History Awesome / OverlySarcasticProductions

* In her talk about the PinocchioPlot, Red points out that ironically, such stories are more compelling when the inhuman protagonist '''''[[NotHisSled doesn't]]''''' become human. Making the inhuman protagonist turn human seems to give the shallow implication that looking human is all that defines humanity, not to mention it gives the wrong message that [[BrokenAesop it's better to be like everybody else]]. By subverting that, the story becomes much more compelling for it, because it asks the audience this burning question: ''what'' is the definition of "human"?

* In the [[DealWithTheDevil Faustian Bargain]] talk, Red takes a section to discuss [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu characters who outsmart the devil]]. The example used is [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Madoka gaming the system and beating Kyubey at his own game]].

* '''"The Trojan War"'''! The entirety of it feels like a reboot of Red's video on the Illiad, one with richer illustrations, more in-depth lore (such as how Odysseus was strong-armed to go to war) and a deeper look into the different variations it was told.

** Penthesillia, being an Amazonian demigoddess princess of Ares who's so stalwart and brave that she's the original girl-power trope who inspired the on-looking women on the war.
*** On that note, when Achilles kills Penthesillia amidst the war, he can't help but fall in love with her beauty and feel really bad about the life they could've lead under different circumstances. What does he do when Thersites starts to [[KickTheDog mock and taunt him for being "girly"]]? Give him a OffHandBackhand '''so hard''', it likely bashes in his brains and kills him.

** Paris's ''humiliating'' death by Philoctetes' poison arrows, one of which hits him in the member. But the bad day gets worse when he tries to plead to the nympth Oenone, his [[WhamLine real wife]], to heal him. Her next line sums up that Hell indeed has no fury like a woman scorned, as she gives him a sick burn that possibly hurt almost as badly as the poison.

** The legal system at the time, administered by the Allthing, is generally depicted as a very ReasonableAuthorityFigure, in contrast to most legal authorities in the myths Red recounts. They make Grettir an outlaw and exile twice, but never without just cause, and even refuse to outlaw him for more than 20 years, having set it as a legal limit on exiles. Having Grettir exiled in absentia was, according to Red, considered fairly inapproriate, as it didn't give him the chance to defend himself. Even Red notes that the Wergild system is, while morbid, very pragmatic.

-->'''Red:''' Hope is the ultimate motivator. On some level, it's the ''only'' motivator. If it seems like I have personal beef with Grimdark as a genre, it's only the same beef I have with ''everything'' that [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids treats hope like a dumb childish concept rather than the fundamental core of human experience]]. Hope makes us ''believe'' things can be better. Once we stop believing that, we ''stop trying'' to make things better--and guess what? Then things ''don't'' get better! Pessimisstic nihilism is the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy, and maybe it's the 2020 talking but ''man'' I have straight-up run out of patience with people who give up on a better world and then have the ''audacity'' to tell other people that they're naive or stupid for still trying.

*** The second one is {{ComicBook/Invincible}}, which they note has a very clever twist to the seemingly surface-level appearence of the SupermanSubstitute - Omni-Man ''isn't'' the Superman substitute in this scenario, he's Jor-El, and Mark/Invincible is Clark/Superman, not necessarily because he's as physically invincible as his namesake implies (he's far from it), but because he has Superman's unbreakable will and moral code.

* The performance of Shakespeare's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdxePMF2zkM Julius Ceasar]] features Noir speaking all of Ceasar's lines in ''fluent Latin''. Sure, it's hilarious when he says the only Latin line in English, but his performance delights Blue so much that he remarks "I've died before I've even said a singe line".

* A meta-example from the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRCt8mCtXdo Ancient Greek Post-Apocalypse video]]. One of the comments mentions attending Harvard University and taking a course on [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Classical Mythology]], with the professor being "one of the forerunners of Classical studies in the world." According to them, said professor has added the channel's videos of the Illiad, the Odyssey, and the Aneid to their syllabus. Furthermore, OSP is apparently the ''only channel in all of [[Website/YouTube YouTube]]'' provided by Harvard that has been approved for accuracy and entertainment, and the syllabus is constantly updated to accommodate more of their videos. If that doesn't speak volume to the quality and care Red and Blue put into their videos, nothing will.

* A meta-example from the Ancient Greek Post-Apocalypse video. One of the comments mentions attending Harvard University and taking a course on [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Classical Mythology]], with the professor being "one of the forerunners of Classical studies in the world." According to them, said professor has added the channel's videos of the Illiad, the Odyssey, and the Aneid to their syllabus. Furthermore, OSP is apparently the ''only channel in all of [[Website/YouTube YouTube]]'' provided by Harvard that has been approved for accuracy and entertainment, and the syllabus is constantly updated to accommodate more of their videos. If that doesn't speak volume to the quality and care Red and Blue put into their videos, nothing will.

** Two of the three given examples are from Creator/AlanMoore, who they note fundamentally understands Superman. Red and Blue argue that Moore is a really good writer whose work is [[MisaimedFandom catastrophically misunderstood by less skilled writers who tend to only see the surface-level cynical aspects of his work]] . The hosts say that this is especially true of {{ComicBook/Watchmen}}, making the case that ''Watchmen'' isn't a story about an apathetic version of Superman (in the form of Dr. Manhattan, who they note is actually an {{Expy}} of Captain Atom, not Superman), but rather a world without Superman as an inspiration and a bar for heroes to strive to clear. Thus, without Superman as the correcting influence who is always the moral standard and is always self-sacrificing to do the right thing, the heroes break over time.

** They basically end the diatribe with a KirkSummation that [[SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers caring is a genuinely good thing and the world isn't and shouldn't just be bad and miserable, and we always should be striving for a better world and to hold bad actors accountable, because to give into cynicism and not do anything about bad things is cause a]] SelfFulfillingProphecy to happen. They argue that, if anything, in the 2020s, we need TheParagon character of Superman ''now more than ever before'' to remind us of this fact.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_50968MO0PU "Satirizing Superman"]] basically is an amazing hour and a half long analysis of Superman from his very origins as a character, and generally what makes him tick and his role both inside his stories and as part of the greater meta-versal superhero ecosystem, along with the best examples of {{ComicBook/Superman}} at his finest - specifically, ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow, WesternAnimation/SupermanVsTheElite (aka ComicBook/WhatsSoFunnyAboutTruthJusticeAndTheAmericanWay) and ComicBook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything (and its WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited [[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E2ForTheManWhoHasEverything adaptation]]).
** Two of the three given examples are from Creator/AlanMoore, who they note ''fundamentally understands Superman'' and they note that Moore is basically a really good writer whose work is ''so catastrophically systemically and chronically misunderstood'' by less skilled writers who tend to only see the surface-level cynical aspects of his work and completely misunderstand it, ''especially'' {{ComicBook/Watchmen}}, making the case that ''Watchmen'' isn't a story partly about an apathetic version of Superman (in the form of Dr. Manhattan, who they note is actually an {{Expy}} of ''Captain Atom'', not Superman) but rather ''a world without Superman as an inspiration and a bar for heroes to strive to clear'', and without that correcting influence who is always the moral standard and is always self-sacrificing to do the right thing, the heroes break over time.
** Their counterpoint to "how can Superman see people as anything other than insects?" is to point to ''"For the Man Who Has Everything"'' and highlight that even in a dream world with people ''he knows literally are not real'', he ''still acts with heartbreaking compassion and humanity''. And his true wish is to live a normal, happy live with a family of his own, even without superpowers.

** And lastly, ''"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"'' demonstrates that Superman ultimately holds ''himself'' accountable for his actions, because if he doesn't, who else will? Which is why in the end when he kills Mxyzptlk, he uses Gold Kryptonite to depower himself, despite the fact that he had ''absolutely no choice otherwise but to take the life of an immortal fifth-dimensional being who just announced he'll spend the next two-thousand years being evil''. They also again highlight (along with the above ''Justice League Unlimited'' episode and the episode "Comfort and Joy") that it's proof that ultimately Superman is the mask that Clark Kent wears, not the other way around, and that Clark doesn't see himself as a god above other people, but instead is a good old country boy from Kansas [[IJustWantToBeNormal who just wants to live a normal life]] and is just doing the right thing, and uses Superman as his "customer service voice".

** They highlight that deconstructions/satirizations do deserve to exist and not everyone can or should like everything, but at the same time the ones that aren't merely a ShallowParody are from people who genuinely ''understand'' how Superman works.
*** The first good example they cite is {{ComicBook/Irredeemable}}, with Red highlighting that it isn't a shallow parody, instead exploring a Superman-esque figure who started out wrong from the outset and never got the proper care growing up like Clark did with the Kents, and how the Plutonian simply did not have the psychological fortitude to handle his super senses and be able to take criticism.
*** The second one is {{ComicBook/Invincible}}, which they note has a very clever twist to the seemingly surface-level appearence of the SupermanSubstitute - Omni-Man ''isn't'' the Superman substitute in this scenario, he's ''Jor-El'', and ''Mark/Invincible is Clark/Superman'', not necessarily because he's as physically invincible as his namesake implies (he's far from it) but in reality he has Superman's unbreakable will and moral code.
** Superman's metatextural role as the character for all heroes to aspire to be, in and out of the DC universe, is also partly why they believe the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse was floundering for a good while - there's not as much ''contrast'' between the heroic characters, and a miserable, darker and edgier Superman doesn't fill the role of TheParagon to compare and contrast with other darker and more cynical characters. Without that paragon to compare and contrast to and for other characters to bounce off of and interact with, everyone is much less interesting. Superman and Batman's OddFriendship works precisely because of this contrast. Red also highlights that she doesn't think Creator/ZackSnyder should be doing superhero movies and especially not Superman, because the man has admitted ''he doesn't like comic books unless people are having sex and killing each other all the time'' and that he simply doesn't ''get'' what Superman is about because he's too cynical to understand.

** Red gives a rhetorical '''[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech demolishing]]''' of Heinrich Kramer, author of the ''Literature/MalleusMaleficarum'', by revealing his actual reasons for making it. Effectively, Kramer wrote an angry hateblog aimed at a woman named Helena Scheuberin who dared to wound his ego in 1485 by calling Kramer a terrible preacher. As a result, Kramer tried to have Scheuberin and six other women [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake under the pretense that they were witches]], but it was actually because they didn't want to go to his sermons and Kramer's pride was hurt. Even the judge from the Spanish Inquisition who presided over the case [[EveryoneHasStandards told Kramer he was paranoid and making claims that were obviously false]]. Eventually, even the Inquisition got sick of Kramer and exiled him. The whole time, Red is painting Kramer as nothing more than a pathetic little bully who started a fearmongering against all women to salvage his injured pride.

** In her video on werewolves, Red gives an utter rhetorical '''[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech demolishing]]''' of Heinrich Kramer, author of the ''Literature/MalleusMaleficarum'', by revealing his actual reasons for making it. Effectively, Kramer wrote an angry hateblog aimed at a woman named Helena Scheuberin who dared to wound his ego in 1485 by calling Kramer a terrible preacher. As a result, Kramer tried to have Scheuberin and six other women [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake under the pretense that they were witches]], but it was actually because they didn't want to go to his sermons and Kramer's pride was hurt. Even the judge from the Spanish Inquisition who presided over the case [[EveryoneHasStandards told Kramer he was paranoid and making claims that were obviously false]]. Eventually, even the Inquisition got sick of Kramer and exiled him. The whole time, Red is painting Kramer as nothing more than a pathetic little bully who started a fearmongering against all women to salvage his injured pride.

** The utter rhetorical '''[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech demolishing]]''' of Heinrich Kramer, author of the ''Literature/MalleusMaleficarum'', by revealing his actual reasons for making it. Effectively, Kramer wrote an angry hateblog aimed at a woman who dared to wound his ego by calling Kramer a terrible preacher. And after he tried to have her burned at the stake, the Inquisition itself [[EveryoneHasStandards told him he was paranoid]]. Eventually, even the Inquisition got sick of Kramer and exiled him. The whole time, Red is painting Kramer as nothing more than a pathetic little bully who started a fearmongering against all women to salvage his injured pride.

[[folder: Miscellaneous Myths]]

[[folder: Red and Blue talking at incredible speeds]]

** It must be said, however, that Blue had to artificially speed up his speech as evidenced by the audio artifacting scattered throughout the video, meaning he didn't actually speak quite that fast. Red's rendition of the ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}'' has no such artifacting caused by artificially speeding it up.

[[folder: Detail Diatribe]]

** The utter rhetorical '''[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech demolishing]]''' of Heinrich Kramer, author of the ''Literature/MalleusMaleficarum'', by revealing his ''actual'' reasons for making it - effectively an angry hateblog aimed at a woman who dared to wound his ego by pointing out he was a ''terrible'' preacher, and after he tried to have her burned at the stake, the Inquisition itself ''[[EveryoneHasStandards told him he was a paranoid]]'', eventually outright exiling him as a frankly ''pathetic'' little bully who did nothing except fearmonger to salve his injured pride.

*** Becomes rather poignant later on in a live tweet thread of ''Zack Snyder's Justice League'', in which the considerably more idealistic film is received rather warmly by Red and stands in sharp contrast to its much darker predecessors. Particularly in its portrayal of Superman as being far more gentle, optimistic and generally the [[HopeBringer uplifting hero he's meant to be]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_50968MO0PU "Satarizing Superman"]] basically is an amazing hour and a half long analysis of Superman from his very origins as a character, and generally what makes him tick and his role both inside his stories and as part of the greater meta-versal superhero ecosystem, along with the best examples of {{ComicBook/Superman}} at his finest - specifically, ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow, WesternAnimation/SupermanVsTheElite (aka ComicBook/WhatsSoFunnyAboutTruthJusticeAndTheAmericanWay) and ComicBook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything (and its WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited [[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E2ForTheManWhoHasEverything adaptation]]).

** At the same time, Red does not shy away from portraying Hades as something ''other'' than a flawed character, as he ''did'' trick Persephone into eating those pomegranate seeds out of fear he'd never see her again. The other Greek Gods already get more than enough glossing over, and she's not about to start with Hades.

** The legal system at the time, administered by the Allthing, is generally depicted as a very ReasonableAuthorityFigure, in contrast to most legal authorities in the myths Red recounts. They make Grettir an outlaw and exile twice, but never without just cause, and even refuse to outlaw him for more than 20 years, having set it as a legal limit on exiles. Even Red notes that the Wergild system is, while morbid, very pragmatic.

** The utter rhetorical '''[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech demolishing]]''' of Heinrich Kramer, author of the ''Literature/MalleusMaleficarum'', by revealing his ''actual'' reasons for making it - effectively an angry hateblog aimed at a woman who dared to wound his ego by pointing out he was a ''terrible'' preacher, and after he tried to burn her at the stake, the Inquisition itself ''[[EveryoneHasStandards told him he was a paranoid,]]'' eventually outright exiling him as a frankly ''pathetic'' little bully who did nothing except fearmonger to salve his injured pride.