Excuse me while I brag on my kids for a minute. My teenagers think what I do is cool, or parts of it, anyway. My eldest is into writing and graphic design, so we discuss shows and movies and their themes, characters, dialog, arcs, enneagrams, etc. It helps to organize my thoughts for videos, and we get to spend time together while I'm technically still working. She's the one who designed my logo. But she has also been studying thumbnail design and theory, hence the new style for this video and two recent ones. I love the new 'movie poster' style she's shooting for, and I like this new font. And she likes getting paid. It's a win-win. My other daughter is semi-interested in writing and joins the discussions, but she was really interested to know how editing works. So I showed her one day, and she immediately got into it, just like I did. Finding the right piece of footage, or getting the timing of a joke cut just right, it's so satisfying. She did the rough cut on this one and then did a majority of the b-roll in the second half. When I'm describing how Rings of Power delivered a terrible product, she's the one who decided to use the clip of a hand opening to display the corrupt rings. When I said the audience loved Dune, she chose the clip of Paul's fist in the air and the group of Fremen cheering in response. I showed her where the files were and said go for it, thinking she'd just find some random clips to cover the cuts and distract from my face every few seconds, but she sought out footage to enhance the script. She just *gets it*, it's impressive. The pay helps, too. Win-wins, all around.
The distinction between "writing" and "creating" is the issue me thinks. Being a "writer" in the past... it would have been largely accurate to assume that you were somewhat "creative"... almost synonymous even. Today that assumption is still made... but it's simply not true.
My manager and my producer have told me "you can be a writer or a creative" they are two different things someone who is a writer is someone executing a vision of someones but a creative is the one who comes up with ideas or seeks out books. The creator has the power not the writer. There are writers who go from movie to movie and show to show and make a career out of it but they are doing hack work since they dodn't create their own scripts, films, and series.
I've written on the order of 150 published works. Some very big hits, some very big flops. It has never occurred to me to blame the readers for the flops. It's my job - mine - to create something readers will read. If the readers don't read, it's my fault, not theirs.
There probably are some who do, and if you were making small budget projects you’d be okay. When the project costs tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, you can’t bet on a niche audience like that.
@@GreenBlueWalkthrough Yep. Sad but true. But one more feather in his PR cap. I wish Hollywood and video games would just get over the DEI crap, and get back to just plain old, pure fun.
@@Quazi-Motodiversity can work when it feels natural. Hollywood is trying to shove diversity that's not only forced, but also dated and insulting with an overreliance in stereotypes.
The most hilarious (and pathetic) part of this selfish mindset is that those who possess it are utterly incapable of actually creating anything new. 99.9% of the time, they are only interested in "adapting" existing, beloved stories. I feel like some famous author said something about that one time.
Nothing wrong with adapting if anything more creatives should learn to adapt novels but the important thing is to view yourself as the caretaker to the novel or "IP" (hate that word) not just use the property to tell your version of it. I will say the only time not following this is if it is something like Joker because comic book characters are basically open for that kind of use but if you are adapting an arc or storyline and calling it that you need to stay true to it.
This is feminism in a nutshell. A bunch of incompetent narcissists with no life skills trying to educate the men who literally built our entire society. All this stuff happening in the entertainment industry is just a microcosm for why our society is collapsing.
The ideology of the west is late-stage individualism. "Biology isn't real, the climate isn't real, nothing is real except for YOUR truth. "You don't need to do anything for other people; just do what YOU feel like doing and if other people don't like it, that's their problem. "
I keep repeating this. Modern Hollywood saw a story written by an Oxford professor of English Literature, intended to replicate the lost parts of ancient English culture, infused with the deeply personal emotional weight of what he experienced as an officer leading men during WWI... And Modern Hollywood ACTUALLY thought: "What this really needs is women and diversity."
I once heard someone who lived in Hollywood for decades trying to be an actor talk about how the countless industry billboards peppering los angeles have nothing to do with actually promoting the movies/shows. The Producers pay for the billboards so they, their friends, and their rivals can see them.
What's weird though....why they're surprised when no one watches it when they've admitted they made it for one person....themselves. Ohhhh! I think I get it. They're so narcissistic that they legitimately thought people would clamor to watch anything that has to with them, and when they don't, it's OBVIOUSLY because they're alt right bigots. Got it!
They’ll make the admission that they co-opted an established IP to talk about themselves, and then turn around and call you a bigot for not liking it by playing the “muh demographic” card. Don’t accept their doublespeak
Peter Jackson. I recall him in an interview that he didn't film Lord of The Rings with modern audiences his in mind, but Tolkien. He wanted to stay true to Tolkien's vision the best he could.
He could have succeeded a lot more if he hadn't had two feminist women as his screenwriters, since they certainly did devalue Tolkien's themes for the sake of a 'modern audience'.
@@chewy_bucca it's not the only example but the biggest example would be Arwen, whose role was massively expanded for the explicit purpose of 'representation'. They even bragged about it in the Extended Edition commentaries, but because it was 20+ years ago, people weren't sensitive to that kind of buzzword yet. And the issue there isn't even that Arwen was so great in her original form, it's that expanding her role came at the expense of multiple other characters which had to be lessened or dumber down to account for her. Elrond, for instance, goes from being the wisest Elf in Middle-earth who cherishes his Half-elven kinship with Men, to a grumpy old coot who won't let his daughter make her own decisions and thinks Men suck. Another example is Aragorn, who goes from being a driven, confident paragon of masculinity who is proud of his lineage to a sap who fears the 'weakness of Men' and needs his girlfriend to talk him into living up to his destiny by overcoming the drag factor of his lineage. Glorfindel is removed from the story entirely. But the biggest and worst crime caused by Arwen's expansion is how much it takes away from Frodo himself, who loses his moment of courage and integrity when he faces the Nine by himself at the Ford, and instead is a gibbering wreck in Arwen's arms just so Liv Tyler can look good. An Oscar-worthy scene and multiple great characters are diminished just so Fran and Phillipa could brag about how they made the story 'more accessible to women' by having Liv Tyler running around in leathers waving a sword.
Tell me, would you rather have the king marry the unknown princess at the end leaving all viewers puzzled about "who's that girl" like so many readers were left in reading it? That's something you can't do it in movies, unless you want to create new charaxters without personality just for the plot. Tolkien himself felt compelled to expand on Arwen and Aragorn love story in the Appendices, because that was the only way to explain that marriage in the end, and because it was an example of the deepest theme of his stories: the dynamic between death and immortality. He put it in the Appendices only because it was too long to put it into the main story, he said it himself in one of his letters.
@Laurelin70 yes, but putting it in the appendices is an extra text. That's not the same as changing the character, her role and impacting multiple other characters in a negative way. Just a bad decision that was made for rEpReSeNtAtIoN
About Francesca from Bridgerton; my fiancee had read the books and was livid over the Michaela change. Apparently, in the books, Francesca is infertile and has difficulty having a child with her first husband. She praised the character for representing an issue many women face and can be absolutely devastating on a deep personal level. She was excited to see this in the adaptation. However, you can’t really explore the theme of infertility with a character who is actively in a homosexual relationship. It’s not even in the cards for them. It completely changes the characters arc, struggles, themes, and character. It’s not just a queer exploration, it’s downright a new and different character who faces new and different obstacles.
Ooh, that's awful - struggles with fertility are such a big and tragically untalked about issue that many couples struggle with. All that brushed aside for a queer-coded self-insert. The lack of awareness of regard of anyone else from these directors and writers is disheartening.
As neither childless nor homosexual I might be way of base, but I think struggling with infertility might actually have some overlap with gay experience: you want a child, but can't have one. The dynamics might be different (no false hope to lose), but in the core it seems like it has much overlap. But I get why she'd be disappointed. Unless they completely ignore the period social expectations, the gender swap completely changes the focus and derails the theme, because it comes with so many other issues.
@@PiiskaJesusFreak Not even remotely the same thing. A gay person, if not infertile, could produce a child by having sex with a person of the opposite gender. It's possible. An infertile person cannot have a child at all. Not the same situation.
I can imagine that, though I haven't read the book nor watched the series. But a woman traditionally longing for a relationship and a child...?! We cannot have that anno 2024 right? No, all woman want to lead a bunch of subordinate dumb males into battle while snapping at them.
@@PiiskaJesusFreakI think you’re right about wanting a kid and not being able to have one in both, but I think the context is just too different to compare. One is a woman who likes men and is told being a mother is this huge thing that brings so much joy to peoples lives, and decides she wants that for herself, only to then be struck with the reality that even though everything in her life says she can have a kid, she can’t. The other woman learns early on that she likes women and therefore can’t have a biological kid without some sort of medical intervention. Yes they both ultimately have the same goal, but the context is wildly different.
18:50 Sanderson has said in the past "I have more freedom to say no to stuff I don't like because I don't need their money, and they don't know how to handle or react to someone who doesn't need their money"
He is absolutely correct. That is also why the are so angry with Musk. He has told them directly when he said, and I am paraphrasing, you are trying to blackmail me with money? It has worked for so long they just don't know another way.
It is, and ironically, it flattens people down to only their outward qualities. Great stories capture us because of the common emotions we often share, as humans. New stories are not uniting, they put the audience in small boxes. Seems counter-productive from a social standpoint
Except straight white guys apparently. Everyone else was fair game. And that was the real kick in the nuts; hearing these people screech about "representation" and "inclusion" as they actively overrepresented certain races and actively excluded others. They're hypocrites, everything they supposedly hate. And meanwhile it was fiction we were talking about, characters weren't SUPPOSED to always look the same as you. The point was that you could still relate with them as PEOPLE. Race was the bottom of the barrel when it came to priorities because it was a superficial aspect. The only thing these idiots proved was that THEY were the ones fixated on skin color, not the audiences they were chastising.
To paraphrase from the Bridgerton segment, " I didn't have this character for me," then write your own story and fill it with your own characters. This is the problem with no one being able to tell stories unless it is a remake or already established property or franchise.
But see if they did that it might not actually get people to watch it. The audience she's after is so small no one would pay to make that movie. Because it wouldn't make its money back. They keep going after such a small portion of the audience while ignoring the rest of the audience and they don't understand why the rest of the audience is upset. And I think a big problem is they're not even good at entertaining the small portion of the audience they are going after. Normal LGB people do not like being pandered to any more than anyone else does. If someone in a show or movie is a member of the community that shouldn't be the only thing about them right? Cuz normal non-straight people are more than just not straight.
@MamaMOB This is a dead horse, but it is exactly what happened with Concord and Dustborn. Both games were used to heavily pander to the "modern audience," a group that makes up likely 1% of the population, and got not even 50% of that 1%. Then the creators, specifically Concord (Don't know about Dustborn), began attacking the gaming community. Another product I was reminded of was the film Moonlight that came out around the mid 2010s. Don't remember if it was actually bad, I never watched it so all I had was word of mouth information. But according to my mother, it was a very boring movie and she stopped watching not even halfway through.
If I'm not mistaken these writers were writing for fanfiction net when they were younger, they'd insert their OC (original character) in a well established shows/books and before you know it, their OCs are the new main character, the story is now about their issues.
Oh honestly, I don’t think writing fanfiction or stuff like that is a bad thing. It lets young riders work on their craft and develop they’re getting feedback in most cases and they can learn what to do and what not to do. I did it myself and use it to develop characters that I would later write about. And I’ve had a lot of trial and error with this, but I finally figured out how to write something that does sell, and it does have peoples interest.M The problem with these people is that they’ve never moved beyond that. They only look at their underwritten fanfiction that they did when they were 14 and then don’t understand why no one likes it anymore
I still read fanfic as an adult (it’s free and I read too fast for most novels to feel like a good money investment), and I can tell you there are some really good fanfics out there (a handful I’d buy a book version because of the quality). However, many unfortunately do have the problem you mention. I’ve also noticed another interesting problem with ones set in fantasy (or or even historical) universes where some fanfic writers are mentally incapable of understanding that there are in fact different cultures in both the real world and in fiction, which means that the characters should not resemble the author’s locality in action, speech, or morals but should instead align with the world they’re in.
@@John-fk2ky a very good point. I did a lot of my fanfiction for avatar the last Airbender. I did have one story where I brought them into the real world but overall I always knew that I was writing for avatar, and I had to feel true to that world. I think that’s very much a problem for a lot of these writers now- they don’t know how to get out of their own world and except that this is what they have to write about. Which is mine blowing to me because I read and watch movies, and everything else to escape into another world.
There are a STARTLING number of parallels between fanfiction and the problems we see in current writing and entertainment. I usually take these issues and red flags as an indicator - not necessarily that the writer is a BAD writer, but of an IMMATURE writer. The selfishness aspect discussed in this video is a huge part of that; young (immature) people have a harder time thinking about people and situations outside of themselves, and have to learn skills like empathy and cooperation. Like their writing problems, I take heart in believing they will eventually grow out of these issues and into a more mature worldview. …which makes it so much worse that it’s grown adults with multimillion dollar budgets producing this crap.
I remember in the past good writers would often insert themselves as side characters. Sometimes the people spidey would help would be something the writer themselves struggled with or saw someone else struggle with. But they’d never usurp the main character.
Remember Mark Hammil when speaking about the filming of The Last Jedi protested, "we need to think about the fans." Ryan Johnson, in response said, "No, we need to think about OUR movie." Triggering an idiotic round of applause from the butt-kissers in the audience. It revealed the selfishness of modern writers/directors who work with established IPs.
The people who applauded that moment are the ones keeping Disney Star Wars alive. They will lap up _anything_ they produce and defend it - think of those over-reactive, wheezing nerd stereotypes from the 80s and 90s. Thankfully, it looks like the normies are starting to drift away as more and more of DSW is "not for them".
When “sexual preference” becomes the most important thing, the thing that they build their whole life around, that they make their entire identities.. You know we have a problem.
You can tell these people were never organically creatives writing their own mental worlds nor in fandoms in their youths (which some claim), the sporkings for blatant self inserts would have taught them better, we self policed eachother back in the 2000s. Most importantly, even the worst, "baby's first time trying to write" self insert still came from a place of love for the source material, and not an hired gun warping the material they despise in their own image.
You made me realise that the amount of self insert Mary Sues should have warned us of this phenomenon or hoped it got it out of their system when they gained more experience.
It's a normal stepping stone, but back in the day the fan community would let you know nobody is interested in reading about a flat carboard cutout of yourself, not even other teenagers, learn to make your characters interesting, not literally just you, and most importantly respect the tenets of canon at all costs with *some* leeway for characters. That's apparently bad nowadays that the people that think that's stupid and nerdy have taken over and obviously we are all very interested in them changing all the lore and reading all about themselves and their opinions, and not the source material we came here for. That's what happens when instead of fanfiction it's hatefiction by narcissists that are so above such nerdy nonsense, I guess.
By the way yiu can wirte self inserts t's jiust expert mode and you need to respoect you, the story and your readers... I have done this in my own OG setting and in RWBY where my OGs are off doing there own thing set during the evernts of the shows... Think how Star trek TNG,YOH,DS9 interacted. And people love my stuff because they love to hang out with heroic realistic characters like it dioes not matter they are heroic self insrts.
Creativity often starts with "writing what you want to read" or "drawing what you want to see," filling in a niche in the creative world that you feel a desire to fill. That is pure and laudable. HOWEVER, in times past you would create your heart out, and if nobody liked your work you are still rewarded for fulfilling your creative drive. If people DID like your work you could make money, leading to publicity and adaptation. Creatives at the top of the industry are handed control for reasons other than the merit of their work, when their work would die in silence if they didn't have the leg up to start with.
Exactly, and that’s what leads people to believe it’s some kind of culture war or activism at the studios. In a purely profit driven world, these things would never get greenlit, because any sane executive would know instantly that using She-Hulk to “troll the trolls” is a terrible decision, financially.
On a model of "creating your heart out": A definition of fiction was "Events that didn't happen occuring to people who don't exist". If they're characters, then you have a detachment if you need to torture them. They can fail to grasp their own state and it's no skin off your nose. A mantra of "write what you know" is seductive because a person is interested in themselves. And the absolute worst case is a book where the author and the main character are the same person. They both know EVERYTHING about their fictional world - precluding any tension. As a kid, I remember watching a TV game show for children. Before they launched into it, they asked one of the contestants (a girl) what she wanted to be. She said 'a writer'. The host asked what she wanted to write about. She basically described her own life. I felt intensely sad for her. In some circumstances, people enthuse about a work being deeply personal or vulnerable. There might be a sense that if you could capture a piece of your heart, how could anyone HATE it? My metaphor for writing about yourself isn't that you're presenting your heart. You're presenting your audience a length of your bowel. Sure it's personal, but it's sticky and unpleasant and full of half processed material. The audience doesn't have to hate you personally to be repulsed by your 'gift'. The audience has no obligation to like you, sign up for your trauma dump or want to be present while your fictional world confirms your biases. So you have to get to the point of giving them something that they want, right?
"Write what you want to read", or "Paint what you want to see" is literally the advice experts give to literal pre-ametuer creatives. That's what get you started in creative process, but once you get the hang of the tools, you should quickly understand those tools are there to serve others and not fill your own garage with workpiles. Shame that these pre-amatuers are given such big budgets and access that would have been used far more effectively if the suits higher up sat and thanked for more than 2 minutes
@@thecompanioncube4211 I don't think any artist creates anything they don't want to watch or read themselves. If you don't like your own work and wouldn't read it if someone else had written it, then why are you writing at all? For money? I can't imagine how anyone can devote so much time and effort to create something they themselves wouldn't want to read. The only explanation is for money. Which is an understandable goal in movie making but not really in book writing because if someone wants to get rich, why would they engage in book writing of all things? Not exactly a profitable business (unless you're Rowling or Sanderson and I'm sure they love their own worlds, characters and plots).
I've said this in a comment on this channel before, but when I worked on Velma, it was incredible how many of Mindy Kaling's (and even Charlie's, but mostly MK's) personal issues and therapy dirty laundry each episode, and even each joke, was centered around. Like you can get that feeling when you watch the episode but MAN the animatic reviews were always so uncomfortable because I always felt I was peeking into someone's psych files. Soooooo many daddy issues. And, of course, the show was hated. idk what they expected. Also, amazing vid as always!!
You're right, however, there's a lot of stuff out there and some of these movies and shows may be of interest to viewers. That's why I appreciate the TH-cam critics who will watch a movie or a TV show -- even if they're confident it's going to be terrible -- and spend several hours being tortured with the garbage on the screen so they can warn the rest of us so we don't waste our time and money. Of course, it's always good when they find the rare projects that are actually good...
I'm shocked about companies expending millions and millions in an Intellectual property... to not use it and just make a weird version that lost half of their value in only a few years. The IPs had value because they build a fandom, so, why the companies insist on stepping over them? It's a waste fo both money and the IPs.
They think they're future-proofing their investment, more or less. They're convinced that, someday, maybe soon, there will be an audience for their slop, and if they start the ball rolling on pandering to them, the profits will start rolling in. Until then, they'll cling to what DEI money they can get, shut down whatever departments and layoff anyone they need to, and hopefully won't go under before the proverbial cavalry comes in.
I’m confused about this as well, because I’m looking at it from a business standpoint. At this point, we have to accept that they aren’t doing that. No sane person would purchase an existing audience and then do a full 180 on them. Iger is not sane.
Never underestimate what can happen when a big enough corporation/institution loses cohesive control of it's vision. It's like Vietnam. Only with nostalgia and made up stories instead of human suffering.
As a young adult woman. I hope my dad will always be there for me... why wouldn't I both my parents care and love me. I really feel sorry for people who must have had so bad relationship with their dads that they resent the idea of fathers or men in general dearing to care about us.
As a writer, I find these to be really helpful videos when it comes to potential story issues. It can be easy for writers to get so caught up in what they want for the story that they fail to see things through the viewer's lens. Listening to critical analysis helps sidestep these issues. Ego kills growth. Probably why so much sucks these days! Thanks Greg!
I don't like to "broadly psychoanalyze " things, because what the fuck do I know, so I won't stick my flag in the dirt on it being "ego" that's the issue, but as a creative myself, I can struggle to take criticism sometimes, and have to remind myself that such analysis is useful and necessary. And, I know I can have a bit of an ego about things.
I’m glad it’s helpful! Ego kills growth is spot on. It’s so hard to remember sometimes, and it really is helpful when you get the feedback that you are literarily stroking it and you need to quit.
I think what could also help you: look up on TH-cam Lord of the rings and Rings of power scene comparisions. There are I think 3. Its about fight scenes. One video is about Iron man vs Iron heart character introduction. Its truly amazing
Haha, right? These people just have the same stock complaint for everything. That game I mentioned at the end, Black Myth: Wukong, is about a chinese mythological character, Sun Wukong, The Monkey King. You play as a monkey and you fight anthropomorphic wolves, bears, and snake-men. In ancient China. But a game reviewer docked it points because it’s not diverse enough. ….What?!
@@MW-dd8vk They fix that flaw in their 'logic' by labeling Asians "White-adjacent". Which is hilariously racist - it's almost literally the modern version of dismissing the whiteness of a white person during the pre-civil rights era because he has some 'n---r' blood in him (n-word used for emphasis of my point).
It’s really annoying to me as well. I’m black, and I just want to see a good story. And I’ve also watched so much anime and there’s like never black people in it and who cares. That’s not what I’m expecting from anime. Diversity in stories that get to be told doesn’t mean that every cast needs to have one of each ethnicity haha. I literally don’t need black people in shogun. I’m expecting to see mostly Asian people that’s literally why I’m there.
When Greg said he live streams with Echo Chamberlain and Despot of Antrim that cemented him in my the top five TH-cam general media critics out there right now, and there are tons of them that are amazing. What does it say about "entertainment" when the critics are more entertaining than the media they review?
Stan Lee did the opposite with Spider-Man. He wrote the character for mass appeal. That’s why he made him middle-class and gave him flaws. Also his costume being homemade. He designed a character for everyone.
@@robertbeisert3315yeah spiderman being that way to me is not necessarily for the sake of mass appeal if i remember stan lee wanted to write a superhero that wasn’t completely super hero. Meaning a lot superheros you see all relatively have easy lives with not much to deal with. But with peter parker Stan Lee wanted to write a superhero with real struggles and actually having deal with a real double life, which make him more interesting when you see spider-man do his thing fighting bad guys.
That's why characters like Spider-Man always fell flat for me. There's nothing aspirational about Peter Parker. He didn't overcome the struggles of being an awkward, lucked into his powers.
The reason why there are hate campaigns against Black Myth Wukong is actually easy to explain: Sweet Baby Inc tried to black mail the devs saying that they need to be paid off and have a say in the game or they'll tell everyone that it's anti-whatever. And the devs simply told them to f off. So basically, any hate you see is them trying to take revenge and pulling the strings they can. They are failing, and I love that they are failing. I still need to get my hands on the game myself though, as I've only heard good things from actually reliable sources.
I’m loving it thus far. You can tell it’s a newer dev, there is some polish needed, so I don’t think the 8/10s and 9/10 are wrong. Nonetheless, it’s a blast to play and keeps getting better as it develops in later chapters.
I've heard some say that that was a statement from a Chinese translated tweet. Now I haven't gotten much out of it yet beyond that tweet and I am taking it, but I still would want more info on that wherever I can find it
@@ARStudios2000I’ve followed the story for a bit, watching a few other TH-camrs cover it. A lot of the controversy seems to stem from some crude language in some public posts by the developers of Black Myth Wukong. A Chinese gaming TH-camr explained that the vulgarities are figures of speech in Chinese - they’re a bit crude from a PR perspective, but otherwise benign. However, IGN apparently took recent and past posts of similar nature as some kind of misogyny, though I myself cannot see where that conclusion comes from. The only thing that I could maybe see construed as sexist was when one of the lead developers bemoaned the state of the gaming industry ~16 years ago, using failed birth as a metaphor (and the metaphor made no mention or allusion to the failure being the mother’s fault). Anyways, following IGN, other gaming journals pretty much just parroted the same message, with no indication of an effort to fact check IGN’s article. It’s a peculiar case of journalists being way off base, but being either totally oblivious to it or wholly committed to upholding the narrative. All the other discourse around it (politics, DEI, etc.) seems to be accessory to the heart of the issue: someone misinterpreted a public statement and either fails or refuses to realize it.
Amazon didn't want good writers for the Rings of Power. They wanted writers who would go along with the Blackrock post modern agenda without objections.
i love rings of power. think it's well written. beautifully shot. WAAAY better than the original movies. I don't see what everyone is complaining about.
@@Laurelin70 sorry, but i'm not. It's super entertaining. And the series structure makes it a lot more digestible. I love learning the lore. The characters are growing, changing, etc. A few corny things here or there, but that's to be expected. What's so bad about it?
@lolonnie The characters. Are growing? Really? Their behaviour is inconsistent. Their motivations ridicules and not worthy of the scale of the story. And for anyone who already knows the lore they're simply NOT the characters envisioned and written by Tolkien. The themes are NOT the ones Tolkien was interested in. The RINGS are NOT and do NOT what Tolkien thought of them, for god's sake! If you think that you're learning the lore, well... think again. The pace of the story is uneven. There are plotholes big enough to swallow a Balrog. Speaking of which... all that drama for what, exactly? Characters spring out of nowhere and go nowhere. Plot armors. Mary Sue's and unsympathetic characters. Storylines dragged on (my god, the Harfoots...). Quotes from much later stories and useless fanservice. I watched the first season and was rather perplexed. I tried to give the second season the benefit of the doubt and for some storylines it was almost acceptable (Celebrimbor and Sauron, even if tney're just too corny for someone who already knows their story, but, oh well...), but the rest was unsufferable and the last two episodes were just... inqualifiable for such a "grand" production.
@@Laurelin70 hmm. So they're not following exactly Tolkien's plot, character, and theme development? Yup, i'm fine with that. And maybe that's not the problem, the problem is it's just poorly written/executed? That feels subjective. As a paying subscriber and viewer, I go with my gut...am i enjoying this show? yes, immensely. Everything else is moot. I think I'll keep my prime subscription.
I started to notice that any time a creator makes it seem they are entitled to your time and money, it probably sucks. The market will also determine what will be successful, that's why people still buy Darth Vader figures and Super Mario 64 still has an active community.
Really does explain why all these studios are spouting "toxic fans" like no, we dont like your pet projects and self-inserts that doesnt make someone toxic
Having boycotted several franchises I used to like, I find it liberating and enjoy seeing that I have made the right choice over time. They are not worthy of my time and money, which I used to give in abundance. Now I celebrate older products that shine brighter now in comparison to the shade they have become today. Keep popping my head up to check and see if things have improved enough to return, but the time has not yet come.
The thing is, having a more feminist centric series focusing around say, the night sisters _could totally work_ but these hacks just don't have the writing chops to pull it off. You can make anything work as long as you do it earnestly and with nuance. And these adaptations are shallow because they have to appeal to everyone. (That is, except for the established fan base apparently 🙄)
The observation that these media are basically "personal diaries" just hit the nail on the head. It's something that would only appeal to a small audience that can relate. The greater fanbase be damned!
You're gonna stand there, ownin' a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistlin' bungholes, no spleen splitters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker don'ts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistlin' kitty chaser?
@@b.pack3 I don't think I ever actually understood a single word he said, but it's hard to forget David Spade's delivery in that scene. I always feel a little envious whenever I see a pop culture reference on here that everyone else seems to get--now I feel a little less alone. Home is where you make it.
Can we take a moment to salute Denis Villeneuve for delivering something as special as Dune 2 during a time when Hollywood/studios/director care more about money, politics, and identity politics, rather than producing highest quality in storytelling and cinema experiences for it’s audiences?! Mind blowing it costs less than these Disney-made sub par, WB level of garbage that’s killing all of our most beloved franchises….its crazy how long this has been going on for now. Dune 2 was top level in every category, and now can’t wait to see how the franchise unfolds over the years. (There was a time Disney told great stories through its animation, the same reason Disney still sells merch based on their legacy animated characters today, and doesn’t sell Rey “Skywalker”…)
You're right that they care about politics and identity politics but they don't care about money. If they did they wouldn't care so much about politics and identity politics. That's why they're not making money. Look at how much the studios are losing by making these movies and TV shows. Clearly they have no problem with not making money.
@@MamaMOB yeah, I meant in the that the producers, actors, everyone involved in these very bad shows are still getting paid. I’m curious, how in the world do the folks that keep putting out shows that appeal to virtually no one (who’s being honest with themselves) get paid for such low value. The studios (Disney) doesn’t care, they’re so big and continue to rely on their parks/resorts, they’re happy to continue paying people to push narrative-driven low quality content. That’s also why they continue to rely on buying major IPs and not creating anything new, they don’t care. It’s a medium to push agendas and check boxes. Also why the older days do smaller studios taking risks to release movies year after year isn’t really a thing anymore, and why the comedy genre is all but dead vs years past. Idk that’s my opinion anyways, thanks for the reply! I very rarely engage on social media but my wife is tired of me ranting to her haha
Dennis is beyond the bullsh*t. He's one of the directors of highest echelon of creative mindset. Comparing them to the low scum of woke generation is kinda disrespectful.
Despite the few flaws and changes I saw, Dune 2 was a masterpiece. I'd say it is fighting with Oppenheimer as the best film I have seen in the decade (So far). I'm really looking forward to the next movie.
I think The Acolyte, Velma, etc. are the equivalent of the business a rich man's wife runs that loses money selling platform shoes for cats or something.
@@theghostofmaximumvolume3414Some vegan hot dogs are actually great for backpacking since they don't need to be refrigerated the same way as meat dogs. I avoid them when I'm in civilization, but I'll bring them if I'm camping somewhere where I don't have a cooler.
The best movie adaptation of a book is from 'Who Censored Roger Rabbit?' Even the original author said that the film was better than his original novel.
Hollywood is dying the same death that Jazz experienced in the 1960s. The artists started making music to show off to each other instead of the broader fans who found something else to do.
When artists create works that they, as audience members, would be delighted by, they tend to produce higher quality and more creative pieces that many others enjoy. This has been a pretty basic approach for a very long time. However, more recently, a lot of artists within Hollywood in particular have completely misunderstood this principle, intentionally creating works almost exclusively for themselves and their cliques.
Imagine being so self-absorbed that you can only watch shows about someone exactly like you? So Harry Potter only appeals to wizards? Imagine the limits these creators put on their own imagination. I'm determined not to watch anything that starts out with a writer/director/actor telling me that their "art" was not made for me. Ok.
Furthermore, being so narcissistic that you think people want to see your life reflected in a show. If you're telling YOUR story, that makes sense. If you're shoe-horning yourself into an existing IP, you're a narcissist.
I laughed as you addressed Rings of Power. I struggled through season one and have been recently watching season 2. I CAN'T keep my attention on it regardless of how I try. I'm giving the creators the benefit of the doubt, and still wind up falling asleep or my attention drifts to other things. I am the know-it-all nerd that watches the commentary versions and autistically can't hold back from talking about behind-the-scenes material of many beloved franchises. I CAN'T STAY AWAKE with ROP, even though I want to! Thanks for the video; you've made several great points.
Even just as a hobbyist writer, the thought of someone taking my works or characters, changing them, and then insisting that the changes are better purely due to selfish, non-technical reasons infuriates me. Fanfiction wish fulfillment is one thing; you keep it to yourself or share it with friends. But these people are trying to change things in an _official_ capacity.
Even The Hobbit films were bad for this. They threw out some of Tolkien's themes. For example, there is a line from Thorin in the first film that goes, "We make our own luck." But in Tolkien's works, "luck," "change," and "coincidence" are used for divine providence. He will often write something like, "... by chance, if chance it was." The Hobbit films reject that for modern individualism and self-sufficiency. Odd in a story about a big group of guys working together to achieve a common goal.
@@TrekBeatTK That was one example. That theme runs through the movies. I realize it was early in Thorin's character arc, but it wasn't a one-off thing of them ignoring how Tolkien used "chance" or "luck."
i love brandon sanderson books, but i NEVER want to see a film adaptation unless sanderson is co-directing it himself (I dunno if i would want him to direct it himself because film-making and book-writing are very different talents)
For a long time, I thought Discworld would make an excellent Netflix series: each novel being a short season long, or something, especially if done in a lovingly drawn and animated style. But nowadays, I don't want any producer going near it.
Agreed. Maybe he can’t direct, but he gets to have an airhorn in his hand at all times, and he blows it anytime someone tries to color outside the lines. If he doesn’t have 100% veto power, I don’t want it.
even with the author on set writers have show to be VERY stubborn . Sometimes those authors are so much in need of money that they just shut their mouth about how their world was butchered ( example : "The Witcher", "His dark materials, etc) I have no respect for these modern writers as a whole , none , only for those who break out of that bubble .
Modern stories are too often boring. I think the modern writers lack real life experience and too much lean into meta post modern stuff they often do not understand to compensate for this.
@@svetlanaandrasova6086 exactly. Now the story creators translate stories from other people who heard them from other people...or they write about twitter and how everything makes THEM feel.
@@YegRon Yes. You could have a good story with a character who spends most/all of his time delivering sermons. But a story with narrator that spews sermons at the reader is a big no no.
If only the writers could accept what you said. But they're too shallow and narcissistic. Very keen observation which is your superpower though you can be funny, always a plus.
"I am not Starfire" "Turning Red" "Luka" Etc. There's a massive swing of self insert writing in media over the last decade or so. Longer, in comics, but bear with me. Many have speculated that Rey is Kathleen Kennedy's self insert. If the character struggles, its very surface level "i took a psych class in high school" stuff. Many look exactly like the creatives behind the media. It's all college level fanfic writing at best, but in franchises that they are not fans of. At least not enough to really make the piece make sense. They are "tourists" as the fandoms have begun calling them.
@@realistic_delinquent The creator wanted to showcase his boyhood life. It's much more generically about children growing up than a specific instance. But, it was (via interview) stated to be a self referential to the creator's life.
@@GaioSamurai yeah, but Luca is literally one of the only Pixar films I like. Almost the entire rest of their oeuvre are these hollow, formulaic, emotionally-manipulative films about how things would act if they had feelings and souls (including feelings and souls).
@@CoryTheRaven I purposely threw it on the list because I wanted to show that the idea of self-insert or self-reference is not inherently bad. They can make good/entertaining products. It's just rare.
I don’t know if I’d say that art needs to be made for the audience. Look at Toilken. When he made his work it was for him. However I think the difference is that Toilken making it for himself was for the sake of the art. Not for the sake of the self. He respected the fact that the art was revealing itself to him. Thus it was part of himself, but he respected it as a story.
Man, your Bridgerton observation that these characters have broad appeal because they are complex and so a lot of different people can identify with them, but then some idiot adaptor comes a long and narrows the character “down to one little category because that’s what appeals most to them” blew my mind, because it so neatly explains the fan disappointments with so many reboots. And, although I haven’t seen the show, when you’ve used it you’ve always set it up so the viewer gets your point. Nicely done.
The regular cast of “the echo chamberlain livestream, or echo chamber for brevity” livestream have rocketed to the top of my critic list. You, Echo, Despot, and Random are four of the creators I click on with the least hesitation.
Writers no longer care about entertaining. They care about portraying a "message". Having a lesson underneath a good story and characters is one thing, but having the lesson be the center of attention makes you feel like you are being lectured in a 2nd grade classroom. No one wants to pay hard earned money to be scolded under the guise of being entertained.
Entertainment is seen as lowbrow in this day and age. When I said I like visually exciting movies in a thread of people talking down to folks who want entertainment, someone told me I had "lowest common denominator energy". The self-professed intellectual is one of the more insufferable people in this age, more interested in talking about their genius than demonstrating it. Social media ruined writers in a lot of ways by separating them from their audience, leading them to think that their "superior mind" and their legion of yes-men are who they're writing for. They've been handed a microphone and choose to talk to themselves. It's idiotic.
I personally believe in writing selfishly, that’s what will motivate you to write a good story. The problem is when priorities start changing. I would argue the best written stories ever were written as selfishly as possible, because that made them care for the story even more, and put more focus on the technical, and entertainment aspects of the story. But when priorities change from the story itself being the main focus, into using a franchise or original IP into a medium to reinforce your own issues, identify, etc, to the point the story itself is not considered, then that’s a problem.
In one of the many great interviews of film professionals on Film Courage, one of the working writers who began teaching said one of the biggest issues with new writers is getting one of their first few scripts and thinking something like “this should have been worked out in therapy, not on the page/screen”.
I'm a writer, well-published under other names. Sci-Fi, fantasy and alt history. Authors and TV writers have different skill sets. TV writers learn their craft in writers rooms, taking direction, and executing single scenes. I, like other book authors, sit down and stare at a blank screen and then imagine entire world filled with perhaps dozens of characters. 'They' cannot do what 'we' can do. They don't world-build, and because they don't, they lack the ability to see how they are destroying the author's work. They're like early Celts and Angles, wandering through Roman buildings wondering how the Romans did it.
I'd say a good TV writer can imagine and write and world-build like a fiction writer. I've done both to various degrees. The ones who cannot, are obviously bad TV writers. Adapting a written source material for the visual medium requires understanding and ability to build around that understanding of the world, characters, and themes. Those getting the jobs are just children who think good writing is that one-liner for the trailer, and never go beyond superficial layers in anything. Bad writers 😔
@@niassera "I'd say a good TV writer can imagine and write and world-build like a fiction writer". Absolutely, in the best cases. But it's made harder by a system that allows a stream of outside voices to second guess and interfere in the process. When I write it's me and my laptop. I am free to ignore notes from my editor, (and usually do) but a TV (or movie) writer does not have that degree of independence. Hollywood's reliance on IP is evidence that something is wrong in their creative process.
@@michaelreynolds5773 I agree, you can't be true to your creation and vision in an environment where others have the last word. The issue is deep. I think it has more to do with the culture producing the entertainment. If relationships are superficial, if there's no professional respect, it shows just how silly people in charge think they are smart. And they probably hire equally silly people 'yes-men' to work for them. They don't take filmmaking seriously, it's "entertainment" and it has to look and sound like the last movie/series that had some success, never wondering why. Also the IP is never made/remade for the love of that IP. It's always about changing it. And they are proud about the changes they make. This is all so counter intuitive. But it does go back to a lack of respect. I have to go now. The subject depresses me 😅 Good comment!
As a former aspiring writer myself, worldbuilding can be a challenging process cause add or change one detail and the entire work can potentially be shafted or thrown away. Ironically, it is these difficulties that help writers get better at making their world feel more than just a picture or a wall of text. And like you said, they lack the ability to see what destructive effects they have on a franchise ie Rings of Power, Acolyte, and The Witcher.
The sad thing is that a screen writer CAN improve the source material. For example, the movie The Mist, based on the Stephen King book, changed the ending and everyone like it better; even the writer himself said he was jealous that it did not occur to him.
Nah, very few of them care about that. The people with the money just want to minimise the risk, and for the 'creatives' it's far more about the fact that it's a Super convenient way to spin the project's failure as the falt of the audience rather than their own incompitence (and thus keep their jobs).
In sales this called make it make sense (to them). I've noticed how series and films now are basically high budget therapy sessions and taken to watching older media.
The biggest problem for me in modern shows and movies is the lack of authenticity. I want to imagine the world to be true world with some differences. But inserting modern issues into some timeless classic and turning the ethnical split of a feudal village into 2024 new york just pulls me out of the illusion. Once Im pulled out, I dont care about the story. I care about characters if I can pretend that they are real people. Once that magic is broken I wont have any emotional connection left
I agree with your videos almost 100% of the time, but this one is especially on point! SO accurate and great examples! Unrelated side note, I am also a huge Brandon Sanderson fan and Warbreaker is one of my favorite books of all time. My husband bought me the leather bound edition for my birthday and I love seeing your copy on the shelf in all your videos! :) Sanderson's fight for Perrin is an excellent example of some still fighting for the audience! I will actually be furious if some show ruins Mistborn!
Thank you for verbalizing this! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been left dissatisfied by adaptations written by people who think they can do better than the original authors and also fix “problematic” aspects of the story. The ego is sickening and now I don’t watch adaptations of ANYTHING until someone else reviews it as a good adaptation. Little Mermaid? Nope! WoT? Nope! IwtV? Nope! RoP? NOPE! They don’t want or need my money/time/energy and I don’t need their cringey “I know best” adaptations. (I actually watched the live action Little Mermaid and it made me as depressed as the movie’s color gradient choices. Where was the vibrancy? The magic? Poor Bailey can sing her heart out, but the movie LOOKED dreadful. Dull colors and washed out tones are shameful when a movie is based in magical realism. And that whole “she can’t give her consent bc she doesn’t have a voice?” Do they not realize mutism is a real thing? The original movie made Ariel’s consent crystal clear!)
I’m in the same boat. Adaptations don’t get me excited anymore. In fact, I get nervous. How are they going to screw this one up? I’m so glad I’m not alone on the colors in Little Mermaid. Oh my goodness, I’ve never seen such a bland, grey, unsaturated mess!
I like your explanation about why those pieces of entertaining failed, and the reason makes sense Sadly, this issue is not confined to big corporations, there are some YT creators whose videos I used to enjoy not long ago but, faster than usual, they have become quite flamboyant and/or preachy Now I think is just like you said, they're not making content for their subscribers anymore but for themselves. It's quite annoying, and when someone point it out, they dismiss it as a necessity of current times which is quite funny since they despise the idea of "modern audience"
These are all great arguments. But there is one point I disagree with. A creator does its best work when it comes from a personal place. Sure, maybe it could make more money by being more relatable or giving people what they want, but art is harder to create art competently when it's not a personal investment as well. I think the important part is trying to find the best match between a project/ip and a director. You want to find the right person to deliver something more people will enjoy. What I'm saying is I don't blame The Acolyte director directly, but whoever put her in that place. It's obviously a terrible match. It's like giving Romeo and Juliet to Tarantino! There are only two outcomes from this: either he'll make what people want to see and it will be a mediocre movie, or he makes something he would like to see, alienating the entire fan base of Romeo and Juliet.
Ones "personal place" is an accumulation of parts that mostly come from outside. Like you said, there needs to be a balance between the inner and outer world.
@@ApahtieParty Exactly. Like Greg himself mentioned, he doesn't just do this for him completely. He tries to entertain. But he does so by choosing a topic close and dear to him.
One piece is probably the best example of how to write companions for your main hero. Everyone is different, everyone is interesting and everyone has a place in the crew. Even in arcs where the plot isn't the best, the crew keeps the story interesting. And Nami and Robin is drawn extremely well...endowed.
I noticed this exact thing the other day when seeing that interview with the Acolyte director lady. She talked so much about how she wanted to make a character that her younger self could look up to. Apparently just being black and gay is enough because she also didn't to make the character actually likable or interesting like Lucas did with his characters. It was no better than a mediocre fan fiction story but just given a Disney budget. I sure hope Disney sees how terrible these kinds of projects based purely on DEI are received and stop funding them.
I love that as you talked about how the resume of Payne & McKay were sorely lacking, TH-cam put up an ad for Grammarly. "Complex topics can be hard to explain. Let Grammarly help." So, that's what Payne & McKay need! Just a little help from Grammarly! 🤣🤣🤣
It's why a lot of these shows also have the self-insert. These writers and showrunners believe they are the paragons of virtue who need to tell the downtrodden they are the saviors they were wanting and needed. Yeah, the world doesn't care. We didn't want nor need these shows and movies because it's bastardizing the source material. It's why they usurp these IPs: their shows would fail. Sooner or later, Hollywood will need to adapt. Failure to do so will result in its death. So far, Disney is willing to commit to their death because Bob Iger can't see the world from his now-tarnished Ivory tower.
I sure hope they wake up soon. I haven’t looked into the details, but I’m seeing headlines that apparently Disney refused even a hint of lgbt themes in Inside Out 2. If that’s true, it’s a signal that they DO see what is and isn’t profitable, at least. It’s a start.
I am that,,, but the Difference is I'm not selfish, I'm selfless and I am great creative how do I know that? When you have thousands of people over the span of 29 years of life praise you for being perfect and saving them you want to continue and do even better and make everyone have that smile.
I’m writing a book right now, in part because I’m tired of complaining about bad stories when I’m perfectly capable of writing good stories. Do you think it’s “serving myself” to be writing a book that I would want to read because I think others would want to read it too? The book is for me in the sense that it hits on themes that matter to me, but it’s also for others in that I think those themes are worth exploring: heroism, sacrifice, complexity around how we wield knowledge, etc. I’m not really interested in writing something for a particular audience because that kind of pandering is creative kryptonite.
Writing what you would want to read is different than writing so you can see yourself in it. The adaptations and IP fiascos of recent years are much more cases of the latter. Which is why "representation matters" is a terrible mantra for storytelling. Not because diversity is bad in and of itself, but it has taken the place of actual good storytelling. One evidence that creators aren't interested in creating stories they'd want to watch or read is to look at the recent buzz from people who like the shows: it focuses on representation, creating fan theories around mystery boxes, and most prominently shipping characters. There's almost nothing about the actual story and storytelling techniques.
Write whatever your heart desires. I hope you're able to put your vision to words and I hope it's successful. Just don't bash people who don't want to read it.
Your intentions are right, positive and how the majority of creatives have fundamentally operated for a very, very long time. Serving yourself would be to intentionally target this only at yourself and your clique while looking down on anyone who dared disagree, usually while showing at best cursory, at worst disdainful, attention to craft. Your post does not indicate that you are serving yourself, rather it indicates you are trying to be part of the solution. All the best with your book :)
The best thing about Shogun was my wife and I both enjoyed it. She enjoys historical stories, I enjoyed the action and the characters. So many modern shows only cater for one of us, or more often neither of us.
Shogun, Dune, Mario Bros, and The Batman, are probably the best novel/video game/comic adaptions I can think of which came out recently. All of them paid huge respect to the source material and really didn't try to push themselves to the forefront like a jazz saxophonist trying to outshine the other band members live on stage. The differences are subtle, and really required just to make them work in that medium. I'm a big fan of the originals of all of these, so It's been heart warming to see that whilst Star Wars if mid intergalactic collision, at least some of our favourite franchises are being handled by professionals with class. The only show I can think of off the top of my head which - although it doesn't elevate - at least does a good enough job to be respectable whilst being different is Ripley. The original movie was different, but not necessarily better. I think in this instance, it's kind of like how a girl can think you're cute or creepy depending on how good looking you are when you ask to buy them a drink. If the 'different' take on a classic story is really well executed with a high degree of quality, it's cute and we like it. If however, it's sloppily done, when a perfectly good trace drawing would have been sufficient, then it's creepy and please get away.
I would add Fallout to the list. It wasn't perfect, but it was plainly made with the audience in mind, appealing both to longtime players of the Fallout games and to people who had never even heard of them.
@@AretaicGames Totally, if i were to add more example, Fallout, Arcane, The Boys, Castlevania, X-Men 97, and the Sonic films would be up there too. The bad adaptions have been so unbelievably awful that it's easy to forget some of the amazing ones we've had.
@@Ridghost Indeed. On further thought, I would also add Cyberpunk: Edgerunners to the list. Like Fallout, it's not a direct adaptation of the game, but a new story set in the same world. It was so good that it changed the experience of playing Cyberpunk 2077 even for longtime players, and it also drew in many new players.
You can say fallout is an entertaining show, but you can't say it's a good adaptation of the source material. The show is borderlands with ghouls and the BoS
That's a massive pivot from JRR Martin who blasted Star Trek, and other IPs, fans for not liking whatever schlop was coming out because it was different from the original IP.
Personally, I think his original position was a product of seeing the headlines. Then he saw what was actually happening over the vast majority of fans instead and he realized his mistake. I think he originally believed it was a "vocal minority." Then he saw the numbers.
@@GaioSamurai that's a fair assessment. Or simply believed the journalists who cry wolf constantly. My guess is, considering his relationship with Tolkien, he tried out RoP after that comment and went "oh."
I appreciate when creators praise good media while also entertainingly taking out the trash with the bad ones. Hopefully this era gives way to a better time where writers and show runners are chosen based on their skill, proven track record, and care for the material, and that only happens if we reward the few good examples of that now.
Once again I'm gonna talk about how hard I work on my writing, creating world with clear rules, interesting, complex characters. I have notes on details, drawings as visual memos. I write with passion and yeah there are minor things taken from my experiences but they sertainly aren't inserts... I do not wanna have myself in the book
2022 was when I realized I needed to have much stricter standards for the entertainment I was consuming. I believe a huge part of your identity as a person is the standards you have for yourself. Only watch the movies and shows that make you a better person, or at least don't make you a worse one. Greg is spot on when he says that there is a lot of good entertainment out there, but it is hard to find. Since the bar is so low nowadays, it is that much more rewarding to watch a well-made show or movie. Start investigating what your taste in entertainment is, what you like and don't like, and start a list of those properties to watch later instead of next rat shit Disney plus show. When you get accused of being a bigot for not liking something, don't deny it, just say that you are not interested in the new show. You have better things to watch. Go out there, find something underrated and engaging that doesn't lecture you about race or gender :)
Love your video essays and sense of humour. I see that you got a plug for learning C# - I've been self-teaching programming for a few years now. It's been a real struggle to "Git Gud" as the Dark Souls community would say.
We as an audience get that showrunners and movie makers have to make changes to fit book on a screen, but current norm is to buy an IP, throw it in the trash and write their own story with "modern politics" or whatever they mean by that. We are living in the arms race of who can run an IP down the ground
Yes! Thank you! We need to get back to a slightly more impersonal standard of creating media. Be passionate about the art of creating itself, but if you make it all about you, you can never move past to make something other people will actually like.
The problem with modern entertainment is that the goal of it is to be neither modern nor entertaining. Hence why no modern audience exists to be entertained by it.
Excuse me while I brag on my kids for a minute.
My teenagers think what I do is cool, or parts of it, anyway. My eldest is into writing and graphic design, so we discuss shows and movies and their themes, characters, dialog, arcs, enneagrams, etc. It helps to organize my thoughts for videos, and we get to spend time together while I'm technically still working. She's the one who designed my logo. But she has also been studying thumbnail design and theory, hence the new style for this video and two recent ones. I love the new 'movie poster' style she's shooting for, and I like this new font. And she likes getting paid. It's a win-win.
My other daughter is semi-interested in writing and joins the discussions, but she was really interested to know how editing works. So I showed her one day, and she immediately got into it, just like I did. Finding the right piece of footage, or getting the timing of a joke cut just right, it's so satisfying. She did the rough cut on this one and then did a majority of the b-roll in the second half. When I'm describing how Rings of Power delivered a terrible product, she's the one who decided to use the clip of a hand opening to display the corrupt rings. When I said the audience loved Dune, she chose the clip of Paul's fist in the air and the group of Fremen cheering in response. I showed her where the files were and said go for it, thinking she'd just find some random clips to cover the cuts and distract from my face every few seconds, but she sought out footage to enhance the script. She just *gets it*, it's impressive. The pay helps, too. Win-wins, all around.
That's one of the big reasons I want kids. I want to teach them and share interests with them and see them grow.
hey, dud was wondering if you saw the trailer for Secret Level yet, also using TH-cam to be cool is a pro-TH-cam move fr.😂
Has anyone ever told you you look and sound like Cyril figgus?
Those are some pretty great kids. Seems like they have an excellent father. ❤
Always amazing to see your kids discover and tap into their natural talents. Especially when they're talents you saw in them from the get-go.
Modern writers confuse "write about what you know" with "write about you" or they do not know anything except themselfes.
Arguably they don't know themselves, since they so often write those self-inspired negative traits and ideals believing that they're positive ones.
The distinction between "writing" and "creating" is the issue me thinks.
Being a "writer" in the past... it would have been largely accurate to assume that you were somewhat "creative"... almost synonymous even. Today that assumption is still made... but it's simply not true.
My manager and my producer have told me "you can be a writer or a creative" they are two different things someone who is a writer is someone executing a vision of someones but a creative is the one who comes up with ideas or seeks out books. The creator has the power not the writer. There are writers who go from movie to movie and show to show and make a career out of it but they are doing hack work since they dodn't create their own scripts, films, and series.
In theory making what you would want to see is a good idea, assuming you don't make it all about you.
Why are these new young writers so arrogant and so high on themselves?
It explains why they always blame and hate the 'toxic fans'. You're not just rejecting their show, you're rejecting them personally.
I've written on the order of 150 published works. Some very big hits, some very big flops. It has never occurred to me to blame the readers for the flops. It's my job - mine - to create something readers will read. If the readers don't read, it's my fault, not theirs.
@@michaelreynolds5773 Funny how the most successful creators, regardless of medium, have your attitude
I kind of DO reject them personally, tho. Personally, they are boring narcissists.
It is my hope that is not lost on them.
@@jimjam51075And sometimes much worse. Leslie Headland is probably complicit in at least some of the things that Harvey Weinstein did.
Exactly.
Are you telling me people DON'T like getting lectured in their media?! 😮
I know, I know. This is shocking info, but I’m STARTING to think it might be true, haha
@@gregowen2022 🤯
The it's not even about that because you can make a "woke" project and make it good and compelling
There probably are some who do, and if you were making small budget projects you’d be okay. When the project costs tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, you can’t bet on a niche audience like that.
That's a sexy Squidward you got there!
Henry Cavill earned SO much goodwill and respect from fans by telling The Witcher show to get bent.
The man is a hero irl
Henry Cavill gets so much respect from fans because he IS a fan, first and foremost!
He's one of us and knows what we want.
And 40k I heard he cancled that too.
@@GreenBlueWalkthrough Yep. Sad but true.
But one more feather in his PR cap.
I wish Hollywood and video games would just get over the DEI crap, and get back to just plain old, pure fun.
@@Quazi-Motodiversity can work when it feels natural. Hollywood is trying to shove diversity that's not only forced, but also dated and insulting with an overreliance in stereotypes.
The most hilarious (and pathetic) part of this selfish mindset is that those who possess it are utterly incapable of actually creating anything new. 99.9% of the time, they are only interested in "adapting" existing, beloved stories.
I feel like some famous author said something about that one time.
The Era of fan fiction made reality😮
love your videos! happy to see ytbers supporting ytbers!
Nah I think you came up with that on your own 😂
I vaguely remember Tolkien mentioning something about certain forces and their inability to create :3
Nothing wrong with adapting if anything more creatives should learn to adapt novels but the important thing is to view yourself as the caretaker to the novel or "IP" (hate that word) not just use the property to tell your version of it. I will say the only time not following this is if it is something like Joker because comic book characters are basically open for that kind of use but if you are adapting an arc or storyline and calling it that you need to stay true to it.
it's not only selfish... it's patronizing.
they really think they are 'educating' the audience (and sometimes even the author of the source material)
This is feminism in a nutshell.
A bunch of incompetent narcissists with no life skills trying to educate the men who literally built our entire society.
All this stuff happening in the entertainment industry is just a microcosm for why our society is collapsing.
The ideology of the west is late-stage individualism.
"Biology isn't real, the climate isn't real, nothing is real except for YOUR truth.
"You don't need to do anything for other people; just do what YOU feel like doing and if other people don't like it, that's their problem. "
I keep repeating this.
Modern Hollywood saw a story written by an Oxford professor of English Literature, intended to replicate the lost parts of ancient English culture, infused with the deeply personal emotional weight of what he experienced as an officer leading men during WWI...
And Modern Hollywood ACTUALLY thought: "What this really needs is women and diversity."
@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat What's the story? Sounds like a book I can get into
@@EJ_Red It's The Lord of the Rings universe. I'm talking about Rings of Power as the problem Modern Hollywood wrecked.
"I don't want to read about if you were Superman. I want to read _about Superman."_
“Star Wars isn’t about good vs evil” is the most regarded shit I’ve heard in a long time
Right?! IT’S LITERALLY COLOR-CODED.
do we have to edit that 'g' into 't' while reading the comment? 😉
@@mustafachoudhury3368 I use diacritics.
"What if orcs were good?" is pretty dang close.
@@mustafachoudhury3368thank you for that. I am not awake enough to have figured that one out on my own.
Wow. How you explain "It's not for YOU" here makes so much sense now. It's not for you, or me, or anyone. It's for themselves.
100% accurate. 😲
The Headland interviews finally woke me up to this fact. It really is a target audience of 1.
I once heard someone who lived in Hollywood for decades trying to be an actor talk about how the countless industry billboards peppering los angeles have nothing to do with actually promoting the movies/shows.
The Producers pay for the billboards so they, their friends, and their rivals can see them.
One of the bigger clues, was in how they always need to "see themselves" represented on the screen.
What's weird though....why they're surprised when no one watches it when they've admitted they made it for one person....themselves.
Ohhhh! I think I get it. They're so narcissistic that they legitimately thought people would clamor to watch anything that has to with them, and when they don't, it's OBVIOUSLY because they're alt right bigots. Got it!
They’ll make the admission that they co-opted an established IP to talk about themselves, and then turn around and call you a bigot for not liking it by playing the “muh demographic” card. Don’t accept their doublespeak
"You become success not by serving yourself but by serving others." Great words.
Peter Jackson. I recall him in an interview that he didn't film Lord of The Rings with modern audiences his in mind, but Tolkien. He wanted to stay true to Tolkien's vision the best he could.
He could have succeeded a lot more if he hadn't had two feminist women as his screenwriters, since they certainly did devalue Tolkien's themes for the sake of a 'modern audience'.
How so?@@Lodatzor
@@chewy_bucca it's not the only example but the biggest example would be Arwen, whose role was massively expanded for the explicit purpose of 'representation'. They even bragged about it in the Extended Edition commentaries, but because it was 20+ years ago, people weren't sensitive to that kind of buzzword yet.
And the issue there isn't even that Arwen was so great in her original form, it's that expanding her role came at the expense of multiple other characters which had to be lessened or dumber down to account for her. Elrond, for instance, goes from being the wisest Elf in Middle-earth who cherishes his Half-elven kinship with Men, to a grumpy old coot who won't let his daughter make her own decisions and thinks Men suck.
Another example is Aragorn, who goes from being a driven, confident paragon of masculinity who is proud of his lineage to a sap who fears the 'weakness of Men' and needs his girlfriend to talk him into living up to his destiny by overcoming the drag factor of his lineage.
Glorfindel is removed from the story entirely. But the biggest and worst crime caused by Arwen's expansion is how much it takes away from Frodo himself, who loses his moment of courage and integrity when he faces the Nine by himself at the Ford, and instead is a gibbering wreck in Arwen's arms just so Liv Tyler can look good.
An Oscar-worthy scene and multiple great characters are diminished just so Fran and Phillipa could brag about how they made the story 'more accessible to women' by having Liv Tyler running around in leathers waving a sword.
Tell me, would you rather have the king marry the unknown princess at the end leaving all viewers puzzled about "who's that girl" like so many readers were left in reading it? That's something you can't do it in movies, unless you want to create new charaxters without personality just for the plot. Tolkien himself felt compelled to expand on Arwen and Aragorn love story in the Appendices, because that was the only way to explain that marriage in the end, and because it was an example of the deepest theme of his stories: the dynamic between death and immortality. He put it in the Appendices only because it was too long to put it into the main story, he said it himself in one of his letters.
@Laurelin70 yes, but putting it in the appendices is an extra text. That's not the same as changing the character, her role and impacting multiple other characters in a negative way.
Just a bad decision that was made for rEpReSeNtAtIoN
About Francesca from Bridgerton; my fiancee had read the books and was livid over the Michaela change. Apparently, in the books, Francesca is infertile and has difficulty having a child with her first husband. She praised the character for representing an issue many women face and can be absolutely devastating on a deep personal level. She was excited to see this in the adaptation.
However, you can’t really explore the theme of infertility with a character who is actively in a homosexual relationship. It’s not even in the cards for them. It completely changes the characters arc, struggles, themes, and character. It’s not just a queer exploration, it’s downright a new and different character who faces new and different obstacles.
Ooh, that's awful - struggles with fertility are such a big and tragically untalked about issue that many couples struggle with. All that brushed aside for a queer-coded self-insert.
The lack of awareness of regard of anyone else from these directors and writers is disheartening.
As neither childless nor homosexual I might be way of base, but I think struggling with infertility might actually have some overlap with gay experience: you want a child, but can't have one. The dynamics might be different (no false hope to lose), but in the core it seems like it has much overlap.
But I get why she'd be disappointed. Unless they completely ignore the period social expectations, the gender swap completely changes the focus and derails the theme, because it comes with so many other issues.
@@PiiskaJesusFreak Not even remotely the same thing. A gay person, if not infertile, could produce a child by having sex with a person of the opposite gender. It's possible. An infertile person cannot have a child at all. Not the same situation.
I can imagine that, though I haven't read the book nor watched the series. But a woman traditionally longing for a relationship and a child...?! We cannot have that anno 2024 right? No, all woman want to lead a bunch of subordinate dumb males into battle while snapping at them.
@@PiiskaJesusFreakI think you’re right about wanting a kid and not being able to have one in both, but I think the context is just too different to compare. One is a woman who likes men and is told being a mother is this huge thing that brings so much joy to peoples lives, and decides she wants that for herself, only to then be struck with the reality that even though everything in her life says she can have a kid, she can’t. The other woman learns early on that she likes women and therefore can’t have a biological kid without some sort of medical intervention.
Yes they both ultimately have the same goal, but the context is wildly different.
18:50 Sanderson has said in the past "I have more freedom to say no to stuff I don't like because I don't need their money, and they don't know how to handle or react to someone who doesn't need their money"
He is absolutely correct. That is also why the are so angry with Musk. He has told them directly when he said, and I am paraphrasing, you are trying to blackmail me with money? It has worked for so long they just don't know another way.
Calling it “fraud” is a great way of putting it. It feels like the explanation for something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
The weird obsession with everyone, EVERYONE being represented is getting tiresome.
It is, and ironically, it flattens people down to only their outward qualities. Great stories capture us because of the common emotions we often share, as humans. New stories are not uniting, they put the audience in small boxes. Seems counter-productive from a social standpoint
For the longest time "representation" was only for those who cried about it, a certain darker group of Americans.
Yikes
Except straight white guys apparently.
Everyone else was fair game.
And that was the real kick in the nuts; hearing these people screech about "representation" and "inclusion" as they actively overrepresented certain races and actively excluded others. They're hypocrites, everything they supposedly hate.
And meanwhile it was fiction we were talking about, characters weren't SUPPOSED to always look the same as you. The point was that you could still relate with them as PEOPLE. Race was the bottom of the barrel when it came to priorities because it was a superficial aspect.
The only thing these idiots proved was that THEY were the ones fixated on skin color, not the audiences they were chastising.
Everyone except evil straight cis white men😊
To paraphrase from the Bridgerton segment, " I didn't have this character for me," then write your own story and fill it with your own characters. This is the problem with no one being able to tell stories unless it is a remake or already established property or franchise.
But see if they did that it might not actually get people to watch it. The audience she's after is so small no one would pay to make that movie. Because it wouldn't make its money back. They keep going after such a small portion of the audience while ignoring the rest of the audience and they don't understand why the rest of the audience is upset. And I think a big problem is they're not even good at entertaining the small portion of the audience they are going after. Normal LGB people do not like being pandered to any more than anyone else does. If someone in a show or movie is a member of the community that shouldn't be the only thing about them right? Cuz normal non-straight people are more than just not straight.
It's why these days I don't watch adaptations of anything tbh, i have an imagination, I'll read the book instead
@MamaMOB This is a dead horse, but it is exactly what happened with Concord and Dustborn. Both games were used to heavily pander to the "modern audience," a group that makes up likely 1% of the population, and got not even 50% of that 1%. Then the creators, specifically Concord (Don't know about Dustborn), began attacking the gaming community.
Another product I was reminded of was the film Moonlight that came out around the mid 2010s. Don't remember if it was actually bad, I never watched it so all I had was word of mouth information. But according to my mother, it was a very boring movie and she stopped watching not even halfway through.
They know their new original stories would not be as good
If I'm not mistaken these writers were writing for fanfiction net when they were younger, they'd insert their OC (original character) in a well established shows/books and before you know it, their OCs are the new main character, the story is now about their issues.
Oh honestly, I don’t think writing fanfiction or stuff like that is a bad thing. It lets young riders work on their craft and develop they’re getting feedback in most cases and they can learn what to do and what not to do. I did it myself and use it to develop characters that I would later write about. And I’ve had a lot of trial and error with this, but I finally figured out how to write something that does sell, and it does have peoples interest.M
The problem with these people is that they’ve never moved beyond that. They only look at their underwritten fanfiction that they did when they were 14 and then don’t understand why no one likes it anymore
I still read fanfic as an adult (it’s free and I read too fast for most novels to feel like a good money investment), and I can tell you there are some really good fanfics out there (a handful I’d buy a book version because of the quality). However, many unfortunately do have the problem you mention. I’ve also noticed another interesting problem with ones set in fantasy (or or even historical) universes where some fanfic writers are mentally incapable of understanding that there are in fact different cultures in both the real world and in fiction, which means that the characters should not resemble the author’s locality in action, speech, or morals but should instead align with the world they’re in.
@@John-fk2ky a very good point. I did a lot of my fanfiction for avatar the last Airbender. I did have one story where I brought them into the real world but overall I always knew that I was writing for avatar, and I had to feel true to that world. I think that’s very much a problem for a lot of these writers now- they don’t know how to get out of their own world and except that this is what they have to write about. Which is mine blowing to me because I read and watch movies, and everything else to escape into another world.
There are a STARTLING number of parallels between fanfiction and the problems we see in current writing and entertainment. I usually take these issues and red flags as an indicator - not necessarily that the writer is a BAD writer, but of an IMMATURE writer. The selfishness aspect discussed in this video is a huge part of that; young (immature) people have a harder time thinking about people and situations outside of themselves, and have to learn skills like empathy and cooperation. Like their writing problems, I take heart in believing they will eventually grow out of these issues and into a more mature worldview.
…which makes it so much worse that it’s grown adults with multimillion dollar budgets producing this crap.
I remember in the past good writers would often insert themselves as side characters.
Sometimes the people spidey would help would be something the writer themselves struggled with or saw someone else struggle with.
But they’d never usurp the main character.
Remember Mark Hammil when speaking about the filming of The Last Jedi protested, "we need to think about the fans."
Ryan Johnson, in response said, "No, we need to think about OUR movie." Triggering an idiotic round of applause from the butt-kissers in the audience.
It revealed the selfishness of modern writers/directors who work with established IPs.
The people who applauded that moment are the ones keeping Disney Star Wars alive. They will lap up _anything_ they produce and defend it - think of those over-reactive, wheezing nerd stereotypes from the 80s and 90s. Thankfully, it looks like the normies are starting to drift away as more and more of DSW is "not for them".
I also remember when Mark Hamill said Rian was right and he was wrong, but you chuckle fucks always leave that part out.😂
@@613harbinger316acolyte definitely is a step forward to combat this with about you mentality.
That clip is infuriating lol
@danfuentes175 Rian was right, but it's nice you guys finally admitting you just want to be pandered to.
When “sexual preference” becomes the most important thing, the thing that they build their whole life around, that they make their entire identities..
You know we have a problem.
You can tell these people were never organically creatives writing their own mental worlds nor in fandoms in their youths (which some claim), the sporkings for blatant self inserts would have taught them better, we self policed eachother back in the 2000s. Most importantly, even the worst, "baby's first time trying to write" self insert still came from a place of love for the source material, and not an hired gun warping the material they despise in their own image.
You made me realise that the amount of self insert Mary Sues should have warned us of this phenomenon or hoped it got it out of their system when they gained more experience.
It's a normal stepping stone, but back in the day the fan community would let you know nobody is interested in reading about a flat carboard cutout of yourself, not even other teenagers, learn to make your characters interesting, not literally just you, and most importantly respect the tenets of canon at all costs with *some* leeway for characters. That's apparently bad nowadays that the people that think that's stupid and nerdy have taken over and obviously we are all very interested in them changing all the lore and reading all about themselves and their opinions, and not the source material we came here for. That's what happens when instead of fanfiction it's hatefiction by narcissists that are so above such nerdy nonsense, I guess.
Gives me confidence, even I can do better and ive never written
By the way yiu can wirte self inserts t's jiust expert mode and you need to respoect you, the story and your readers... I have done this in my own OG setting and in RWBY where my OGs are off doing there own thing set during the evernts of the shows... Think how Star trek TNG,YOH,DS9 interacted. And people love my stuff because they love to hang out with heroic realistic characters like it dioes not matter they are heroic self insrts.
Creativity often starts with "writing what you want to read" or "drawing what you want to see," filling in a niche in the creative world that you feel a desire to fill. That is pure and laudable. HOWEVER, in times past you would create your heart out, and if nobody liked your work you are still rewarded for fulfilling your creative drive. If people DID like your work you could make money, leading to publicity and adaptation. Creatives at the top of the industry are handed control for reasons other than the merit of their work, when their work would die in silence if they didn't have the leg up to start with.
Exactly, and that’s what leads people to believe it’s some kind of culture war or activism at the studios. In a purely profit driven world, these things would never get greenlit, because any sane executive would know instantly that using She-Hulk to “troll the trolls” is a terrible decision, financially.
Spot. On.
On a model of "creating your heart out":
A definition of fiction was "Events that didn't happen occuring to people who don't exist". If they're characters, then you have a detachment if you need to torture them. They can fail to grasp their own state and it's no skin off your nose. A mantra of "write what you know" is seductive because a person is interested in themselves. And the absolute worst case is a book where the author and the main character are the same person. They both know EVERYTHING about their fictional world - precluding any tension.
As a kid, I remember watching a TV game show for children. Before they launched into it, they asked one of the contestants (a girl) what she wanted to be. She said 'a writer'. The host asked what she wanted to write about. She basically described her own life. I felt intensely sad for her. In some circumstances, people enthuse about a work being deeply personal or vulnerable. There might be a sense that if you could capture a piece of your heart, how could anyone HATE it? My metaphor for writing about yourself isn't that you're presenting your heart. You're presenting your audience a length of your bowel. Sure it's personal, but it's sticky and unpleasant and full of half processed material. The audience doesn't have to hate you personally to be repulsed by your 'gift'.
The audience has no obligation to like you, sign up for your trauma dump or want to be present while your fictional world confirms your biases. So you have to get to the point of giving them something that they want, right?
"Write what you want to read", or "Paint what you want to see" is literally the advice experts give to literal pre-ametuer creatives. That's what get you started in creative process, but once you get the hang of the tools, you should quickly understand those tools are there to serve others and not fill your own garage with workpiles. Shame that these pre-amatuers are given such big budgets and access that would have been used far more effectively if the suits higher up sat and thanked for more than 2 minutes
@@thecompanioncube4211 I don't think any artist creates anything they don't want to watch or read themselves. If you don't like your own work and wouldn't read it if someone else had written it, then why are you writing at all? For money? I can't imagine how anyone can devote so much time and effort to create something they themselves wouldn't want to read. The only explanation is for money. Which is an understandable goal in movie making but not really in book writing because if someone wants to get rich, why would they engage in book writing of all things? Not exactly a profitable business (unless you're Rowling or Sanderson and I'm sure they love their own worlds, characters and plots).
Most of the issues with many things can be wrapped up in one term: narcissism.
I've said this in a comment on this channel before, but when I worked on Velma, it was incredible how many of Mindy Kaling's (and even Charlie's, but mostly MK's) personal issues and therapy dirty laundry each episode, and even each joke, was centered around. Like you can get that feeling when you watch the episode but MAN the animatic reviews were always so uncomfortable because I always felt I was peeking into someone's psych files. Soooooo many daddy issues. And, of course, the show was hated. idk what they expected. Also, amazing vid as always!!
"We shouldn't go where we're not welcome."
EXACTLY. STOP HATE-WATCHING. IT'S STILL VIEWERSHIP.
You're right, however, there's a lot of stuff out there and some of these movies and shows may be of interest to viewers. That's why I appreciate the TH-cam critics who will watch a movie or a TV show -- even if they're confident it's going to be terrible -- and spend several hours being tortured with the garbage on the screen so they can warn the rest of us so we don't waste our time and money. Of course, it's always good when they find the rare projects that are actually good...
I'm shocked about companies expending millions and millions in an Intellectual property... to not use it and just make a weird version that lost half of their value in only a few years. The IPs had value because they build a fandom, so, why the companies insist on stepping over them? It's a waste fo both money and the IPs.
They think they're future-proofing their investment, more or less. They're convinced that, someday, maybe soon, there will be an audience for their slop, and if they start the ball rolling on pandering to them, the profits will start rolling in. Until then, they'll cling to what DEI money they can get, shut down whatever departments and layoff anyone they need to, and hopefully won't go under before the proverbial cavalry comes in.
Social engineering.
Because they have too many nepo hires that know they did not get in through talent so they have to convince us and themselves that they are good
I’m confused about this as well, because I’m looking at it from a business standpoint. At this point, we have to accept that they aren’t doing that. No sane person would purchase an existing audience and then do a full 180 on them. Iger is not sane.
Never underestimate what can happen when a big enough corporation/institution loses cohesive control of it's vision.
It's like Vietnam. Only with nostalgia and made up stories instead of human suffering.
Big budget entertainment can’t solely be some mediocre writers’ therapy session. Pixar learned that the hard way
As a young adult woman. I hope my dad will always be there for me... why wouldn't I both my parents care and love me. I really feel sorry for people who must have had so bad relationship with their dads that they resent the idea of fathers or men in general dearing to care about us.
As a writer, I find these to be really helpful videos when it comes to potential story issues. It can be easy for writers to get so caught up in what they want for the story that they fail to see things through the viewer's lens. Listening to critical analysis helps sidestep these issues. Ego kills growth. Probably why so much sucks these days!
Thanks Greg!
I don't like to "broadly psychoanalyze " things, because what the fuck do I know, so I won't stick my flag in the dirt on it being "ego" that's the issue, but as a creative myself, I can struggle to take criticism sometimes, and have to remind myself that such analysis is useful and necessary. And, I know I can have a bit of an ego about things.
I’m glad it’s helpful!
Ego kills growth is spot on. It’s so hard to remember sometimes, and it really is helpful when you get the feedback that you are literarily stroking it and you need to quit.
I think what could also help you: look up on TH-cam Lord of the rings and Rings of power scene comparisions. There are I think 3. Its about fight scenes. One video is about Iron man vs Iron heart character introduction. Its truly amazing
I read someone complain that there are no People of Color in _Sho Gun._ I really don't know how to process this.
Haha, right? These people just have the same stock complaint for everything. That game I mentioned at the end, Black Myth: Wukong, is about a chinese mythological character, Sun Wukong, The Monkey King. You play as a monkey and you fight anthropomorphic wolves, bears, and snake-men. In ancient China. But a game reviewer docked it points because it’s not diverse enough. ….What?!
@@gregowen2022 we needed more African and South American animals in our Chinese animal game.
Apparently by their logic diversity doesn’t apply to a majority Asian cast 🤨🫠
@@MW-dd8vk They fix that flaw in their 'logic' by labeling Asians "White-adjacent". Which is hilariously racist - it's almost literally the modern version of dismissing the whiteness of a white person during the pre-civil rights era because he has some 'n---r' blood in him (n-word used for emphasis of my point).
It’s really annoying to me as well. I’m black, and I just want to see a good story. And I’ve also watched so much anime and there’s like never black people in it and who cares. That’s not what I’m expecting from anime. Diversity in stories that get to be told doesn’t mean that every cast needs to have one of each ethnicity haha. I literally don’t need black people in shogun. I’m expecting to see mostly Asian people that’s literally why I’m there.
You are quickly becoming my fevorite critic channel.
When Greg said he live streams with Echo Chamberlain and Despot of Antrim that cemented him in my the top five TH-cam general media critics out there right now, and there are tons of them that are amazing. What does it say about "entertainment" when the critics are more entertaining than the media they review?
same .
Stan Lee did the opposite with Spider-Man. He wrote the character for mass appeal. That’s why he made him middle-class and gave him flaws. Also his costume being homemade. He designed a character for everyone.
Boring! Let's try upper middle class, Stark-level super suit, and one of the flawless races or genders.
@@robertbeisert3315yeah spiderman being that way to me is not necessarily for the sake of mass appeal if i remember stan lee wanted to write a superhero that wasn’t completely super hero. Meaning a lot superheros you see all relatively have easy lives with not much to deal with. But with peter parker Stan Lee wanted to write a superhero with real struggles and actually having deal with a real double life, which make him more interesting when you see spider-man do his thing fighting bad guys.
It's also why the costume completely conceals all physical characteristics except male and young-ish.
That's why characters like Spider-Man always fell flat for me. There's nothing aspirational about Peter Parker. He didn't overcome the struggles of being an awkward, lucked into his powers.
@@imjustsam1745You know fuck all about Peter Parker.
The reason why there are hate campaigns against Black Myth Wukong is actually easy to explain:
Sweet Baby Inc tried to black mail the devs saying that they need to be paid off and have a say in the game or they'll tell everyone that it's anti-whatever. And the devs simply told them to f off.
So basically, any hate you see is them trying to take revenge and pulling the strings they can. They are failing, and I love that they are failing. I still need to get my hands on the game myself though, as I've only heard good things from actually reliable sources.
I’m loving it thus far. You can tell it’s a newer dev, there is some polish needed, so I don’t think the 8/10s and 9/10 are wrong. Nonetheless, it’s a blast to play and keeps getting better as it develops in later chapters.
I've heard some say that that was a statement from a Chinese translated tweet. Now I haven't gotten much out of it yet beyond that tweet and I am taking it, but I still would want more info on that wherever I can find it
I guess this campaign is failing hard because this is the first time I've heard of it
@@ARStudios2000I’ve followed the story for a bit, watching a few other TH-camrs cover it. A lot of the controversy seems to stem from some crude language in some public posts by the developers of Black Myth Wukong. A Chinese gaming TH-camr explained that the vulgarities are figures of speech in Chinese - they’re a bit crude from a PR perspective, but otherwise benign.
However, IGN apparently took recent and past posts of similar nature as some kind of misogyny, though I myself cannot see where that conclusion comes from. The only thing that I could maybe see construed as sexist was when one of the lead developers bemoaned the state of the gaming industry ~16 years ago, using failed birth as a metaphor (and the metaphor made no mention or allusion to the failure being the mother’s fault).
Anyways, following IGN, other gaming journals pretty much just parroted the same message, with no indication of an effort to fact check IGN’s article. It’s a peculiar case of journalists being way off base, but being either totally oblivious to it or wholly committed to upholding the narrative.
All the other discourse around it (politics, DEI, etc.) seems to be accessory to the heart of the issue: someone misinterpreted a public statement and either fails or refuses to realize it.
@@EJ_Red It failed so hard that when NPR covered the game, they had only praise for it.
Amazon didn't want good writers for the Rings of Power. They wanted writers who would go along with the Blackrock post modern agenda without objections.
i love rings of power. think it's well written. beautifully shot. WAAAY better than the original movies. I don't see what everyone is complaining about.
@@lolonnieI hope you're joking...
@@Laurelin70 sorry, but i'm not. It's super entertaining. And the series structure makes it a lot more digestible. I love learning the lore. The characters are growing, changing, etc. A few corny things here or there, but that's to be expected. What's so bad about it?
@lolonnie The characters. Are growing? Really? Their behaviour is inconsistent. Their motivations ridicules and not worthy of the scale of the story. And for anyone who already knows the lore they're simply NOT the characters envisioned and written by Tolkien. The themes are NOT the ones Tolkien was interested in. The RINGS are NOT and do NOT what Tolkien thought of them, for god's sake! If you think that you're learning the lore, well... think again. The pace of the story is uneven. There are plotholes big enough to swallow a Balrog. Speaking of which... all that drama for what, exactly? Characters spring out of nowhere and go nowhere. Plot armors. Mary Sue's and unsympathetic characters. Storylines dragged on (my god, the Harfoots...). Quotes from much later stories and useless fanservice. I watched the first season and was rather perplexed. I tried to give the second season the benefit of the doubt and for some storylines it was almost acceptable (Celebrimbor and Sauron, even if tney're just too corny for someone who already knows their story, but, oh well...), but the rest was unsufferable and the last two episodes were just... inqualifiable for such a "grand" production.
@@Laurelin70 hmm. So they're not following exactly Tolkien's plot, character, and theme development? Yup, i'm fine with that. And maybe that's not the problem, the problem is it's just poorly written/executed? That feels subjective. As a paying subscriber and viewer, I go with my gut...am i enjoying this show? yes, immensely. Everything else is moot. I think I'll keep my prime subscription.
I started to notice that any time a creator makes it seem they are entitled to your time and money, it probably sucks. The market will also determine what will be successful, that's why people still buy Darth Vader figures and Super Mario 64 still has an active community.
Really does explain why all these studios are spouting "toxic fans" like no, we dont like your pet projects and self-inserts that doesnt make someone toxic
Funny how only the audience is toxic, not their money.
Having boycotted several franchises I used to like, I find it liberating and enjoy seeing that I have made the right choice over time. They are not worthy of my time and money, which I used to give in abundance. Now I celebrate older products that shine brighter now in comparison to the shade they have become today. Keep popping my head up to check and see if things have improved enough to return, but the time has not yet come.
The thing is, having a more feminist centric series focusing around say, the night sisters _could totally work_ but these hacks just don't have the writing chops to pull it off.
You can make anything work as long as you do it earnestly and with nuance. And these adaptations are shallow because they have to appeal to everyone. (That is, except for the established fan base apparently 🙄)
The observation that these media are basically "personal diaries" just hit the nail on the head. It's something that would only appeal to a small audience that can relate. The greater fanbase be damned!
There’s a line in Joe Dirt 1 that’ll be relevant forever. “It’s not what you like, it’s the consumer,”
Guy: You alright?
Joe: Yeah I'm cool.
Guy: No you're not.
David Spade is great in the movie.
You're gonna stand there, ownin' a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistlin' bungholes, no spleen splitters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker don'ts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistlin' kitty chaser?
"Snakes and sparklers are the only ones I like."
@@jollygoodfellow3957You taught me to sell the good stuff
@@b.pack3 I don't think I ever actually understood a single word he said, but it's hard to forget David Spade's delivery in that scene.
I always feel a little envious whenever I see a pop culture reference on here that everyone else seems to get--now I feel a little less alone. Home is where you make it.
I love that you went right ahead and called it fraud, 100% that’s exactly what it is
The One Piece live action is the right way of converting a story to another and STILL RESPECTING THE SOURCE MATERIAL.
Can we take a moment to salute Denis Villeneuve for delivering something as special as Dune 2 during a time when Hollywood/studios/director care more about money, politics, and identity politics, rather than producing highest quality in storytelling and cinema experiences for it’s audiences?! Mind blowing it costs less than these Disney-made sub par, WB level of garbage that’s killing all of our most beloved franchises….its crazy how long this has been going on for now. Dune 2 was top level in every category, and now can’t wait to see how the franchise unfolds over the years. (There was a time Disney told great stories through its animation, the same reason Disney still sells merch based on their legacy animated characters today, and doesn’t sell Rey “Skywalker”…)
You're right that they care about politics and identity politics but they don't care about money. If they did they wouldn't care so much about politics and identity politics. That's why they're not making money. Look at how much the studios are losing by making these movies and TV shows. Clearly they have no problem with not making money.
@@MamaMOB yeah, I meant in the that the producers, actors, everyone involved in these very bad shows are still getting paid. I’m curious, how in the world do the folks that keep putting out shows that appeal to virtually no one (who’s being honest with themselves) get paid for such low value. The studios (Disney) doesn’t care, they’re so big and continue to rely on their parks/resorts, they’re happy to continue paying people to push narrative-driven low quality content. That’s also why they continue to rely on buying major IPs and not creating anything new, they don’t care. It’s a medium to push agendas and check boxes. Also why the older days do smaller studios taking risks to release movies year after year isn’t really a thing anymore, and why the comedy genre is all but dead vs years past. Idk that’s my opinion anyways, thanks for the reply! I very rarely engage on social media but my wife is tired of me ranting to her haha
Dennis is beyond the bullsh*t. He's one of the directors of highest echelon of creative mindset. Comparing them to the low scum of woke generation is kinda disrespectful.
Despite the few flaws and changes I saw, Dune 2 was a masterpiece. I'd say it is fighting with Oppenheimer as the best film I have seen in the decade (So far). I'm really looking forward to the next movie.
Agreed, Dune 2 was one of my best cinematic experiences ever, all five times
I think The Acolyte, Velma, etc. are the equivalent of the business a rich man's wife runs that loses money selling platform shoes for cats or something.
These shows feel like the equivalent of a vegan 🌭.
Something no carnivore or vegan wants.
@@theghostofmaximumvolume3414Some vegan hot dogs are actually great for backpacking since they don't need to be refrigerated the same way as meat dogs. I avoid them when I'm in civilization, but I'll bring them if I'm camping somewhere where I don't have a cooler.
@@atomic_wait
Go away...
The best movie adaptation of a book is from 'Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'
Even the original author said that the film was better than his original novel.
Hollywood is dying the same death that Jazz experienced in the 1960s. The artists started making music to show off to each other instead of the broader fans who found something else to do.
Sounds about right. Artists who work with their audience can make amazing works. Artists who make art for artists make incomprehensible gibberish.
When artists create works that they, as audience members, would be delighted by, they tend to produce higher quality and more creative pieces that many others enjoy. This has been a pretty basic approach for a very long time. However, more recently, a lot of artists within Hollywood in particular have completely misunderstood this principle, intentionally creating works almost exclusively for themselves and their cliques.
Imagine being so self-absorbed that you can only watch shows about someone exactly like you? So Harry Potter only appeals to wizards? Imagine the limits these creators put on their own imagination. I'm determined not to watch anything that starts out with a writer/director/actor telling me that their "art" was not made for me. Ok.
Furthermore, being so narcissistic that you think people want to see your life reflected in a show.
If you're telling YOUR story, that makes sense. If you're shoe-horning yourself into an existing IP, you're a narcissist.
@@JayM928 well said
I laughed as you addressed Rings of Power. I struggled through season one and have been recently watching season 2. I CAN'T keep my attention on it regardless of how I try. I'm giving the creators the benefit of the doubt, and still wind up falling asleep or my attention drifts to other things.
I am the know-it-all nerd that watches the commentary versions and autistically can't hold back from talking about behind-the-scenes material of many beloved franchises.
I CAN'T STAY AWAKE with ROP, even though I want to!
Thanks for the video; you've made several great points.
There is nothing wrong with passion projects, but that person needs to prove the passion project can appeal to others if it is to be successful.
That person also needs to be passionate about their actual craft rather than their own genius.
@@Rezzanine I believe that goes without saying, but it is true.
I've said it million times, these producers, writers and directors are just bunch of rich people who think they know better than everyone else!
Even just as a hobbyist writer, the thought of someone taking my works or characters, changing them, and then insisting that the changes are better purely due to selfish, non-technical reasons infuriates me. Fanfiction wish fulfillment is one thing; you keep it to yourself or share it with friends. But these people are trying to change things in an _official_ capacity.
Even The Hobbit films were bad for this. They threw out some of Tolkien's themes. For example, there is a line from Thorin in the first film that goes, "We make our own luck."
But in Tolkien's works, "luck," "change," and "coincidence" are used for divine providence. He will often write something like, "... by chance, if chance it was."
The Hobbit films reject that for modern individualism and self-sufficiency. Odd in a story about a big group of guys working together to achieve a common goal.
That’s not THE MOVIE saying that, it’s Thorin saying it. Thorin who is stubborn and pig-headed and has to learn Bilbo was right about things.
@@TrekBeatTK That was one example. That theme runs through the movies. I realize it was early in Thorin's character arc, but it wasn't a one-off thing of them ignoring how Tolkien used "chance" or "luck."
Spot on analysis. When you write material with a target audience of one, don't expect it to appeal to much more than that.
i love brandon sanderson books, but i NEVER want to see a film adaptation unless sanderson is co-directing it himself (I dunno if i would want him to direct it himself because film-making and book-writing are very different talents)
Could you imagine what they would do to Mistborn and Stormlight Archives if they had their way and could shove Brandon out of the way.
For a long time, I thought Discworld would make an excellent Netflix series: each novel being a short season long, or something, especially if done in a lovingly drawn and animated style.
But nowadays, I don't want any producer going near it.
Agreed. Maybe he can’t direct, but he gets to have an airhorn in his hand at all times, and he blows it anytime someone tries to color outside the lines. If he doesn’t have 100% veto power, I don’t want it.
even with the author on set writers have show to be VERY stubborn . Sometimes those authors are so much in need of money that they just shut their mouth about how their world was butchered ( example : "The Witcher", "His dark materials, etc)
I have no respect for these modern writers as a whole , none , only for those who break out of that bubble .
Modern stories are too often boring. I think the modern writers lack real life experience and too much lean into meta post modern stuff they often do not understand to compensate for this.
Nicely put. Writers before fought in world wars and survived great depression (for example). Modern ones just complain on social media.
@@svetlanaandrasova6086 exactly. Now the story creators translate stories from other people who heard them from other people...or they write about twitter and how everything makes THEM feel.
I think part of the issue is that they’re less stories than they are sermons.
I think part of the issue is that they’re less stories than they are sermons.
@@YegRon Yes. You could have a good story with a character who spends most/all of his time delivering sermons. But a story with narrator that spews sermons at the reader is a big no no.
If only the writers could accept what you said. But they're too shallow and narcissistic. Very keen observation which is your superpower though you can be funny, always a plus.
"I am not Starfire"
"Turning Red"
"Luka"
Etc.
There's a massive swing of self insert writing in media over the last decade or so. Longer, in comics, but bear with me. Many have speculated that Rey is Kathleen Kennedy's self insert.
If the character struggles, its very surface level "i took a psych class in high school" stuff. Many look exactly like the creatives behind the media. It's all college level fanfic writing at best, but in franchises that they are not fans of. At least not enough to really make the piece make sense. They are "tourists" as the fandoms have begun calling them.
Is _Luca_ a self service project? Or is it just a reflection if boyhood, like half of Pixar?
@@realistic_delinquent The creator wanted to showcase his boyhood life. It's much more generically about children growing up than a specific instance. But, it was (via interview) stated to be a self referential to the creator's life.
@@GaioSamurai yeah, but Luca is literally one of the only Pixar films I like. Almost the entire rest of their oeuvre are these hollow, formulaic, emotionally-manipulative films about how things would act if they had feelings and souls (including feelings and souls).
@@CoryTheRaven I purposely threw it on the list because I wanted to show that the idea of self-insert or self-reference is not inherently bad. They can make good/entertaining products. It's just rare.
Don't forget Mind Kaling deciding that scooby doo is actually supposed to be about Mindy Kaling.
I don’t know if I’d say that art needs to be made for the audience. Look at Toilken. When he made his work it was for him. However I think the difference is that Toilken making it for himself was for the sake of the art. Not for the sake of the self. He respected the fact that the art was revealing itself to him. Thus it was part of himself, but he respected it as a story.
Well said.
Man, your Bridgerton observation that these characters have broad appeal because they are complex and so a lot of different people can identify with them, but then some idiot adaptor comes a long and narrows the character “down to one little category because that’s what appeals most to them” blew my mind, because it so neatly explains the fan disappointments with so many reboots. And, although I haven’t seen the show, when you’ve used it you’ve always set it up so the viewer gets your point. Nicely done.
The regular cast of “the echo chamberlain livestream, or echo chamber for brevity” livestream have rocketed to the top of my critic list. You, Echo, Despot, and Random are four of the creators I click on with the least hesitation.
Writers no longer care about entertaining. They care about portraying a "message". Having a lesson underneath a good story and characters is one thing, but having the lesson be the center of attention makes you feel like you are being lectured in a 2nd grade classroom. No one wants to pay hard earned money to be scolded under the guise of being entertained.
Entertainment is seen as lowbrow in this day and age. When I said I like visually exciting movies in a thread of people talking down to folks who want entertainment, someone told me I had "lowest common denominator energy". The self-professed intellectual is one of the more insufferable people in this age, more interested in talking about their genius than demonstrating it. Social media ruined writers in a lot of ways by separating them from their audience, leading them to think that their "superior mind" and their legion of yes-men are who they're writing for. They've been handed a microphone and choose to talk to themselves. It's idiotic.
congrats on the channel growth my guy.
I personally believe in writing selfishly, that’s what will motivate you to write a good story. The problem is when priorities start changing.
I would argue the best written stories ever were written as selfishly as possible, because that made them care for the story even more, and put more focus on the technical, and entertainment aspects of the story.
But when priorities change from the story itself being the main focus, into using a franchise or original IP into a medium to reinforce your own issues, identify, etc, to the point the story itself is not considered, then that’s a problem.
Adapting someone else's work is not the time for self-expression. If you want to express yourself, write your own stuff.
Subscribed! Thank you as a LOTR fan it physically hurts to see even an ad for ROP
In one of the many great interviews of film professionals on Film Courage, one of the working writers who began teaching said one of the biggest issues with new writers is getting one of their first few scripts and thinking something like “this should have been worked out in therapy, not on the page/screen”.
Omg...... this video encapsulates my opinions completely. Thank you your an angel!
I'm a writer, well-published under other names. Sci-Fi, fantasy and alt history. Authors and TV writers have different skill sets. TV writers learn their craft in writers rooms, taking direction, and executing single scenes. I, like other book authors, sit down and stare at a blank screen and then imagine entire world filled with perhaps dozens of characters. 'They' cannot do what 'we' can do. They don't world-build, and because they don't, they lack the ability to see how they are destroying the author's work. They're like early Celts and Angles, wandering through Roman buildings wondering how the Romans did it.
I'd say a good TV writer can imagine and write and world-build like a fiction writer. I've done both to various degrees. The ones who cannot, are obviously bad TV writers. Adapting a written source material for the visual medium requires understanding and ability to build around that understanding of the world, characters, and themes. Those getting the jobs are just children who think good writing is that one-liner for the trailer, and never go beyond superficial layers in anything. Bad writers 😔
@@niassera "I'd say a good TV writer can imagine and write and world-build like a fiction writer". Absolutely, in the best cases. But it's made harder by a system that allows a stream of outside voices to second guess and interfere in the process. When I write it's me and my laptop. I am free to ignore notes from my editor, (and usually do) but a TV (or movie) writer does not have that degree of independence. Hollywood's reliance on IP is evidence that something is wrong in their creative process.
@@michaelreynolds5773 I agree, you can't be true to your creation and vision in an environment where others have the last word. The issue is deep. I think it has more to do with the culture producing the entertainment. If relationships are superficial, if there's no professional respect, it shows just how silly people in charge think they are smart. And they probably hire equally silly people 'yes-men' to work for them. They don't take filmmaking seriously, it's "entertainment" and it has to look and sound like the last movie/series that had some success, never wondering why. Also the IP is never made/remade for the love of that IP. It's always about changing it. And they are proud about the changes they make. This is all so counter intuitive. But it does go back to a lack of respect. I have to go now. The subject depresses me 😅 Good comment!
Well Said
As a former aspiring writer myself, worldbuilding can be a challenging process cause add or change one detail and the entire work can potentially be shafted or thrown away. Ironically, it is these difficulties that help writers get better at making their world feel more than just a picture or a wall of text. And like you said, they lack the ability to see what destructive effects they have on a franchise ie Rings of Power, Acolyte, and The Witcher.
The sad thing is that a screen writer CAN improve the source material. For example, the movie The Mist, based on the Stephen King book, changed the ending and everyone like it better; even the writer himself said he was jealous that it did not occur to him.
It’s not made for you, it’s made in service to the revolution
Nah, very few of them care about that. The people with the money just want to minimise the risk, and for the 'creatives' it's far more about the fact that it's a Super convenient way to spin the project's failure as the falt of the audience rather than their own incompitence (and thus keep their jobs).
Selling Che Guevara t shirts isn't a revolution. It's just another round of profiting from a famous name while ignoring their values.
If what they're giving us is a "revolution", then it sucks.
In sales this called make it make sense (to them). I've noticed how series and films now are basically high budget therapy sessions and taken to watching older media.
The biggest problem for me in modern shows and movies is the lack of authenticity.
I want to imagine the world to be true world with some differences. But inserting modern issues into some timeless classic and turning the ethnical split of a feudal village into 2024 new york just pulls me out of the illusion.
Once Im pulled out, I dont care about the story. I care about characters if I can pretend that they are real people. Once that magic is broken I wont have any emotional connection left
I agree with your videos almost 100% of the time, but this one is especially on point! SO accurate and great examples!
Unrelated side note, I am also a huge Brandon Sanderson fan and Warbreaker is one of my favorite books of all time. My husband bought me the leather bound edition for my birthday and I love seeing your copy on the shelf in all your videos! :) Sanderson's fight for Perrin is an excellent example of some still fighting for the audience! I will actually be furious if some show ruins Mistborn!
what an excellent ending to the video. as someone that is in the transition of that awful thing called "maturing", I will take that one to heart.
Best explanation ever... "This movie is not for you"... coz it's for themselves...
Thank you for verbalizing this! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been left dissatisfied by adaptations written by people who think they can do better than the original authors and also fix “problematic” aspects of the story. The ego is sickening and now I don’t watch adaptations of ANYTHING until someone else reviews it as a good adaptation. Little Mermaid? Nope! WoT? Nope! IwtV? Nope! RoP? NOPE! They don’t want or need my money/time/energy and I don’t need their cringey “I know best” adaptations.
(I actually watched the live action Little Mermaid and it made me as depressed as the movie’s color gradient choices. Where was the vibrancy? The magic? Poor Bailey can sing her heart out, but the movie LOOKED dreadful. Dull colors and washed out tones are shameful when a movie is based in magical realism. And that whole “she can’t give her consent bc she doesn’t have a voice?” Do they not realize mutism is a real thing? The original movie made Ariel’s consent crystal clear!)
I’m in the same boat. Adaptations don’t get me excited anymore. In fact, I get nervous. How are they going to screw this one up?
I’m so glad I’m not alone on the colors in Little Mermaid. Oh my goodness, I’ve never seen such a bland, grey, unsaturated mess!
Greg, I really like how much thought you put into the topics of your videos. It's appreciated more than you will ever know.
Likewise, you honestly don’t know how much kind words like that are appreciated by me
I like your explanation about why those pieces of entertaining failed, and the reason makes sense
Sadly, this issue is not confined to big corporations, there are some YT creators whose videos I used to enjoy not long ago but, faster than usual, they have become quite flamboyant and/or preachy
Now I think is just like you said, they're not making content for their subscribers anymore but for themselves. It's quite annoying, and when someone point it out, they dismiss it as a necessity of current times which is quite funny since they despise the idea of "modern audience"
These are all great arguments. But there is one point I disagree with. A creator does its best work when it comes from a personal place. Sure, maybe it could make more money by being more relatable or giving people what they want, but art is harder to create art competently when it's not a personal investment as well. I think the important part is trying to find the best match between a project/ip and a director. You want to find the right person to deliver something more people will enjoy.
What I'm saying is I don't blame The Acolyte director directly, but whoever put her in that place. It's obviously a terrible match. It's like giving Romeo and Juliet to Tarantino! There are only two outcomes from this: either he'll make what people want to see and it will be a mediocre movie, or he makes something he would like to see, alienating the entire fan base of Romeo and Juliet.
Ones "personal place" is an accumulation of parts that mostly come from outside. Like you said, there needs to be a balance between the inner and outer world.
@@ApahtieParty Exactly. Like Greg himself mentioned, he doesn't just do this for him completely. He tries to entertain. But he does so by choosing a topic close and dear to him.
One piece is probably the best example of how to write companions for your main hero. Everyone is different, everyone is interesting and everyone has a place in the crew. Even in arcs where the plot isn't the best, the crew keeps the story interesting. And Nami and Robin is drawn extremely well...endowed.
The Acolyte was a terrible show and a very expensive therapy session for Blockhead.
I noticed this exact thing the other day when seeing that interview with the Acolyte director lady. She talked so much about how she wanted to make a character that her younger self could look up to. Apparently just being black and gay is enough because she also didn't to make the character actually likable or interesting like Lucas did with his characters.
It was no better than a mediocre fan fiction story but just given a Disney budget. I sure hope Disney sees how terrible these kinds of projects based purely on DEI are received and stop funding them.
I love that as you talked about how the resume of Payne & McKay were sorely lacking, TH-cam put up an ad for Grammarly. "Complex topics can be hard to explain. Let Grammarly help." So, that's what Payne & McKay need! Just a little help from Grammarly! 🤣🤣🤣
It's why a lot of these shows also have the self-insert. These writers and showrunners believe they are the paragons of virtue who need to tell the downtrodden they are the saviors they were wanting and needed. Yeah, the world doesn't care. We didn't want nor need these shows and movies because it's bastardizing the source material. It's why they usurp these IPs: their shows would fail.
Sooner or later, Hollywood will need to adapt. Failure to do so will result in its death. So far, Disney is willing to commit to their death because Bob Iger can't see the world from his now-tarnished Ivory tower.
I sure hope they wake up soon.
I haven’t looked into the details, but I’m seeing headlines that apparently Disney refused even a hint of lgbt themes in Inside Out 2. If that’s true, it’s a signal that they DO see what is and isn’t profitable, at least. It’s a start.
I am that,,, but the Difference is I'm not selfish, I'm selfless and I am great creative how do I know that? When you have thousands of people over the span of 29 years of life praise you for being perfect and saving them you want to continue and do even better and make everyone have that smile.
I’m writing a book right now, in part because I’m tired of complaining about bad stories when I’m perfectly capable of writing good stories. Do you think it’s “serving myself” to be writing a book that I would want to read because I think others would want to read it too? The book is for me in the sense that it hits on themes that matter to me, but it’s also for others in that I think those themes are worth exploring: heroism, sacrifice, complexity around how we wield knowledge, etc. I’m not really interested in writing something for a particular audience because that kind of pandering is creative kryptonite.
Writing what you would want to read is different than writing so you can see yourself in it.
The adaptations and IP fiascos of recent years are much more cases of the latter. Which is why "representation matters" is a terrible mantra for storytelling. Not because diversity is bad in and of itself, but it has taken the place of actual good storytelling.
One evidence that creators aren't interested in creating stories they'd want to watch or read is to look at the recent buzz from people who like the shows: it focuses on representation, creating fan theories around mystery boxes, and most prominently shipping characters. There's almost nothing about the actual story and storytelling techniques.
Write whatever your heart desires. I hope you're able to put your vision to words and I hope it's successful. Just don't bash people who don't want to read it.
@@socaliente2543 Thank you :)
Your intentions are right, positive and how the majority of creatives have fundamentally operated for a very, very long time. Serving yourself would be to intentionally target this only at yourself and your clique while looking down on anyone who dared disagree, usually while showing at best cursory, at worst disdainful, attention to craft. Your post does not indicate that you are serving yourself, rather it indicates you are trying to be part of the solution. All the best with your book :)
The best thing about Shogun was my wife and I both enjoyed it. She enjoys historical stories, I enjoyed the action and the characters. So many modern shows only cater for one of us, or more often neither of us.
Shogun, Dune, Mario Bros, and The Batman, are probably the best novel/video game/comic adaptions I can think of which came out recently. All of them paid huge respect to the source material and really didn't try to push themselves to the forefront like a jazz saxophonist trying to outshine the other band members live on stage. The differences are subtle, and really required just to make them work in that medium. I'm a big fan of the originals of all of these, so It's been heart warming to see that whilst Star Wars if mid intergalactic collision, at least some of our favourite franchises are being handled by professionals with class.
The only show I can think of off the top of my head which - although it doesn't elevate - at least does a good enough job to be respectable whilst being different is Ripley. The original movie was different, but not necessarily better. I think in this instance, it's kind of like how a girl can think you're cute or creepy depending on how good looking you are when you ask to buy them a drink. If the 'different' take on a classic story is really well executed with a high degree of quality, it's cute and we like it. If however, it's sloppily done, when a perfectly good trace drawing would have been sufficient, then it's creepy and please get away.
I would add Fallout to the list. It wasn't perfect, but it was plainly made with the audience in mind, appealing both to longtime players of the Fallout games and to people who had never even heard of them.
@@AretaicGames Totally, if i were to add more example, Fallout, Arcane, The Boys, Castlevania, X-Men 97, and the Sonic films would be up there too. The bad adaptions have been so unbelievably awful that it's easy to forget some of the amazing ones we've had.
@@Ridghost Indeed. On further thought, I would also add Cyberpunk: Edgerunners to the list. Like Fallout, it's not a direct adaptation of the game, but a new story set in the same world. It was so good that it changed the experience of playing Cyberpunk 2077 even for longtime players, and it also drew in many new players.
One Piece on Netflix was also a good adaption, despite changing a few things around when it came to character importance
You can say fallout is an entertaining show, but you can't say it's a good adaptation of the source material. The show is borderlands with ghouls and the BoS
They killed the opportunity to have a successful witcher series 😭
That's a massive pivot from JRR Martin who blasted Star Trek, and other IPs, fans for not liking whatever schlop was coming out because it was different from the original IP.
Personally, I think his original position was a product of seeing the headlines. Then he saw what was actually happening over the vast majority of fans instead and he realized his mistake.
I think he originally believed it was a "vocal minority." Then he saw the numbers.
@@GaioSamuraiJRR Martin doesn't read past the headlines?
@@obsidian3136 he's human, and he's busy not finishing his series.
@@GaioSamurai that's a fair assessment. Or simply believed the journalists who cry wolf constantly.
My guess is, considering his relationship with Tolkien, he tried out RoP after that comment and went "oh."
I think he just found himself in our shoes when stuff HE likes started getting the treatment ours gets.
I appreciate when creators praise good media while also entertainingly taking out the trash with the bad ones. Hopefully this era gives way to a better time where writers and show runners are chosen based on their skill, proven track record, and care for the material, and that only happens if we reward the few good examples of that now.
Whoa! Can i just thank you for the Ben Folds Five insert? Subbed!! Yes the rest of the video was good too.
Once again I'm gonna talk about how hard I work on my writing, creating world with clear rules, interesting, complex characters. I have notes on details, drawings as visual memos. I write with passion and yeah there are minor things taken from my experiences but they sertainly aren't inserts... I do not wanna have myself in the book
Excellent break down of a trend that leads to things feelings of things being off, but are hard to articulate. Keep up the great work
2022 was when I realized I needed to have much stricter standards for the entertainment I was consuming. I believe a huge part of your identity as a person is the standards you have for yourself. Only watch the movies and shows that make you a better person, or at least don't make you a worse one. Greg is spot on when he says that there is a lot of good entertainment out there, but it is hard to find. Since the bar is so low nowadays, it is that much more rewarding to watch a well-made show or movie. Start investigating what your taste in entertainment is, what you like and don't like, and start a list of those properties to watch later instead of next rat shit Disney plus show. When you get accused of being a bigot for not liking something, don't deny it, just say that you are not interested in the new show. You have better things to watch. Go out there, find something underrated and engaging that doesn't lecture you about race or gender :)
Love your video essays and sense of humour. I see that you got a plug for learning C# - I've been self-teaching programming for a few years now. It's been a real struggle to "Git Gud" as the Dark Souls community would say.
We as an audience get that showrunners and movie makers have to make changes to fit book on a screen, but current norm is to buy an IP, throw it in the trash and write their own story with "modern politics" or whatever they mean by that. We are living in the arms race of who can run an IP down the ground
Yes! Thank you! We need to get back to a slightly more impersonal standard of creating media. Be passionate about the art of creating itself, but if you make it all about you, you can never move past to make something other people will actually like.
You are a phenomenal script writer!!
Thank you very much!
Thank you for being the first person to state this!
The problem with modern entertainment is that the goal of it is to be neither modern nor entertaining. Hence why no modern audience exists to be entertained by it.
Loved that little bit at the end. Thanks