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CPColin
Sep 9, 2003

Big ol' smile.

Powered Descent posted:

I just want to say that Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Simone) did an amazing job portraying Eleanor In Virtual Simone's Body, and then Eleanor Pretending To Be Janet In Virtual Simone's Body. The bit went by very quickly but she channeled Eleanor perfectly.

Definitely. My ears did a double-take because I thought there was dubbing going on.

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Gaz-L
Jan 28, 2009

Wylie posted:

"French Pressing Nemo" is a good name for an Australian coffee shop, sure, but I feel they completely whiffed on the opportunity for "Grinding Nemo."

That's obviously the name of a Sydney night- and/or strip-club.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

Powered Descent posted:

I just want to say that Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Simone) did an amazing job portraying Eleanor In Virtual Simone's Body, and then Eleanor Pretending To Be Janet In Virtual Simone's Body. The bit went by very quickly but she channeled Eleanor perfectly.

Yeah that was crazy good. You could literally believe it was Eleanor telepathically controlling her, sublime acting.

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

I laughed a lot harder than I should have at Randy Savage Non-International Airport

Caros
May 14, 2008

Phenotype posted:

So maybe it's been a double bluff by Michael this whole time? "Oh no, now that you know you can't be saved your motivations are corrupt" - "Now that they think they can't be saved all the good they're doing can't have corrupt motivations"?

If anyone is pulling this, it is Eleanor. She comes in with the idea.

Strom Cuzewon
Jul 1, 2010

Android Blues posted:

Yeah that was crazy good. You could literally believe it was Eleanor telepathically controlling her, sublime acting.

It kind of reminds me of the Red Dwarf episode when Lister and Rimmer swap bodies - Craig Charles (Lister) does a pretty good job of being Rimmer-in-Listers-Body, but Chris Barrie (Rimmer) absolutely nails all the tiny mannerisms of Lister-in-Rimmer's-Body.

Otherkinsey Scale
Jul 17, 2012

Just a little bit of sunshine!

Caros posted:

If anyone is pulling this, it is Eleanor. She comes in with the idea.

But if Eleanor knows it, then that means she's still hosed even if everyone else is alright.

Unless she's thought of that, because then she'd think she was doomed and yet choose to do good anyway.

But if that's occurred to her, then she would be doomed again.

Unless...

Powered Descent
Jul 13, 2008

We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.

Otherkinsey Scale posted:

But if Eleanor knows it, then that means she's still hosed even if everyone else is alright.

Unless she's thought of that, because then she'd think she was doomed and yet choose to do good anyway.

But if that's occurred to her, then she would be doomed again.

Unless...

Unless knowingly dooming herself to save her friends gives her enough Good Place points to not be doomed. Unless that very thought occurs to her, in which case...

SirSamVimes
Jul 21, 2008

~* Challenge *~


Unless she's just doing good because it felt nice to make a man and his talentless daughter happy.

life of lemons
Sep 7, 2005

I steal stuff all the time.
Great episode. The best moment was when Donkey Doug thinks Pillboi is arriving at the robbery, but it's actually Jason, who chooses to clarify who he is by saying he's actually "Pillboi's friend, Jason" rather than "your son" / "dad it's me".

Gobbeldygook
May 13, 2009
Hates Native American people and tries to justify their genocides.

Put this racist on ignore immediately!
The weird thing about knowing about the Good Place meaning your good deeds don't count is that billions of people believe in the Good Place. They very sincerely believe that helping the poor etc will result in them going to Heaven and if they don't do those things they will go to the Bad Place and in the absence of their sincere belief in an afterlife they probably would not do those things. The idea that your good deeds are balanced against bad deeds isn't at all revolutionary, e.g. the ancient Egyptian belief that Maat weighs your soul's heart against the feather of truth and if it is lighter you go to paradise and if it is heavier you are eaten.

Gobbeldygook fucked around with this message at 07:54 on Oct 28, 2018

WeedlordGoku69
Feb 12, 2015

by Cyrano4747

Gobbeldygook posted:

The weird thing about knowing about the Good Place meaning your good deeds don't count is that billions of people believe in the Good Place. They very sincerely believe that helping the poor etc will result in them going to Heaven and if they don't do those things they will go to the Bad Place and in the absence of their sincere belief in an afterlife they probably would not do those things. The idea that your good deeds are balanced against bad deeds isn't at all revolutionary, e.g. the ancient Egyptian belief that Maat weighs your soul's heart against the feather of truth and if it was lighter you went to paradise and if it was heavier you were eaten.

we are not given an indication that very many people end up in the Good Place

navyjack
Jul 15, 2006



LORD OF BOOTY posted:

we are not given an indication that very many people end up in the Good Place

Really, if you look at it, the Original Sin is selfishness. No wonder nobody gets in.

Robot Hobo
May 18, 2002

robothobo.com
I think the most solid sign that the whole judgement system is broken is the fact that these four people shouldn't ever have ended up in the same place to begin with. There's two basic questions at play, and each character represents one of the extreme answers.

Question 1: Which matters, intent or results?

Chidi has devoted his entire life, every waking moment, to the pursuit of being the most ethical person he can be, and purely because he sees it as the right thing to do... But his indecision has stopped him from doing anything useful with that. Good intent, bad result. Damned.

Tahani has spent her life working with charities, raising money to help the needy, and bringing attention to social and environmental issues. She's probably actually helped millions of people in at least some way... But she did all of it for the attention, and in an effort to spite her Sister. Bad intent, good result. Damned.

Question 2: Do you need to be aware of how your actions affect the world and people around you for it to count as a truly "bad" act?

Jason does bad poo poo constantly, maybe even by Floridian standards, but is utterly oblivious to the very concept of consequences. He's a total sweetheart when it comes to the few personal situations that he actually comprehends, which shows that he does care. Damned.

Elanor has spent her life fully aware of how much she hurts everyone she comes in contact with, and simply did not give a poo poo. She's always first to label herself as a trash-bag, no delusion to the contrary. Of the four, she's the one who doesn't even bother questioning why she's in the Bad Place. Damned.

It would feel like finding a balance right in the middle of those extremes would be the only way into the Good Place, but Mindy St. Claire is our closest (and only) example of that, and she confused the system badly enough that they had to make her an entirely new place.

LORD OF BOOTY posted:

we are not given an indication that very many people end up in the Good Place
So far we only have the word of demons and a couple neutral entities to go on that the good place even exists. We've yet to see the place, or anyone actually from there, and as far as we know none of these beings has actually been there to see for themselves. The very existence of a Good Place could just be the celestial equivalent of an urban legend.

Robot Hobo fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Oct 28, 2018

navyjack
Jul 15, 2006



Robot Hobo posted:


So far we only have the word of demons and a couple neutral entities to go on that the good place even exists. We've yet to see the place, or anyone actually from there, and as far as we know none of these beings has actually been there to see for themselves. The very existence of a Good Place could just be the celestial equivalent of an urban legend.

The existence of the Good Place Janet warehouse argues against this, not that such a minor detail is a definite argument. I tend toward the “The Good Place exists but it sucks” theory.

Gobbeldygook
May 13, 2009
Hates Native American people and tries to justify their genocides.

Put this racist on ignore immediately!

Robot Hobo posted:

So far we only have the word of demons and a couple neutral entities to go on that the good place even exists. We've yet to see the place, or anyone actually from there, and as far as we know none of these beings has actually been there to see for themselves. The very existence of a Good Place could just be the celestial equivalent of an urban legend.
No, we also saw a representative from the Good Place in Mindy St. Clair's orientation video.

Aerox
Jan 8, 2012
This may have been discussed already but one of the biggest flaws of the system seems to be that given the maximum point total is all that matters, people who live shorter lives are vastly disadvantaged in that they have less time to earn points.

There’s literally zero chance for a baby or young child who dies early to get into the Good Place because they don’t have the time or ability to rack up enough points.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

After watching the first two seasons I'm convinced that the Good Place does exist, but it's not a reward so much as it's a filter. We know that only a small fraction of humans end up in the good place because the system makes it difficult to get there. What would the point of a afterlife that only rewards the best of the best of the best people while condemning people who (for example) were great but had selfish motives.

My horrible fanfic theory is that supremely good people somehow throw a wrench in the works of the afterlife and the Good Place was created to isolate those people from the system.

Or it's just a supremely lovely system set up by beings who fundamentally don't understand humans at all and are incapable of holding things to anything but the highest standard.

Robot Hobo
May 18, 2002

robothobo.com

Gobbeldygook posted:

No, we also saw a representative from the Good Place in Mindy St. Clair's orientation video.
I had forgotten about that. Still, we saw quite a few representatives of the Good Place throughout season one, but all the rest turned out to be fake. We also don't know that all of the things Michael knows to be true are actually true. I wouldn't trust my marginally human bosses at my office to tell me the truth about anything, and Michael's bosses are literally demons from Hell.

"Our" Janet is the wildcard here, but Janets were presumably created by someone with an agenda of some sort. Who knows if her info is all good? Michael managed to get her to go along with his own lies in season one, so it's not like what she says must always be 100% factual.

navyjack posted:

The existence of the Good Place Janet warehouse argues against this, not that such a minor detail is a definite argument. I tend toward the “The Good Place exists but it sucks” theory.
Wasn't Michael able to get into the warehouse because it was in neutral territory, outside the Good Place itself?

Honestly, I'm also expecting a reveal that the Good Place exists, but isn't as great as advertised. Or is nearly empty. But the alternative seems plausible too.

Argue
Sep 29, 2005

I represent the Philippines
I'm concerned that we have yet to see a single alien in the afterlife.

Patrovsky
May 8, 2007
whatever is fine



Chidi should have been bi.

:colbert:

Marmaduke!
May 19, 2009

Why would it do that!?

navyjack posted:

The existence of the Good Place Janet warehouse argues against this, not that such a minor detail is a definite argument. I tend toward the “The Good Place exists but it sucks” theory.

Buy maybe they boxed all the Good Place Janets as it turned out they weren't needed, so that's why they have a warehouse of em left.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

I think the Good Place is just stringent enough that you need to have good intentions paired with good deeds, which is why both Chidi and Tahani are damned without contradiction. It's not that one or the other is more important, just that you need a combination of both.

SunshineDanceParty
Feb 7, 2006

One Road. Two Friends. One Ass.

8one6 posted:


Or it's just a supremely lovely system set up by beings who fundamentally don't understand humans at all and are incapable of holding things to anything but the highest standard.

This is always what I land on. I'll never discourage people from discussing things but a lot of Good Place discussion is centered around a system that doesn't work.

double nine
Aug 8, 2013

look, you just need to be inhuman to get into the good place.

Argue posted:

I'm concerned that we have yet to see a single alien in the afterlife.

Well there you go. (though this does ignore
)

double nine fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Oct 28, 2018

i am the bird
Mar 2, 2005

I SUPPORT ALL THE PREDATORS

Robot Hobo posted:

Question 1: Which matters, intent or results?

Not sure I understand why this question is dichotomous. Mindy St. Clair had good intentions, but she ended up in the Medium Place because the results were posthumous. Without examples of Good Place occupants, she’s evidence that you need intent and results in this system.

Zedd
Jul 6, 2009

I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?



Wasn't the thing with Mindy more that she was a person obviously not fit for The Good Place, but her one act of legit goodness gained her enough points posthumously to offset her bad ones. The issue seemed to be more that she would likely have kept on living as a pretty trash person (as evidenced in when we see her) and that if she hadn't died so early she'd have erased all her credit back to Bad-Place level again?

Pocky In My Pocket
Jan 27, 2005

Giant robots shouldn't fight!






Zedd posted:

Wasn't the thing with Mindy more that she was a person obviously not fit for The Good Place, but her one act of legit goodness gained her enough points posthumously to offset her bad ones. The issue seemed to be more that she would likely have kept on living as a pretty trash person (as evidenced in when we see her) and that if she hadn't died so early she'd have erased all her credit back to Bad-Place level again?

That isn't the issue at all. It's because she died on the way to do the good thing, someone else picked it up and carried it on for her. She had good intent & good action, but died before it could have been fully realised. The good result wouldn't have happened without her initial good action. Does she get the brownie points

Regy Rusty
Apr 26, 2010

Zedd posted:

Wasn't the thing with Mindy more that she was a person obviously not fit for The Good Place, but her one act of legit goodness gained her enough points posthumously to offset her bad ones. The issue seemed to be more that she would likely have kept on living as a pretty trash person (as evidenced in when we see her) and that if she hadn't died so early she'd have erased all her credit back to Bad-Place level again?

No the system doesn't engage in future speculation. The entire sticking point is whether she gets the credit for those points or not.

I think this thread tends to go in circles on this issue because people have their pet theories about how things work but they don't always fit with what's actually presented on the show.

Zedd
Jul 6, 2009

I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?



Pocky In My Pocket posted:

That isn't the issue at all. It's because she died on the way to do the good thing, someone else picked it up and carried it on for her. She had good intent & good action, but died before it could have been fully realised. The good result wouldn't have happened without her initial good action. Does she get the brownie points
Oh, then I always misunderstood that. :v:

Accretionist
Nov 7, 2012
I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Here's two angles I like:
  • Maybe we're busywork and The Bad Place is for bad immortals?
  • Maybe immortals are scored and he wants into The Good Place? Help us for right action. Befriend us to create right intention?

Renaissance Spam
Jun 5, 2010

Can it wait a for a bit? I'm in the middle of some *gyrations*


Accretionist posted:

Here's two angles I like:
  • Maybe we're busywork and The Bad Place is for bad immortals?
  • Maybe immortals are scored and he wants into The Good Place? Help us for right action. Befriend us to create right intention?

I've been playing around with idea; namely that the bad place immortals are actually humans and this is all a "second level" of life where the sadistic bastards just stay there but those who question the system eventually move up the ladder towards whatever level 3 is.

double nine
Aug 8, 2013

quote:

I've been around for a long time. Like, all of it.

BioEnchanted
Aug 9, 2011

He plays for the dreamers that forgot how to dream, and the lovers that forgot how to love.
I liked when he first rebooted Janet - "Ok put in my birth year... 0000... ah, that's too easy to guess, I should change that..."

Nerdietalk
Dec 23, 2014

You know, there was one thing about this episode I thought it was missing and I was struggling to figure out what it was. And this Michael talk makes me realize I really wanted Michael to be gushing about a horrible airport experience.

Senor Tron
May 26, 2006


Renaissance Spam posted:

I've been playing around with idea; namely that the bad place immortals are actually humans and this is all a "second level" of life where the sadistic bastards just stay there but those who question the system eventually move up the ladder towards whatever level 3 is.

I still keep coming back to the demons who insisted Chidi was someone they had worked with centuries earlier.

Robot Hobo
May 18, 2002

robothobo.com

nerdman42 posted:

I really wanted Michael to be gushing about a horrible airport experience.
That was the "Randy 'The Macho Man' Savage" Non-International airport that they arrived in. How could Michael have a horrible airport experience there? Impossible.

Robot Hobo fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Oct 29, 2018

Oasx
Oct 11, 2006

Freshly Squeezed
Michael seems to be over the phase where every human experience is fun and exciting. Which is fine since those jokes were never that funny to begin with, in my opinion.

navyjack
Jul 15, 2006



Senor Tron posted:

I still keep coming back to the demons who insisted Chidi was someone they had worked with centuries earlier.

I think that was a “all black people look alike to douchebags” joke

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Propaganda Machine
Jan 2, 2005

Truthiness!

Renaissance Spam posted:

I've been playing around with idea; namely that the bad place immortals are actually humans and this is all a "second level" of life where the sadistic bastards just stay there but those who question the system eventually move up the ladder towards whatever level 3 is.

This thought has occurred to me as well, so it's almost certainly incorrect. I thought it could be something like these people went to The Bad Place and were tortured for however many years, and at the end of the sentence they get to go to town on the new kids with all of their pent up aggression. We also know that The Bad Place has all kinds of dead end clerical jobs, which is its own kind of torture (the kind Michael went through).

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