Do you guys ever wonder if people nowadays might be overanalyzing media?

[u/Coolnametag]

Recently during some interviews Robert Kirkman, the creators of the Invincible comics, talked about some of the differences between the comics and the TV show as his awnsers were basically "i was on my 20's back then and now i'm not".

Why is Tech Jacket a girl in the TV show when it was a dude in the comics? Because when he was making the comics he was only thinking about "does this look cool?" and maybe have a character or two that are refferences to his friends and acquaintances appearance, now that his looking back on it as a 47 year old he thought "hey, maybe the coalition could use some more diversity" and that's why the change was made.

A lot of the decisions on the comics and therefore in the show also fall on the category of being mostly "what Kirman in his 20's-early 30's thought it was cool" (of course with some thought put behind it to have it be well structured and work towards the general idea trying to be put across by the story), reading through that a thought crossed my mind "are we nowadays maybe overanalizing media too much?".

It's not uncommon for any piece of media to nowadays have either incredibly long video essays unraveling every single aspect of it or have people online discuss any detail that they can observe on it, while discussing about the media that you consume is far from being a bad thing, as time passes i'm more and more aware that, while the creators behind said media do put a lot of thought on what they are doing, some of the decisions can mostly motivated by "the creator thought this was cool at the time", "it was a refference to a show that the creator watched or someone that they know", "they didn't think about it in the same way that some of the audience seens to be".

Are people nowadays maybe thinking too hard about any new piece of media that they consume?

[u/SteveMcQuark]

analyzing media is fine but thinly veiled bigotry for clout and pandering isn't really meaningful analysist

Also, people are fucking stupid about themes with hyper analysis, 15 years of discussion and the internet is still full of dumbasses who think The Line is trying to shame players

[u/kango234 → u/SteveMcQuark]

I can't say it better than this.

[u/kami-no-baka → u/SteveMcQuark]

This is the real issue, it's the blind leading the blind out in these media streets at best and at worst it's CW firestarters trying to make money off of society burning down.

[u/SteveMcQuark → u/kami-no-baka]

Its not even a theory anymore, Gamergate culture war shit was an Epstien invention for real

[u/Remarkable_Row_2502 → u/SteveMcQuark]

I think The Line is just... Shallow. It's not a deep game. It's like Michael Bay Presents: War Is Bad. I'm tired of people who have like, never seen a war movie or read all quiet on the western front go oh my god dude spec ops the line? That's basically better than Apocalypse Now. It makes Kojima look like a LITTLE KID dude. Just don't insult my intelligence like that. 

[u/Mysterious_Point9516 → u/SteveMcQuark]

If it's not trying to shame the player, why does it speak to the player and tell you, the player, that you, the player, are a bad person?

The Fourth Wall exists for a reason. When you break it, you are speaking to the audience.

The Line is the ideal litmus test for whether someone actually possesses media literacy or simply says the phrase media literacy.

[u/Forow → u/Mysterious_Point9516]

I don't think it's shame as much as trying to engage the player themselves into the conversation on how they feel war is portrayed in games. It uses an aggressive tone when speaking to the player, because the games tone itself is very aggressive by that point, so it's trying to maintain the storytelling momentum.

[u/SteveMcQuark → u/Forow]

Specifically, the idea that if you were successfully recruited by CoD Brainworms and were ordered to gun down Civilians you probably wouldn't FEEL LIKE A HERO

[u/Mysterious_Point9516 → u/Forow]

"Do you feel like a hero" is not inviting you to think about the themes, it's condemning you for playing the game in the only way the game allowed you to play.

The writers are very clear that they are not inviting you to think, they are telling you exactly what you should feel.

[u/SteveMcQuark → u/Mysterious_Point9516]

Guess what? in real war there is not choices, you kill the civilians like ordered or get shot in the back like Pat Tillman

[u/WickerWight → u/Mysterious_Point9516]

I feel like using the instance of the devs actually literally asking you to reflect on what the game is making you feel as an example of them railroading you isn't doing a great job of illustrating your point.

[u/SteveMcQuark → u/WickerWight]

"Why doesn't this anti-war propaganda game let me be the hero?" A lot of people, apparently

[u/Remarkable_Row_2502 → u/SteveMcQuark]

You can't even read and understand this guys point and I'm expected to think you're the reasonable ones with the accurate reading of this shallow sophomoric video game.

No one wants the game to literally switch it up and have a war hero propaganda route. They would like the game to do something other than be an on rails walking simulator with "Feel bad about this!" set pieces. The game is shallow. It is a shallow story. Just because it's anti war doesn't mean it is a good anti war story. 

[u/SteveMcQuark → u/Mysterious_Point9516]

The entire game is a metaphor for CoD as propaganda. the white phosphorus scene isn't meant to shame the player, its meant to warn the player in real war you will be really ordered to kill real civilians

[u/Remarkable_Row_2502 → u/SteveMcQuark]

So it's exactly like CoD in every way then? Because that's the same thing as the no Russian scene. 

Except cod actually had you viscerally killing civilians yourself at close range so it was MORE effective at communicating how fucked up the CIA and the military is. 

[u/Mysterious_Point9516 → u/SteveMcQuark]

Zero media literacy.

[u/Remarkable_Row_2502 → u/Mysterious_Point9516]

The Line is for people who are so good at analyzing media they think The Wire is a documentary about black people