Game of thrones is when I really noticed that almost everything became dreary and pessimistic. It’s gotten to the point where apparently kids these days can’t get on board with concept of the good guys even existing because every show both-sides all the characters.
Media like LOTR where the villains are unabashedly bad and the good guys are genuinely good will slowly die out. We lost the little bit of moral compass we had. Sometimes I wonder if Hollywood did it deliberately.
The old guard of Hollywood were a bunch of people who had absolutely no problem with saying people that act like Nazis are bad. Those people are gone or nearing retirement/irrelevant. Also, writing is now done by committee so it never has any over-arching narrative, it’s just a bunch of different writers trying to be noticed instead of creating a good plot.
What about anime? They’re gotten goofier and brighter in my opinion. Popular stuff used to be Inuyasha, Fullmetal Alchemist. Then you had Death Note, Bleach, Naruto. These are all on a scale of pretty moody with tads or dapples of sunshine and goof.
Now there’s animes like “I was turned into a hedgehog and my girlfriend isn’t sure how to respond!” It’s wayy fucking goofier and brighter.
What happened was people knew the world wasn’t good guys and bad guys, it became clear that morality was grey and for good reason.
In regard to your last paragraph, I’m sick of hearing this. It’s now used as an excuse to justify any kind of horrible behavior. Sure I killed a puppy but my neighbor got caught smoking meth by himself so he’s just as bad. It’s bullshit.
Yes people are complicated, yes morality is complex, but acting like everyone is equally good or equally bad so no one can ever hold the high ground is such an intellectually lazy, dishonest, and destructive position to hold.
Lotr had it right. The villains are complex characters who have a path to redemption but mostly ignore it, and what they do to the world is unambiguously destructive.
Modern media feels like it exists to excuse and enable selfish behavior no matter the cost.
LOTR did not have complex villains in the slightest? They were bad period. Morgoth is literally evil incarnate, Sauron was evil af appreciating craft doesn’t make him good, Saruman was considered completely fallen, Gollum did not have a path to redemption he had moments of humanization. They were pretty straight forward. You could argue depth was added in the Silmarilian but there wasn’t really a humanizing element to call them complicated or morally complex, they were morally simple and some had a reason they fell to corruption.
Smaug, the Goblin King, Shelob. Evil as hell.
I guess some of the corrupt humans were more morally ambiguous but it never left you feeling unsure if someone was good or evil, it is pretty crystal clear.
What modern media enables selfish behavior no matter the cost? Breaking Bad is literally about the cost, Game of Thrones is about everyone is basically not a good person.
The best morally complex character I can think of is Magneto. He’s not a good guy, he’s not doing good things but in his position you’d ask yourself “what would I do different?” he’s trying to prevent trauma he’s already experienced and he unashamed about it.
9/11 killed the optimistic sci-fi. American culture was deeply wounded. It went emo. It wasn’t a phase.
They’re too scared to be happy.
SGA, Lower decks and the orville beg to fucking differ
Game of thrones is when I really noticed that almost everything became dreary and pessimistic. It’s gotten to the point where apparently kids these days can’t get on board with concept of the good guys even existing because every show both-sides all the characters.
Media like LOTR where the villains are unabashedly bad and the good guys are genuinely good will slowly die out. We lost the little bit of moral compass we had. Sometimes I wonder if Hollywood did it deliberately.
The old guard of Hollywood were a bunch of people who had absolutely no problem with saying people that act like Nazis are bad. Those people are gone or nearing retirement/irrelevant. Also, writing is now done by committee so it never has any over-arching narrative, it’s just a bunch of different writers trying to be noticed instead of creating a good plot.
What about anime? They’re gotten goofier and brighter in my opinion. Popular stuff used to be Inuyasha, Fullmetal Alchemist. Then you had Death Note, Bleach, Naruto. These are all on a scale of pretty moody with tads or dapples of sunshine and goof.
Now there’s animes like “I was turned into a hedgehog and my girlfriend isn’t sure how to respond!” It’s wayy fucking goofier and brighter.
What happened was people knew the world wasn’t good guys and bad guys, it became clear that morality was grey and for good reason.
In regard to your last paragraph, I’m sick of hearing this. It’s now used as an excuse to justify any kind of horrible behavior. Sure I killed a puppy but my neighbor got caught smoking meth by himself so he’s just as bad. It’s bullshit.
Yes people are complicated, yes morality is complex, but acting like everyone is equally good or equally bad so no one can ever hold the high ground is such an intellectually lazy, dishonest, and destructive position to hold.
Lotr had it right. The villains are complex characters who have a path to redemption but mostly ignore it, and what they do to the world is unambiguously destructive.
Modern media feels like it exists to excuse and enable selfish behavior no matter the cost.
LOTR did not have complex villains in the slightest? They were bad period. Morgoth is literally evil incarnate, Sauron was evil af appreciating craft doesn’t make him good, Saruman was considered completely fallen, Gollum did not have a path to redemption he had moments of humanization. They were pretty straight forward. You could argue depth was added in the Silmarilian but there wasn’t really a humanizing element to call them complicated or morally complex, they were morally simple and some had a reason they fell to corruption.
Smaug, the Goblin King, Shelob. Evil as hell.
I guess some of the corrupt humans were more morally ambiguous but it never left you feeling unsure if someone was good or evil, it is pretty crystal clear.
What modern media enables selfish behavior no matter the cost? Breaking Bad is literally about the cost, Game of Thrones is about everyone is basically not a good person.
The best morally complex character I can think of is Magneto. He’s not a good guy, he’s not doing good things but in his position you’d ask yourself “what would I do different?” he’s trying to prevent trauma he’s already experienced and he unashamed about it.
Uh, well i think it’s always about winning over some great trouble. I wouldn’t say Star wars is all happy and sunshine and that was before 9/11.