EorayMel posted:

Just imagine this for every USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST funny forums quote ITT

RFC2324 posted:

I come from a family of teacher and scientists. "Here is the proof" was part of every question I asked as a kid, and it's continued to this day.

Being taught to question was good, even if I started from some bad points because I was raised in Texas

Phlegmish posted:

The most remarkable thing about EorayMel's quotes is all those people getting banned for things that I thought goons didn't bat an eye at.

Phlegmish posted:

The most remarkable thing about EorayMel's quotes is all those people getting banned for things that I thought goons didn't bat an eye at.

Moon Atari posted:

My theory about Avatar's initial success is that movies that become surprise box office and pop culture phenomenons generally contain a modern twist on some element of spirituality or philosophy that is lacking in western popular consciousness. This spiritual/philosophical element isn't the sole reason for the movies success, but appeal to some neglected spiritual or intellectual impulse in the audience is the secret ingredient that will elevate a simple crowd-pleasing heroic adventure story into a mega-hit.

The most obvious example is with 'The Force' in Star Wars. Offering religion and mysticism stripped of all realworld baggage and specificity, it allows Star Wars to feature something modern stories almost never do: heroes overcoming a challenge through their faith in a higher power, even by direct prayer-like appeal to it in the moment of need. On top of that it is vaguely pantheistic, and has elements of eastern and new age concepts of qi or life force, so offered western audiences access to a form of spirituality not present in their religious tradition and stories inspired by it.

The Matrix is another good example. Firstly, in that it provides audience's a modern and engaging parallel to concepts like Descarte's deceiver of supreme power or Plato's cave, so serves as an entry point to philosophical questioning of reality and perception that is generally neglected in day to day life and mass culture. Then it goes a step further, providing incentive for the epistemological inquiry by suggesting that gaining insight into the true nature of reality produces a meaningful change, granting special powers and abilities. As with the similarity between The Force and qi, this idea has some resemblance to eastern religion, particularly the idea of enlightenment and stories of magical Buddhist or Hindu masters, gurus and mahasiddhas.

Now with Avatar there is obviously significant inspiration from Hindu mythology (beyond just the word 'avatar'), but the neglected element of spirituality it really appeals to is in its new agey, vaguely indigenous people's inspired idea of an environmentally focused pantheistic animism. Sure, this idea is hardly new, and as with the rest of Avatar could easily be criticised as hackneyed tribal native stereotype. But what Avatar succeeded in doing was to present this environmental spirituality in a way that modern audiences could, at least briefly, connect to. For one, its modernisation of the idea with a 'scientific' explanation that the entire ecosystem is a biological neural network helps to convert a spiritual idea into something acceptable in a highly materialist culture.

More importantly though, by pairing the spectacle appeal of its special effects and 3D innovations with a depiction of "nature" it managed to simulate something close to the feeling of awe and wonder in the natural world. The experience of this emotion is essential to believing in environmental spiritualism and (sadly) is almost completely absent from contemporary popular consciousness, perhaps experienced by individuals in brief moments when making a special effort to seek out the natural world but not culturally or politically significant. The emotional experience of awe and wonder in nature might in itself be considered something approaching spiritual, alone and without attaching any more defined mystical or religious worldview to it. In fact, appeal to such an emotional experience acts as the secret ingredient in another notable blockbuster phenomenon Jurassic Park.

But Avatar achieved this sense of awe and wonder with a deeply ironic trick, one that meant its 'appeal to neglected spiritual impulse' factor was time limited. Avatar simulated the awe of nature in a public disinclined towards it through appeal to something they are much more inclined towards: excitement and preoccupation with the new and novel experiences offered by technological advancements. The problem is that the public's preoccupation with technological spectacle is antithetical to a genuine experience of awe in nature. The wonder felt from experiencing a new technological feat like Avatar's visuals at the time of release is entirely dependent on the new advancement and novelty, whereas with nature it is the opposite. So once the newness of Avatar's visuals wore off so did their ability to inspire the sense of awe and wonder, without which it is unable to convincingly sell the environmental spiritualism.

So now stripped of its mega-hit making 'appeal to neglected spiritual impulse' X-factor what is left is a standard action adventure that follows an easily identifiable "native romance" archetype, and the come down from the initial massive popularity provokes a greater criticism than it would otherwise merit.

Pick posted:

Barry Foster posted:

I wanted to comment on how good this quote is in the thread itself but didn't want an avatar avatar

It's a really good read imo

doverhog posted:

Magic is real

Grey Fox posted:

https://twitter.com/redrawnoxen/status/1292081004786724864

double negative posted:

lawn enforcement officer

Platystemon posted:

I hired them and they left some equipment behind ???

Brute Squad posted:

Big Beef City posted:

"Smiling on all the world like a big woman obstructing the view of a small boy at the movies"

was not a phrase I was expecting to see describing morning glories today.

Outrail posted:

Is that a backpack nuke or a tactical portapotty?

ultrafilter posted:

https://twitter.com/jimantle/status/1291900090811064320

RandomFerret posted:

drat, that's one bizarre adventure

Antivehicular posted:

A kid in eighth grade did an oral book report on Piers Anthony's Firefly, an "erotic horror" novel that is a) open pedophile apologia and b) dogshit. It was infamous in our middle school for being "Piers Anthony with real sex in it," because we were stupid kids and all, and he was going for the edgy coolness of actually doing a report on it. I recall the oral report being fairly short and sheepish once he realized what he was doing.

The same kid went on to get suspended for three days for turning in an "Oregon Trail diary" English assignment about Hannibal Lecter, Jean-Luc Picard, and Samwise Gamgee as bandits fleeing eastern justice by posing as settlers on the trail, only for Sam and Picard to die of Oregon Trail diseases and Hannibal to snap and massacre the rest of the wagon train, who were all the characters from a dire Oregon Trail novel we'd had to read for class. Sean, wherever you are, you're still my hero.

Dareon posted:

Whenever someone talks about Avatar, I always have difficulty at first until I can tell whether they're talking about the Pocahontas remake or the anime.

Outrail posted:

Is that a backpack nuke or a tactical portapotty?

Platystemon posted:

Fleta Mcgurn posted:

Mai skaifu

Rust Martialis posted:

She bangs

Drlupinmario posted:

All this stuff about homestucks plot

I seriously never read homestuck for its plot, as a matter of fact I stopped looking into the plot entirely as its just a clusterfuck of time travel, alternate dementions and so forth to a point where nothing really doesn't matter anymore. Im glad most of the people right here don't look into it that hard. Really, the only thing I can compare the plot to is the final fantasy series. Which, is probably the whole joke. And if it is, Hussie is actually quite clever in that regard.

Otherwise if the whole thing is supposed to really be taken seriously, I honestly want to say that its just mind-numbingly numbing, going from a lighthearted comic about 4 kids to... I really dont know how to describe it anymore. It confuses me heavily. I see its appeal, but I think I will continue to read it when the community for it eventually dies out.

I could nag on about how I think most of the "Offical" homestuck community is a bunch of hipster and mostly perverts, but .

I do like problem sleuth though.

(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

Brother Entropy posted:

if your best example of a complicated plot is loving final fantasy then i can't say i'm surprised that you're too dumb to know what a hipster is

Platystemon posted:

Outrail posted:

Is that a backpack nuke or a tactical portapotty?

Platystemon posted:

Detective Thompson posted:

Guess it's less of a backpack and more of a sackpack.

Platystemon posted:

EorayMel posted:

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Now, Kingdom Hearts is a comparison you might have a point about

Hihohe posted:

To my knowledge this is the best explanation of Kingdom Hearts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o1ieehttdA

Pick posted:

I have no idea how much of that is true

Captain Hygiene posted:

g is stored in the falls

Admiralty Flag posted:

Boo this person

Lobok posted:

I dunno, that joke had potential.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Isn't the whole thing with final fantasy that the plots are usually bog standard af and the only difficulty in understanding them is usually poor pacing that makes you forget why you started doing anything in the first place and also sometimes very bad storytelling that makes rather basic concepts needlessly obtuse

DACK FAYDEN posted:

Mostly yes, although FF8 is insane because it had enough plot points for two or three games. By the end, you've found out that every party member has amnesia except one, you've killed your adoptive mom, you've gone back in time to convince your adoptive dad to start the orphanage that raised you as a child soldier to kill your adoptive mom, you've nearly-killed the mind flayer that helped bankroll that orphange for... reasons, you've gone to the past so you can go to the future and return through the power of friendship and love using a machine that emulates a girl's mind, and that girl that is the daughter of two people you got together by possessing the man in the past and making him confess to the woman, and you learn that the reason TV doesn't work is because there's a witch trapped in a crystal in space screaming nonsense on all frequencies

also you commit like four distinct war crimes and your party is really excited about all of them

Platystemon posted:

Hihohe posted:

To my knowledge this is the best explanation of Kingdom Hearts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o1ieehttdA

reignofevil posted:

This isn't a request this is an informative work. I intend to tell everyone just what the gently caress was happening in command and conquer. Begin by opening your bibles.