> with the then current cast of <i>Charlie's Angels</i> and surprisingly alright when approached as that. Not something you'd want to have spent 60€ new on, but as cheap second hand game I honestly can't consider this a blight upon my collection anymore.<br />
<br />
It actually reminds me of another movie tie-in game. <i>Sucker Punch</i> back in 2011 had a promotional hack-and-slash video game on its website called <i>Sucker Punch Annihilation</i> where you could pick one of the five girls and had to fight through waves of enemies in one of three levels based on the movie's fantasy sections. I also ended up liking it despite its simplicity, primarily because the scoring system and leaderboards made it highly replayable. Unfortunately the game has since been taken offline, but there's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du3ix6r0SG4">YouTube</a> (there's a bunch of reuploads but it's hell to get any of those to work on modern browsers).<br />
<br />
In conclusion, <i>Charlie's Angels</i> is by no means a hidden gem of its generation, but surprisingly more "alright" and fun than I was led to believe.</div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-68224143491907939102019-01-17T17:00:00.000+01:002019-01-17T18:02:21.006+01:00Tomb Raider II - The Wreck of the Maria Doria<div style="text-align: justify;">
I always liked the classic <i>Tomb Raider</i> games more than the most recent Crystal Dynamics reboot series. However I got stuck in most of them when I was younger and it started to feel weird having these fond memories and singing the praise of games a bunch of which I never actually finished (especially since I've played through <i>Tomb Raider</i> 2013 and <i>Rise of the Tomb Raider</i> twice already). So lately I've been through a trek of Core Design <i>Tomb Raider</i> to finally put that niggling feeling to rest, and to see if I still like these games as much as I used to. That has brought me to <i>Tomb Raider II</i> which together with III used to be the games I struggled the hardest with and gave up the earliest on. Now that I've finally did beat the dragon I have some thoughts on a couple particular levels of TRII and some design choices surrounding them.</div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Wreck of the Maria Doria</span></b><br />
<b>Tomb Raider II</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_YHUPc36ne30RvBMGBOPB2P3oJw_EpLF9q6d6mGmMTxr96lZP4OQFB5DHXjw48i7Gf8uGGUy83lHYDorxoTLKRiWc60Ntxzysn4BeNUlgsMGOQklfWwxkeuQNMfiEoyQzRMQ6iccbA-7Z/s1600/Tomb+Raider+2+The+Wreck+of+the+Maria+Doria+Staircase.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="967" data-original-width="1295" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_YHUPc36ne30RvBMGBOPB2P3oJw_EpLF9q6d6mGmMTxr96lZP4OQFB5DHXjw48i7Gf8uGGUy83lHYDorxoTLKRiWc60Ntxzysn4BeNUlgsMGOQklfWwxkeuQNMfiEoyQzRMQ6iccbA-7Z/s320/Tomb+Raider+2+The+Wreck+of+the+Maria+Doria+Staircase.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Tomb Raider</i> 1, while undoubtedly still a masterpiece, shows its age in several significant ways. Going back from later games it was certainly surprising that Lara Croft in the adventure that put her on the map couldn't even crouch yet. In the visual department the most jarring example of age might be the complete lack of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skybox_(video_games)">skyboxes</a> (essentially the illusion of a horizon and surrounding distant landscape being created by painting them on a large, stationary cube that surrounds and follows the player specifically rather than being a part of the in-game map). That might not sound like a big deal, especially not in a game called "Tomb Raider" where the assumption is you'll be spending most of your time underground. However the apparent lack of an above-ground makes the entire game, and not just the titular tombs, feel rather claustrophobic.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhToA4M3RFsTaioIR-zgevTq5qJjIx2tES8GX6-OiN4DtmKnxzioFF95nJFKzPwDymSTEEHdUotkoCI7cFE6W3OZj2kSDlMr76lrDQvcjCd5JnKW9eBWYlAjRpY73r1p_CvrO_b0w0sBj3V/s1600/Tomb+Raider+1+Croft+Manor+Skybox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhToA4M3RFsTaioIR-zgevTq5qJjIx2tES8GX6-OiN4DtmKnxzioFF95nJFKzPwDymSTEEHdUotkoCI7cFE6W3OZj2kSDlMr76lrDQvcjCd5JnKW9eBWYlAjRpY73r1p_CvrO_b0w0sBj3V/s200/Tomb+Raider+1+Croft+Manor+Skybox.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even in TR1's Croft Manor, the 'skybox' is <br />
revealed to be just a background textured <br />
on a small room outside the window</td></tr>
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Now this was understandable as it was 1996 and developers were still figuring out how game development in 3D worked at all. <i>Super Mario 64, </i>the Nintendo 64 game that would set many standards for 3D gaming, only came out a few months before <i>Tomb Raider</i> (<i>Tomb Raider </i>was even released first in Europe), so the achievements of Core Design in creating a 3D game that still holds up despite its age cannot and should not be understated just because I'm nitpicking 22 years after the fact. The lack of skyboxes doesn't particularly hinder the game either, it just makes the game feel less like I am traveling the globe in a desperate race against time to prevent it from being destroyed by the former queen of Atlantis, and more like I'm on an extended trek through the same underground cavern system. Especially so on modern computers where the pre-rendered cutscenes stitching the game together are barely presentable, if they work at all (Am I asking for remasters that nevertheless keeps the Classic Era gameplay in-tact? Yes I am).</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPFabo8ejXzFMDbL_H8I-RjU829puNy2mrP6oHXJUt1-AsBfqOVrcI2C9vMsviHiLckrBMjYdIjm0NmVg-0gGqbQ2AShE9Dwf_Cp3zP8SDrkMWtguRABfKcfMxk65g8vp-qeHw_cC7UQat/s1600/Lara+Croft+Tomb+Raider+1+vs+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPFabo8ejXzFMDbL_H8I-RjU829puNy2mrP6oHXJUt1-AsBfqOVrcI2C9vMsviHiLckrBMjYdIjm0NmVg-0gGqbQ2AShE9Dwf_Cp3zP8SDrkMWtguRABfKcfMxk65g8vp-qeHw_cC7UQat/s400/Lara+Croft+Tomb+Raider+1+vs+2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lara Croft, Tomb Raider (1996) vs Tomb Raider II (1997)</td></tr>
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A year later in 1997 <i>Tomb Raider II</i> was released with many improvements over the first one. Not the least of which was an update to Lara Croft's character model which upped her polygon count, giving her a much less angular appearance, improving her textures, and generally giving her a more human look. Also she finally has her iconic ponytail which due to technical difficulties previously only showed up in cutscenes and promotional materials. Lara's moveset has been updated with the ability to climb ladders, to roll mid jump and to utilize vehicles (namely motorboats and snowmobiles). Lara Croft's voice actress was also changed from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0960581/">Shelley Blond</a> to <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0316500/">Judith Gibbins</a> outside of grunts that were re-used from the first game.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQqGkoIBDLV3YRnx2xwBeZX7WmZzSu-Ljl-kdF3C_7DQ1sQG5IWdnAcb9yXIU_z0thU7rOaiKFsJG9mCSpsyDDPe45vtzAOeWEmhKwFVsg0xTxHPOLFSdCYUPTzo872lSjTTPdOcwGCZ3r/s1600/Tomb+Raider+2+The+Great+Wall+Skybox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1280" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQqGkoIBDLV3YRnx2xwBeZX7WmZzSu-Ljl-kdF3C_7DQ1sQG5IWdnAcb9yXIU_z0thU7rOaiKFsJG9mCSpsyDDPe45vtzAOeWEmhKwFVsg0xTxHPOLFSdCYUPTzo872lSjTTPdOcwGCZ3r/s200/Tomb+Raider+2+The+Great+Wall+Skybox.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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The developers had also figured out how to implement skyboxes and this time they were very proud to show them off. <i>Tomb Raider II</i> starts by dropping Lara Croft at the Great Wall of China where she begins her investigation into the Dagger of Xian. The sky, the clouds and mountains in the distance all provide the illusion that we're in a real world before we delve into the booby-trapped underground (not a boob joke, the second half of the first level is actually brutal and saving often is highly advised) that hasn't been seen in centuries. Instantly the benefit of having skyboxes is apparent as the game's world suddenly feels much larger than the one from the first game, even though the structure of the levels themselves hasn't really changed all that much. This also meant the developers could experiment with different ideas for level locations since they were no longer confined to building underground tombs, thus giving us locations in Venice, an offshore oil rig and Tibetan mountains. While exploration is encouraged with secrets that grant extra items, the levels themselves are still as confined (and often fairly linear) as they were in the first game, but the mere idea that we have a blue sky above us is enough to remove the claustrophobia from the areas of the game that don't require it to set the mood. A seemingly irrelevant aspect of the game's design nevertheless turns out to have a massive impact on the player's experience of the game's world.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEPst5ZRvM45oMt6VbmjccAb0Lgn-qCgjIan2neGDdyWFouDdaek2iHUFK_wFKj2SNWWLlM6xCcILlA8q0Rf1KrF9J_j1a6M-UYeBpUdT8vbEO_e08QVWY1Hq2fbBSRkRugHeuGcLjxGw/s1600/Tomb+Raider+Anniversary+Maria+Doria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="1600" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEPst5ZRvM45oMt6VbmjccAb0Lgn-qCgjIan2neGDdyWFouDdaek2iHUFK_wFKj2SNWWLlM6xCcILlA8q0Rf1KrF9J_j1a6M-UYeBpUdT8vbEO_e08QVWY1Hq2fbBSRkRugHeuGcLjxGw/s320/Tomb+Raider+Anniversary+Maria+Doria.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tomb Raider Anniversary (2007)</td></tr>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
The Maria Doria </h4>
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As far as fan favorites go, opinion seems to be somewhat divided between the <i>Wreck of the Maria Doria</i> and the <i>Barkhang Monastery</i> (<i>Barkhang Monastery</i> wins by a small margin according to Meagan Marie's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Years-Tomb-Raider-Meagan-Marie/dp/0744016908"><i>20 Years of Tomb Raider</i></a>). Personally, while the <i>Barkhang Monastery</i> is impressively designed both in terms of visuals and gameplay, I feel the Maria Doria has made a bigger impact on me. Part of it might be my obsession with the RMS Titanic sinking, the wreck of which was apparently going to actually make up the Maria Doria levels early in development (it probably also isn't a coincidence that <i>James Cameron's Titanic</i> and <i>Tomb Raider II</i> both came out in 1997). However the name was likely inspired by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Andrea_Doria">SS Andrea Doria</a>, the wreck of which also bears some resemblances to the Maria Doria, namely its capsized state and a comparative depth of the wreck site (Andrea Doria at about 41.5 fathoms (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Andrea-Doria-Italian-ship">76 meters</a>), Maria Doria at 40 (73 meters)), but like Titanic the wreck of the Maria Doria is split in two. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4SYqZaihHko9eV5U_5XOC2a6tTuvEep9ImYvmW4RQIKLO4HUbBwT0cXx_BhnbjMEEQR4Hjz7mDU4_WZsrgmawZPmTOCfU4tx3khwZcZZBrGkIm18avufQI6ZFXr3UBPZrEpu2IKDk4dE_/s1600/Tomb+Raider+2+Lara+Croft+Imprisoned+Oil+Rig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1280" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4SYqZaihHko9eV5U_5XOC2a6tTuvEep9ImYvmW4RQIKLO4HUbBwT0cXx_BhnbjMEEQR4Hjz7mDU4_WZsrgmawZPmTOCfU4tx3khwZcZZBrGkIm18avufQI6ZFXr3UBPZrEpu2IKDk4dE_/s200/Tomb+Raider+2+Lara+Croft+Imprisoned+Oil+Rig.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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The section of the game starts with Lara Croft sneaking on board Marco Bartoli's sea plane, only to be discovered, captured and imprisoned on an Offshore Rig from which she has to rescue herself (the texture makes the bars out to be so far apart that she could just run out but this is what suspension of disbelief looked like in 90's video games). Tension gets raised by the fact that Lara's pistols have been confiscated, thus in the early sections of the level we are running around defenseless dodging Bartoli's henchmen while trying to reclaim them.</div>
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Once Lara's gear is found back on board of the plane we can more easily fight our way through the facility and into the Diving Area (where apparently <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/1061655026903539714">the infamous ladder from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater</a> was previously employed). Although "easy" might not be the right word here since enemies come out in droves just like in the rest of the game, and it is here that we first discover some of these guys have learned the strategic value of utilizing flamethrowers in narrow corners.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIC4HhCz2yEycG-i_hntWCiRALNUl-Od92ZVjFnmjFbzbL678CPMVC913VlaM6ff2BNEGf7FU1w-tSygV7z80JgBL6II3Yac8BW4GSaTzS0lnLaytatXmp2-gbXdUPpcXN8HQGD5n2bj64/s1600/Tomb+Raider+2+Lara+Croft+wet+suit+Oil+Rig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="955" data-original-width="1277" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIC4HhCz2yEycG-i_hntWCiRALNUl-Od92ZVjFnmjFbzbL678CPMVC913VlaM6ff2BNEGf7FU1w-tSygV7z80JgBL6II3Yac8BW4GSaTzS0lnLaytatXmp2-gbXdUPpcXN8HQGD5n2bj64/s200/Tomb+Raider+2+Lara+Croft+wet+suit+Oil+Rig.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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At the end the Diving Area, Lara discovers a heavily tortured monk who tells her of the Seraph on board of the sunken Maria Doria, and which in fact was sunken to keep it hidden (oh no, that sounds like more <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-titanic-switch.html">Titanic conspiracy theories</a>!). Lara changes into a wet suit, the monk gets killed by Marco Bartoli, and Lara escapes by hanging onto a submersible descending into the Adriatic Sea, which subsequently sinks when sharks attack (again, these were the 90's).</div>
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All in all the Offshore Rig section is serviceable but don't make up the most spectacular levels in the game. There isn't anything wrong with them, but outside of starting the section unarmed, it feels like a set of fairly typical Tomb Raider levels in a game that otherwise changes things up regularly to provide unique experiences. However the Rig is just the prelude and it is what they are leading up to that makes them memorable. Next level is where we finally discover and board the sunken ship.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil3LzG9lCvHQ_nhPR0-Yt85PXaTnQi-uYruF_kJhQmAWwvwCoOF8rLLb1l_x8jRq93C2RwhflNjeBRYQwgD8jeR1r0RXzIn1WhtOyz14Kvo_wO3AU9QQTTXkOehtjQTccrSSfQGYFV-t9W/s1600/Tomb+Raider+2+40+Fathoms.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1076" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil3LzG9lCvHQ_nhPR0-Yt85PXaTnQi-uYruF_kJhQmAWwvwCoOF8rLLb1l_x8jRq93C2RwhflNjeBRYQwgD8jeR1r0RXzIn1WhtOyz14Kvo_wO3AU9QQTTXkOehtjQTccrSSfQGYFV-t9W/s320/Tomb+Raider+2+40+Fathoms.png" width="212" /></a></div>
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Following the submersible sinking, Lara is dropped at the bottom of the ocean with rapidly declining oxygen. The shark from the previous cutscene stuck around and is vaguely visible in the distance, with another friend in the vicinity. Everything beyond that is a black void. The only other thing visible is a trail of debris scattered across the ocean floor, which when followed conveniently points to the overturned Maria Doria. Obviously a handy visual guide to point the player in the right direction, but following a field of debris rather than directly searching for the hull of the ship is also the method <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ballard#RMS_Titanic">Robert Ballard used to locate the wreck of the <i>RMS Titanic</i> in 1985</a> so this might actually (accidentally) be a reference to the level's inspiration. We can then enter the wreck through an opening behind the ship's anchor.<br />
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This part is also the reason why I started out by talking about the effect of skyboxes on player experience. The level <i>40 Fathoms</i> where Lara starts out at the bottom of a pitch-black ocean with limited oxygen could possibly have been done in <i>Tomb Raider</i> 1, but wouldn't be nearly as effective at conveying the oppressive atmosphere of the ocean floor and the wreck because the contrast with the more (seemingly) open levels would be missing. Yes, the lack of oxygen would have still made for a tense section underwater but the other wreck levels would simply have a similar atmosphere as the rest of the game. Sandwiched between the above water offshore rig and the trek through the Tibetan mountains however, the section becomes all the more memorable. Luckily the developers knew when <i>not</i> to use every tool they had available in their belt.</div>
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The bottom of the ocean doesn't provide us with a break from having to constantly fight off Bartoli's men though since a whole bunch of them apparently arrived here before we did and they did so in great numbers despite large sections of the ship being closed off. Perhaps this was the point when the designers should have realized that they were overdoing it in the combat department because a wreck at the bottom of the ocean probably shouldn't be populated with as many armed henchmen as the villain's main hideout. Combat is an essential aspect of <i>Tomb Raider </i>but the overabundance of it in <i>Tomb Raider II</i> is what I consider a downgrade from the first game, and it is especially noticeable in these underwater chapters which should be far more desolate. I already committed genocide against the population of Venice and the occupants of the rig above, how many henchmen does this guy have? Luckily the quality of the puzzles did not suffer as a result.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoQZe7vKclLBR-upwgedhDTaOrWXXP1mIXtGVP2quOPI4YoGiFVhHSJU5y7f2FFiComtYVn_oCA1wB8CmCHJTMyuAPobo8WUHOgLoy4R8NGy7AqjH242R4wwCr8SuUJQOEp87w1uIN3zwV/s1600/Tomb+Raider+2+Maria+Doria+Dining+Area+upside+Down.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="967" data-original-width="1295" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoQZe7vKclLBR-upwgedhDTaOrWXXP1mIXtGVP2quOPI4YoGiFVhHSJU5y7f2FFiComtYVn_oCA1wB8CmCHJTMyuAPobo8WUHOgLoy4R8NGy7AqjH242R4wwCr8SuUJQOEp87w1uIN3zwV/s200/Tomb+Raider+2+Maria+Doria+Dining+Area+upside+Down.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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The section of the ship we've been exploring has been upside down the entire time, but it isn't until we drop through the floor of the swimming pool into the ship's recreational areas that we get the full weight of that <i>Poseidon Adventure</i> mood. The bowels of the ship were already great in terms of mood and design, but now we are finally hit with the realization that this is the site of a disaster that impacted real people (fictional real people at least). We see the upside-down cafeteria with water just outside the windows, the upside-down Titanic-esque staircase, the ceiling windows that now drop down into the ocean. Eventually we make our way to the heavily-dented bridge where the camera angles itself conveniently outside the ship to show us the key we need is in more shark-infested water.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbIMwG_rbkRNxCqhCiG5tx_NqOaM44gQVTjKbAoDfzb4aBSlvcWBn6yG-hW_-i7T08P_h0dB8lod_sm16nZPnvjAYidyYdrMGE8YyJHE74PH-mi3C5TmbK-cVt25pfzCdNx7Mkr_K6l2TD/s1600/Tomb+Raider+II+Deck+of+the+Maria+Doria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="955" data-original-width="1277" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbIMwG_rbkRNxCqhCiG5tx_NqOaM44gQVTjKbAoDfzb4aBSlvcWBn6yG-hW_-i7T08P_h0dB8lod_sm16nZPnvjAYidyYdrMGE8YyJHE74PH-mi3C5TmbK-cVt25pfzCdNx7Mkr_K6l2TD/s200/Tomb+Raider+II+Deck+of+the+Maria+Doria.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Diving through a series of underwater tunnels leads us to the second part of the broken up Maria Doria, which is right side up and has its deck stuck dry in a cave, still with plenty of surrounding underwater caverns so we can still use that fancy harpoon gun on the game's last remaining sharks. Drops from high places have been a danger the entire time, but in this dry cave the puzzles actually revolve around managing to get off the ship without falling to your doom.</div>
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At last, down in the caves we discover the piece of wreckage that holds the Seraph. </div>
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In a game already filled with excellent levels, the desolate atmosphere, the challenging (though not unfair) puzzles, the blueish green-orange color scheme, the contrast with the levels that come before and after, underwater controls that surprisingly aren't clumsy (though not that surprising since they work like this in basically every Tomb Raider), all of it comes together in what are easily my favorite series of levels of <i>Tomb Raider II </i>and some of my favorite in the franchise overall.<br />
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Also release <i>The Golden Mask</i> expansion on Steam, dammit.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUImxl5mny0kQuZl6O-v4VafteBrC0HQVoIbSwvmF_J8KiOtPyBET8EnXz4wXn2S51Hs-i8_mPLeRWtG5bV-A-X-y5IRmR4cqpHJtFkEplcibHZdOpvIlXZgD5PrtjPJYK8xZ_K9WdvAL/s1600/Tomb+Raider+2+Eagle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="1275" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUImxl5mny0kQuZl6O-v4VafteBrC0HQVoIbSwvmF_J8KiOtPyBET8EnXz4wXn2S51Hs-i8_mPLeRWtG5bV-A-X-y5IRmR4cqpHJtFkEplcibHZdOpvIlXZgD5PrtjPJYK8xZ_K9WdvAL/s320/Tomb+Raider+2+Eagle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Help, I'm being attacked by freedom!</td></tr>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
Links & References</h4>
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- Tomb Raider II on <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/225300/Tomb_Raider_II/">Steam</a> and <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/tomb_raider_123">GOG</a></div>
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Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-15312768006637447312018-10-29T10:58:00.001+01:002018-10-29T11:25:38.096+01:00The Titanic-Olympic Switch<div style="text-align: justify;">
The story we were all told about the sinking of the RMS Titanic was a lie all along. Yes a ship did sink and plenty of people died, but it was in fact the RMS Olympic disguised as the Titanic sunk intentionally as an insurance scam by J.P. Morgan because earlier damage to the Olympic rendered her a liability. This is a conspiracy theory that pops up in many a Titanic discussion on the Internet (in part because of a popular <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCa51H9geZs">Shane Dawson video</a> where he parrots a conspiracy book without looking into anything critically). So is there any truth to the Switch conspiracy? (Hint: No)</div>
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This article is essentially an extended version of a Twitter thread that can be found here: <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/1055128499185467392">https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/1055128499185467392</a>. With some added screenshots from the video game <i>Titanic: Adventure Out of Time (1996)</i> so I can at least pretend I made some video game-related posts this year. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Were Titanic and Olympic Switched?</span><br />No, They Were Not</b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggOS5NdrfM4OX1FzX0Ob8bwDdZ1TrrCvqETf1eXlinzOivDoclsn6kity05TUcHNLEqhZxFAfzxBLiUF_3SJHyCctC7P7uzG58Y_beHuhx_9cVVgxcq2N9425BWJqz5JgumcoDXGn66dPp/s1600/Titanic+Adventure+Out+of+Time.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Titanic: Adventure Out of Time" border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="512" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggOS5NdrfM4OX1FzX0Ob8bwDdZ1TrrCvqETf1eXlinzOivDoclsn6kity05TUcHNLEqhZxFAfzxBLiUF_3SJHyCctC7P7uzG58Y_beHuhx_9cVVgxcq2N9425BWJqz5JgumcoDXGn66dPp/s320/Titanic+Adventure+Out+of+Time.png" title="Titanic: Adventure Out of Time" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Titanic: Adventure Out of Time (1996)</i></td></tr>
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For a comprehensive analysis on why the switch didn't take place, there's the dedicated website <i><a href="http://www.titanicswitch.com/">The Titanic 'Switch' Theory Exposed</a>. </i>As a more easily digestible version in video format there's also Myles Power's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mpLRCqQ620">'<i>Did the Titanic Really Sink? The Olympic Switch Theory Debunked</i>'</a>. My own research into the Switch Theory is much less extensive as I was only really interested in the Titanic disaster itself ("The Night" as I now mentally refer to it thanks to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_to_Remember_(book)">books by Walter Lord</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_to_Remember_(1958_film)">1958 film</a>) when I accidented upon the conspiracy theory and immediately recognized several gaping holes in what was claimed. As such this is much less supposed to be the definitive evidence that a switch did not happen, but more like my homework in how I arrived to said conclusion based on the posited evidence not making a shred of sense. Throwing around more weight to debunk this conspiracy theory is a nice bonus.<br />
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<h4>
1. The Difference in Windows Between Titanic and Olympic</h4>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZRM-71SWlnYo_34fGMyWo6r03aTxd_oKoU3NUrag_DbDghS5q2ulzUjDJyh2YuDTC4g6wCf_e3PbFbrBknxhJZb8IwsGAnlfYzee_HIfYgkY3nwzKcBFHNXMnXhv0tauYKp-5jUVpPf_R/s1600/Titanic+Olympic+Switch+Theory+False+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="804" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZRM-71SWlnYo_34fGMyWo6r03aTxd_oKoU3NUrag_DbDghS5q2ulzUjDJyh2YuDTC4g6wCf_e3PbFbrBknxhJZb8IwsGAnlfYzee_HIfYgkY3nwzKcBFHNXMnXhv0tauYKp-5jUVpPf_R/s320/Titanic+Olympic+Switch+Theory+False+1.png" width="272" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Infographic 1</td></tr>
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The first infographic (left) that proponents of the Switch Theory tend to show as evidence is one that supposedly reveals the difference in windows between the ship resting at the bottom of the North Atlantic, and the windows on the actual RMS Titanic ("Just count the windows", as they say). The sunken ship shows thin windows with uneven spaces between them, while the actual Titanic (again, supposedly) had larger square windows that were evenly spaced. The second infographic, usually posted alongside the first one (and shown below), also shows the same difference in windows between the RMS Olympic and the RMS Titanic. This one also reveals that the picture of the 'real' Titanic was taken during her construction rather than during her fatal maiden voyage, plainly obvious by the lack of her four iconic smokestacks and the clearly unfinished upper deck. It also shows that "Olympic" had her A-deck partially enclosed while "Titanic" had not. However it of course makes sense to use this earlier construction picture of Titanic when you believe that the ship that left Southampton on the 10th of April 1912 was in fact the Olympic. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy3pGsM2euTtFwMTDZZPD3dIBDhYWMXyLFTCHKNymwo3vw8rPlHg3gP7lS-4iJBt3u0gjDG3b8XGgTAZouJ0sHjBfhcuGGrLgdIDTZ37-680RcSy2l8acKJstu2pzrn-Kx7phvnRfG9SHb/s1600/Titanic+Olympic+Switch+Theory+False+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="759" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy3pGsM2euTtFwMTDZZPD3dIBDhYWMXyLFTCHKNymwo3vw8rPlHg3gP7lS-4iJBt3u0gjDG3b8XGgTAZouJ0sHjBfhcuGGrLgdIDTZ37-680RcSy2l8acKJstu2pzrn-Kx7phvnRfG9SHb/s320/Titanic+Olympic+Switch+Theory+False+2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Infographic 2</td></tr>
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Unfortunately it <i><b>only</b></i> makes sense when you believe the ship that left Southampton was the Olympic. In truth this supposed evidence for the switch is nothing more than the conspiracy theorists working backwards from their conclusion (or simply outright lying). The picture of the RMS Olympic that is being shown <b><i>is</i></b> in fact the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic#/media/File:RMS_Titanic_3.jpg">Titanic departing from Southampton</a> as photographed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Godolphin_Osbourne_Stuart">F.G.O Stuart</a>. It is no big surprise that a picture of the ship, already allegedly switched, days prior to her sinking would resemble the ship that actually sank on voyage. Since the full picture also clearly shows the name "TITANIC" on her bow (shown below), Infographic 2 can be easily discarded for telling us absolutely nothing.<br />
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To show just how silly this sounds, what Infographic 2 essentially claims is: "The ship named Titanic that left Southampton is the same ship at the bottom of the ocean. Therefore it is actually the Olympic."<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuEjzu07WmLAj6xfpzJXCsyqyX_qS36PTi8m0Hl1Q2UwypvUOzjLSD5rApTeh52QU2IWBeHvxpDxe4EsfOGe6jkxLfyKLbTl1nnduSQs_HNKKvD8yAk2YwrSehzYgJNtn9Mv18pEfG7jw8/s1600/Titanic+RMS+Olympic+Switch+Theory+Image+2+Debunked.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="920" data-original-width="1250" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuEjzu07WmLAj6xfpzJXCsyqyX_qS36PTi8m0Hl1Q2UwypvUOzjLSD5rApTeh52QU2IWBeHvxpDxe4EsfOGe6jkxLfyKLbTl1nnduSQs_HNKKvD8yAk2YwrSehzYgJNtn9Mv18pEfG7jw8/s320/Titanic+RMS+Olympic+Switch+Theory+Image+2+Debunked.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Infographic 2 overlaid at 50% opacity with F.G.O Stuart's<br />
photograph of Titanic departing Southampton.</td></tr>
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Of course this only shows that the evidence is inconclusive. To completely sink (pun convenient) this evidence however requires us to go back in time before Titanic's maiden voyage. If the ships were indeed switched, it would stand to reason that post-disaster Olympic had the large windows that were evenly spaced. Therefore what we need to look for is pictures of Olympic prior to Titanic's maiden voyage.</div>
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Several such pictures of Olympic exist (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Olympic_sea_trials.jpg">during her sea trials in 1911</a> for example) but conveniently one exists that is <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arrival_OLYMPIC,_6-21-11_LOC_2163490964.jpg">explicitly dated 6/21/1911</a>, almost a full year before Titanic's maiden voyage. As we can clearly see, she does have big windows evenly spaced apart. We can also clearly see that her promenade on A-deck wasn't enclosed while the Titanic that left Southampton had the enclosure (and also that her enclosure on B-deck stretched further backwards).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPZgw5d8_a8mbIj35vcifR7vj3baHb_TlFLUKwH5uZcy7mynJ6lYoxvm2b6ibRpebkly_YB_rKGO0JiSuPrfcRunwQgxaxwDX9on2o6JWpg7rcMhR4eNm8CTgwjX5-GGMpIooyaKYLGYp7/s1600/LOC+Olympic+Arrival+6-21-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="753" data-original-width="1024" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPZgw5d8_a8mbIj35vcifR7vj3baHb_TlFLUKwH5uZcy7mynJ6lYoxvm2b6ibRpebkly_YB_rKGO0JiSuPrfcRunwQgxaxwDX9on2o6JWpg7rcMhR4eNm8CTgwjX5-GGMpIooyaKYLGYp7/s320/LOC+Olympic+Arrival+6-21-11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arrival "Olympic" 6/21/11</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Why then do these pictures of Titanic during construction exist where she also has the large, evenly spaced windows and the open A-deck? The answer is that both ships were built from the same basic plans since they both belonged to White Star's Olympic-class, but during Titanic's fitting she had several improvements done to her as suggested by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Bruce_Ismay">J. Bruce Ismay</a> from their experience with the Olympic after almost a year of usage. The most visible of those were the partially closed-off A-Deck promenade, and changes to B-Deck where the open promenade was sacrificed for more luxurious state rooms, private promenades for wealthy passengers and the Cafe Parisian (these resulted in the smaller windows being installed in some parts). Later several of Titanic's improvements were also added to Olympic, but Olympic's A-Deck remained open for her entire life in service.<br />
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To switch the ships over would then in fact require quite a bit of extensive remodeling to both ships rather than just switching some names around, and it seems even more unlikely that this could have been done in secret during a single weekend as is often claimed. (As well as being very costly when the point of the switch would be to recover cost)</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXwv-tWuvmy2rpam5rasHbx7uIsOyhs9nP3YoFjawwTe81D3IB0Bin-dEAkU07z0HyXPuOpzmJuvsFhufMg11o0gwx6urXDyihwq7w4JPs2QBI8_3n8GbnXB9e1Egsb7-izH_KrwWyTC2/s1600/Olympic+Hawke+Damage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="994" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXwv-tWuvmy2rpam5rasHbx7uIsOyhs9nP3YoFjawwTe81D3IB0Bin-dEAkU07z0HyXPuOpzmJuvsFhufMg11o0gwx6urXDyihwq7w4JPs2QBI8_3n8GbnXB9e1Egsb7-izH_KrwWyTC2/s320/Olympic+Hawke+Damage.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">RMS Olympic damaged in collision with the HMS Hawke</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The final nail in the coffin are pictures that exist of the RMS Olympic showing the damage she had sustained from her <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Olympic#Hawke_collision">collision with the HMS Hawke</a> on 20 September 1911. Full pictures of the Olympic with the damage are apparently hard to come by (<a href="https://www.gettyimages.be/detail/nieuwsfoto's/hole-torn-in-the-hull-of-rms-olympic-after-the-collision-nieuwsfotos/1055101284">larger views exist</a> but I don't have that kind of license money) but even from partial views it is obvious B-Deck isn't nearly as closed off as on the ship that left Southampton (on Titanic that would be the location of the Cafe Parisian), and there is no hint of an enclosure at all on A-Deck. So even if one were to assume that other Olympic pictures were improperly dated, it would be hard to argue that the ship showing the Hawke damage could be anything except the actual RMS Olympic since recovering from the loss of said collision is the entire reason why the switch supposedly happened in the first place.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaF0a6uXV7vwX7VCmcZDnSwGppzN7Zb7L7UCh7wJqcHDRkuM3WGk-jy4dlxN1oI1zCxWvClRLf9uQXP3UatnTQCDCz-e8i20cxUhNvFY4kPwFyF7iB8MKDtO0kTFKRxsGoIpBQvOzv2X5/s1600/Cafe+Parisian+Titanic+Adventure+Out+of+Time.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="1026" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaF0a6uXV7vwX7VCmcZDnSwGppzN7Zb7L7UCh7wJqcHDRkuM3WGk-jy4dlxN1oI1zCxWvClRLf9uQXP3UatnTQCDCz-e8i20cxUhNvFY4kPwFyF7iB8MKDtO0kTFKRxsGoIpBQvOzv2X5/s400/Cafe+Parisian+Titanic+Adventure+Out+of+Time.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cafe Parisian location in <i>Titanic: Adventure Out Of Time (1996)</i></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
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There is no conclusive evidence in video game screenshots of the event of course but thanks to the extensive research by the developers these pictures of B-Deck from <i>Titanic: Adventure Out of Time</i> did help me picture the dimensions of the area that we are talking about. Titanic's B-Deck promenade is cut off almost immediately by the Cafe Parisian where on Olympic above this area would have been entirely open. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJOXHQBDoQ82eiabOQo_shjOuVsJkIUdjxf_8ZuEcftnRxMmej7TF7YjfzejOWgB6eYb1_fKNRO0JL0DEiHg2G_udIjvvIcTyr6ckIHQf3cI2zfjhy4N_hm8fnV3YDjDAgWX_OZORa5EmW/s1600/Titanic+Adventure+Out+of+Time+B+Deck+closed.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="1026" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJOXHQBDoQ82eiabOQo_shjOuVsJkIUdjxf_8ZuEcftnRxMmej7TF7YjfzejOWgB6eYb1_fKNRO0JL0DEiHg2G_udIjvvIcTyr6ckIHQf3cI2zfjhy4N_hm8fnV3YDjDAgWX_OZORa5EmW/s400/Titanic+Adventure+Out+of+Time+B+Deck+closed.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">B-Deck Starboard in <i>Titanic: Adventure Out Of Time (1996)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><br /></i>
<i>Titanic: Adventure Out Of Time</i> is handily available on <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/785480/Titanic_Adventure_Out_Of_Time/">Steam</a> or <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/titanic_adventure_out_of_time">GOG</a> and handily comes with a tour function if you want to check it out yourself. It is actually rather weird because it involves time travel from World War II back to Titanic to alter the course of history.<br />
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<br />
<h4>
2. The Letters "MP" on the Titanic wreck</h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcuBfFwx7yCNAR0BIx-VlG2289bBf9y8CxvRkex5KPlAtg00NHV_A6FdSMxPlfiCs4OUxeCwf4_7Dxg04DRf62ZJLDi030aKQdXU0YKsgquuxF1HozarDetSbArZDCiGFyk-wR2ksw5Y01/s1600/Titanic+Wreck+MP+Faked+CGI+Footage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcuBfFwx7yCNAR0BIx-VlG2289bBf9y8CxvRkex5KPlAtg00NHV_A6FdSMxPlfiCs4OUxeCwf4_7Dxg04DRf62ZJLDi030aKQdXU0YKsgquuxF1HozarDetSbArZDCiGFyk-wR2ksw5Y01/s320/Titanic+Wreck+MP+Faked+CGI+Footage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
There is an image of the wreck where the letters "MP" for "OLYMPIC" are visible where the letters from Titanic supposedly fell off. However this image came from shitty CGI made for "<i>Titanic: The Shocking Truth</i>" that is obviously fake <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRGGVoDXtI4">once you see it in motion</a>. It even seems like they created the rusted model first and then engraved the MP over it by how clean the edges are, and then added some rusticles over it to try to hide that fact. Overall it is very clear why this picture usually only shows up in poor quality with some filters over it, otherwise this would fool nobody. I suppose by 90's standards the makers of the documentary expected people to be less attuned to spotting bad CGI.<br />
In truth the letters for Titanic weren't riveted on the bow plates at all, they were engraved (without embossing) and are still visible in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwV0mSOMhkM">actual footage of the wreck</a>. If there really was an "MP" on the bow, you would think Dr. Robert Ballard (who rediscovered the ship) or James Cameron (who has spent more time with the ship than its actual passengers) would have mentioned it. Instead <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o_FDPR6yJ4">Dr. Robert Ballard believes that it really is the Titanic</a>. Since the only evidence for these letters comes from this fabricated footage, there is simply no weight to this claim. It does however show the desperation required to make the Switch Theory's case.<br />
<br />
<h4>
3. Conclusion</h4>
Without actually having read Robin Gardiner's book on the subject or the documentary inspired by it (because it honestly feels like a massive waste of time and money when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mpLRCqQ620">Myles Power's video </a>already goes a long way in debunking them and his facts on Titanic match my understanding while the snippets I've seen of the former don't), the Switch Theory seems nothing more than a cheap attempt at capitalizing on James Cameron's movie that gets spread by people eager to find villains in disasters. The effort to maintain the secret even over a 100 years after the person who supposedly orchestrated it died would be so tremendous and require so much resources that the insurance scam would be rendered irrelevant in the total loss. The shipwreck has been explored and remnants of the dismantled Olympic still exist after all, everyone who examined them would have to be silenced too. Considering <a href="http://www.titanicswitch.com/evidence.html#1">the documents of the insurance</a> also still exist, that would mean the conspiracy for the insurance scam reaches so far that it includes the people <i>being scammed</i>.<br />
<br />
In short, this conspiracy theory is so ridiculously flawed that it is not worth taking seriously.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj57_jhmUWn0lXkMWPhpISyORO2K_ZB5kkdOigLmtE2Tsl3Ec6XV92_bI6BT_Wf1wu2jTQlfm-YcrT0ahw49-UOvd1p-OJXRFCBVoP798ihmnK-ltcZqf8jH0ElSLgKWkUjobngUAYw14hZ/s1600/Titanic+Adventure+Out+of+Time+Lady.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="513" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj57_jhmUWn0lXkMWPhpISyORO2K_ZB5kkdOigLmtE2Tsl3Ec6XV92_bI6BT_Wf1wu2jTQlfm-YcrT0ahw49-UOvd1p-OJXRFCBVoP798ihmnK-ltcZqf8jH0ElSLgKWkUjobngUAYw14hZ/s320/Titanic+Adventure+Out+of+Time+Lady.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The real question is: why is this lady explaining how she<br />
escaped the sinking of a ship we are currently on?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4>
4. Links & References</h4>
Images from:<br />
- <a href="http://www.titanicswitch.com/claims.html">TitanicSwitch.com</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRGGVoDXtI4">Titanic Switch: Olympic's name on Titanic Wreck</a><br />
- Titanic: Adventure Out of Time (1996): <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/titanic_adventure_out_of_time">GOG</a>, <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/785480/Titanic_Adventure_Out_Of_Time/">Steam</a><br />
- Wikimedia Commons (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Titanic_(ship,_1912)">Titanic (ship, 1912)</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Olympic_(ship,_1910,_Belfast)">Olympic (ship, 1910, Belfast)</a>)</div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-25340920161723046112018-06-17T01:12:00.000+02:002018-12-06T07:59:41.335+01:00Beyond: Two Souls<div style="text-align: justify;">
With the launch of <i>Detroit: Become Human</i> (personally I would have titled a game about androids set in Detroit "Detroid" but whatever) and a resurgence of the regular mockery David Cage games have to endure on social media, I thought it might be time to finally check out <i>Beyond: Two Souls</i> on that Quantic Dream PS4 collection I once bought. With already having tried out <i>Heavy Rain</i> a couple of years earlier, I was preparing for the absolute worst but to my surprise I discovered a story that was at least interesting enough to allow me to slog through the terribly odd (and oddly terrible) game design decisions. As such I want to talk a bit about narrative games and how I feel Quantic Dream does them wrong. I doubt I'll be saying anything that hasn't been properly discussed yet but playing through the entirety of <i>Beyond</i> has left me with a fair few frustrations to shed, so this will mostly be a long rant.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Some Thoughts on<br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">Beyond: Two Souls</span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTcKdPvu5Sm3NwP6ubNJhecdR-DnqjLIipoUWAA63IZr_N6HURmzDzNmItWEBGRDmuLxVkfzOO4yUzr-SZiryz0Kmhl-NO06XqYArMU6xwVTgVqKvwP_Di88vIwwuS_iUJoTl0BCTIJwnE/s1600/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="1600" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTcKdPvu5Sm3NwP6ubNJhecdR-DnqjLIipoUWAA63IZr_N6HURmzDzNmItWEBGRDmuLxVkfzOO4yUzr-SZiryz0Kmhl-NO06XqYArMU6xwVTgVqKvwP_Di88vIwwuS_iUJoTl0BCTIJwnE/s320/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br />
Personally I'm not really interested in getting <i>Detroit: Become Human</i> anytime soon for several reasons. Part of it might be motivated by somewhat recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/jan/15/game-developer-quantic-dream-accused-of-toxic-and-sexist-working-environment">accusations of a toxic work environment</a> at Quantic Dream, or the fact that it was revealed there's a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-page-explored-legal-action-against-sony-over-nude-video-game-images-2015-4?international=true&r=US&IR=T">detailed nude model of Ellen Page</a> in <i>Beyond: Two Souls</i> despite her not having agreed to it (seriously, why is that even in the final product?), but actually in truth it's simply because I've done what David Cage himself suggested and judged him by his work, which as it turns out really does not appeal to me all that much.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My short time with<i> Heavy Rain</i> annoyed me. Years after release I was already spoiled on the identity of the Origami Killer so I didn't have as much eagerness to see that particular mystery through to the end anyway, but my hopes for an enjoyable experience were already tanked when the message '<i><a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/758054954758266880">Hold R2 to walk. Use the LEFT STICK to change direction</a></i>' appeared on screen. That is something I would expect to see on the PlayStation 1, not in a game released in 2010.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAmkV132HOIQUiBfXqPg2T2Go1BQKN6pu9mUai7eOrRqB2lGpUxvdAXzFeIxKLfgb7kqaq6HHdXr6AgbTc3flTHqKv5X0R6z8u6yezaIcVLVQF74DgzB99-BrWiGIsi8dp8cL5TPOhFCSv/s1600/HEAVY+RAIN%25E2%2584%25A2+2010+PlayStation+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAmkV132HOIQUiBfXqPg2T2Go1BQKN6pu9mUai7eOrRqB2lGpUxvdAXzFeIxKLfgb7kqaq6HHdXr6AgbTc3flTHqKv5X0R6z8u6yezaIcVLVQF74DgzB99-BrWiGIsi8dp8cL5TPOhFCSv/s320/HEAVY+RAIN%25E2%2584%25A2+2010+PlayStation+4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then the game expected me to go through the main character's morning routine that included him brushing his teeth by forcing me to shake the controller and shaving him which had me moving the right stick at a precise speed otherwise I would have to do it all over again. Then I was supposed to explore a house I could barely navigate, had to <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/758059644526919684">witness doors that hinged in places where doors aren't supposed to hinge</a>, and was continuously bothered by button prompts for the most mundane tasks imaginable. That combined with a rather unappealing art direction, unconvincing voice acting and character models that fell hard into the uncanny valley for me made it so I soon turned the game off and I haven't looked back since. Supposedly the story is really good though but because of the unwieldy nature of the gameplay I doubt I will find out first hand.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<i>Beyond: Two Souls</i> managed to grab me more than <i>Heavy Rain</i> did however. The art design was more appealing, the setup of controlling both a girl and a ghost tethered to her was rather original, and the non-linear story-telling raised enough questions that I actually wanted to know what was going on and what would happen next. The game does look great and the stellar acting of both Ellen Page (Jodie Holmes) and Willem Dafoe (Nathan Dawkins) goes a long way in balancing out the game's lesser aspects. Surprisingly I actually liked some of it. However that just meant if <i>Beyond: Two Souls</i> were a B movie or TV series it would probably be a decent one, unfortunately its state as a video game is what drags it down.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In general my problem with Quantic Dream's design philosophy is that it feels like they believe they are pushing the boundaries of game design, while actually they are implementing gameplay that has already been judged as horribly dated and unwieldy. <i>Beyond: Two Souls</i> only takes minimal advantage of the gaming medium because at its core it is overly concerned with being a movie, and so rather than being a bold step forwards, it feels like a spiritual successor to <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Lair">Dragon's Lair</a> </i>(1983). Rather than allowing the player to interact with the game world, it feels the game plays by itself and simply punishes you for not responding to it the way it wants you to (and is so surprisingly lenient with mistakes you might be forgiven for doubting your input matters at all). <a href="https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/198880/In_storydriven_games_Game_overs_are_a_failure_of_game_design_says_David_Cage.php">David Cage explains</a> (rather infamously by now) that he feels game overs in narrative games are a failure of the game designer, and so his games implement alternative story paths that go around what would otherwise be a game over state.<br />
While this sounds nice in theory, in practice it means a player who is at least somewhat invested in doing well is robbed of the ability to hone their skills, as the ability to retry scenes has also been removed. If you are lucky you can exit the game before the next save point and hope the previous save point wasn't too long ago, otherwise you just have to live with it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKErjBFzoVDI_pWgsPJz_qvvLS4x7w0i46FuU7gu9xubkH_JqW5RAfeRgjy0DlW4vknjq3RvhyT4y1zevj1T5wKwoAGsSc28tth311boZmoWcGQFXx30IvPpuw1zSCTprpzlMi-wSseR9e/s1600/Life+is+Strange+2015+Rewind+Time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKErjBFzoVDI_pWgsPJz_qvvLS4x7w0i46FuU7gu9xubkH_JqW5RAfeRgjy0DlW4vknjq3RvhyT4y1zevj1T5wKwoAGsSc28tth311boZmoWcGQFXx30IvPpuw1zSCTprpzlMi-wSseR9e/s320/Life+is+Strange+2015+Rewind+Time.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Life is Strange</i> (2015)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I feel <i>Life is Strange</i> (2015) solved the problem of a narrative game without game overs much more elegant than <i>Beyond: Two Souls</i> did. At the start our protagonist Max Caulfield discovers during a traumatic moment that she has rewind powers with which she can turn back time for a few moments and so allow the player to experiment with how conversations will go or get out of harm's way when it should be necessary (when an action occurs that should harm Max, time simply slows down and turns the screen grey to allow the player to revert back). The player can't get stuck into a corner because we can simply rewind ourselves out of any situation again. Unfortunately where <i>Life is Strange</i> messed up is by making the rewind power an attribute of the main character that she herself is aware of rather than simply a player option, meaning it was unavailable when we took control of Chloe Price in the prequel <i>Life is Strange: Before the Storm </i>(2017), so Chloe also had to live with her decisions but at least she didn't have to wrestle with button prompts and motion controls to brush her teeth.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishq5zps0S3-pGwr8qYTaJhXoWgoqHH0zzUjL9EhizF6AAK-c4ceB_k0bKQbTt30ghyt-Nph8oy0XM381TQNWudpcHVvW5mtw8mHebrLMtcFXIDs2x40P0AS_j6AzL46xIXcAh3t69s_5p/s1600/Omikron+the+Nomad+Soul+1999.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="709" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishq5zps0S3-pGwr8qYTaJhXoWgoqHH0zzUjL9EhizF6AAK-c4ceB_k0bKQbTt30ghyt-Nph8oy0XM381TQNWudpcHVvW5mtw8mHebrLMtcFXIDs2x40P0AS_j6AzL46xIXcAh3t69s_5p/s320/Omikron+the+Nomad+Soul+1999.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</i> (1999)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However I fear the inability to redo scenes to your liking isn't so much an unfortunate limitation of the way <i>Beyond</i> is set up, but instead an intentional design choice on David Cage's part, since the opening of <i>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</i> (1999, also simply known as <i>The Nomad Soul</i>), Quantic Dream's first title, makes clear: '<i>There's no saving and going back if you get into trouble. You are entering a real world. If you make mistakes, you'll just have to accept the consequences'</i>. Again this is stuff that sounds cool on a design document and might have even been an impressive selling point in 1999 because we didn't know any better, but some of us want the option to experiment with the game world. Of course we don't have to be aware of the long-term consequences of our decisions but it seems rather counter-productive to remove failstates by simply having the game continue with an obvious failstate still active whether we want to or not. Having to put up with situations we know little about yet being forced to make decisions on them we can't reverse is what we already have to do in our day-to-day lives and it being a horrible experience is why a few of us find solace in video games in the first place. It is especially troublesome in <i>Beyond</i> because the non-linear storytelling means we are making decisions independently of how Jodie Holmes might feel about the situation, simply because we have no clue of how we got to that point in her life. For most of the game's runtime we are controlling a protagonist where it has been made nearly impossible for us to actually play the role of said protagonist.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Specific Chapters</h3>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVC8Bn8AviawyJJvb_iJXdMCppbreJbT9j4rQQJHY5vhXgQRlqkb6s5ulknXNdVpepjzFfojF96PLjxIYPBZkOLUgYiitme7eEfCW1_O62KgG73ks8SSozZSLAmd3eF8frgEda8E7H2fQ/s1600/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Embassy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVC8Bn8AviawyJJvb_iJXdMCppbreJbT9j4rQQJHY5vhXgQRlqkb6s5ulknXNdVpepjzFfojF96PLjxIYPBZkOLUgYiitme7eEfCW1_O62KgG73ks8SSozZSLAmd3eF8frgEda8E7H2fQ/s320/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Embassy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
After the tutorial chapter where a young Jodie is being tested on her control with Aiden, the next chapter drops us several years later in a CIA operation in a Saudi Arabian embassy where an adult Jodie has to copy certain documents with the threat of torture should she be discovered. From a narrative perspective it might have been an interesting setup for the story to get us wondering about how Jodie's life went to bring us to this point. The problem however is that since we aren't actually watching a movie or a TV show but are instead given control of a situation we know absolutely nothing about. We aren't actually told what we are supposed to do until we stumble upon button prompts that allow us to proceed. Jodie Holmes was presumably briefed on mission parameters, but we as players don't have any context for why we are here. Mercifully this game without game overs doesn't allow us to make a fatal mistake, but that doesn't protect it from the massive narrative dissonance where we have to take control of a situation where we don't even know what the game expects us to do. So unless you accidentally stumble upon the next prompt, you could be stuck here for a while. From a control perspective here is also where we discover the awkward mapping of the right control stick controlling both the camera and triggering the environmental prompts. After finishing the game this chapter also feels like it barely fits in Jodie's story. Since nothing seems to connect back with this chapter I am at a loss over the entire point of it. I suppose it introduces Ryan but we learn so little about him and he disappears for so long it barely matters.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLW9sE6HP6Tid2vUf8KVd5q_9xLD9PCcNcLzSEJ54DAUCoU4TkBpcKbWz5CEMLeYEj6eidce8vS9S4uPAYstTlYcYhpZiyyfegKmg8AsObZNHTN_YaomufpsD0HlHSTdPlUNQzgKS-pdLK/s1600/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Nathan+Dawkins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLW9sE6HP6Tid2vUf8KVd5q_9xLD9PCcNcLzSEJ54DAUCoU4TkBpcKbWz5CEMLeYEj6eidce8vS9S4uPAYstTlYcYhpZiyyfegKmg8AsObZNHTN_YaomufpsD0HlHSTdPlUNQzgKS-pdLK/s320/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Nathan+Dawkins.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> "So you want me to just trade in my car for a Jetta just because <br />
you flunked out of every private school I ever sent you to?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>The Party</i> is a rather infamous chapter. In an attempt to let her have a bit of a normal life, a 14-year old Jodie is attending a birthday party for the daughter of one of Nathan Dawkins' colleagues. While I didn't hate the chapter that much as it did give me a bit of room to mess around, it does have two major flaws that annoyed me. The first is that the teenagers act completely unnatural just for the sake of having a bad ending, and the second is the inevitability of that inconsequential bad ending.<br />
Jodie is presented as shy and introverted, not helped by the fact that she doesn't actually know anyone at the party, but aside from a few bitchy comments from the other teenagers, they at least somewhat try to be nice to her. That all changes when, of all things, the birthday girl doesn't like Jodie's gift (a rare book of poems by Edgar Allan Poe). Suddenly all these kids, who are at the very least aware that Jodie has supernatural powers (and possibly even demonstrated them just a few moments earlier depending on player choice), decide to torment her and lock her up ... over a birthday gift. One girl gives birthday girl a thong, but somehow a book is offensive enough for Jodie to be mercilessly bullied, burned, called a slut and locked below the stairs.</div>
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This chapter stands rather disconnected from the rest of the narrative, so the fact that the only real choice we have is whether or not to take revenge on the teens with Aiden is disappointing. Here is where the developers could have stretched their legs in terms of having multiple paths in a self-contained story but instead the chapter simply has us wasting time interacting with the environment until the inevitable bad ending. Why not make it possible for the party to go well? Weirder still is that the player can choose to ignore Aiden entirely and not take revenge with him, meaning the chapter is not even particularly relevant in Jodie's recollection of having had to live with him.</div>
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Then came the chapter detailing Jodie's CIA training. One tutorial would explain that during action sequences, time will slow down and you will have to finish Jodie's moves by following her direction on screen by moving the right stick in that direction. Fair enough, I've played enough <i><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/217270/Karateka/">Karateka</a></i> to prepare me for stuff like this. However it soon turns out the game wants to remain being overly cinematic even when a good sense of direction is vital for completing these segments properly, so the camera circles Jodie, objects or particles obscure her from view and her movements aren't always clear or straightforward to begin with. The result is that without actual guidance these action segments more often than not devolve into a pure guessing game.<br />
Rather mind-blowing is that this chapter also includes a tutorial on cover shooting gameplay with stealth sections. Partially it feels odd because they will only really be relevant for one other chapter in the entire game, but primarily because Quantic Dream apparently thought it was a good idea to include gameplay that has been refined over the last ten years in actual shooter genres and include it in a clunky quick time event narrative game. This is a game where walking through a simple door takes several tries, and now it expects to hold up in any way compared to a cover shooter?</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitft0ian2LJg_N5gbB_g9rH1quGtT2BMgqcEONuUHl3t6ResrMOqf7UAdmS9xoMYdrR2R0V6MaxUE1rB3WkufImSsLEkavggl2JsH6oq5QqTZWtUUl-kjmK2uvz1EsFiNv6RI0kJMrBlVH/s1600/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Ryan+is+Great.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitft0ian2LJg_N5gbB_g9rH1quGtT2BMgqcEONuUHl3t6ResrMOqf7UAdmS9xoMYdrR2R0V6MaxUE1rB3WkufImSsLEkavggl2JsH6oq5QqTZWtUUl-kjmK2uvz1EsFiNv6RI0kJMrBlVH/s320/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Ryan+is+Great.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Ryan is great"</td></tr>
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<i>The Dinner</i>. Oh boy, <i>The Dinner</i>. Jodie invites Ryan Clayton to dinner at her new apartment to the annoyance of Aiden, who is suddenly very possessive of Jodie. As the player we then have to prepare for the date while Aiden does everything he can to sabotage it. It's decently fun to explore Jodie's apartment while getting ready and you have a fair amount of freedom to decide how the date is going to play out (minus a bit of emotional scarring carried over from earlier chapters). However there's a glaring flaw with the entire setup: we as the player have been given no reason at all to like Ryan. At the start of the chapter Jodie launches into an angry monologue to Aiden about how she's allowed to have a relationship with however she wants, how great Ryan is and how she thinks she is falling for him, but from our perspective the only information on Ryan is the previous chapter at an earlier point of Jodie's life where he forces her to abandon the only people she loves to join the CIA while being absolutely heartless about it. This being literally about five minutes ago makes it feel like Jodie did not really develop genuine affection for Ryan but rather that she's developed a case of Stockholm Syndrome where she's now declaring her feelings for an abuser.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgvSJ0JlqkexY78tWcPc9kGqMtC1sRPupOvCv6jxpJZhkwRt6Ce3xIbRhigFGGAJj16ZGUXsXVkhiTzgaZZTruGH9ITKoPf6S_yHDsc6MVnb4fVrGDTccjlnKN-zDt4O3P6ZzGzjWcOgG/s1600/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Cole+Nathan+Dawkins+Ryan+being+a+dick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgvSJ0JlqkexY78tWcPc9kGqMtC1sRPupOvCv6jxpJZhkwRt6Ce3xIbRhigFGGAJj16ZGUXsXVkhiTzgaZZTruGH9ITKoPf6S_yHDsc6MVnb4fVrGDTccjlnKN-zDt4O3P6ZzGzjWcOgG/s320/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Cole+Nathan+Dawkins+Ryan+being+a+dick.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ryan literally 5 minutes earlier</td></tr>
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Should we still remember his sparse appearances early in the game, we might remember him from <i>The Embassy</i> chapter I mentioned earlier where we could find him talking about how his CIA job forces him to have limited empathy so he wouldn't really care should Jodie be captured and tortured. So essentially we are now forced into a dating scenario where we are given very little motivation for it to go well outside of Jodie's insistence that Ryan is great. That disconnect between our feelings on Ryan and Jodie's feelings for Ryan while still being expected to help Jodie is immersion-breaking to say the least. Personally I tried to sabotage the date without making it too obvious, so I just dressed casually, ordered pizza and refused to kiss Ryan. (I was rewarded with a scene of Jodie breaking down crying, so go me...)<br />
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Ryan only becomes a little bit likable in the final few chapters of the game where he has sort of a redemption arc (after a chapter where he also becomes so much worse) but that only means we might gain (emphasis on <i>might</i>) a little respect for Ryan when it's already way too late for the chapters where developing that relationship actually matters. What's even worse is that a relationship with him is essentially unavoidable. So even if you do everything to turn him down at every opportunity, he will still be there declaring his love for Jodie and kissing her in the final chapter. Romance is also an aspect I feel <i>Life is Strange </i>does better because even just a kiss between romantic options requires the player to have at least worked in the direction of said romance. Chloe Price does not appreciate being ignored in favor of other characters. Meanwhile Jodie Holmes can't seem to meet a guy (if he's handsome) without getting an option to immediately kiss him.<br />
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<i>Navajo</i> had some strange implications in that the Navajo people were apparently performing magic rituals that summoned demonic Infraworld entities into our world, and in general it suffered from the same problems as the rest of the game (including one especially annoying action sequence that is also tied to a trophy), but from a narrative perspective the build-up made the mystery engaging, the developing relationship between Jodie and the family felt natural (aside from yet another opportunity to kiss a guy we've just met and who was being a dick to us the majority of the time), the characters themselves were mostly likable and the desert setting makes for a nice break from the rest of the game and was enhanced by a great soundtrack, so I would say I actually like the <i>Navajo</i> chapter and wish more chapters were like it. However it was also home to a handful of glaring flaws.<br />
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On the PlayStation 4 version at least, the chapter endings have these percentages that show the amount of players who took specific paths. It's here you often learn about possible "paths" that the game prior didn't give you a clue was even an option (I replayed the <i>Navajo</i> chapter twice because of it, although that specific spoiler choice should have been obvious in retrospect). One of the best examples of awkward design choices here is that apparently there was a bike hidden on the farm that we could repair, but which was evidently so out of the way that only 8% of people found it (I only did because the second time I knew to look out for it). That also wouldn't be that much of a problem, except at the end of the chapter you are given the bike anyway regardless of whether or not you fixed it (if not you get it because the brothers fixed it). It might seem like a small detail but this was one of the major times during my playthrough when I realized my choices really didn't matter, and that's probably also the reason why David Cage doesn't want players to replay his game more than once, because a second run brutally lifts the illusion that the game was giving you agency in the first place.<br />
For trophy purposes I replayed the <i>Hunted</i> chapter where I was supposed to get captured and escape three times, so on the train section I ignored all button prompts and refused to do any of the action scenes and still Jodie was dodging objects, opening doors and fighting policemen effectively (although with a short red flash supposedly to indicate failure). Jodie ran two entire cars until finally there was the single button prompt that was apparently relevant and I got captured. Out of curiosity during a motorbike chase I purposely stopped and found out the police simply stop chasing you. These sequences made me realize that much of Beyond: Two Souls's runtime does the equivalent of handing you an unplugged controller so you can pretend you are playing a video game. It felt like <i>Beyond </i>resented my involvement at all.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijCTjxjPcqb5vCXqGgfPDVc2vYAifDwSjp6H4kT0ZeTiX0q1ud5napPq1iKd6GoY58HT2WKILKe_hUqZMPw-9tn7QEFQis8Ub48c2zewr1CEdF_tCR6DHEXfdkA_4DAU1Wa1pJV2wENLjh/s1600/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Ryan+Kiss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijCTjxjPcqb5vCXqGgfPDVc2vYAifDwSjp6H4kT0ZeTiX0q1ud5napPq1iKd6GoY58HT2WKILKe_hUqZMPw-9tn7QEFQis8Ub48c2zewr1CEdF_tCR6DHEXfdkA_4DAU1Wa1pJV2wENLjh/s320/Beyond+Two+Souls+Jodie+Holmes+Ryan+Kiss.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dating your superior officer while on a mission. That's fine.</td></tr>
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<h3>
<br />Conclusion</h3>
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In conclusion, <i>Beyond: Two Souls</i> is a would-be decent TV series or B movie that was forcefully pushed into the mold of a big budget video game. Everything considered, I can't say I truly hated the game because the performances of Ellen Page and William Dafoe are great (though Dafoe feels a bit misused) and go a long way to make otherwise cliche or awkward scenes enjoyable. The game is thus surprisingly a rather effective vehicle to push Ellen Page. The story is interesting enough to get the player moving forward, but as a video game it ends up a mess of questionable, dated or otherwise frustrating design choices. That frustration is only exacerbated as the developer apparently insists these questionable design choices are actually deliberate and supposedly aimed at moving game design forward. So with that in mind, I am inclined to skip <i>Detroit: Become Human</i>.<br />
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Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-5736682232246018122018-02-09T16:00:00.000+01:002018-02-09T22:32:09.242+01:00Defending Disney - Part 5: Walt the Supposed Racist & Conclusion<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-introduction-and-index.html">[<- Index]</a><br />
<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/02/defending-disney-part-4-walt-supposed.html">[<- Part 4: Walt, the Supposed Gender Bigot]</a><br />
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The claim that walt was a notorious racist and antisemite is even more prevalent than that of him being a Nazi or a Nazi sympathizer. The evidence being some unfortunate racially insensitive caricatures in a handful of Disney cartoons, the movie <i>Song of the South (1946)</i> and more general claims of his rampant antisemitism, usually as an extrapolation of him having met Leni Riefenstahl or because Walt was a founding member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. The MPAPAI certainly had its share of antisemitic members but was founded to combat fascist and communist influences, which was Walt's interest as he believed the 1941 cartoonist strike to be a communist plot to gain influence in Hollywood.<br />
It could certainly be said that Walt Disney wasn't especially ahead of his generation when it came to racial sensitivity, especially in the 1920's and 30's, hence some racial caricatures did occasionally pop up in Disney cartoons since as far as he was aware society at large thought they were just funny. However actual hateful racism is practically impossible to find in Walt Disney. Even in the late 30's Disney had started to catch on that some caricatures might be hurtful, as a document dated February 12, 1937 reads:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Because our cartoons have a world-wide release, we cannot use racial gags that might ridicule or belittle any nation."</i><br />
- <a href="https://twitter.com/amid/status/878729627040174081">Tips to Remember when Submitting Gags</a></div>
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<h4>
Racist Caricatures</h4>
In regards to instances of racist caricatures in early Disney cartoons, there are only two main points I want to make, neither of which will be that the depiction of racial stereotypes in these old cartoons isn't racist. Mainly because I don't belong to the ethnic groups that are being depicted and as such I don't feel like I should make that argument, nor do I have to (although I would point out that I'm a Flemish Belgian, a group which also has a long documented history of being treated as undesirables and lower class citizens by French bourgeoisie. A status that only really improved after World War II).</div>
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Firstly, there's the point that just because someone is racist or harbors racist prejudices, that doesn't mean that person automatically aligns with the Nazis or the ideas of Adolf Hitler. This feels like one of the most obvious points I could possibly make surrounding this entire thing but nevertheless people keep conflating 'was Walt a Nazi' with 'was Walt a racist', as evidenced by baseless Nazi claims often being backed up by scenes from cartoons early in the lifetime of Walt Disney Studios, most of which conjured up long before World War II (<a href="https://twitter.com/Logtard/status/905401253693403136">once</a> someone even tried to convince me of Walt's Nazism by showing me the notorious watermelon scene from <a href="https://archive.org/details/ScrubMeMamaWithABoogieBeat"><i>Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat </i>(1941)</a>, which isn't even a Walt Disney production).</div>
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The second point is that a racist depiction in a cartoon doesn't automatically translate in their creators having hateful opinions of those ethnic groups. It's one thing to be unaware of the racial prejudices instilled by society that might result in a racist stereotype in a cartoon, but another entirely to extrapolate from that the person is also actively hateful towards the group depicted by that stereotype. Let's not pretend some unfortunate depictions of ethnic groups in a cartoon during a time when people didn't know any better is in any way in the same ballpark as genocide or its advocacy.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Mickey Mouse - The Opry House (1929)</td></tr>
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Heck, it seems people even forget it was not Walt Disney who personally created all these cartoons by himself, even if he had final authority (Disney hardly drew anything himself after 1926). For example, one of the prominent caricatures that gets brought up as evidence of Walt Disney's antisemitism is Mickey elongating his nose and shortening his body to perform a traditional Hasidic folk dance in <i>The Opry House (1929)</i>. However this cartoon's preliminary work was being done by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ub_Iwerks">Ub Iwerks</a> while Walt Disney himself was on the other side of the continent in New York for three months overseeing sound recording on <i>The Gallopin' Gaucho (1928)</i>, <i> Plane Crazy (1929)</i>, and <i>The Barn Dance (1929)</i>. Certainly all the animation at the time was done by Iwerks as Disney had lost his other animators to Charles Mintz. I mean it's a possibility the idea for the dance was solely Disney's, and he certainly had to approve it before its production concluded, but in all these expert analyses of usually minor details I miss the nuance that the Walt Disney Studio wasn't exclusively staffed by Walt Disney.<br />
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For the point regarding racism through ignorance vs hateful racism, my perspective is also colored by me having read a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories somewhat recently. While Lovecraft was a visionary when it comes to the horror genre, it also can't be denied that he in fact was an actual racist and the horror in his writing (fear of the unknown) was inspired by that.<br />
In <i>Herbert West: Reanimator (1922)</i> for example, the narrator-protagonist and the titular Herbert West are constantly on the lookout for fresh corpses on which to test their reanimation solution. In Part III they come across an African-American boxer named Buck Robinson, "The Harlem Smoke", who has been permanently knocked out. The narrator goes on to describe him as follows: "<i>He was a loathsome, gorilla-like thing, with abnormally long arms which I could not help calling fore legs, and a face that conjured up thoughts of unspeakable Congo secrets and tom-tom poundings under an eerie moon. The body must have looked even worse in life - but the world holds many ugly things</i>" <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Herbert_West:_Reanimator/Part_III">[Source: HP Lovecraft - Herbert West: Reanimator]</a>.<br />
That part was genuinely disturbing to me and reads as actual hatred towards African-Americans as an ethnic group (and it is <i>far</i> from the only or even the worst example). On the other hand we have only a select few Disney cartoons over a period of about 15 years where occasionally an ethnic stereotype appears, usually even sympathetically and often edited out when found to be hurtful. I don't see the level of hateful racism that I found in Lovecraft in for example the Big Bad Wolf trying to gain access to the house of the three little pigs by disguising himself as a Jewish peddler (which was later edited) and I especially don't see it in <i>Song of the South (1946)</i>. Racially insensitive through the ignorance of the times, yes, but not hatefully racist to warrant accusing Walt of racism.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"I think Dr. Lehman is correct when he says that many of the people who made the cartoons probably had no idea how hurtful racial images could be. I read thousands of pages of Disney studio documents when I was writing <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Cartoons-American-Animation-Golden/dp/0195167295">Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age</a>, including all the surviving story meeting notes from Walt's lifetime, and I found exactly one instance where someone on the Disney staff, a writer named Harold Helvenston, evidenced hostility and contempt toward black people, </i>[...]<i> The idea was that snapdragons would be presented as what Helvenston called "negro flowers"; Walt, to his credit, was uncomfortable with that idea"</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
- <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Feedback/feedback_coloredcartoon.htm">Reply to Feedback</a> to a <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Commentary/Colored_Cartoon/Colored_Cartoon.html">Review</a> of Dr. Lehman's '<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Colored-Cartoon-Presentation-American-1907-1954/dp/1558496130">The Colored Cartoon</a>' - Michael Barrier</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwyswUjgneucgygOb_Awfite1u-dMxAKoOeq0rfIPcafhuXY32dX1x7mWpJ9pbDlcBBVeLOnLtiUIDKkUHr7mbKHi1AMaMLU1UPsHUmTA2DYkeW0lp80RN40NY_k4JVS-AYMB9NjqGjA6R/s1600/Floyd+Norman+working+on+Disneys+Sleeping+Beauty.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="720" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwyswUjgneucgygOb_Awfite1u-dMxAKoOeq0rfIPcafhuXY32dX1x7mWpJ9pbDlcBBVeLOnLtiUIDKkUHr7mbKHi1AMaMLU1UPsHUmTA2DYkeW0lp80RN40NY_k4JVS-AYMB9NjqGjA6R/s320/Floyd+Norman+working+on+Disneys+Sleeping+Beauty.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Floyd Norman</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
As for Walt Disney's treatment of minorities, I think it best to let people who actually worked with him take the proverbial microphone. Floyd Norman was employed to work on <i>Sleeping Beauty </i>(released in 1959), worked with Walt and became the first African-American artist to remain at the studio long-term. You can find his statement regarding the rumors of Walt Disney's racism and antisemitism on his blogpost entitled <a href="http://floydnormancom.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/8/sophies-poor-choice"><i>Sophie's Poor Choice </i>[Here]</a>. To learn more about Floyd Norman himself and his amazing contributions to the field of animation, you can also check out the biographical movie<i> </i><a href="http://www.floydnormanmovie.com/"><i>Floyd Norman: An Animated Life </i>(2016)</a>.</div>
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<br /></div>
<i>"Not once did I observe a hint of the racist behavior Walt Disney was often accused of long after his death. His treatment of people - and by this I mean all people - can only be called exemplary."</i></div>
<div center="" text-align:="">
-Foreword by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Norman">Floyd Norman</a> of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Afraid-South-Forbidden-Disney-Stories-ebook/dp/B00AG6G250">Who's Afraid of the Song of the South?</a> - Jim Korkis</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPQPWXeJRSj33fnCcBgw4V4upwZcNqrPP6d4PT_ppqjA2cTk_4kZL0PrRGzjNpMLdE_PrGE7F6EhT0a65siCA6sTjHw63Q-dTMi1BwApVKSDZrBi_UW5kiKjWfXKg1fXEyZjoqoBQAhQlo/s1600/Walt+Disney+Louis+Armstrong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPQPWXeJRSj33fnCcBgw4V4upwZcNqrPP6d4PT_ppqjA2cTk_4kZL0PrRGzjNpMLdE_PrGE7F6EhT0a65siCA6sTjHw63Q-dTMi1BwApVKSDZrBi_UW5kiKjWfXKg1fXEyZjoqoBQAhQlo/s320/Walt+Disney+Louis+Armstrong.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walt Disney with Louis Armstrong, who Walt invited <br />
in 1966 to record an album of Disney songs:<br />
"Disney Songs the Satchmo Way"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
</div>
<h4>
What's the Deal with Song of the South?</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The FactFile video simply refers to <i>Song of the South (1946)</i>, Disney's adaptation of Joel Chandler Harris' <i>Uncle Remus</i> stories, in turn based on African-American folktalkes, as a movie "<i>so offensive that the Disney Company isn't going to let it be shown in public anymore</i>", which struck me as a description so vague that the video's writer probably just included the reference without looking further into it, likely never having seen the movie and certainly never having read up on it. <i>Song of the South</i> is indeed considered a controversial movie but the reason why Disney is trying to bury it is primarily because they don't even want to deal with the debate whether it really is that offensive. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicjEf5H2xGdw0i6-ZhREOgcfkYSoQrMyRmjVWBd5wSk_7vjt5IR21Lc7TT6HKPvDBAZMXcdcmVi_xMOPtWX5sdXW2NdIUVZpHLUo1QYq_v3K-Bk8VhMPbTDZ09ksXKgDTrkXMsU8z6Rc4X/s1600/Song+of+the+South+1946+James+Baskett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="638" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicjEf5H2xGdw0i6-ZhREOgcfkYSoQrMyRmjVWBd5wSk_7vjt5IR21Lc7TT6HKPvDBAZMXcdcmVi_xMOPtWX5sdXW2NdIUVZpHLUo1QYq_v3K-Bk8VhMPbTDZ09ksXKgDTrkXMsU8z6Rc4X/s320/Song+of+the+South+1946+James+Baskett.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
By my estimation, <i>Song of the South</i> isn't offensive by being explicitly racist in a hateful way, but rather unfortunately racist through naïveté because it gives the Disney treatment to a subject that is still considered inflammatory even today, namely race relations during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Era">Reconstruction Era</a> following the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War">American Civil War</a>. Its main setting is a plantation in, as the name implies, the American South, which by itself raises quite a few eyebrows. The framing device for the animated stories about Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear is that they are being told by Uncle Remus to help the kid protagonists (primarily a boy played by Bobby Driscoll, who would later become both the voice and model for <i>Peter Pan (1953)</i>) with their problems and teach them life lessons. Its prominent black community is portrayed very sympathetically, but they are also uniformly portrayed as happy with their lot in life and well respected by the movie's white cast. Essentially the movie is considered racist because it doesn't actually address racism at a time and place when and where it should have been impossible to get away from it, resulting in a 'racism is over' impression.<br />
<br />
After the film's release, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Francis_White">Walter White</a>, executive secretary of the NAACP (who according to Neal Gabler (p.435) was earlier invited to work on script revisions but declined) telegraphed major newspapers with the following statement, albeit based on memos he had received from two staff members and not having seen the movie himself, also erroneously believing the film to be set in the Antebellum era (1783-1861) rather than the Reconstruction in the 1870's:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recognizes in "Song of the South" remarkable artistic merit in the music and in the combination of living actors and the cartoon technique. It regrets, however, that in an effort neither to offend audiences in the north or south, the production helps to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery. Making use of the beautiful Uncle Remus folklore, "Song of the South" unfortunately gives the impression of an idyllic master-slave relationship which is a distortion of the facts."</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>-</i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Animation-Censored-Blacklisted-Animators/dp/0786420324">Forbidden Animation - Karl F. Cohen</a></div>
<br />
However if you just take the Internet's description of it, you would think Disney is trying to hide <i>Song of the South</i> because they are ashamed their founder made his own version of <i>The Birth of a Nation</i> or something equally offensive. In reality they simply want to forgo the debate of whether the movie is racist, over a movie that forgoes the debate about racism. Likely the primary reason why <i>Song of the South</i> did get a European release on VHS during the '90s was because without the historical context of slavery and the American Civil War, it really does look like just a regular wholesome Disney family film with at worst a prominent class difference. (1)</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwRL2UirtiNqu3EnxQ_fYRk4qkOEFiwRrV1eONoL4mf-KsJXT0dP4Suj9KozjMstI8aBHZEIUrvVLYP3C4AnMregcj4VyITpIkwR_AzsJNvlvpheU8dpt_pqwxArW4cz6CG0eYp29Q7wKS/s1600/Coonskin1975+Rabbit+Miss+America.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="687" data-original-width="912" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwRL2UirtiNqu3EnxQ_fYRk4qkOEFiwRrV1eONoL4mf-KsJXT0dP4Suj9KozjMstI8aBHZEIUrvVLYP3C4AnMregcj4VyITpIkwR_AzsJNvlvpheU8dpt_pqwxArW4cz6CG0eYp29Q7wKS/s320/Coonskin1975+Rabbit+Miss+America.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin (1975) (2)</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
While not without controversy itself (a lot of it also because of being judged by people who never bothered to actually see it), Ralph Bakshi's <i>Coonskin (1975)</i>, a movie which is also based on the characters of Uncle Remus, actually went completely the other way and made the movie entirely about racism with even the character designs as a scathing satire of 1930's and 1940's racial stereotypes, with plenty of jabs at Disney's <i>Song of the South </i>thrown in. It was also better received for it by African-American audiences and even got an endorsement by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAACP">NAACP</a> as being "difficult satire". Rabbit, here intentionally portrayed as a blackface stereotype with rabbit ears, goes with his trickster persona against the American Mafia. A recurring theme is that the movie's various black characters are either in an abusive relationship with, manipulated by or outright murdered by Miss America, a curvaceous woman seemingly dressed only in body paint in the colors of the American flag, an obvious metaphor for America's treatment of the black community. Of course Ralph Bakshi is decidedly not of the Disney school of animation or storytelling (as demonstrated by the film opening on the words '<i>Fuck You</i>' followed by a joke on the suicide of 350 white people), which afforded him the ability to do hard social satire while Walt Disney cornered himself in family values. Disney accidentally created the impression race relations were fine during the Reconstruction Era, Bakshi however showed contemporary America its warts.<br />
<br />
Yet <i>Song of the South</i>'s more questionable aspects should also be put into context of Walt Disney's intentions with it. As I said, it is no <i>Birth of a Nation</i> and it was never supposed to be. On the contrary, Disney intended for it to be a gesture of goodwill that promoted tolerance. This was after all a mainstream movie that in 1946 featured a prominent African-American cast with James Baskett as Uncle Remus at the center of it. A role for which Baskett in 1948 <a href="http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1948/?fid=7756" style="text-align: start;">received an honorary Academy Award</a><span style="text-align: start;">, which Walt himself campaigned for, becoming the first male African-American performer to receive an Oscar for a movie he himself couldn't attend the premiere of due to Atlanta being racially segregated. After Baskett's passing, <a href="https://disneydetail.me/2012/02/16/february-16/">his widow wrote</a> a thankful letter to Walt that he had been a "<i>friend in deed and [we] certainly have been in need</i>". </span>Disney had even attempted to do away with the biases of the film's crew (and himself) by recruiting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Rapf">Maurice Rapf</a> as a counterweight during the writing process.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"One of the reasons Walt had hired Rapf to work with Reymond was to temper what he feared would be Reymond's white southern slant. Rapf was a minority, a Jew, and an outspoken left-winger, and he himself feared that the film would inevitably be Uncle Tomish. "That's exactly why I want you to work on it," Walt told him, "because I know that you don't think I should make the movie. You're against Uncle Tomism, and you're a radical.""</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Walt Disney: The Biography - Neal Gabler p.434</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIgXEdLe3x6qKq4sehnRwrp7dE0LxRb5vfQ4Y2aEDOsn4z_CMTp9C1w0saxMAQG6NtnjIz-KPsidb3XjsBoDhqP0pgH6GpP3X0e2OQcDbxzzvtdqnR630Bvrw9gJBno-gyg3K2KaKRixr/s1600/Song+of+the+South+1946+Uncle+Remus+James+Baskett+Brer+Rabbit.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="638" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIgXEdLe3x6qKq4sehnRwrp7dE0LxRb5vfQ4Y2aEDOsn4z_CMTp9C1w0saxMAQG6NtnjIz-KPsidb3XjsBoDhqP0pgH6GpP3X0e2OQcDbxzzvtdqnR630Bvrw9gJBno-gyg3K2KaKRixr/s320/Song+of+the+South+1946+Uncle+Remus+James+Baskett+Brer+Rabbit.png" width="320" /></a></div>
I guess this is a sword that cuts both ways. By suppressing <i>Song of the South</i>, The Walt Disney Company is shielding itself from possible controversy arising from even the discussion of just how racist it is, which in the current hellscape of never-ending Internet outrage would no doubt result in the worst possible interpretation. However, by suppressing the movie they are also hiding away James Baskett's undeniable acting talent and historical achievement, as well as fueling the rumors of it being a massively racist movie by the fact that they even chose to hide it. The Disney Company's handling of the movie can ironically be best summarized with a quote from Uncle Remus himself: "<i>You can't run away from trouble. There's no place that far.</i>"</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the context of Walt Disney's personal supposed racism however, I would disagree that <i>Song of the South</i> is a convincing argument. From the perspective of the ethnic groups historically segregated, oppressed, and even enslaved, the portrayal of them as happy with their lot in life and living in perfect harmony with their affluent oppressor can undoubtedly be considered offensive. However from the perspective of groups largely unaware of those struggles, which Walt Disney himself belonged to and which helped inform his bias, <i>Song of the South</i> is instead just a heartwarming story of acceptance meant to spread the wisdom of the Uncle Remus stories to a larger audience. It is obvious that Disney intended the latter. </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Walt Disney was no racist. He never, either publicly or privately, made disparaging remarks about blacks or asserted white superiority. Like most white Americans of his generation, however, he was racially insensitive."</i><br />
- Walt Disney: The Biography - Neal Gabler p.433</div>
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<br />
<h4>
Antisemitism</h4>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Our children, who are all enthusiastic Mickey Mouse fans, join with me in assuring you of our deep appreciation and we do hope that when you next come to New York, you will drop in and pay us a visit."<a href="http://www.disneyhistoryinstitute.com/2014/02/in-defense-of-walt-walt-disney-and-anti.html"> </a></i><a href="http://www.disneyhistoryinstitute.com/2014/02/in-defense-of-walt-walt-disney-and-anti.html">[Source]</a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The above quote is from a personal thank you letter to Walt Disney for his gift of a dozen watches (surprisingly expensive <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyy1Lvn_JYgxSoCvxPNGaAFyxlUVDA2uuUtnNJqwstnQMjUmnbNE6CkazReI0bLTG3UaqdW9h2ruf0MNhwREsX9R5MshU_Zlgh0M1PLzZLai_78vbWhHaOZG-NHzRYDAdXrD25f2sfe2Y/s1600/*+1934+kk+watch.jpg">Mickey Mouse merchandise</a>) to The Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of New York in December 1935. Walt frequently contributed to Jewish charities: the orphanage mentioned above, the Jewish Home for the Aged, Yeshiva College, the Jewish Home for the Aged and the American League for a Free Palestine. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMH3vMBUfc8A9a0Cr_ddKw8qFeJXtisjDp1xr-Uy88N6gGh6U1fMZbwxsKwyt5Uw0nZ2c8_xRTLB2M777U8iGgYAjYwk3J-ldnL9sQjkUhuEZQ6zg8gQKKaeUsulIykGVI8gx2ZqxzvA0/s1600/Walt+Disney+Early+Years+1927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="530" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMH3vMBUfc8A9a0Cr_ddKw8qFeJXtisjDp1xr-Uy88N6gGh6U1fMZbwxsKwyt5Uw0nZ2c8_xRTLB2M777U8iGgYAjYwk3J-ldnL9sQjkUhuEZQ6zg8gQKKaeUsulIykGVI8gx2ZqxzvA0/s320/Walt+Disney+Early+Years+1927.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early years of Walt Disney Studios 1927, <br />
including Friz Freleng (Bottom row, left)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is speculated the rumors of Walt Disney's antisemitism (outside of his association with the <span style="text-align: justify;">MPAPAI, which did have antisemitic members and his meeting with Leni Riefenstahl</span>) arose from disgruntled former employees who themselves speculated their Jewish heritage might have contributed to their firing. However several Jewish employees (including Art Babbitt, who hated Walt) disagreed that Walt was antisemitic. The <a href="http://www.disneyhistoryinstitute.com/2014/02/in-defense-of-walt-walt-disney-and-anti.html">list of influential Jewish artists and executives</a> is so lengthy in fact that it would be extremely unlikely for Walt to not have noticed that he had staffed his studio with people he supposedly hated. This included some of his primary writers and artists (Joe Grant, Marc Davis, Maurice Rapf, Otto Englander...), production managers (Harry Tytle), even the heads of merchandising (Kay Kamen, George Kamen) and many more.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Some of the most influential people at the studio were Jewish."</i><br />
- Joe Grant, himself of Jewish heritage</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Composer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_M._Sherman">Richard M. Sherman</a>, a man of Jewish heritage who with his brother <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_B._Sherman">Robert B. Sherman</a> worked on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins_(film)"><i>Mary Poppins</i></a> (1964) (as well as <i>The Sword in the Stone</i> (1963), <i>The Jungle Book</i> (1967) and various other Disney movies), gave an <a href="http://uproxx.com/hitfix/interview-composer-richard-sherman-on-saving-mr-banks/">interview</a> in 2013 in the context of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Mr._Banks"><i>Saving Mr. Banks</i></a> (2013), the movie about the development of the Mary Poppins movie. In the interview, he responds to accusations of Walt's antisemitism with the following:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Let me tell you something, a lot of people talk about Walt in negative ways. There was nothing negative about Walt Disney", he says. "He was dedicated to doing great things. He reached for the stars all the time. He was a wonderful, wonderful boss."</i><br />
- Richard M. Sherman [<a href="http://uproxx.com/hitfix/interview-composer-richard-sherman-on-saving-mr-banks/">Source</a>]</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.disneyhistoryinstitute.com/2014/02/in-defense-of-walt-walt-disney-and-anti.html">According</a> to the Disney History Institute, there was also an incident where Walt fired one of his lawyers, who didn't like minorities, for saying something denigrating about the Sherman brothers.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw1BQCXiPjKeVsx1BrBPijlWMoHpraVB21PskCnLPilpqVDMYl943b4-e9CB2G8CXUHpqAfU57sfggghIXWCvmh3Vc7LICXYcVXfcs-NX9gab3MqNpu6w_O8Bpw9uluK-jPFsGWRGGAD_P/s1600/Walt+Disney+Bnai+Brith+Man+of+the+Year+1955.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="869" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw1BQCXiPjKeVsx1BrBPijlWMoHpraVB21PskCnLPilpqVDMYl943b4-e9CB2G8CXUHpqAfU57sfggghIXWCvmh3Vc7LICXYcVXfcs-NX9gab3MqNpu6w_O8Bpw9uluK-jPFsGWRGGAD_P/s320/Walt+Disney+Bnai+Brith+Man+of+the+Year+1955.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Walt Disney, prior to being presented "Man of the Year" by<br />
the Beverly Hills B'nai B'rith auxiliary, 12-9-1955. [<a href="http://disneybooks.blogspot.be/2007/05/this-just-in-from-jim-korkis-here-is.html">Source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To end this section, I would like to draw your attention to a picture discovered by animation historian Jim Korkis. B'nai B'rith International is the oldest Jewish service organization in the world, dedicated to fighting antisemitism and bigotry. Who did the Beverly Hills chapter of the organization have as their 1955 Man of the Year? None other than Walt Disney himself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He further received the <a href="http://waltdisney.org/sites/default/files/bnaibrith_walt.jpg">Distinguished Service Citation</a> from the Kansas City B'nai B'rith Chapter and the <a href="http://waltdisney.org/sites/default/files/hadassah_walt.jpg">Hadassah Recognition of Achievement</a>, both in 1958 and both can be seen in the Lobby of the Walt Disney Museum. So while Walt is regularly accused of antisemitism, it seems the people who disagreed with that accusation were contemporary organizations that were founded explicitly with the purpose of combating antisemitism. Odd how the "fact" that gets spread is an unsubstantiated rumor of Walt attending Bund meetings, but we never hear of his contributions to Jewish causes even though the awards are there and the thank you notes for his charitable actions have occasionally turned up.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<i>"So let me just say this: no respected Disney historian has ever uncovered evidence that Walt Disney was racist. And goodness knows, we've digged in every corner."</i><br />
- <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/fact-checking-meryl-streeps-disney-bashing-speech-94380.html">Cartoon Brew: Fact-Checking Meryl Streep's Disney-Bashing Speech</a> - Amid Amidi<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Conclusion</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To sum it up: Paste Magazine has it right when the author says labeling Walt a National Socialist without proof is a stretch, but following it with Walt being '<i style="text-align: justify;">at best</i><span style="text-align: justify;">' a Nazi sympathizer is hardly any better when the article goes on with trying to make that accusation stick anyway, especially with a title such as '</span><i style="text-align: justify;">Walt the Quasi-Nazi</i><span style="text-align: justify;">'. The article is nothing more than a sensationalist attempt to paint a fallible perfectionist into a fascist propagandist based on post-hoc rationalizations, with much of the article dedicated to portions of The Disney Company's history Walt wasn't even alive for. Problems with corporate overreach are certainly deeply rooted and should be addressed. You don't do that by writing sensationalist clickbait articles where your focus is on singling out an individual deceased for 51 years and painting him as a fascist Nazi somehow responsible for it. </span><br />
To put Walt Disney in the same category as people who tried to wipe out an entire ethnic group is not only wrong and offensive to a person who can't defend himself anymore, it is downright irresponsible. We live at a time when white supremacists brandishing actual Nazi symbology (and somehow Tiki torches) are holding rallies in the streets. What better way to normalize their behavior than to claim the inoffensive cartoon movies and theme parks that billions of people grew up on were actually made by someone holding their values?<br />
Furthermore this attitude of harshly judging even relatively progressive historical figures from the comfortable position of modernity is frankly off-putting and only an exercise in mental masturbation. It reduces the genuine struggles civil rights movements had to go through to acquire a semblance of equality. Historical figures who held the prejudices of their time shouldn't be cast as evil because they just happened to be born in a time period when those prejudices were still rampant, they should be held up as examples to us of how even good people can be flawed so we in turn can examine the faults in ourselves.<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span><span style="text-align: justify;">The truth is that Walt Disney was not a Nazi, a Nazi sympathizer or a fan of Adolf Hitler. Those claims are blatantly ridiculous. At absolute worst it could be argued he was largely indifferent (as he was to most political questions) to politics in Europe in general prior to World War II, and staunchly against the Nazis from that point on. It's hard to even make the case that he was especially racist or sexist outside of the general racial insensitivity of his time. </span>The US Government evidently didn't think he was a Nazi or a Nazi sympathizer when they screened him and hired him. Jewish foundations with the explicit purpose of combating antisemitism screened him and <i>honored</i> him. The worst I have found of him is that his perfectionism was often very trying for the people he worked with, and he could be very volatile with his employees while under stress. Nothing I found indicates there's any merit to the popular image of him as a horrible racist, sexist of Nazi sympathizer.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
Notes</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1. Nevertheless I've seen people upset that Disney is <i>still</i> selling this racist movie on DVD, when to my knowledge it has never even had a DVD release even though there's demand for it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2. The reason why I'm using an image of the seemingly-nude Miss America from Coonskin is because I fear an image of just the main protagonists, who appear to be blackface caricatures, would be more likely to be mistaken for an old Disney production by the casual visitor scrolling through this article, whereas I think an image of a woman with detailed breasts wouldn't be mistaken as such. Internet consensus is that Disney is more subliminal with its references to sex after all. Also a reference to boobs is the tits in terms of SEO. </span></div>
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Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-36042129063509187072018-02-02T22:56:00.000+01:002018-02-09T17:22:48.418+01:00Defending Disney - Part 4: Walt the Supposed Gender Bigot<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-introduction-and-index.html">[<- Index]</a></span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/02/defending-disney-part-3-walt-anti-nazi.html">[<-Part 3: Walt, the Anti-Nazi Propagandist]</a></span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">A letter warning a potential female applicant of stiff competition for a job at Walt Disney Studios was discovered a few years ago and has been repeatedly brought up as proof that Walt Disney hated women. While certainly containing evidence of changing times and a reminder of sexist segregation in the workplace in the 1930's, once again Walt Disney has to be bizarrely blamed personally for somehow not having sensibilities 80 years ahead of his time. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheZ05CZkgquRLJYvjd0setGarPI4SihYtjZGrb6-JC77KA_nTdNPzDFnEsBn_B2yJnFuH0yHcRXdNZrNWDbFIDzAGx8kxrshcHLw5fVLHfgirn69JqxHHxJRYFYK3O2yGDRIkszTvxKsxo/s1600/Walt+Disney+Productions+Letter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="760" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheZ05CZkgquRLJYvjd0setGarPI4SihYtjZGrb6-JC77KA_nTdNPzDFnEsBn_B2yJnFuH0yHcRXdNZrNWDbFIDzAGx8kxrshcHLw5fVLHfgirn69JqxHHxJRYFYK3O2yGDRIkszTvxKsxo/s320/Walt+Disney+Productions+Letter.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
First of, the letter is clearly signed Mary Cleave, so everyone claiming that Walt was sending these letters personally just to shatter the dreams of young women is simply wrong. At the high point following the release of <i>Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938)</i>, Walt Disney Studios had grown so large that it is inconceivable he was still screening every potential applicant personally.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Secondly, I think this letter is being misread as a rejection letter when it clearly is not that. Yes, it mentions women were not currently considered for creative work at the time, however it merely warns Miss Ford that there is some stiff competition for openings because, as you can see, she lives in Searcy, Arkansas, and as such traveling all the way to Hollywood for a job with very few openings and a lot of competition might simply not make the trip worth the risk. Nowhere in the letter does it state she is being rejected as she is even being asked to bring samples if she were to apply (<a href="http://animationguildblog.blogspot.be/2006/06/disney-1939-girls-are-not-considered.html">A similar letter</a> also signed by Mary Cleave comes without the advise and simply mentions to apply a Tuesday morning between 9:30 and 11:30, but that applicant already lived in California at the time).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So yes, a harsh reminder of what workplace conditions looked like before the second World War pushed women into them? Certainly. The smoking gun that Walt Disney hated women? Please. The entire American corporate landscape was male-dominated. To come to that conclusion you have to strip away all historical context (as well as misread half the letter) and hold Walt to an impossible modern standard. Once again we are down to conspiracy theories regarding a man Internet sensationalism is intent on making a bad guy.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After <i>Fantasia (1940)</i> failed to live up to expectations, partially because the onset of World War II prevented a release in Europe, Disney decided to solve a financial crisis by making a cheaper film primarily for profit rather than artistry, by which he could finance the pictures he refused to cut back on. The result was <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reluctant_Dragon_(1941_film)">The Reluctant Dragon</a> (1941)</i>, a live-action film with animated segments in which American humorist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Benchley">Robert Benchley</a> is forced by his wife (played by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Bryant">Nana Bryant</a>) to present Walt Disney with an idea for a new cartoon (the titular Reluctant Dragon). The hesitant Benchley however keeps dodging his escort by wandering through the new Walt Disney Studios Burbank location to get a look at how Disney cartoons are created (while actors were employed, most people shown were the actual staff). One of the departments Benchley finds himself in is the Ink & Paint Department that's mentioned in the letter above.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTvhhagiyg2qnX6pahUcQjDMKTAC5T7ERpY6f-1MqjR9iOHNIA2JEJjszSyOeqWb2KcnAf5elz1txhkjoGIgCHh_vOWMRcJa1Pq5KB5Gv2T2DxF1XLUawtBiEjFcJfTYpj7A89sU4bQDsE/s1600/The+Reluctant+Dragon+1941+Ink+and+Paint+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="705" data-original-width="943" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTvhhagiyg2qnX6pahUcQjDMKTAC5T7ERpY6f-1MqjR9iOHNIA2JEJjszSyOeqWb2KcnAf5elz1txhkjoGIgCHh_vOWMRcJa1Pq5KB5Gv2T2DxF1XLUawtBiEjFcJfTYpj7A89sU4bQDsE/s320/The+Reluctant+Dragon+1941+Ink+and+Paint+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">The Reluctant Dragon (1941)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The immediate sense you get is that the Ink & Paint Department wasn't some condescending position reserved for a few token women at the company (unlike what those who diminish their contribution just for another stab at Walt Disney would have you believe), but an involved organization staffed by highly-technical pioneer women who added life to the animators' sketches. Remember, color cartoons were still less than a decade old and at Disney it was a frontier overwhelmingly staffed by women. They didn't just painstakingly paint the drawings, they were also involved in the chemical lab making the actual paint. The process of transforming black and white sketches into the colorful images you end up seeing was thus the work of women, and Walt Disney himself wanted to show that by including them and their work in his behind-the-scenes tour.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Furthermore, Mindy Johnson in her book <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ink-Paint-Disneys-Animation-Editions/dp/1484727819">Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney's Animation</a> (2017)</i> notes that the segregation of men and women served a practical purpose, which unfortunately rings familiar for anyone having kept up with certain horrific revelations about Hollywood in the last few months: "<i>This restriction served a dual purpose, as Walt Disney consciously sought to provide a comfortable place for women to work without unwanted harassments, which was sadly not the case at many other studios of the day</i>" (restriction meaning men and visitors were discouraged from the department).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DP1y8h-29gzbvM_plCG7wOUYi2Ld8FK2mksdKK-HyQSaj_5fdvNuQD1HBsWjJpAt-nTJEHr5Pwt1ua_o8b3ycV68grRB5Bvmdm6DOCByvk5la3d_lJouBzlZ-fnaknjw_8L9NN2CzI1P/s1600/The+Reluctant+Dragon+1941+Drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="705" data-original-width="943" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DP1y8h-29gzbvM_plCG7wOUYi2Ld8FK2mksdKK-HyQSaj_5fdvNuQD1HBsWjJpAt-nTJEHr5Pwt1ua_o8b3ycV68grRB5Bvmdm6DOCByvk5la3d_lJouBzlZ-fnaknjw_8L9NN2CzI1P/s320/The+Reluctant+Dragon+1941+Drawing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">The Reluctant Dragon (1941)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However earlier in the movie (before the movie converts itself to Technicolor, which Robert Benchley notices and points out), Benchley stops by the art class where artists are learning to caricature an elephant (Mabel, I believe) for the upcoming movie <i>Dumbo (1941).</i> There several women are seen sketching, including one Chinese women played by actress <a href="http://disneybooks.blogspot.be/2016/08/i-am-juggling-too-many-balls-at-same.html">Bo Ling</a>. While by itself not very impressive considering this particular women appears to have been an actress and not an active sketch artist at the Disney Company, the significance is that putting her in there was an obvious attempt at promoting the idea of a non-white female artist working on mainstream animation and that such people would be welcome at the Disney studio. A minute later a different female artist sketches Robert Benchley's caricatured as an elephant to set up a joke of him making a fool out of himself while he blissfully ignorant uses the sketch to describe how dumb elephants look. Evidently Walt Disney didn't scoff at the idea of female artists.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It also wasn't that much of a stretch to depict an Asian woman doing creative work at Disney anyway. The elaborate <i>Fantasia (1940)</i> <a href="https://d23.com/15-fascinating-facts-about-fantasia/">theater program</a> during its original run was designed by the female Japanese American artist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyo_Fujikawa">Gyo Fujikawa</a>, known primarily as an illustrator and author for children's books. Her <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1998/dec/13/news/mn-53751/2">obituary</a> in the Los Angeles Times also names Walt Disney as her inspiration for how she handled bigots during World War II. Since she lived in New York she escaped the internment of Japanese Americans, however since she was at this time understandably anxious about her heritage, she would claim she was really the Chinese American actress Anna May Wong.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"But when she told Disney that she often lied about her heritage, he exploded. "Damn it! Why should you say that? You're an American citizen," he said."</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"From that moment on," Fujikawa recounted recently, "that's exactly what I did tell them."</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>-LA Times: <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1998/dec/13/news/mn-53751/2">Children's Author Dared to Depict Multiracial World</a></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-NnTUVg0CLi6X16YmuT6oAYAiu7dyGmQ0Q1AN-2z8KR7CZAWkkD1B2pt_pwROjqq3rCpy_pmOXirhjDbuNnb-RnGOjdEnEkD9qqegf5RF0rUvSNgvQcwoB1tGyz9bORM-hZqLjfVss1Z2/s1600/Snow+White+and+the+Seven+Dwarfs+1937+Credits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="478" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-NnTUVg0CLi6X16YmuT6oAYAiu7dyGmQ0Q1AN-2z8KR7CZAWkkD1B2pt_pwROjqq3rCpy_pmOXirhjDbuNnb-RnGOjdEnEkD9qqegf5RF0rUvSNgvQcwoB1tGyz9bORM-hZqLjfVss1Z2/s320/Snow+White+and+the+Seven+Dwarfs+1937+Credits.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The thing with company policy as it came to gender segregation is that Walt himself regularly ignored it when he found the women's skillsets merited it. Even in <i>Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)</i> we can see that Dorothy Ann Blank is given on-screen credit for her part in adapting the story. Later under Art Directors we find another woman: <a href="http://waltdisney.org/blog/important-women-disney-history-hazel-sewell">Hazel Sewell</a>, who was the sister of Walt Disney's wife Lilian and was appointed the head of the Ink & Paint Department <a href="http://waltdisney.org/blog/important-women-disney-history-hazel-sewell">through recognition of her technical skill, diligence and keen eye</a>. <i>Snow White</i>'s production notes also cite Hazel Sewell's opinion a number of times which was noted to be clearly valued by her colleagues. So while women obviously still had a long way to go in animation, they were already a huge, unfortunately unsung, part of it when Walt Disney amazed the world with his first feature-length animated film.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From the horse's mouth we even have two speeches Walt Disney held five'o clock on February 10 and 11, 1941, in which he affirmed that there should be no differences in opportunities between men and women.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="font-style: italic;">"If a woman can do the work as well, she is worth as much as a man," </b>and<b style="font-style: italic;"> "The girl artists have the right to expect the same chances for advancement as men, and I honestly believe they may eventually contribute something to this business that men never would or could."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
- Walt Disney</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's common knowledge that Walt Disney owed his success largely thanks to Mickey Mouse. Lesser common knowledge is that Mickey Mouse started out primarily as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, of which the rights belonged to Universal rather than Disney himself. Even before that though he got his studio off the ground with a series known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Comedies">Alice Comedies</a>, a series of 57 cartoons (many of whom lost) featuring a live-action girl interacting with a cartoon environment.<br />
The first cartoon was made while Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks were still at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh-O-Gram_Studio">Laugh-O-Gram</a>, Walt's original and ultimately failed studio. Without even a studio yet to produce more cartoons, Walt managed to arrange a distributing deal with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_J._Winkler">Margaret J. Winkler</a>, the first woman to produce and distributed animated films (she also edited the Alice Comedies). The partnership only turned sour once Winkler got married and turned her company over to her husband <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mintz">Charles B. Mintz</a>, who would eventually hire away all of Walt's animators except of Ub Iwerks. From the very start Walt had been working with women.<br />
<br />
But let's return (... forward in time) to Walt Disney's eventual masterpiece. The impossible project the Hollywood movie industry derided as "<a href="http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/Disneys-Folly1.pdf">Disney's Folly</a>", on which Disney had gambled everything and which would show that not only are animated movies possible, but also viable. This movie was to be the story of a girl.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNliTOMpT7EZLiMpmC2u2cop0p0PJwDHCs59bxuyb0enoOblLBjAYm4ytV9B1rW-84On_6FK0FAFu52B846paipMBuIr5SWpyVrmXk9hI0_y59Yja0z1beB8elkRsi2__4mpk3O4skxOYr/s1600/Snow+White+and+the+Seven+Dwarfs+1937.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="956" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNliTOMpT7EZLiMpmC2u2cop0p0PJwDHCs59bxuyb0enoOblLBjAYm4ytV9B1rW-84On_6FK0FAFu52B846paipMBuIr5SWpyVrmXk9hI0_y59Yja0z1beB8elkRsi2__4mpk3O4skxOYr/s320/Snow+White+and+the+Seven+Dwarfs+1937.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A big negative I found regarding Snow White was how Walt Disney didn't want <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriana_Caselotti">Adriana Caselotti</a>, Snow White's voice actress, to use her voice for other movies as he wanted to preserve the illusion that Snow White was a real person, which would obviously have been a real problem if Caselotti ever wanted a career in Hollywood. However that's indeed an issue with Walt's overzealousness over protecting his movie's illusion of life rather than a problem with women, and even with that Caselotti continued to <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gZVGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FvgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1286,587896&dq=i+don-t+want+to+spoil+the+illusion+of+snow+white&hl=en">speak fondly</a> of Walt and her role (<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-adriana-caselotti-1277975.html">which she embodied all her life</a>) well into the 1990's, <a href="https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/adriana-caselotti/">actively participating in publicity events and specials</a> celebrating the movie.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Even today we have complaints about the lack of female representation in Hollywood movies (or video games), yet here was Disney kickstarting animated movies with Snow White. Does this really sound like a guy who hated women?</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/02/defending-disney-part-5-walt-supposed.html">[Part 5: Walt, the Supposed Racist ->]</a></div>
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</div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-82304414180499059682018-02-02T22:33:00.000+01:002018-02-02T22:57:25.251+01:00Defending Disney - Part 3: Walt the Anti-Nazi Propagandist<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-introduction-and-index.html">[<- Index]</a><br />
<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-part-2-walt-supposed.html">[<- Part 2: Walt, the Supposed Nazi]</a><br />
<br />
Looking at the actual evidence makes it nothing short of madness to claim Walt Disney was a Nazi or a Nazi sympathizer. As we have seen, the pro-argument consists of assuming a meeting with a German filmmaker (who herself <i>was</i> actually taken in by Hitler) was maliciously motivated rather than just being a meeting between filmmakers (and which Walt later disavowed), and a dubious claim from Disney's enemy of him attending open German American Bund meetings that is corroborated by nothing else. Such underwhelming evidence hardly even requires counter-evidence since it is all based on rumor and fallacious extrapolation anyway. However it <i>truly</i> becomes ridiculous once you start looking into Walt Disney's actual contributions to the war effort. The most famous anti-Nazi propaganda cartoon Disney made is no doubt <i>Der Fuehrer's Face </i>(1943), which I covered in the previous section. There are several more cartoons that mock Hitler and the Nazi's. I'll go over some of the more well interesting ones, for a list of many others (but not nearly complete) there's a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney%27s_World_War_II_propaganda_production#External_links">list over on Wikipedia</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlOu5rObLzYr19ACH3L8CaAneGbwbpy5kIbgLTiZmwJUt6iBgUn7iG_H6Z3X1vvHVEfWXI4Gl5OG1G05Hb91G0dC3FhUn_ch-uLSuUQ5kCGmm5vJ2d6OdqlDVRHXsna3OTkREKwqiSSt7/s1600/Education+for+Death+1943+bookburning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="637" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlOu5rObLzYr19ACH3L8CaAneGbwbpy5kIbgLTiZmwJUt6iBgUn7iG_H6Z3X1vvHVEfWXI4Gl5OG1G05Hb91G0dC3FhUn_ch-uLSuUQ5kCGmm5vJ2d6OdqlDVRHXsna3OTkREKwqiSSt7/s320/Education+for+Death+1943+bookburning.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As mentioned earlier, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_for_Death">Education for Death</a></i> (1943) is an animated short based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Ziemer">Gregory Ziemer</a>'s book of the same name, based on his experiences as an educator in Germany. It shows a young boy named Hans who from birth is being indoctrinated into worshiping Adolf Hitler with all his compassion and sentimentality stomped out so he can grow up as a good soldier and die trampling on the rights of others. It starts with children being indoctrinated with a fairy tale in which Adolf Hitler is shown as a knight scaring away the witch (democracy) so he can save the princess (Germany). However in the version we see on the screen Hitler is portrayed as a raving lunatic who reflexively keeps saluting himself and briefly grows devil horns while doing so. German officials in the short are invariably portrayed as an extension of the oppressive government who don't care about the well-being of Hans or his family outside of the boy's utility as a soldier for the war machine.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglz9CjWiiAKZ088VJuHfolS-prammXMmfa0_q4xEeJwrnYMKzGzlZTei2_CIevuzpwXSWMCYIj_sw_uW6Usz7GHuO4S9qHgfMt04RTjrNj6d7TSzvvswMkIrLbS27izPQxzc9WJ_cILnaZ/s1600/The+New+Spirit+1942.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="473" data-original-width="644" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglz9CjWiiAKZ088VJuHfolS-prammXMmfa0_q4xEeJwrnYMKzGzlZTei2_CIevuzpwXSWMCYIj_sw_uW6Usz7GHuO4S9qHgfMt04RTjrNj6d7TSzvvswMkIrLbS27izPQxzc9WJ_cILnaZ/s320/The+New+Spirit+1942.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Spirit">The New Spirit</a></i> (1942) shows a radio program instructing Donald Duck on how and why to do his taxes to help America win the war against the Axis forces. Yes, it's a cartoon about Donald Duck doing his taxes, then it explains why they are necessary to fight against the aggressor. "<i>Taxes to beat the Axis</i>" and variations being a recurring phrase. The film was requested by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. to cast the tax increase for the war effort in a positive light and ensure they were paid timely, which it succeeded in doing as income taxes were more prompt in 1942.<br />
This film received a sequel in <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><i><span id="goog_996224765"></span>The Spirit of '43</i><span id="goog_996224766"></span></a> (1943), which is, yes, another cartoon about the necessity of Donald Duck doing his taxes for the fight against Hitler and Hirohito (much of the animation was reused from the previous short however). This particular film is also noteworthy for containing what looks like a prototype for Scrooge McDuck.<br />
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Six other Donald Duck cartoons were created where he served in the army during World War II. However some of these (<i>Donald Gets Drafted</i> (1942)) show a more anti-military sentiment because one of the writers, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Barks">Carl Barks</a> (best known for his extensive comic run of Donald Duck), was a pacifist against America being involved in the war (It also reveals Donald's full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck). The last one, <i>Commando Duck</i> (1944), actually features Donald Duck engaging in military action against the Japanese.<br />
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Walt Disney was heavily involved with creating confidential military training films for the United States government, which as Disney historian Jim Korkis <a href="https://www.mouseplanet.com/11885/Debunking_Myths_About_Walt_Disney">notes</a> required the highest security clearance and previous or current sympathy with the Nazis or Adolf Hitler would have likely disqualified him to do so instantly. The importance of Disney's contribution to the war effort is probably <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/19340/walt_disney_goes_to_war">best demonstrated</a> by his studio being the only one in Hollywood to have the U.S. Army deploy troops to protect it. Clearly the United States government, while they were actively at war with Nazis, didn't think Walt Disney was a Nazi.<br />
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The opening cartoon of <i>Stop That Tank! </i>(1942), a training film on the use of anti-tank rifles, a ridiculous laughing stock caricature of Adolf Hitler is shot literally to hell after pathetically whining how oppressed he is by a peaceful village he is in the process of attacking. He then continues his whining until it annoys the devil. The rest of the film demonstrates the use of an Anti-Tank Rifle.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="240" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://archive.org/embed/StopThatTank" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="320"></iframe><br /></div>
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<a href="https://archive.org/details/StopThatTank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Archive.org: Stop That Tank!</span></a></div>
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After Walt Disney had read Alexander P. de Seversky's 1942 book <i>Victory Through Air Power</i>, he felt that its message was important enough that he personally financed its production into a documentary feature film to catch the attention of both government officials and the public in general. Among those convinced by Seversky's theories after seeing the film were Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="240" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://archive.org/embed/VictoryThroughAirPower1943" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<a href="https://archive.org/details/VictoryThroughAirPower1943"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Archive.org: Victory Through Air Power</span></a></div>
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Personally I find it rather difficult to entertain the belief that Walt Disney was a Nazi or a fan of Hitler when he wasn't just continuously producing cartoons mocking him, but also producing training films and promoting strategies to defeat him. According to Neal Gabler, the Treasury Department credited Walt Disney with helping to sell more than $50 million worth of saving bonds (however I found no alternate sources to back this up).</div>
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<i>"Even before the U.S. entry into the war, Disney was doing war bond work for the National Film Board of Canada."</i></div>
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- War and American Popular Culture - Kalman Goldstein (edited by M. Paul Holsinger) p.327</div>
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The most baffling part of the <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-part-1-sampling-of.html">previous</a> Paste Magazine article follows when the author attempts to use Walt Disney's anti-Nazi propaganda films as somehow not anti-Nazi enough since they didn't explicitly address antisemitism enough for the author's sensibilities. Somehow the fact that the wolf in <i>Three Little Pigs </i>(1933) disguised himself as a Jewish stereotype is enough to reduce Walt's many contributions to the war effort, explicitly to stop the Nazis from trampling on other people's rights, to nothing. Evidently <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/19340/walt_disney_goes_to_war">producing 68 hours of educational war films</a>, as well as many films to promote war bonds, propaganda films to vilify the Nazis and their allies (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Fuehrer%27s_Face"><i>Der Fuehrer's Face (1943)</i></a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_for_Death"><i>Education for Death - The Making of a Nazi (1943)</i></a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason_and_Emotion"><i>Reason and Emotion (1943)</i></a> and <a href="http://commando%20duck/"><i>Commando Duck (1944)</i></a>) and a feature film Walt himself sponsored (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Through_Air_Power_(film)"><i>Victory Through Air Power (1943)</i></a>) all to promote winning a war <i>against</i> the Nazis doesn't matter because an old cartoon had an offensive stereotype.</div>
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However even that was not the extend of it. In early 1941, before the United States had even entered World War II, Walt Disney became an ambassador of a goodwill tour under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Rockefeller">Nelson Rockefeller</a> through South America as part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Neighbor_policy">Good Neighbor policy</a> in an effort to counter Latin American ties with Nazi Germany. The end results were the package films <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saludos_Amigos"><i>Saludos Amigos (1942)</i></a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Caballeros"><i>The Three Caballeros (1944)</i></a> (with one segment <i>Blame It On the Samba</i> being conceived but only later used in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Time"><i>Melody Time (1948)</i></a>). Film historian Alfred Charles Richard Jr. notes in <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Censorship-Hollywoods-Hispanic-Image-Bibliographies/dp/0313288429">Censorship and Hollywood's Hispanic</a> (1993) </i>that Saludos "<i>did more to cement a community of interest between peoples of the Americas in a few months than the State Department had in fifty years</i>".</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://youtu.be/3S1lgfZKdbY">Youtube.com: Saludos Amigos (1943) Trailer</a></span></span><br />
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So again, the belief that Walt Disney was a Nazi or a Nazi supporter hinges on him meeting German film maker Leni Riefenstahl (who was in fact a Nazi sympathizer, but not classified as an actual Nazi or convicted of war crimes) once but the fact that he went on to denounce her later on (and was hesitant <i>while</i> he was meeting her in the first place), only to then go on to become the propaganda arm for the American anti-Nazi sentiment, a proponent of new methods to defeat the Nazis and an international ambassador to pry away foreign support from the Nazis is soundly ignored.</div>
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<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/02/defending-disney-part-4-walt-supposed.html">[Part 4: Walt, the Supposed Gender Bigot ->]</a></div>
<h3>
Notes</h3>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Apologies if this section is rather disjointed and less in-depth than I'd like it to be. I might expand on it later but I was not interested enough in outdated military training films (Behold, <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0yxvsqot6s">Four Methods of Flush Riveting</a> (1942), an almost 10-minute cartoon on riveting techniques</i>) to sit through the majority of the films Walt Disney produced during World War II.</span></div>
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Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-69094599329816012522018-01-04T23:27:00.000+01:002018-06-09T18:09:40.599+02:00Defending Disney - Part 2: Walt, the Supposed Nazi<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-introduction-and-index.html">[<- Index]</a><br />
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<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-part-1-sampling-of.html">[<- Part 1: A Sampling of Recent Accusations]</a><br />
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The two most substantive pieces of evidence to support the idea of Walt's supposed Nazism (in general, not just from the sources in the previous section) are a claim by animator Art Babbitt that he saw Walt Disney and his lawyer Gunther Lessing at a meeting of the German American Bund (an American pro-Nazi organization) which Babbitt himself attended out of curiosity in the late 1930's, and that German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl visited the Walt Disney Studios on December 8, 1938 when she was in America to promote her movie <i>Olympia (1938)</i>, having to do with the 1936 Summer Olympics which had been held in Berlin.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgESxI5sv8mZOhqEp9g83ZtTsT_55mBCI04JzxiHmsHG4-UYdKE98to8E9rb-wSO8lHi5RVTvl7oLN5Mdeorq5sJYTfnTYe36cMXe57Dw4jDSYEv3NyDAc17Jo5KnCRwuP6QYcq04JyzKEG/s1600/Der+Feuhrers+Face+1943+Donald+Duck+escorted+into+Nazi+factory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="639" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgESxI5sv8mZOhqEp9g83ZtTsT_55mBCI04JzxiHmsHG4-UYdKE98to8E9rb-wSO8lHi5RVTvl7oLN5Mdeorq5sJYTfnTYe36cMXe57Dw4jDSYEv3NyDAc17Jo5KnCRwuP6QYcq04JyzKEG/s320/Der+Feuhrers+Face+1943+Donald+Duck+escorted+into+Nazi+factory.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"<i>While the Fuehrer brags and lies and rants and raves,<br />we heil! Heil! and work into our graves</i>."</td></tr>
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Walt Being Seen at a German American Bund Meeting</h4>
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The thing with the claim of Walt attending Bund meetings is that it simply isn't sufficiently substantiated to accept that it even happened. The only evidence for it comes from a claim by Art Babbitt, which in this instance is a questionable source to say the least. Art Babbitt was one of Disney's top animators who nevertheless became his bitter enemy over union disagreements (to the point where there would have been an actual fistfight between the two in the studio parking lot had they not been restrained). The result was that these two men held a life-long grudge against each other and either one would gladly have taking the other down. As such a claim like this should really be taken with a grain of salt.<br />
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Even in the late thirties Walt Disney had already established himself and was a well-known celebrity. How odd is it then that the only source who saw Walt and conveniently his lawyer at these meetings was a person who both hated him and who would gain (if only vengeance) from having Walt's reputation tarnished? So while I in no way wish to sully Art Babbitt's name instead, it seems much more likely that in this case Babbitt was either mistaken or simply lied. Without any counter-statement from Walt himself, if he even <i>did</i> attend those meetings, it is also impossible to determine his motives for attending. It is speculated that if he did attend these meetings, it would more likely be to facilitate the distribution of Disney movies in Germany rather than any admiration for Adolf Hitler. Disney historian Jim Korkis <a href="https://www.mouseplanet.com/11885/Debunking_Myths_About_Walt_Disney">further notes</a> that there was no indication of him attending such meetings in his office appointment book.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2C25GyrHujx485mdl5D78N7C57wbxiYVsSuCnWAz7K7BDDA2h31-Pn7HTq_zw-WNEOWxRKgeq4VpODoE_HaTUuzo-3la2quretHWaAfE6huZYQrc3ipAWja9eVvwt_sGe-mvEx4IjBUR8/s1600/Ron+Miller+Mel+Milton+Gunther+Lessing+Harry+Tytle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="395" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2C25GyrHujx485mdl5D78N7C57wbxiYVsSuCnWAz7K7BDDA2h31-Pn7HTq_zw-WNEOWxRKgeq4VpODoE_HaTUuzo-3la2quretHWaAfE6huZYQrc3ipAWja9eVvwt_sGe-mvEx4IjBUR8/s320/Ron+Miller+Mel+Milton+Gunther+Lessing+Harry+Tytle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Ron Miller, Mel Milton, Gunther Lessing, Harry Tytle<br />
Lessing's retirement party (1964) (<a href="http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/gunther_lessing.htm">source</a>) (1)</td></tr>
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The issue is even further complicated by speculation that Gunther Lessing, Walt Disney's lawyer who he supposedly attended these meetings with, was himself Jewish as suggested by Disney animator Ward Kimball in a <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Kimball/interview_ward_kimball.htm">1986 interview with Michael Barrier</a>. Which, if true, would not only raise even more doubts about their attendance of Bund meetings, but would also further complicate attempts to accuse Walt of being antisemitic.<br />
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The previously mentioned <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/06/walt-the-quasi-nazi-the-fascist-history-of-disney.html">article</a> from Paste Magazine that brought up these claims links the Babbitt quote to Peter Fotis Kapnistos' <a href="https://books.google.be/books?id=OBFNCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA257&lpg=PA257&dq=%22In+the+immediate+years+before+we+entered+the+War+there+was+a+small,%22&source=bl&ots=rER7NUSMyA&sig=nX8JNxZs9E3fxI2jVqMfZCu9qy8&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22In%20the%20immediate%20years%20before%20we%20entered%20the%20War%20there%20was%20a%20small%2C%22&f=false"><i>Hitler's Doubles</i>.</a> A quick glance at the source reveals that this book (or at the very least this Disney-specific chapter) is just another amalgamation of more speculation and wild conspiracy theories. It includes a claim that <i>Der Fuehrer's Face (1943)</i>, an anti-Nazi propaganda cartoon sponsored by the US government which mocks Nazi Germany by reducing it to a hellish-yet-ridiculous slapstick comedy, actually is about Donald Duck as a "<i>good-natured trusty Nazi</i>" (p.253) (rather than an impoverished worker drone going insane from having to work 48 hours a day) and him waking up from losing his mind in Hitler's factory to hug the Statue of Liberty is actually subliminal messaging of a loyal Nazi being committed to America. Most telling of all is that this book actually proposes the possibility that Walt Disney was really the alter ego of Adolf Hitler himself! (2) That's an impressive double life to say the least and just another example of how eager conspiracy theories surrounding the man are concocted.<br />
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Since <i>Hitler's Doubles</i> was first released in 2015, it is impossible for it to be the original source however. Neal Gabler's 2006 biography of Walt Disney (which is even quote-mined in Kapnistos' book, conveniently reprinting the accusations but not the refutations that followed them) already mentioned the Art Babbitt quote and concluded Walt's attendance at Bund meetings was unlikely because at the time he was both too busy with his studio (this was when he had gained increased prominence with <i>Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)</i>, which prompted him to make even better feature films to maintain his status as the number one in animation while he was also overseeing construction of the new Burbank studio) as well as his reputation for being politically uninterested at that time.<br />
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<i>"[...] Art Babbitt in later years claimed to have actually seen Walt and Gunter Lessing at Bund Meetings of Nazi sympathizers that Babbitt himself had attended out of curiosity; that was highly unlikely, not only because Walt had little enough time for his family, much less political meetings, but because he had no real political leanings at the time."</i></div>
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<i>- </i>Walt Disney: The Biography - Neal Gabler p. 448</div>
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The source (or at least one of) for the claim of Disney's German American Bund attendances are pages 119-120 of the infamous <i>Hollywood's Dark Princ</i>e (1993) by Marc Eliot, after an interview of Babbitt by Eliot in 1990. While Marc Eliot jumps to ridiculous conclusions (3) and is eager to speculate on Disney's nefarious motivations, I see no reason to believe his quotation of Arthur Babbitt is inaccurate. However even Eliot admits that if these meetings happened, they were more likely inspired by Disney's desire to distribute his movies to Nazi-occupied countries where they were banned. Furthermore as Babbitt was helping Eliot paint the negative picture of Walt Disney that he so desired for his book, Eliot doesn't question whether Babbitt's recollection is accurate or not.</div>
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<br />Walt Meeting Leni Riefenstahl</h4>
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We once again turn to the Paste Magazine article. This time its source for Leni Riefenstahl's visit is the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/movies/conflicting-voices-in-lars-von-triers-words-and-works.html?scp=1&sq=And%20Now%20a%20Word%20from&st=Search">introduction of a 2011 New York Times article</a> about Lars von Trier announcing himself to be a Nazi which for some reasons draws a comparison to the meeting of Walt Disney and Leni Riefenstahl, which the Paste Magazine author then reworded for his own article. Unlike Paste Magazine, The New York Times article at least had the decency to mention Walt turned down a showing of Riefenstahl's movie due to his apprehensions of playing host to her in the first place. Neither article mentions Walt later did disavow the visit, claiming ignorance of who she was (I haven't found whether this was feigned ignorance to her as a person or actual ignorance as to her political leanings). Instead the articles cite Steven Bach's biography "<i>Leni</i>" where she praises Walt hosting her as not having been taken in by Jew smear campaigns, which is hardly relevant to Walt's feelings or intentions regarding the meeting. Paste Magazine, with the benefit of 80 years worth of hindsight vs Walt Disney's pre-World War II political naïvité, just calls the visit "inexcusable".<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMowKCfCVseZWCo7rDzOfuiqDOKFW_5LhLOyYhcVo9wdoVG_oQw1wdYHz9coGsNI__qCa-C-gL2iBaXKKLkCILJ147rzPutREVEfYu34YNC5vEqz_dKCd6hkP_u1rqoptWOfCRtzSxkrj2/s1600/Olympia+1938+Leni+Riefenstahl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="352" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMowKCfCVseZWCo7rDzOfuiqDOKFW_5LhLOyYhcVo9wdoVG_oQw1wdYHz9coGsNI__qCa-C-gL2iBaXKKLkCILJ147rzPutREVEfYu34YNC5vEqz_dKCd6hkP_u1rqoptWOfCRtzSxkrj2/s320/Olympia+1938+Leni+Riefenstahl.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Olympia (1938)</td></tr>
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Leni Riefenstahl did visit the Walt Disney Studios on December 8, 1938 according to Gabler through an invitation from mutual acquaintance <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Julian_%22Jay%22_Stowitts">Jay Stowitts</a>, who wrote Walt that Riefenstahl was interested in meeting who she considered "<i>the greatest personage in American films</i>". Of course the truth is that the visit is not at all a barometer for Walt Disney's own political leanings or which dictatorial regime he was supposedly involved with. Leni Riefenstahl was an influential and innovative filmmaker who receives worldwide acclaim even today, despite the now obvious fact that she had lent her talents to further the ambitions of an undeniably evil man with for example her Nazi propaganda movie <i>Triumph of the Will</i> (1935). Walt Disney had just enhanced his own status as a filmmaker with <i>Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)</i> and wanted to remain at the top of his field by making even more and better animated feature films. Thus Walt's interest in meeting her (publicly at his studio even. According to Gabler, Walt's desk diary indicated they watched a sweatbox session of a Fantasia sequence) would be much more likely fueled by her reputation as a film director rather than any sort of conspiratorial association with Adolf Hitler. Walt Disney was known for meeting artists of any kind at his studio and it seems much more likely he just didn't much care about Riefenstahl's politics because he was interested in the artist.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Leni Riefenstahl did visit the Disney studio, I gather, but so did Sergei Eisenstein, and no one has ever suggested that Walt was a Communist."</i></div>
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- <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Home%20Page/WhatsNewArchivesJune07.htm">"What's New" Archives: June 2007, The Triumph of the Swill</a> - Michael Barrier</div>
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So the most substantive fact that even remotely links Walt Disney to Adolf Hitler is nothing more malicious than two celebrated filmmakers having once met each other publicly. Everything beyond that is conspiracy theory based on unwarranted conclusions fueled with guilt by association.<br />
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Der Fuehrer's Face: Nazi Donald Duck reading Mein Kampf</h4>
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Twitter often doesn't require a lot of 'evidence' to get the rumor mill running. Occasionally someone just posts the following picture of Donald Duck apparently reading Mein Kampf, or a similar scene in which Donald is dressed in a Nazi uniform, to prove Walt Disney had pro-Nazi leanings.<br />
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Der Fuehrer's Face (1943)</div>
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Originally titled: Donald Duck in Nutzi Land</div>
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The context that is removed, and that anyone evidently hardly bothers to find out, is that this is a still image from the aforementioned <i>Der Fuehrer's Face</i> (1943), an explicitly anti-Nazi propaganda film and scathing satire of Nazi Germany meant to help sell savings bonds for the war effort.<br />
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The short depicts Donald Duck as a factory worker in Nazi Germany (or Nutzi Land), where his clothes are made from paper and his breakfast consists of 'Scent of Bacon and Eggs', a piece of wooden bread so hard he has to cut it with a saw and water dipped with a single coffee bean (a luxury considering he attempts to keep it secret). His breakfast is interrupted by a copy of Mein Kampf being bayoneted in front of him. He is then escorted to the factory where it is his glorious privilege to work 48 hours a day into insanity making shells for the war. The task is being made even more annoying by random picture frames of Adolf Hitler being put in front of him, which he has to salute every time or risk getting a bayonet up his tail. Meanwhile the overly optimistic soundtrack consists of lyrics superficially praising Hitler while the feigned optimism often breaks and reveals the singer's desire to get out of there, even dreaming of one of their artillery shells blowing Hitler to hell. The plentiful use of 'HEIL!' is also mocked by equating it to blowing a raspberry in Hitler's face (back then it was considered an extremely obscene gesture rather than merely crude). After Donald has a complete breakdown it is revealed he was merely having a nightmare and he wakes up in his bed in the United States of America, being glad he's a citizen. The short ends with a caricature of Adolf Hitler getting a tomato in his face, as he has in the promotional posters.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bn20oXFrxxg" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn20oXFrxxg">Der Fuehrer's Face</a> (1943)</span></div>
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So essentially whenever someone tries to assert Disney's Nazi allegiances by asking if they need to show you the Donald-Duck-is-a-Nazi cartoon, the appropriate response is to ask them if they themselves have actually watched it (it's not too hard to find on YouTube). However we're not done with World War II. Walt Disney Productions had a much larger contribution to the war effort than just a single anti-Hitler propaganda cartoon, which I'll cover in the next section.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqYB05X9aYt3ypF3mIbypfTYxm6mLuUxZzf3O8KQG2S5A-dUyYpCfx1XXq8ToEszCIa_fU6jpXLSJ-sSk4CSODsqUq-eIOWWT-56-sk-OcR2RbQyrC9KTgTOtLed6mgtYQ3w50ooOTUGsM/s1600/Der+Fuehrers+Face+Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="515" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqYB05X9aYt3ypF3mIbypfTYxm6mLuUxZzf3O8KQG2S5A-dUyYpCfx1XXq8ToEszCIa_fU6jpXLSJ-sSk4CSODsqUq-eIOWWT-56-sk-OcR2RbQyrC9KTgTOtLed6mgtYQ3w50ooOTUGsM/s320/Der+Fuehrers+Face+Poster.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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To sum this part up: Walt Disney is considered a Nazi sympathizer because of a rumor spread by an enemy (and backed up by nobody else), him once having met another influential filmmaker who happened to be a Nazi sympathizer (but never having been convicted for war crimes or even as a Nazi herself) but later having denounced the meeting anyway, and his own anti-Nazi propaganda getting taken horribly out of context. There's no record of him promoting Nazism, no record of him subscribing to their ideas. The only statements he made on Adolf Hitler before the war at worst reveal him not taking the threat of Hitler's regime all that seriously yet (I'm also not sure why he should have, he was a filmmaker, not an army general), on which pinning him down is an extremely low and petty blow, especially coming from people judging him with the privilege of perfect hindsight. Furthermore the US military would have screened him during his time as their own anti-Nazi propagandist and evidently they didn't think he was a Nazi sympathizer either. So there simply isn't evidence to suggest he was a Nazi, a Nazi sympathizer or a fan of Adolf Hitler. </div>
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<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/02/defending-disney-part-3-walt-anti-nazi.html">[Part 3: Walt, the Anti-Nazi Propagandist ->]</a></div>
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Notes</h3>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">1. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The FactFile video shows this picture while talking about Walt Disney and Gunther Lessing supposedly attending these German American Bund meetings, which might intentionally or not implant the idea it is a picture from one of these meetings. However the source indicates it was taken at Gunther Lessing's retirement party in 1964, which is consistent with Lessing's advanced age in the picture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">2. Someone really needs to combine this theory with Marc Eliot's <i>Hollywood's Dark Prince </i>because that would make Adolf Hitler an illegitimate Spanish boy named José Guirao who was also a decades-long domestic spy for J. Edgar Hoover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">3. [See also Note 2] Chapter 11: The Mojacar Connection of Marc Eliot's <i>Hollywood's Dark Prince</i> speculates that because Walt Disney has no birth certificate, but an earlier birth certificate on December 30, 1891 exists with his name (actually <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/walt-disneys-illegitimate-birth/">the birth certificate of Raymond Arnold Disney</a>), that there was a cover-up and Walt Disney was actually a Spanish man named José Guirao born 11 years before his actual birth to a Spanish couple in Mojacar, but the evidence for this has been destroyed (or planted for a cover-up on top of a cover-up) by Walt Disney Studio secret agents. Then in the notes section Eliot explains his source for all this is from a trip to Mojacar, Spain where he talked to some of the locals.</span></div>
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Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-67437290339914461622018-01-04T19:01:00.001+01:002018-01-04T23:29:12.785+01:00Defending Disney - Part 1: A Sampling of Recent Accusations<div style="text-align: justify;">
[<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-introduction-and-index.html"><- Index</a>]</div>
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<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-part-2-walt-supposed.html" style="text-align: justify;">[Part 2: Walt the Supposed Nazi ->]</a></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Before we go onto the debunking, let's first take a look at </span><i style="text-align: justify;">why</i><span style="text-align: justify;"> a debunking is needed. There's always a couple of conspiracy theories surrounding any given popular topic so a popular historical figure like Walt Disney should be no exception. However it's the sheer prevalence of the "Walt Disney was a Nazi and raging racist" claims that I feel makes adding an extra voice to the counterargument a worthwhile effort. So here's the part where I point fingers.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"<i>He sees no more than the party wants him to.<br />He says nothing but what the party wants him to say,<br />and he does nothing but what the party wants him to do.<br />And so he marches on with his millions of comrades <br />trampling on the rights of others.</i>"</td></tr>
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The above is a screen and quote from <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_for_Death">Education for Death</a></i> (1943), in our time probably the second most famous of Disney's anti-Nazi cartoons after <i>Der Fuehrer's Face</i> (1943) about a boy that throughout his life is being indoctrinated by the hateful ideology of the Nazis to persecute others and eventually march to his own death in Adolf Hitler's war machine. The short was inspired by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Ziemer">Gregory Ziemer</a>'s book of the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,772777,00.html">same name</a>, which he wrote to highlight how the youth of Germany were being indoctrinated after he escaped Germany before World War II.<br />
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I will cover Walt Disney's many contributions to helping the fight against the Nazis in a later section, but I think it's valuable to have some snippets from Walt's actual output during World War II in between Internet accusations that he was "<i>by all accounts</i>" a Nazi. Doing a Twitter search for "<a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=disney%20nazi&src=typd">Disney Nazi</a>" or something similar reveals at a daily basis a startling amount of people who either spread or are utterly convinced by these rumors. The question also regularly pops up on sites such as Yahoo Answers, as documented by <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/">Cartoon Brew</a>'s Amid Amidi in his post <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/why-walt-disney-is-a-jew-hating-hitler-loving-racist-37185.html"><i>Why Kids Today Think Disney was a Jew-Hating, Hitler-Loving Racist</i></a>, who says Walt Disney's supposed hatred of Jews and Blacks is "<i>one of the most vile mistruths tossed around about the old man</i>". However it were primarily the videos and articles that follow which gave me the impetus to actually look into the history of Walt Disney.<br />
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One article responsible for a recent flare-up in rumor-mill accusations against Walt Disney is <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/">Paste Magazine</a>'s <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/06/walt-the-quasi-nazi-the-fascist-history-of-disney.html">Walt the Quasi-Nazi: The Fascist History of Disney is Still Influencing American Life</a> by Ryan Beitler. As the title's "Quasi-Nazi" would suggest, it is filled with soft-rejections of accusations, namely the fact that Walt Disney once met with German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and the rumor by Art Babbitt that Walt was seen at a German American Bund meeting, while somehow still attempting to smear Walt with them. The author admits that there is no actual evidence for calling Walt Disney a Nazi, but then proceeds regardless of that admittance, refuses to actually look at the claims critically and still take them at face value, which seems like a transparent attempt to nevertheless instill that image into the readers' minds (effective, as Twitter's response to the article suggests). His personal accusations then follow in how Walt's anti-Nazi propaganda somehow wasn't anti-Nazi enough for the author's tastes, because the 2 cartoons he looked at didn't cover antisemitism while there was a Jewish "swindler" (really just the Big Bad Wolf disguised as a peddler) in <i><a href="http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/The_Three_Little_Pigs#Censorship">Three Little Pigs</a> (1933)</i>.</div>
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In the end he skips over all that and instead focuses his attention on Walt Disney's unfulfilled ideas for EPCOT (which never came to fruition during Walt's life and after his death got converted to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_World">Walt Disney World</a>) and then judges Walt based on that. While practices at this Disney World can certainly raise some ethical questions (as one of the <a href="http://prospect.org/article/hidden-kingdom-disneys-political-blueprint">articles</a> which Beitler sources does), the author instead uses it as another cheap method of throwing the words "Nazi" and "fascism" around, thus turning a more nuanced question over American corporate overreach into kneejerk outrage because your kids are watching propaganda from a fascist! In short: Quasi-Nazi accusations for clickbait.<br />
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I'm personally not particularly interested in the goings on regarding Disney World (I have never been there but I assume it is much easier to escape Disney World than it was Nazi-occupied Europe). It is however a rather famous quote that "<i>fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power</i>" (<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini#Misattributed">misattributed</a> to Mussolini), so this article seems to have it backwards anyway to attribute Disney with introducing fascism into corporatism. I will however rip into the Nazi accusations that this article helped spread since its main points have been echoing around the sensationalist press for a while. </div>
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A 2017 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWlIGsKGsvgFJHkiZml4O1A">Grunge</a> video (1,440,275 views) entitled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDBmGlTLrDI&feature=youtu.be&t=307"><i>Respected Historical Figures Who Were Actually Terrible People</i></a> has a bizarre section on Walt Disney. In Neal Gabler's Disney biography <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Triumph-American-Imagination/dp/0679757473">The Triumph of American Imagination</a> (2006)</i>, plenty of time is spent debunking the myths of Walt's supposed racism and antisemitism with plenty of examples to back Gabler up, followed by elaboration for why Walt is mistakenly assumed to be these horrible things. However Gabler is gracious enough to admit Walt was racially insensitive just like the rest of his generation and also lists a couple examples of insensitive words Walt has been heard using. Grunge threw away everything positive but picked those two negative examples and declared Walt racist anyway and pretended Gabler's book was some sort of exposure. Then the video states Walt had issues with women by bringing up a letter Walt Disney wrote dismissing a female applicant. Unfortunately they should have actually read the entire letter and been more careful with cropping as it is advice rather than rejection and even their own video shows the letter is signed by a woman named Mary Cleave rather than Walt Disney.</div>
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There was also a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8qV4biMCaQ">relatively recent video</a> (25,951 views) by the YouTube channel '<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQYqZHRVVWo_CFk2xryfzkg">FactFile</a>' who made his video on Walt Disney in the wake of The Walt Disney Company cuttings ties with YouTube Let's Player <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie">PewDiePie</a>. In general it presents the same basic arguments as usual however it gets the facts very wrong (such as claiming German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl traveled to Hollywood in 1938 to get a job.(1)) and plays even more loosely with rationalizations of context-less clips from old cartoons. Somehow they think the fact that Meryl Streep at the National Board of Review in 2014 gave a speech chastising Walt Disney is the final confirmation they needed that he was in fact this horrible person. As if Meryl Streep of all people is the final authority on Disney history (the fact that she quoted Ward Kimball (2), only to be <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/fact-checking-meryl-streeps-disney-bashing-speech-94380.html">debunked by Ward Kimball's official biographer</a> should tell you something). At least they admitted <i>Der Fuehrer's Face</i> was anti-Nazi propaganda. Needless to say, clickbait exposures that feature distorted facts about Walt Disney seem to have become an industry on itself, and rarely is anyone outside of animation historians actually brave enough to contradict the narrative by looking at history in context.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">"<i>Let me remind you, Disney, before you get on your fucking<br />high horse with your white powdered wig that Walt Disney<br />was a notorious racist and antisemite, okay."</i> [<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLNSiFrS3n4&feature=youtu.be&t=337">Link</a>](5:37) </td></tr>
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Speaking of the 2017 PewDiePie controversy and Felix Kjellberg subsequently being dropped from Disney's Maker Studios network, in its wake several videos of people defending him popped up, some of which also tried to turn the situation around by calling hypocrisy on The Walt Disney Company by claiming they had no leg to stand on considering Walt Disney's own supposed Nazism, racism and antisemitism. Personally I think the following are less egregious since they were off-hand comments rather than videos or articles that actively had to distort facts, but I'm including them just to show how ingrained these myths are (also I only found out they made these comments because I <i>like</i> or at least watch some of these people, so this is more about me pointing out how widespread these myths are rather than me doing some big <i>J'Accuse</i> over it). One of the biggest channels to defend Felix with (at the time of writing) well over 5 million channel subscribers and 6,042,899 views on the video in question came from comedy channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDWIvJwLJsE4LG1Atne2blQ">h3h3Productions</a>, in which Ethan Klein understandably jumped into the debate to defend his friend but then dropped in the jab at Walt Disney personally anyway, proclaiming him to be an actual notorious racist and antisemite, unlike Felix. 'Notorious' only because it's a myth that just won't die, of course.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJc9N-0R4S0MljSRJWz1UQgASTVAkziE86fVAqUQDIsYXhoZ47ZU_YIYYELChyphenhyphenppcEuPAviU8JEsqTc7xWro29FO6j5Fki_gL1lOzT2tNVpWxoaCfzoJ49DnsmbLQOPD8ZLLiy2AFfYLp/s1600/Razorfist+The+Final+PewDiePie+Solution+A+Rant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="1277" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJc9N-0R4S0MljSRJWz1UQgASTVAkziE86fVAqUQDIsYXhoZ47ZU_YIYYELChyphenhyphenppcEuPAviU8JEsqTc7xWro29FO6j5Fki_gL1lOzT2tNVpWxoaCfzoJ49DnsmbLQOPD8ZLLiy2AFfYLp/s320/Razorfist+The+Final+PewDiePie+Solution+A+Rant.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><i>"Disney taking a stand on antisemitism? Have you heard of<br />Walt Disney? This fucker used Zyklon B at his baby shower."</i><br />
[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpX92YQ9Of4">Link</a>] (4:12) (3)</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
There was a particularly cringe-worthy quote (see the caption on the left) from a video (95,775 views) by YouTube reviewer and commentator <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/xRazorFistx">RazorFist</a>. His presentation style is one that combines high verbosity with hyperbole so he's obviously not making a serious specific claim of Walt Disney's usage of Zyklon B at baby showers but the misguided belief of Walt's antisemitism is definitely there (with a context-less frame from Disney's <i>Der Fuehrer's Face</i> for emphasis). It is also something of a recurring pattern for RazorFist to mention anything to do with Disney by implying Nazi ties, such as referring to Mickey Mouse as Mickey Mensch (dressed as a Nazi) in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeMQHVKVNOA">Cuphead review</a>. The irony is that both these gentlemen are defending a person falsely accused by the sensationalist rumor mill of racism and antisemitism by falsely accusing someone else of racism and antisemitism based on the same sensationalist rumor mill. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There was also an older video (297,592 views) by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClt01z1wHHT7c5lKcU8pxRQ">HBomberguy</a>, mostly known for comedic response videos, where in response to fellow YouTuber <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/jordanowen42">Jordan Owen</a> being distraught over having a bad encounter with one of his childhood heroes and comparing it to having Walt Disney calling you an asshole, he counters "<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UyPV2Fj4lk&t=413s">Now personally if Walt Disney, noted racist and fan of Hitler, called me an asshole, I would think of that as a compliment</a></i>".<br />
<br />
Finally I also remembered a joke by stand-up comedian Bill Burr about Walt Disney's supposed racism from one of his shows (to which I currently don't have access), after which I found <a href="http://billburr.com/monday-morning-podcast-10-17-11/">this episode</a> of the Monday Morning Podcast where he speculates on Disney's antisemitism (also a rather weird bit about Walt having stolen the concept of an amusement park, which is kind of like stealing the concept of a store. Walt didn't set out to make the first ever amusement park, he just wanted to create the best one possible).</div>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiErJ4c82bxxWsA1K0tse2N8OQ4IqZShjZHOnLG2AnEFbUcTrUjZq-KMSdVTIM09SlOy2ua-qG3E2sWCfAtHeAOnHURp4SDGG3wAp8IonLO9lJlGV0k75GUF_urKWNG-F7M0weLC-UQPyWe/s1600/Disney+Nazi+December+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="673" data-original-width="606" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiErJ4c82bxxWsA1K0tse2N8OQ4IqZShjZHOnLG2AnEFbUcTrUjZq-KMSdVTIM09SlOy2ua-qG3E2sWCfAtHeAOnHURp4SDGG3wAp8IonLO9lJlGV0k75GUF_urKWNG-F7M0weLC-UQPyWe/s320/Disney+Nazi+December+1.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finally, a small sampling I took December 1, 2017</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">As you can see, people believe this stuff. Others should know better since they actually spent time researching Walt Disney to make their articles and videos, but for whatever reason they would rather publish the salacious rumors for clickbait. Next I will dive into the claims of Disney's supposed Nazism, particularly his supposed attendance of German American Bund meetings, his meeting with Leni Riefenstahl and the cartoon that shows Donald Duck dressed as a Nazi.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-part-2-walt-supposed.html">[Part 2: Walt the Supposed Nazi ->]</a></span></div>
</div>
<h3>
Notes</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1. I have found no sources listed for the FactFile video but the claim that Leni Riefenstahl was touring Hollywood for work, along with the set of cartoons that are referenced in both, seems to show they used an April 2005 The Straight Dope article <a href="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1623/was-walt-disney-a-fascist"><i>Was Walt Disney a fascist?</i></a> as its source, which itself uses <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Hollywoods-Dark-Prince/dp/155972174X"><i>Marc Eliot's Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince</i></a> as a source with only mild scrutiny regarding its factuality. <i>Hollywood's Dark Prince</i> is something of a joke among animation historians and received <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1993-07-17/entertainment/ca-14006_1_walt-disney">sharp criticism</a> from Walt Disney's widow Lilian Bounds Disney and eldest daughter Diane Disney Miller. Ward Kimball's official historian Amid Amini of Cartoon Brew called it "<a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/why-walt-disney-is-a-jew-hating-hitler-loving-racist-37185.html">Marc Eliot's notorious hack job</a>", Didier Ghez says it's "<a href="https://didierghez.com/_private/walt.htm">full of mistakes, guesses, intentional lies and non-intentional ignorances</a>" and Disney biography <i>The Animated Man</i> author and cartoon historian Michael Barrier referred to it as "<a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Home%20Page/WhatsNewArchivesSept08.htm">unparalleled for sheer awfulness</a>" and "<a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Home%20Page/WhatsNewArchivesMayJune2008.html#thekillingfields">the worst Disney biography ever</a>" (among other colorful descriptions). While Disney historians might have an understandable bias against works that harshly criticize Walt, having tracked down the book myself I can indeed confirm it isn't a reliable source when even applying mild skepticism. It is a highly speculative piece with an unabashedly conspiratorial and negative slant based on questionable evidence at best (an entire chapter where Eliot asserts Walt Disney was actually born 11 years earlier in Spain as José Guirao is sourced as him having talked to two guys in Mojàcar and him mistaking Raymond Arnold Disney's birth certificate as Walt's. He then asserts the evidence for this was either destroyed or planted by Walt Disney Studio secret agents).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">2. Ward Kimball (March 4, 1914 - July 8, 2002): One of Disney's famous Nine Old Men. Known for animating, among others, Jiminy Cricket, Bacchus, the Dumbo crows, Lucifer, Jaq, Gus, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3. I apologize to RazorFist for a picture that is kind of at an unfortunate facial expression but every other one I took was either blurry or worse.</span></div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-35961551957060499832018-01-04T18:08:00.001+01:002020-11-25T10:25:19.529+01:00Defending Disney - Introduction and Index<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is certainly true that the Walt Disney the world knows, just like Mickey Mouse himself, was a wholesome character played by a fallible man named Walter Elias Disney. As such it is understandable that there is a certain appeal to pulling back the curtain and revealing the man behind the character. However the problem is that some people take fallibility behind a wholesome facade as evidence that there is something far more dark and sinister going on. Sometimes people make poor decisions. Sometimes people are wrong. That doesn't automatically align them in a conspiratorial plot with some of the most evil people in recorded history to wipe an entire ethnic group from the face of the Earth. Yet salacious rumors around Walt Disney keep popping up and keep being spread around, as especially in the Internet age it seems rumors are believed not on credibility but by virtue of them being salacious.<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Defending Walt Disney</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVrAYZeuiOwfD6Ce_oHZt-9kAd7qqF03sJbCQa0xEw8Hsr8GZUMbNY0zySiriASunls-2KIOQS-CDZQB8q2juKu9EOIdBts2BUzhabBxo9-B7qijRw1ibFETJt2XkxX-uTedCMLxidgTXL/s1600/Walt+Disney+1946.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVrAYZeuiOwfD6Ce_oHZt-9kAd7qqF03sJbCQa0xEw8Hsr8GZUMbNY0zySiriASunls-2KIOQS-CDZQB8q2juKu9EOIdBts2BUzhabBxo9-B7qijRw1ibFETJt2XkxX-uTedCMLxidgTXL/s320/Walt+Disney+1946.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
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One of the notorious <a href="http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/030/662/rules.jpg.jpg"><i>Rules of the Internet</i></a> (some versions of them at least) states that "<i>The more beautiful and pure a thing is - the more satisfying it is to corrupt it</i>". In that context what could be more satisfying than claiming the man who (in part (1)) gave us Mickey Mouse was also a noted racist, a Nazi and a supporter of one of the most evil men who ever lived? The reality is of course that these are unsubstantiated claims born from weak evidence at best that often go into outright absurdity. Walt Disney was not a Nazi, a Nazi supporter or a fan of Adolf Hitler (the reverse might be true however, as evidenced by <a href="http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animation-anecdotes-231/">Hitler's private movie collection</a>) and his supposed racism doesn't extend beyond the spirit of racial ignorance of his generation, in several cases he could even be argued to be downright progressive for his time. That unfortunately never stopped overeager conspiracy theorists and sensationalist bloggers, especially those judging history with the benefit of hindsight from a society that has progressed for over 60 years (or just because they <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/did-family-guy-take-it-too-far-with-this-walt-disney-joke-122710.html">take throwaway Family Guy jokes too seriously</a>) from reading too much into overproduced animated fairy tale movies and the man responsible for them.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Index</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-part-1-sampling-of.html">Part 1: A Sampling of Recent Accusations</a></b></div>
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(Posted: 4/01/2018)<br />
<b><br /></b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-part-2-walt-supposed.html">Part 2: Walt, the Supposed Nazi-Sympathizer</a></b><br />
(Posted: 4/01/2018)<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/02/defending-disney-part-3-walt-anti-nazi.html">Part 3: Walt, America's Anti-Nazi Propagandist</a></b><br />
(Posted: 2/02/2018)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/02/defending-disney-part-4-walt-supposed.html">Part 4: Walt, the Supposed Gender Bigot</a></b><br />
(Posted: 2/02/2018)</div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/02/defending-disney-part-5-walt-supposed.html">Part 5: Walt, the Supposed Racist and Antisemite</a></b><br />
(Posted: 09/02/2018)</div>
</div>
<span style="text-align: left;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h3>
Introduction</h3>
I am personally a lifelong fan of Walt Disney Studios movies, yet its founder's history was always somewhat elusive to me. However given I have long been aware that the worst criticisms of Disney movies come from people who apparently have never seen them, I decided to look into the worst rumors regarding Walt Disney himself and spent several months studying up on his history. Unsurprisingly, I found the worst rumors surrounding Walt Disney come from people who apparently have never looked into him. Instead of the raging racist sexist Nazi-sympathizer, I found a fairly regular man with big dreams who generally meant well and whose only hints of racism was an unfortunate product of the time he lived in (and which he himself struggled to progress out of). He was by absolutely no means a perfect man, but to see him as the monster the Internet tries to spin him into requires a severely distorted view.<br />
<br />
However it is not merely my intention to refute these claims because I'm a fan of the work Walt Disney inspired. In an era when white supremacists are rallying in the streets chanting racist and antisemitic slogans while covered in swastikas and other Nazi symbology, I think it is dangerous and downright stupid to assert an American icon who dominated so many people's childhoods such as Walt Disney, a man who worked tirelessly to help defeat the Nazis no less, was one of them.<br />
<br />
I am under no illusion I will succeed where many an animation historian or even personal acquaintance of Walt has failed in killing these myths. However I do wish to provide a place I can point to whenever I encounter these blatant falsehoods. As such I intend to be as thorough and as correct as I can possible be. Therefore this is going to be a rather long multi-part piece and I will attempt to use only the most credible of sources (these would be those animation historians, interviewers and personal acquaintances of Walt), preferably ones I can cross reference with each other. There will be errors (for me this is merely a side-project of a few months after all) and it goes without saying interpretations will be colored by my own biases. What I will do is attempt to refute claims that are blatantly absurd and provide context for claims that have been ripped out of such.<br />
<br />
What accusations you will see will fall mostly under the following categories:<br />
- Conspiracy theories based on weak evidence, sometimes no evidence at all.<br />
- Ignoring any of Walt's positive aspects and instead highlighting what are usually minor exceptions.<br />
- Harshly judging a man who lived a century ago for not being a 2015-era progressive man.<br />
<br />
Furthermore the accusations never leave any room to consider Walt's development as a person. The majority of examples to accuse Walt with (if they are valid at all) are of events that happened in the 1920's and 30's when Walt Disney lived and thus progressed as a person until 1966. The 1920's and 1930's being a time when Walt was still a young man with more heart than education being shaped by the struggles of keeping his studio afloat against outside interests, including his own distributors.<br />
<br />
First I will be looking at some of the contemporary accusations that are thrown Walt's way.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2018/01/defending-disney-part-1-sampling-of.html">[Part 1 ->]</a><br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
Notes</h3>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1. There are several accounts to the exact origins of Mickey Mouse as Walt Disney was known to exaggerate personal anecdotes for entertainment value (a shared company sentiment that for example gave us a historically inaccurate Pocahontas (1995) movie. They were telling a legend, not the history). However Mickey's overall design is largely owed to animator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ub_Iwerks">Ub Iwerks</a> and the name 'Mickey' came from Walt Disney's wife Lilian Bounds, as Disney himself intended to name him Mortimer Mouse. In 1938 Mickey was redesigned into his best-known form by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Moore_(animator)">Fred Moore</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: start;">
Links & References</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: start;">
<b>Bibliography</b>:</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Animated-Man-Life-Walt-Disney/dp/0520256190">Michael Barrier - The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney</a> (2007)</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walt-Disney-Biography-Neal-Gabler/dp/1845133420">Neal Gabler - Walt Disney: The Biography</a> (2006) (Known as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Triumph-American-Imagination/dp/0679757473">Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination</a> in the United States) <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Commentary/Gabler/GablerErrata.htm">[Errata by Michael Barrier]</a><br />
- <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ink-Paint-Disneys-Animation-Editions/dp/1484727819">Mindy Johnson - Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney's Animation</a> (2017)<br />
- <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Afraid-South-Forbidden-Disney-Stories-ebook/dp/B00AG6G250">Jim Korkis - Who's Afraid of the Song of the South?</a> (2012)</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- <a href="https://www.amazon.com/War-American-Popular-Culture-Encyclopedia/dp/0313299080">M. Paul Holsinger - War and American Popular Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia</a> (1999)</div><div style="text-align: start;">- <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Disneys-Grand-Tour-European-Vacation/dp/1941500102">Didier Ghez - Disney's Grand Tour</a> (2014)<br />
<br />
Questionable sources, but consulted for these articles:</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Hollywoods-Dark-Prince/dp/155972174X">Marc Eliot - Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince</a> (1993)</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitlers-Doubles-Peter-Fotis-Kapnistos/dp/1496071468">Peter Fotis Kapnistos: Hitler's Doubles</a> (2015)</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<b>Online sources</b>:</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- Army.mil: <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/19340/walt_disney_goes_to_war">[Walt Disney Goes to War]</a> (2009) The United States Army</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- Archive.org: <a href="https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Walt+Disney+Studios%22">[Walt Disney Studios]</a><br />
- Blackpast.org: <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/baskett-james-1904-1948">[Basket, James (1904-1948)]</a></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- Cartoonbrew.com: <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/japanese-american-animation-artists-of-the-golden-age-9375.html">[Discover The Pioneering Japanese-American Animation Artists of the Golden Age]</a> <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/fact-checking-meryl-streeps-disney-bashing-speech-94380.html">[Fact-Checking Meryl Streep's Disney-Bashing Speech]</a> <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/first-act-disney-legend-whoopi-goldberg-tells-disney-stop-hiding-history-152327.html">[In Her First Act As A Disney Legend, Whoopi Goldberg Tells Disney To Stop Hiding Its History]</a> <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/why-walt-disney-is-a-jew-hating-hitler-loving-racist-37185.html">[Why Kids Today Think Disney Was a Jew-Hating, Hitler-Loving Racist]</a> <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/walt-disney-was-no-gender-bigot-94682.html">[Walt Disney Was No 'Gender Bigot']</a></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- Cartoonresearch.com: <a href="http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animation-anecdotes-231/">[Animation Anecdotes #231]</a> <a href="http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/debunking-the-myths-crusader-rabbit-and-walt-disney/">[Debunking The Myths: Crusader Rabbit and Walt Disney]</a><br />
- Cobbles.com: <a href="http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/gunther_lessing.htm">[Gunther R. Lessing - SIMPP Chairman]</a> (Excerpt from <i>Hollywood Renegades</i> by J.A. Aberdeen (2000))<br />
- Disneybooks.blogspot.com: [<a href="http://disneybooks.blogspot.be/2007/05/this-just-in-from-jim-korkis-here-is.html">This just in from Jim Korkis</a>]<br />
- Disneyhistoryinstitute.com: <a href="http://www.disneyhistoryinstitute.com/2014/02/in-defense-of-walt-walt-disney-and-anti.html">[In Defense of Walt]</a> [<a href="http://www.disneyhistoryinstitute.com/2014/02/journal-of-disney-historian-salad-bowl.html">Journal of a Disney Historian - The Salad Bowl Edition</a>]<br />
- Floydnormancom.squarespace.com: <a href="http://floydnormancom.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/8/sophies-poor-choice">[Sophie's Poor Choice]</a></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- MichaelBarrier.com: <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Kimball/interview_ward_kimball.htm">[Ward Kimball - An Interview by Michael Barrier]</a> <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Commentary/Gabler/GablerBook.htm">[Review of Neal Gabler's book: Walter, Walter Everywhere]</a> <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Commentary/Colored_Cartoon/Colored_Cartoon.html">[Colorful Characters]</a> [<a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Feedback/feedback_coloredcartoon.htm">Feedback: The Colored Cartoon</a>] <a href="http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Home%20Page/WhatsNewArchivesJune07.htm">[The Triumph of the Swill]</a><br />
- Mouseplanet.com: <a href="https://www.mouseplanet.com/10605/Debunking_Meryl_Streep_Part_One">[Debunking Meryl Streep: Part One by Jim Korkis]</a> <a href="https://www.mouseplanet.com/11885/Debunking_Myths_About_Walt_Disney">[Debunking Myths About Walt Disney]</a><br />
- Songofthesouth.net: <a href="http://www.songofthesouth.net/news/2012/04/15/academy-awards-website-shows-footage-of-james-baskett/">[Academy Awards Website Shows Footage of James Baskett]</a> <a href="http://www.songofthesouth.net/movie/biographies/baskett.html">[James Baskett as Uncle Remus]</a><br />
- Uproxx.com: <a href="http://uproxx.com/hitfix/interview-composer-richard-sherman-on-saving-mr-banks/">[Interview: Composer Richard Sherman on 'Saving Mr. Banks']</a></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- Waltdisney.org: <a href="https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/%E2%80%9Cdisney%E2%80%99s-greatest-film%E2%80%9D-walt-and-victory-through-air-power">["Disney's Greatest Film": Walt and Victory Through Air Power]</a> <a href="http://waltdisney.org/blog/important-women-disney-history-hazel-sewell">[Important Women in Disney History: Hazel Sewell]</a> <a href="https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/defense-walt-disney">[In Defense of Walt Disney]</a> <a href="https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/worth-much-man-cracking-celluloid-ceiling">[Worth as Much as a Man: Cracking the Celluloid Ceiling]</a></div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
- Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27nai_B%27rith">[B'nai B'rith]</a><span id="goog_440103676"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_440103677"></span> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney">[Walt Disney]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney%27s_World_War_II_propaganda_production">[Walt Disney's World War II propaganda production]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Fuehrer%27s_Face">[Der Fuehrer's Face]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Neighbor_policy">[Good Neighbor policy]</a><br />
- Wymaninstitute.org: <a href="http://new.wymaninstitute.org/2014/01/was-walt-disney-antisemitic/">[Was Walt Disney Antisemitic?]</a></div>
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Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-7803114170999044362017-11-15T18:11:00.001+01:002019-05-10T15:39:32.629+02:00Split the Ice Apart - Frozen<div style="text-align: justify;">
I already talked quite a bit about Disney's <i>Frozen</i> (2013) in my <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2017/07/a-response-to-truth-about-frozen.html">Response to Stefan Molyneux's The Truth About Frozen</a> but I feel this movie deserves some more elaboration outside the context of weird YouTube pseulosophers (if that's not a word, I'm claiming it) over-analyzing things they clearly don't understand just to ruin it for their daughters. As such, here are some of my thoughts on Disney's <i>Frozen</i>, primarily I'd like to dig into the cliche of True Love's Kiss around which the final act is centered.</div>
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There will be spoilers for <i>Frozen</i> (and some for older Disney animated movies).</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Split The Ice Apart</span><br />Disney's Frozen</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8kLABtesMrSjIVpxeIDoqtwvvBK7X0Ai7sNgWPERLT63oQqV2e4_qiofxKI45Zyrxuiwct51rYttwtINGfvJdd1lZmMZIXZQSk6pepNXN4Flhk6-YnubNRCWkCjbBjHwPGXGKPRbyz9ou/s1600/Frozen+2013+Title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="1019" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8kLABtesMrSjIVpxeIDoqtwvvBK7X0Ai7sNgWPERLT63oQqV2e4_qiofxKI45Zyrxuiwct51rYttwtINGfvJdd1lZmMZIXZQSk6pepNXN4Flhk6-YnubNRCWkCjbBjHwPGXGKPRbyz9ou/s320/Frozen+2013+Title.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The story is about two sisters: princesses Anna and Elsa of Arendelle, the latter of whom was born with ice powers. After accidentally blasting her sister with ice, Elsa gets isolated until she learns how to properly control her powers and Anna's memories of Elsa's powers are wiped. Unfortunately Elsa's isolation and anxiety only causes her growing powers to become even more uncontrollable as she grows up. Then during her coronation as Queen of Arendelle, in front of her entire kingdom, she loses control and in her panic she accidentally freezes the entire kingdom, after which she exiles herself. Anna then takes it upon herself to go into the mountains to find her sister, repair the relationship that was broken for 13 years and find a way to unfreeze their kingdom.</div>
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First of all, I love the movie. I don't think it quite deserves its spot as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_animated_films">highest-grossing animated film of all time</a> but I still think it's a great movie (although number 2 on the highest-grossing list is <i>Minions</i> so at least <i>Frozen</i> prevented worse). My main issues are that Anna, although a very fun character, lacks the appeal to make her iconic on the level of a Disney Princess as well as a number of questionable story decisions that were likely the result of having to rewrite the movie without Elsa in the villain role. There's also the trolls and especially Olaf that feel like they were added primarily to sell toys to kids (only for it to be the Elsa dolls that were consistently sold out). While it is certainly a good movie, I don't think it quite reaches the level of quality of the princess movies preceding it.</div>
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<h3>
True Love's Kiss, The Cliche That Wasn't One</h3>
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During the final act an accidental ice blast to Anna's heart is causing her to slowly freeze to death from the inside. Advice from the wise troll leader Pabbie reveals that an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart. Immediately another troll jumps in and assumes that it must be a true love's kiss, causing Kristoff to storm Anna back to Arendelle so she can get a kiss from Prince Hans. Ultimately Hans proves to be a deceptive manipulator who sees this situation as an opportunity to claim Arendelle for himself by letting Anna die and then ordering the execution of the 'traitor' Queen Elsa. The real act of true love then comes in the form of Anna sacrificing herself to protect her sister Elsa from Hans' sword. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp3jT9G68aestVOuX6J0BR9tKtQk6bwZTgsUJ6t-g-ULDDxsWPkSfZrykdUZkRJWXIpBcQODaW2WKBZWJGi6_K_cqBpxA16yGhJIrzvW86qWxJHo2nQqstaXi6F52MiPAaoe4IvycsXbC3/s1600/Frozen+True+Loves+Kiss.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="-"But only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart." -"A true love's kiss perhaps?"" border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="1600" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp3jT9G68aestVOuX6J0BR9tKtQk6bwZTgsUJ6t-g-ULDDxsWPkSfZrykdUZkRJWXIpBcQODaW2WKBZWJGi6_K_cqBpxA16yGhJIrzvW86qWxJHo2nQqstaXi6F52MiPAaoe4IvycsXbC3/s400/Frozen+True+Loves+Kiss.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
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My problem with this entire scenario is that it feels incredibly forced and tries to subvert a cliche that isn't a cliche at all, at least not in the Disney Animated Canon. It's one thing to play on audience expectations, but the fact that they obviously twist Pabbie's words to force a scenario that the movie prior to this moment has already beaten down as Anna being incredibly naive just makes it a mess. Furthermore the trolls were just a minute ago trying to get their Kristoff hitched with a girl who was already engaged, evidently just for the sake of him getting hitched, but suddenly they start having overly romantic notions about true love? Why doesn't Pabbie interject to clarify his own advice anyway? He's right there! (To be fair Anna's condition suddenly worsens significantly while they're talking so urgency became a factor, but still)</div>
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It is the expectation that the troll's assumption is also the audience's assumption that, I feel, dates the movie horribly. It's an overly transparent attempt at subverting and thus falls flat. The thing with the True Love's Kiss cliche is ... that it really hasn't been a thing in ages at all. In <i>Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs</i> (1937), a princess under a sleeping curse is awoken when the prince she's in love with finally finds her and kisses her. However even there the curse specifies that it is Love's <b>First</b> Kiss, not <b>True</b> Love's Kiss, which is already a significantly lower barrier. A similar situation happens 21 years later in <i>Sleeping Beauty</i> (1959), where it is indeed specified that the kiss must be true love's kiss. And then ... what? In just a few years time we've had several Disney properties, such as <i>Once Upon a Time</i> (2011), <i>Maleficent</i> (2014) and <i>Frozen</i> (2013), struggling at subverting the cliche when the subversion <i>itself</i> is now a better represented cliche.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQ4fcX6dliHnMiyimVzdmIrC30ESC_Aj9B4VNI-q80lsvE6cI7vGt4m9OoVbl3TW7wnedc_n4qd60RZFbRrRhXAPVDGpFZvcbp4yzYEtFMRlE3CiojeNfEkZ9zIUfyfO6vzy9LCPccOny/s1600/Snow+White+and+the+Seven+Dwarfs+Love+First+Kiss.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="510" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQ4fcX6dliHnMiyimVzdmIrC30ESC_Aj9B4VNI-q80lsvE6cI7vGt4m9OoVbl3TW7wnedc_n4qd60RZFbRrRhXAPVDGpFZvcbp4yzYEtFMRlE3CiojeNfEkZ9zIUfyfO6vzy9LCPccOny/s320/Snow+White+and+the+Seven+Dwarfs+Love+First+Kiss.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)</td></tr>
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Let's run down the traditional Disney Princess movies where, according to expectation, the cliche could show up. At the start of the Disney Renaissance with <i>The Little Mermaid</i> (1989) the concept of a true love's kiss is already being more subtly subverted. Ariel requiring a true love's kiss from prince Eric is explicitly an unreasonable demand from the sea witch Ursula, with which she intends to trap Ariel as leverage over King Triton. In the end that kiss never happens. The Beast's curse in <i>Beauty and the Beast</i> (1991) is lifted because he and Belle simply got to know each other and fell in love; no kissing required (my personal interpretation is that by accepting his own death, he had truly set Belle free and thus proved he understood how to love. Also for your accusations of Stockholm syndrome, please go [<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2013/08/the-stockholm-misinterpretation.html">here</a>]). </div>
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<i>Princess and the Frog</i> (2009) once again plays around with it, in that prince Naveen just requires a kiss from a princess as an unreasonable constraint by Doctor Facilier. When he kisses Tiana early in the movie, ostensibly his true love by the end of it, instead <i>she</i> is turned into a frog for not meeting the requirements. Then in <i>Tangled/Rapunzel</i> (2010) there is once again no magic kissing, instead the solution comes from residual healing magic still inside Rapunzel healing Flynn's wounds through her tears (okay that sounds weird out of context).<br />
<i>Cinderella</i> (1950), <i>Aladdin</i> (1992), <i>Pocahontas</i> (1995), <i>Mulan</i> (1998) had no curses requiring kisses. In the periphery of these movies (the unofficial Disney Princesses), <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (1951), <i>Peter Pan</i> (1953), <i>The Black Cauldron</i> (1985), <i>The Lion King</i> (1994), <i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> (1996), <i>Hercules</i> (1997) or <i>Tarzan</i> (1999) didn't have magic true love's kisses either.</div>
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So that puts the grand total of straight-up True Love's Kiss movies at ... two, if we're being generous. The last movie of which, and the only one that really qualifies at all, having been released well over 50 years ago. This is like "The Butler Did It" of modern fairy tales: It's only a cliche because people mistake it for being more prevalent than it really is. Disney movies have been subverting the cliche for 30 years and have done it way more subtly and effectively than <i>Frozen</i> did. Reverting all that and attempting to forcefully subvert a cliche that was barely relevant in the first place dates the story and makes it awkward to take seriously.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinvHdBAONd5O_-YThJW4feQLSbtn_Qcp-Px8io87VHGYQzlp8WSSEOFGQPO1_fxeTATHoaCU7R4BtwJps1T3xNMh0RZStFjjS_81RTKOuEixUc5qdqmiCTFHKNbKIrIJtyuiuPeShPFCfp/s1600/Frozen+2013+Elsa+Ice+Palace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="1019" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinvHdBAONd5O_-YThJW4feQLSbtn_Qcp-Px8io87VHGYQzlp8WSSEOFGQPO1_fxeTATHoaCU7R4BtwJps1T3xNMh0RZStFjjS_81RTKOuEixUc5qdqmiCTFHKNbKIrIJtyuiuPeShPFCfp/s320/Frozen+2013+Elsa+Ice+Palace.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h3>
Queen Elsa, Unwilling Villain</h3>
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During the early stages of the movie's production it was always the intention to make Elsa the actual villain of the movie. That changed when the crew started to really feel for her and realized that up until her transformation into the Snow Queen, she hadn't done anything wrong. Rewrites to accommodate Good Elsa is probably why certain plot elements from the second half feel so messy, but I feel the changes to Elsa herself do make her into a more compelling character than she would likely otherwise be. Throughout the entire movie there's still an undercurrent of the intention to make her a villain, but the fact that she then doesn't end up as one is actually touching.</div>
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The name 'Elsa' does not sound villainous like how 'Maleficent' sounds like a synonym for- or a misspelling of 'malevolent' (which is also why it was stupid to base an entire movie on how Maleficent wasn't just a tragic villain, but an actual hero who just had a really bad day that one time). Still, Elsa's name has a certain synesthetic <i>sharpness </i>to it (See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect">The Bouba/Kiki Effect</a>). This already differentiates her from the other Disney princesses, most of whom have names with more rolling r or l sounds. Consider the most similar name among the princesses: Ella, Cinderella's birth name in the live action adaption. 'Ella' rolls. 'Elsa' feels like there's a sudden stop in the middle. As such her name alone already makes her sound somewhat harsh.<br />
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The first 30 minutes of the movie leading up to <i>Let It Go</i> sets up the perfect environment for Elsa to eventually snap and put her into an anti-villainous role. <i>Let It Go</i> itself is the breaking point where she finally lets go of her good girl persona and embraces pure selfishness. However it is quickly revealed that the song was just Elsa lying to herself in a moment of ecstatic relief that she finally got to express herself through her powers. She wasn't actually descending into villainy at all. Despite having all the mental baggage to justify it, Elsa <i>never</i> crosses the line. The only time she ever comes close to crossing the line is in self defense against people who are actively attempting to kill her.<br />
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In the end it is what makes Elsa so engaging: it would be perfectly understandable for her to have gone evil, but her strong moral center prevents her from crossing that barrier. She is one of the most powerful heroes Disney has ever created, yet she evokes sympathy by also visibly suffering from anxiety and depression over what her powers have put her through and what they could potentially do to others. In that sense you could say she's an even more emotionally-charged version of the Genie from <i>Aladdin</i>, who despite his phenomenal, cosmic powers only wanted to be free <span style="font-size: x-small;">(itty-bitty living space)</span>.<br />
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It also makes Elsa a foil for Rapunzel. Both characters have incredible powers, but they differ in that Rapunzel has beneficial healing magic that requires effort to bring out while Elsa has (until she learns control) destructive ice powers that she's unable to restrain. They were both locked away and have significant anxieties regarding their powers, but Rapunzel was taught to be scared of people who would abuse her gift by an abusive adoptive mother while Elsa is afraid to hurt her loving family. In personality Rapunzel is outgoing while Elsa is restrained, which translates into Rapunzel wanting to escape her tower but being afraid to go while Elsa voluntarily exiles herself into her ice palace. Both characters are primarily imprisoned by their anxieties and insecurities. <i>Frozen</i> and <i>Tangled</i> are thus exercises in how a character archetype (the classic Disney Princess) would grow if you add a specific power into their development.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrFgk28hp1wjzJmAXdRbn1Dy6Gk-oXTNdycolAyACCDF6s-2ybBEJhyznZyCoiNXWmYq2yrGl2GecbG1CYEquPMqQGaOhLd0IdE9iNZZzYzG-OrjuUdXqmgD_1WMkmn6wyoQPPB9vgyChU/s1600/Frozen+2013+Anna+Rapunzel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="1019" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrFgk28hp1wjzJmAXdRbn1Dy6Gk-oXTNdycolAyACCDF6s-2ybBEJhyznZyCoiNXWmYq2yrGl2GecbG1CYEquPMqQGaOhLd0IdE9iNZZzYzG-OrjuUdXqmgD_1WMkmn6wyoQPPB9vgyChU/s320/Frozen+2013+Anna+Rapunzel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h3>
Crossover Theories</h3>
Movies in the Disney Animated Canon tend to have very little overlap between each other. Still many of the movies have cameos or references that can reasonably link some of them together, although often just as a joke (there being a <a href="https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/5/5a/Aladdin-disneyscreencaps.com-5513.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140324042152">Beast toy in the Sultan's collection</a> probably doesn't mean <i>Aladdin</i> and <i>Beauty and the Beast</i> are related). For example, there's a scene in <i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> where Belle is visible in a shot of Paris. Since both movies are set in France, there's the possibility that Belle and her father lived in Paris until they had to flee Frollo burning Paris in his search for Esmeralda, ending up in the little town near Beast's castle.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8r2ZAjbkTM3B-8t17x-aw6L43RlWudvtdHCyaJwRjTlrsdzoOHbD-zS-bPpnAcALAo71aZGKcH2aXbD3E6-jKo5-HvXQBTAjzHGbIHGoyjnhqWe8v9Rlapvnk__O48uTNXUP7fX_t0O7p/s1600/Disney+The+Hunchback+of+Notre+Dame+1996+Belle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="1020" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8r2ZAjbkTM3B-8t17x-aw6L43RlWudvtdHCyaJwRjTlrsdzoOHbD-zS-bPpnAcALAo71aZGKcH2aXbD3E6-jKo5-HvXQBTAjzHGbIHGoyjnhqWe8v9Rlapvnk__O48uTNXUP7fX_t0O7p/s320/Disney+The+Hunchback+of+Notre+Dame+1996+Belle.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Belle in <i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> (1996)</td></tr>
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Possible the most obvious example of crossovers happens in the episode <i>Hercules and the Arabian Night</i> of <i>Disney's Hercules: The Animated Series (1998)</i>. Jafar, having been defeated and killed in <i>The Return of Jafar (1994)</i>, ends up in the Underworld and meets up with Hades. First they make a bet that they can get rid of their rival's arch enemy, which they both fail to do. Ultimately they devise a plan where they attempt to get rid of their respective hero problems by setting Hercules up to fight Aladdin, revealing that at least the adult section of the <i>Hercules (1997)</i> movie takes place long after <i>Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) </i>has already concluded.<br />
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For <i>Frozen</i> there's a fan theory that it is linked with both <i>Tangled (2010)</i> and <i>The Little Mermaid (1989)</i>. Linked with <i>Tangled</i> because Rapunzel and Flynn Rider have an actual cameo when the gates are opened near the start of the movie and with <i>The Little Mermaid</i> because the ship Ariel investigates at the start of her movie might be the sunken ship of the king and queen of Arendelle. Arendelle is Norwegian-inspired while Eric's castle would be on the shores of Disney's equivalent of Denmark, so there's definitely some geographic proximity to back that argument (I've also heard an extension where it is theorized the king and queen survived the sinking and ended up becoming Tarzan's parents, but that sounds a bit too far out there).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjla8wQ_4WEo44a2UT17WaTgE7oEC7SPToc8Kek7bUpCLkAEQ23mKw1DK4qecwkqFUHm8ssW9wXwM1wfy_hNm9MK9aOpqGa0r38vE-UGOEXtaCJZG-HPdVpgaqihiDasw-l6Hu3pzy5ZE82/s1600/Frozen+The+Little+Mermaid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="1600" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjla8wQ_4WEo44a2UT17WaTgE7oEC7SPToc8Kek7bUpCLkAEQ23mKw1DK4qecwkqFUHm8ssW9wXwM1wfy_hNm9MK9aOpqGa0r38vE-UGOEXtaCJZG-HPdVpgaqihiDasw-l6Hu3pzy5ZE82/s320/Frozen+The+Little+Mermaid.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top: Frozen (2013)<br />
Bottom: The Little Mermaid (1989)</td></tr>
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So if we're to link it all up, Rapunzel and Elsa would be roughly the same age, with Rapunzel likely being older depending on how long after her eighteenth birthday she and Flynn got married. <i>Tangled</i> would take place first with the Rapunzel's marriage (which Anna and Elsa's parents were allegedly on their way to) being the indirect cause of Elsa's parents being lost at sea, setting up the events of <i>Frozen </i>three years later. Then an indeterminate amount of time later the royal family's sunken ship gets looted by an inquisitive mermaid at the start of <i>The Little Mermaid</i>.<br />
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I mean it's not exactly some great insight since it's just a fan theory but it is kind of cool I can watch three of my favorite Disney Princess movies as sort of a pseudo-trilogy. I would call it Disney's Scandinavia Trilogy except <i>Tangled</i>'s Corona being in either Germany or Poland might make that a bit of a geographic stretch.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv9My-BvashTrJnTgtIcVsnkFpCMDNYke_IC0bKPeZl3qloJmXjcpOGBrIZETMwHuyP6HqS3jH4f3Ek2whQo81lWsR8rOu9H-N-uF8PxtHutjhaID2n125G1tQcDu2pSvz3MTEMgPXYXU5/s1600/Frozen+Free+Fall+Snowball+Fight+embarassing+hours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="123" data-original-width="380" height="103" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv9My-BvashTrJnTgtIcVsnkFpCMDNYke_IC0bKPeZl3qloJmXjcpOGBrIZETMwHuyP6HqS3jH4f3Ek2whQo81lWsR8rOu9H-N-uF8PxtHutjhaID2n125G1tQcDu2pSvz3MTEMgPXYXU5/s320/Frozen+Free+Fall+Snowball+Fight+embarassing+hours.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WE WILL NOT SPEAK OF THIS<br />
HELP ME</td></tr>
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Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-35786661491113011752017-09-29T21:01:00.000+02:002017-09-29T21:01:00.044+02:00Vicsor Plays Cuphead - First 27 minutes<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the wake of Dean Takahashi's embarassing demo of Cuphead (Uploaded by VentureBeat as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=848Y1Uu5Htk">"Cuphead Gamescom Demo: Dean's Shameful 26 Minutes Of Gameplay"</a>) I decided I'd record my own first 26 minutes of gameplay once the game actually got released. I also purposely avoided actually watching any gameplay videos so I could go in blind.</div>
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So here it is:</div>
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It's indeed a difficult game, but it's also very fair in its challenge. If you fail, you can always learn something from it to do better next time and you'll get a sense of achievement out of it. As for my initial impressions, I can definitely recommend it.</div>
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Get Cuphead by StudioMDHR Entertainment Inc on Steam <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/268910/Cuphead/">[Here]</a>.Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-20504505966101308152017-07-17T19:18:00.002+02:002018-12-10T15:24:22.676+01:00A Response to The Truth About Maleficent<br />
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Once again I indulged myself into another one of Stefan Molyneux' '<i>The Truth About</i>' series in regards to the movie Maleficent because apparently people think my bewilderment on Twitter about these videos is funny. Long story short: this man should not be allowed near movies because holy crap. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wCZPTSo1_U">The Truth About Frozen</a> there's an obvious undercurrent of his disdain for these women, in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLiS1n2GqU4">The Truth About Maleficent</a> he goes into outright rape apologia and takes personal jabs at Angelina Jolie. Hence, I'm less patient with him than <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2017/07/a-response-to-truth-about-frozen.html">last time</a>.<br />
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Note that this movie has a main character named Stefan, so to differentiate him from the maker of this video I will refer to this character as "King Stefan" or variations thereof and I will refer to Stefan Molyneux mostly as "Molyneux".</div>
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And of course, there will be spoilers for Maleficent.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Spindle of a Spinning Wheel</span><br />Or A Response to Stefan Molyneux' <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLiS1n2GqU4">The Truth About Maleficent</a></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Full text [<a href="http://freedomain.blogspot.be/2014/06/the-truth-about-maleficent.html">Here</a>]</span></div>
<h4>
1. Introduction</h4>
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Whereas I think <i>Frozen</i> is a good movie that has flaws, I think <i>Maleficent</i> is a bad movie with enjoyable aspects. It's obvious Angelina Jolie (Maleficent) and Sam Riley (Diaval) had fun with the roles and it absolutely shows. Their scenes are often delightful. Where it turns me off is that, rather than just turning Maleficent into a more complex character with deeper motivations than mere pettiness, it turns her into an outright hero who was just having a particularly bad day when she cursed princess Aurora. It was really King Stefan, a benevolent character in the original movie, who is now the true villain. Here we have the most iconic villain in the Disney animated canon (depending on where you stand with <i>Fantasia</i>'s Chernabog) who even has a name that sounds like an alternative spelling of "malevolent", but somehow she was actually good all along. Those parents must have really hated their child when they named her.<br />
In the end, <i>Maleficent</i> is not a more modernized remake of <i>Sleeping Beauty</i>. It's a completely different story that only really shares its basic characters and the cursing scene with its original incarnation. Then the movie ends by confirming this is the real story because the narrator is revealed to have been Aurora: a character not born for roughly half the movie, and asleep for a portion of the latter half.<br />
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After having done <i>Frozen</i>, it was interesting to me how Molyneux would react to <i>Maleficent</i>. As I said last time: Stefan dislikes representations of the state and he disproportionately blames female characters for slights he either imagines or unfairly subscribes to them. Whereas in <i>Frozen</i> those two aspects were centralized into a single person, namely Queen Elsa of Arendelle, here we have a situation where it's a woman, Maleficent, against a kingdom.<br />
Unsurprisingly, he still shifts blame primarily to the female characters, but this time he somehow almost completely absolves the male characters. Because when a male villain does something despicable, it's either not actually despicable, or it's the writers inserting "<i>[0:52]</i> <i>Nazi-levels of anti-male propaganda</i>". Yes, really.</div>
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He then ends it by chastising women for demonizing men, including a graphic of how children are harmed when there's no father figure present in the life of a child. This might all be true in a real life context, but it's once again Molyneux being offended because he's reading his own conspiracy theories into a Disney fairy tale movie that happens to be about a man that grievously harmed a woman. Yes, both kings in the movie are shown to be overly ambitious monsters, but just like in <i>Frozen</i>, it is not maleness that is vilified, but reckless ambition. By contrast <i>Frozen</i>'s Kristoff might be anti-social and cynical about people, but he's also a hard worker who understands sacrifice and has a deep moral center. He might not have a beard but he's nonetheless manly. Diaval in <i>Maleficent</i> leans closer to a pretty boy stereotype thanks to being portrayed by Sam Riley and his raven features giving him more of a goth look, but he's nevertheless a man with a deep moral center. Apparently it's the beard that's <i>the</i> defining characteristic of being male.<br />
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<h4>
2. Oh, Magic is no Longer Madness</h4>
Oddly missing in this video is Molyneux' previous assertion that all magic in all of fiction is always a metaphor for madness. This despite the fact that the movie is about a young boy who enters a magic kingdom where mankind isn't allowed to go, befriends a fairy who he then betrays, and later actually goes completely mad with paranoia attempting to kill that fairy who threatens his power.<br />
From this lens where magic is always madness, it can thus be argued that Maleficent herself is not real, but merely a metaphor for King Stefan's growing insanity and paranoia as he gains and then tries to protect his political power, projected onto an external tormentor. Not really of course, it's just telling that Molyneux foregoes his own framework fully because otherwise he couldn't be blaming women for being everything wrong with the world.<br />
Last time when Queen Elsa's accidental ice powers got out of control and she exiled herself to keep her subjects safe, Molyneux deemed her a mad queen who would subject the kingdom to tyranny. When King Stefan actually does go insane for 16 years and redirects all his kingdom's wealth into a war with a woman he himself mutilated for personal gain ... well, it's her fault because she demanded he give back a gemstone he stole as a child.<br />
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The further absence of this argument is interesting in that there is a dichotomy of good and evil (mad) magic in the movie itself. When Maleficent is using benevolent magic, such as when healing trees, her magic is a golden yellow. When she's using malevolent magic, most notably when she casts the curse, it's green. The difference between the two is most clear when Maleficent tries and fails to undo her own curse before it comes to pass. The scene shows her benevolent magic clashing with the malevolent curse. Hence the color of her magic is a rather convenient method of telling what state of mind Maleficent is in. Humorously enough the color of her magic is also golden-yellow when she's merely playing pranks on the three fairies.<br />
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Maleficent, when in a state of destructive anti-societal anger, or in other words 'mad', is conveniently color coded green. The fact that there's a difference between the two types of magic is however evidence that magic is not always and forever a metaphor for madness, as one type is clearly based around benevolence and healing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggrgxGQ2SE1WWaoE0TT4vJILP7R_S8uhvDzkmmoLYBhs8LlYkUVHbU717fRShIr6s_ixxOWVv2MKDIpxNg6O8ZJIKe5s8YApoTbQx01na1Ln57-CzmT6qTRD75GNqzOi6_Kz8mMa2wdiSJ/s1600/Maleficent+young+King+Stefan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="1274" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggrgxGQ2SE1WWaoE0TT4vJILP7R_S8uhvDzkmmoLYBhs8LlYkUVHbU717fRShIr6s_ixxOWVv2MKDIpxNg6O8ZJIKe5s8YApoTbQx01na1Ln57-CzmT6qTRD75GNqzOi6_Kz8mMa2wdiSJ/s320/Maleficent+young+King+Stefan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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3. Protecting Your Property is Theft</h4>
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<i>[1:23] This interaction is completely insane – and immoral. A starving boy picks up an unowned gem so that he can eat, we assume, and the little witch takes it – just to throw it away. She does not offer him food, or gold, or anything else - she just takes away his treasure and trashes it. Can you imagine meeting a starving, orphaned child who is about to eat a banana, ripping that banana out of his hands, and grinding it underfoot? [24:24] However, it seems to have crossed no one’s mind but mine that Maleficent did the boy an enormous wrong, and sent him down a very dark path through her imperious theft. </i></blockquote>
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The future King Stefan enters a land his kingdom is explicitly at war with, only to rob its precious stones. It's never mentioned that he's starving, only that he's poor and intends to move up in the world, which he does in spite of not having stolen the gem. However Maleficent is somehow in the wrong because she didn't allow an invader to steal from her land and returned the gem to where it came from. Not to mention young King Stefan got a powerful sorceress as his best friend out of the deal. A relationship which he then squanders for personal gain until he once again needs her.<br />
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The very fact that he stole a gem and not food shows in the narrative sense that it was greed, not hunger, that inspired him to steal. Compare to the movie <i>Aladdin</i> (1992) where the titular character steals a loaf of bread, but then gives it to other hungry children in spite of his own needs. This shows Aladdin is a moral character despite being a thief who puts the needs of others before his own and only steals what he needs to survive. By contrast King Stefan already starts out in a more gray area because he sought riches in a place he wasn't even supposed to go. Maleficent only "throws the gem away" in the sense that there's no visible treasury the boy took it from because this is fairyland.</div>
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The fact that it crossed no one's mind but Molyneux' that this is an enormous wrong on Maleficent's part is that it's an insane conclusion to begin with. Once again Molyneux places disproportionate blame on women for slights only he imagines.</div>
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<i>[1:55] Also, I don’t know if you have been to a mall lately, but if I recall rightly, women don’t seem to be particularly partial to taking expensive gems, and throwing them in a river. It is women who are responsible for the rape of the earth called diamond, mineral and gold-mining – not men. </i><i>Angelina Jolie had a quarter of a million dollar engagement ring made for her, for a year, by Brad Pitt.</i></blockquote>
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What amazes me about this bit is that it's so obviously a lie just to take another jab at women in general and Angelina Jolie in particular. It's not like we're mining the Earth exclusively to provide women with jewelry. What are all your fancy electronics made of? If you haven't upgraded to electric yet, where does the fuel in your car come from? <a href="http://www.minerals.net/mineral/diamond.aspx">80 percent of mined diamonds</a> are unsuitable for jewelry and is instead used industrially anyway. <a href="http://oilprice.com/Metals/Gold/Gold-Mining-Boom-Increasing-Mercury-Pollution-Risk.html">Only half of newly produced gold</a> is put into jewelry. What a brazen lie or profound ignorance to pretend we only maintain the mining industry to provide women with precious jewelry.<br />
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However it seems Molyneux can't decide which one is the moral position here. Was King Stefan raping the Earth by taking the gem or was Maleficent doing the boy an enormous wrong for taking the gem back? Are we supposed to show women how they should react 'morally' or are we supposed to show them as they really are according to Molyneux? What exactly are we supposed to take away from his contradictory statements? He just places contradictory standards upon fictional women which they can never meet.</div>
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<h4>
4. Being Raped is the Woman's Fault</h4>
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<i>[10:37] Taking advantage of their former friendship, Stefan drugs Maleficent, but finds he cannot bring himself to kill her, and so instead burns off her wings with iron – a substance deadly to fairies – and returns them to the king as proof of his victory. It is essential to remember that, on the King’s orders, someone from the castle is going to kill Maleficent – Stefan in fact actually saves her life by only taking her wings.</i></blockquote>
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Molyneux takes it as a given that someone is definitely going to kill Maleficent, a powerful sorceress and protector of a magic kingdom who was just seen demolishing the king's invading army with ease. The fact that the future King Stefan was the only person Maleficent would even allow near the Moors to betray her trust in the first place is apparently an irrelevance. No, she should be grateful he merely drugged and mutilated her for his own benefit.<br />
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It's a running trend that when Molyneux calls something a "jaw-dropping sequence" or something similar, that usually means he's working overtime misinterpreting the events that are happening on the screen to fit his biases. So better prepare yourselves because we're now truly going off the deep end.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[11:04] Next comes the most important moral dichotomy in the movie. Immediately after Stefan effectively saves Maleficent’s life by taking her wings, Maleficent comes across a crow in a net about to be beaten to death by a farmer, who is tired of the crow eating his seeds. Maleficent turns him into a man – thus taking his wings!</i> <i>[11:40] </i><i>Maleficent replies, “Would you rather I let them beat you to death?”. Diaval mournfully regards his missing wings, and then replies, “I’m not certain.” </i><i>Maleficent says scornfully, “Stop complaining! I saved your life!” Diaval lowers his eyes and murmurs, “Forgive me… In return for saving my life, I am your servant.” I am so susceptible to propaganda that I did not even notice this until watching the movie for the second time, but it is truly a jaw-dropping sequence.</i></blockquote>
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These two events are apparently equal to Molyneux:<br />
1. An overly-ambitious man betrays the trust of the woman who loves him by drugging her and painfully burning off her wings, and visibly contemplated killing her outright, forcing her to have to relearn how to walk because she no longer carries her wings as ballast.<br />
2. A woman saves a raven from death by turning him into an intelligent shapeshifter.</div>
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The next line after Diaval says "<i>I am your servant. Whatever you need.</i>" is "<i>Wings, I need you to be my wings</i>". So Maleficent did not in fact take his wings, as made abundantly clear by the one line Molyneux omitted from his reproduction of the script. She needed him to <b>be</b> her wings. As shown on screen when 4 seconds later he transforms back into a raven and flies off. How is this in any way, shape or form supposed to be a moral equivalent? What was done to Maleficent was clearly an act of mutilation, whereas what was done to Diaval was an act of empowerment, which is also why she told him to stop complaining: he didn't lose anything in the first place!</div>
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<i>[14:52] Watching the movie, I understood that Maleficent’s “wings” were a metaphor for her breasts, and watching Angelina Jolie – who recently underwent a double mastectomy – awaken from a drugged sleep and howl in agony at the surgical removal of her “wings" made me pretty uncomfortable. I prefer a bit more acting in my movies.</i></blockquote>
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Seriously, what is wrong with this guy? Not only is he making up once again what is a metaphor for what, but he's using it as a personal attack on Angelina Jolie for having underwent a preventative medical procedure. What. The. Hell! It doesn't even make sense as the story would have certainly been written long before Jolie underwent the procedure in 2013. Even if Jolie brought some of those emotions to the forefront during these scenes, why in the world would Stefan then take a jab at her for that? She's still acting! They didn't film her waking up from a mastectomy and then CGI'd a fairy tale landscape around her! God.</div>
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At the end of the video, he does confirm that it's an 'interpretation' that the mutilation scene is analogous to rape, however not only does he fail to mention that this was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/11/angelina-jolie-maleficent-rape-scene_n_5485633.html">actually the intention of the scene by the filmmakers themselves</a> and not just an interpretation, he also dismisses it.</div>
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<i>[23:31] I have some problems with this interpretation – not least of which is that Stefan’s supposed rape is considered a crime, but not one commentator has mentioned anything about Maleficent’s theft of Stefan’s gem, which really set the whole story in motion. If the young Maleficent had not stolen the boy’s gem, he would never have had to go and work in the Castle, and never would have been infected with the desire to become King, and therefore would never have cut off her wings.</i></blockquote>
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In other words ... Maleficent's rape was justified. Young King Stefan trespasses into a place where he's not supposed to be, steals a gem that doesn't belong to him and gets caught by Maleficent, who demands he gives it back. To Molyneux this somehow means <i>she</i> stole the gem and that she's now fair game to be raped. Absolutely incredible.<br />
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He's not even correct that this event is the reason why the future King Stefan has to go work in the castle. His intentions were to get there from the start. We know this because he tells Maleficent when they first meet. His greed was always there, it was just more subdued in his childhood.<br />
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<h4>
5. Metaphors are a Metaphor for Metaphors.</h4>
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<i>[15:42] If we understand that Maleficent is the King’s mistress who gives birth to a child, the rest of the movie makes a whole lot more sense.</i></blockquote>
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And this is why I feel this man is unfit to analyse media of this kind. He's absolutely incapable of interpreting the events on screen and instead goes into rewriting the script under the guise of explaining "the truth" so that he can spin his moral outrage into it later. Somehow the child of the king and queen is actually the bastard backup child of the king and Maleficent in case the queen proves infertile ... which she isn't because she just gave birth to this very child. Evidently Molyneux is petty enough to use the character Maleficent to mock Angelina Jolie for having a mastectomy but the idea that she could love children she didn't give birth to is too unbelievable.</div>
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That's about all I can take from this madness, however there's one last bit I want to include to show just how far he takes all this made-up nonsense.</div>
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<i>[18:18] Historically, a spinning wheel was a dowry present for a woman getting married, so this curse is basically for Aurora to die giving birth to a child when she is 16. ("Prick" is slang for “penis,” of course; a finger is a metaphor for a penis, which enters the woman on her wedding night and makes her bleed.) [18:57] So the curse means a continuation of the sexual disasters and dysfunctions of the bloodline – Aurora will get pregnant, just as Maleficent got pregnant, and these disasters will just repeat, over and over again, because Aurora will never wake up to reality, to the truth, which is withheld from her.</i></blockquote>
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Pure. Unadulterated. Fan fiction. If a woman weighs as much as a duck, she's made of wood and therefore a witch: a woman who was pregnant but never actually was pregnant curses a child who was born from a woman who couldn't get pregnant to die in childbirth while also never having been pregnant because the only man she ever knew growing up was a raven who lost his wings because of Maleficent despite being shown flying with his wings intact four seconds later. This is the truth about Maleficent and this is why women hate men because they grow up without father figures. Or something.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEithDiuBOeldkKH_Yi6CMHfeWO9CRj6waWTm7BgaYpYAqZ_RQboJIDNyth4fsEa2dV0rhbmWTij_jcjYqalGJ-btqlrh7tbMZYTO4Kc0PzSJ-pZklSvCoZgxGis-46T7LV6cZEZNZO0hCWX/s1600/Maleficent+Evil+Magic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="1276" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEithDiuBOeldkKH_Yi6CMHfeWO9CRj6waWTm7BgaYpYAqZ_RQboJIDNyth4fsEa2dV0rhbmWTij_jcjYqalGJ-btqlrh7tbMZYTO4Kc0PzSJ-pZklSvCoZgxGis-46T7LV6cZEZNZO0hCWX/s320/Maleficent+Evil+Magic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h4>
6. Conclusion</h4>
Just like last time there's a lot more to cover, but I feel I've hit on most of his basic points where it actually interjects with the movie. What I didn't cover is mostly a repeat of the same things he chastised <i>Frozen</i> for (such as Maleficent's supposed unearned expertise in magic, despite the film opening on her practicing it), manosphere talk regarding Maleficent's beta male tree guards and how Maleficent's value lies in how sexually attractive she is or isn't.<br />
<br />
In the end this "philosophical review" is just another vehicle for Stefan Molyneux to project his own damage onto a movie. Unlike his review of <i>Frozen</i> however, this time he just completely lets his disdain for women snowball into personally attacking even the main actress. He doesn't actually unpack any truths, he's just feeding the portion of his audience that throws hissy fits on Twitter when a movie has a female protagonist using bile wrapped in pseudo-intellectual nonsense and an intentional misreading of the movie's scenes.<br />
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While I disagree with the direction they took with this movie, at its core <i>Maleficent</i> is a movie about an abused person who becomes an abuser herself. Certainly the filmmakers lacked the spine to then take the story to where it was supposed to go (an actual re-imagining of <i>Sleeping Beauty</i>), but that doesn't exactly make it a Nazi-level anti-male conspiracy just because the villain had a beard.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A Note on Spelling:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Last time someone asked me if spelling it "Molyneux'" (apostrophe, no s) rather than "Molyneux's" (apostrophe, with s) was a deliberate choice. My reason for doing so is that I would pronounce it "Molyneus", rather than "Molyneuxes".</span><br />
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<h3>
Links & References</h3>
</div>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLiS1n2GqU4">Stefan Molyneux - The Truth About Maleficent</a><br />
<a href="http://freedomain.blogspot.be/2014/06/the-truth-about-maleficent.html">http://freedomain.blogspot.be/2014/06/the-truth-about-maleficent.html</a><br />
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Images from<br />
- Maleficent (2014)Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-40152575206386973822017-07-11T20:33:00.002+02:002018-12-10T15:12:02.366+01:00A Response to The Truth About Frozen<br />
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I have my own problems with Frozen which I will delve deeper into someday (it boils down to that it tries to be clever by forcefully subverting cliches that haven't been cliches in Disney movies since the 1950's, and thus ironically dating the movie to that time period). However Stefan Molyneux' <i>The Truth About Frozen</i> struck me as both so far off the ball and oddly popular enough that I feel compelled to respond to it. Now I don't have any personal problems with Stefan Molyneux, I never met or talked to the gentleman, his style of presentation is also rather entertaining despite it just being him in front of a blank wall, but some of his views stand in such stark opposition to my own that some of my responses will regretfully come off as being less than polite. I will endeavor my best not to misrepresent his arguments, but I will only reproduce his words here when I feel they are emblematic of his arguments rather than post his entire script (that would be too long anyway) and I will attempt to summarize his points otherwise. I will also not talk about everything he talks about, as that would make this response a massive project. Still, it's going to be a long one because his video is somehow over an hour long and he packs in a lot of weirdness.<br />
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And of course, there will be spoilers for Frozen.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">I've Started Talking to the Pictures on the Walls</span><br />Or A Response to Stefan Molyneux' <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wCZPTSo1_U">The Truth About Frozen</a></i></b>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Full text [<a href="http://freedomain.blogspot.be/2014/05/the-truth-behind-frozen.html">Here</a>]</span></div>
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<h4>
1. Introduction</h4>
Literary analysis is almost inherently peppered with the speaker's personal biases because the process of analysis usually involves placing the work into a larger context and thus mirroring it to the speaker's experience. I do this myself and am quite open about the fact that my intention is to put a more positive spin on stories in the cultural zeitgeist as I believe that to be a way forwards (although without making up that this is how I see the particular work). As such it is perfectly understandable that Molyneux' analysis contains his personal biases, however I feel this video steers so far into Molyneux' biases, away from the text of the movie itself, that I hardly feel it is appropriate for it to have the title "<i>The Truth About Frozen</i>". In the end his video isn't about Frozen, it's about Stefan Molyneux. The movie is merely a mirror upon which he reflects his anti-state, anti-woman and kinda anti-family-of-origins values.<br />
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Stefan Molyneux' entire analysis can be boiled down to these points: he hates the royal family of Arendelle because they represent the state, he disproportionately blames the female characters for slights he either imagines or unfairly subscribes to them and he presents the same tired criticisms regarding the lack of realism in a Disney animated feature. Furthermore he buries the text of the movie beneath a nonsensical reading where magic is really just code for madness. His argumentation style is like a YouTube version of <i>Alan Wake</i>'s Dark Presence, in that he fills up holes in world building (as in, the elements that often aren't necessary for the story to work anyway) with his own interpretations, which he then uses as a springboard for his political agenda.<br />
<br />
If it's not explicitly explained in the movie, he'll make something up. If it <i>is</i> explicitly explained in the movie, it doesn't matter because it's a metaphor for something else anyway. As such his movie analysis is little more than him taking a Rorschach test in public.<br />
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<h4>
2. Magic as a Metaphor for Madness / Magic isn't real</h4>
A running theme throughout Stefan Molyneux's analysis is his assertion that magic in all of fiction, from <i>Harry Potter</i> to the Force in <i>Star Wars</i>, is merely a metaphor for madness. He then rejects the events and explanations on the screen and instead applies his own rationalization to the events, regardless of whether or not they make sense, they then become further evidence for it being due to "madness". It is in fact a totalizing system which allows him to demean the characters and ignore the actual messages and instead insert his own.<br />
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<i> [2:15] Magic by definition is irrational, and thus cannot exist in the objective, empirical universe. Therefore it must exist within the mind, which unlike reality is capable of error, delusion, fantasy and superstition. [3:25] Magic in stories is always and forever a metaphor for madness.</i></blockquote>
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He goes on about how Elsa doesn't actually have ice powers, but her hurting Anna is in fact a metaphor for abuse. Elsa's madness being the result of having been brought up in a dull environment with an abusive father. The rationale being that because there is no magic in the author's world, that means there's no magic in the fictional world and thus this is all metaphor.<br />
To be sure, Elsa's struggle with her ice powers can be metaphorical for a lot of things. After all her life is made a living hell because she is forced to deny an intrinsic part of herself, then when she finally gets to express herself fully (the <i>Let It Go</i> sequence) she overindulges regardless and clueless of what it does to anyone else, ultimately guilt-catapulting her back to the denial phase. Take your pick of a personal secret, Elsa's ice magic is probably applicable as a metaphor. There is thus indeed a framework based in reality upon which Frozen's fantastical story can be built.<br />
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However Stefan continues the video insisting the events on screen are merely our lying eyes telling the story through Elsa's delusions, where she was driven insane by a dull environment which escalated and eventually caused her to murder her parents and rationalize it with a storm at sea. Her absence at the funeral being evidence she might have been under suspicion.<br />
I mean ... that might be a good surprise twist for a movie, but this is still Disney's Frozen, not <i>Fight Club</i> or <i>Sucker Punch</i>. It's not even <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>. On some level you have to stop forcefully rejecting the willing suspense of disbelief and accept that within the text of the movie, there's a kingdom called Arendelle where the queen was born with ice powers or else you're just making stuff up.<br />
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The assertion that magic, always and forever, is a metaphoric stand-in for madness might superficially look like a compelling lens to analyze media with, but in reality it doesn't hold much water. It is merely creative interpretation that at first glance might resemble profound insight, but in the end is meaningless. Similar to how the <i>Pokémon</i> anime series has been interpreted as Ash's coma fantasy: it's a fun thought experiment, but it's not profound insight and actually hinders the critic in engaging with the text. It is, to steal a phrase, not an argument. As is the case with the Truth About Frozen.<br />
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Because I watched Stefan's <i>The Truth About Frozen</i>, YouTube helpfully linked me to another relevant video of his: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlIrmHOfeA8">Harry Potter, Star Wars and the Violent Fantasies of Crushed Souls</a>. In this video he reads a post he came across that interpreted the <i>Harry Potter</i> franchise as a metaphor for a child being carted off to an insane asylum, which he called a 'brilliant theory' and which in turn I suspect gave him the idea that <i>all</i> stories about magic are metaphors for madness.<br />
Again, where this idea fails is that it doesn't actually engage with the text of the movie. Instead it starts from a conclusion (magic = madness) and then tries to find facts in the text to support it, which of course will be found because magic is being used, thus allowing the critic to bypass the actual events on screen.<br />
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As an example to how it doesn't make sense:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[27:02] When the merchant complains that Elsa tried to kill him, Hans replies 'You slipped on ice'. This indicates that Hans did not see the ice magic. Another example of its internal nature.</i></blockquote>
Okay, but then how come there was ice at all when it was a warm summer's day in July? Was the Duke of Weselton (not a merchant, a duke) also mad for having seen the ice magic? He explicitly refers to her sorcery and it being 'her' ice after all. Clearly the answer is that Hans is merely trying to endear himself to Anna by downplaying the situation with Elsa. He's not actually the beacon of sanity that can see through the madness.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT3rryP61HDm2ANP9YdUfcUIQk1X8BWx5aQe6xw4rKFQ199gENOn8pf5UGqLY3gHyjEJ9Ww8YW8q6bRQGpBYeDXQ109NntTYkUTydC8G2pWN6JoO7P6qxw60WIRj1EMmukXhyphenhyphen9JVu3fl8A/s1600/Frozen+Queen+Elsa.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Scene from Frozen: Queen Elsa" border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="959" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT3rryP61HDm2ANP9YdUfcUIQk1X8BWx5aQe6xw4rKFQ199gENOn8pf5UGqLY3gHyjEJ9Ww8YW8q6bRQGpBYeDXQ109NntTYkUTydC8G2pWN6JoO7P6qxw60WIRj1EMmukXhyphenhyphen9JVu3fl8A/s320/Frozen+Queen+Elsa.png" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<h4>
3. Character Assessments and Stefan Molyneux's Anti-Woman Bias</h4>
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Before I start this bit, I have to mention that Stefan Molyneux often proclaims that he believes it is sexism <i>not</i> to hold men and women to the same standards, which sounds like a reasonable position. In practice however Stefan has a tendency to shift blame for a large amount of things to women exclusively. It's one of his more well known positions for example that he believes you can rid the world of almost all evil if people could just be nice to babies for five years straight. Which he then elaborates that child-raising is an industry ran by women. Furthermore male jerks exist because women keep having babies with them at the expense of better men. Also he blames women for being vain as they base their worth on their looks, rather than personality or expertise. Little mention of men's responsibility in furthering any of those scenarios however, it's just women that all need to get together and fix their issues collectively. This philosophy to my estimation, which also seeps into his criticism here, makes Stefan's analysis fundamentally anti-woman. The only times he'll chastise a male character is when Stefan can use him as a proxy to demean the state (or kingdom).<br />
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At its core, Frozen is a movie about two deeply broken women who after years of loneliness have to mend their equally broken relationship. As such it's a rather dark psychological story. However every time Stefan attempts to analyze the place these women mentally occupy, he instead comes to a conclusion that runs counter to the evidence on screen and he'll demean these characters because they do not adhere to his worldview (even when ... they do). Even the minor character of Anna and Elsa's mother is not safe from his scorn.</div>
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<i>[9:47] As usual, Elsa's mother nods in a scared, stupid, sheepish way as her husband proceeds to outline his plans to do exactly the opposite of what the healer he respects recommends. She has no voice, she married the ultimate alpha male, and so cannot contradict or instruct him, because there is no one for her to trade up to. [...] Her natural hypergamy - the female desire to "mate up" - has tragic consequences for her youngest daughter Anna, who almost gets murdered pursuing the same estrogen-fuelled ambitions.</i></blockquote>
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To be sure, he places plenty of blame on the king, not because of his well-intentioned worry for his daughter however. Rather, according to Molyneux, his mistake was due to being afraid of his witch-daughter losing him his political power. So there's that anti-state thing. If it wasn't for his being a powerful politician, presumably he would have made the right choice in raising his daughter. However in the end even the king's misguided plan to help his daughter Elsa eventually gets blamed on a character who has exactly three words and a contraction worth of dialog in the entire movie. Here we have a character who essentially exists as visual padding and to provide a voice cameo for co-director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1601644/?ref_=nv_sr_6">Jennifer Lee</a>, yet Stefan can't help but to put her in a manospherian context of alpha males and hypergamy.</div>
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Furthermore if we go by the explanation in <i>Once Upon A Time</i> Season 4 Episode 7 (which we probably shouldn't take seriously as even the show itself runs on the premise that it isn't canon with its source movies), the queen was understandably wary of her daughter's powers because she had already seen them and their disastrous results before: in her own sister, Elsa's aunt, the original Snow Queen Ingrid. Again, this isn't a canon explanation, but it shows a possible reason why the queen would "stupidly, sheepishly" nod along with her husband's plan out of a place of personal agency rather than us having to impose hypergamy on a minor character in a Disney movie.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuP8SnS_dLkKqx-PyA6ejjIkfeLeZmCsMOUNbjkvFc0eBjT7X1YdoNL6S_ZpsPBabspTizTjZ8uhBtaZloFbMwJzC3Lh3Tbq47KaVVMmCx9miMcOJGYMDbNyB8JB0Gq9gE2fb795r-UwgD/s1600/Once+Upon+A+Time+S04E07+The+Snow+Queen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="1017" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuP8SnS_dLkKqx-PyA6ejjIkfeLeZmCsMOUNbjkvFc0eBjT7X1YdoNL6S_ZpsPBabspTizTjZ8uhBtaZloFbMwJzC3Lh3Tbq47KaVVMmCx9miMcOJGYMDbNyB8JB0Gq9gE2fb795r-UwgD/s320/Once+Upon+A+Time+S04E07+The+Snow+Queen.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elsa's aunt (Snow Queen Ingrid) and mother.</td></tr>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[15:43] Lonely Anna makes her sudden reappearance, alarmingly none the worse for wear after a childhood of crushing isolation and rejection, an imprisoned sister who nearly killed her, and the deaths of both parents. 'What horrors? There might be a pretty boy at the DANCE!'</i></blockquote>
It seems rather odd to claim the Sandwich Princess grew up fine despite childhood trauma when she's so starved for human contact, she intends to marry the first person she literally bumps into. She's ridiculously naive and outrageously socially awkward despite her overly extroverted nature. Just take a moment to relisten to <i>Love is an Open Door</i> with Hans' motives in mind. Suddenly it becomes a villain song about Hans' duplicity while he's also desperately struggling to keep up with Anna's random mind. This together with her completely reckless actions later reveal her to have remained into a childlike innocence into adulthood that she must now overcome through the trials and tribulations that result from her sister's outburst. I don't know how you can watch the movie and come away with the idea that Anna was just fine.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>[17:39] When the sisters greet each other for the first time in over a decade, they exchange vapid nothings about how warm it is, how much fun they are having, how pretty each other is, and how much they like chocolate. Dear lord, are they adult women or mentally challenged trivia addicts? </i></blockquote>
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See, this is where his bias overrides even his sense of analyzing the movie from an overhead realistic viewpoint. Here we have two girls separated for 13 years, one believing the other hates her, the other scared of accidentally committing murder, and both of them having been cut off from society in general, yet Stefan doesn't recognize how this could have resulted in severe social awkwardness between the two. The core story is <i>about</i> two sisters reconnecting after years of separation but he complains when it doesn't happen instantly. Even worse, he denies the sisters having endured psychological hardship (aside from 'the madness') even <i>while</i> he's talking about their obvious psychological scars.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>[17:20] The late king did nothing to prepare his daughters for being in charge of a kingdom. There's no evidence of any education, books, parental conversation, the imparting of wisdom and justice and magnanimity in statecraft. This is noticeable only in its absence.</i></blockquote>
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This bit caught me off guard because Elsa's obvious education was something I picked up on during my first viewing. During the <i>Let It Go</i> sequence we see Elsa growing in power as she very rapidly learns to understand how her powers work. When she's creating her ice palace however she suddenly starts singing about fractals, meaning the flawless ice marvel isn't just the result of her magic, but also of her aptitude in mathematics, particularly geometry. This is also why her more natural creations such as Olaf, Marshmallow or her ice statues are very simplistic by comparison: she's not trained as an artist, she's trained as a mathematician. Which is confirmed in the book <i>A Sister More Like Me</i>, where Elsa is also seen surrounded by several books and clearly taking joy in her education.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcqbKdzXiugAG0qMDUDZL6jxcCIT0xlLCnfMVe0cfK9oRp471QwgzWul5HXjIQKcatTr27mZsipx-OyZKGizKp3w3AZzp1j7IT7iyA5f38i5D2FuP4ZdZNVlhO6mzJdhytOC3Kq2oNPViI/s1600/Frozen+Let+It+Go+Fractals.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Scene from Frozen: "My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around"" border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="959" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcqbKdzXiugAG0qMDUDZL6jxcCIT0xlLCnfMVe0cfK9oRp471QwgzWul5HXjIQKcatTr27mZsipx-OyZKGizKp3w3AZzp1j7IT7iyA5f38i5D2FuP4ZdZNVlhO6mzJdhytOC3Kq2oNPViI/s320/Frozen+Let+It+Go+Fractals.png" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPBQ3eQxFCEYOQEE_o-J4l1jlxxWG6CeRaBRhJQb4zya7hpVmVc2oyDxWb4tdWjL2iOb-MZBZzCYywnALWeG0YzQdu97MLlO46FOOVxi1H7OMPq3Z7nnqDx99axtap9lVonf56T5hpUbL/s1600/Frozen+A+Sister+More+Like+Me+2013.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Scan from A Sister More Like Me: Elsa studying" border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="415" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPBQ3eQxFCEYOQEE_o-J4l1jlxxWG6CeRaBRhJQb4zya7hpVmVc2oyDxWb4tdWjL2iOb-MZBZzCYywnALWeG0YzQdu97MLlO46FOOVxi1H7OMPq3Z7nnqDx99axtap9lVonf56T5hpUbL/s320/Frozen+A+Sister+More+Like+Me+2013.png" title="" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And I'd have loved to have a friend who knew geometry-<br />
I would have, if I could have had a sister more like me.</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
As for Anna, well she recognized a painting as being one of Joan of Arc (though not a historically accurate one) and seems to really enjoy spending time in the art room. Possibly due to her craving for human contact she has substituted art for people. Hence she has likely gained an appreciation for the arts. Furthermore one of the rooms Anna plays in as a small child is the library and Elsa can be seen practicing keeping "the madness" with the <i>[23:17] penis-and-testicle ball and rod</i> for her coronation in front of several giant bookshelves, so there definitely were books. In fact at the start of the movie the king searches for the map to the trolls on a bookshelf.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>[18:00] The grim political reality is that neither of these highly unstable women are even remotely fit to rule the kingdom. They show zero interest in economics, politics, education, literacy, the arts, or even the toiling masses around them that keep them in heels and hair clips.</i></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Continuing from above, and frankly I just put this in here because it reveals Molyneux' disdain for these women. The only bits of Anna and Elsa's childhood we are shown are directly related to their relationship. None of it is focused on how they actually grew up. So little in fact that it's easy to forget (as Stefan apparently did) that there was still a skeleton crew of servants around Anna and Elsa, so they wouldn't have been entirely isolated even after their parents died (the main servants even have names: Kai and Gerda, after the protagonists of the Hans Christian Andersen tale). What I mean is, he has no basis for any of these claims. He's just complaining this musical about the bond between two estranged sisters isn't actually about statesmanship or education.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJP7J4mkq-DgTo0gggQu76CfxdHWzNsIY8QZAK5LHrN9QF-dBnIYZBiiWRwZrIIHdVtQJd1YJYb457vDslGYKVJ1JiJ5Rzi9toGt-oAeMegO9USb9iLsXnh5v6lOD97LtizvJnTbNoj6rs/s1600/Frozen+The+Duke+of+WeaselTown+Weselton.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="1021" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJP7J4mkq-DgTo0gggQu76CfxdHWzNsIY8QZAK5LHrN9QF-dBnIYZBiiWRwZrIIHdVtQJd1YJYb457vDslGYKVJ1JiJ5Rzi9toGt-oAeMegO9USb9iLsXnh5v6lOD97LtizvJnTbNoj6rs/s320/Frozen+The+Duke+of+WeaselTown+Weselton.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "merchant"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[23:58] When a merchant - i.e. a man who actually works for a living - bows while asking Elsa to dance, the two sisters giggle at him when his toupee flops over. This lofty contempt for and indifference to anyone who works is offensive, but is not noted in the movie because the two girls are so very very pretty.</i></blockquote>
As I mentioned earlier, the 'merchant' Stefan refers to is actually the Duke of Weselton, which is repeated so often in the movie that I don't understand how Stefan could have missed it even though he took the time to dissect the lyrics of several of the songs line by line. This is a man whose onscreen introduction has him plotting to exploit Arendelle for riches and later intends to have queen Elsa murdered. He's intentionally portrayed as a loathsome villain so he can serve as a red herring for the final act.<br />
In the scene Molyneux describes, he is mocked by the servant Kai who introduces him to queen Elsa as the "Duke of Weaseltown". However once again Stefan displaces his scorn to the women on the scene, who let out a light embarrassed giggle when the Duke's hairpiece suddenly flops over. Their crime being caught off guard by this fussy royal.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[10:30] There are certainly overtones of lesbianism in the story. As a man says about Elsa's sexual availability: no one was getting anywhere with her.</i></blockquote>
Of course no one was getting anywhere with Elsa. She believed she was an immediate danger to everyone and had to be kept away. Unlike Anna she simply wasn't open to become either physically or emotionally close with anyone. The only hint of lesbianism is one the viewer imposes. Thankfully Stefan himself clarifies that Elsa being closed off could stand for a great many other stigmatized characteristics (<i>[11:20] religious skepticism, scientific advancement, forbidden love of every kind, creativity among dull people, existential boredom, child abuse, contempt for small talk</i>). It's just odd he would include the certain overtones of lesbianism when he himself refutes it. There are no overtones of lesbianism as Elsa has no love interest.<br />
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[41:18] It is a horrible form of sexism to pretend to women that they can be just as good as an experienced man without any experience at all - it discourages them from taking the necessary steps to work hard to achieve excellence, condemning them to lives of mediocrity; useless youthful sexual power followed by decaying middle-age resentment.</i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">He makes this statement following two observations: the first is a goofy chase scene where Anna and Kristoff fight off wolves, and the second is Elsa rapidly learning to control her powers when she can finally let loose.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">His description of Anna fighting off the wolves is false to begin with. It is Kristoff who first notices the wolves while Anna is clueless to them. It is not Kristoff who falls of the sled while Anna maintains her balance, Kristoff was forcefully dragged out by an attacking wolf. Both her hits on the wolves are clearly presented as being accidental for the sake of comedy, because it is funny when an obviously untrained person shows surprising or accidental aptitude. Contrast to Flynn Rider taking out an entire unit of (hopefully) trained guards by blindly swinging a frying pan in <i>Tangled</i> and then losing to a sword-wielding horse.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ZR6LpAQVHOk2cD_qnc9rq8GwCgPExRcCmd6IxqJCwQmXIDXayQdnlWxp3swtuDoYz-UPv6B3ASXxAVT1NMZ1psCbKd6k0y5Ch1Bu7CqY6Oci3GCapWDXqYsw30xGdeAdkZVi69ReZejs/s1600/Tangled+Flynn+vs+Maximus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Scene from Tangled: Flynn Rider vs Maximus" border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="1273" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ZR6LpAQVHOk2cD_qnc9rq8GwCgPExRcCmd6IxqJCwQmXIDXayQdnlWxp3swtuDoYz-UPv6B3ASXxAVT1NMZ1psCbKd6k0y5Ch1Bu7CqY6Oci3GCapWDXqYsw30xGdeAdkZVi69ReZejs/s320/Tangled+Flynn+vs+Maximus.png" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"You should know that this is the strangest thing I've ever done"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[40:13] Why on earth would they not understand how insulting and limiting it is to tell women they can become experts without working?"</i></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
See the only actual 'expertise' that was shown on screen was Elsa using <i>magic,</i> which she didn't even learn to control properly until the very end of the movie (I also don't remember Genie Jafar getting much of a training montage before he started juggling planets). Anna just showed off some reckless dumb luck for the sake of comedy, which is sandwiched between sequences where she shows off a complete lack of expertise also for the sake of comedy. Yet Stefan gets mad because there's no arbitrary training montage in this movie that's not about either of the sisters gaining expertise anyway (aside from figuring out the off switch on Elsa's ice power).<br />
<br />
He complains about the lack of such training sequences, with few exceptions in the movies <i>Buffy The Vampire Slayer</i> and <i>Million Dollar Baby</i>, but he lacks the understanding of the Disney Animated Canon that they likely forewent any such sequence in Frozen because it would have been nearly identical to the one in <i>Tangled</i>, where Rapunzel's opening song <i>When Will My Life Begin</i> describes her daily routine growing up locked up in the tower, which consists of honing various skills to stave off boredom.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Furthermore we have girls and women in training sequences and variations thereof in <i>Mulan</i> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64">I'll Make a Man Out of You</a>), <i>Brave</i> (her princess education + practicing horseback archery in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA9nZrhFo4U">Touch the Sky</a>), <i>Tinker Bell</i> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELt6ylCvzhc">the entire movie</a>), <i>Tinker Bell</i> <i>and the Pirate Fairy</i> (Zarina in the opening), <i>Wreck-it Ralph</i> (somehow to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7PjTIG47kQ">Rihanna's Shut up and Drive</a>) and <i>Tarzan</i> (Jane for a short time in the latter half of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc3MnoSS5Hw">Strangers Like Me</a>). Tiana's entire personality in <i>Princess and the Frog</i> is that of a dedicated workaholic trying to make her dream of owning a business happen (Not to mention later movies <i>Big Hero 6</i> and <i>Zootopia</i> would also contain training sequences). He mentions none of them and pretends they barely exist, which is my <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2015/10/the-sassette-principle.html">Sassette Principle</a> in action. Besides, <i>Let It Go</i> <i>is</i> a training montage, simply shortened to one moment for narrative and stylistic convenience.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[58:57] The madness of the ending – “I will love you only when you are dead!” – is hard to fathom. The moral of the story – “An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart” – will help breed legions of codependent cannon fodder for sociopaths and narcissists: “If my heart is still frozen, it’s because you do not love me enough!” </i></blockquote>
The insanity of this part and the bits before it is that he had to make it up out of whole cloth. He gets to portray Elsa as a violent sociopath only because he projected sociopathy on her due to his baseless assertion that "magic always means madness". "An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart" is not the moral of the story, it is merely a rule of the in-universe nature of magic. The real moral is that a personal burden is lighter to carry together with your loved ones than it is locked away in solitude to fester over years. Meanwhile the real sociopath gets called on his being the only frozen heart, after which he is punched in the face and booted out of the kingdom.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ym3t6B5V9Yf3Bw41KIevXFenDtAVlopoL1OBXyQF_CxbMrSEcJm4cDZbSjDFR8R4ZZlBnuwmaqPMiqg1UnHxJhOxhbJKwX2cFyVS4uINTRUB-nrjyUaVw9mNRMNgmMXCUl01DNPVzUr9/s1600/Frozen+The+Frozen+Heart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="957" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ym3t6B5V9Yf3Bw41KIevXFenDtAVlopoL1OBXyQF_CxbMrSEcJm4cDZbSjDFR8R4ZZlBnuwmaqPMiqg1UnHxJhOxhbJKwX2cFyVS4uINTRUB-nrjyUaVw9mNRMNgmMXCUl01DNPVzUr9/s320/Frozen+The+Frozen+Heart.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<h4>
4. Hidden Meaning in Stylistic Choices</h4>
<div>
I already mentioned several times when Molyneux tries too hard reading hidden messages in what are actually simple elements of visual shorthand, comedy or metaphor (which, again, he ignores because he's reading too much of his own prior conclusions into them). However there's one more sequence he talks about that I'd like to elaborate on.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[37:05] The opening of the movie “Frozen” baffled me for quite some time – why was there an extended and dull sequence of men cutting holes in ice and shipping them down to the city? The music was monotonous and dirge-like, and it seemed to have little to do with the rest of the story, which was about sisters and sex and magic and madness.</i></blockquote>
The Frozen Heart sequence at the start of the movie foreshadows several story elements and themes and also introduces us to Kristoff and Sven (the workers are the Greek chorus, if you like). The fact that Stefan doesn't recognize the themes of the movie in the introductory song because he's too occupied with sex and madness should probably also have tipped him off that's he's not thinking in the right direction.<br />
The stylistic reason for it being included is likely because Frozen took cues from <i>The Little Mermaid</i>, the other Disney movie based on a Hans Christian Andersen story (as well as inspiration from <i>Dumbo</i>'s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_HLXFIRmJQ">Roustabouts</a>, according to co-director Jennifer Lee). <i>The Little Mermaid</i> opens on a ship with several working sailors who sing about plot elements before we go deep into the ocean to the more fantastic kingdom of Atlantica inhabited by merpeople¹. It is a way to instantly broaden the movie's universe to majestic scales because we are now aware of both a dull mundane world, which follows relatively realistic rules, and the hidden fantasy world, which runs on magic and is inhabited by mythological creatures. The conflict in both movies partially hinges on the interaction between both worlds.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYTsXY8g1R4opC0rfNu5OT9WogBg2o7U9l-iAc4pk6hMDOh2X7ov_l2ZauLRKVrcOOdwRQEMKvuS3XOBEHhmcUDFjijUP2LoKvG9s-Qi-6u91hkX8v4Xe-WbmyUz1EJP2A129ax0QPWFqO/s1600/The+Little+Mermaid+Fathoms+Below.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1223" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYTsXY8g1R4opC0rfNu5OT9WogBg2o7U9l-iAc4pk6hMDOh2X7ov_l2ZauLRKVrcOOdwRQEMKvuS3XOBEHhmcUDFjijUP2LoKvG9s-Qi-6u91hkX8v4Xe-WbmyUz1EJP2A129ax0QPWFqO/s320/The+Little+Mermaid+Fathoms+Below.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The mundane world, which leads into...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_6BNsiyjZLxyQmRUbNue4nDGOQBzeTwp3SIONl67AUu5jUgazvh3lcSe2VrG5hZR8NsCmux84Firepzejc6oitfrB3w6CA0V7gJ4BoPTFpQ723jyjMhWpSoXsL7cWOSNsxcpOOstieuti/s1600/The+Little+Mermaid+Atlantica.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="1021" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_6BNsiyjZLxyQmRUbNue4nDGOQBzeTwp3SIONl67AUu5jUgazvh3lcSe2VrG5hZR8NsCmux84Firepzejc6oitfrB3w6CA0V7gJ4BoPTFpQ723jyjMhWpSoXsL7cWOSNsxcpOOstieuti/s320/The+Little+Mermaid+Atlantica.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">... the hidden fantasy world</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In Frozen we have the mundane world represented by the ice harvesters, which then leads us into Anna and Elsa playing around with magic, representing the hidden fantasy world which Elsa ultimately gets locked into and tries to ignore until adulthood. Unfortunately, no luck in expecting Stefan Molyneux to pick up on artistic direction in a Disney movie. Instead he explains it as yet another hidden metaphor for gender roles.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>[37:30] It hit me eventually – men produce ice through dangerous, hard, grueling labor in freezing conditions. Women produce ice through magic.</i></div>
<br />
Women don't produce ice through magic at all. <i>Elsa</i> produces ice through magic, and she doesn't sell it for a living. This isn't the story of a female ice harvester who picks up the skill without trying, it's the story of a future queen who carries an out of control magic talent that prevents her from ruling effectively. There is simply no comparison. The ice harvesters are only there for thematic reasons and to show off the animation studio's fancy new ice rendering software. Besides, if magic is just a metaphor for madness, that would mean even Elsa doesn't produce ice <i>at all</i>.<br />
<br />
But this is just emblematic of how Stefan isn't looking for analysis or "the truth" of Frozen. He is merely seeing his own damage reflected in the story. Hence some ice harvesters leading us into a movie about sisters is actually a secret message that keeps women vain and preoccupied with being pretty while their eggs are being used up on abusive alphas.<br />
<br />
¹ <span style="font-size: x-small;">Incidentally, it has been theorized by fans that The Little Mermaid is a sequel to Frozen, as due to the geographic location where both stories take place, the sunken ship that Ariel explores during her introduction might have been the doomed ship that carried the king and queen of Arendelle.</span><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
5. Conclusion</h4>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
With all this I hope I have been able to show some of the main failings in Stefan Molyneux' argumentation. The madness argument is meaningless as it is the literary equivalent of an unfalsifiable hypothesis. He reserves scorn towards characters who represent the state (except when he ignores that they are part of it) and especially if those characters are women. Furthermore he is confused by stylistic choices and not well-versed enough in the Disney Animated Canon to put Frozen into a larger perspective. As a closing positive, I will say that at least his core philosophy remains more or less consistent throughout all his arguments, unlike certain other popular media critics. It's just a shame he was never really analyzing Frozen in the first place.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3EvpXh2JFHxNI5ICRcPHpU34vPGBDUkBZ9Xxoaw-RPrw2C-pd8lZbr4VAa7BDFhjJwx_ue5GehHFJbYX56H9Qhh_Qa2IvHRvJjJvVtMI6Kl_BBtlyoZ5KpddNP0Ijc4zYIoWEgOJhfjCq/s1600/Frozen+Anna+and+Hans.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Scene from Frozen: Hans and Anna" border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="959" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3EvpXh2JFHxNI5ICRcPHpU34vPGBDUkBZ9Xxoaw-RPrw2C-pd8lZbr4VAa7BDFhjJwx_ue5GehHFJbYX56H9Qhh_Qa2IvHRvJjJvVtMI6Kl_BBtlyoZ5KpddNP0Ijc4zYIoWEgOJhfjCq/s320/Frozen+Anna+and+Hans.png" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_1049262256"></span><br />
<h4>
6. Hans the Alpha Male, Kristoff the Beta Male</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The last part of Stefan's analysis is mostly dedicated to the typical 'manosphere' talk about alpha males, beta males, resources and fertility and the like. So let's now do an in-depth analysis about his arguments on that subject.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>[53:27] Olaf the snowman is the beta harem male kept around by Anna in case none of her real men marry her.</i></blockquote>
... That's it, I'm out.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Links & References</h3>
<br />
<a href="http://freedomain.blogspot.be/2014/05/the-truth-behind-frozen.html">http://freedomain.blogspot.be/2014/05/the-truth-behind-frozen.html</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wCZPTSo1_U">Stefan Molyneux - The Truth About Frozen</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlIrmHOfeA8">Stefan Molyneux - Harry Potter, Star Wars and the Violent Fantasies of Crushed Souls</a><br />
<br />
Images from<br />
- Frozen (2013) (Taken from the movie, trailer, the UK sing-along version of Let It Go and Disney Wikia)<br />
- Frozen: A Sister More Like Me (2013)<br />
- The Little Mermaid (1989)<br />
- Once Upon A Time S04E07 (2014)<br />
- Tangled / Rapunzel (2010)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Oh God, there's a <i>The Truth About Zootopia</i>...</span></div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-2800243115947943482017-07-03T21:29:00.002+02:002023-10-06T12:51:09.866+02:00Castlevania 64: The Castle of Hell<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Castlevania for the Nintendo 64 (commonly known as "Castlevania 64") has in recent times gained the reputation as being somewhat of a black sheep in the Castlevania series. Even official sources flip-flop on whether it still counts as part of the official Castlevania timeline (when Konami still cared about Castlevania anyway). Nevertheless it's one of my favorite games. Yes, it suffers a bit from being an early Nintendo 64 title, and the Nintendo 64 controller doesn't help the game much, but still (a lot of control issues would have been solved if it were just rereleased for Virtual Console).<br />
<br />
<u>Important note</u>: this is supposed to be an analysis, not a review. Therefore I will not mind bringing up spoilers if they are relevant. Proceed with caution if you have yet to play this game and do not want to be spoiled.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Castle of Hell</span><br />Castlevania 64 (1999)</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>0. Personal History</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>1. Story and Setting </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>2. Main Characters</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>3. Level Select: Stage 3 Villa</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>4. Castlevania, Vampires and Dualism</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>5. Links & References</i></div>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>0. Personal History</b><br />
<br />
Back in 1999 I didn't know anything about Castlevania, but it looked interesting and I was convinced to buy it after the store clerk mentioned it was "like Zelda" (which confused me after playing it, but in retrospect he probably just meant that the franchise has been around for about as long and has been similarly acclaimed). At first I didn't like it all that much, mainly because I was 11 and I had just bought my first horror title, but very soon I came to adore the creepy atmosphere, the interesting characters, the epic music that typifies Castlevania and yes, even the gameplay (although as I said, playing it on the actual N64 makes it a struggle against the controller).<br />
<br />
I also chose it as the subject for a Nintendo 64 retexture project, which is unfinished but still available at <a href="http://c64project.blogspot.be/">http://c64project.blogspot.be/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<h4>
1. Story and Setting</h4>
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The story takes place in Wallachia, Transylvania in 1852. Dracula has awoken after a century of being locked away (later releases such as <i>Order of Ecclesia</i> (18??) and <i>Circle of the Moon</i> (1830) would reduce it to mere decades). Two heroes descended from the legendary Belmont and Belnades clans take it on themselves to once again rid the world of Dracula's influence.<br />
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The Castlevania series functions as an extended universe to Bram Stoker's novel Dracula <sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span></sup>, which makes its 1852 setting especially interesting as it is a mere 40 years before the count's return in the novel. Unfortunately there's very little to connect this particular game to the novel, except perhaps the Belmont clan having a reduced presence this century due to being split up into clans with different surnames. In that way Reinhardt Schneider might make it more digestible to have the novel's Quincy Morris be part of the Belmont lineage.<br />
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Some anachronisms exist within the setting, the most goofy of which is the giant skeleton boss of the first stage being accompanied by two smaller skeletons riding on motorcycles. Certain areas of the Castle Center and the Tower of Science itself reveal Dracula to have access to advanced science for the time period, which doesn't seem all that out of place considering his vast powers and connection to demonic forces.<br />
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Also there must be something odd in Wallachia's water anyway because four of the major characters, including Dracula himself, have blue hair.<br />
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<h4>
2. Main Characters</h4>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Character Select screen</td></tr>
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We have the option of 2 playable protagonists: <i>Reinhardt Schneider,</i> a descendant of the Belmont clan who dedicated themselves to defeating Dracula, and <i>Carrie Fernandez</i>, a descendant of the witch Sypha Belnades (In Japan they have the same surname) from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.<br />
Most of the game is the same no matter which character you pick, except they'll interact differently with certain characters, they'll have a different personal nemesis and 3 of the 10 stages will differ (Reinhardt will visit <i>Tunnel</i>, <i>Duel Tower</i> and <i>Tower of Execution</i>, while Carrie visits <i>Underground Waterway</i>, <i>Tower of Science</i> and <i>Tower of Sorcery</i>).<br />
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On the gameplay front I found Reinhardt and his whip rather boring and I never got too far with him. Carrie and her homing magic bullet make combat more manageable, as you can properly focus on evading enemy attacks rather than struggle to aim your whip. Because of that my perspective of the game is heavily skewed towards it being Carrie's game rather than Reinhardt's.</div>
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An interesting difference between these two heroes are their attitudes in how they go about their quest. Reinhardt, despite being the classic hero archetype, has clear doubts about his ability to live up to the legacy of his Belmont ancestors. Meanwhile 12-year old Carrie storms Dracula's castle with the full conviction that she has the power to destroy Dracula. This is even reflected in their quotes as the game starts up (and their only pieces of voiced dialogue): </div>
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<i>"Courage, don't leave me."</i></div>
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<i>-</i> Reinhardt Schneider</div>
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<i>"Whatever awaits, I have no regrets!"</i></div>
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- Carrie Fernandez</div>
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Only a few simple words, but they nevertheless reveal a great deal about their respective speaker. Reinhardt is clearly having doubts about himself, which are feelings Carrie doesn't share. In Carrie's quest it becomes a recurring theme in her dialogue to reflect her absolute conviction that she's powerful enough to defeat Dracula. She even mocks her nemesis for being a mere pawn to delay Carrie from reaching the Count.<br />
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Their difference in personality is also reflected in the challenges they face. On top of merely having to deal with the general quest of having to kill the resurrected Dracula, at the various points where their respective storylines differ, the villains start playing on our protagonists' personal doubts and fears. Reinhardt, doubting his ability to live up to his ancestors' legacy, is presented with a damsel in distress whom he can't possibly save. His personal demon is presented in the form of Dracula's right hand and series regular Death. Carrie, having had to deal with losing her family, is forced to put a vampirized relative out of her misery (a cousin, but originally supposed to be Sypha Belnades herself). And while Carrie has lost her loving stepmother who died protecting her, her personal demon comes in the form Actrise, a woman who sacrificed her own child for eternal beauty.</div>
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<h4>
3. Level Select: Stage 3 Villa</h4>
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It would take far too much effort to analyze all the stages in detail, so for now I'll stick to just one. By far the best remembered level for most people (including me) is the Villa. After the approach through the Forest of Silence and breaching the Castle Wall, players are immediately attacked by a series of Cerberus enemies (3 headed dogs, some of which can breathe fire) that guard the gates to the Villa. Once inside those gates, you are greeted with nothing but the serene sound of the fountain in the middle of the front garden with the face of the villa behind it (the outside is supposedly based on the château of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azay-le-Rideau">Azay-le-Rideau</a>). Before a moment of peace can set in however, you'll soon realize the garden is in fact a graveyard holding the former inhabitants: the Oldrey family. Though a minor nuisance, it turns out their ghosts aren't particularly fond of intruders.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11-year old me says 'eeep'</td></tr>
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Once inside you find yourself inside a hall that looks suspiciously similar to the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil 1. Before you manage to explore anything, a man-sized creature crawls across the walls and jumps right in front of you, revealing the first of the game's many vampires (Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness reveals this one to be Master J.A. Oldrey himself, who has been haunting his residence for 8 years). This was my first experience with a horror game as a child, and this scene left the biggest impression. Every time I played the game after, I dreaded this particular moment. The vampires in this game just look absolutely terrifying.<br />
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The previous stages weren't entirely linear, but this one changes things up by requiring exploration and figuring things out based on characters giving clues. Combined with the setting itself, I think it's fairly safe to say the game designers did indeed take notes from Resident Evil. On top of that there's a surprising amount of detail spent on making this place actually feel like a luxurious, though haunted by vampires and demons, villa. The walls are lined with art, including portraits of previous residents and the furniture is surprisingly elaborate for a Nintendo 64 game<br />
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This stage introduces us to most of the game's important characters: fellow vampire hunter Charlie Vincent, the noble vampire Rosa, the village child Malus and the demon salesman Renon. All of whom are interesting in their own right.<br />
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<b>Charlie Vincent</b> is likely the first non-enemy character you encounter in the entire game (outside of being briefly taunted by Dracula himself at the Castle Wall). He appears unexpectedly when you open a door in the bedroom, waving a cross <sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span></sup> in your face to determine whether you are one of Dracula's henchmen or not.<br />
He is presented as the self-professed expert vampire hunter who to us comes across as being in way over his head. We are the descendants of the Belmont/Belnades clan after all while this guy is an unknown. He carries around a stake and multiple crosses (including a giant one on his back), so while obviously being prepared, he comes across as rather foolish. This image is not helped by his general look (although with an added mustache) and name 'Charlie Vincent' calling to mind Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall's character) from Fright Night, who is an actor who plays a fictional legendary vampire hunter but freaks out when confronted with actual vampires. It thus comes as a surprise when later it turns out he is in fact instrumental in revealing the true identity of Dracula (in the good ending at least, which can be triggered by spending less than 4 in-game days reaching the Castle Keep).<br />
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Following Vincent's clue of spotting a young woman at dawn, you can, at dawn, encounter <b>Rosa</b> who has allegedly come to water the garden's "white" roses. Something is clearly wrong here because the roses are obviously red. Then it turns out the water from her watering pot is actually blood, and there was apparently so much of it that it stained all the white roses red.<br />
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Surprise! Rosa is one of the villa's vampires. Unlike any of the other vampires however, she's not at all hostile to the player character and surprisingly compassionate. She urges the player character to leave the castle, but decides to help out when they declare they can't do so until Dracula has been stopped. In Carrie's story, this is the only time we ever encounter her. In Reinhardt's story however, she's a recurring character and becomes his love interest. There we learn that Rosa has managed to maintain her human soul despite being turned. Nevertheless Death uses her as a pawn against Reinhardt and thus she turns into a tragic villain we have to fight as a boss at the end of the Castle Center (the aforementioned damsel in distress Reinhardt can't save).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I mean their similarity is too uncanny <br />
to be a coincidence, right?</td></tr>
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Descending down the stair that lead to the maze garden, you find a mysterious scroll on the ground. A man who introduces himself as a demon named <b>Renon</b> (who for some reason bears a striking resemblance to French actor Jean Reno) appears and explains to us that he sells useful items to adventurers such as us because "<i>one needs gold even in hell these days</i>". He's the game's store who can be summoned from scrolls such as the one you've just found.<br />
The one detail he neglects to mention however is that the small print in the contract specifies that spending more than 30,000 gold in his store means he gets to claim your soul as well, meaning abuse of his services punishes you by adding an extra boss in the Castle Keep before you get to face Dracula.<br />
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Then comes the maze garden itself, which quickly becomes the most intense part of the game. After wandering around for a bit, you encounter a child abducted from the village named <b>Malus</b>.<br />
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After a short introduction where he fails to remember what exactly happened to him to end up in this horrible place, you are suddenly attacked by two stone dogs you may remember as the statues in front of the maze. As Malus runs away in panic and the dogs give chase, you come face to face with the gardener: a giant Frankenstein's monster with a chainsaw for a right arm. Worse of all, he's invincible and can only be temporarily delayed, never defeated. The only thing you can do is try to keep up with Malus while you have to dodge all three enemies at once. Then the little bugger crawls under a hedge too low for us, forcing us to backtrack to find a way around and likely having to directly dodge the gardener coming right for us.<br />
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Malus having escaped, there's only one thing left to do: head towards the stage's dual bosses in the crypt. At first the crypt seems empty. Once you investigate the empty coffin at its opposite side, suddenly a corpse drops from the ceiling. Master Oldrey, the vampire we encountered at the start of the stage, was enjoying his meal and has now decided to make you his main dish. He's not all that much harder than previous vampires, he just has more health, dodges a lot quicker and can fire projectiles at you. Once you defeat him however, his previous victim has had enough time to turn herself.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHBe70DdzfdZW4005Gsoqjh1kPL4mQ8mIRVeXLoDyCIPr0SLtzlH5F75q8YQqsN78ed5_gr8YNNPvnurm0xzH9sraPA_xp20eq1H0ohOgWLS4Jb6kJ640T9OC6em16TeIYBHj72TZxrLO/s1600/Castlevania+Nintendo+64+Vampire+Oldrey+Villa+Crypt+Boss+Battle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="1600" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHBe70DdzfdZW4005Gsoqjh1kPL4mQ8mIRVeXLoDyCIPr0SLtzlH5F75q8YQqsN78ed5_gr8YNNPvnurm0xzH9sraPA_xp20eq1H0ohOgWLS4Jb6kJ640T9OC6em16TeIYBHj72TZxrLO/s400/Castlevania+Nintendo+64+Vampire+Oldrey+Villa+Crypt+Boss+Battle.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Master Oldrey and his most recent victim</td></tr>
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<h4>
4. Castlevania, Vampires and Dualism
</h4>
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Castlevania as a series based on Bram Stoker's vampire Dracula inherently introduces Christian elements and imagery into the game world, superficial as they may be. Traditionally it is thought vampires do not cast a reflection because they lack a soul. Indeed in the Villa stage we have a cutscene where a seemingly ordinary, though clearly deranged, villager is revealed to be a vampire in disguise because he doesn't appear in a nearby mirror. It's even a rather effective jump-scare, even though we can see it coming from miles away.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6enKkWG1pF93FZqh4MPq4uC76Aa7CnTqLO0xnLog3ypmuCmEFw027t2UtKioBEWwm9u_l5YpL_QwR7XXh2g88cuTf7Jh5M5j3u9ihk3M61oAUUji162tUIIO2I85awF1LUHQE2Q-EA0Om/s1600/Castlevania+Nintendo+64+Vampire+Carrie+Villa+Mirror.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="1024" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6enKkWG1pF93FZqh4MPq4uC76Aa7CnTqLO0xnLog3ypmuCmEFw027t2UtKioBEWwm9u_l5YpL_QwR7XXh2g88cuTf7Jh5M5j3u9ihk3M61oAUUji162tUIIO2I85awF1LUHQE2Q-EA0Om/s320/Castlevania+Nintendo+64+Vampire+Carrie+Villa+Mirror.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="text-align: justify;">We also have several characters, especially demonic villains who are likely authorities on the subject, who comment on souls and the harvesting thereof. Like a lot of vampire fiction, Castlevania thus maintains a view of the mind-body that is dualistic in nature.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">Dualism is essentially the idea that there's a difference between the mind and the brain, or the soul and our bodies. It is an idea closely associated with René Descartes (1596-1650), who</span> believed the mind has a two-way relationship with the body through the pineal gland in the brain, but has since fallen out of style, largely because it is essentially the 'God did it' of neurobiology and thus a scientific stopping point of investigation. Finding an explanation of what consciousness is and how it came about is to this day an enormous mindscrew (excuse the pun), but it is a fairly safe assumption that 'we' aren't a metaphorical homunculus operating a body from inside the brain (or, a metaphysical player operating a real world player character).<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ-YWIFNGvfeqm4l8phl5sjj7Zptf5WnoG_kobd3szMryv5C1UoydmehocVJbb5Htt9vwLdBodktSV6BCDOxHUlBlSWPPfEg0eJ4D2YdZXnzgLUtjrqA6c4kQXQtsWym44Jkmh-WEaaSE2/s1600/Phineas+Gage+Tampering+Iron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="485" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ-YWIFNGvfeqm4l8phl5sjj7Zptf5WnoG_kobd3szMryv5C1UoydmehocVJbb5Htt9vwLdBodktSV6BCDOxHUlBlSWPPfEg0eJ4D2YdZXnzgLUtjrqA6c4kQXQtsWym44Jkmh-WEaaSE2/s320/Phineas+Gage+Tampering+Iron.jpg" width="188" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phineas Gage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
An often-cited example that cast doubt over dualism is the case of Phineas Gage (1823-1860), an American railroad construction foreman who because of an accident in 1848 had a large iron rod driven through his skull, destroying parts of his brain. Gage amazingly survived but his personality and behavior saw drastic changes. This is of course odd if the self is immaterial to the brain. It should be noted however that the body of facts regarding the "American Crowbar Case" is surprisingly slim for one so noteworthy in neurology. Later evidence (such as the pictures of him discovered in 2009 and 2010) revealed that Gage's sudden personality change did in fact level out and he recovered his social abilities later in life (which on the surface to me sounds like he makes an amazing example of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity">neuroplasticity</a> in action).<br />
<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">Back to Castlevania. The existence of Rosa makes things interesting. Here we have a vampire who has somehow maintained her human soul despite having been turned. This raises a couple of questions. Would she appear in a mirror despite being a vampire? What gives the other scheming and articulate vampires their intelligence? Perhaps the lesser enemies are simply driven by basal desires while Dracula's inner circle consists of turned humans who like Rosa have their souls intact but who simply were just that evil. Carrie's nemesis Actrise murdering 100 children, including her own, to attain his favor certainly makes a case for that possibility. Where this doesn't hold up is with Master J.A. Oldrey in the Legacy of Darkness version of the game, who was described by his wife as a good man before he was turned into a decidedly evil vampire but who retains his intelligence.</span><br />
What then of the count himself? In the usual Castlevania game, he is merely resurrected after having been slain by the previous Belmont. This game however has it as an actual plot twist that he hasn't been resurrected, but has been outright reincarnated <sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">3</span></sup>. On the duality scale, clearly he must still have his soul intact (though warped due to the events of <i>Lament of Innocence</i> and <i>Symphony of the Night</i>) if he is subjected to reincarnation.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoqsJZoswXPnQz73VxsSm9HoJ0VXvfFGAbATJBPPnzqwYht2WlPntiqpJGKjkV7RT71cdnBbmFppvU7zjJLUl5A_Mz83KRRqPx0dmlMDsOjeTlD-rmx5qU1IsDTxf7GD7eX-9vSXthQGLT/s1600/Castlevania+Nintendo+64+Carrie+Fernandez+turning+into+Vampire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoqsJZoswXPnQz73VxsSm9HoJ0VXvfFGAbATJBPPnzqwYht2WlPntiqpJGKjkV7RT71cdnBbmFppvU7zjJLUl5A_Mz83KRRqPx0dmlMDsOjeTlD-rmx5qU1IsDTxf7GD7eX-9vSXthQGLT/s320/Castlevania+Nintendo+64+Carrie+Fernandez+turning+into+Vampire.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In this game it is actually possible for the player characters themselves to be turned into vampires. One of the tactics enemy vampires will employ is that they will try to get close in order to suck Reinhardt or Carrie's blood. If not fought off rapidly enough, their status will change from 'Good' to 'Vamp'. This status effect will disable the character's main attack and unless cured by an item known as 'Purifying', at the stroke of midnight the character will turn into a vampire themselves (unless bitten less than an hour before midnight, then you are afforded an extra day). At this point the screen goes black and the player is booted to the Game Over screen. In a meta sense, you could argue this means the player is the character's "soul" and the process of turning into a vampire severs that connection. Without our moral guidance, Reinhardt or Carrie are now just mindless monsters themselves.<br />
<br />
But that's getting a bit too deep into a goofy horror game about blue-haired anime vampires. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjrWOTCGdO4WQCD7Y63abAQQXKnn4tl9jNUCcBXZ1xeGggVDIo_C0iTqJ3Naos1b6IYoMZ-PMFY-vb1ZzaapPSx5zisbsQ7IEAgduT-Af0EoNu1R8OEoQYGYLiv8wpnDAnDD9fjucoXaB/s1600/Castlevania+64+Carrie+Fernandez.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="814" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjrWOTCGdO4WQCD7Y63abAQQXKnn4tl9jNUCcBXZ1xeGggVDIo_C0iTqJ3Naos1b6IYoMZ-PMFY-vb1ZzaapPSx5zisbsQ7IEAgduT-Af0EoNu1R8OEoQYGYLiv8wpnDAnDD9fjucoXaB/s320/Castlevania+64+Carrie+Fernandez.png" width="208" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">1. Quincy Morris from Bram Stoker's Dracula is stated in the Castlevania games to be a relative of the Belmont clan. His son (John Morris) and grandson (Jonathan Morris) are playable characters in Bloodlines and Portrait of Ruin respectively.<br />2. I wrote this entire paragraph with "crucifix" in place of "cross" before I learned it's technically only a crucifix when it consists of a cross and a corpus (the body of Jesus Christ). (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifix">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifix</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">3. He is reincarnated again as Soma Cruz in the games Aria of Sorrow (2003) and Dawn of Sorrow (2005), perhaps one of the reasons why Castlevania 64 has a dubious place in the timeline, as it rather conflicts with the nature of reincarnation in those games.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
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<h4>
<b>5. Links & References</b></h4>
<br />
<a href="http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Castlevania_Wiki">http://castlevania.wikia.com</a><br />
Dennett, Daniel - Consciousness Explained (1991)<br />
Doidge, Norman - The Brain That Changes Itself (2007)<br />
Kaku, Michio - The Future of the Mind (2014)<br />
<br />
Images from:<br />
Castlevania, Konami (1999)<br />
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phineas_Gage_GageMillerPhoto2010-02-17_Unretouched_Color_Cropped.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a><br />
<br /></div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-16092990776978932292017-06-03T22:30:00.001+02:002017-06-05T21:15:48.742+02:00The Abduction of Zelda<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">I start off most of these with a restatement of my stance on the subject and I still think it's worth repeating: I want more and 'stronger' female protagonists. Where I differ from the vast majority of modern critics arguing for the same thing is that I think their methods are counterproductive and hostile. By always focusing on the negative, you can accidentally end up exacerbating it. They'll defend this by saying they're just highlighting sexism. Exactly, one highlights something because one considers it most important and that's not always a good thing. Furthermore this causes confusion with the artists on what the public really wants (since they only get feedback on what they <b>don't</b> want while all the good stuff is ignored) and hostility from the fans who do like certain things that are being argued against (and this being art and entertainment, the morality of anything done to fictional characters is largely irrelevant anyway).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">Therefore I think we should be focusing on the positives. Highlight what we think should be in the public zeitgeist so we as a collective start thinking positively about these characters rather than just keeping them locked into a cycle of stereotypes and negativity. Current media critics do little more than make the entire conversation an annoying bore while they actively train themselves to be offended at everything (and then they suddenly wonder why they never noticed how everything was so offensive before).</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">This post can also serve as an addendum to my earlier post <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2013/05/the-ordeal-of-queen-zelda.html">The Ordeal of Queen Zelda</a>, which attempts to look at Princess Zelda, as portrayed in Ocarina of Time, in function of the monomyth.</span></div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Abduction of Zelda</span><br />The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQh6cbKvj4IreMJKDr92zB4S4IGWtjmtGRWQqL1iIR_ouU3YZfE5iPpMukMd49Blnh0K4Yrn24QTGfy_w5d8r8Z7a3GYHDezzSxrnyrqYpD2De_sL6ntbh0xTou2dfcCWXlEJGnlG05PzL/s1600/Legend+of+Zelda+Ocarina+of+Time+Zelda+Captured.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="1024" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQh6cbKvj4IreMJKDr92zB4S4IGWtjmtGRWQqL1iIR_ouU3YZfE5iPpMukMd49Blnh0K4Yrn24QTGfy_w5d8r8Z7a3GYHDezzSxrnyrqYpD2De_sL6ntbh0xTou2dfcCWXlEJGnlG05PzL/s320/Legend+of+Zelda+Ocarina+of+Time+Zelda+Captured.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">One thing I see brought up occasionally is people scratching their heads at the kidnapping of Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and how the scene supposedly makes no sense. Worse are the weird ones who imply (if not outright state) that Zelda, </span>after years of masquerading as Sheik, only gets kidnapped because she revealed herself as a woman, rather than the blatantly obvious fact that she revealed herself to be the princess (at that moment probably even the uncrowned queen) of the land Ganondorf is trying to take over, as well as the wielder of a part of the ancient 3 Goddess'-powered artifact he spent the entire game and the rest of the series assembling.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Tvtropes is just weird about it.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Badass Decay: Zelda was hit with this the moment she was kidnapped by Ganondorf after revealing herself to Link, for no explained reason; especially if you take account</i><i> that she spent seven years as a Sheikah warrior."</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>- <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime">Tvtropes TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime YMMV</a></i></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
That just doesn't make any sense. What do you mean, no explained reason? She was blindsided and got magically locked in crystal by one of the most powerful sorcerers in the land. It doesn't seem all that unreasonable for her to require a bit of help at that point.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
There's one thing to keep in mind. Zelda's kidnapping is overstated (as it usually is). The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a roughly 30 hour game going by my last playthrough (likely a lot longer for a new player. <a href="https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=10035">How Long To Beat</a> has it between 26.5 to 38.5 hours depending on playstyle).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVU30nA5CUU4nRx6W-Yvw0GSMXBOQI5SU5tDyU4pdtdWRGVzaCH3gPskK4JEJNbLts2WqQbS_Frv49CiU3nDMaOYuuePfYClYkimQf9QSJmQ3uzk80uofKmwtgkolw9W5GcGpYrt4GDHw/s1600/Legend+of+Zelda+Ocarina+of+Time+Sheik+Triforce+of+Wisdom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1024" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVU30nA5CUU4nRx6W-Yvw0GSMXBOQI5SU5tDyU4pdtdWRGVzaCH3gPskK4JEJNbLts2WqQbS_Frv49CiU3nDMaOYuuePfYClYkimQf9QSJmQ3uzk80uofKmwtgkolw9W5GcGpYrt4GDHw/s320/Legend+of+Zelda+Ocarina+of+Time+Sheik+Triforce+of+Wisdom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
Princess Zelda is the mastermind behind everything happening on the good side for about 29 hours of those, which is also a full 7 years in-game, and only gets kidnapped right before the final battle with Ganondorf, after which she's also the one to imprison him for 100's of years until the events of Wind Waker (Link only weakens Ganondorf enough so Zelda's magic can overpower him). For the remainder of the game she's both the one guiding Link (first as Hyrule's princess, then from the shadows as the mysterious Sheikah warrior unimaginatively named 'Sheik') and being a hero behind the scenes in her own right (as mentioned by the Zora princess Ruto, who was helped by Sheik when Zora's Domain froze over).<br />
<div>
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</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Firstly, the reason why Zelda gets kidnapped so sudden is very simple. It's established early on that Ganondorf was watching Link as he progressed through the game (merely implied by the nightmare Link has when he first pulls the Master Sword from its pedestal, if indeed a nightmare at all, and outright stated when Link defeats Ganondorf's phantom in the Forest Temple). Since Ganondorf needs both Link and Zelda to complete the Triforce, we can fairly safely assume he didn't intervene directly with Link's quest because he wanted to lure Zelda out in the open, heck he explicitly says this when he finally captures Zelda. Losing the temples is only a minor setback if it means gaining the entire Triforce. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Secondly, why did he capture Zelda instead of Link, or why only Zelda and not both of them? Well he is still underestimating Link and says as much by claiming everything he did was merely the result of Link somehow having the Triforce of Courage. He simply doesn't take this kid from the forest seriously. Furthermore, by virtue of being Courage he knows Link will immediately come to face him anyway.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCnM6HEgjjTgMt0AGL8E2JJKbQAH63PZvw_tLgzc8WAeYptP-Pq5IcS7GxwJvIXUMgLASMmzzqaMHUPD05PPzAbp_B-AuoezitetHmrgGO-L_YtHcJpzIIaTpQj_8nj4jOIjGv-mAg6spV/s1600/Legend+of+Zelda+Ocarina+of+Time+Link+Misjudged.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="No... It was not the kid's power I misjudged, it was the power of the Triforce of Courage!" border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1024" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCnM6HEgjjTgMt0AGL8E2JJKbQAH63PZvw_tLgzc8WAeYptP-Pq5IcS7GxwJvIXUMgLASMmzzqaMHUPD05PPzAbp_B-AuoezitetHmrgGO-L_YtHcJpzIIaTpQj_8nj4jOIjGv-mAg6spV/s320/Legend+of+Zelda+Ocarina+of+Time+Link+Misjudged.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
Heck, had Sheik not intercepted Link when he first walked out of the Temple of Time during his adult years, he might have gone to face Ganon right then and there and likely lost (maybe that's where the Failed Hero timeline according to Hyrule Historia came from: Zelda herself might have gone back in time to prevent Link from facing Ganon too early, thus causing the second split).<br />
Zelda on the other hand <i>is</i> Wisdom. She knows better than to foolishly run into danger head-on and instead calculates her approach. Indeed when she knew she couldn't go up against Ganondorf, she hid for 7 years and undermined his rule from the shadows. This attitude is symbolically reflected in Zelda's frequent use of bows, especially later in the series: She prefers to strike from a distance. Unfortunately she slipped up by revealing herself to Link.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsLRYxzDWWUqtY5BOZN__t3viPqYlVgVjT38LWxjBbqejgs2ZSmW8szFHreqpG7MGjvvqaVtaHewikW4yDyYyCftmN4BqLDq6GFYu3fIQCHjrkLwLTzCicEo8sTOrO9OXJsWOapcbWOCV/s1600/Legend+of+Zelda+Ocarina+of+Time+Zelda+Captured+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1024" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsLRYxzDWWUqtY5BOZN__t3viPqYlVgVjT38LWxjBbqejgs2ZSmW8szFHreqpG7MGjvvqaVtaHewikW4yDyYyCftmN4BqLDq6GFYu3fIQCHjrkLwLTzCicEo8sTOrO9OXJsWOapcbWOCV/s320/Legend+of+Zelda+Ocarina+of+Time+Zelda+Captured+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"I knew you would appear if I let this kid wander around!"</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</div>
<h3>
<br />
Conclusion</h3>
<br />
In short, Ganondorf took Zelda seriously as a threat, unlike Link who he found merely amusing. Zelda had to be removed from the game while he thought he could just toy with this boy from the forest. That is why Ganondorf kidnapped Zelda rather than Link.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Links and References</h3>
<br />
<a href="https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=10035">How Long To Beat: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time</a><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414">The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia</a><br />
<a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2013/05/the-ordeal-of-queen-zelda.html">Vicsor's Opinion - The Ordeal of Queen Zelda</a></div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-18551639220307179892017-02-10T17:53:00.000+01:002017-02-10T17:53:29.626+01:00Castlevania Judgment Redux<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is an edited/updated repost of an old blogpost I made over at my Castlevania 64 Hi-Res page (<a href="http://c64project.blogspot.be/2013/02/the-problem-with-castlevania-judgment.html">Original</a>). Since I feel the content is pretty much in line with the rest of what I do here, I might as well has it here as well.</div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">My Problem With Castlevania Judgment</span><br />A Rant About Maria Renard</b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-gTDzMzGXM0421VrsL2GDS3FZNAkaMMnH7t9XXqkUOaZMdrZLByUj6BrJFy-ifzdAr2H7B0dfqm7JdqmoEguBwQLS3CmLP-sn1hoPuOjWsj_gVG_HpwD1pnhVaqCuJo5RaL_kQ1ITpnhC/s1600/Castlevania+Symphony+of+the+Night+Maria+Renard+Artwork.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-gTDzMzGXM0421VrsL2GDS3FZNAkaMMnH7t9XXqkUOaZMdrZLByUj6BrJFy-ifzdAr2H7B0dfqm7JdqmoEguBwQLS3CmLP-sn1hoPuOjWsj_gVG_HpwD1pnhVaqCuJo5RaL_kQ1ITpnhC/s320/Castlevania+Symphony+of+the+Night+Maria+Renard+Artwork.png" width="217" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">But not about this version.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">She's cool.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If you followed my progress on my old Castlevania 64 retexture project (which has since more or less stopped due to all the technical difficulties that popped up that I became unwilling to deal with) you might have noticed that I took a fair share of visual influence from Castlevania Judgment (2008) for the Wii. So let's talk about Castlevania Judgment. Mainly the biggest problem I have with the game.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You see, screw complaints about the odd fighting engine, the characters being redesigned by the artist of Death Note (which resulted in Shanoa looking like a nun so they didn't have to render her hair and Dracula somehow sporting udders), the good guys being bigger jerks than the forces of evil, alternate costumes just being palette swaps and the overall game not feeling overly polished. Those things didn't bother me that much and being given the opportunity to play as Cornell from Legacy of Darkness made up for a great deal. No, for me the greatest evil in this game isn't represented by Dracula, Galamoth or the Time Reaper, but by Maria Renard.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yes, 12-year old Maria Renard from Rondo of Blood.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrwHTj8f7fsp2TEuktuVkcZxYDHaolc_PmXmlZIbMi2Ks-38Ho_EGxRMgsBaK3viRyTSczIwqOrQmLmAqLxQce63P0l7yz3dCUyxXcjnwrePfAMqe9a0n26RK-i-T0C8-TNWWRpJefo0A/s1600/Shanoa+lost.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrwHTj8f7fsp2TEuktuVkcZxYDHaolc_PmXmlZIbMi2Ks-38Ho_EGxRMgsBaK3viRyTSczIwqOrQmLmAqLxQce63P0l7yz3dCUyxXcjnwrePfAMqe9a0n26RK-i-T0C8-TNWWRpJefo0A/s320/Shanoa+lost.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Her character design (what's that supposed to be anyway? Pink BDSM loli?) and high-pitched voice acting alone make me want to scratch her entire existence from the disc, but then there's her moveset. Most of the time she's just randomly flying around the screen, being lunged at her opponent by the owl in her staff. Her special attack has her falling to the ground so her owl can do all the work for her. Every hit she makes sprinkles Microsoft Clip Art all over the screen, and she NEVER EVER SHUTS UP.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCInF2RUhueHJvXYkWH3zAR4w-LqRNGwns7ixnYCnTs8SdDcdXl65ovMZmkskf3p6V8GbpIox98foOjIlikROjNkBOk7K_B5AxuvuFeYP0istp4V5tndFYdP6ABrM1MMmjlZYvI5CBo4/s1600/RDGPA4-199.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCInF2RUhueHJvXYkWH3zAR4w-LqRNGwns7ixnYCnTs8SdDcdXl65ovMZmkskf3p6V8GbpIox98foOjIlikROjNkBOk7K_B5AxuvuFeYP0istp4V5tndFYdP6ABrM1MMmjlZYvI5CBo4/s320/RDGPA4-199.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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So it's a fighting game and in fighting game fashion there's a story mode which details the motivation of why each character in question is there. We are introduced to newcomer Aeon who provides the plot device as to why people from different time periods can interact, and from there they just kind of have a go at each other until the most powerful warrior is chosen who will attempt to defeat the Time Reaper, thus saving history itself.</div>
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Now Simon Belmont takes the opportunity to test his abilities against the legendary three warriors from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. Shanoa just wants to get out of the Time Rift as fast as possible to continue her mission to hunt down Albus. Cornell seeks someone to help him control the werewolf form. A Golem who has gained sentience fights for his right to exist. Dracula obviously seeks revenge for his many defeats (yet because of the greater threat of Galamoth he also seems to be the most reasonable and practical of the playable characters).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Maria Renard's story and motivation? Beating up the other Castlevania girls <b>because they have larger breasts than her</b>. No, really, that's her story mode. We have the most annoying 12-year old on the planet running around seeking fights with both allies and enemies because she is insecure about her body image.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjld8ZOK3qjvCVZWHY26gIqxxg_TpTasuU-TZhHDoOeQvHvsph_5t6P0GCjfUwlV9OISaSzeVuhui2pQ2ZSWqQ-1sJ0LLSSqVyPgoBnwERRG7TKOy9XG2iO4sbMsNxn96vjgmsy5weVtrk/s1600/Sypha+boobs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjld8ZOK3qjvCVZWHY26gIqxxg_TpTasuU-TZhHDoOeQvHvsph_5t6P0GCjfUwlV9OISaSzeVuhui2pQ2ZSWqQ-1sJ0LLSSqVyPgoBnwERRG7TKOy9XG2iO4sbMsNxn96vjgmsy5weVtrk/s320/Sypha+boobs.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">vs. Sypha Belnades</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1XMUdFCIRu4yxVEtSfBUphZO8hqT1WIxBYAzbAXEJHzg0cs-ecs1v2gEAOPOW9yNnt8TuFJujEPVR9xMLBPJJxuwIxKF_jkSXyCdDrm_LT4OPmFR9s0BZfVuLmTJYHTL8IlLYgyRoE_Y/s1600/Carmilla+boobs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1XMUdFCIRu4yxVEtSfBUphZO8hqT1WIxBYAzbAXEJHzg0cs-ecs1v2gEAOPOW9yNnt8TuFJujEPVR9xMLBPJJxuwIxKF_jkSXyCdDrm_LT4OPmFR9s0BZfVuLmTJYHTL8IlLYgyRoE_Y/s320/Carmilla+boobs.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">vs. Carmilla</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
I mean seriously? Who thought this was a great idea for a Castlevania game? Did we really need to ruin a beloved Castlevania character (... even more, YMMV) for this game just so we could have some more extreme close ups of Sypha and Carmilla's boobs? Nothing about having to find Richter or Annette. No tie-in with either Rondo of Blood or Symphony of the Night. Just a 12-year old girl throwing a tantrum over tits.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
There's a lot of Castlevania characters that I would have liked to see in this game (Carrie Fernandez being my #1, although I love that her game was at least acknowledged at all by having Cornell) and it didn't have a ton of features anyway, but I would have seriously preferred just not to have Maria Renard at all. At least not like this.</div>
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Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-43804979001147021542017-01-28T13:22:00.000+01:002017-01-28T13:22:48.536+01:00Jack in the Dark<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's Halloween night (yet oddly also Christmas), Grace Saunders is trick or treating dressed as a witch when the lights of a toy shop catch her attention. She knocks on the door, enters, and is subsequently locked inside. Led by a malevolent Jack-in-the-box modeled after Alone in the Dark 2's One-Eyed Jack, the toys have come alive and kidnapped Santa Claus.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Jack in the Dark</b></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg52VIRy8HqGPp2m51F9Ffahlz_PBrpT8sfjLdbS-3VsAyEjFVaG4kIiLgabgbf5PRpmWrH7nm7tGB3pK5S2Wda7Y24pGbZuD8NjDYU7RGyC07AhRJbqe_P6Vha3D9nevHtysHu_w4Jv9ZU/s1600/Alone+Jack+in+the+Dark+-+Grace+Saunders+1993.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg52VIRy8HqGPp2m51F9Ffahlz_PBrpT8sfjLdbS-3VsAyEjFVaG4kIiLgabgbf5PRpmWrH7nm7tGB3pK5S2Wda7Y24pGbZuD8NjDYU7RGyC07AhRJbqe_P6Vha3D9nevHtysHu_w4Jv9ZU/s320/Alone+Jack+in+the+Dark+-+Grace+Saunders+1993.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Jack in the Dark was a small promotional game (like floppy disk small) distributed Christmas 1993 to advertise the upcoming Alone in the Dark 2. It's also so short you can easily finish it in about 5 minutes if you know what you're doing, the tank controls are rather sluggish and the graphics of the 3D models haven't exactly aged graciously. Also unlike the original Alone in the Dark, it doesn't exactly seem like a tale that could have sprung from the pages of H.P. Lovecraft.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJpE77TZe1eISrRmx-ZbjwzmRlx2XxAobOo5VesEKJAWqH7v11iJyXaS0KJO6Az67Bw39R8ohDMdymN9BWxwlggPSbh-L8KXtLblnXIyJxBUGS-P2TYWhiIIrn8OZcLnLSKtI7igFibEy/s1600/Alone+Jack+in+the+Dark+1993.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJpE77TZe1eISrRmx-ZbjwzmRlx2XxAobOo5VesEKJAWqH7v11iJyXaS0KJO6Az67Bw39R8ohDMdymN9BWxwlggPSbh-L8KXtLblnXIyJxBUGS-P2TYWhiIIrn8OZcLnLSKtI7igFibEy/s320/Alone+Jack+in+the+Dark+1993.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basically the map of the entire game.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nevertheless the game has its charm. You get a catchy festive tune and dated though appealing pixelated graphics for backgrounds. Then there's the atmosphere of an old toy shop during Halloween that's about to get ready for the Christmas season, and there's just something about being alone in a toy shop that captures the imagination of our residual inner child.<br />
Jack in the Dark is not a huge landmark in the history of video games (although it achieved a bit more than you'd think, you'll see in just a minute), but it's just a charming little game. If you ever feel like checking out the old Alone in the Dark games, be sure not to skip this one. It's not that long anyway (it usually comes attached to either AitD 1 or 2. AitD 1 in the GoG version).<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h4>
Grace Saunders as a Protagonist</h4>
<br />
Though the roots of the survival horror genre itself go much deeper, it is accepted that Alone in the Dark in 1992 was the first survival horror game in 3D, even before Resident Evil named the genre a few years later in 1996 with the iconic words "Enter the survival horror". There's no shortage of female protagonists in the survival horror, with Resident Evil's Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield and Silent Hill's Heather Mason being some of the more well known.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclBRuXPd865Hk8y0mS0SUOqSIg8LaOHNLZrsVxu4v_DGyJ2J8sXlkn3Mf68gSw1NPPUnIH37iTfF4xf6OPBWmTZir0DdOhrVIF95eyzt6nyQjHFw3sNMJvHVdJhyphenhyphenoP1oaBqaYsklXtH5s/s1600/Alone+in+the+Dark+1992+Emily+Hartwood.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclBRuXPd865Hk8y0mS0SUOqSIg8LaOHNLZrsVxu4v_DGyJ2J8sXlkn3Mf68gSw1NPPUnIH37iTfF4xf6OPBWmTZir0DdOhrVIF95eyzt6nyQjHFw3sNMJvHVdJhyphenhyphenoP1oaBqaYsklXtH5s/s320/Alone+in+the+Dark+1992+Emily+Hartwood.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emily Hartwood</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
While Alone in the Dark as a series favors Edward Carnby as its protagonist, female options aren't all that rare here either. However Emily Hartwood and Aline Cedrac are merely optional choices next to Carnby, while Grace Saunders <i>is</i> the sole protagonist of Jack in the Dark. Meaning the first female protagonist of the 3D survival horror genre (and first solo protagonist) who stars in her own game ... is little 8-year old Grace Saunders going up against haunted toys. And that's just kinda funny.<br />
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Grace Saunders would go on to become an important supporting character (as well as being briefly playable) in Alone in the Dark 2. When she rescued Santa and closed the toy shop doors, she left behind the world of haunted toys, only so Kirsten Dunst could become the scream queen of nineties malicious toy movies.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLSJfBDQz_d2XEkver0kv8MHstnRwTeSOOUl2_rMX2NUMQGKZtbaz7HNwVBUBqfcLN2ic7eiyj4Sqi4eoRErCivHxph8Q8b32sX3rjhmEDuhGgTqa5roOb01BQM8k_BK7HesuzWupWaRsc/s1600/Jumanji+1995+Small+Soldiers+1998+Kirsten+Dunst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLSJfBDQz_d2XEkver0kv8MHstnRwTeSOOUl2_rMX2NUMQGKZtbaz7HNwVBUBqfcLN2ic7eiyj4Sqi4eoRErCivHxph8Q8b32sX3rjhmEDuhGgTqa5roOb01BQM8k_BK7HesuzWupWaRsc/s320/Jumanji+1995+Small+Soldiers+1998+Kirsten+Dunst.jpg" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Jumanji </b>(1995) and <b>Small Soldiers</b> (1998)</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
... Okay there's probably no actual connection going on here, but a Netflix binge after having finished Jack in the Dark spawned the odd realization that, not only did Kirsten Dunst have a tendency to show up in nineties movies that somehow involved evil toys, Jumanji is also set in a de facto haunted mansion except by way of Edgar Rice Burroughs rather than H.P. Lovecraft (Small Soldiers is just about super-intelligent military hardware carelessly being put into children's toys which predictably goes wrong). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Maybe that would have been a cool idea for a video game based on Jumanji (rather than the Mario Party clone we got for PlayStation 2): lock the player character(s) inside a Resident Evil-ish mansion with the board game. Each roll of the dice opens a door or spawns a challenge in the form of jungle-themed enemies or hazards to overcome. Maybe Van Pelt as a Nemesis-like boss who steals the game.<br />
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But now I'm just thinking out loud...</div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-43329163403080572812017-01-09T23:32:00.000+01:002018-12-10T09:29:45.239+01:00Couldn't resist.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-eH2uG5lmQw9-hDohIoX7nLPwibPAZGxxPB7nEj_E_P90snoX9s6u_iQHGtCXsuvp1JBaN9vmoLXIZLZ5eyMfMvbU3HM_F9Qg1y5UW8dx3xaGV9xY5MMR91_FRGIfbHggxs55jXb8LCcd/s1600/Life+Is+Strange+-+Loss+Edit+CADbortion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-eH2uG5lmQw9-hDohIoX7nLPwibPAZGxxPB7nEj_E_P90snoX9s6u_iQHGtCXsuvp1JBaN9vmoLXIZLZ5eyMfMvbU3HM_F9Qg1y5UW8dx3xaGV9xY5MMR91_FRGIfbHggxs55jXb8LCcd/s320/Life+Is+Strange+-+Loss+Edit+CADbortion.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Loss</span></td></tr>
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<br />Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-62599839163454514012016-12-27T10:03:00.001+01:002017-01-08T20:36:35.373+01:00My 2016 in Gaming<div style="text-align: justify;">
Right, so I don't have the habit of being all that up-to-date on the most recent games, partially because I feel the "buy on release" attitude is somewhat responsible for the pre-order bonus madness that keeps getting further out of hand, but mostly because being like 2 years behind is simply more friendly on my wallet. Basically doing some "Best of 2016" is out of the question because I haven't played enough <i>from</i> 2016. Instead I'm just going over a couple (I intended 5 but I wanted both Tomb Raiders) of the more memorable stuff I played and actually bloody finished during this horrible, horrible year. In chronological order.<br />
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(Allowing myself to recycle some of my Tweets about these games from the previous year and expand on them. Win.)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">My 2016 in Gaming</span><br />From someone perpetually years behind on pop culture.</b></div>
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<h3>
<b>1. Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster</b></h3>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1tS2OFK5v3DpgMO4-QGKRwTpENMXJvYyXtEEnkeCP2z-4s-bnOudnSPULnYsFvVDqUgXiucyfCLi9z7mbfQWrqXf-Dtjyp3R1xkTQWchc8mnYL8Xa2n7hyphenhyphenvklkK-xHuZxJIwZwyQ2IlQ/s1600/Resident+Evil+0+HD+Remaster+Rebecca+Chambers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1tS2OFK5v3DpgMO4-QGKRwTpENMXJvYyXtEEnkeCP2z-4s-bnOudnSPULnYsFvVDqUgXiucyfCLi9z7mbfQWrqXf-Dtjyp3R1xkTQWchc8mnYL8Xa2n7hyphenhyphenvklkK-xHuZxJIwZwyQ2IlQ/s320/Resident+Evil+0+HD+Remaster+Rebecca+Chambers.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Released: Jan 19, 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Played: Jan, 2016</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Resident Evil Zero (2002) for the GameCube was actually the first Resident Evil game I ever played. As such I have some pretty fond memories of it but I never actually finished it. I decided to remedy that with the HD Remaster that was released early 2016. For a lot of longtime fans Zero was the point when the classic Resident Evil gameplay style was becoming old and tired, a problem I didn't really have since I barely played any of the others (I think I stopped halfway Jill's story in Resident Evil: Deadly Silence and the only other similar game I played was Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare). Most of my knowledge of Resident Evil's storyline actually comes from the Chronicles games on Wii and spending too much time on the Resident Evil wikia.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qCwdFuxUPGztY4jgouegLMd1YhtHebmzb634t74BMa4B6QgsjVvFtF3HY_kSJZyXphv4skxroFOpF0ot3ZWo7koaikUKGUvCTlmF-T2tx0yrXXAvmrygb8UtAUyblZikKj6eeFM2Jlkd/s1600/Resident+Evil+0+HD+Remaster+Rebecca+Model+Update.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="91" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qCwdFuxUPGztY4jgouegLMd1YhtHebmzb634t74BMa4B6QgsjVvFtF3HY_kSJZyXphv4skxroFOpF0ot3ZWo7koaikUKGUvCTlmF-T2tx0yrXXAvmrygb8UtAUyblZikKj6eeFM2Jlkd/s320/Resident+Evil+0+HD+Remaster+Rebecca+Model+Update.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new models are nice but they seem less expressive.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'd say if you liked Resident Evil Zero (or want to play it at all), the HD Remaster is a good version of it. Plus it has quite a few more costumes (some unfortunately are locked behind DLC) that you can switch at any time, unlike the original where you first had to finish the game and could then only change them during the train segment. They even included an extra mode after the main game where you play the game as Albert Wesker and evil Rebecca Chambers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDHUWsciIklXaKeJZhCcXfj5KtST1GLeNQv4rYDKyM_YNyy1JoQ8NmgOv2VDnroOHafNkFQcVkU4Y4CCNd3Gze1pJtB5gAJ3X_z-u8qzo4PZssWxYfC9TUT98w30keDi8_7mmhqyMNBhn/s1600/Resident+Evil+0+HD+Remaster+Rebecca+Chambers+Billy+Coen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDHUWsciIklXaKeJZhCcXfj5KtST1GLeNQv4rYDKyM_YNyy1JoQ8NmgOv2VDnroOHafNkFQcVkU4Y4CCNd3Gze1pJtB5gAJ3X_z-u8qzo4PZssWxYfC9TUT98w30keDi8_7mmhqyMNBhn/s320/Resident+Evil+0+HD+Remaster+Rebecca+Chambers+Billy+Coen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Resident Evil Zero's premise always struck me as being just an inch away from being a romance/erotic novel set during the downfall of society. It's like "she's an inexperienced member of an elite police unit trapped in the zombie apocalypse with a dangerous criminal who also happens to be a total hunk". Unfortunately the interesting character dynamic of police member Rebecca Chambers and convicted murderer Billy Coen having to team up is undermined by the fact that after the first 15 minutes it becomes obvious Coen is a decent guy and shown to be innocent long before the game is even halfway done (hence, on top of the game now being 14 years old, I don't consider this much of a spoiler).</div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>
<b>2. Final Fantasy X HD Remaster</b></h3>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhus0OY52M8qclLMB3FycftQ63IclQQbQloDbEd7-R5FUHhDOMLPDaLMxEkQ8D7gYj3VLrvmQ1vqB6UMKO0Wkwz1YIU1LkD1i1pfvFZk4vgto3NbNLSRmDPRaKtx6uM9249p3xPsIRkBnwb/s1600/FINAL+FANTASY+X_X-2+HD+Remaster+Yuna+Wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhus0OY52M8qclLMB3FycftQ63IclQQbQloDbEd7-R5FUHhDOMLPDaLMxEkQ8D7gYj3VLrvmQ1vqB6UMKO0Wkwz1YIU1LkD1i1pfvFZk4vgto3NbNLSRmDPRaKtx6uM9249p3xPsIRkBnwb/s320/FINAL+FANTASY+X_X-2+HD+Remaster+Yuna+Wedding.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Released: May 15, 2015<br />Played: April, 2016</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Back in April I bought a PS4 (like a week before the new models would get announced, because of course) with the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster. I had already finished the story of FFX twice years ago on PS2, but this time I wanted to go in with the purpose of finally beating those Dark Aeons in the post-game that always gave me so much trouble.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ultimately I ended up not just beating all the Dark Aeons, but also dodging the 200 lightning bolts required to complete Lulu's Celestial Weapon, completing the Chocobo race challenges, defeating <i>all</i> the post-game bosses, completing the sphere grid for every character and getting the platinum trophy. So that worked out better than I expected.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy6Om29o4V59IydJPfrkyAIENxFckiEFN2JWhvyHj2OD_bBksfRIfkRlaMjgQpZUvAYUc8EEhgf9uYkmxhJ_XkUnf7kUkqxG5YP_kcB2-T2rKv2oJZbgMAF6xqCW0svhbYy4S7cdhWwmkN/s1600/FINAL+FANTASY+X_X-2+HD+Remaster+Lightning+Dancer+200+lightning+bolts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy6Om29o4V59IydJPfrkyAIENxFckiEFN2JWhvyHj2OD_bBksfRIfkRlaMjgQpZUvAYUc8EEhgf9uYkmxhJ_XkUnf7kUkqxG5YP_kcB2-T2rKv2oJZbgMAF6xqCW0svhbYy4S7cdhWwmkN/s320/FINAL+FANTASY+X_X-2+HD+Remaster+Lightning+Dancer+200+lightning+bolts.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
One thing I liked about Final Fantasy X where a lot of the other more recent Final Fantasies lost me is that Tidus is himself a stranger in the world of Spira. This allows the player to be eased into the world rather than us having to endure a massive plot dump like in XII or XIII.<br />
However doing it like this also opened the story up to a situation where the entire party looks like massive dicks in how they treated Tidus when the big plot twist of Yuna's eventual fate is revealed. "We weren't keeping it a secret, it was just too hard to say"? You mean that at no point during your journey you could just take Tidus aside for a minute and explain to him what was going on? Instead you gave him massive amounts of guilt over what a jerk he unintentionally was. Nice.<br />
<br />
I also realized how impossible it is to explain the story of Final Fantasy X to someone not familiar with the series. My best attempt boiled down to: "So this girl has to sacrifice herself to save the world from a huge monster who is the father of a guy who doesn't really exist. So a dude who is actually dead goes to a city that's not real to get the guy because his monster dad no longer wants to destroy stuff".<br />
Alternatively: "A bunch of deities and resurrected dead guys think religion is stupid and poof a guy into existence to prove that point".</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I also wrote this guide on how to fill up your Blitzball team with female members if you're into that: <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2016/04/guide-final-fantasy-x-blitzball-female.html">Vicsor's Opinion: Guide: Final Fantasy X - A Female Blitzball Team</a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>
<b>3. Life Is Strange</b></h3>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh86NP9k3GrEXZDv1cbr0OFRlCnTvYI6fyxrNeZzSWbFNORUIHVHcLX90bFJvpylT_a9eMtXtevZNyXHTws1AXYUnVO5GI6ro4cfHoIn3IHZfixhhgdJ4gZ96s-7NxAbdexrtKAcO2HBW9E/s1600/Life+is+Strange+Max+Caulfield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh86NP9k3GrEXZDv1cbr0OFRlCnTvYI6fyxrNeZzSWbFNORUIHVHcLX90bFJvpylT_a9eMtXtevZNyXHTws1AXYUnVO5GI6ro4cfHoIn3IHZfixhhgdJ4gZ96s-7NxAbdexrtKAcO2HBW9E/s320/Life+is+Strange+Max+Caulfield.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Released: Jan 22, 2016<br />
Played: April, 2016</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Life Is Strange is a game I didn't expect like, but I bought it anyway because it was fairly cheap and I still wanted to support Dontnod Entertainment (I loved Remember Me despite its rough edges). Turns out I actually did end up liking it once I actually started playing. Unfortunately the final episode being largely cut-and-pasted from the earlier episodes and a limited payoff of all your choices made during the game hinder it somewhat, but it was still a powerful experience with a gameplay style that I hope modern adventure games take notice of (except more puzzles please).<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN9Sl29BxTFHiUMuJ3dMHZ9aRBmh_DpPafFmIG8A5Jz_1RT-lpGDMf5XPfcuP2I6qpUmoJLFXVqycMb4xcJ_FlTgsu2cHzsjDn3l9QgYidHIPtHprOi4lYa7kNvRS6gxAKvq8QxqLSBI_q/s1600/Life+Is+Strange%25E2%2584%25A2+Chloe+Price.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN9Sl29BxTFHiUMuJ3dMHZ9aRBmh_DpPafFmIG8A5Jz_1RT-lpGDMf5XPfcuP2I6qpUmoJLFXVqycMb4xcJ_FlTgsu2cHzsjDn3l9QgYidHIPtHprOi4lYa7kNvRS6gxAKvq8QxqLSBI_q/s320/Life+Is+Strange%25E2%2584%25A2+Chloe+Price.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chloe Price, to whom the concept of self-preservation <br />
is completely alien</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Unlike a lot of fans I didn't feel that much of a connection with Chloe Price though. A lot of Chloe's problems just stem from very poor choices on her part. Most of the time the friendship between Max and Chloe seemed toxic at best, at times even abusive towards Max. A lot of choices involving Chloe usually boiled down to a choice between 'Do the right thing and piss off Chloe' or 'Do the wrong thing to appease Chloe'. Instead of this deep connection, it felt more like I was weighing the collective good against the anti-social whims of a troubled teenager who could fly into rage at the drop of a hat. I did feel a strong connection to Max herself though, who I really wanted to hug for going through this hell of a week. Yeah, if you know about the endings, you can guess which one I went with...<br />
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxbXcofyOzYLT1sZIU_j_u4K2xfWn8l7lo6kcIrJ0Qm80cra3CnzFr5SrF7gHxNyjv3t_h-yR4lHRzF70epHPXx8pGyUWdlX8YGJ7HOrdG_6bEh13SEKvR4Kr4r4gfqxkI_20Jaqoxe0Ar/s1600/Life+Is+Strange%25E2%2584%25A2+Tasty+Plasma+Final+Fantasy+Spirits+Within.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxbXcofyOzYLT1sZIU_j_u4K2xfWn8l7lo6kcIrJ0Qm80cra3CnzFr5SrF7gHxNyjv3t_h-yR4lHRzF70epHPXx8pGyUWdlX8YGJ7HOrdG_6bEh13SEKvR4Kr4r4gfqxkI_20Jaqoxe0Ar/s320/Life+Is+Strange%25E2%2584%25A2+Tasty+Plasma+Final+Fantasy+Spirits+Within.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No amount of context can save this terrible, terrible line.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Some of the dialogue gets viciously mocked on social media, and true enough there's quite a bit of cringe-worthy slang in the way these people talk. Overall most of it isn't that bad in context though and the characters themselves mock each other for it enough that it becomes a bit of a running joke. Except Max commenting on plasma and the delicacy thereof, that line cannot possibly be salvaged. Second was dropping "I swear to dog" in dead serious conversation in episode 3. </div>
<br />
<br />
I also wrote something about Victoria Chase's character: <a href="https://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2016/09/life-is-strange-victoria-chase.html">Vicsor's Opinion: Life Is Strange - Victoria Chase</a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>
<b>4-1. Tomb Raider 2013 - Definitive Edition</b></h3>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDpZuXfqJAtQ2-PtR_935GMn20Qe9aLfRQuljQtL9sWXs09RrkVzUHUNiHXRMtd2j_b3TGpxKp16_LQedujld8AQYDtx_9x221LeUqht7Exc3U-M0exBz_uS5GiXSmqYVlUq1q8e5jdRUU/s1600/Tomb+Raider++Definitive+Edition+PS4+-+Lara+Croft+archery+suit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDpZuXfqJAtQ2-PtR_935GMn20Qe9aLfRQuljQtL9sWXs09RrkVzUHUNiHXRMtd2j_b3TGpxKp16_LQedujld8AQYDtx_9x221LeUqht7Exc3U-M0exBz_uS5GiXSmqYVlUq1q8e5jdRUU/s320/Tomb+Raider++Definitive+Edition+PS4+-+Lara+Croft+archery+suit.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Released: Jan 31, 2014<br />
Played: Aug, 2016</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
I always had mixed feelings about the most recent Tomb Raider reboot. On its own it was a pretty good game but it never clicked as being worthy of the title "Tomb Raider", which made it jarring for me because the game insisted on flashing a Tomb Raider logo on screen every 5 seconds. However because I had recently picked up archery as a hobby and Not!Lara's main weapon is a bow, I decided to give the game another chance with its Definitive version on PS4.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzI8JxRWxHKaK1GkzQO3Y99_l-Soe8ibrnMiD1V81am30P3gnWBAiupYzxlgpJdMCPXhFC0WMI_8gasDzGlY3Xg3qDevi-wvHjkg1ghYPofUfgw5R5nKAydm-9h7LbOyvjkOHeDFNTYh7/s1600/Tomb+Raider2013++Lara+Croft+Model.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzI8JxRWxHKaK1GkzQO3Y99_l-Soe8ibrnMiD1V81am30P3gnWBAiupYzxlgpJdMCPXhFC0WMI_8gasDzGlY3Xg3qDevi-wvHjkg1ghYPofUfgw5R5nKAydm-9h7LbOyvjkOHeDFNTYh7/s320/Tomb+Raider2013++Lara+Croft+Model.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Turned out I was pleasantly surprised. The game itself was still the same of course, but an update to Not!Lara's character model at least meant she now resembled someone I could buy as being an inexperienced Lara Croft. That actually made a world of difference for me. Also to mitigate the visual effects the torture porn nature of the game has on Lara, I stuck her in the competitive archery suit for the duration of the game which meant all those horrible cuts and bruises she accumulates are gone.<br />
<br />
So yes, my experience with the Tomb Raider reboot went from being annoyed with it a few years back to it being massively improved simply because the character model now actually made me believe I was playing as a version of Lara Croft.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>
<b>4-2. Rise of the Tomb Raider</b></h3>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEVhyphenhyphenv6BD12eHuCGq7QNmptYBnZEOzXDwXeIqGvnZjEPEErYArX2u9qArGZv26w501my5simL1jsP5vVL8PJxUYyYqsYnKEXGndZJ9i444cwKKMrqDpIVX8HOSRgKLsCxdgoF8x0ZbYq9C/s1600/Rise+of+the+Tomb+Raider+69.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEVhyphenhyphenv6BD12eHuCGq7QNmptYBnZEOzXDwXeIqGvnZjEPEErYArX2u9qArGZv26w501my5simL1jsP5vVL8PJxUYyYqsYnKEXGndZJ9i444cwKKMrqDpIVX8HOSRgKLsCxdgoF8x0ZbYq9C/s320/Rise+of+the+Tomb+Raider+69.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Released: Oct 11, 2016<br />
Played: Nov, 2016</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
I liked Rise of the Tomb Raider from the start because, unlike its predecessor, it didn't feel as ashamed to <i>be</i> Tomb Raider and actually made an effort to reintroduce elements from the Tomb Raider lore. The previous game drastically altered Lara Croft's backstory by removing the plane crash in the Himalayas (which I feel would be like removing Bruce Wayne's parents getting shot in the alley from his backstory). In this game it turns out there <i>was</i> a plane crash in the Himalayas, it's just that Lara's mother was on it rather than she herself, which motivated Richard Croft's obsession with myths of eternal life, which in turn motivated Lara.<br />
We learn this information in the reintroduction of Croft Manor, whereas the previous game didn't even want to acknowledge Lara's nobility. Croft Manor is also filled to the brim with references to the previous games, even implying Lara will at some point be searching for Tomb Raider II's Temple of Xian. Now if in the next game it turns out Jacqueline Natla is responsible for Trinity, that would be absolutely fantastic.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJlYsUJe6_ONxmpAQ9FaZzcLuP4NtDCEL6CQylKXeZbxwaHmCaGDhYihJTYQyUT5jgFwAj58hp5fswAjk8xuijJ3sB8j_qGBinLCZKpbNbu0oSDaZR6xoPIXRReaJ27Frx5j5Au-iGKQS/s1600/Rise+of+the+Tomb+Raider+Lara+Croft.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJlYsUJe6_ONxmpAQ9FaZzcLuP4NtDCEL6CQylKXeZbxwaHmCaGDhYihJTYQyUT5jgFwAj58hp5fswAjk8xuijJ3sB8j_qGBinLCZKpbNbu0oSDaZR6xoPIXRReaJ27Frx5j5Au-iGKQS/s320/Rise+of+the+Tomb+Raider+Lara+Croft.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There were still quite a few things I didn't like that much though. The writing of the Tomb Raider reboots is kinda odd. Their stories aren't necessarily all that straightforward, but the plot twists they use are cliches themselves, meaning you can easily predict where the story is going whenever a new plot element is introduced.<br />
Then there's the RPG-like upgrade system for both Lara's skillset and her weapons, which doesn't really seem to matter all that much since basic headshots are completely lethal from the beginning and helmets aren't that difficult to overcome anyway. Also I'm still missing some of the more advanced acrobatics that exited the series after Tomb Raider Underworld.<br />
Still, I feel Rise of the Tomb Raider redeemed the reboot series. Especially since the 20th Anniversary Edition included a bunch of costumes from the Core Design games (oddly missing is Legend era Lara though).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I also had way too much fun shooting bottles out of the sky with the bow.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ojwPuOSP07o" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's technically an achievement but you can easily do it with a shotgun. I just learned to do it with the bow because that way it actually felt like an achievement. That sure was an hour of my life well spent!</div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>
<b>5. Year Walk</b></h3>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuDkdQWpM0NkMwuayD8OKk-xbOOOXKJVAtBzghJ2kRSDj5VEi14AEIF1BhXe69kPGW8gMW0yQ083-0Hw3Ru1WKxK0lHoMaF20xhcLhHAyh8ESLcFNJ9vEDEG1syMvPq7QIvQDGveI_83mf/s1600/Year+Walk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuDkdQWpM0NkMwuayD8OKk-xbOOOXKJVAtBzghJ2kRSDj5VEi14AEIF1BhXe69kPGW8gMW0yQ083-0Hw3Ru1WKxK0lHoMaF20xhcLhHAyh8ESLcFNJ9vEDEG1syMvPq7QIvQDGveI_83mf/s320/Year+Walk.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Released: March 6, 2014<br />
Played: Dec, 2016</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
I actually played and finished Year Walk just a few days ago on Christmas eve after the family dinner and before going to bed, which seemed appropriate since Christmas was historically one of the times a year when year walking took place. I mainly just got it because I wanted to know what the deal was with the horse in a suit that was featured in the promotional screenshots. Turns out there was actually an interesting experience behind the weird horse.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuFWuTRy6Db9zLzlwOOnY_BvID4FFPzWR3dN4BLoTGQtw2qKKs12bll8IGr6HSqfetjspvHe79Jvs9Vo2Mc2XjhSdh9EARCV73tRW1WToKfAxbqVFRSdLvRmua2eE2HicpasfCoTKYe2oG/s1600/Year+Walk+-+Brook+Horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuFWuTRy6Db9zLzlwOOnY_BvID4FFPzWR3dN4BLoTGQtw2qKKs12bll8IGr6HSqfetjspvHe79Jvs9Vo2Mc2XjhSdh9EARCV73tRW1WToKfAxbqVFRSdLvRmua2eE2HicpasfCoTKYe2oG/s320/Year+Walk+-+Brook+Horse.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, this. What is up with this?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Year Walk is a pretty short game that can easily be finished in like a single evening (I'm at 3.6 hours for 100% completion). Now it's already a very atmospheric puzzle game by itself, but the ending and alternate reality game-like post game is what pushes it over the edge into being a memorable experience (since it's also a big deal, I won't spoil it here). Basically while you are playing the game itself, the story takes a backseat and is only given proper context in the secret ending. Just be sure to keep a notebook on hand because the puzzles actually require some thought and expect you to be paying attention.<br />
<br />
<br />
Anyway, those are some of the more memorable games I actually finished during the last year. Now if you'd like to hear my opinions on games actually released in 2016 that weren't rereleases, I will see you again in about 2 to 5 years!</div>
<br />Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-22174394871729411832016-09-27T17:39:00.000+02:002016-09-29T13:14:18.470+02:00Life is Strange - Victoria Chase<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
Life is Strange really caught me by surprise with how much I ended up liking it. I was kinda interested in it because I loved Dontnod Entertainment's first game Remember Me, but the way the game looked invoked a weird sort of uncanny valley for me. Still, when all the episodes were released I bought the game, played it, and it didn't take long for it to suck me in after all.</div>
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However, I don't want to talk at length about the game itself here. Rather I want to talk a bit about a particular scene regarding a particular character. Basically just a short insight I had while staring out the bus window. (As such this will be more or less useless to people who haven't played or finished the game)</div>
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<u><br /></u></div>
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<u>Warning: SPOILERS for <b>Life is Strange</b></u></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">How Strange Is It?</span><br />Victoria Chase - Life is Strange</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21n-QhrsZVG-0kaN9ap5duAIsTYDMFrjSHWSqQtIqyvlCqJNgCn6bM8vCtvFvqifUuRg9A3kncQfDTtI7ZA4mzCVbAoY_14EjFj1liWeBZL4NWCjyXdqBr5tXpoHjIe95waIclW-qAzwW/s1600/20160507123939_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21n-QhrsZVG-0kaN9ap5duAIsTYDMFrjSHWSqQtIqyvlCqJNgCn6bM8vCtvFvqifUuRg9A3kncQfDTtI7ZA4mzCVbAoY_14EjFj1liWeBZL4NWCjyXdqBr5tXpoHjIe95waIclW-qAzwW/s320/20160507123939_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Victoria Chase is a rich, popular girl who serves as a minor antagonist towards Max. Compared to Nathan Prescott, she's more of an annoyance rather than an actual threat (except when it comes to Kate Marsh's storyline, who she is unwittingly bullying into a suicide attempt). However she is a more personal antagonist than Prescott, which the game neatly illustrates by having her dorm room directly opposing Max'.<br />
<br />
A part of Episode 1 plays out in the Blackwell girl's dorm, which is a convenient way for the game to develop some characters by giving us the chance to snoop in their personal lives. One of the puzzles in the dorm requires us to invade Victoria's room (including the rather infamous scene where Max is suddenly commenting on a plasma TV and the apparent delicacy thereof), but before we do that, we see this message on the slate outside of her room.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2XS-gKRMTqiTjacdObA557K-1P-lJPZ-ZjOsZmsbDoAyPWZvRSgTh-3Ff8j32VFhjCa7alsg3ukU6fmYYZ2zktasFMraBg4FNIM2ZbYL23UamJin2eg7pMYAPRpIbKFGxle4iYL74SMxh/s1600/20160630230026_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2XS-gKRMTqiTjacdObA557K-1P-lJPZ-ZjOsZmsbDoAyPWZvRSgTh-3Ff8j32VFhjCa7alsg3ukU6fmYYZ2zktasFMraBg4FNIM2ZbYL23UamJin2eg7pMYAPRpIbKFGxle4iYL74SMxh/s320/20160630230026_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Be the change you wish to see" -Gandhi</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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When we first encounter the message, we're supposed to cringe along with Max at the dissonance of this narcissistic pest quoting Gandhi for all the world to see while at the same time she's bullying Kate to the point of attempting suicide. During the rest of the game however, we slowly learn that beneath the alpha bitch facade she puts up in public, Victoria is actually just really insecure and not all that bad.</div>
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In Episode 5 during a rather confusing bunch of time travel sequences, we get to revisit the scene at the very start of the game with Max in Mr. Jefferson's classroom. Due to Max' character development over the course of the game, we now have an option to read one of Victoria's notebooks, whereas at the beginning Max was too timid to even consider invading her privacy like that (At least publicly since, as mentioned, she gleefully inspects Vic's room not long after).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj71ot_3y2cXohDrDRy3ljuoZMGl48_0_QZIhJ-hIoOBex0IgJeQF0RFnWKM11UtgGpKIozqXH53tsRTVjSTv-QKbweCLcuzviAL8PhNWqALMszXVsV_dzGBiHStbenFhtTomp2jEO69eQE/s1600/Life+Is+Strange%25E2%2584%25A2_20160430235739.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj71ot_3y2cXohDrDRy3ljuoZMGl48_0_QZIhJ-hIoOBex0IgJeQF0RFnWKM11UtgGpKIozqXH53tsRTVjSTv-QKbweCLcuzviAL8PhNWqALMszXVsV_dzGBiHStbenFhtTomp2jEO69eQE/s320/Life+Is+Strange%25E2%2584%25A2_20160430235739.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Inside the notebook we find something of a written down (and punctuated) stream of consciousness exclaiming that she herself sucks and ending with the words "<i>I want to hate her, but she wouldn't care. Envy is a sin, Vic. GET OVER YOURSELF!</i>", revealing not only Victoria's insecurity but also a desire to better herself.</div>
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This, to me at least, puts that little slate outside Victoria's room in an entirely new, kinda heartwarming light. Victoria doesn't write Gandhi quotes to show off to the world how deep she is, she does it to remind herself that she should at least attempt to be a better person.</div>
<br />Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-45996196172906765362016-04-24T16:46:00.002+02:002017-03-11T09:32:31.852+01:00Guide: Final Fantasy X - Blitzball Female Team<div style="text-align: justify;">
In early December of 2015 there was a leak that revealed <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165348-Steam-Database-Leak-Half-Life-3-Final-Fantasy-X">the Playstation exclusive Final Fantasy X was possibly headed to Steam</a>. Being a big fan of the game (although up until recently I didn't dare to call it my favorite Final Fantasy, even though it is) I was more excited about that than any new games in the pipeline. Weeks turned to months but so far we have yet to receive any official announcement. In the meantime I ended up with a PlayStation 4 with, you guessed it, Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster as my first game. So that problem is solved. (Not long after, the game was released on Steam after all. Because of course.)</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Final Fantasy X</span><br />A Female Blitzball Team</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ZaRJrP8Kj2EU49or9FKUvL_E-KkoZ2YabhoDJOEZrYigkYIdu9_mbGtpDYe3ENH3gxUzbXnH5DoxxxbVwVK_ygWnXd-vxncqTAqS-_tz6WCngjgC2HKPsPk-URv43G99ft9852FwkD77/s1600/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ZaRJrP8Kj2EU49or9FKUvL_E-KkoZ2YabhoDJOEZrYigkYIdu9_mbGtpDYe3ENH3gxUzbXnH5DoxxxbVwVK_ygWnXd-vxncqTAqS-_tz6WCngjgC2HKPsPk-URv43G99ft9852FwkD77/s320/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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One fondly remembered feature of Final Fantasy X is of course the Blitzball minigame, which manages to be so addictive that they might as well have made it its own separate sports game and I'd buy it. For this playthrough of Final Fantasy X, and since it would make a nice follow-up to the guide I did for <a href="http://vicsorsopinion.blogspot.be/2015/09/guide-metal-gear-solid-v-female-staff.html">female Mother Base staff in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain</a><span justify="" text-align:="">, I decided to see if I could build an all-female blitzball team and find some success with them. So I did, and I did.</span></div>
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Very special thanks to all the people who compiled all these comprehensive Blitzball guides over the past 14 years (especially the Final Fantasy wiki) for making this way easier to assemble.<br />
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<h4>
</h4>
<h3>
First Things First</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvSNZ6sQdspHIAiheHLck_feLDnRMLHcTcvbIJXnS4opAK12nAvGyHPdwAOnIFHSclXpbHnL0eWz7OL0rG9V3phDKbcYMmSzhyphenhyphen76gl3vC3VL3xrIrhJzfY5j5LVlGqWepkF_uuSQysQenm/s1600/FINAL+FANTASY+X_X-2+HD+Remaster+Lulu+Wakka+Championship+game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvSNZ6sQdspHIAiheHLck_feLDnRMLHcTcvbIJXnS4opAK12nAvGyHPdwAOnIFHSclXpbHnL0eWz7OL0rG9V3phDKbcYMmSzhyphenhyphen76gl3vC3VL3xrIrhJzfY5j5LVlGqWepkF_uuSQysQenm/s320/FINAL+FANTASY+X_X-2+HD+Remaster+Lulu+Wakka+Championship+game.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h4>
<b>The First Game</b></h4>
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The first Blitzball game you play is also the only story-relevant and necessary one. If it's your first time playing the game, it's also very likely that you'll end up losing (the game doesn't require you to win though and the reward for it is negligible). The Besaid Aurochs are indeed a pretty bad team and Tidus is the only one with some decent stats. Luckily the Luca Goers <b>aren't</b> as good as their reputation so if you managed to pick up the <i>Jecht Shot</i> on the boat to Luca, you do actually stand a decent chance.</div>
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<h4>
<b>General Blitzball Tips</b></h4>
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<ul>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Pass the ball around a lot!</i></div>
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Your team gains experience by being active in the game. You can gain a significant advantage by simply getting your hands on the ball, keeping it out of the opposing team's hands and passing it around. Especially in your first few games you can quickly leave the other teams in the dust by advancing several levels per match.</div>
</li>
<li><i>Pay attention to techniques.</i><br />
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Set appropriate techniques for the player's position. Mark appropriate targets to learn new techniques. Look out for the 'Techcopy' prompt whenever the opposing team makes a movie. Without Tidus in your team, you lose the ability to perform the Jecht Shot (which is easily the most convenient technique for easy goals) so you'll want to make sure your other characters are equipped appropriately.</div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>If all else fails, there's an exploit you can abuse</i><br />
If you have the ball and swim behind your own goalkeeper, the opposing team has no idea what to do. So if you manage to get ahead, you can simply swim behind the goalkeeper and wait out the remainder of the match.</div>
</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
Building an All-Female Team</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWtGE6SfQlRB7lf-6ZBVo7RbMN-Obr8nWK3G1HNciFhkZ6YGZuCcR50ubcq2gvYStFdhR9mg6RrPcIMm0lAGJklb8S4-tbkVVRm6KXmX-zqrZYH1p-RO5fwQxGeo0y6bHtoiX7cPYvhfIY/s1600/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+renew+contract.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWtGE6SfQlRB7lf-6ZBVo7RbMN-Obr8nWK3G1HNciFhkZ6YGZuCcR50ubcq2gvYStFdhR9mg6RrPcIMm0lAGJklb8S4-tbkVVRm6KXmX-zqrZYH1p-RO5fwQxGeo0y6bHtoiX7cPYvhfIY/s320/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+renew+contract.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>My Team</b><br />
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At the time of writing (and after just having won a tournament with this team), my team is made up of:</div>
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<ul>
<li><b>Front</b>: Linna, Svanda</li>
<li><b>Mid</b>: Naida</li>
<li><b>Defense</b>: Vilucha, Lakkam</li>
<li><b>Goalkeeper</b>: Miyu</li>
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Tidus was the last remaining 'original' Auroch in my team until Linna and Svanda were able to reliably score goals. Naida's speed (and having the Brawler technique) made her ideal to intercept the opposing ball carrier, no matter where they are. Vilucha is more fit as an attacker, however I picked her up late so she's still low level. I'm intending for her to eventually replace Svanda. Lakkam's high PA makes her really useful to pass the ball from the back across the field to whoever is open to score a goal. Miyu was an easy choice as goalie since she passed Keepa early and easily.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BCchBzw3mvoYmhNdvytHpP9zs6iZTy4RRwpOYJgK2O_kBjgwasx08b5mncqWtZk8KFNLpOWNcQgBTQWUJc1ZXCwx4ThINRb-otznwpQj-1mlrY7FoxP2zvXZTsi3AU4zUcEeQTIFAPI-/s1600/FINAL+FANTASY+X_X-2+HD+Remaster+Blitzball+tournament+results+Linna+top+scorer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BCchBzw3mvoYmhNdvytHpP9zs6iZTy4RRwpOYJgK2O_kBjgwasx08b5mncqWtZk8KFNLpOWNcQgBTQWUJc1ZXCwx4ThINRb-otznwpQj-1mlrY7FoxP2zvXZTsi3AU4zUcEeQTIFAPI-/s320/FINAL+FANTASY+X_X-2+HD+Remaster+Blitzball+tournament+results+Linna+top+scorer.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I had Tidus in one half because Vilucha was new and I was<br />
worried the team might not have cut it. They did.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>The Players</b><br />
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Once you played the first Blitzball game and you're back on track with Yuna's pilgrimage, you gain the ability to scout players by 'talking' to certain NPC's by pressing the Square button instead of X. If the NPC is a potential blitzball player, you'll get the ability to sign them up for the Besaid Aurochs (if they don't already have a contract with another team of course, in which case you'll unfortunately have to wait until they are released).</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here you'll find the location of all <u>19</u> female blitzball players in the game. If you want detailed information on their stats, you can find them on the Final Fantasy Wikia over <a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Blitzball_agents">here</a>.</div>
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<b>Balgerda</b> (Luca Harbor, Number 3 Dock)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSqqY4EiTWkAaHBl7nkrTLn_ODYNs6spXdFs0oQ-WzgUG2c1kpdB3Xa4JjMYiU0TWD-cR6nP6eXZu2xnjfWoUaNKICUHHP7IzAIRzlPGPeIzEuR7BfnHZg8QBCff6HEw6K9E86bScac3G1/s1600/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Balgerda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSqqY4EiTWkAaHBl7nkrTLn_ODYNs6spXdFs0oQ-WzgUG2c1kpdB3Xa4JjMYiU0TWD-cR6nP6eXZu2xnjfWoUaNKICUHHP7IzAIRzlPGPeIzEuR7BfnHZg8QBCff6HEw6K9E86bScac3G1/s320/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Balgerda.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
Starting Team: Luca Goers</div>
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<div>
Decent defender early on, but drops off fast like the other Luca Goers </div>
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<b>Deim</b> (Kilika Temple, Great Hall)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY4iMAhR3G6YXPDAZ6qgCxFURcGWenZevs8cfLCdocmYVLEigqheNi3hSdpLOxEGLNp2eZxUTUmNEUQVkSrKokzfbEUtV0eIHpt8LOMmYQqI8Js_sg25D7doM4mPHRjb3RERrCpufPlfYj/s1600/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Deim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY4iMAhR3G6YXPDAZ6qgCxFURcGWenZevs8cfLCdocmYVLEigqheNi3hSdpLOxEGLNp2eZxUTUmNEUQVkSrKokzfbEUtV0eIHpt8LOMmYQqI8Js_sg25D7doM4mPHRjb3RERrCpufPlfYj/s320/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Deim.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
Starting Team: Kilika Beasts</div>
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<div>
Decent defender early on, but doesn't develop her attack high enough to shine later on.</div>
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<b>Doram</b> (Luca Harbor, Number 3 Dock)</div>
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Starting Team: Luca Goers</div>
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Decent early on, but drops off fast like the other Luca Goers.</div>
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<b>Irga Ronso</b> (Luca Harbor, Number 4 Dock)</div>
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Starting Team: Ronso Fangs</div>
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Slow like all Ronso, but among the best defenders otherwise.</div>
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<b>Judda</b> (Airship, Corridor)</div>
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Starting Team: Al Bhed Psyches</div>
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Great defender until she's passed by Kiyuri and Kulukan at around LV 50.</div>
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<b>Kiyuri</b> (S.S. Winno, Deck)</div>
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Starting Team: Free</div>
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Weak early on, but one of the best defenders later.</div>
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<b>Kulukan</b> (Kilika Port, Tavern)</div>
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Starting Team: Kilika Beasts</div>
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Same as Kiyuri, she's weak early on, but one of the best defenders later.</div>
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<b>Lakkam</b> (Airship, Corridor)</div>
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Starting Team: Al Bhed Psyches</div>
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Very high PA skill early on. Remains a decent defender throughout the game.</div>
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<b>Linna</b> (Macalania Temple, Frozen Road)</div>
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Starting Team: Free</div>
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Great overall skills with the exception of very low EN. Has a maximum PA stat at LV 99.</div>
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<b>Warning</b>: She moves to the front of Macalania Temple after the airship becomes available, requiring the player to battle Dark Shiva.</div>
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<b>Mifurey</b> (Thunder Plains, Travel Agency)</div>
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Starting Team: Free</div>
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Great overall stats, but unbearably slow early on with a SP of only 20 compared to the average 60. Her speed only reaches that average at LV 60. Useful as a midfielder.</div>
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<b>Miyu</b> (Moonflow, North Shoopuf Wharf)</div>
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Starting Team: Free</div>
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Has a pretty good CA skill early on, making her a good replacement for the Besaid Auroch's default goalkeeper Keepa. She's also useful as as a defender.</div>
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<b>Naida</b> (Calm Lands, Shop)</div>
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Starting Team: Free</div>
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Ridiculously fast swimmer (only outdone by Brother and Nedus). Good choice for a midfielder.</div>
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<b>Nuvy Ronso</b> (Luca Harbor, Number 4 Dock)</div>
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Starting Team: Ronso Fangs</div>
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Slow like all Ronso, but pretty good as a defender.</div>
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<b>Pah Guado</b> (Guadosalam, House)</div>
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Starting Team: Guado Glories</div>
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Decent defense early on. High AT later on.</div>
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<b>Shaami </b>(Luca Harbor, Bridge)</div>
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Starting Team: Free</div>
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Good as a forward with her high SH and EN skill. Less useful in defense.</div>
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<b>Shuu</b> (Luca Seaport, Cafe)</div>
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Starting Team: Free</div>
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Great overall stats (except SH and CA).</div>
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<b>Svanda</b> (Calm Lands)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4nDp819R-8RYtz-5GuCRPNpuTUJ_C55t8LfITFHHmQixFBJY8g7p4l_u1PbbI9sWgMbyc-Rgpd1oj9MTUAXuJsAq1oh7miksKC6p7NFgdMQ5RDXQMMWI8ZyMnzTp8nVakHZ7z8fwL3v4/s1600/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Svanda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4nDp819R-8RYtz-5GuCRPNpuTUJ_C55t8LfITFHHmQixFBJY8g7p4l_u1PbbI9sWgMbyc-Rgpd1oj9MTUAXuJsAq1oh7miksKC6p7NFgdMQ5RDXQMMWI8ZyMnzTp8nVakHZ7z8fwL3v4/s320/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Svanda.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Starting Team: Free</div>
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Good SH and BL stat early on. Develops EN and PA faster though, making her less useful in the front later on.</div>
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<b>Vilucha</b> (Besaid Village, House)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD2NFuZ5j9aOPzyKqJ1nm0BBTwFR1Q7pltGjE8oAdiJd6qTuYT_eAmVnpS4mkUPgf3raeALGJc8kh-8jqhXdQk2UakzMIT3KWbDJwTC9aXXpFGRPXJVyQuHDUNMp7A3gWe8n8WebV0Vooz/s1600/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Vilucha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD2NFuZ5j9aOPzyKqJ1nm0BBTwFR1Q7pltGjE8oAdiJd6qTuYT_eAmVnpS4mkUPgf3raeALGJc8kh-8jqhXdQk2UakzMIT3KWbDJwTC9aXXpFGRPXJVyQuHDUNMp7A3gWe8n8WebV0Vooz/s320/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Vilucha.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Starting Team: Free</div>
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Ideal as a forward thanks to her high SH and EN.</div>
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<b>Warning</b>: Since she's in Besaid Village, during the endgame she'll be blocked by Dark Valefor. </div>
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<b>Yuma Guado</b> (Guadosalam, House)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3rI9aZa_eRCBV7ti2oniHtVSWJ-Xc3PiXt8jWaz5MhtKfjpWvzVpS0NIF2OjHKgUJZzCDnYV3hkER9e6akPJkqu6nbEs9vw1dBgozQn25BzkArRFQ9L_56znomi4XwZXZvXnLwo1f-KU1/s1600/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Yuma+Guado.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3rI9aZa_eRCBV7ti2oniHtVSWJ-Xc3PiXt8jWaz5MhtKfjpWvzVpS0NIF2OjHKgUJZzCDnYV3hkER9e6akPJkqu6nbEs9vw1dBgozQn25BzkArRFQ9L_56znomi4XwZXZvXnLwo1f-KU1/s320/Final+Fantasy+X+FFX+Blitzball+Yuma+Guado.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Starting Team: Free<br />
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Decent goalkeeper (after LV 60 she's a better one than Miyu), but overall not that great of a choice.<br />
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<h4>
Links & References</h4>
All screenshots from the PlayStation 4 copy of Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster<br />
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<a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Blitzball_(minigame)">http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Blitzball_(minigame)</a><br />
<a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Blitzball_agents">http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Blitzball_agents</a></div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6662528987570847467.post-30268769446742232552015-12-12T02:33:00.000+01:002017-12-13T13:43:48.469+01:00The Censorious Nature of Outrage Culture<div style="text-align: justify;">
So, considering the current hostile climate in gaming culture brought forth by outrage warriors, I already knew years ago that talking about Dead or Alive wasn't so much a possibility as an inevitability. While these days I mostly shy away from doing responses in favor of talking positively about female characters and promoting games with them, I have been irked by the recent announcement that Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 won't be making its way into Western territories by, get this, the hostile environment surrounding female game characters created by hyper-criticism and outrage culture. According to rumor it's become so ridiculously absurd that Japanese developers now believe Western gamers hate female protagonists.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Dead or Alive-related Images mostly from Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, as I have no easy way of screencapping Dead Or Alive Xtreme 2)</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The Censorious Nature of Outrage Culture</b></span><br />
<b>The Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Controversy</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKlC38TCt2OsBAeCYEVIICxxVWO0bgLhSlFFQ4SU94Q6RKQ9-iCapp1Pif5emwI-gdqI2oWFMqnHEqnIgmZ67Fw-qVs_oQg0_9k2aH6yP0kdye7eNLRSigqY0pHU9WgyQDYSrMuwI2Gd0y/s1600/Dead+or+Alive+Xtreme+3+Kokoro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKlC38TCt2OsBAeCYEVIICxxVWO0bgLhSlFFQ4SU94Q6RKQ9-iCapp1Pif5emwI-gdqI2oWFMqnHEqnIgmZ67Fw-qVs_oQg0_9k2aH6yP0kdye7eNLRSigqY0pHU9WgyQDYSrMuwI2Gd0y/s320/Dead+or+Alive+Xtreme+3+Kokoro.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>'There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.'</i><br />
- Ray Bradbury</div>
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<h2>
1. Introduction</h2>
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Recently it was announced Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, the beach-sports spin-off to the Dead or Alive fighting series, won't be localized to Western countries. A Koei Tecmo representative on their Facebook page clarified (in rather broken English) this was the result of the sort of hyper-criticism female characters get by virtue of being female characters, with Dead or Alive often being seen as the worst offender because of the inclusion of skimpy outfits and jiggle physics. Later Koei Tecmo tried <a href="https://twitter.com/koeitecmoeurope/status/671690313912598528">to distance themselves</a> from this explanation while at the same time confirming that it is true (what else do you think '<i>respecting and strategizing to support the different global audiences</i>' means?). A bit later <a href="http://operationrainfall.com/2015/12/04/interview-haru-akenaga-masashiro-yamamoto/">it was revealed </a>Idea Factory is taking a similar approach in no longer localizing games which might have to be censored for the West's delicate sensibilities. <a href="http://blogjob.com/oneangrygamer/2015/12/street-fighter-5-producer-confirms-r-mikas-butt-slap-was-removed-to-avoid-offending-anyone/">Street Fighter V's producer also came forward </a>admitting this sort of thing is what caused the removal of R. Mika's buttslap. As if confirming that the West is unable to handle sexy content, <a href="http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/12/09/marvelous-youtube-account-gets-terminated-probably-due-to-excessively-sexy-trailers/">YouTube helpfully closed the account of Senran Kagura's publisher</a> and Playboy of all people called R. Mika's outfit '<a href="http://archive.is/sRvhz#selection-1837.0-1837.178"><i>objectively objectifying</i></a>' (which, unless it turns her into a statue, is an absurd statement). There's also Nintendo censoring their Western releases (Fatal Frame 5, Xenoblade X), but they've sadly been doing that since forever. Outside of gaming we also recently had people concerned over Star Wars' princess Leia in her slave outfit.<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is a <u>bad</u> development. Not an unforeseen one, mind you. I myself have spoken out multiple times that the extreme criticism any female character gets these days, rather than being a catalyst for more positive representations, is instead going to end up making artists and developers so nervous that it'll have a detrimental effect on representation and diversity instead. Keep in mind that just weeks before this current issue, the very same people who for years have been demanding Nintendo made a female alternative for Link, were criticizing the announcement of exactly <a href="https://twitter.com/adrianchm/status/666395311884115968">them getting what they asked for</a> as a bad thing and right now they are criticizing <a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1150473&page=20">Laura Bailey for voicing a character in Uncharted 4</a> of a different ethnicity than her.<br />
That's because to these people the battle is more important than their stated goals. Whether it's for the personal satisfaction of fulfilling a misguided hero complex or merely monetary gain by appealing to the former, to them there is no true goal because the actual goal of this stupid war is the war itself and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink">groupthink</a> will make sure all on board are slowly radicalized into taking offense at bloody <i>everything</i>. As such they will never be pleased as they continue arguing for how everything under the sun is unacceptable and we'll all be worse off because of it (it's not a conspiracy theory when it's quantifiable and <i>happening</i>).<br />
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Note on the title: <i>censorious</i> comes from the word <i>censure</i> and means "overly harsh criticism" or "strong disapproval" rather than the commonly understood definition of <i>censor</i>. However as they do share an etymology it works out rather nicely as "being censorious" is often the prelude <i>to</i> censorship.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRDX1wxQy9pExZ0zGYcEdAd-tJdTV-n0bl2KDEedXrWsaM6jL6NYH0qRQUDaf5jv5m6oCiJmYH5fB1TsHcsxKdCL5y3zbOT800R2eYex8gWCApWsquM_-LJFwxuOfEVwVdrH52dhG_uLqP/s1600/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Honoka+Zack+Island.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRDX1wxQy9pExZ0zGYcEdAd-tJdTV-n0bl2KDEedXrWsaM6jL6NYH0qRQUDaf5jv5m6oCiJmYH5fB1TsHcsxKdCL5y3zbOT800R2eYex8gWCApWsquM_-LJFwxuOfEVwVdrH52dhG_uLqP/s320/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Honoka+Zack+Island.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dead or Alive 5: Last Round</td></tr>
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<h2>
2. A Look At: Dead or Alive Xtreme 2</h2>
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If your only experience with the Dead or Alive Xtreme series has been YouTube videos mentioning it or talking about it, there's a high likelihood you've never even seen a moment of gameplay from the entire series and you're only aware the game is about volleyball because the first game in the series was explicitly named "Xtreme Beach Volleyball". My theory on that is the "sexy cutscenes" are more popularly watched online than in-game on one hand, and outragers show those scenes specifically because they're maximally problematic on the other hand. What this means though is that barely anyone has any idea what the game is even <i>about</i> except for it having the Dead or Alive girls in bathing suits. As a fan of the Dead or Alive series, I did go "what the hell" over a priced-down copy of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (2006) for the Xbox 360 and I did play and enjoy it (to a point, you'll see why in a second) so I'll explain a bit what it is about.<br />
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So the game is set up like a vacation on a tropical island. You pick the girl you want to play as, you are assigned a random volleyball partner and you get 14 days to do a set of activities (or just relax). Each day is cut up in 4 parts, 3 for morning, noon and evening when you get to do stuff around the island, and one at night when you can organize the stuff you collected, send some gifts you couldn't hand out in person during the day, or go to the casino to lose all the money you didn't make enough of during the day.<br />
The main events to engage in during the day are Jet Ski races and the aforementioned volleyball (winning at volleyball pays out more than Jet Ski races but there's a higher risk factor). Lesser activities are randomized mini-games or short scenes of the girl relaxing (which function as a way to skip to the next time period). As the vacation progresses, these activities get progressively harder. While a Jet Ski race the first day is just a few laps in open water, it's a tour around the island, through small rivers and houses on poles the last day. Engage in all of that and you've got yourself a relaxing though challenging beach-sports game.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxaqT6n6qxBsvpq5eXE0S7PORcOvmv9Rtvigz9WXka_NOUe4RE7tfwoPpmE7rtqIEbRfbSJBEi2kX18XWgVTNacRnQgTtbAXhb2aRxYmupmXEY-w9ZvJsSuJfd1u6q1ceRBVsHBX1taBTm/s1600/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Honoka+and+Tina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxaqT6n6qxBsvpq5eXE0S7PORcOvmv9Rtvigz9WXka_NOUe4RE7tfwoPpmE7rtqIEbRfbSJBEi2kX18XWgVTNacRnQgTtbAXhb2aRxYmupmXEY-w9ZvJsSuJfd1u6q1ceRBVsHBX1taBTm/s320/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Honoka+and+Tina.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still Dead or Alive 5: Last Round</td></tr>
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Now for the part that legitimately makes me think of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 as one of the <u>hardest video games I've ever played</u>. You see those sexy bathing suits people go on about? Well, the way in which the game "progresses" (in as much as that's possible) is by you collecting the items and bathing suits available in the game. How do you do that? Well by buying them from the store with the money you get from the activities. But wait, you can only buy the set of bathing suits from the girl who you are playing as (which in itself is time consuming). To get the sets from the other girls you need to play as that other girl and gift that suit back to your own character. But wait, you can't just be sending them bathing suits as gifts because the other girls won't just accept them. No, first you need to become friends. How do you become friends? Well by giving them <i>other</i> gifts from the <i>Zack of all Trades</i> gift shop. But they won't just accept <i>any</i> gifts. No, in order for them to accept this gift, you have to know which items specifically are of interest to this particular girl, you need to wrap it in wrapping paper of her favorite color and know at which time of day she's in the mood to socialize (Ayane for example isn't a morning person. Christie is a NEVER person). Also if that girl's inventory is full, she will accept (maybe) the item but it will disappear, meaning you have to switch characters often anyway to make sure all your inventories are put safely in storage.<br />
Now, if you've done all that, you can <i>attempt</i> to gift a bathing suit. Sadly you'll soon learn that accepting the gift is still based on a roll of the dice, just with better odds if she likes you. If she doesn't like the suit you just gave her, your friendship stats will decrease. You also need to repeat this entire process for every suit you intend to give and your friendship status is erased at the end of the vacation. There's 294 suits total and 9 girls. Good luck! This is why the <a href="http://www.ign.com/faqs/2007/dead-or-alive-xtreme-2-faqguide-checksheet-xls-772401">IGN walkthrough</a> for this game is literally a series of spreadsheets.<br />
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Oh, but that's not all. Remember that pole dancing scene that so often gets shown when talking about this game? Here's how you get that one: you have to go to Christie's slot machine (the game never tells you this and there's 9 slot machines) and hit nine jackpots. Yeah, those clips are popular on the Internet because they are very well hidden and very difficult to get in the game itself. Anyone trying to represent the game with that scene simply hasn't played it or is misrepresenting it.<br />
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Seriously, if you play Dead or Alive Xtreme like a relaxing beach sports/vacation game, it's bliss. If you actually want to engage in all this fanservice stuff the game gets lambasted over, good luck because you'll be needing it. The fact that the "dating" aspect is so difficult is what I think is an interesting point though. While this game certainly doesn't shy away from fanservice, it <i>does</i> expect you to get to know the specific nuanced personalities of the different girls. Heck, even your assigned partner will leave you if you don't take care of your friendship with her (which locks you out of the volleyball segments, which pays out the best money with which you could buy gifts to befriend a new partner, meaning you are likely screwed for that 14-day rotation). That's the difference between sexualization and sexual objectification. <i>They</i> are the ones in charge and you'll get nowhere unless they want to.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg62rW_CJ2DHYxzSxJ_gJyUZynOkD881RFjpVvqAvFmFxgAV86-874JqtHmDV2NUugCtVMFGy5MP4ip7nI1RFHtlLv3UpYXHbZeEEDiBDgF9t08ccyzspc33j8POH7c_VyPpmUqTClpMuXt/s1600/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Roster+Ayane+Hayabusa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg62rW_CJ2DHYxzSxJ_gJyUZynOkD881RFjpVvqAvFmFxgAV86-874JqtHmDV2NUugCtVMFGy5MP4ip7nI1RFHtlLv3UpYXHbZeEEDiBDgF9t08ccyzspc33j8POH7c_VyPpmUqTClpMuXt/s320/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Roster+Ayane+Hayabusa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h2>
3. Diversity versus Large Target Audiences</h2>
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For some people it's easy to justify why Dead or Alive Xtreme isn't such a bad thing to lose (and thus being okay with censorship when it's things they don't like). For a moment setting aside that it is in fact mainly a sports game and not uniquely comprised of cutscenes with women in skimpy bathing suits or almost-impossible to get pole-dancing scenes. In a culture where admitting to liking sexual stuff is to be ashamed of, especially if it's cartoons, even people who might like games showing a lot of virtual skin probably aren't jumping to admit that they like it, maybe they don't even want to buy out of fear of peer pressure.<br />
But a game with a specific target audience in mind is why it's a problem to <i>not </i>have it, isn't it? Dead or Alive Xtreme is a niche game catering to niche interests. Removing games of niche interests <u>decreases</u> diversity. Imagine if future Gone Home's disappear because of pressure from religious groups against portrayals of homosexual relationships. You don't open up gaming to a larger audience by removing things that might be seen as undesirable, that's promoting homogeneity over diversity and makes the entire thing stale. This should really go without saying but 'diversity' is larger than 'what you personally approve of' and isn't achieved by merely sprinkling different ethnicities around.<br />
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Personally, I'm not sure if I'll be importing Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 myself yet. I don't own a PlayStation 4 or a Vita so the combined cost might be a bit too much for just this one game. Instead I bought the skimpiest costume pack I could find for Dead or Alive 5 Last Round.<br />
I also bought Senran Kagura a while back when that controversy flared up and it turned out to be a pretty solid game with stories on the difficulties of navigating high school as a girl in her late teens, it just so happens the teenage girls are also ninjas and the combat mechanics have clothing damage. It seems these days controversy is a more reliable method of discerning good games than reviews are. You know, when outrage warriors were raging over Quiet not wearing a heck of a lot, the rest of us were being educated on phantom limbs and their real-world prosthetic replacement options while building a truly diverse Mother Base. It even opened up discussions about the possibility of every man on Mother Base being in an early stage of transitioning.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG6U1lnCVT3Qtbpg4tsIoUKnzSb8UI7P0jhOGCoLfz0xiUerx9nPd29j5jovX5aJA1jSpv9aAfJRXDnEuBpZAHP2DCrZGbDjEhPPYYdgZliuNT69X6MfYNCVRUUgDoU2nb_51Qu-7qs-oW/s1600/Metal+Gear+Solid+V+The+Phantom+Pain+Gender+Change.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG6U1lnCVT3Qtbpg4tsIoUKnzSb8UI7P0jhOGCoLfz0xiUerx9nPd29j5jovX5aJA1jSpv9aAfJRXDnEuBpZAHP2DCrZGbDjEhPPYYdgZliuNT69X6MfYNCVRUUgDoU2nb_51Qu-7qs-oW/s320/Metal+Gear+Solid+V+The+Phantom+Pain+Gender+Change.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain</b> (2015) features <br />
a discussion about bacteria-induced gender change.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<h2>
4. Censorship</h2>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>'It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God.'</i><br />
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)</div>
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<h3>
4.1 It's not censorship</h3>
Some argued that the explanation from the Koei Tecmo representative why Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 wasn't coming to the West, and Play-Asia's subsequent rewording, was uncalled for since nobody asked for a boycott (in fact they didn't ask for a boycott so hard that they ended up boycotting Play-Asia), which misses the point entirely because the problem is that pseudo-activists have created such a toxic environment with their hyper-criticism that they've produced a measurable degree of negative influence on female characters, despite their claims of wanting positive change.<br />
Every time a female character comes up these days in any capacity, we have the press and outrage warriors bending over backwards to reduce them to a pair of breasts while ignoring everything the character actually does or stands for. What the hell did you think you were doing? You can't use Dead or Alive Xtreme as the number one of countless "<a href="https://archive.is/3XTue">Top 10 most misogynistic games</a>", lump completely benign games like the Tomb Raider series or Okami in the mix to fill up the rest of your clickbait article, for a decade and then turn around claiming you never intended to have any sort of effect. That's just eating your cake and having it too and betrays rampant immaturity on the part of these critics, humorously as they themselves often demand everyone else to grow up so the industry can itself "grow up".<br />
However that desire for an industry to be seen as "grown up" was what resulted in the self-censorship of the animation industry (as part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code">Motion Picture Production Code, aka the Hays Code</a>) and the comic book industry (the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority">Comics Code Authority</a>, the formation of which was largely inspired by Fredric Wertham's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent">Seduction of the Innocent</a></i> (1954), a Tropes vs. Women avant la lettre). 60 years later comics and animation are still considered to be mainly childish things in the eyes of the general public. Clearly booting out the undesirable media hasn't done those any good, why should it be different for video games? Movies don't get seen as childish because of its massive porn industry (which gaming largely lacks anyway). Gaming is one of the largest entertainment industries on the planet, it's time we stopped apologizing for it.<br />
<br />
People with this viewpoint often also hold the viewpoint that self-censorship is not censorship, as it is done to oneself. Well it obviously is censorship otherwise it wouldn't be called "self-censorship". The "self" is a qualifier, not a negation. The issue then is how much of a problem the self-censorship is. If the self-censorship is an issue of not believing in there <i>being</i> a market for the game, that's hard to call a problem. However since the last big release in the series, DOAX2 (Paradise being mainly a PSP port), saw almost tripple the sales in the West than in Japan, that's a pretty hard claim to substantiate as the data disagrees with that.<br />
A second possibility is that Koei Tecmo doesn't believe in the market through the aforementioned blatant hate campaigns against DOAX2 by a loud minority of critics misrepresenting the consumer-base as having changed attitudes over the last 9 years since release. Or you know, the existing outrage culture that sprung up heavily criticizing practically <b>all</b> female characters (what's the counter for good examples at? A grand total of 4?), while from their perspective meant to <i>improve</i> these characters, might actually give the impression to an outsider that the market <i>hates</i> female characters. In which case, it is most definitely a problem since a minority is functioning as de facto gatekeepers through media pressure.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i>That's a nice game you have there. You wouldn't want to have it labelled sexist, would you?</i></i></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKwBSq44qQAO41gn2q5o6c6hA878E9Gf4IV0VcV8MTFIyi4av2crKp_1JlfcGXWmvaCmofQh2bAfsL-tTAeUkKptay3zfI1c5TD_su9knseTuKObNlojfSfeuiAaLCROYbRff8-dFgswQe/s1600/Dead+or+Alive+Dimensions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKwBSq44qQAO41gn2q5o6c6hA878E9Gf4IV0VcV8MTFIyi4av2crKp_1JlfcGXWmvaCmofQh2bAfsL-tTAeUkKptay3zfI1c5TD_su9knseTuKObNlojfSfeuiAaLCROYbRff8-dFgswQe/s320/Dead+or+Alive+Dimensions.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dead or Alive Dimensions was banned in Sweden, Norway and Denmark<br />
after forum complaints.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
4.2 It is Censorship</h3>
Now, before I start I'd like to emphasize that this next bit is about freedom of choice. I do not care that you personally dislike the Dead or Alive series, the Dead or Alive Xtreme series or have a personal distaste for sexualization in certain media (although as the above demonstrates, I do have a low opinion of those who use their personal preferences to bully others). However when you start speculating on the negative effects of what such things have on grown adults and why as such censorship is preferable even though scientific research disagrees with you, my tolerance grows very thin.<br />
<br />
Now whenever someone somewhere is having fun, you can be sure Jonathan McIntosh (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropes_vs._Women_in_Video_Games">producer and co-writer for Feminist Frequency's Tropes vs Women series</a>) thinks it's problematic. Of course the guy who practically demanded reviewers <a href="http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/855/784/295.png">mark down Bayonetta 2 for progressive points</a>, <a href="http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/856/207/030.jpg">hates fun</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/radicalbytes/status/595110876165709824">can't stop complaining about violence in everything ever</a> (<a href="https://archive.is/amZlW">often while looking forward to it</a>), is going to have a problem with Dead or Alive. Yes, <a href="https://archive.is/2FzQe">of course he does</a>.<br />
He isn't especially relevant to the DOAX3 situation in particular, but he (and by extension Feminist Frequency) has been one of the primary voices in the outrage movement for the last few years, so this is as good a time as any to shed some light on his talking points, because it all seems so terribly familiar.<br />
<br />
In <a href="https://archive.org/stream/twentiethcentury64londuoft#page/484/mode/2up">a 1908 article from The Nineteenth Century and After, Vol. LXVI by Bram Stoker</a> (<a href="http://bramstoker.org/pdf/nonfic/fiction.pdf">secondary link</a>), most famous as the author of Dracula but lesser known as a liberal pro-censorship advocate (it's the combination of the two I want you to take notice of, I'm not implying 'liberal' by itself is a problem), argued in favor of self-censorship, and government-enforced censorship should the reticence of the true artist prove insufficient.<br />
<br />
Stoker recognizes that fiction is the most powerful teaching method available as even Jesus Christ himself used it to educate his followers, as such Stoker argues fiction can also be used for evil. McIntosh agrees and staves this by bringing up <a href="https://twitter.com/radicalbytes/status/545176728893546496">Narrative Transportation Theory</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_theory_%28psychology%29">Wikipedia link</a>). Now by itself this isn't wrong, fiction does indeed allow us to absorb ideas better by virtue of us being engrossed by a narrative. The problem is that McIntosh fills in the gaps of the research with his own unsubstantiated ideas on how that makes fiction dangerous propaganda. There's a difference between people better accepting false information by being engrossed in media, and being indoctrinated into hateful world-views by them. In fact studies have shown that reading widely <i>increases</i> empathy so the reverse is true (which makes sense as that is the whole point of putting a viewpoint into a narrative).<br />
Stoker argues the literature of 'moral misdoings' are written to profit off of humanity's base desires, <a href="http://imgur.com/dwPeYfA">as does McIntosh</a>, which is code for "it's bad if people like it, especially if those people are not me". Make no mistake, the only reason McIntosh calls what he argues for "not censorship" is because of the negative connotations of that specific word, not because the definition is wrong. The guy argues in favor of instating <a href="https://archive.is/8NFC2">actual censorship committees</a> <a href="http://archive.is/End4C">instead of</a> <a href="http://archive.is/tQdrb">an open market</a>, for Christ's sake.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnc7SUcNirYP2vD23eymlxTtVR7J9EAX2y9laKw5fCuPGUFh2XaUUqshx7R2KTM1dKzJgGkMcvONpRWE-1fVjGYXqWpiVHW5GI0Fyuzk9GLFnl1cx9yF5GAhEm7t7c7yieL2bAeLeKnS5/s1600/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Tina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnc7SUcNirYP2vD23eymlxTtVR7J9EAX2y9laKw5fCuPGUFh2XaUUqshx7R2KTM1dKzJgGkMcvONpRWE-1fVjGYXqWpiVHW5GI0Fyuzk9GLFnl1cx9yF5GAhEm7t7c7yieL2bAeLeKnS5/s320/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Tina.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
But should it come as any surprise Jonathan McIntosh espouses almost exactly the same position as a 100-year old explicitly pro-censorship advocate shy of calling for brutal police intervention? The only significant difference is that, where Stoker brings forth his religious convictions as the basis for his moral superiority and the prevention of evil, McIntosh merely has his baseless assertions and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1986.tb00243.x/abstract">a small number of decades-old scientific studies</a> which he parades as "<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRzTFCeXAAAKhxM.png">scientific consensus</a>", long buried beneath <a href="http://anthonydamato.law.northwestern.edu/adobefiles/porn.pdf">more</a> <a href="http://idei.fr/sites/default/files/medias/doc/conf/sic/papers_2007/kendall.pdf">voluminous</a> <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcom.12129/full">contemporary</a> <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/vio-1-4-259.pdf">research</a> <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2011.0308">showing</a> <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2014.0492">no</a> <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/gpr-14-2-68.pdf">consensus</a> <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2001.tb00787.x/abstract">or</a> <a href="http://www.jaacap.com/article/S0002-7138(09)61094-3/abstract">reaching</a> <a href="http://www.christopherjferguson.com/CJBGames.pdf">opposing</a> <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00223980.1995.9914952">results</a> consistent with dropping crime data in the relevant areas, showing that the position he argues for might in fact be endangering women (and people generally). The only part that's (generally) agreed upon is a short-term increase in aggression in a handful of situations (we might as well ban traffic, as that increases aggression even more significantly. Although to be fair we don't allow children to engage in traffic either). Hardly worth taking your real-life pacifism (which is noble) into a crusade against violence in media for (which is a concept so old, even Homer's Iliad suffered from it).<br />
<br />
But the fun part still has to begin. Now pay special attention to the following phrase from Stoker's article:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"The word man here stands for woman as well as man ; indeed, women are the worst offenders in this form of breach of moral law."<br />- </i>Bram Stoker</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Indeed, Bram Stoker does not beat around the bush and makes clear he considers women to be especially guilty of sexual immorality. That is not a surprise considering historically women were considered to be easily corruptible (Adam and Eve comes to mind) as well as more lustful than men (one needs only to refer to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum">Malleus Maleficarum</a>, or "The Hammer of Witches", used for the prosecution of witchcraft).<br />
<br />
If I were McIntosh himself, I would have already accused his cultural criticism of having been deeply rooted in misogyny based on this alone. However there's the nuance that he's not chastising real women (well, based on his Twitter blocklist he is if they disagree with him or are inconvenient to his viewpoints) but virtual ones. Ignoring that women often have a hand in designing these characters, voice them and enjoy playing as them, we are left with the uncomfortable possibility that the harsh criticism these characters face are still rooted in misogyny, just transposed to a by-proxy representation of women. It's still the age-old argument of women corrupting men even if words like "toxic masculinity" are occasionally thrown in the mix to mask the stench.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVnR3fb8-vVXsvVqpCjFO6oxrA8XKkHyH6jy-rrgjWsHUWxVV1hOZy4u_otmnfv56uQ3wKyVEn0_1Qiui60WiJkSd3ETy9qhP67OX253CxX39O55TgRZtD7sVBUeUZ4bL_1DXVCaioj4s6/s1600/Lara+Croft+and+the+Guardian+of+Light.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVnR3fb8-vVXsvVqpCjFO6oxrA8XKkHyH6jy-rrgjWsHUWxVV1hOZy4u_otmnfv56uQ3wKyVEn0_1Qiui60WiJkSd3ETy9qhP67OX253CxX39O55TgRZtD7sVBUeUZ4bL_1DXVCaioj4s6/s320/Lara+Croft+and+the+Guardian+of+Light.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (2010)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I remember before when Tomb Raider's Lara Croft was one of the only prominent female protagonists in video gaming and she got all the same stuff on how incredibly sexist she was. The series Jonathan McIntosh is a writer for still explicitly calls Lara Croft a "<a href="http://metaleater.com/video-games/feature/why-feminist-frequency-almost-made-me-quit-writing-about-video-games-part-4">fighting fucktoy</a>". Why? Because she's attractive? The games don't show her getting into any sexual encounters and it's absurd to call her submissive, so what else can we call this than a misogynistic attack on a woman for the high crime of being attractive?<br />
His entire shtick (and by extension, Feminist Frequency's) is that the way we interact with media is what shapes our views of the world. Personally I would also say that how we view & interact with media is a reflection of how we view the world. You see, it is perfectly possible to be sexually attracted to a person and still appreciate them <i>as</i> a person, but what does it say about McIntosh that whenever he sees a sexually attractive woman, he reduces (and thus objectifies) her entirely down to a pair of breasts? Is he exempt from his own rules?<br />
<br />
These people hide behind pseudo-scientific language to justify the fact that they're bullying people and their misguided belief that humanity will be better for it if everyone would just follow their way of thinking allows them to still feel good about it. That's all there is to it. "If everyone applied my personal standards to themselves" is not how you create Utopia, but it is how you start a dictatorship.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
5. The limiting role of censorship</h2>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<h3>
5.1 Sexualization vs Sexual Objectification</h3>
Currently there's a very poor understanding when it comes to the difference between sexualization and sexual objectification. Sexualization and sexual objectification are not synonyms, if they were, your very conception would have been the result of your parents not thinking of each other as people. Or, to borrow how <a href="https://twitter.com/redlianak">Liana K</a> words it:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>'Sexualization is just putting something in a sexual situation. Sexual objectification is removing someone's personhood through sexualization.'</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
-<a href="https://twitter.com/redlianak/status/673619844525330433">@redlianak</a></div>
<br />
To conflate sexualization with sexual objectification is simply to vilify sex and sexual attraction itself, but to then make the argument that eroticism is in itself demeaning to women, well that says more about the mindset of the person making the argument than it does about those who can appreciate the eroticism.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1YSM73J3GNdJQ9jaPDY_1DV4vKO7sYpwU7QE2Sh31B0UOk3aJojNVl-ZeEN2HEy-Zq5UMrbm6VHCVQ7CsQ-VaFjSsDHwARiNiHuckLHbFQ0igtu35y8f5DwymLUZNcBd26v651b1V4N9C/s1600/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Tina+Governor.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1YSM73J3GNdJQ9jaPDY_1DV4vKO7sYpwU7QE2Sh31B0UOk3aJojNVl-ZeEN2HEy-Zq5UMrbm6VHCVQ7CsQ-VaFjSsDHwARiNiHuckLHbFQ0igtu35y8f5DwymLUZNcBd26v651b1V4N9C/s320/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Tina+Governor.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Make no mistake, sexuality-based censorship hurts and limits women. Do not let the veneer of it being done to protect or help women fool you, that's the same justification for why in some countries it is forbidden for women to operate vehicles. <a href="http://idei.fr/sites/default/files/medias/doc/conf/sic/papers_2007/kendall.pdf">Studies</a> and <a href="http://anthonydamato.law.northwestern.edu/adobefiles/porn.pdf">crime numbers</a> have shown that the widespread availability of pornographic material thanks to the Internet has only resulted in a decrease of sexual crime due to it actually being a safe alternative than the more violent means. Surprisingly humans do not lose their sex drives when sexually explicit material disappears and installing more safe outlets for potentially dangerous urges (when it goes out of hand, of course) is a good thing, who could have possibly guessed? As if the absence of a few video games could possibly undo several millions of years of evolution.<br />
<br />
As I mentioned earlier: women design, act out, voice and enjoy these characters. Heck, some of them look like them so criticizing the characters for the way they <i>look </i>has an effect on real people. It's not like attractive people are less insecure just because they're attractive. The only, the ONLY, arguments you have against these characters is "some don't like them" and "eeeew, ugh" and the only sort of censorship you can substantiate with that is the kind that shouldn't leave your house. Nobody forces you to buy games you don't like and if someone does the problem isn't with the games.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
5.2 A historic example: Betty Boop</h3>
In animation the Motion Picture Production Code (popularly known as the Hays Code) had one major victim: a female character known as Betty Boop. She was sexually empowered, flirtatious (but not "asking for it") and people taking advantage of her against her will are portrayed as being in the wrong, if they aren't portrayed as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoJkxNa6v14">full-out mountain-dwelling creep rapists terrorizing the villagers</a> (also kids, if you run away from home, Cab Calloway will haunt you in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhUCItCCQmQ">the form of a singing ghost walrus</a>).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvksQ98BJsbJqMQ4kY27myhLRw3N-hdCUM5SgSytJemuIE59TfdQWQ8QeZQMBfGHzsO8EdjwyoTkc9TI8Tp3Ew5iuP8BAvrvrrLfpQ3HUdVri-72WFnyJBsQrUdiHER_3yFtzNBfvg2GoW/s1600/Betty+Boop+opening+title+Wikipedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvksQ98BJsbJqMQ4kY27myhLRw3N-hdCUM5SgSytJemuIE59TfdQWQ8QeZQMBfGHzsO8EdjwyoTkc9TI8Tp3Ew5iuP8BAvrvrrLfpQ3HUdVri-72WFnyJBsQrUdiHER_3yFtzNBfvg2GoW/s1600/Betty+Boop+opening+title+Wikipedia.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Betty Boop (1930-1939)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Under the Code her flirtatious, sexually empowered personality simply wasn't done anymore, which meant she was redesigned with a more wholesome, traditional look. Audiences found the restrictions placed on Betty boring and soon lost interest, killing animation's most prominent and pioneering female character simply because moral guardians have a tendency to strike down on women first. Thank God Walt Disney wasn't far behind and managed to revive the female protagonist in animation by giving us Snow White. Otherwise we would only have been left with female protagonists as girlfriends to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey Mouse and Popeye (who had his start as an animated character in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPUta9zOriM">Betty Boop cartoon</a> himself).<br />
<div>
<br />
<h3>
5.3 An Attack on Memory</h3>
</div>
A rather unexpected area in which prudish attacks have historically wreaked havoc is non other than <i>education</i> itself; more specifically in the art of remembering. In <i>Moonwalking With Einstein</i> (2011), Joshua Foer describes how the art of memory has often been attacked by prudes and Puritans (he specifically names <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkins_(theologian)">William Perkins of Cambridge</a> (1558-1602)) after it had come to their attention practitioners of the memory palace technique in particular (which essentially allows you to map difficult to remember information to a location you are familiar with by placing images and objects in them) often used lewd imagery in their mental encoding since those stick out more vividly in the mind. That's right, a method of study itself was considered heresy by the Puritans.<br />
Effective as the memory palace technique is, these days it's only popularly used in the competitive memory circuit. Actual students who it can benefit are still mostly relegated to a much less refined brute force approach of studying by pure repetition. That's not entirely the fault of the Puritans of course, modern conveniences like the printing press and more recently the Internet have made the arts of memory go largely out of style, but it's still worth noting that pure prudishness helped in the decline of effective study techniques.<br />
<br />
(Incidentally, <a href="https://twitter.com/Sarochi1/status/628235549455855616">Feminist Frequency made a reference to BBC's TV series Sherlock's mind palace</a> and claimed McIntosh used it to remember My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic names. You can now amuse yourself with the thought of Jonathan McIntosh spending a discernible amount of time mentally walking through his house encoding ponies on the off chance he'd ever need their names because otherwise that's not how bloody mind palaces work.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcG2L4M1r5Cp90vqCH993zYklhYRhoqpECBeiYgxKyKt9-S0hqedsZeSNg6sbbeKPNqPUfuwie0ubvpdb7CVXFxLPqpft0q_le4gVH00brFv0_xV6_pY-JBOwXcdqXPhKmbeV6Qg3SbBcj/s1600/Dead+Or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Kokoro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcG2L4M1r5Cp90vqCH993zYklhYRhoqpECBeiYgxKyKt9-S0hqedsZeSNg6sbbeKPNqPUfuwie0ubvpdb7CVXFxLPqpft0q_le4gVH00brFv0_xV6_pY-JBOwXcdqXPhKmbeV6Qg3SbBcj/s320/Dead+Or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Kokoro.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h2>
6. Conclusion</h2>
<br />
The primary way in which gaming culture needs to grow up is in the respect we have for each other's preferences. You do not show maturity by calling Dead or Alive (or Dragon Crown) fans "12-year old" and you do not create an inclusive gaming environment by manufacturing new controversies every week, resulting in developers and publishers being afraid of backlash. This stuff is just sad.<br />
<br />
So, at the risk of screaming in the void, I will leave you with this: if you are genuinely interested in making gaming a better place, get off the faux-outrage bandwagon that's been choking the life out of gaming for the last 3 years and which has been putting us on the fast-track to actual censorship. There's no excuse for this tribalistic nonsense from people claiming to be pro-diversity. Gaming is not so small that we need to push "undesirables" out, but we do need to learn how to get along with each other. Gaming is supposed to be fun for all, not a battle for bloody territory. Argue in favor of your preferences as much as you want, but stop tearing down those of others and stop arguing in favor of censorship even when you claim you aren't.<br />
<br />
Am I being alarmist? Perhaps, but I know the history of moral guardian-based (attempted) censorship too well to not stand for the reversal of its obvious early effects. This stuff is well documented. Learn from history before it repeats itself. Self-censorship cripples industries. No way should we find this an acceptable course for gaming.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>'If there's one American belief I hold above all others, it's that those who would set themselves up in judgment on matters of what is "right" and what is "best" should be given no rest; that they should have to defend their behavior most stringently. ... As a nation, we've been through too many fights to preserve our rights of free thought to let them go just because some prude with a highlighter doesn't approve of them.'</i><br />
- Stephen King (1992)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl0_occFvo3PzR4XInZr4-O_GhAXHHHKQ1adWt4FuJv9Iqrc4GG9fCKU-1Ev7wLAdP50RBctQqe55BufThXubrMdQKYt2eqGDrWlBVQhvZsO_bYdt8S8_yuESryDhrqaJU6IM523IyUyRn/s1600/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Kasumi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl0_occFvo3PzR4XInZr4-O_GhAXHHHKQ1adWt4FuJv9Iqrc4GG9fCKU-1Ev7wLAdP50RBctQqe55BufThXubrMdQKYt2eqGDrWlBVQhvZsO_bYdt8S8_yuESryDhrqaJU6IM523IyUyRn/s320/Dead+or+Alive+5+Last+Round+Kasumi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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7. Further Reading</h2>
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<li><a href="https://www.change.org/p/koei-tecmo-capcom-namco-monolith-soft-ncsoft-1-million-gamers-strong-for-japanese-gaming?recruiter=444515818">Change.org - 1 Million Gamers Strong for Japanese Gaming</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://metaleater.com/video-games/feature/why-feminist-frequency-almost-made-me-quit-writing-about-video-games-part-4">Liana Kerzner - Why Feminist Frequency Almost Made Me Quit Writing About Video Games: Part 4 - Fighting back against the Fighting F**ktoy trope</a> (<a href="http://metaleater.com/video-games/feature/why-feminist-frequency-almost-made-me-quit-writing-about-video-games-part-1">Part 1</a>)</li>
<li><a href="http://blogjob.com/oneangrygamer/2015/11/american-mcgee-explains-how-game-journalists-imitate-chinas-cultural-censorship/">One Angry Gamer - American McGee explains how game journalists imitate China's cultural censorship</a></li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/americanmcgee/status/669726448509292544">American McGee on the almost-censorship of Alice.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://i.imgur.com/V3N3MjL.jpg">How SJWs Defend Censorship</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blacktridentmedia.com/2015/12/11/censorship-of-foreign-games-still-censorship/">Black Trident Media - Censorship of Foreign Games is Still Censorship</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thegg.net/opinion-editorial/the-sjw-movement-is-destroying-the-games-industry-the-gaming-community-fights-back/">TGG - The SJW movement is destroying the games industry, the Gaming community fights back</a></li>
<li><a href="http://cbldf.org/">Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website</a> - contains detailed information on the history of comic book censorship and lists specific cases. Unsurprisingly, a lot of what gaming critics deem "not censorship", the CBLDF most definitely classifies as censorship.</li>
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<h2>
8. Links and References</h2>
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- <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/311730/">Dead or Alive 5 Last Round on Steam</a><br />
- <a href="http://www.play-asia.com/dead-or-alive-xtreme-3-fortune-multi-language/13/709dv7">Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Fortune (PS4) - Play-Asia</a><br />
- <a href="http://www.play-asia.com/dead-or-alive-xtreme-3-venus-multi-language/13/709dv9">Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Venus (PS Vita) - Play-Asia</a><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-size: xx-small;">And n</span></div>
Vicsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14057736497614165260noreply@blogger.com8