• GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    To Bethesda's credit, they did have Liberty Prime yelling that "death was preferable to communism" while being a disembodied robot head in a blasted, entirely dead world where everything was shit.

    And then in credit to Gamers the world over, it went over their heads with a big whooshing noise.

    • TheCaconym [any]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      And then in credit to Gamers the world over, it went over their heads with a big whooshing noise.

      And I'm not sure being even less subtle would work; you always find CHUDs taking it literally. Another example is Fight Club - there are tons of people that don't even begin to see the criticism of toxic masculinity in the movie. They adore the Brad Pitt character.

      • Chapo0114 [comrade/them, he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        So, this video is an hour long, but it explains really well to me how the directors choices are responsible for turning Palahniuk's work about how our conception of masculinity is toxic into one that encourages toxic masculinity. Essentially, the movie does a shit ton to make Brad Pitt cool, and little to discourage that perspective. https://youtu.be/SjLOFLE4JRw

        • autismdragon [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Huh, I though I remember being told that the book played everything 100% straight and the film kinda riffed on that and only the film criticized toxic masculinity, but I might be mixing that up with another book-to-film adaption. (I know something like that was the case with Starship Troopers, so maybe my brain extended that to Fight Club too, but I swear it was said about both).

          • TheCaconym [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            I know something like that was the case with Starship Troopers

            Sounds about right - the movie parodies fascism but the book tends to incense it. Despite being a good writer, Heinlein was not a good person at all. You can also, for example, feel a deep misogyny in a lot of his books.

      • Awoo [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        The problem is that irony and satire does NOT work as a propaganda tool. Irony in art just becomes something that gets unironically used by those it criticises.