this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 173 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Star wars a new hope started out with Luke as an everyman. But since then it's all become about the bloodline. Rise of Skywalker is especially bad, tearing down the anyone can be special and saying you can only be special because of your bloodline.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 5 days ago (5 children)

The issue with the Star Wars story is that it can't end. This means Luke cannot have been very effective, because the same issues have to repeat historically to promote an endless cycle of protagonists and antagonists and battles that relate to the previous fan-favourites (because nostalgia sells).

Therefore Luke must simultaneously be an awesome hero, and also just some loser that didn't really do anything that worked.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I think legends handled it okay, that the battle of yavin was the tipping point, but the empire still had remnants that needed to be countered by the New Republic. And the New Republic has its own problems, but faces an entirely different threat than the empire too.

Whereas with the new movies, they just hit the reset button back to episode four, rather than developing on the trajectory in interesting ways, which would have given Luke's actions and the original trilogy more weight.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 days ago (3 children)

The point of a successful Disney media franchise is not to provide nuance and provoke thought, but instead to sell merch for profit.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 5 days ago (1 children)

A new hope started with blood line. It was established out of the gate that Luke’s father was a Jedi knight and a good friend of Obi Wan.

Force Awakens and Last Jedi seemed to go in the direction that Rey and Snoke are unrelated to previous blood lines, but nope, it’s all Palpatine.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago (2 children)

They tried to fix it in the last Jedi, but the fans had too much of a tantrum.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, because just pretending the previous movie didn't happen is also a shitty solution.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

I also dislike when the underdog genuinly starts off as an underdog and is just given a cheat code which is played off as "hard work and determination".

Like the main character of My Hero Academia. A person born without super powers in a world full of super heroes. You get excited at how he will overcome his limitations..... and the answer to that is be given the strongest power in that world and get even more super powers on top of that.

It is especially annoying how the surrounding characters act like it isn't a cheat code.

Funny thing is in that universe there is a character called Lemillion who had powers with drawbacks and had to learn to take advantage of them. A true underdog making the most of the cards he was dealth with. He should have been the MC of the show.

[–] Darthjaffacake 1 points 2 days ago

I think the cheatcode in this situation provides enough drawbacks on its own. Also he has to use a lot of will and determination just to be able to use it and he's only offered it for being so brave without it

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 5 days ago

In the fanfic sequel the poo people are kept addicted on magic-suppressing opioids and mind-dulling cigarettes provided by the Special owned industrial pharmaceutical companies. It's been this way so long

Eveyone knows people who don't smoke can't be trusted. The temple priests say so every Sunday service.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 6 days ago (2 children)

How about this story about a young English boy that gets bullied by the poo people, until he finds out he is actually super special. And then he fights the super specials that want society to be structured around birthright, because he has a special born fate to stop them. All while the super specials have used their amazing magical powers, able to literally mold reality to their whims, to create their own version of liberal capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 5 days ago

And after all that our bloke decides to become a copper.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

That can be attributed to X-men and Harry Potter

But I'm sure there are more

[–] [email protected] 51 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

No, no, you see, because she grew up as a Poo Person she now understand the world from their point and realizes how much they've been abused, so she pledges to lead and create a new society because it all turns out to have been a big misunderstanding. Then Poo People learn magitek and we get a sequel with the spin that now they are the oppressors, followed by a movie adaptation that completely ends up killing a cult classic.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Gotta make people accept that rich dynasties owning everything is valid.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago

I genuinely think the main ideological function isn't even as much to promote that, as it is to focus personal dreams and fantasies towards wanting to become a part of the "winners". Not that it isn't part of it, just by normalising it as status quo even within fantasies, but I think even more powerful is to have people fantasise about being one of the chosen ones eventually.

Quick reminder that stuff like this is not planned like in some conspiracy, but just a result of dynamics happening (almost exclusively, rare exceptions) unconsciously the way ideology springs from the material base.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 days ago

This captures why I don't enjoy Harry Potter (in addition to JKR being a shitter)

[–] [email protected] 49 points 5 days ago (2 children)

The opposite of this is when Useless Loser Salaryman Was Born into The Other World As A Financial Consultant And Took It Over Using Only His Accounting Powers?!

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Wait, it's all just Arthurian legend? 🌍👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀

[–] [email protected] 36 points 5 days ago

It's all just the new testament. Before you fuck with poor people and nail them to a cross, make sure they aren't just slumming it, and actually have a very powerful father.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 5 days ago (21 children)

Is there fantasy that isn't like this

[–] [email protected] 69 points 5 days ago (3 children)

While it's definitely PRESENT in Lord of the Rings, one could argue Frodo himself is a subversion of it. Giving the ring to someone powerful would almost inevitably result in corrupting them and (depending on just how powerful they were) would just make a new big bad. Hobbits work as ring bearers explicitly because they're not "special".

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

Bilbo is rich and Frodo is a nepobaby.

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[–] CheeseNoodle 29 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

The basic options for magic are:

  • Sorcerers: Magic blood line or other innate gift of birth. Basically magic aristocracy.
  • Wizards: Usually anyone can be a wizard, its the magic equivelent of studying hard in college.
  • Warlocks: Anyone can be a warlock if they're willing to make a deal with the devil; the magic equivelent of dropping out to become a stripper.

Pretty much every fantasy has the magical aristocracy but the latter two are available to regular people in a lot of fantasies too, though wizardry is often gatekept and magical pacts tend to be for villains only.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I love comparing becoming a warlock to becoming a stripper

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Especially since it doesn't have to be a devil per se, just any entity that's more powerful than you and willing to share.

That is to say: GOO-locks strip for C'thulu

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago (4 children)

There must be.

Haven't read it, yet, but I have high hopes for the Earthsea books.

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[–] Land_Strider 10 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Tbh I am really pissed about this in One Piece's rather latest track. The will of D. and people with the D. names could have been pretty ordinary people with strong wills, good nature, social skills etc. opposing the injustices we see in the manga, but lately with all this reincarnation of Sun God Nika stuff, it is no different than what Naruto and Sasuke have been reduced to.

I know it is 25 years in the making and cultures and perceptions change, along with perception of tropes in entertainment, but can we at least go beyond this "the special one" or "the chosen one" stories?

I also know Oda has been a spectacular surpriser and a mangaka that can connect and change most trivial things to most core stuff to do unforeseen changes to the core of his world-crafting, but my doubts in One Piece being as unique as it was before the New World has been increasing these last 10 years of commercialization of it.

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[–] bamfic 20 points 5 days ago

Ugh star wars

[–] Gradually_Adjusting 30 points 5 days ago

Where my shitfolk at? Poo Nation rise up ✊

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 days ago

This comic brought to you by the National Heritage Foundation.

[–] brucethemoose 28 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Heh, Korra is literally this, but being royal was a total coincidence. And I guess you could say she "reset" the reincarnation bloodline.

And I guess she subverts it a little too because she finds out so young, and is not shy about it.

And Ozai played with this too, deliberately marrying the descendent (Ursa) of a super special Poo Person (Avatar Roku) in hopes of producing superior children. And it kind of worked.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (2 children)

at least they explored the power dynamics, like yeah if some people are just mundane, some people can fucking shoot fire from their hands or make the ground swallow you whole, and ONE person is effectively just a god, then it makes sense for a lot of the mundane people to just want this all to stop because that's fucking terrifying.

But also there are (were?) things in the avatar universe that mitigate the power imbalance, like the avatars being raised to recognize that they have an extreme responsibility to use their powers wisely, and thanks to the whole reincarnation thing it'd presumably be difficult for the avatar to suddenly become evil since every previous avatar would screech at them and for all we know they could just force the avatar state to send the body to its death and exiting the avatar state just before death.

[–] brucethemoose 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

thanks to the whole reincarnation thing it’d presumably be difficult for the avatar to suddenly become evil since every previous avatar would screech at them and for all we know they could just force the avatar state to send the body to its death and exiting the avatar state just before death.

There's an ATLA comic that kind of refutes this, where Aang just straight up shuts out Roku. It's... not the best comic.

Anyway, I think the idea is that the Avatar is fundamentally the same soul reincarnating, the same empathetic petty thief that stood up for anyone that was oppressed. That's just part of their nature, sometimes to a fault. Even Avatars with a screwed up childhood like Kyoshi and Korra turn out that way.

The mitigation is often the plot, where their power isn't particularly useful to solve their problems. A poignant example is when Korra just turns herself into Zaheer to save the Air Nomads, fully expecting to die (though the gravity is not very explicit since it's a kids show, as is true across both TV shows).

, and ONE person is effectively just a god,

Another thing I find amusing is that "common" people just treat the Avatar as some random joe, with lines like "Avatar, huh? We still have one of those?" or Bolin's grandma who clearly holds more reverence for the Earth Queen than the Avatar.

As far as fantasy series go, I think it does a good job of making all the Beautiful Special People feel mundane.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Theophilia? Sexually attracted to... gods?

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[–] moshtradamus666 25 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] WhatAmLemmy 42 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

This, or the humble royalty, is most fictional hero storylines. I unironically believe capitalism uses these tropes to condition the people into believing feudalism, authoritarianism, and genetic divinity are justifiable.

Remember! The rich are rich because they're better than you! Not because them or their ancestors were murderers, slave owners, exploiters, criminal sociopaths, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

you have as much agency over being born with "a magic power greater than any special" and being born "the descendant of a SUPER Special Royal Family"

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago (2 children)

How bout something in reverse? In Tales of the Abyss, the protag is set up to be someone special born in royal family, but turn out he's just a clone of an actual royal person and he have to learn to fight and accept this conflicting feeling for the rest of the game

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

Can confirm, am poo person.

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