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Random Media Thoughts
Jan. 31st, 2018 08:50 am1. Having reacquainted myself with a little basic 101 philosophy, I wonder what the ethics of the keyblade weilders in Kingdom Hearts are. I don't really have much beyond that. The folks with the keys are kind of like Jedi, I suppose, philosophically, only more sociable. There's a lot of avoiding or purging the darkness in there, but also, with Riku at least, there seems to be a path for those with an excess of darkness to do good regardless, which is something (relevant to the latest film, it seems) the Jedi never had. There is also the tagline "My friends are my power," which Sora at least treats as a categorical imperative. There's more to it than this. Lots more. And much of it is complicated by the presence of Mickey Mouse in the storyline of those games.
1a. Mickey is interesting in context because here is the ur-text of the tension between fictional character and intellectual property. In the games, he has one of the keyblades, so the weilders can't/shouldn't do anything *he* wouldn't do, but then, to which he are we referring? Mickey the character can be jittery, cowardly, foolish, suicidally depressed, and his mischief can border on bastardry. Mickey the IP lacks any of those qualities, or, really any qualities besides a hint of the character's mischief, sort of? In the run of the games he comes off as a terminally disorganized and forgetful Yoda, only he's not particularly wise (neither is Yoda in hindsight), nor is he meant to be a mentor, exactly, what with Yensid (the sorcerer to whom he was apprentice) and Ansem the Wise (Christopher Lee, RIP) in that role. Not that they have much wisdom other than exposition for the current incarnation of a story that makes no decisions it does not change later.
2. In the mileau of Harry Potter, would Donald Trump be a wizard? It would help explain some of the ways he manages to avoid consequences that should have eventually caught up with a man of even his apparent power and privilege. It would also explain his weird mix of apparent strengths (for example, his purported physical constitution [living to be 200 comes to mind], his ability to apparently bend minds) and weaknesses. It also seems plausible that his grandfather might have been a Lucius Malfoy to Grindelwald's Voldemort. Authoritarianism predicates on magic to varying extents depending on its flavor. I mean, the fact is that privilege is magic, and there is no man more privileged than our president, so, in a way, he is a wizard. I wonder, though, is his privilege just greater than any locus of privilege I've encountered, have I been, in my own privilege, discounting just how powerful privilege really is, or a mix of the two. My guess is a mix, but 10/90 between the former and the latter.
3. ***SPOILERS FOR NIER AUTOMATA*** Just in case. I've been playing this game and gotten to the point where it's been revealed that humanity has been extinct for thousands of years, this may not be the first iteration of YoRHA, and I am wondering what the point of YoRHa is. For those who stuck around and aren't playing the game, YoRHa is an organization of androids in fancy dress who continually attack earth to "free" it from a species of alien machine lifeforms that have attempted to colonize earth, potentially thousands of years post human extinction. My best guess is, that like the Machine Adam, who is an antagonist in the story, they believe that the essence of humanity is conflict and they perpetuate the conflict in order to memorialize their ...creators? The thing is, from what I know of the previous game, where humanity was also extinct, these androids would possibly be the creations of the creations of humanity.
This is the shit I think about on my 2 hour car rides to and from work.
1a. Mickey is interesting in context because here is the ur-text of the tension between fictional character and intellectual property. In the games, he has one of the keyblades, so the weilders can't/shouldn't do anything *he* wouldn't do, but then, to which he are we referring? Mickey the character can be jittery, cowardly, foolish, suicidally depressed, and his mischief can border on bastardry. Mickey the IP lacks any of those qualities, or, really any qualities besides a hint of the character's mischief, sort of? In the run of the games he comes off as a terminally disorganized and forgetful Yoda, only he's not particularly wise (neither is Yoda in hindsight), nor is he meant to be a mentor, exactly, what with Yensid (the sorcerer to whom he was apprentice) and Ansem the Wise (Christopher Lee, RIP) in that role. Not that they have much wisdom other than exposition for the current incarnation of a story that makes no decisions it does not change later.
2. In the mileau of Harry Potter, would Donald Trump be a wizard? It would help explain some of the ways he manages to avoid consequences that should have eventually caught up with a man of even his apparent power and privilege. It would also explain his weird mix of apparent strengths (for example, his purported physical constitution [living to be 200 comes to mind], his ability to apparently bend minds) and weaknesses. It also seems plausible that his grandfather might have been a Lucius Malfoy to Grindelwald's Voldemort. Authoritarianism predicates on magic to varying extents depending on its flavor. I mean, the fact is that privilege is magic, and there is no man more privileged than our president, so, in a way, he is a wizard. I wonder, though, is his privilege just greater than any locus of privilege I've encountered, have I been, in my own privilege, discounting just how powerful privilege really is, or a mix of the two. My guess is a mix, but 10/90 between the former and the latter.
3. ***SPOILERS FOR NIER AUTOMATA*** Just in case. I've been playing this game and gotten to the point where it's been revealed that humanity has been extinct for thousands of years, this may not be the first iteration of YoRHA, and I am wondering what the point of YoRHa is. For those who stuck around and aren't playing the game, YoRHa is an organization of androids in fancy dress who continually attack earth to "free" it from a species of alien machine lifeforms that have attempted to colonize earth, potentially thousands of years post human extinction. My best guess is, that like the Machine Adam, who is an antagonist in the story, they believe that the essence of humanity is conflict and they perpetuate the conflict in order to memorialize their ...creators? The thing is, from what I know of the previous game, where humanity was also extinct, these androids would possibly be the creations of the creations of humanity.
This is the shit I think about on my 2 hour car rides to and from work.
