thread: 2005-05-02 : Person vs. Protagonist
On 2005-05-02, Chris wrote:
Funny enough, me & Matt were emailing on this subject, and I had this to say:
I think the other part that people are missing is that, as you pointed out with Ron's games, the fantastic can make excellent spice to the human element, but the human element still needs to be there. Personally, I love the fantastic as a way to distill themes, but I understand that the if its just fantastic for its own sake- then there's no real meaning going on.
Media wise, I think we can point to 3 extremes:
Normal people, human situations- Strangers in Paradise, The Wonder Years, The Notebook, etc. etc.
Fantastic elements as themes of human situations- The Dark Crystal(watch it and look at the gelflings as people of color, particularly indigenous people...)
Fantastic elements as empty pastiche- The D&D movie, most of the Gor/Conan Ripoff books, most of the fantasy rack at the bookstore, etc.
We spoke on a bit more, but an interesting issue that also came up is that I think most of the people who sit in the third category -really want- all the cool stuff from the second one and don't seem to understand why adding new and more powers doesn't get them there.
