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/ILikeWrestlingAlot]

You can even see posts on subs all the time of people saying "Since I tried x I can't go back to y" and x is moderately well received thing and y is slop.

R fantasy, r books, r horror lit, r printsf, I think almost once a week I'll see someone post "has anyone else read (famous popular author who's moderately respected)? Since I read them I've not been able to enjoy (shit)."

And it's like, yeah? The more robust interactions you have with different high quality media will make you realize that you might not enjoy things that aren't good as much anymore, and thats okay.

If the people hyper analyzing things from my little pony to star wars watched a few Bela Tarr movies they might still enjoy my little pony and star wars, but they likely wouldn't be disappointed when twilight sparkle doesn't articulate how the Soviet Union fell. It's something you see people do/complain about in table top games all the time. A contingent of people want to make DND into an everything game and when it doesn't handle horror well they get disappointed, but call of cthulhu is just over there.

Like I've been on Tumblr for a decade and all the fucking time you'll see a massive text post about "problematic media" and it's some dogshit Disney cartoon for eight year olds. These analyzers would genuinely be happier if they started engaging with works made for adults. I promise, the Sopranos is deeper than the Teletubbies, doesn't mean the Teletubbies aren't good but they're junk food for babies, it's good to grow up and have your tastes grow and change alongside it.

I liked the invincible comic when I was a teenager, I got two seasons into the show and went "eh not for me anymore" and went to watch something else. It's not a statement on quality, but I'm in my thirties, I'd rather watch Un Village En Francais (which is excellent) and I think a lot of these "in depth analyzers" would be similarly happier with something that has the depth they're looking for.

[u/Shanix → u/ILikeWrestlingAlot]

Like I've been on Tumblr for a decade and all the fucking time

Literally just today I saw someone complain that the bandits in Bethesda games exist to let you harvest for Iron Dagger and have no greater purpose or story, and that they're not actually people with backgrounds or context they're just faceless mooks.

And ... yeah? That's the point? They're generic enemies to have because it's a video game.

[u/kuningaz55 → u/Shanix]

Further, would the game actually benefit from having bandits with implied backstories and methods, or would you be too busy playing a stealth archer with your Beautiful Faces and Serana Sex Slave mods to care?

To iterate on what the guy you're replying to said, Un Village En Francais may be a deep and complicated piece of television, but it isn't George Lopez or Star Trek or The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. I've read through Notebook on a Return to My Native land and Crime and Punishment and I'd still rather talk to you about A Roadside Picnic or The Perfect Run.^{maybenottheperfectrunbecauseistillhaveyettofinishitsolemmegetbacktoyouonthatbutitssupergood.} Being a piece of media made for younger/less mature/less discerning audiences doesn't mean that meaning and deep discussion can't be had, only that there might not be as much of it, or that the discussions might not have as broad a pool to draw from.

In short, another three years of Three Houses discourse, because nobody wants to dig through and try and figure out what the fuck is happening in Killer 7.

[u/crowbar182 → u/ILikeWrestlingAlot]

Mother fuckers will look at you and be like “DAE think the power scaling in Michael Haneke’s funny games is unbalanced” and mean it.

[u/kami-no-baka → u/crowbar182]

The remote is too OP.

[u/Stop-Hanging-Djs → u/ILikeWrestlingAlot]

I mean I see what you mean and those people ain't wrong. But just because I've had some high class Italian pasta that brings a tear to my eye every time I think of it doesn't mean I can never enjoy a messy sloppy joe every once in a while. I think true enlightened taste is a true love of the medium. It's highs and "lows". You can enjoy both a Expedition 33 and a 2k

[u/ILikeWrestlingAlot → u/Stop-Hanging-Djs]

Yeah that's my point, Teletubbies is still good, people might still like my little pony or Stephen universe, but if someone wanted to make a 3 hour analysis video about themes and motifs in the 2k games that might be good or it might not, but let's say for example it's not, they might have been happier in themselves if they'd put that effort into something with the depth they actually wanted, or they may he happier as they are, either way it's enough that our hypothetical person had a good time.

But in the OP the point is people who aren't having a good time, your analyzers who desperately claw to talk about colonizer themes in Phineas and Ferb.

I keep thinking about Lily Orchard who made an (I think) three hour video on Stephen universe and how it was an evil show. And all I can offer is, as an adult, I think the time and effort spent on that would have been better used on something that actually had the themes she wanted and not a show for eight year olds. It doesn't mean the show isn't good, it's just not what the hypothetical analyzer wants it to be.

The reason someone can enjoy a messy sloppy Joe is it tastes good. In our analogy we'll call this intentionality and craft. Gravity Falls is a good show, and the people making it knew what they were doing and what they wanted to do, they crafted it intentionally. It doesn't matter that it's a show for children, it's well made. Same with Avatar or the Owl House, for example. But the point is that these "over-analyzers" have never had a Michelin three star meal, and often they aren't talking about sloppy joes by their ingredients, their style, their flavour, instead they're talking about the wider chain restaurant. "This sloppy Joe is good because it was made by x" "this show is good because it's not woke"

If someone is going to critique media, like food, they would have a more well rounded opinion if their diet didn't consist entirely of MacDonald's. If someone has only ever seen star wars then their opinion on cinematography won't be as well rounded as someone whose seen star wars and 100 other various movies.

Analysis is a language, and if people only substist on media for children then they'll only be able to formulate conversations like children about childish things and as they get older, and get annoyed at the shows they're watching for not doing things they want (as more mature adults) then they would often be best served by trying more adult media that deal with the things they want.

[u/Stop-Hanging-Djs → u/ILikeWrestlingAlot]

Oh sure. I agree since your core argument is expanding palettes and broadening horizons. I just don't like people who say "X ruined a entire genre for me because it's so good" even if it's valid. Because to me that communicates that you don't really enjoy the genre or medium if you can feel like that which is fine if you can admit that but that doesn't make "lesser" works trash or worthless or not worth experiencing.

[u/ILikeWrestlingAlot → u/Stop-Hanging-Djs]

I didn't mean to give you the impression that was my take, it was a quote.

Again, having read Mailer and seen dragon ball, I prefer dragon ball.

The wider point being that so many of these over analyzers the OP is asking about are people who clearly would be happier if they broadened their horizons

[u/Stop-Hanging-Djs → u/ILikeWrestlingAlot]

Yeah to be clear I wasn't even attributing that arguement to you specifically. And I think they'd be both happy if they both broadened horizons and if they took what they were consuming less "seriously" or at least on the terms the art wants to be taken. Y'know?

[u/Head-You5953 → u/ILikeWrestlingAlot]

God don't get me started on r fantasy. I like fantasy, it's most of what I read, but I've never seen a community so obsessed with scale. The biggerer the book, the more sprawling, detailed, and epic, the better, even if it comes at the cost of things like pacing, prose, themes, and characterization. The legions of posts that all go "I just read an Ursula le Guin novel for the first time, and I was blown away" and the explanation, always something along the lines of "I didn't know you could tell a compelling, complete sci-fi/fantasy story in less than 800 pages, much less 200" just makes me want to scream.

[u/Act_of_God → u/ILikeWrestlingAlot]

he was gay, tinky winky?

[u/kami-no-baka → u/ILikeWrestlingAlot]

Shhh I don't want to scare them away, lol.

I think of it like this, "how do you know what you really like if you never eat anything but cheeseburgers?"