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Notes -
And I approve! It was meant to be a joke, but I realize now it might have seemed a bit mean-spirited, which I apologize for.
It's actually as short as it is because I cut off a bit of a nerd spiel. One of my favored commentators for analyzing video games (specifically Elden Ring) was- for some unfathomable reason- only posting on Tumblr. It was just that level of 'niche access' and 'you have to really be dedicated to this topic' that I now associated with Tumblr, for its highs and its lows.
Could you provide a link/direction to said Tumblr? You posted an in-depth examination of the Ring Cycle/Elden Ring relation a while ago and I have been fascinated by the level of thought hidden away ever since, given that I almost entirely missed your interpretation of Ranni's storyline. I've been wanting to know more ever since.
The Tumblr person for EldenRing is @yournextflame.
I don't remember if they had anything about the Ring Cycle in their pieces- that was me just being more familiar with the director and the material- but they have some great cross-cultural insight into the Japanese language/connotation/cultural context that doesn't always translate to the English fandom.
Thank you, much appreciated.
Media can feel so readily available and disposable nowadays that I can't help like I rush though it and miss the underlying deeper, interesting, and thought-provoking aspects and allusions. It is nice to see someone still capable of digesting the broader context.
I know what you mean.
I actually had a bit of a falling-off moment around Elden Ring (partly due to it, partly due to earlier titles) where I lost interest in more narrative-driven video games because it became increasingly obviously a lot of people (but felt like an increasing number of people) didn't 'get it' and weren't paying attention to the actual plot or themes as much as treating the video games as an extension of their own politics.
An example was the strategy game Fire Emblem: Three Houses where people unironically didn't realize that the villain route of siding with a self-styled meritocrat was undercutting not only the themes of the game, but her own themes. There was just taking-at-face without realizing the irony that the self-styled 'revolutionary' was not only a revaunchist conqueror, but she was self-styled meritocrat who was stealing credit for other people's work, that she entrenched the previous nobility via her own nepotistic patronage and retention of her nobility friend group without changing the lots of the lower-class classmates, and that hers was the one ending that didn't end with some variation of 'and they were remembered as succeeding,' but instead 'and maybe she could start trying to be a reformer'... despite not having actually had a plan for any post-conquest education system or other meaningful government policy.
And also that her introductory scene is her literally running from the consequence of her own actions backfiring, resulting in her more or less falling for a stranger who saves her, i.e. one of the least 'this is a competent and mature women' introductions possible.
But hey, she had nice legs and was uwu for the player character.
(For Elden Ring, it was the general 'Marika was rebelling against the Greater Will!' fan movement in general. Because... clearly she was a Jesus allegory because she was crucified. It hurt to engage with that.)
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