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Comic Strips
Film — Animated
I thought this was gonna be like Centipede! When did video games become so violent and scary?!
Film — Live-Action
Tex Richman: The Moopets are a hard, cynical act for a hard, cynical world.
Miss Poogy: You're relics, Muppets! The world has moved on, and no one cares about your goody-goody, hippy-dippy, Julie Andrews and Dom De Luise-hostin', singin-and-dancin act anymore! You're dead! And I just come to bury ya.
Miss Poogy: You're relics, Muppets! The world has moved on, and no one cares about your goody-goody, hippy-dippy, Julie Andrews and Dom De Luise-hostin', singin-and-dancin act anymore! You're dead! And I just come to bury ya.
Literature
"My own adventure turned out to be quite different."
—Frodo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings
Music
Sometimes I wish Roger Moore would come back!
With an underwater car or some kind of jetpack,
Or a hover-gondola and a Union Jack!
Forget it, mate, it's not The '80s
He'd rather kick you in the face
We've got a new Bond for the noughties
Because the worlds a TERRIBLE place!
With an underwater car or some kind of jetpack,
Or a hover-gondola and a Union Jack!
Forget it, mate, it's not The '80s
He'd rather kick you in the face
We've got a new Bond for the noughties
Because the worlds a TERRIBLE place!
— Joe Cornish, Quantum of Solace, the parody song
.
. Video Games
"We all come to a story with hopes and expectations, looking for an answer. Sometimes it would be better to live with that hope— without ever knowing the full story. In a horror story, there are only victims and monsters, and the trick is not to end up as either. But trapped by the genre, we are all ripped to pieces along the way. This is not the story I hoped it would be. This is not the ending I wanted. This story will eat us alive. This story is a monster. And monsters wear many faces..."
— Alan Wake, Alan Wake II
Webcomics
Max: Woo, lookit me! I'm gonna write me a superhero deconstruction!
Min: Never mind that we've been getting them for the last forty years, YOUR take is sure to blow my tits clean off!
Max: Like any good story, we start with the characters.
Min: I assume they'll all be fascist perverts.
Max: You bet your sloppy fat ass!
Min: Wow! Not at all derivative!
Max: And for the setting, it will be a world on the brink of some major war or social upheaval!
Min: One that is threatened by the presence of the Super Man?
Max: FUCK Nietzche [sic]! Now since our story is "realistic", we need to be as dour and crass as possible.
Min: We'll draw as much rape and gore and poo as we can. That means we're mature, unlike kiddy capeshit.
Max: Y'know, we could probably save time by just posting "superheroes are fucking gay" on social media.
Min: No, no, we want the readers to INFER that. We'll just dress all our characters in black. After all, you know what else has colors? THE PRIDE FLAG.
Min: Never mind that we've been getting them for the last forty years, YOUR take is sure to blow my tits clean off!
Max: Like any good story, we start with the characters.
Min: I assume they'll all be fascist perverts.
Max: You bet your sloppy fat ass!
Min: Wow! Not at all derivative!
Max: And for the setting, it will be a world on the brink of some major war or social upheaval!
Min: One that is threatened by the presence of the Super Man?
Max: FUCK Nietzche [sic]! Now since our story is "realistic", we need to be as dour and crass as possible.
Min: We'll draw as much rape and gore and poo as we can. That means we're mature, unlike kiddy capeshit.
Max: Y'know, we could probably save time by just posting "superheroes are fucking gay" on social media.
Min: No, no, we want the readers to INFER that. We'll just dress all our characters in black. After all, you know what else has colors? THE PRIDE FLAG.
Web Original
Hinting that the gritty new animated feature would close the book on a "beloved friend", a new Disney trailer on Monday teased the exit of a major character in the upcoming film Death at Pooh Corner''.
In a way, Zorin still feels ahead of his time...Zorin exists to demonstrate that the older, gentler era of Bond is over, and I think that it offers an in-universe explanation for the shift in Bonds between films. Zorin’s brutality led Roger Moore to decide not to return to the role, and I like to imagine he had a similar impact on Moore’s James Bond character. Timothy Dalton or Pierce Brosnan would not be as surprised by Zorin’s brutality. In fact, they seem like a response to the shift in cultural norms that it might represent.
I love that they use these sets which are usually the setting for fluffy action adventure tales and have dark and devious plots brewing in them...Thank goodness none of the TNG crew made a significant appearance on this show; I would hate to tarnish any of their bright, appealing images with some DS9 dirt.
—Joe Ford on "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"
on "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"Nintendo: We’d like to promote A Link to the Past to an American audience through a magazine called Nintendo Power. Do you think you could serialize a cute and silly comic, maybe in full color?
Shotaro Ishinomori: What if the monsters of the Dark World were not monsters at all, but people just like us? How can Link justify fighting them, lest he become a monster himself? Will he doom their world to save his own? No matter what he chooses, how can he spend the rest of his life knowing that such a terrible decision was placed into his hands by fate? How can Zelda live with knowing that she had no alternative but to drive her hero to violence? What choice would you have made, dear reader? What choice do any of us truly have?
Nintendo: We’re planning to release Twilight Princess on the Wii U, and preorder sales haven’t been great. Do you think you could adapt the game into a shonen manga with a lot of child characters, maybe like you did with Four Swords?
Akira Himekawa: If every Zelda is a reincarnation of the same person, then it stands to reason that the Zelda in Twilight Princess has inherited her memories from Ocarina of Time. She still loves the Hero of Time, who remains in a state of prolonged undeath so that he may continue to protect her. When his role is finished, Zelda must allow him to pass on, knowing that she can never see or touch him again. In the same way, the Hero of Twilight must allow Midna to return to her realm. Despite the hardships of their journey, Link and Midna have always come back to one another and even visited each other’s dreams, but now they must break their connection entirely. True wisdom and courage rest in the ability to deny your own desires and do what's right for the other person, even if this hurts worse than any injury received in battle.
Nintendo: So for Breath of the Wild… maybe we’ll stick with an official art book.
Shotaro Ishinomori: What if the monsters of the Dark World were not monsters at all, but people just like us? How can Link justify fighting them, lest he become a monster himself? Will he doom their world to save his own? No matter what he chooses, how can he spend the rest of his life knowing that such a terrible decision was placed into his hands by fate? How can Zelda live with knowing that she had no alternative but to drive her hero to violence? What choice would you have made, dear reader? What choice do any of us truly have?
Nintendo: We’re planning to release Twilight Princess on the Wii U, and preorder sales haven’t been great. Do you think you could adapt the game into a shonen manga with a lot of child characters, maybe like you did with Four Swords?
Akira Himekawa: If every Zelda is a reincarnation of the same person, then it stands to reason that the Zelda in Twilight Princess has inherited her memories from Ocarina of Time. She still loves the Hero of Time, who remains in a state of prolonged undeath so that he may continue to protect her. When his role is finished, Zelda must allow him to pass on, knowing that she can never see or touch him again. In the same way, the Hero of Twilight must allow Midna to return to her realm. Despite the hardships of their journey, Link and Midna have always come back to one another and even visited each other’s dreams, but now they must break their connection entirely. True wisdom and courage rest in the ability to deny your own desires and do what's right for the other person, even if this hurts worse than any injury received in battle.
Nintendo: So for Breath of the Wild… maybe we’ll stick with an official art book.
“Drew like a dark, fucked up version of the hamburger helper mascot haha. Just a glimpse into my dark reality. A full stare into my twisted perspective would make most simply go insane Imao”
— quote from this image
Web Video
"Oh, oh, let me tell you all the improvements Chica has made, ha! She really classed up her face by smudging dirt everywhere, and then Balloon Boy, God! Y'know, he was annoying before; now he graduated to TERRIFYING!"
"Now, we're only three minutes into this film, and we're introduced to a drug lord who beats up his girlfriend with a whip while the guy she was sleeping around with is screaming his lungs out in the background because Sanchez's men are about to cut out his heart. This ain't Moonraker, folks!"
"Everything's changed. It's been three years since Refrigerator-senpai killed Lamp-senpai, and left our village. My outfit is now black, because things are serious business now in Chairem Anime: Sofaden- We're grown-ups now!"
Writer: I was thinking we could take the animated movie and remove all the, you know, fun stuff.
Producer: Oh, that is different.
Writer: Yeah, just take all the joy out of it, see how that feels.
Producer: Very cool! So no more Mushu the Talking Dragon, I guess?
Writer: Nope, we're going to want this to be a whole lot more realistic. So no more Talking Animals, no more breaking out into song...
Producer: Nice.
Writer: Just grounded realistic stuff, like people defying gravity and a witch who turns into a bird...
Producer: ... what.
Writer: Yeah, and she has bird talons when she's in human form and she can turn into people and a thousand bats, and there's a CGI phoenix that shows up from time to time.
Producer: Kind of a lot of wacky fantastical elements there.
Writer: Yeah,but all the characters are gonna be somber so it's mature.
Producer: I guess that makes sense!
[...]
Writer: So then she's gonna go into training and meet some other soldiers...
Producer: Are they gonna have fun personalities like in the animation?
Writer: No, because that would be fun.
Producer: Right, my bad.
[...]
Writer: So that's about it. Whaddaya think?
Producer: Well, it sounds like a lot of f— no, doesn't sound fun.
Writer: Not gonna be a lot of fun, no sir.
Producer: Oh, that is different.
Writer: Yeah, just take all the joy out of it, see how that feels.
Producer: Very cool! So no more Mushu the Talking Dragon, I guess?
Writer: Nope, we're going to want this to be a whole lot more realistic. So no more Talking Animals, no more breaking out into song...
Producer: Nice.
Writer: Just grounded realistic stuff, like people defying gravity and a witch who turns into a bird...
Producer: ... what.
Writer: Yeah, and she has bird talons when she's in human form and she can turn into people and a thousand bats, and there's a CGI phoenix that shows up from time to time.
Producer: Kind of a lot of wacky fantastical elements there.
Writer: Yeah,but all the characters are gonna be somber so it's mature.
Producer: I guess that makes sense!
[...]
Writer: So then she's gonna go into training and meet some other soldiers...
Producer: Are they gonna have fun personalities like in the animation?
Writer: No, because that would be fun.
Producer: Right, my bad.
[...]
Writer: So that's about it. Whaddaya think?
Producer: Well, it sounds like a lot of f— no, doesn't sound fun.
Writer: Not gonna be a lot of fun, no sir.
— "Disney's Live-Action Mulan Pitch Meeting", Screen Rant Pitch Meetings
The funny thing about Romeo and Juliet is, before Mercutio dies (spoiler alert!), the play's a bog-standard Elizabethan romance. Two beautiful young people in love, comic relief side characters, hilariously unreasonable parents, even a couple of extra love interests for our two young heroes who will probably end up as paired spares in the end. But the fatal flaws don't let that happen. The reversal of fortune hits just before the mid point of the play, and every character quirk leading up to it is perfectly foreshadowed. Romeo's a die hard romantic who walks on clouds whenever he's in love, Mercutio is a prideful cynic with a very snarky attitude, and Tybalt is a hot-headed arrogant dickhead who represents all the dumbest parts of the familial feud. Act 3, scene 1 opens, and Romeo, walking on sunshine thanks to his secret marriage to Juliet, greets Tybalt in a very friendly way, which weirds out both Tybalt and Mercutio, who think he's being a wuss. Tybalt gets angry and challenges him, but obviously Romeo is too love-happy to fight his own new family, and then Mercutio gets mad at Romeo for backing down and draws to fight Tybalt instead. During the fight, Romeo intercedes to try and get them to stop, because of course he doesn't want anyone to fight, and that's when Tybalt stabs Mercutio, realises he might have goofed, and runs. Mercutio, ever theatrical, monologues all the way to his grave, and his friends don't seem to realize he's serious until he's actually dead. Yeah, the comic relief character dies! Holy shit, right? In modern Rom Com context, that'd be like if the asshole boss shot the Gay Best Friend halfway through the movie! Romeo curses his own Fatal Flaw for letting this happen — his love for Juliet prevented him from taking this seriously and allowed his best friend to die. When Tybalt returns, Romeo kills him, and with that turning point out of the way, it is officially all downhill from here.
— Overly Sarcastic Productions, "Trope Talk: Tragedy"
Four years in, and BIONICLE became so much more than anyone could've expected, but this is where the honeymoon phase ends. BIONICLE would continue to be great for years, but it was a different beast. It became less innocent, only growing more violent and edgy with each year, until you had characters with "gore" in their name expressing how much they love cutting people open and wearing their dripping guts like a scarf! (Today's letter is "V" for "vivisection"!) I'm exaggerating slightly. It was like anyone would just be dismembered at any moment, more like a guy might hit you with a mind control sphere and tell you to walk into lava, just to hear the amusing "pop" of your sizzling flesh! Or a guy made of microscopic bugs might hit you in the torso with his giant gold triple-pronged scissor blade, partially disassemble inside you, an let the little guys start gnawing on your organs! 2006 was hardcore! 2005 was still alright! (Cut to Roodaka ordering a platoon of Visorak to jump off a skyscraper)
Most Americans saw anime as just cartoons. Which is seen as just for kids. Which is bad for some reason. The solution to this was to market anime as something different than the cartoons we knew. Something exotic. Something that emphasized the sheer variety and maturity that the medium had to offer. Something with a lot of violence and nudity.
— Kyoto Video in his Wounded Man review.
