There's a weird media trend that I find kind of off-putting. It's not everywhere, it's only here-and-there, but it always irks me when I see it. I think it's when corporations are trying a bit too hard to seem "inclusive" and for some reason they take things into full Barney The Dinosaur Kindergarten territory. There are some fantasy media that I think have moved a bit towards this.
For instance, this is Hasbro's official Pride Month artwork for Dungeons and Dragons. Now, there's nothing wrong with "D&D Pride." I just would have thought that a "D&D Pride" image would have been something like warrior-lovers in the style of the Sacred Band of Thebes or some heroic pair like Aeneas and Achates in some dark dungeon, back to back fighting off foul creatures, horrors and monstrosities, not… whatever this is.
Anyone else notice this??
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>>694726Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast who own D&D. I just kind of assume that some of the more blatant corpo shit Wizards of the Coast does is because of Hasbro.
It's a whole weird party thing with flower petals everywhere and a cutesy beholder serving drinks while kobolds dance with rainbow ping pong paddles, barrels with happy unicorns on them, all in these pastel colors.
Here's another example from D&D. It hasn't gone the full Kindergarten, but it's an example of the setting seeming to be portrayed in a very decidedly softer light. There's been some good artwork for the Planescape setting, but other bits have been a bit eyebrow raising, especially the stuff they first released. The first pic is old fanart for Planescape: Torment and is a more traditional depiction of Sigil. Sigil is, after all, a kind of bleak, ominous place, the city at the end of reality ruled over the by the godlike Lady of Pain that serves as sort of the Casablanca of the multiverse for anyone who needs to escape their plane entirely. Some of the new artwork, like the second pic, makes it look almost like a fun place to visit, almost like a fantasy NYC. There other artwork that makes Sigil look more like a funhouse than the city at the end of reality.
>>694736The D&D franchise is kind of weird because D&D itself is basically just a copyrighted ruleset. But it's a ruleset with multiple official "campaigns," the most popular of which is the Forgotten Realms, which is what most people think of when they think of D&D. Weirdly enough, Forgotten Realms is actually an elevated fan campaign that was only made an official D&D campaign in the late 80s. The original official D&D campaign setting was Greyhawk.
So, in a way, D&D *is* kind of a generic term for pen and paper RPGs, since it technically refers to literally any campaign that uses that ruleset.
>>694753I remember back when I used twitter I saw someone call lemonade juvinile and assert that drinking lemonade was pedophilia.
Agism is like mold on bread, it can seem like just a spot in the corner when really it roots itself in the whole loaf.
>>694742I did notice something like this.
I worked for as a cashier in a drugstore for a while, and because drugstores in Burgerland double as convenience stores and small general stores, all sorts of people would come in. This included many parents with their kids, and this meant I got kind of familiar with what the popular cartoons were among small children because their favorite cartoon would be on their backpack or shirt or they may be excitedly talking about it. The big one that I remember was Ben 10.
The cartoon that I don't remember any child seeming to be a fan of was Steven Universe. Now, I saw tons of Steven Universe fans, but they were literally ALL adults. For a while, I was actually under the impression that Steven Universe must be some kind of Adult Swim-style cartoon in the vein of Futurama or Bojack Horseman.
Except when I looked into it, lo and behold, it was just supposed to be a normal children's cartoon. And I watched an episode out of curiosity… and it came across not just as a show for children, but a show for
young children. Like the sort of show that's just after actual baby shows like Barney. It's sort of in the same slot as the Power Rangers were when I was a kid (except that I would argue that the Power Rangers were way more hardcore than Steven Universe). So, it left me kind of gobsmacked that this actual toddler shit seemed to have a seemingly all-adult fanbase
>>694975Owl House has been memed to death as "that children's cartoon woke people care about". Then there are also internet lesbians insisting "it's not a children's show". As i recently watched the whole thing, i must admit it is set up as such, being set from the perspective of a young teen and featuring many of the expected episodic plots. I would argue it is enjoyable to an adult audience regardless, the same way my parents later told me they liked the witty humor in Phineas and Ferb.
First the passable fantasy worldbuilding gets increasingly more intriguing as the series progresses. Second the characters are genuinely interesting with compelling arcs woven seamlessly into the show. Even many of the episodic shenanigans hold up for this reason and the occasional novel worldbuilding concept. The larger narrative isn't groundbreaking or any more morally complex than a 10th graders essay, but still intricate enough not to fumble the stakes. If i ever became a parent, i would honestly consider watching this again with my child.
even when they do the inclusive shit somehow they make all the POC characters bland, the oppressors, and fucking boring. even putting POC in the writers room doesnt work since you get the most evil, pick me, ladder climbing perspective that might as well just be consensus with whatever else was happening in the writing room's status quo. there was no identity politics in games or entertainment because if you actually engaged with the work youd realize none of the identity politics politics and critiques of power made it in. they just got POC representatives for whatever was already the status quo. identity politics is the most fangless paper tiger ever conceived because its threat and critiques never materialized in the system and was simply the system's adjustment to critiques of its policies being strawmanned towards minorities. It never made an effort to bridge with cultures, research cultures, respect people as people which is what identity politics was supposed to revolutionize and fuel because that shit takes time and money and it would never be affordable with the human grind machine that is any faction of entertainment be it animation, movies, or otherwise. it was never recuperated and subsumed as some leftists say because that would require some actual integration of it. But the parts it did allegedly subsume were just people who already would have fit the needs of the system in the first place. Nothing was changed it was just an idea that never wanted to engage with the system in the first place having its rhetoric stolen, not subsumed, stolen and redesigned by the system as another shield against critiques.
>>695054Do you remember a synopsis of the episode? Was the green one with detachable hands there yet?
I just remember it was the era where everything evolved into trauma shows where they just tortured the characters and let them process it in high pressure situations. (adventure time, gravity falls, etc…)
>>695059Ah okie, I just remember watching up until she came allong and got too busy in highschool to watch stuff, came back and there was some confusing incest gem parasite plot and they were on another planet.
I ought to give it another go and see if it was as decent as I remember or if my baby-ness sensors weren't calibrated yet. I know I tried to revisit MLP and season 1 felt like pulling teeth.
>>694753>>694757People are too obsessed with aesthetic maturity but not with practical maturity.
Also, my mom has gotten mad at me for eating some dry cereal from a bag before, saying "Im too old for that" despite her eating granola from a bag.
>>698184I fucking hate the idea of promoting role models in general. It takes away childrens ability for self-formation.
>>694975It's ironic that kids enjoy media with more nuance in graphics and storytelling while adults will watch toddler tier stuff mainly out semi-nostalgic impression of what they think kids watch.
>>69485Wrong.
Weakness is not celebrated.
Indignation is celebrated.
>>694750This.
Its bad enough that young adults are referred to as "kids" and are actively discouraged from marriage and high stakes jobs just because "they're too young".
I just watched this video about Baudrillard and Disneyland
>11:00 "Disneyland produces a special kind of crowd it's not like the crowd in a grocery store or on the subway where everyone's hurried annoyed and trying to leave as soon as possible
>instead the Disneyland crowd is happy to be there. They're excited, they will tolerate the the lineups with a smile and take pleasure together in all these technological marvels and feats of engineering and special effects. The Disneyland crowd is happy they're excited to be there and to have a shared purpose because of Disneyland, that's what we can pretend that the rest of America really is: a diverse assembly of people, that have come from elsewhere, that are optimistic, and are here to enjoy the society that has produced all of these technological Marvels together, with unified purpose
>this is the religious miniature of what America wants you to believe about it: that it's diversity coming together, defined by technological progress; they have a shared purpose, and they're optimistic about the future. If Disneyland is merely the copy, and it's got all that,then America must be that…right? now of course, we see here the reality that's disappeared, because this is laughable today. No one believes this anymore [hence all this idealist 'Make America Great Again' wish fulfillment that America was ever great, which started with Reagan and was refried by Trump…and then re-refried again lol]
>>699077True, but still. If I referred to an elder as "old" they get offended. Yet irony is, they will refer to themselves as "old" whenever they get overwhelmed by new cultural products
>>699572This.
Also, the term for twenty-somethings is "viceneraians".
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