Why the first Starship Troopers movie failed as a parody, a thread:
Watching the movie, it was clear the director was aiming for a campy, over-the-top depiction of the Terran Federation. Perhaps not an outright mockery, but certainly a drastic departure from the serious novel.
First, let's tackle a writing pitfall that irks Leftists to this day. If you make your characters naturally handsome, fit, and well-groomed, then it becomes increasingly difficult to properly mock them. Beauty is self-evident, and all the characters in ST are good looking.
This extends to the overall Terran Federation as well. We see clean, beautiful streets. Life seems good for Rico in his polite high school. This is a far cry from the crime ridden and drug addicted cities we know today. Where are the homeless encampments, the ghettos?
Can we nail the Terran Federation for being cruel? I guess. But when you play off cruelty as a joke, you are undermining your own message. This isn't a dialogue about the brutal conditions for training soldiers in a futuristic setting. This is a gag, and it's hilarious.
All right, what about a critique of comparison? Perhaps the enemies of the Terran Federation have a better system. Oh wait, no, they're bugs. I've seen people genuinely argue that the bugs are supposed to be sympathetic. But they're still bugs...
THIS is not a face I can relate to, sympathize for, or even have a dialogue with. This screams at me to kill it with fire. Even IF I didn't want to kill this thing, I want to be in orbit, far away from this creature. It's horrific, and only a contrarian can argue against that.
The only thing you can really critique about the Terran Federation is the propaganda and incompetence. But when everything is so slapstick, it fails at landing a serious point. These guys are badasses in a funny movie, not a warning about the dangers of fascism.
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The issue with AI is not that it’s high-quality content. The problem is that it’s mass produced medium-grade content. Assembly line to the hand-craftsman.
In other words, it’s never been more difficult for up and coming indies to win the attention economy. /1
Hypothetically, you’re an average artist wanting to go pro. There used to be a ramp of steady improvement being rewarded with more attention—success. That ramp is now a crater. The hobbyist has to already be pro (or have institutional backing) to not drown in the digital sea. /2
If your art is passable but subpar, you’re less than disposable. If your art is average, you will never compete. If your art is above average, you’re treading water.
And this extends to the forms of art, which optimizes for visual/audio over text. /3
First, everyone and their mother has a f****** magic system. I’m so sick of it. No one ever asks *why* they want magic in their settings. They just want the slickest video game mechanics so their characters can be cool. I can’t tell you how many outlines I’ve been sent…
/2
Describing endless amounts of lore. It’s criminal. People run me by TTRPG campaigns thinking they are writing a book. I’m talking about essays describing a setting and not a *story*. Ideally, your world building should be the last thing you do. /3
Okay, so as the alien discourse has been flooding for my feed for the past few days, I am going to do what no scientist (or sci-fi author) has been able to do, and prove conclusively that aliens positively exist.
And also why Christians shouldn’t care.
Thread below. /1
BEHOLD, AN ALIEN.
Before you click away, this isn’t bait. The interesting thing about the alien discourse is that it’s taken on a religious dimension, so much so that this question has captured imaginations for centuries.
But why? We’ve known forever that we aren’t alone. /2
You can accuse me of copping out, but am I really? How does a Golden Retriever not fit the definition of an alien? Think about it. What quality defines a *true* alien?
But Arthur C. Clarke’s quote loses so much poignancy if I throw a puppy in his face! /3
40k impressions and 1.1k likes? F*** it. I'll do an analysis of Eragon. One major caveat I want to get out of the way is that I'm aware of Paolini's extraordinarily young age when writing these books, and none of my critique is meant to reflect badly on the artist. /1
In fact, I would say assembling a fantasy series of this length and coherency is a downright achievement, regardless of anyone's gripes. Now that that's out of the way, the most interesting thing I find about the Eragon series is how derivative it is. /2
You can immediately see all the influences, and it's clear Paolini grew up a huge fan of a lot of fantasy classics. It's a work where an author has mastered all the basic fundamentals, but I'm always interested in what separates *tropes* from *originality* /3
Okay, so what is masculine literature? I bet if I asked the Rightwing, I would receive responses like stories with themes of tradition, honor, courage, etc. etc. These are very superficial and vague answers and overlook a critical divide between masculine and feminine art. /1
We have to get at the fundamental way the sexes think to understand how they relate to art. Women (on average) see art as interior self-expression. Men see art as subcreation. Hence the example why girls want to put Batman in a dress and boys conceptualize Batman as an ideal. /2
Why does every woke movie suck and in the same ways? It's because Hollywood is effeminate. It's similar to why TradPub turned into a porn industry. The stories aren't meant to exist independently--they are instead the artist's interior fantasies. Mary Sue Fanfiction. /3
Upon request, I'll write this thread. FMA:B isn't a Christian story, but it's something I recommend every Christian artist in the West to take notes from. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is the virtuous pagan stumbling into Christian themes without realizing it. /1
The story follows the brothers Ed and Al. Prodigal scientists (or alchemists in the story's fantasy setting), they set out to resurrect their dead mother. They are struck down for their hubris by the setting's God, and they go on a spiritual journey to redeem themselves. /2
Layered in this story is a country undergoing the cataclysmic shifts of modernity, the consequences of a brutal war of extermination, and the conspiracy of a devil who positions himself against humanity. It's easy to botch this many moving parts, but FMA:B succeeds. /3