a problem with dystopian fiction: if the main characters don't fight the system, then they're complicit & the story doesn't work. if they defeat the system, the system feels nonthreatening & the story doesn't work. if they're defeated by the system, the story doesn't work at all.
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this is why the matrix shouldn't have had sequels: the system is defeated because the main character becomes son goku - there's still a victory and the system feels threatening. but the cost was making the main character so OP that he can fly now.
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this is also why the handmaids tale feels like an idle game. every time June defeats the system, for some contrived reason or by her own will, just as she's about to escape, she's somehow recaptured. in the next season she'll have to re-defeat it again, but also fight harder.
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this is also why the third act of 1984 (the book) feels so dull. at some point the main character is so powerless that, chapter after chapter, he's just strapped to a bed listening to his evil captors' unending monologues about how evil they are and how proud they are to be evil.
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this is also why cyberpunk videogames like 2077 or deus ex usually don't work narratively. deus ex mankind divided, for ex, wanted to be an apartheid metaphor, where cyborgs are systematically oppressed - but has a main character who's a state-funded cyborg super-spy-cop.
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Replying to @l1x1v1a
I don't think you'll ever get a real cyberpunk game out of a AAA studio.
Cyber, maybe. Punk? Not while the corp is in charge.1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @gamesbymanuel
why wouldn't DC comics sell Watchmen? to this day, this the-super-hero-genre-only-appeals-to-sexually-repressed-psychos comic is still an incredibly profitable superhero IP.
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Replying to @l1x1v1a @gamesbymanuel
not only that, Watchmen has been imitated ad nauseam, especially now in the post-Marvel era - and I wouldn't be surprised if Disney decided to create their own version of The Boys.
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Replying to @l1x1v1a @gamesbymanuel
my point is: corporations will shamelessly sell anything, even stuff that mocks them and / or their shamelessness.
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Absolutely. I think nothing makes it clearer than the insincere rainbow logos/merchandise during Pride Month.
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