Topic: Other Unpopular Opinions (tech and non-gaming media) v2

When things try to get better, they just get worse.

It's one the opinions/sayings that I've formed over my years on the world wide web.

Can't look up to anyone nowadays because of the possibility that they're a bad person, and we don't know that yet.

For every consumer 'win' there always seems to be 2 anti-consumer choices to make up for that.

And politics ( especially in the U.S where I live) has been absolutely crazy for the past few years.

Despite all this, I still have some hope that things will get better..
But it's fading fast.

@Pastellioli Nice to see someone who gets it. I love the arts and crafts aesthetic too. When I was a kid, I use to use felt a lot for crafts, similar to the materials used for the scrapbook scenes. Plus the detail is there in other Trolls things. That Trolls event I went to where I met Poppy, even Poppy was fuzzy upon hugging her (Universal really put the detail in her). It's kinda like the Yoshi games now that I think about it.

I have to agree with that. It's like the standard for animated movies are so high, even though other animated movies are fine. I've like other movies by DreamWorks too, not just Trolls. Even saw Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken and Puss In Boots The Last Wish in theaters too. I even like Spirit Untamed, consider it underrated too (guess that counts as an unpopular opinion too, lol). Thanks, I don't go there anymore because of it. Shame too, since I was hoping to meet some Trolls fans there.

I agree 100% on that.

@Pastellioli Indeed, and yup, I remember the whole attitude the cartoon community had about DreamWorks beating out Disney too (side note, it reminds me of console wars, but with animation studios). I feel it's important to remember, not every animated movie needs to be deep to be good. Not every movie needs to be a "Puss In Boots," to be great. That's the thing with animation, you can do anything in it.

Not to mention, DreamWorks does have other series they work on too. I was satisfied with Trolls Band Together as a Trolls fan, that movie was made for those who like Trolls. Ruby Gillman was something original they were trying (personally, I liked it). Even Kung Fu Panda 4, gave fans of the series something new. I hope Shrek 5 gives those who wanted more Shrek something they wanted. DreamWorks is now more than just Shrek.

Hmm. Not a Dreamworks fan at all, but I will say How to Train Your Dragon is probably my favorite film trilogy since the turn of the century. Each film is excellent in its own right, with successive entries growing with their audiences, and it ends in a narratively and emotionally satisfying manner. It also respects the intelligence of its (presumably young) intended demographic more than most Hollywood films for adults do.

I should probably watch the Puss in Boots films. I've only seen the first one, which struck me as the sort of decent but forgettable spinoff film that used to go straight-to-video in the good old days. That said, the sequel was apparently pretty good (the sky-high Tomatometer score certainly intrigued me)? I felt like people were meme'ing when they went on about how much they liked it at first, but the more I look into it, the more I feel like it might be worth a watch.

@Ralizah As someone who seen both, IMHO, the second Puss In Boots was even better than the first.

@Pastellioli Agreed, it would be boring if DreamWorks only did Shrek and spin-offs, and didn't do other series and movies. Not to mention, the other series they make do have their fans too.

I extremely hate to see peoples misinterpreted something neutral or harmless or utilizing the stuffs into inappropriate rated 18+ stuffs on movies and video games.
Because of them, we cannot talk those stuffs in positive way since there was one people who made those stuffs into evil stuffs.
I have zero respect with those creator and therefore i will always hate them and their creations.
They destroyed the innocent image of neutral / harmless stuffs into disgusting 18+ stuffs.
We cannot talk some examples of the stuffs like joker, lollipop, the right way of using the chainsaw, etc in positive way because peoples already portrayed them as evil 18+ stuffs.
Those creators are really problematic peoples.

Probably a popular opinion but I think people expend far too much energy complaining about media that they themselves don't consume. If you don't like something? It's probably not for you. Get over it. Move on. Life is too short to waste energy complaining about things that don't impact you....

..... with that said, they did ruin Dr Who. Dr Who should be campy SciFi not cheap fantasy

I don't really like the mandatory of using Chinese language as something we have to study.
I mean, Japanese language is also very important and i personally prefer Japanese language than Chinese language despite myself is half Indonesian half Chinese people.
I just think Chinese stuffs from their language, entertainment, products are less interesting for me than Japanese stuffs.

I'm not sure they've really changed it that much. Of the new Doctor's episodes so far I'd say only three are more fantasy than sci-fi (goblins, Maestro, fairy circle - and the latter is really just an alternate timeline episode like they did before with Donna). Maybe also the finale but the villain there already existed in the show and already had effectively supernatural powers.

There's always been stuff in Doctor Who that's pretty much fantasy anyway, it just turns out to be aliens that act like witches or ghosts, rather than actual witches or ghosts. The in-universe explanation of 'the thing with the salt' allowing more supernatural elements into the universe just means they can keep doing stuff like that without having to explicitly link it to aliens, but you could always just imagine that the goblins etc are in fact aliens if you prefer - I don't think it was definitively stated that they're not.

And they certainly haven't dialled back the campiness

@Pastellioli
I think a lot of it stems from the way a lot of people consume media, of all kinds. It's less about deriving entertainment from pieces of art or exploring new ideas and points of view. Instead it's more about collecting and rejecting various trinkets that you can use to build your identity

Not that I'm not also guilty of this, I certainly am. It's unavoidable to some degree. And it's certainly something that's been a thing since forever. I just think it's something that people are doing increasingly too often. It's like.... rather than sitting down and watching the latest Star Wars series and then talking about it instead people wait for a youtuber to put out a video explaining why they shouldn't like the latest Star Wars series and then just parroting those points

It's like, you don't have a view worth considering if you're doing this ALL the time. What you have is an identity you're trying to impress everyone with. And I'm not particularly impressed by that. At all. It's the least interesting kind of view to have

Movies and TV filmed in analog are much more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes than digital, which appear to rely on their filters and effects. Everything looks cold nowadays, compared to films made in previous decades which to me, give a much more natural and warm feel.

I feel alone in this opinion.

It really is boring how people are developing less of a personality with no real likes and dislikes of their own since it's been replaced with zeitgeist mood swings led by rubbish influencers and memes on the social interweb media.

It's not even like people are searching out for something they'd personally like. It's just becoming everyone watching/listening/reading the same things as everyone else so they can join in with the praising/complaining of it in the community, I'm so tired of "Disney has ruined [insert Disney franchise] and ***** my childhood". It's really weird as there are more books/movies/shows/music than ever before so you ca find something tailored to your exact taste.

Does Space Babies count as camp or plain dumb?

But yeah, Doctor Who has always been sci-fantasy rather than sci-fi and it's all the better for it as they can pivot to different genres episode to episode like a musical or horror episode and no one bats an eyelid at the tonal whiplash but if it was a sci-fi show (even a camp one) it would be harder to change vibes episode to episode.

I think people have gotten too hung-up on upholding to canon in media. A few weeks ago, I saw someone kvetching about Origami King and how a certain plot point invalidates the "established canon" of previous Paper Marios, which is kind of absurd, given that Mario's always been flexible in that regard.

Adhering to canon for the sake of basic consistency is all well and good, but it's not worth worrying over every minute detail, which can weaken a good story. The question asked shouldn't be "does this one thing fit with everything else" and rather "does this make the story being told better?"

@N00BiSH I agree so strongly with this. Especially in series that have been helmed by different people or have numerous entries, maintaining "canon" is almost impossible. Star wars fans are especially guilty of this. Everytime anything new is added whatsoever, it apparently breaks canon. Also, the idea of breaking the paper mario canon is hysterical. People were really just looking for reasons to hate OK, weren't they?

@Bigmanfan Yeah, whatever a series considers "canon" is always going to change based on the voice of the people creating. In my opinion the best way to enjoy a series is to not take its canon so seriously. Makes it easier to enjoy individual stories for what they are rather than what they aren't. Obviously, it's going to be a case-by-case thing, since storytelling is inherently flexible, but you get what I'm saying right?

@N00BiSH You're on the money. Storytelling over canon every time. I feel like Zelda is an excellent example for this. The overall canon of the series makes no sense, but because of this, they're able to get really creative and fun with most of the individual stories. And those are the ones that really matter at the end of the day.

@Pastellioli For me, I could care less about canon, or more specifically, what's canon or not. Which is a huge annoyance for me since any publisher, creator, owner, ect. can change anything on a dime. As a result, I just stopped caring altogether. since then, I've been doing great by just doing that.

Nintendo still like to have it both ways with Zelda.

On the one hand, yes, every game is effectively a reboot and even supposed sequels will often let the continuity slide a bit in the name of a good game.

On the other, there's the Zelda timeline where you've got twenty games post-rationalized into a branching continuity with a bunch of world-reshaping events and resurrections of the three archetypes to fill in the gaps.

Then there are all the non-canon spinoffs on top of that, like it really makes a difference.

@Matt_Barber Zelda does technically have a timeline, but it's pretty stringed together. Regardless, it's still fun to have, and does kind of let it be a best if both worlds scenario. A timeline for those who care about canon, but not enough canon to ruin individual stories. But, I fear I have begun to discuss video games on the non gaming thread. Oops.

@Bigmanfan dang, you're right. We gotta shift this topic to another medium...got it.

I think another reason I prefer looser canon in stories is that sticking rigidly to canon can make it harder to start getting engaged in a story properly. The MCU is probably my biggest example; I've not seen much of the films(so take this with a grain of salt and feel free to call me wrong) and a big part of that is because they're so connected, which means there's a lot of material to comb over to get the fullest experience and that's kind of intimidating to me.