Non-Gaming Hot Takes

[Lee__Kanker]

Rear Window is Alfred Hitchcock's best movie. (Yes, more than Vertigo or Psycho)

The simpsons writers loved it enough to make a whole episode like it

 

[Gorse]

I enjoyed the Twilight books.

I read Twilight (the original novel) when it was popular – probably just before the first movie came out – and while I didn't particularly like it (though my sister was a massive fan), I didn't think it was all that bad. It's a very simple supernatural love story that got big because A) it's incredibly accessible and low-concept, and B) exactly like Harry Potter, it revived an outdated genre to an audience that wasn't familiar with it yet. Quite frankly, I can't blame Stephanie Meyer for capitalizing on that at all. She seems like a pretty decent human being, and she's had her time in the sun, so, y'know, good on her. (Though discovering that she's a devout Mormon did put some of the book into perspective.)

Like, say, High School Musical, the only people who ever really "hated" Twilight were people who weren't even remotely the target audience, so who gave a shit whether or not it was actually any good. As a cultural phenomenon that spurred on a ton of other fiction, it could have been a lot worse. Distressingly... I think I even have a bit of nostalgia for it, and some of the material it inspired. (Totally calling it now: later this decade, we're going to see a huge nostalgia-driven comeback of Twilight and vampire fiction in general.) I knew a ton of girls who were into it, and, well, god bless 'em for being so. Honestly, I wouldn't mind reading the gender-swapped version that Meyer put out years later.

TRUE STORY: Stephanie Meyer got Twilight published purely because the secretary of the literary agent she contacted didn't know what the proper word length for a YA novel should be, so she erroneously passed the manuscript along and the agent ended up loving it. I submitted my manuscript to that same secretary of that same agent, with the proper length, and it got rejected within a week.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Saying "all Asian adaptations" is generous, considering how frequently we get manga to anime adaptations that people deem unworthy (@Yousef mentions multiple examples in their first comment).

While I won't speak to why unfaithful adaptations exist, I'll say that I'd vastly prefer a unique adaptation than something beat for beat. If I like the source material, I don't just want it chewed up and spit back out at me in a new form solely to appease some nothing that things need to be the exact same to be faithful. I want new interpretations on characters, I want to see something that feels authentic to the source material but takes liberties and shows me something fresh within an existing space. In a similar way to how comics spin their characters off into dozens of different runs that give new looks or interpretations to aspects of these worlds, I want cross media adaptations to do the same.

Of course, that comes with people debating on a case-by-case basis if something is authentic enough to the original to justify its differences, but that's ok. I'd rather have those discussions and have some people be disappointed by a new interpretation than just have the same thing but in a new type of media. That's worthless to me, I just won't care.

I'm glad that things like the live action Sonic movies are a brand-new spin on the series and characters even if I have issues with certain reinterpretations. I'm glad that The Lord of the Rings took liberties where it deemed necessary both to save time and to introduce some new elements throughout the trilogy. Sure, it didn't work out with The Hobbit, but that is clearly for a bevy of external reasons regarding studio meddling than anything. Controversial as the franchise may be, Harry Potter also benefitted greatly from taking several liberties with the movies. It cut out so much of Rowling's hack writing and shit worldbuilding that it managed to make something that in most people's eyes elevated the source material.

If someone doesn't want an adaptation to change anything, they just shouldn't adapt it in the first place. If it's fine as is then why bother when you could make something new?

I can't speak to Castlevania itself because I loved the first two seasons and then stopped watching. Not for any real reason and I've definitely intended to go back and finish it at some point but for now it just isn't high on my priority list. Maybe it will be an example of a bad adaptation in my eyes once I see seasons 3 and 4, but when season 1 and 2 already take their liberties with tone and such I don't think the issue is a lack of pure faithfulness to the source material but rather just bad writing in general.

The Halo TV show comes to mind for me, because in a vacuum I think *almost* all of its ideas are solid ideas for a reinterpretation of the series and from a presentational perspective it nails Halo's vibe more often than it doesn't. The problem is that the pacing and writing couldn't execute on those ideas.

In any case, maybe this counts as my first hot take in this thread, but I don't think a pure adaptation is good, because if you're gonna stick a talented team on a project for however long it takes to finish all so they can just regurgitate something we already have then that's just opportunity cost. I feel the same about remakes even when the remake in question is brilliant. It kind of strikes at the heart of most adaptations in that I just don't really care for them because the headaches surrounding people endlessly getting upset over something being canon/non-canon or faithful/non-faithful is exhausting. In an age where damn near all we get are remakes and adaptations, it's the same conversation every other day. I'll take a bad adaptation over a faithful one almost any day though because at least the bad one is interesting to talk about and had something new to say.

I said videogames cartoons specifically, western toons cant make an accurate one to save their life while asian ones are almost always faithful
Ofc theres times where the cartoon is completly different (Yu gi oh and FMA 03 come to mind)

I hate the sonic movies too, this thing where its a realistic cgi character in the real word is unsufferable. I thought it was a brief fad when the chipmunks movies came out but then it was the smurf movie and it became a whole subgenre that replaced just having a movie of a cartoon, I hate it with a passion

If it was at least something like who framed roger rabbit where its 2d animation in live action it could be fun, but why is it always realistic cg? Why do normies like that so much

 

[RageBurner]

TRUE STORY: Stephanie Meyer got Twilight published purely because the secretary of the literary agent she contacted didn't know what the proper word length for a YA novel should be, so she erroneously passed the manuscript along and the agent ended up loving it. I submitted my manuscript to that same secretary of that same agent, with the proper length, and it got rejected within a week.

So my takeaway is that technical mistakes lead to success. Funny world.

 

[Bakuma1997]

No, drinking milk and chewing gum instead instead of boozing and smoking doesn't mean you are childish, Manchildness is bad, but if you treat anything remotely non-adult as childish even if you do them between responsabilities you are a cretin, ¿Why you care if i watch cartoons as an adult or play videogames? I paid for them

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Thank you. I fully agree here. You make a very valid point and I try doing the same if I’m the OverPowered. This is really humble and shows social awareness.

Now onto your question.

Now I’ll preface some stuff here: if anyone’s think these are not hot takes, please don’t yell at me. I promise you, I do not care. I’m just posting for fun.

Without further ado….

1. I like all of Naruto. Not just the OG, not just pre-war, all of it. Naruto is one of my all time favorite tales in fiction.
2. The entire Z mythos is well written. From Saiyan all the way to Buu Saga. All of dragon ball is well written. The manga is in my top 5 easily.
3. Berserk is NOT impossible to adapt. The art is impossible to replicate in animation form, but that does NOT translate being impossible to adapt. Berserk Musou is a fantastic adaptation and is truly underrated.
4. I like Ten more than Kaiji.
5. Breaking Bad is not peak crime fiction. The Sopranos is better. Hell, both twin peaks and Atlanta have better writing. No, I do not care if they’re in different genres. This is still relevant because BB is NOT this flawless greatest fiction ever. I like Jesse, but he’s the only one I like.
6. One Punch Man anime is a severely overrated adaptation and is by far the ultimate normie anime. Sorry, but I’ll gatekeep you if you only watch the anime. If you at least read the manga then good. If you read the webcomic though, we should kiss.
7. Hokuto no Ken not needing a remake is a very overrated idea. Sorry, but HnK remake would be the PERFECT opportunity to make anime FAITHFUL TO THE MANGA. Sorry anime-onlies, I respect the manga more than I respect nostalgia.
8. One Piece is my least favorite of the big three. Sorry American normies. (Also, you’re late to the party. Every other country loved One Piece before you did. Bunch of posers…)
9. Neither Digimon Adventure and Tamers are in my top three. My top three are Savers, Evolution X and Ghost Game.
10. Pokémon anime… is not bad.

Thank you Gorse the Horse for making this thread. Not only do I have more non gaming hot takes than gaming ones, but you given me amp opportunity to make enemies out of everyone I’ve ever met. This is likely my final post here. So have fun screaming at the clouds! And no one should send hitmen after me. They all failed. I’m unkillable. MUWAHAHAHA. View attachment 15710

Heiachi survived being blown up in Tekken 5

When people asked him how he survived his response was

"I survived"

 

[RageBurner]

Heiachi survived being blown up in Tekken 5

When people asked him how he survived his response was

"I survived"

To be fair, plot armor exists in all kinds of media.

 

[Clippy]

Saying "all Asian adaptations" is generous, considering how frequently we get manga to anime adaptations that people deem unworthy (@Yousef mentions multiple examples in their first comment).

While I won't speak to why unfaithful adaptations exist, I'll say that I'd vastly prefer a unique adaptation than something beat for beat. If I like the source material, I don't just want it chewed up and spit back out at me in a new form solely to appease some nothing that things need to be the exact same to be faithful. I want new interpretations on characters, I want to see something that feels authentic to the source material but takes liberties and shows me something fresh within an existing space. In a similar way to how comics spin their characters off into dozens of different runs that give new looks or interpretations to aspects of these worlds, I want cross media adaptations to do the same.

Of course, that comes with people debating on a case-by-case basis if something is authentic enough to the original to justify its differences, but that's ok. I'd rather have those discussions and have some people be disappointed by a new interpretation than just have the same thing but in a new type of media. That's worthless to me, I just won't care.

I'm glad that things like the live action Sonic movies are a brand-new spin on the series and characters even if I have issues with certain reinterpretations. I'm glad that The Lord of the Rings took liberties where it deemed necessary both to save time and to introduce some new elements throughout the trilogy. Sure, it didn't work out with The Hobbit, but that is clearly for a bevy of external reasons regarding studio meddling than anything. Controversial as the franchise may be, Harry Potter also benefitted greatly from taking several liberties with the movies. It cut out so much of Rowling's hack writing and shit worldbuilding that it managed to make something that in most people's eyes elevated the source material.

If someone doesn't want an adaptation to change anything, they just shouldn't adapt it in the first place. If it's fine as is then why bother when you could make something new?

I can't speak to Castlevania itself because I loved the first two seasons and then stopped watching. Not for any real reason and I've definitely intended to go back and finish it at some point but for now it just isn't high on my priority list. Maybe it will be an example of a bad adaptation in my eyes once I see seasons 3 and 4, but when season 1 and 2 already take their liberties with tone and such I don't think the issue is a lack of pure faithfulness to the source material but rather just bad writing in general.

The Halo TV show comes to mind for me, because in a vacuum I think *almost* all of its ideas are solid ideas for a reinterpretation of the series and from a presentational perspective it nails Halo's vibe more often than it doesn't. The problem is that the pacing and writing couldn't execute on those ideas.

In any case, maybe this counts as my first hot take in this thread, but I don't think a pure adaptation is good, because if you're gonna stick a talented team on a project for however long it takes to finish all so they can just regurgitate something we already have then that's just opportunity cost. I feel the same about remakes even when the remake in question is brilliant. It kind of strikes at the heart of most adaptations in that I just don't really care for them because the headaches surrounding people endlessly getting upset over something being canon/non-canon or faithful/non-faithful is exhausting. In an age where damn near all we get are remakes and adaptations, it's the same conversation every other day. I'll take a bad adaptation over a faithful one almost any day though because at least the bad one is interesting to talk about and had something new to say.

I feel that @Lee__Kanker was referring to this:

It's one thing to take liberties or explore loose ends of the original but if you're going to make something completely different then just do that instead of parasitizing an established property.

 

[Yousef]

Heiachi survived being blown up in Tekken 5

When people asked him how he survived his response was

"I survived"

“ I survived bitch”

 

[YuriSukiSan]

The obsession with maturity and nihilism in any medium but especially gaming has ruined it. Far too many modern games feel like different versions of "LOOK MOMMY, LOOK I'M A BIG BOY NOW!" I'm not saying you can't have gritty, serious, stories but this isn't that. It's the obsession with trying to be an adult, to appear "mature" (which is a sign of immaturity) that just makes them appear as if they're suffering from arrested development.

Just as an example Sony turning franchises like GoW in to what they have become is disgraceful, whether that's the general narrative we see in these games, the writers thinly veiled twitter rants, dialogue that attacks the audience and plenty of "gameplay" that amounts to being a walking sim. I hate it. And we know the Japanese side of the company doesn't think highly of it either because when they sent a senior they trust (I forgot his name) to play the initial pre-release build he thought it was awful.

I call it millenial neuroticism (even if there's a very large amount of gen x involved) and it's become a term my friends have started using whenever we see modern interpretations of classic franchises. I'm sick of spiritually bankrupt people who've never read a book outside of studies in University, who have no real life experience outside of backpacking on daddies money (and don't even really understand their own dialectic) dictating what is or what the medium should be - they're philistines.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

The obsession with maturity and nihilism in any medium but especially gaming has ruined it. Far too many modern games feel like different versions of "LOOK MOMMY, LOOK I'M A BIG BOY NOW!" I'm not saying you can't have gritty, serious, stories. This obsession trying to be an adult just comes across as if they've had arrested development. Just as an example Sony turning franchises like GoW in to what they have become is disgraceful, whether that's the general narrative we see in these games, the writers thinly veiled twitter rants, dialogue that attacks the audience and plenty of "gameplay" that amounts to being a walking sim. I hate it.

I call it millenial neuroticism (even if there's a very large amount of gen x involved) and it's become a term my friends have started using whenever see modern interpretations of classic franchises. I'm sick of spiritually bankrupt people who've never read any a book outside of studies in University or even really understand their own dialectic dictate what is, they're philistines.

I wish someone loved me like millennials love genre subversions

Post automatically merged: Jan 21, 2025

I feel that @Lee__Kanker was referring to this:
View attachment 15815
It's one thing to take liberties or explore loose ends of the original but if you're going to make something completely different then just do that instead of parasitizing an established property.

Yep, thats why I used Isaac as the main example

 

[Bakuma1997]

The obsession with maturity and nihilism in any medium but especially gaming has ruined it. Far too many modern games feel like different versions of "LOOK MOMMY, LOOK I'M A BIG BOY NOW!" I'm not saying you can't have gritty, serious, stories but this isn't that. It's the obsession with trying to be an adult, to appear "mature" (which is a sign of immaturity) just makes them appear as if they've suffering from arrested development.

Just as an example Sony turning franchises like GoW in to what they have become is disgraceful, whether that's the general narrative we see in these games, the writers thinly veiled twitter rants, dialogue that attacks the audience and plenty of "gameplay" that amounts to being a walking sim. I hate it. And we know the Japanese side of the company doesn't think highly of it either because when they sent a senior they trust (I forgot his name) to play the initial release they thought it was awful.

I call it millenial neuroticism (even if there's a very large amount of gen x involved) and it's become a term my friends have started using whenever see modern interpretations of classic franchises. I'm sick of spiritually bankrupt people who've never read any a book outside of studies in University or even really understand their own dialectic dictate what is, they're philistines.

i Feel that was the murderer of Mahou Shoujo as we remember it

Madoka was a great subversion/Deconstruction of the genre, however it NEVER dropped the ideals of the heroine, in fact, the ending makes clear they were neccesary, even with the edge, Madoka told everyone a truth that we missed: Stuff CAN go better, staying idle and despairing however is not the way

Unfortunately the Imitator Nation striked and unless is a installment of a previous Mahou Shojo franchise i can't shake a stick at edgy Mahou Shojos

 

[YuriSukiSan]

I wish someone loved me like millennials love genre subversions

It's not just them really because they don't hold any institutional power. It's everyone involved in the media. And here's another since I'm feeling annoyed tonight, post ironic humour. I'm sick of it. This complete lack of sincerity, everything is joke, nothing matters, it's all meaningless. Life is cheap. Nothing can ever be serious! We need to constantly break the fourth wall! Everything is a joke! And don't forget frequent cursing that sounds it was conjured up by a ten year old. We can't do with out that!

Movies like Deadpool are fine when they're self contained because it's just a pure representation of what comic is but there are far too many people who unironically use terms like "adulting" that act like that. And they make everyone elses lives a misery.

 

[Stingy Perry]

Original Mobile Suit Gundam is better than Zeta Gundam.

Yoshiaki Tomino threatened to leave Sunrise after Bandai acquired exclusive rights to the IP, Sunrise didn’t want to loose their main writer gave him all creative freedom.

 

[Gorse]

i Feel that was the murderer of Mahou Shoujo as we remember it

The sheer amount of 30+-year-old men making post-modern deconstructions of magical girl anime seriously creeps me out. Think of how many "grim and gritty" magical girl series you can name off: Madoka, Revolutionary Princess Utena (or whatever that show's called), Magical Girl Apocalypse... why are there so many!? All of them are made by very adult and very opinionated men, of course.

It almost seems to me like, on some level, the creators of those franchises realize that they're total psychos (likely with deep-seated mental issues) for watching TV shows starring and aimed at little girls, so they need to work through their emotions about it by telling everyone they're just doing it ironically and making their magical girl shows a deconstruction. HOW PATHETIC... ... ... !!

 

[Taukyrie]

It's not just them really because they don't hold any institutional power. It's everyone involved in the media. And here's another since I'm feeling annoyed tonight, post ironic humour. I'm sick of it. This complete lack of sincerity, everything is joke, nothing matters, it's all meaningless. Life is cheap. Nothing can ever be serious! We need to constantly break the fourth wall!

Movies like Deadpool are fine when they're self contained because it's just a pure representation of what comic is but there are far too many people who unironically use terms like "adulting" that act like that. And they make everyone elses lives a misery.

This, honestly.

I miss the days when media can take ridiculous concepts and take it dead seriously to the point where the viewers actually take it seriously as well.

 

[Somnia]

I feel that @Lee__Kanker was referring to this:
View attachment 15815
It's one thing to take liberties or explore loose ends of the original but if you're going to make something completely different then just do that instead of parasitizing an established property.

Which is why I mention people draw that line at different points. The difference between "taking liberties" and "something totally different" is usually just who you're asking and if who you're asking liked it. When you drill down into a lot of discourse there are so many moments where people dislike something and then try to grab at external factors like "not faithful enough" or what have you to try and explain their grievances. Most of the time people aren't very consistent with this and end up having examples of things they like or dislike that do or don't follow their assumed rules. It's a pretty normal thing to do and we don't realize we're doing it most of the time, me included.

I've seen people say that something isn't faithful enough over the most pedantic differences in aesthetics or characterization and I've seen people praise things that change the source material and characters in dramatic ways. Arcane is a decent example of this. People will give the snarky "Haha no one cares cause League" response but the truth is that even within League's community of lore nerds (which is pretty large) most people loved certain things in the show that completely changed from game to big screen whilst hating others. The show is about as far removed from the source material as you can get in ways both big and small but the consensus both from casual fans, outsiders and hardcore loreheads is that it's a decent show. It never really advertised itself as completely changing the status quo, especially to the extent that it did. Many people - myself included - went in expecting it to be far more self-contained or far more faithful to the characters and their established arcs within the game universe.

But despite how heavily it changes things and how it has now become the new canon entirely, people still love it.

Then we have something like the Mario movie which many people saw but no one really cares about. Super authentic to the source material and yet no one really cares, with opinion seeming to get slightly more negative as time goes on and people are distanced from the hype, left only with a really boring movie that only has an isekai intro to meaningfully differentiate itself. The 90s live action movie on the other hand has been talked about more and more positively despite being so bizarre and unlike the original material. Part of that is ironic so-bad-its-good appeal but much of that appeal comes from the fact that it dared to be so bizarre in the first place. The CG movie appeals almost entirely to that normie crowd who would accept any middling kids movie regardless of quality.

Tekken also got an anime that was painfully faithful to the plot of Tekken 3. It tried to explore Jin's character both before and during that game's plot but landed with a critical dud because people deemed it unexciting and had issues with the production values. The issue didn't come from it being too faithful to the source material because it did try to expand on it and it also didn't come from it trying to rock the boat too much because it stays well within canon and established characterizations. The issues came entirely from it just being a very mediocre show from a production standpoint.

Ranting and raving aside, I'll just reiterate my point. I do truly believe that broadly, people don't care nearly as much about an adaptation's faithfulness as they let on (though my potentially hot take in my original comment is that even if they do, they shouldn't). Really, what they do or don't like about specific adaptations is the quality of the production in a vacuum. If it is a good production, it is allowed to take tons of liberties and people will largely look the other way. If it is a bad production people won't really care if it is shot-for-shot because it will still be seen as a failure.

I said videogames cartoons specifically, western toons cant make an accurate one to save their life while asian ones are almost always faithful
Ofc theres times where the cartoon is completly different (Yu gi oh and FMA 03 come to mind)

I hate the sonic movies too, this thing where its a realistic cgi character in the real word is unsufferable. I thought it was a brief fad when the chipmunks movies came out but then it was the smurf movie and it became a whole subgenre that replaced just having a movie of a cartoon, I hate it with a passion

If it was at least something like who framed roger rabbit where its 2d animation in live action it could be fun, but why is it always realistic cg? Why do normies like that so much

Ehhh there are so many examples of video game animes that are totally different or just flatout bomb that I can't even comfortably say that most of them manage to hit that standard. But again my original point is that I think people value faithfulness far too much in the first place so ig for my purposes it isn't important either way.

As for the CG thing, I just assume it's cheaper and easier to do since everytime you look into the history of a live action movie with 2D animation the team will talk about how nightmarish making the thing was. We have also just lived in the age of 3D animation for over 20 years now, that's gonna be a far more normal thing for audiences both new and old. Fwiw, the Sonic movies did have that legendary backlash over the original design being too realistic and so they changed Sonic to look far less realistic.

 

[Taukyrie]

The sheer amount of 30+-year-old men making post-modern deconstructions of magical girl anime seriously creeps me out. Think of how many "grim and gritty" magical girl series you can name off: Madoka, Revolutionary Princess Utena (or whatever that show's called), Magical Girl Apocalypse... why are there so many!? All of them are made by very adult and very opinionated men, of course.

It almost seems to me like, on some level, the creators of those franchises realize that they're total psychos (likely with deep-seated mental issues) for watching TV shows starring and aimed at little girls, so they need to work through their emotions about it by telling everyone they're just doing it ironically and making their magical girl shows a deconstruction. HOW PATHETIC... ... ... !!

I'm sorry for kinda nitpicking, but I do want to note that Revolutionary Girl Utena is from 1997, which was way before the whole "dark and gritty magical girl boom" that Madoka started.

As for why there is so many, I can personally guarantee that most of it is done by studios trying to copy Madoka's homework, especially if the series is from the 2010s. Basically, they saw something that was popular and tried to cash in on it.

Also, as a mecha fan who has heard one too many times about how Evangelion is supposed to be a deconstruction of mecha anime, I'm convinced that anyone who unironically tries to praise their series by saying it's a deconstruction doesn't know what a deconstruction actually is.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

It's not just them really because they don't hold any institutional power. It's everyone involved in the media. And here's another since I'm feeling annoyed tonight, post ironic humour. I'm sick of it. This complete lack of sincerity, everything is joke, nothing matters, it's all meaningless. Life is cheap. Nothing can ever be serious! We need to constantly break the fourth wall! Movies like Deadpool are fine when they're self contained because it's just a pure representation of what comic is but there are far too many people who unironically use terms like "adulting" that act like that. And they make everyone elses lives a misery.

Yeah I was being hyperbolic, I guess producers or whoever greenlights stuff think the public wants subversions over and over?
The thing is when everything is subversion the subversion becomes the norm and just doing something straight becomes subvertive (kinda like how punk is dead and now you stand out MORE in a big city if you dont have any tatoos dyied hair and nose rings)

It's also so boring, if you're so scared of being cringe why bother doing anything? Grow a pair sheesh

"Nothing matters" is always such a stupid message, because they way they use it is to basically give up on life or taking care of yourself.
You can use it in a positive way, like thinking you dont matter can be a relief because it means you dont have everyone's eyes on you all the time
Like say you're a person in a position of power, so much responsibility and no privacy and you cant live for yourself
If you're nobody you can do whatever makes you happy and you dont have to answer to anyone. But no they always choose the worst way because they think being a downer means being deep and smart

I groan internally and externally every time I saw a show just say the genre it belongs to out loud, it's not clever and unexpected if all your firends in LA do it too man

Also STOP REFERENCING OTHER (better) SHOWS, I watched Inside Job (netflix) and it was unbearable for that

The other thing new shows looove to do is portraying anyone who disagrees with the main characters as bubling clueless morons, very mature guys

 

[RageBurner]

Ranting and raving aside, I'll just reiterate my point. I do truly believe that broadly, people don't care nearly as much about an adaptation's faithfulness as they let on (though my potentially hot take in my original comment is that even if they do, they shouldn't). Really, what they do or don't like about specific adaptations is the quality of the production in a vacuum. If it is a good production, it is allowed to take tons of liberties and people will largely look the other way. If it is a bad production people won't really care if it is shot-for-shot because it will still be seen as a failure.

I can be pretty pedantic about minor details, I'll be the first to admit, and I know it's not a popular stance, but it is how I tick. You're absolutely right, though. For the public at large, quality means more than accuracy to source.

Also, as a mecha fan who has heard one too many times about how Evangelion is supposed to be a deconstruction of mecha anime, I'm convinced that anyone who unironically tries to praise their series by saying it's a deconstruction doesn't know what a deconstruction actually is.

I agree, people throw around deconstruction without understanding what it means. If you ask me, Evangelion is not a deconstruction as much as it is a deep dive into the psyche of the characters (something that most mecha shows don't really do with consistency).

 

[DragonMals]

Despite most of the problems, it has nowadays, Windows will forever be better than Linux, and nobody is convincing me to change to the other platform just to avoid Microsoft's "breaks" to the platform. As such, Windows 11 is one of the best Windows updates that happened after 7, Windows Vista is overhated because people simply didn't have the processing power to meet the new requirements that it offered (which ironically is the same for 11, but idk why Microsoft has changed their scope, presumably due to money reasons), 8.1 is also overhated when you guys had Open Shel to fix the issues that it had (tbh Windows 8 also had more of the problem but the same thing w/ Open Shell can be said for 8), and I honestly don't get the appeal behind Windows XP as much as other people thought of it as. Granted, it has the memorable OOBE music "Velkommen" (RIP Stan LePard, the XP Tour, AOL Instant Messenger, and Space Cadet Pinball, but I guess what Windows Vista/7 had more is a bit more memorable to me than what the former had. This is definitely due to age difference (When I touched my first computer, it was Windows 7)

Post automatically merged: Jan 21, 2025

I also DON'T use Arch btw

 

[Lee__Kanker]

This scene specifically

I'm going out on a limb and assuming the writers never saw james bond, do they realise Sean Connery was one of the biggest sex symbols for women? How many would love nothing more than a handsome mysterious man to sweep them off their
feet? (not that men are any different when it comes to hot tomboys)
But no he's just a baby idiot who doesn't know any better, and you're smart, alright

 

[Gorse]

I'm sorry for kinda nitpicking, but I do want to note that Revolutionary Girl Utena is from 1997, which was way before the whole "dark and gritty magical girl boom" that Madoka started.

You're right, but I still kinda lump Utena into the whole Magical Girl Deconstruction thing too (as does TVTropes, which has a whole page about it!). Utena, apparently, wasn't even the first show to deconstruct magical girl tropes. But the guy who made it was a director on the original series of Sailor Moon and specifically said Utena was created to deconstruct the genre, so. (He's also a fucking weirdo [who of course was in his mid-30s when he made Utena] who puts on a ridiculous persona and has directed nothing but deconstructive little girl cartoons over his entire life, so I'm 100% still counting him as a creep and his dumb show that I've never seen as quite poo.)

 

[Lee__Kanker]

You're right, but I still kinda lump Utena into the whole Magical Girl Deconstruction thing too (as does TVTropes, which has a whole page about it!). Utena, apparently, wasn't even the first show to deconstruct magical girl tropes. But the guy who made it was a director on the original series of Sailor Moon and specifically said Utena was created to deconstruct the genre, so. (He's also a fucking weirdo [who of course was in his mid-30s when he made Utena] who puts on a ridiculous persona and has directed nothing but deconstructive little girl cartoons over his entire life, so I'm 100% still counting him as a creep and his dumb show that I've never seen as quite poo.)

Alien 9 did the decostruction of magical girl shojo thing before Madoka btw!

Post automatically merged: Jan 21, 2025

and also Fight Ichzer-1! did the deconstruction of mech with an unwilling middle school age protagonist way before Evangelion (1985)

Nothing against Eva at all, but theres a demographic of anime fans who only saw evangelion and look down on other mechas as if decontruction means "the genre is bad"

 

[RageBurner]

This whole deconstruction/hyperanalysis tendency we see today about everything strikes me sometimes as a desperate attempt at validating particular viewpoints.

I'm not saying there isn't good faith in these kinds of mental exercises, but it is probably impossible to perform this free of bias and with entirely objective judgement.

If you take things at face value you are often branded a fool, or lacking in intellect by most, but this is becoming a sort of lost talent in our species - allowing ourselves the luxury of having a shred of innocence again.

Sometimes things are what they are, and people do mean what they mean, without subtext. I say this as someone that agonizes entirely too much squinting over this very thing, trying to find hidden meanings, to find the deep truth, but sometimes there isn't any.