Kontextmaschine

18th September 2017

Post with 160 notes

collapsedsquid:
oligopsoneia:
anosognosic:
bambamramfan:
kontextmaschine:
thathopeyetlives:
earlgraytay:
elucubrare:
it is possible that I’m an asshole, but it is 2 0 1 7 and we’re still doing books where the main conflict is “mages/wizards/magic users are banned by an Oppressive Catholic Church analogue” and i am tired of it
A) That’s Dragon Age’s schtick at this point, y’all should stop copying them.
B) this is making me want to do a ‘evil mages vs. Christian martyrs’ thing just out of spite.
[Catholic dives into conversation like a wounded osprey]
A thing that I found even more irritating was Dishonored’s “There are horrible evil human-sacrificing magic users and an Oppressive Catholic Church Analogue that doesn’t even, like, pray, or believe in God, or do anything other than oppress the evil human-sacrificing magic users with excessive violence and everything is horrible and there is no hope”.
Missing link is JRPGs and the fact that Prussia/Germany used to be to Japan what America became

(“Sempai, help me understand the world! Also, I might seize your Pacific island holdings.”)

So the whole one-city kingdom/Chancellor edging in/Emperor taking over/corrupt demonic Church thing

GERMAN (PROT) AS HELL
You’re not gonna have a franchise where the good guys are an institutional church, because duh, institutions are the way you portray villains.
But the good guys as underground spirituality who obey a higher moral power vs powerful warlords who use the religion as just a tool to increase their own supernatural power, with no care for the spiritual mandates of that power?
That’s just Star Wars.
(Also, the Starship Troopers sequel Marauder is a fantastic depiction of the church under fascism.)
institutions are the way you portray villains
Western individualism runs deep.
It’s kind of interesting to think up examples where institutions are the heroes. So far I can come up with:
the odd Catholic (or Catholic-friendly) story (e.g. Father Brown, Pillars of the Earth)
police procedurals
spy stories (particularly where the villains are terrorists)
Got any more?
I feel like the standard western violent melodrama (westerns, cop stories, superheroes obviously) formula is of the protagonist breaking out of institutional constraints to shore up the status quo - methodological radicalism + substantive conservatism
(crude formulation: anything with a male protagonist that isn’t the proverbial horny english professor is narratologically fascist)
Isn’t the horny professor breaking out the institutional constraints of monogamy and employment to shore up the status quo of heterosexual patriarchy?
that’s obviously correct and i feel stupid now

Tagged: 2017