NorgLyle posted:

One of the best things about Jenny Nicholson to me is that, much like the crew at Red Letter Media, she seems to be aware of the fact that other people have opinions and ideas about things but in general does not really care. 'Here's the video I made about the thing I wanted to talk about. See ya next time.'

Farg posted:

Locked tomb is v. Homestuck >

muscles like this! posted:

It's very difficult not to read that interpretation into The Incredibles. At least in Tomorrowland the people hoarding the super science are the bad guys. Although both sides in that movie kind of come across like the Four from Planetary.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

The counterargument for The Incredibles is that helping other people is treated as a moral duty and that the government is well-intentioned while corporations are greedy at best and super-evil at worst.

I get why the reading exists, I just think that Ayn Rand would be horrified by the film.

Pigbuster posted:

The most she's ever gone beyond ripping on something to ripping on its creator was her video on Escape From Tomorrow, and that was because the guy was obnoxious in a very particular dumb way.

Ghostlight posted:

Much like all attempts to rationalise beliefs, this selectively ignores a lot of myth. For example, Hades is not death or the god of death, he doesn't collect souls or mete out fatalities. He is god of the underground and its mineral wealth - he rules the dead simply because the dead are underground, but "rules" is inaccurate because it took a long time for the Greeks to even think of there being an 'afterlife', as classically all souls in Hades are essentially inert shades who are granted a half-life only through remembrances and human blood.

I mean, it's very plainly a 'just so' story about winter. Hades, lord of the invisible world, captures Persephone because she represents life, which visibly disappears during winter to return in spring; just as the sun disappears below the ground only to reappear the next morning. He does so at Zeus' request because of course Zeus is in charge of the world which very obviously has seasonal cycles, so it must be by his assent. I agree that, broadly, the Greek gods' characterisations reflect the nature of what they are in charge of, but Hades is not in charge of fickle death - he is only custodian of the already dead, and all he asks from them are that they stay silent and still forever.

macabresca posted:

Yeah, I feel like this tumblr post I quoted (and probably many other people) confuse Hades and Thanatos. It's actually pretty interesting how minor Thanatos is in Greek mythology compared to Hades. You'd think death is a big deal

Ghostlight posted:

volunteering is a moral evil because it artificially devalues the activity in the marketplace

macabresca posted:

Yeah, iirc Hades was pretty chill all things considered, other than this one incident with Persephone. Zeus though? What an rear end in a top hat!

nine-gear crow posted:

Considering most media produced both after and before her death would have horrified Ayn Rand, that's not exactly the highest of bars to clear

KingKalamari posted:

And this is why Steve Ditko being a hardcore Randroid seems so weird in comparison to his most popular creation, Spider-Man. I know everybody's seen those panels with early era Peter Parker being an Objectivist poo poo head, or the more recent panel of Spider-Man embarrassedly reflecting on that week in high school when he got into Ayn Rand and thought he was John Galt II, but it's really interesting that the core themes of Spider-Man seem to be directly opposed to Objectivist philosophy, even when Ditko was the one writing it.

The entire comic, at its core, is about Peter Parker's internal conflict between wanting to do what's beneficial to him vs doing the responsible and altruistic thing, and the comic has pretty much always come down on the side of doing the altruistic thing. It's even central to his origin: When Peter firsts gets radioactive spider blood his first thought is to use his new powers to make money as a wrestler instead of help people, but then that ends in tragedy when a criminal he didn't stop murders Uncle Ben. It feels almost like Ditko's initial years on the comic were him interrogating his Randian ideals through Peter Parker and finding them wanting...Which makes the fact that he doubled down on the objectivist bullshit even harder afterwards...

Mr.Radar posted:

Karen Puzzles provides commentary on the 2022 world jigsaw puzzle championship, highlighting the different competitors and their strategies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6tNjymGm0A

Dawgstar posted:

Honestly this is why people underestimate what Stan did for the comic. "Make people like Peter" for a start.

KingKalamari posted:

And this is why Steve Ditko being a hardcore Randroid seems so weird in comparison to his most popular creation, Spider-Man. I know everybody's seen those panels with early era Peter Parker being an Objectivist poo poo head, or the more recent panel of Spider-Man embarrassedly reflecting on that week in high school when he got into Ayn Rand and thought he was John Galt II, but it's really interesting that the core themes of Spider-Man seem to be directly opposed to Objectivist philosophy, even when Ditko was the one writing it.

The entire comic, at its core, is about Peter Parker's internal conflict between wanting to do what's beneficial to him vs doing the responsible and altruistic thing, and the comic has pretty much always come down on the side of doing the altruistic thing. It's even central to his origin: When Peter firsts gets radioactive spider blood his first thought is to use his new powers to make money as a wrestler instead of help people, but then that ends in tragedy when a criminal he didn't stop murders Uncle Ben. It feels almost like Ditko's initial years on the comic were him interrogating his Randian ideals through Peter Parker and finding them wanting...Which makes the fact that he doubled down on the objectivist bullshit even harder afterwards...

ol yeller posted:

Level 1 Podcast from DSP. Great stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_hlo9R6ntI

sexpig by night posted:

I've never heard of this lady before but this loving rules and now I'm going to consume her entire library

davidHalestorm posted:

It brings me so much joy and satisfaction every time I see talented people doing/competing in relatively obscure and/or unusual hobbies. Competitive puzzling definitely falls under that.

The Saddest Rhino posted:

And then there's flamboyant gay hades who just wants to take that Chad Hercules down a peg or two

Ghostlight posted:

Goon Boots posted:

huh, i never read this one as being gay (flamboyant sure, lol)

but then again i haven't seen hercules in ages, so i might see it differently now

Karloff posted:

Yeah, I always imagined that the humanistic moral elements and notions of duty and responsibility were wholly from Stan but it's hard to say for sure. Who knows exactly who did what and whpse ideas were dominant. I have read that Ditko envisaged Norman Osborn (prior to the reveal that he was the Goblin) as a heroic figure and mentor to Peter and it's theorised that making him the Goblin and having a Goblin essentially preach Randian ideals was a deliberate gently caress you to Ditko.

je1 healthcare posted:

From what I recall, Ditko wanted the villains to all be former street thugs, the goblin being Norman Osborn was Stan's idea. Ditko didn't like it, because Norman was a high-rolling businessman and you can't be rich AND an insane psychopath!

Upon leaving, Ditko's main demand was that Peter Parker never be depicted as physically "attractive", he should always be a scrawny nerd. But other artists just went and made him buff and handsome in his 20s and 30s, and it wasn't until recently that I think most people realized that he's less interesting that way

Dikto's worst impulses were filtered by Stan Lee. Eventually he went indie because he no longer wanted to compromise his "vision", and if you're wondering what that vision of morality was, you can check out Mr. A. Which I wouldn't call a good comic but it's certainly interesting, and could have been better if it had an editor to cut down the walls of preachy text. But instead its Rorschach, as written by a guy who thinks Rorschach is super-cool and not a loser fascist

nine-gear crow posted:

drat near every Disney Renaissance film villain is immensely queer-coded. The only one who really isn't is Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame, mainly because the whole crux of his character is his blatant heterosexual lust, and even he's still prone to some very femme overacting, especially in the Hellfire sequence.

BrianWilly posted:

Ursula is very famously based off a real life drag queen.

OSP has a pretty concise video on this that hits most of the points. Though honestly it's a pretty tread-worn topic; there was a time where you couldn't throw a rock without hitting one internet listicle or another about how Disney villains were all secretly gay (not that I'm complaining!)

The Saddest Rhino posted:

The best queer coded Disney villain example is Ursula of the little mermaid being based on Divine, she of pink flamingos and "my political message is to kill everyone now

fatherboxx posted:

The Green Goblin stuff is a much-repeated comic book myth
https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-legends-revealed-400-part-1/

Mr A and Avenging World and other self-published Ditko comics are also way more interesting than whatever Stan Lee had done after 60s