[HN Gopher] The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold ...
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The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece
Author : adrian_mrd
Score : 178 points
Date : 2025-03-14 21:18 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (gizmodo.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (gizmodo.com)
| moomin wrote:
| I don't know if I'd go quite so far, but it is very good. The
| Chamberlain remains a piece of work, and Lena Headey sometimes
| feels like she's still on the set of Game of Thrones.
| mjamesaustin wrote:
| A hidden gem, well worth the watch for fans and newcomers alike.
| This show wows on so many levels.
| eldgfipo wrote:
| Incredible show, so disappointed Netflix cancelled it.
| fowl338 wrote:
| FWIW, it's unlikely that any other studio would have
| greenlighted AoR at anywhere close to the budget it got. It
| might have had more seasons elsewhere, but not at this level of
| quality. I'm glad we at least got one incredible season out of
| it.
|
| Scavenger's Reign on Max got similarly cancelled after one
| season. There isn't much audience for weird shows like that,
| apparently. :(
| teamonkey wrote:
| I think it's a shame that shows like this need to be runaway
| hits out of the door, rather than slow-burners. Cult TV has
| historically had a long tail; you'd think that this was
| something that would benefit streaming services.
| the_hoffa wrote:
| It sucks too because with streaming they can track so many
| finite details; with "old school" TV it was mostly self-
| reporting (i.e. Neilsen Ratings). And so much of the TV-
| streaming budgeting took "Hollywood budgeting" to the
| extremes: if total_individual_views < (total_episodes * 2)
| && total_episodes_binged < total_episodes &&
| average_time_spent_on_episode < (average_episode_time *
| 0.98) && release_date <= 1week then CANCEL_SHOW=true ...
| just shortsighted and sad :(
| Loughla wrote:
| Scavenger's Reign is probably the best show I've seen, in
| terms of world building and creativity. Just absolutely
| stunning.
|
| I'm massively disappointed it got cancelled. It really
| scratched the sci-fi itch that usually only gets scratched
| via books. Most sci-fi movies and shows are really just
| lazily dressed up romance.
| icu wrote:
| I'm gutted it's cancelled! Thanks for letting me know. What
| a pity, it was amazing. I haven't liked a sci-fi animated
| series that much since Final Space.
| socks wrote:
| Scavenger's Reign was really excellent - but as I was
| watching it, I had an inkling that I would likely be in a
| small cohort of people who love it.
| bee_rider wrote:
| The art of Scavenger's Reign was really good. The ecosystem
| was really interesting (a bit overly-clever for stuff that
| is supposed to have evolved IMO, but it was still really
| interesting). Really great setting and art.
|
| The plot and characters felt a bit
| shallow/stereotypical/predictable in a bad way.
|
| It's like they had too much of the ecosystem that they
| wanted to show, so they split it up among too many
| characters, and didn't invest the appropriate character
| development in each. Plus, I really want to steep in the
| ecosystem, the rush to get to the ship is, IMO, not really
| necessary (it serves to force the characters to explore the
| environment, but IMO some alternative force that doesn't
| put the characters on such a tight timer would be
| preferable). I often found myself thinking: wow, I wish the
| characters could take more time exploring this phenomenon,
| but also, the character should, given their in-character
| motivation, leave this interesting thing alone. They are
| wasting precious time.
|
| I'd love to see a Mushishi like series set in that
| universe. Focus on one character's journey through the
| ecosystem. Give the character motivation to unravel the
| mysteries instead of dodge them.
| entropicdrifter wrote:
| FWIW Scavenger's Reign's creators have been making the
| show Common Side Effects. It's a brilliant show in its
| own right IMO but the animation is nowhere near as high-
| effort.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Oh, wow, I've been loving Common Side Effects. Didn't
| realize it was the same people.
|
| Common Side Effects has great characters IMO, it really
| captures this tension where the alternative to selling
| out is to accomplish nothing, maybe.
| freetime2 wrote:
| This is the first I am even hearing about it. Interesting that
| Netflix has never recommended it to me as someone who watches a
| lot of fantasy, sci-fi, animation, etc. Although TBH if it
| weren't highly recommended I would be pretty hesitant to watch
| a show with muppets, despite my other interests. Even with this
| glowing recommendation I'm still a bit skeptical.
| muddi900 wrote:
| They canceled it after renwing it.
|
| Louis Leterrier is considered a journeyman Hollywood director,
| but his work here was insane.
|
| And the puppetry.
| raffraffraff wrote:
| > The problem with all this is the same thing great animation
| runs into. Because of the medium, many people choose to ignore
| the show or dismiss it as made for kids
|
| This reminds me of Yonderland, an absolutely amazing TV show that
| has plot, characters and occasionally adult humour that will fly
| over the heads of children in the same way that a lot of great
| Simpsons gags did, in the good old days. Yonderland is made by
| the same people who did Ghosts (no, not the American rehash, the
| far superior original). Find it, watch it, it's brilliant.
|
| https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2938522/
| socks wrote:
| Gravity Falls is another 'kids' show that is absolutely
| brilliant.
| tigerlily wrote:
| > It's certainly darker than something like Peter Jackson's Lord
| of the Rings films...
|
| Huh. Why not also compare Jackson's puppet/splatter films, _Bad
| Taste_ , _Meet the Feebles_ , heck even _Braindead_?
| EdwardDiego wrote:
| Because very very few people know of those films.
|
| "Ooh, aren't I lucky, I got a chunky bit!"
|
| You could also have mentioned Heavenly Creatures and The
| Frighteners (filmed in my home town, was a blast seeing Michael
| J. Fox roaming around).
|
| I suspect they mentioned LotR because you know, well known and,
| fantasy.
|
| Not really comparable to Barry and the team vs. the evil
| aliens, or Harvey Weinstein personified in a walrus puppet.
|
| But I'm rather glad you're aware of Jackson's earlier works.
| whywhywhywhy wrote:
| "dark" in the context of a fantasy movie isn't the same meaning
| as "dark" in the concept of a gross out or comedy movie.
| skyyler wrote:
| Can you describe what you feel the difference is? I'm very
| curious to hear your personal opinion on this matter.
| kermit___ wrote:
| https://archive.ph/2025.03.18-084516/https://gizmodo.com/rem...
|
| (Had a page crash and strange refreshes from ads.)
| pavlov wrote:
| I remember this was the first HDR program I watched on my new
| OLED TV back in 2019, and the experience felt like all my life
| I'd been watching TV with foggy sunglasses that had been suddenly
| removed.
|
| It's a really beautifully shot show.
| donatj wrote:
| The first season of Westworld was this far me. Started it the
| same day we got our first HDR TV. Blown away.
| nottorp wrote:
| Is it a masterpiece, or a 2 hour movie made with the best
| material in the 10 episodes would have been an actual
| masterpiece?
| entropicdrifter wrote:
| Cramming that much plot into a 2 hour movie would suck. You
| could maybe halve the runtime, but anything less than 5 hours
| would just not work IMO
| nottorp wrote:
| Are you sure, or most of the plot is padding to get to season
| length?
|
| Every time I try to watch a tv series the padding starts to
| burst at the seams by at best the 3rd episode. Then I give up
| for a few years, let myself be tricked again and nothing has
| changed ...
| techterrier wrote:
| Given it was so obvious that the team had bottled lightening with
| this creation, it stands as a monument to the failure of bean
| counter driven programming. Surely any creative person looking at
| the quality of this work would have kept this team in the groove.
| It's not like they didnt have the money.
|
| They could easily have made the cash back on some reality thing
| that cost nothing but made bank.
| ReptileMan wrote:
| I mean they had to finance rebel moon, the idol and the
| electric state.
|
| This is what I also hate about the gaming industry. If you have
| a team that works good - find something to do for them.
|
| The guys behind Prince of Peria lost crown were brilliant in
| every aspect. And Ubisoft disbanded them instead of giving them
| time to get their footing. But we have a bloated AC:Shadows
| crap coming our way.
| ekianjo wrote:
| > The guys behind Prince of Peria lost crown were brilliant
| in every aspect.
|
| You seem to assume that people want to keep working together
| forever. Gamesdev can be really intense and for a lot of devs
| the end of a game is the opportunity to part ways cleanly and
| try something else.
| hibikir wrote:
| A great game, but one that had a very poor product market
| fit. It might be better than most games of its genre, but it
| also had a much higher budget, and with that, a much higher
| price. People buy metroidvanias for 20 or 30, on steam. They
| released elsewhere, for $50. They didn't have to just be very
| good, but make Hollow Knight and the like look like relics,
| and they didn't. The closest thing at selling at that price
| was Metroid Dread, and it did only fine, not great, despite
| carrying a higher value IP.
|
| They were always doomed by the budgetary limits, kind of like
| how the latest Indy movie was doomed to lose money unless it
| was as big as Avatar.
| stevenwoo wrote:
| The other handicap for The Lost Crown is Ubisoft always
| puts its games on sale at a steep discount in much shorter
| time window than other publishers so they have taught
| patient gamers to wait.
| beloch wrote:
| This was a brilliant show, but it had the misfortune to come
| along at a time when Netflix was cancelling even moderate
| successes after one season and slashing the budget of hit shows
| for their second season before cancelling them too (e.g. Altered
| Carbon). Only very rarely does a show turn into the kind of pop
| culture sensation that seems to make the bean-counters want to go
| past two seasons (e.g. Stranger Things), unless it's some
| executive's idea of a tent-pole for their platform (e.g. Rings of
| Power).
|
| Given how fragmentation and enshittification of streaming
| services is driving users back to piracy, one can't help but feel
| like the current model may not persist much longer. Heck, I
| wonder what the impact of the trade war is going to be! A _lot_
| of people in a lot of countries are cancelling Disney Plus,
| Netflix, Amazon Plus, Apple TV, etc. just because they 're
| American.
| whywhywhywhy wrote:
| >A lot of people in a lot of countries are cancelling Disney
| Plus, Netflix, Amazon Plus, Apple TV, etc. just because they're
| American
|
| Think you might be over-estimating the size of your algorithm
| bubble there. Normal people don't even make that connection.
| ziddoap wrote:
| I mean, I wouldn't say "a lot of people" but... "normal
| people" absolutely make that connection, and some moderately-
| sized portion of them are indeed cancelling some services.
|
| The antics of the US have been a perfect excuse to clean up
| under-used subscriptions.
| metabagel wrote:
| I think it's likely that many people do make that connection.
|
| There has been a surge of antipathy towards the U.S. in
| Canada and Europe; owing to Trump's threats with respect to
| trade wars, annexation of Canada and Greenland, and
| undermining NATO and the ability of Europe to defend itself.
| icu wrote:
| Yeah I was upset at Altered Carbon being cancelled. It was very
| good. I've been hoping a video game studio picks up the rights
| and makes a good AA or AAA game. I sadly didn't find Altered
| Carbon: Resleeved as good as the main series.
| Kipters wrote:
| IMO only the first season was really good, while the second
| one was very bad, I almost wish they had cancelled it after
| the first instead.
| icu wrote:
| I didn't find it bad, but it was different, I think the
| show was trying to find a new direction to make the series
| last, which obviously didn't work.
| entropicdrifter wrote:
| Personally, I found the second season to be a decent show
| in its own right, but comparison is 100% the thief of joy
| in this case. Season one was one of the most gorgeous
| pieces of sci-fi media I've ever seen and season two just
| looked OK by comparison and had a much slower pace and
| felt more emotionally vulnerable compared to season one's
| hardboiled tone.
|
| If they were separate shows I would be tempted not to
| compare them at all.
| gopher_space wrote:
| The main actor was Space Philip Marlowe in two different
| shows and I just wanted more of that.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| IMO the first book was really good, the others are pretty
| bad. So they were always going to have the problem... and
| frankly they altered the original book in ways that were
| worse without actually resolving any problems with length.
| trentnix wrote:
| The first half of the first season was absolutely great. It
| went downhill quickly when his sister showed up. By the end
| of the season, it was awful.
|
| Season 2 is simply forgettable.
| cultofmetatron wrote:
| > cancelling even moderate successes after one season and
| slashing the budget of hit shows for their second season before
| cancelling them too (e.g. Altered Carbon)
|
| I seriously don't understand who's in charge of this idiocy.
| its not like they are relying on nielson boxes. they have good
| data on what is bringing people to the streaming platform.
| there's no reason for them to be cutting shows prematurely that
| people love.
| OisinMoran wrote:
| Hard disagree with a lot said here. Watched both the film and
| this series (though haven't got around to finishing it yet) for
| the first time last year, and the series lacks a lot of what
| makes the film great.
|
| The film has some interesting zen-like qualities like duality,
| and a more complex set of morals. The series just feels like most
| modern creations with a pretty bland right vs wrong.
|
| The film is also almost entirely practical effects, which are
| incredible (the behind the scenes footage is amazing), while the
| series leans a bit too heavily on CGI in parts, which detracts
| from the action a bit (a la LoTR vs The Hobbit).
|
| Given this piece I might go back to finish it now (and from
| another comment possibly upgrade my TV), but I still think I'll
| prefer the film.
| jhbadger wrote:
| Yeah, the whole point of the original is that the Mystics and
| Skeksis were both flawed societies (even if the Skeksis were
| closer to the normal meaning of "evil") and the ending unites
| them rather than having the Skeksis destroyed.
| engineer_22 wrote:
| The Netflix show is a prequel, setting up the story of how
| the gelfling were wiped out
| jhbadger wrote:
| Right, but it still takes place after the Mystics and
| Skeksis split off from each other. The Gelflings were
| really just irrelevant bystanders to the real story even if
| we the audience see the story from their perspective in
| both the movie and show.
| mock-possum wrote:
| Isn't that the point, in some regards? The urSkeks were
| alien invaders who committed genocide and caused
| widespread environmental destruction - it's their
| ambition that drives the plot forward, it's their powet
| and their willingness to wield it - without that, nothing
| would have happened on this wholesome sleepy little
| planet, you know?
|
| How do you, as a Gelfling, navigate your life, in the
| shadow of these incredible creatures? That's what the
| story tells - you worship them as gods, you treat them
| cautiously as potential allies or enemies, you rise in
| rebellion to eject them from your world - and maybe in
| the end you find a new peace and balance.
|
| I do think that mystic and skeksis perspectives are
| present, in little peeks and glimpses, but I would still
| welcome another excursion into Thra to find out more
| about what their lives are like.
| donatj wrote:
| If you have not seen "Princess Mononoke", I highly recommend
| it. I rewatched it recently and the people and creatures on
| both sides of the conflict are neither really good nor evil.
| Just two opposing forces with different goals.
|
| It offers a level of subtlety I have not seen often in film,
| particularly since Star Wars.
| tmountain wrote:
| Very common in eastern storytelling. Ghibli films are some of
| my favorite for many reasons, but I particularly love how
| they contrast ideas.
| icu wrote:
| I think Studio Ghibli's 'secret sauce' is the
| "Kishotenketsu" or four act structure that makes Studio
| Ghibli special:
|
| 1. Ki (Introduction) - Sets up characters and situation.
|
| 2. Sho (Development) - Expands the characters and fleshes
| them out.
|
| 3. Ten (Twist) - Introduces a new element or change.
|
| 4. Ketsu (Conclusion) - Shows the outcome and connections
| between elements.
|
| In contrast Western films usually follow a three act
| structure:
|
| 1. Setup - Introduces the hero, often stepping into the
| unknown, and establishes the initial conflict and sets the
| stage for the story.
|
| 2. Confrontation - The hero faces mounting challenges and
| conflicts, often involving threats to innocent people or
| community. Stakes are raised and the story progresses to a
| conclusion.
|
| 3. Resolution - The story culminates in a climatic
| confrontation between the hero and the villain. Some
| sacrifice is usually paid, the hero triumphs, justice is
| served and order returns to the community.
|
| I grew up on Disney and the three act structure, so when I
| experienced Studio Ghibli for the first time with Princess
| Mononoke it felt very different, fresh and more mature.
| While I don't necessarily love all of Studio Ghibli's
| catalogue, I do treasure Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery
| Service, and Porco Rosso.
|
| In the case of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, I highly
| recommend reading the manga over watching the Studio Ghibli
| anime.
| chuckadams wrote:
| They look like the same steps to me, with steps 1 and 2
| both being Setup. The dramatic arc is fairly universal,
| and Miyazaki is hardly an exotic unfamiliar with western
| culture.
| Hemospectrum wrote:
| GP's lists fall somewhat short of explaining the two most
| important differences:
|
| 1. Kishoutenketsu prefers to introduce the primary
| conflict as late as possible, whereas any writer in
| Hollywood will try to introduce it as early as possible.
|
| 2. Kishoutenketsu prefers to frame the primary conflict
| as a difference in perspective that must be bridged from
| both sides, rather than outright competition between
| irreconcilable goals.
|
| These differences aren't fundamental (you can find all
| the counterexamples you like, especially if you cite
| movies with twist endings) but they are encouraged by
| style guides and deliberately (or even subconsciously)
| prioritized by writers, to varying effect.
| jancsika wrote:
| > whereas any writer in Hollywood will try to introduce
| it as early as possible
|
| I like the Lynch version of this in Lost Highway:
|
| 1. Conflict: someone sent us a video of the outside of
| our house.
|
| 2. Rising Conflict: oh no, now they sent us a video of
| the _inside_ of our house!
|
| 3. Conglitch: now they sent us a video of me murdering my
| wife?!? Didn't I just see her go in the bedroom?
|
| 4. Sogflatch: wait wut now I'm getting sentenced for
| murdering my wife?!?
|
| 5. Segfault: Hey Warden, the guy who murdered his wife
| disappeared and now there's a different guy in his
| cell!!!
|
| 6. Reboot: New guy adjusting to life after materializing
| in and getting released from the murderer's cell...
|
| There's a similar game with conflict in Blue Velvet where
| "teen coming-of-age plot arc" becomes entangled with a
| separate "drug-addled adult plot arc." The latter ends up
| dominating to the point where the "teen drama" bullies
| get scared and drive off from what would have been the
| climax of their plot arc (never to be seen again!).
| kouru225 wrote:
| Miyazaki stated that he was trying to break everything he
| knows about story structure with Mononoke. Last time I
| saw it, it became clear to me that it's almost impossible
| to fit into any story structure and it's just one giant
| crescendo to the end. More like a minimalist music piece
| than anything.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| Mononoke and Spirited Away specifically feel like they
| have several 'extra' acts that make them seem longer than
| they are. Though looking back at both I'm not sure what
| I'd cut.
| the_af wrote:
| I wouldn't cut anything. They "just work", it's just that
| they don't follow a conventional structure. I don't want
| them to follow familiar patterns.
|
| Yeah, you guessed it: two of my favorite animated movies!
| kouru225 wrote:
| Ngl the idea that the average commenter is thinking about
| how to make changes to Miyazaki's two best movies is so
| funny to me. It's like your average tourist walking up to
| Van Gogh's Starry Night and being like "I dunno I think I
| would do it differently."
| kouru225 wrote:
| While you're at it why don't you tell me what parts you'd
| cut from Citizen Kane, Hamlet, and the Mona Lisa.
| donatj wrote:
| How strange, the most positive review I heard from anyone I know
| was that "It ruined my childhood" and that it let's say "craped"
| on the source material. Mind you these are the nicest things
| people said.
|
| I have not seen it nor the original film to be fair, but this is
| quite literally the first positive thing I have heard about it.
| icu wrote:
| If you're a sci-fi and/or a fantasy fan I really recommend
| watching the original film and the prequel in that order and
| make your own mind up.
|
| I was young when the original came out so I found it good but
| scary. I felt the prequel was excellent and it left me wanting
| more.
|
| These days I feel a lot of my youthful nostalgia has been
| vandalised for a quick corporate buck. Probably the worst has
| been Willow on Disney+.
|
| There are so few examples of good follow-ups to nostalgic
| media. The only other example I can think of is Blade Runner
| (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).
| domador wrote:
| What happened to Willow?
| moate wrote:
| Did you not see the TV show? It had a bit of production
| hell (Jon Chu from Wicked was going to direct, and had 2
| different people come in after him) and was very uneven,
| cancelled after 1 season. They buried it so deep it's not
| even on Disney+ anymore and it only came out in late 2022.
|
| https://ondisneyplus.disney.com/show/willow (notice you can
| only see clips/trailer)
| the_af wrote:
| > _There are so few examples of good follow-ups to nostalgic
| media. The only other example I can think of is Blade Runner
| (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017)._
|
| I know this is controversial, but I disliked Blade Runner
| 2049. It feels made by someone who just didn't get Blade
| Runner and was both copying it mechanically in parts, and
| improvising unfaithfully in others. (Coincidentally, I liked
| _Arrival_ but the changes Villeneuve introduced to make it
| more "sentimental" ruined the reigned-in emotions in Ted
| Chiang's piece -- again it felt like he just didn't "get
| it").
|
| I obsess about Blade Runner -- to me almost every scene is
| artwork, and the music is amazing. The plot? I mean, yes,
| there are plot holes aplenty, but I don't think this movie is
| _truly_ about the plot, beyond the philosophical themes.
|
| Blade Runner 2049 in contrast seems so cynical and shallow to
| me. It just didn't work.
|
| PS: also, the insufferable Jared Leto. And the non-entity
| that is Luv. While Blade Runner has the best anti-hero ever
| in Roy Batty... and the best dying speech (vs Luv's "I'm the
| best!". Ugh).
| trentnix wrote:
| If you liked the original, you should absolutely watch Age of
| Resistance. It's not a masterpiece but it was clearly made by
| people that care about the original, its legacy, and its lore.
| duxup wrote:
| I love the film. The film is a real masterpiece.
|
| I'm struggling to get through the series. That ultra clunky
| opening narration is not a great sign and the world building and
| underlying plot feels shallow in the series.
|
| I'd LOVE for more Dark Crystal content but I would like them to
| start over...
| yownie wrote:
| just so you know there are some graphic novels that accompany
| the new series.
| throaway1989 wrote:
| If Gizmodo said its great, you know its not.
| Supermancho wrote:
| It's a bad show, for obvious reasons. Poor writing (thinly
| veiled political themes), bad characterizations (stupid weak
| characters), convoluted cruel plot, trying to be whimsical, all
| in the name of Fan Service. As a youtuber quipped, it's like
| the Flintstones + 12 years a slave. It's not for anyone and the
| script is mostly to blame.
| gglitch wrote:
| Is there any way to buy and own a copy of it?
| Sporktacular wrote:
| It's true. An amazing feat of manual, analogue artistry in our
| age. It's almost criminal, but definitely heartbreaking they
| didn't pick up season 2.
| chuckadams wrote:
| I loved DC:AoR but I never expected it was anything more than a
| one-off. Keep following the struggle as much as you like, but you
| still know that in the end, the Gelflings lose. I mean yes they
| pull it off in the end and maybe the Ur-Skeks magic them all
| back, they discover a lost tribe, whatever, but in the meantime
| they pretty much get wiped out. Making a good story in the face
| of that dark inevitability is what the writing craft is about,
| and they pulled it off and left on a high note. Best thing they
| can do is leave it that way.
| pcmaffey wrote:
| The writing in the series is unfortunately terrible. It sinks the
| otherwise beautiful show with sterile and laborious
| narration/dialogue, telltale signs of over workshopped writing
| room slop, from which no real living plot ever emerges. Such a
| disappointment.
| jandrese wrote:
| This was my problem too. I really wanted to like the series and
| the visuals were nice, but the Netflix writers room strikes
| again. The whole thing felt like the middle season episodes
| from a Netflix Marvel series.
| dash2 wrote:
| The author seems to conflate "dark" with "adult", so let me take
| the chance to point out this common mistake. Horror films,
| Warhammer 40K and 2000 AD comics are all famously dark, but
| they're for kids or teens. A Midsummer Night's Dream and The
| Importance of Being Earnest are light but grown-up. It's a weird
| deformation of the past generation to think that being depressing
| makes you deep.
| ericmcer wrote:
| Oh man yeah I hate this trend.
|
| It has especially worked its way into popular literature. A
| books writing is at a 5th grade level, has almost zero depth,
| but then is full of sex and violence which makes it an "adult"
| novel. Authors like Sarah J Maas are almost comically bad
| writers but have achieved immense popular success using this
| setup.
| 7357 wrote:
| Can I mention Jay Kristoff as well?
| guyzero wrote:
| 54% of [US] adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level -
| https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-s.
| ..
|
| Not surprising that books like this succeed.
| metalliqaz wrote:
| Agreed. People just can't read. I think this is one of many
| upstream causes of the current political landscape. When
| faced with reading a corporate financial statement, any
| laws, scientific papers, municipal budgets, or even an
| article in WSJ or The Atlantic, people are unable to
| proceed. So a defense mechanism comes up: "it's all just
| lies, anyway." Then they go and find a tweet or watch TV.
| mandmandam wrote:
| I'mma go out on a bit of a limb here, and say that even
| the people who can read often 'can't read'. Many people
| who 'can read' only read things in one of two particular
| bubbles, colored either blue or red.
|
| This has resulted in a population which is terrifyingly
| disconnected from reality, and yet utterly certain of
| their own beliefs; beliefs which have been worked into
| the core of their self-identity by the magic of political
| kayfabe. "The GOP believes Corona is from a lab, so it
| must be wrong" ... "Trump will genocide Gaza worse, so
| voting for someone arming an internationally condemned
| genocide is good and practical actually", etc.
|
| Out of the small subset of people who _really_ can read,
| and think for themselves, there is only a small number of
| them who can communicate their ideas effectively (and
| only to people who can at least sorta read at a 6th grade
| level). And the number of those people who have any power
| to amplify their voice is too depressing to think about
| for long.
|
| ... And yes, the Age of Resistance ties into this in many
| ways. The Skeksis are seen as strong, maybe even
| benevolent leaders by most, who are very far from any
| levers of power and aren 't getting very well informed.
| Meanwhile, quietly (at first), the life of the small
| people is being drained...
| metabagel wrote:
| This may also help to explain why politicians who express
| themselves with a limited vocabulary can be surprisingly
| successful. And the implication is that other politicians
| should probably do so as well.
| FredPret wrote:
| Idiocracy cometh
| tempodox wrote:
| It hath already arrived.
| the_af wrote:
| > _The author seems to conflate "dark" with "adult"_
|
| Oh, how I agree with your comment!
|
| This is a bizarre trend I've also noticed. Also unfortunately
| helped with the "adult" monicker for anything showing sex,
| which is in reality generally more aimed _at horny teenagers_
| and so-called "young adults" rather than grownups.
| FrustratedMonky wrote:
| Also, maybe related.
|
| Ultra-Violence is for all ages, great for kids.
|
| One small shot of side boob -- OH NO, that is ADULT, porn.
| fellowniusmonk wrote:
| Another similar conflation is Serious with Somber. Taking an
| issue seriously can be amusing as hell, it all depends on what
| mood allows you to best explore the problem space, if you are
| serious about knowing or solving an issue you won't necessarily
| lock into a particular mood in that exploration.
| chachacharge wrote:
| Gizmodo and all of gawker media= useless waste of electricity
| sleepybrett wrote:
| I do not agree w/ this in relation to the Dark Crystal series.
| But I see parallels in the Star Wars series Andor. Many will skip
| it because 'it's star wars', but it's a great series in star wars
| costume. The three people I've pressed into watching it came away
| with very favorable reviews.
|
| There are some kinda deep cut star wars references that non-fans
| will miss. Mon Mothma the political head of the rebellion is seen
| only sparingly in the original trilogy and in rogue one (scenes
| were shot for her in the prequels setting her up as politically
| aligned with Padme and Bail, but they were cut) is a main
| character here. Other characters like Saw Gererra only appear in
| the clone wars series and Rogue One (a film for which this series
| is a prequel). However this didn't seem to effect my friends much
| only one of whom had even seen rogue one and the prequels, the
| other two only having seen the original series.
|
| I'm so glad that it got a second season and am very excited to
| see it play out.
| tunesmith wrote:
| I'm actually surprised to read the opinions of people who watched
| it and didn't like it. I thought the problem was always just that
| not enough people knew it existed, but if they watched it, they
| would have loved it. I guess I must just be in the camp of "who
| WOULDN'T want to watch high-budget puppetry for ten hours??"
| devenson wrote:
| I feel the same way about Farscape.
| staplung wrote:
| I think plans for a Dark Crystal sequel were stuck in development
| hell for decades and then Jim Henson died. It was actually
| announced in 2005 but never got made into a film. Think there was
| a comic series though.
|
| Also, can't help pointing to this Robot Chicken gem: The Dark
| Cristal:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RudzOqb-fRc
| hoofedear wrote:
| I'm gonna disagree with the comments here and vouch that Age of
| Resistance is a fantastic show. It's what got me into the world
| of Dark Crystal in general. I saw the show first and then the
| movie, and I feel like the show perfectly setup the events that
| lead up to the movie. Even if the show unfortunately was
| cancelled before it could explore Deet's storyline, the creation
| of the Garthim, and the discovery of the Wall of Destiny. Sure,
| the rejoining of the UrRu and Skeksis is interesting, but it's
| certainly not the "whole point" of the movie/show.
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