theintrinsicperspective.com
Submission statement:
Erik Hoel argues that 2012 was a cultural inflection point. Just as 1968 signalled the peak of the 1960s cultural revolution that would set the stage for the next few decades of social change, 2012 represents the beginning of the (spoiler) smartphone era and a new round of social change.
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Notes -
I think that one has more to do with our most famous historical fascists, who were also cartoonishly evil. To the point where our concept of cartoonish evil incorporates a lot of their stuff. Of course, Star Wars deserves a lot of credit for codifying that language, thanks to its own crisply-uniformed militarist dictatorship with a taste for wunderwaffe.
As for moral ambiguity. The sentiment you describe informed a lot of art through the 90s. This wasn’t just the Modern Age of comics, it was the Dark Age. Pure 80s futurism was passé. Cynicism and deconstruction were in. More importantly, a generation of kids who’d grown up on the one style had developed edgier, teenage tastes. Pop culture delivered: there are antiheroes, and then there are 90s antiheroes.
Enter Dark Empire, an attempt to expand the galaxy far, far away by continuing the timeline. Somehow, Palpatine returned, and terrorized the galaxy with new superweapons and Force powers. Cue Luke struggling with the Dark Side; never mind his character arc from the originals!
Or Shadows of the Empire, an attempt to expand the
merchandisinggalaxy by fitting into the existing timeline. Between Episodes V and VI, the gang are threatened by a mysterious crime lord, because crime syndicates are cool. There’s Imperial infighting, creepy alien sex pheromones, and this outfit for Discount Han Solo.As a new decade—and a new, painfully earnest prequel—rolled around, we lost some of that edge. People looked back on Dark and wondered why the timeline was so hectic, or Shadows and asked if Star Wars was really supposed to have rape threats. Everyone quietly tried to pretend that pauldrons and pouches weren’t cool. Wait.
The wheel of time turns, and fashions come and pass. Sometimes people get tired of one style, and another is flavor of the month. I think Star Wars is in a relatively idealistic phase, with the Mandalorian and other shows played straight. Same for superheroes; without Heath Ledger, DC has consistently failed to make antiheroes cool. Marvel hasn’t really tried since finding its cash cows. High fantasy looked to be coming out of the shadow of Game of Thrones, but with the hubbub over recent projects, I’m not sure it’ll stick.
Point is, it’s hard to draw a line.
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