How do the dominant cultural narratives in art and mass media affect our politics?

I can see....

In general, this s because light novels are pretty much japanise fan fiction, (which it kinda explain chararter like Kirito actually), and fan fiction in general is very, VERY indulgent.

Is one of those element that need to be cut when translating to a public work.

I wonder if that trend (Isekai in general, not the slave harem bit) is related to Sword Art Online?

guess unknowing provided the answer.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Aug 9th 2018 at 1:21:42 AM

For what I see in the trope of Standar Light novel protagonist, indeed more of it are following the leader of SAO who is ineed the mold for such chararters.

That said, i kinda think part of SAO and Light Novel the subgenre, seems to stem from other harem works (I know Negima had some of its cast travel to another world), and the first two Yugioh series did dabble with Trapped in Another World plots before they became the avenue of male power fantasies (And before they decided to follow SAO in a different manor)

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Aug 9th 2018 at 1:33:34 AM

More than that; most isekai LN start out as webnovels (which are maybe two steps removed from fan fiction) before becoming officially published. The trend of isekai webnovels so bad, that the most famous Japanese site hosting them issued a ban on isekai stories from their writing contests.

Ona related note Do you think the Stock Light-Novel Hero is an opposite to Stock Shōnen Hero, it seems to be heading that way (to the point where the former page claims they be the Stock Shōnen Rival if the story wasn't about them).

More relevant to , that kinda reminds me of 50 Shades, more to the point It has me wondering if isekai stories were actually meant to be akin to or actually be self-insert fics.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Aug 9th 2018 at 1:48:44 AM

@Morning

Depending of the LN Hero. Someone as Tatsuya Shiba from Mahouka? Oh yeah, he had everything to be The Rival.

Others as Kirito or Bell would either keep being The Hero or become The Lancer. The Kirito of the manga adapation of the reboot is a living proof that the differences between Shonen and LN heroes come mainly from the medium rather than the author doing a conscious choice.

Pretty much. and yes, one could said that Light novel protagonist are the shonen rival but with their own series.

And I kinda think the compaction with 50 shade and twilight is add since in general a lot of light novel are kinda self insert fan fiction in general.

That wasn't a retcon. It was based on something that had been revealed in the original X-Men stories as written by Stan and Jack.

Right except do you really expect anyone to support democracy and secularism in a medieval world that has no example of such?

I'm no fan of theocratic organizations but when your society has no social safety net and the aforementioned religious organization is what cares for the poor then it makes sense that characters might be willing to defend it.

Furthermore of course they'll defend authoritarianism when the world has no democratic option, if anything the closest thing to a republican state would be the Qun and that's hardly liberal or democratic in the slightest.

I don't really see how Dragon Age is very "both sides are bad", sure it's not pure Black vs White but that's hardly the same thing.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Aug 9th 2018 at 8:42:23 AM

Yeah. Gritty Medieval settings are prone to Black-and-Grey Morality. Western democracy is non existent so people will go for their favorite ruler.

Said this. There any cases where it ends with something as a constitutional monarchy? Showing that yeah, democracy is likely to appear in the future and thus it was worth it?

Edited by KazuyaProta on Aug 9th 2018 at 8:24:43 AM

I'm confused at where it's pro-Authoritarianism.

Yes, there's a King but Fereldan has a Parliament (the Landsmeet).

You also meet a Orlais woman who explains Fereldan has Rights for Commoners that don't exist in Orlais.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Aug 9th 2018 at 6:23:39 AM

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince the world he did not exist."

I never truly understood that phrase until I started arguing with people utterly convinced that racism and sexism are historical footnotes that we solved long ago.

Honestly one thing I've always loved about Dragon Age is that it's a "dark" medieval setting that actually has women doing stuff and isn't full of slurs. Like I get that historically women were disenfranchised but if we're talking about a magic world with a different history does it really need to be identical to our own?

It just seems like a lazy way to shoehorn female characters while making the past seem actively worse then what it actually was.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Aug 9th 2018 at 9:22:44 AM

The Dung Ages is a trope that really causes issues. The fact that it's fans claim that is historically """"accurate"""" is just ridiculous and annoying (it was a harsh world compared to ours? Oh yeah. It was sheer hell where woman were raped all the time and males were killed for knighs all time too? Uh...not?)

And of course, the best thing about it is stuff as...

Dragons? Fine. Elves? Fine (but fuck them for being unmanly), Dark elves that look like pretty brown skinned people? Hell yes.

Actual non-whites?

Hey what about historical accurace!!!!! You fucking SJW!

(There was non white people in the European Middle Ages, not a lot and not happy, but they existed).

As a joke said. A lot of white racists seem to believe that non white people just popped out in 1600. And fantasy is not helping.

Edited by KazuyaProta on Aug 9th 2018 at 8:31:37 AM

I'm not talking about the political outlook of the characters, but the political outlook of the writers, which are broadly socially progressive (being quite LGBT friendly), but politically conservative — portraying Orlais, the Chantry, the Templars, and to a large extent, the Qunari in a more-or-less uncritically positive way. You can't, for example, break away several countries from Chantry authority and form a heterodox Protestant-style counter-church, for example, or institute Caesaropapist policy. No, the Chantry sitting in Orlais must have unchallenged ecclesiastical authority. You can't seriously harm Orlais ever and do a lot to stabilize the country while party members marvel at their oozing, decadent culture. And the Templars are typically supported in the narrative by undermining their critics — you never have an altogether moral mage opposing them wholeheartedly, it's a terrorist like Anders, a blood mage, etc. Like, Vivienne, for example, is a hidebound reactionary, but you can never really call her out and she is portrayed in a sincerely positive manner, while her opposite numbers in the Mage Rebellion get duped into indentured servitude to the Venatori.

The political outlook of a narrative work is as much about plotting and the positioning of characters as it is about stated themes. I mean, of the three, DAO is probably the most progressive in that it doesn't have the explicitly anti-revolutionary outlook of DA 2 or the explicit uphold-the-Man conservatism of DAI.

Edited by CrimsonZephyr on Aug 9th 2018 at 9:43:41 AM

Honestly. I'm willing to accept a lot of stuff if they're fine with stuff as LGTB+ and non white people.

Like. That's the only thing that I care before calling someone "Reactionary", especially when they're writing stories set in fantasy middle-ages.

Also. There something bad in being anti Revolutionary?.

Edited by KazuyaProta on Aug 9th 2018 at 8:48:09 AM

No. Then again, most of the revolutionaries here were Communists and Soviet sympathisers, so it would depend on who you're fighting against.

That's why I'm extremely annoyed at the idea of Social Progressivism. Is basically lumping Socialist and Liberalist ideas with even the most personal aspects of basic human decency while also acting like open bigotry is somehow a genuine political idea. Right Wing intellectuals genuinely dislike it because to well, they not being open bigots.

The social axis was a mistake.

/vent-that-Kazuya-always-does-with-Leftists-despite-agreeing-with-them

Edited by KazuyaProta on Aug 9th 2018 at 8:55:29 AM

Pretty much every freedom and liberty we enjoy in our own lives is the product of one, either to put them on the books or make them more than dead letter. You also can't get a lot of substantive social progress without them, since the destabilization they bring creates a process of creative destruction — since no one can really feel comfortable or safe anymore, the impetus for new ideas is much greater.

You can only go so far with evolutionary change, rather than revolutionary change, if the central assumptions underpinning the polis are just plain bad.

creating a protestant like church? and create years of religious wars that go on and on? because that was quite what it happen actually.

Furthermore the entire point of the Inquisition is to stop the breach, destroying Orlais or starting a religious schism seems rather counterproductive to achieving those goals.

They want stability and those things aren't exactly stable behavior.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Aug 9th 2018 at 10:34:23 AM

They didn't have to make a game about stabilizing the idiotic, lazy, corrupt institutions that southern Thedas built, though. That's my point: by making a game about preserving a fundamentally worthless society, they're delivering a parting shot in favor of conservative ideology.

I agree that it's always bothered me when people try to use "historical accuracy" to defend keeping women and minorities in the dirt in medieval settings and meanwhile there are dragons running around.

Why are dragons more believable than civil rights?

Because, too put it bluntly, cvil right are too real and more complicated than a damn dragon.

I mean, in general it create a sense of "women and minorities does the same thing here in this mediaval setting, but aside, everything is the same"

which it give the question "then why using a mediaval setting at all?"