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The Unholy Dragon

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Posts posted by The Unholy Dragon

    The "Bill Cosby is a monster" thread.

    in MOVIES & TV

    Posted

    Vice wrote a really good article about how Cosby's stated and demonstrated sense of morality is perfectly in line with him being a serial raping piece of shit. Touches on some systemic issues as well. Worth reading in full. Spoiler tagging the relevant bit for length.
     

    http://www.vice.com/read/bill-cosbys-black-conservatism-aligns-perfectly-with-rape-culture-4567

     

    This is the problem with respectability politics, the ideology that suggests people can overcome their systemic oppression by improving their personal behavior. It puts the pressure on individuals to singlehandedly be so great that they defeat a system designed to subjugate millions. And if they fail at the impossible, then they just aren't good enough. It is, in essence, victim blaming.

     

    The other problem with respectability politics is if you genuinely believe that each individual must singlehandedly overcome their structural oppression, then you have zero incentive to stop the oppression in the first place. It's up to them to stop it. And if they can't, tough shit.

     

    This actually works out pretty well for the oppressor. And if the oppressor happens to be a member of an oppressed group, it makes for a particularly sinister intersection. The sentiment is something like, "I over came this oppression by being awesome, so I'm not sure what your problem is." This is at the core of why, when Cosby gave his "Pound Cake Speech," the NAACP crowd of Great Black Men Who Did Great Things, just applauded, stamped, and laughed. They didn't tell him to sit his Uncle Tom ass down and shut up for spouting off the rhetoric of a racist troll because in many cases their livelihoods are just as beholden to extolling mythic individualism as Cosby's.

     

    The pernicious concept behind oppression being the oppressed's problem also aligns Cosby's politics of respectability with the "she was asking for it" element of rape culture. In thinking about this connection, I couldn't help recalling a bit I heard Cosby do in the 1986 standup recording "Those of You with or Without Children, You'll Understand." In explaining why he doesn't need to talk to his son the same way he does his daughters about birth control, he theorizes, "It's the female's job to protect herself. It's like a goalie... you have to keep people from scoring on you." The audience groans, Cosby's wife sets him straight, and eventually he talks to his boy. It's played for laughs. But in light of his rape allegations, it's chilling. He couldn't have made it any plainer. A woman must protect herself. A man has no obligation to control his behavior. As gross as the bit is, just like the NAACP speech, you can hear men and women in that audience cheering for him on the recording. They probably stood up and asked for an encore.

     

    I honestly think he doesn't believe he's done anything wrong. And that's fucked up.

    • Like 1

    The Batman: Arkham series.

    in COMPUTERS & GAMES & TECH

    Posted

    Basically done. Got up to the point where I need to track down all the riddles to finish and just watched the ending on Youtube.

    Deathstroke was disappointing but I loved the final story stretch. The immersive storytelling bits have always been among the best stuff in the series and the Joker ending was a better one than Arkham City. That said, there really wasn't a need for Batman to reveal his identity beyond adding gravitas and even the full ending just feels abrupt and vague. Also the payoff for Jason Todd was SUPER weak. Hoping the DLC expands a bit more.

    So yeah, still a lot of fun stuff but easily the least of the series, I think.

    DC MOVIE THREAD

    in "COMIC BOOK" MOVIES & TV

    Posted

    I still don't think either character they are playing should even be in the film.

    Harley has been a member though.

    I know, and it was terrible. To be fair it was probably more crappy writing than anything else, but the changes done to her there make me worried about Harley in any team setting that isn't Secret Six.

    It's because she's basically bulletproof. Chris Sims did an article recently discussing what made the original Suicide Squad great and a big part was that it was a mix of C and D-list characters you could buy dying. It kept the drama high especially as the writing was good enough to make you care about their survival.

    When they add Harley and Joker and these mainstream characters, it gives you a sense of who's 'safe' which telegraphs the 'shock' deaths and undercuts that facet of the concept.

    That said, for a movie like this, having the Joker as a hook can't hurt.

    The All Things HORROR thread~!

    in MOVIES & TV

    Posted

    I mean, give it a better ending and remove the "Cut away for implicit horror only to then retell from different device to show what was implied" then I think it could have been okay. It would still have issues with building scares over more than two minutes but yeah.

    The ending is one of the worst I can think of recently. At first it's just disappointing. Then the scene jump epilogue happens. Awful.

    I can't express enough how improved it would be just by

    Having the noose prop correctly this time, Charlie is satisfied with the redux and since neither directly offended him he lets them go and they do romance things. It would have fit the overall narrative fine and felt satisfying instead of that horrible 'clever' twist I saw coming and dreaded in the first act.

    I don't even GET the trying-too-hard Paranormal Activity knockoff at the end. Like....are they shooting for sequel potential? Because that'd also work easier if the concept was played straight given they added the urban legend quality to his name.

    I dunno. Like Chernobyl Diaries it's a movie I could see the potential of and enjoyed a lot of parts while feeling the whole was a messy turdburger. And like Chernobyl Diaries, a lot of that would be fixed with a better third act.

    • Like 1

    Non-Big Two Comics Omnibus Thread

    in READING & WRITING

    Posted

    Gisele Lagace has a really identifiable face style and it throws me off when I've been reading Menage a 3 or Sticky Dilly Buns for a while then see her Archie work again.

    What I'm saying is that it makes me think of the Archie cast in a hardcore sex comedy and that's both weird and would probably actually work.

    DC Comics omnibus thread

    in READING & WRITING

    Posted

    Superman by Landis sounds good. The Neal Adams series has a lot of crazy to live up to but I'll check it out.

    The post-Convergence titles are...interesting. Titans Hunt especially.

    But the real thing is the added details about DK3. Oversized slipcased hardcovers with 16 page smaller insert comics set in the universe? Even the format is weird and I need to check it out.

    The Batman: Arkham series.

    in COMPUTERS & GAMES & TECH

    Posted

    Honestly the biggest reason I keep at the riddles is wanting to punch out Riddler. So noted, if I can do that after I may go with the basic ending and google the 'true' ending later.

    Also the one where you have to shoot targets with the Batmobile cannon is completely infuriating. When they all light up there's no way to track and shoot fast enough.

    • Like 1

    Non-Big Two Comics Omnibus Thread

    in READING & WRITING

    Posted

    Dark Horse is not only rereleasing Lone Wolf and Cub, they're also a few volumes into the new series.

    And the thing you have to realize is that the vast majority of US comics readers find either black and white comics or especially anthologies to be a hard sell. Also that telling a story 8-10 pages at a time poses its own artistic challenges.

    It's not a perfect system but it works in that commercial environment.

    Then again, I'm also not sure by what metric the North American comics industry is floundering. In many ways it seems stronger than it's been since the speculator market went bust.

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