Blogger's comment function is on the fritz again (for me anyway), so I'll start another new post for a topic I began exploring in the comments section of the previous post.
Maybe the algorithm is trying to boost engagement by making me make new posts rather than add comments to existing posts, who knows?
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The Nether in Minecraft is another great example of portraying a non-cutesy look-and-feel-and-sound, within an otherwise kawaii game. It looks like Hell! Not in a gritty and ugly way, but in a sublime and striking and dangerous way.
"Waterfalls" and pools made of lava, dark caverns, undead monsters, striking chiaroscuro lighting from the lava / cavern environment... way cooler than most horror landscapes from the 2010s, in video games or movies and TV. More like a hellscape from British Romantic painter John Martin, in 8-bit pixelated form.
Not to mention the danger of the lava -- one touch and you could not only die but lose all your items.
Speaking of zombies being shoehorned into places they don't belong, this happened in Minecraft as well, with the Zombie and somewhat the Creeper enemies. It was from the early 2010s, at the peak of the zombie apocalypse trend, so zombies made their way into Minecraft of all places -- which is mostly about Medieval fantasy, ancient mythology, etc., like Zelda. They're out of place in such a world, but that's how strong the zombie revival was in the early 2010s.
The aversion to Minecraft among the cult of ugliness is not only due to its kawaii side, but to its striking Hellish side as well -- because that is also a feast for the eyes. It's not sense-numbing, boring, or disgusting, so even the not-so-cute side of the game will not satisfy the crusaders for crappiness.
In fact, the Nether is part of the tradition of making Hell seductive and cool, not to glorify it morally, but to convey how tempting it is, and the danger of falling for its appeal. If it were repulsive to the senses, it would not tempt anyone, and pose no threat to anyone.
The warm yellow and orange tones of the lava, the rich chocolate-y browns of the rocks, the dim mood lighting -- with some warm glowing accent lighting -- it's like being wrapped up in a great big cozy '70s earth-tones afghan blanket!
All sorts of nooks and crannies, as well as open spaces, pique your curiosity and make you want to explore like a tourist in a national cave park.
There's no cold blue fluorescent lighting, no wide-open spaces with nowhere to hide, no desaturated grimy color palette -- in short, the opposite of the sensory-deprivation torture-chamber anti-aesthetics pushed by the cult of ugliness.
That Puritanical approach to Hell is more concerned with moralism -- with punishing sinners through disgusting vile tortures, instead of showing some empathy by conveying how tempting and sumptuous Hell is, in order to caution people ahead of time, before they sin. Preventing, rather than punishing, sin.
The Nether is part of the empathetic warning, not the callous punishment, tradition in the portrayal of Hell.
October 1, 2023
Portrayals of Hell: empathetic, seductive, cautious vs. callous, disgusting, vindictive (the Nether from Minecraft as an example)
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Morality,
Psychology,
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Video Games,
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Trying to think of the last major examples of this sublime portrayal of Hell. At least through certain levels of Doom and Doom II, and Wes Craven's New Nightmare (the final scene). So up through the mid-'90s maybe.
ReplyDeleteAfter that, things gradually shifted into the vindictive moralizing torture porn of the 2000s, most notably with Saw. That's the thing about torture -- it's more about disgust than danger and fear. Sure, there's an element of violence and danger and fear -- but it's overridden by the tone of disgust in the precise way the violence is carried out. Not to mention the setting, which is meant to offend the senses as well, in the torture genre.
So, there goes the sublime in horror -- you don't need striking seductive visions of Hell in order to mete out punishment for sins already committed, as a self-appointed moral superior toward the inferior normies. Any ol' mundane, grimy setting and executioner will do, whether it's Medieval or Modern. Nothing supernatural or out-of-the-ordinary needed.
The dangers in the empathetic, seductive, cautious portrayal of Hell are more like your enemies, who you're in a form of battle or war against, or maybe a struggle for survival between predator and prey. It's not like they play the role of a moral superior, a (self-appointed) authority figure who renders a judgement and punishes you for being a bad / weak / failing person.
Lazy takes on the slasher genre claimed it was moralistic, i.e. horny teenagers getting punished with gruesome deaths for fornicating or whatever. In reality, all sorts of innocent characters get killed too -- cuz the serial killer is a psychopath.
And even when the slasher does kill a horny couple, he is not acting as a self-appointed moral authority figure, the way Jigsaw is in the Saw movies. He's a psycho on the loose, more like a rabid dog than an authority figure.
Dead by Daylight shows the self-appointed moralizing side of torture porn, in the video game format. In the lore, the Killer is meant to kill the Survivors in order to appease his god, which is already a form of "I'm executing you for what I consider a greater good". Again, not just killing / danger / violence, but in a disgusting and humiliating way, relying more on disgust than fear.
ReplyDeleteAs far as what people actually feel, I doubt they can self-insert as someone who worships a god that demands torture to be appeased. I also doubt they're self-inserting as an '80s-style slasher, who is an amoral psycho on the loose. Few people are that psycho, and it's hard to identify as for such a widely popular game.
But it's easy to self-insert as a morally superior punisher, viewing the targets as bad / weak / failures who need to be punished, and yourself as a superior authority figure (self-appointed, of course) meting out justice.
It's not like a symmetric FPS, where there's enemy vs. enemy. How are you supposed to relish the role of Killer, if like 99% of the population, you're not a psycho? They're defenseless, running for their lives. They must've done something to deserve it!
Whether players admit to this or not, that's the only way your mind can get into that role. You're a justified punisher, not a callous psycho.
And you aren't warning them ahead of potential misdeeds -- they must have already committed them. Or it's a state they can't help being in.
Cult of ugliness goes along with Puritanical self-appointed righteousness.
Not to mention the obvious, that the literal Puritans were dedicated to ugly, crappy anti-aesthetics in their culture.
ReplyDeleteweren't the Puritans the same people who banned Christmas for being too festive?
ReplyDeleteWatching Nerissa's Terraria stream tonight, I learned it has a Hell environment, too. And just like Minecraft, it's a sublime portrayal, only difference being the lava is red instead of orange and yellow, and the rocks are closer to black, so it's not quite at the '70s afghan level of warm coziness.
ReplyDeleteBut still cool, seductive, the kind of place you'd like to dance and party at (against your better judgement) -- not a drab disgusting dungeon meant for torture.
Terraria, Minecraft, and Stardew Valley are the only new Western games to become popular during the 2010s in spite of the broader trend toward the cult of ugliness.
Just had to check -- and yep, Stardew Valley has a volcano dungeon, meant to look like Hell, and just as warm and cozy. More like the Nether than the Terraria Hell, with orange and yellow lava, and chocolate brown rocks.
Only other popular game from the 2010s I can find a Hell-like level for is Dark Souls (the Demon Ruins location), but that was made in Japan.
Surprised there's no Hell level in Skyrim, although there is a building with lava in it in the DLC (Aetherium Forge, from Dawnguard). But then, American culture had outgrown the fascination with Hell by the 2010s...
In glorious Nippon, not rotted by the cult of ugliness, Lui streamed Dragon Quest IV today (PS1 remake from 2001). I don't know Japanese, and the subtitles option was not activated yet, so I just skimmed through to see what the graphics looked like.
ReplyDeleteSee for yourself:
https://www.mobygames.com/game/18540/dragon-quest-iv-michibikareshi-monotachi/screenshots/
Same color palette and atmosphere as a Studio Ghibli fantasy land, or Zelda, or etc etc etc.
Rich blue water, verdant vegetation, warm oranges and yellows on the ground (along with rich browns).
There's a waterfall that you go behind -- a classic trope, and very refreshing to see.
But what really struck me was the lack of gray, even though there are tons of buildings and streets made of stone, not to mention mountains. The stone blocks are usually in shades of yellow, although sometimes in shades of (pale) green, or blue.
It doesn't look unnatural -- they're warm, golden and sandy yellows that you could imagine rocks being made of. Really warms up the atmosphere of a town, instead of the buildings being made of shades-of-gray stones. Ditto for the streets.
I think the only gray building I saw was a church or altar, but even that had a multicolored stained-glass window to counteract the gray.
The wooden planks have yellows and oranges along with the browns, not only to show the grain / figure, but to warm up the color palette and make it more of a feast for the eyes. Not just a desaturated gray-brown.
There's a large tree-as-building, and the colors of its wood are mostly in the yellow and orange range, with some shades of brown too. Rich green foliage, against a blue sky. So cool!
I noticed some of the buildings are shown without the roof, so you can see what it's like inside. Reminds me of this technique from Japanese art:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukinuki_yatai
This remake is a great example of how "PS1" and "early 3D engine" and "early 2000s" did not need to result in the cult of ugliness. Ugly and crappy are deliberate choices.
Dragon Quest 11 is a modern day game that looks absolutely stunning, as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd to continue with the edenic, prehistoric landscapes... you should definitely check out the Monster Hunter games, Xenoblade, and Ys VIII. Japanese RPGs are another genre that have mostly escaped the ugliness/horror aesthetic (with a few exceptions) and usually feature pretty bright and memorable environments.
I could never get into JRPGs myself, meaning the turn-based combat ones (maybe by now they've changed the definition to any Japanese-made RPG, but not long ago it meant only the turn-based ones).
ReplyDeleteI only played the action RPGs -- Secret of Mana, Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia, Soul Blazer, Final Fantasy Adventure...
Speaking of the last one, that goes to show that good graphics can be done in black-and-white / shades-of-gray monochrome, like on the Game Boy. They should not, but if the tech limitations require it, it's not impossible. Same with B&W photography -- it should be in color, but if you can't manage it, there's still a way to make it look striking rather than dull and off-putting.
Final Fantasy Adventure isn't ugly, doesn't have an off-putting story and dialog, and isn't plagued by crappy gameplay, coding bugs, etc.
I don't mind watching other people play the turn-based RPGs, which also tend to have soap opera plotlines, mucho texto, and so on. You don't have to watch the whole thing, just enjoy a piece here and there -- much like dropping in on an episodic TV show every now and then. Then there are the superfans of the genre who will stay fixated on every second of the show / video game / stream.
Okayu (like many other JP Hololive girls) played Dragon Quest XI recently, Lui just finished IV and is soon starting V, plus she's played some Super Nintendo remakes of the early ones.
If you want to relive the experience without committing to playing the game yourself, let alone in its entirety, you can check them out on YouTube. The vods have auto-translated closed captions, which usually give you the gist of what the streamer is saying, plus the inflection, laughing, etc. from the streamer herself.
Plus, few of those JRPGs were officially released in English for the West. For example, the one I just mentioned, that Lui is starting -- DQV. The remakes for the Super Nintendo did not come out here either, so if you want to see II or III with better-looking 16-bit graphics and sound, you can experience it by watching a JP Holo stream it.
It'd be interesting for bilingual streamers to do JP-only releases and translate them (roughly, to convey the basic idea) for an English audience. Sure, hardcore fans can probably make and find fan translations, but what about most English speakers who don't even know these games exist? They can't search the fan translations out. But they could be introduced to the game by a bilingual streamer.
That would be a bigger project for a soap opera JRPG, with all that text, but the action RPGs don't have quite so much narrative and dialog.
For non-narrative games, like pure puzzles, it's simple -- like the suika game all the Holo EN girls are playing now! ^_^
I've never played the fan-translation or struggled with the JP original of Trials of Mana, the Super Nintendo sequel to Secret of Mana. Man... imagine Irys, Lui, or Fuwamoco streaming that while roughly translating. A fan can dream, anyway...
Your experience was mainly with the non-Square side of the company: Enix/Quintet made the Soul Blazer/Gaia/Terranigma series prior to being bought out by Squaresoft. Their Dragon Quest turn-based RPGs are highly formulaic in structure-if you've played one, you've played them all,(they even recycle their music in future titles, with spinoffs usually being 100% ripped off from priors at this point.) With that in mind, rather than Dragon Quest XI, it's Dragon Quest Builders 2 that's the one most worth checking out-it takes the Minecraft formula and mixes in the village-building innovations of Terraria with the Dragon Quest format. There's a strong possibility some of the Hololive girls already played it.
DeleteWhile it was a Square property, the heart and soul of the Seiken Densetsu series was easily the near-peerless musician Hiroki Kikuta, who later ended up striking out on his own to make Koudelka and the Shadow Hearts series, 'horror RPGs', that were less about reveling in the horrific than exploring the stories of the characters in the horrific situations. They're some of the best-looking early PS2 games you'll ever see, and the only reason the original wasn't more popular was due to releasing a week before Final Fantasy X.
It's a good demonstration that a musician is often the best to craft the major story beats, as they have to have constant focus on 'what is the emotion of this scene' in order to write the music properly. On the Western side, around the same time, you had the shooter Tyrian, which follows almost all the rules you previously noted for evocative landscapes and music, and actually has a between-level story, again written by its musician.
Squaresoft has generally treated their Final Fantasy series kind of like Valve treated the Half-Life series-even in the late 80s the turn-based genre was already so played out by the local Wizardry and Ultima fans that every new numbered RPG Square made was mainly an excuse to stretch their design, technological and artistic legs, as detailed in PlayFrame's analysis. There was a decade-long interlude from 8-15 where a certain designer named Tetsuya Nomura changed the focus from a mix of midaeval and steampunk style to ultra-modern anime style, and generally considered where the series lost its way. Fortunately, a relic of the Enix/Dragon Quest side of the company, Naoki Yoshida, pulled the company out of that path almost completely single-handedly, making Final Fantasy 14 (easily the single greatest MMO of its time) and 16, and honestly the MMO is probably the best place to start as it has near-limitless callbacks to the best parts of the old series that you don't have to grind dungeons for hundreds of hours to experience.
Just image searched Seiken Densetsu 3 for the Super Famicom, and sure enough, there is a waterfall landscape, just like in Secret of Mana, and countless other works of Japanese culture. Ah...
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see what a video game looks like, image searches rarely turn up any results. It's all about ads, propaganda (media), and commerce.
ReplyDeleteSo instead of the first 50 results showing 50 different screenshots of the game, it's 50 identical images of the box art / title screen / still for the ad campaign, etc. If you're lucky, 50 identical images from the first 5 minutes of gameplay.
You have to search Mobygames for it, then click on its screenshots tab.
Same black hole of results for movies and TV shows of any kind -- but sadly, no clearing-house / library / repository like Mobygames where you can see stills from throughout the movie. Only 50 identical images of the poster art, ad-exec-produced promo still, title screen, etc.
The promise of the "information superhighway" has deliberately destroyed and devolved into an informational black hole. Once information goes online, it quickly gets destroyed and replaced by a single bit of info that's plastered across every single screen.
Like most other aspects of our dystopian present, the world was completely the opposite 10-15-20 years ago, and only during the 2nd Obama admin, and especially the anti-Trump hysteria of the late 2010s, did the info-tech sector of society become hijacked by memory-holing commisars.
It's not even the overtly political stuff -- it's the very idea that you could order a program to do what you want, like "tell me what this video game or movie looks like". Sorry, that gives you too much of a sense of privilege and entitlement -- we commisars will allow you a crumb of the title screen and box / poster art, and that's it.
Give 'em an inch, and they'll take a mile. So although video games and movies are not inherently political, during imperial collapse when elites are shredding their credibility and legitimacy in plain view of the public, they correctly freak out. But then this freak-out leads them to this kind of petty, last-ditch effort to control society, when no one is obeying their orders or thinking proper thoughts any longer.
Pretty soon, Mobygames will only exist in a Russian-hosted mirror.
If you want cute young girls to follow you, Mumei gave a helpful hint on her suika stream last night, if you're an ojisan -- just become a schizo content creator! ^_^
ReplyDeleteShe referred to a "guilty pleasure" YouTube channel, "of a man who... may not all be there", who may have some delusions, etc. But whose content she obviously finds fascinating!
So much so, that she's noticed she's starting to adopt some of his speech mannerisms. She not only likes the substance of what he's talking about, but is mirroring / imprinting on the style and word choice in which it's being said!
Never give up hope, ojisans -- girls luuuv guilty pleasures, and you can still be that for them. Yes, even if they're ADHD 20-somethings, mercurial geminis, etc.
In fact, you're *more likely* to garner their attention, since girls with ADHD demand a constant stream of novel content. Who else can provide that but someone with encyclopedic knowledge? And that's not going to be someone their own age.
And if it's the same kind of thing everyone else is saying, where's the novelty? It has to be out of left field, off-kilter, off-the-wall, while still plausible and truthful, of course. Not just putting on a whacko show.
If you're not on TikTok or Twitter, all the better -- they've already exhausted the content stream from those platforms. But an ojisan who's not part of those platform will not be taking part in their discourses, it'll be something entirely different -- just what novelty-seekers are after!
Feels good to be one of the remaining unmoved movers of the internet, out here in the ruins of the blogosphere. I have no clue what the tards on other platforms are talking about, so I'm rarely reacting, but generating original topics of conversation.
Not to brag -- there's certainly no clout or income to be had from being this way. It's more a matter of pride, and knowing that you're one of those bands that the hit bands listen to, but their audiences are unaware of directly. Hehe.
If "hot guy who serenades" is not one of your options, why not take a shot at becoming a cult figure? ^_^
The only caveat there is that you won't be her only ojisan. She's lurking your blog, she's listening to some YouTuber, or a podcaster, and perhaps several others around various platforms as well. Maybe an IRL one, too, if she has a charismatic professor / tutor / etc.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but it's not like the relationship is marriage, steady dating, etc., where "monogamy" is expected. Having the attention, respect, and content-craving interest of a cute young girl should be reason enough to play some (non-romantic) role in her life.
Of course, if you want to go the literal cult-leader route, or if you're hot, there's groupies aplenty...
Once their brains are no longer itching to soak up everything like a sponge, your originality / novelty value loses its appeal. Her mind, as well as her body, will start to settle down, and no one other than that one guy will show up on her radar (mostly).
If your mind is the unmoved mover type, and you're old enough to have a lot of knowledge inside it, the only females who will ever follow you will be pretty young things (especially if they have ADHD). Males of any age are interested in things, and do not get boring in their interests as they age.
That's also the reason why these young girls don't find older women to follow -- after a certain age, women just withdraw into mother-or-spinster mode, and don't put out any signals that other people could ever pick up. And their interests get more boring (as Mother Nature intended, for the maternal phase of their lives).
20-something girls would listen to schizo YouTubers who were women in their 40s, but that demographic is basically invisible to the general public, and even if they were visible, there's nothing stimulating coming from them. If anything, they're the demo most inclined to being commisars and schoolmarms -- the last person that an inquisitive, or terminally bored, 20-something wants to deal with.
Guys may find it hard to believe, but young girls actually develop affection, as well as the purely cognitive / rational / informational interest, that they have in off-the-wall encyclopedic ojisans.
ReplyDeleteThe way Mumei says the guy may have some delusions was playful and teasing, almost like negging in flirtation. And she gets giggly when talking about how she's started to mimic his speech patterns, while giving some examples.
It was very heartfelt, tender, and cute -- not the emotions that the schoolmarms and commissars want you to feel toward schizo YouTubers.
"Um, ACKSHUALLY, did you consider whether the source is reliable?!!?! Could he be spreading misinformation???!!! That's bordering on conspiracy theory territory!!"
Yeah yeah, whatever you say, lady... :eyes rolling emoji:
Now, that doesn't mean affection is romantic -- emotions span a broad spectrum, it's not just about "would or wouldn't". Girls feel affection of all sorts of shades, toward all types of targets. It doesn't mean they're feeling, "would!"
That's the male perspective that we falsely project onto their female mind. For a guy, there is very little appealing about an older woman outside of some deviant sexual value, like MILF, cougar, horny office lady, etc.
That's not cuz guys are just base perverts and girls are intellectually curious angels. It's what I said before -- after a certain age, women withdraw from public view, and their interests get mind-numbingly boring -- which is perfect, for someone now playing a maternal role to her children, or maintaining a marriage with her husband.
If 40-something women had something exciting, novel, and compelling about them, guys would feel this strange fascination with them -- and affection, too! Not necessarily romantic, but still a certain level of care and respect and affection.
In such a bizarro world, those 40-something charmers and eccentrics would occasionally joke with 20-something hot guys about going out on a date or something, the 20-something guys would playfully laugh and tell them jokingly "down, girl!" And the women would laugh back bashfully, like a little girl who'd gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar. All part of their playful affection that does not need to actually go off in romantic directions.
But in the real world, this is absolutely how young girls relate to ojisans -- as potentially charming and eccentric figures who they can draw some novel information from, feel charmed by, and delight in their off-the-wall personal style and flair. ^_^
Do not refuse playing this role, if that's what Mother Nature made you for, fellow ojisans!
Why is there no female counterpart to "avuncular", referring to the jolly, indulgent way in which an older man relates to younger people (of either sex)?
ReplyDeleteThis clueless mediaite thinks it's just cuz the technical jargon -- "materteral" -- is hard to pronounce or dissonant:
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/09/in-a-word-can-an-aunt-be-avuncular/
Back on planet Earth, it's because there is no real-world phenomenon for such a term to refer to, where older women act jolly, playful, indulgent, kind, etc., toward younger people in general (aside from their blood relatives and surrogate children like students for a teacher).
Females tend to have narrow social circles, males have broad ones. And women do most of the childrearing, not men. So after a certain parental age, women make themselves invisible and boring, to better focus on childrearing, while men don't change as much.
Everyone, especially women workers, know what a nightmare female bosses are. So much for "materteral"...
That's also why the Japanese do use the term "ojisan", literally meaning uncle, in a figurative way for older men. And not in a romantic or deviant sexual way -- just older man.
But just as English-speakers have no use for a term like "materteral," neither do the Japanese use the literal term for aunt, "obasan", in a non-sexually-deviant way to refer to older women in general.
Unlike older men, older women are not part of public life and interest, so they don't make an impression on young people enough to warrant a special term for them and their behavior.
There is, but perhaps it requires much more of an age gap. These are the very old women on the other side of child rearing; usually widows. A good example is the grandmother from Dahl's The Witches, or the clever, extravagant great-aunts (and their relationships with the younger heroes) of Georgette Heyer romances. A horror-parody example is the faux great-great aunt in Stewart's The Gabriel Hounds.
ReplyDelete