Merry Media Criticism Essay Contest

[Kei]

Here's my entry: "Waging War Without Consequence: A Retrospective on the Narrative of the 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' Reboot Trilogy". It's a bit under 15k words, but I hope you won't tear your hair out. ^_^;

 

[Jenny]

Going short and sweet, and hoping board games count as media: "The board game "Terraforming Mars" is a neoliberal nightmare"

 

[Small Nerd]

This looks interesting. Allow me to throw my hat into the ring with something I've had brewing in my mind for a while

An Examination of Fighting Game Move Inputs, Or: Quarter Circles Aren't That Bad, I Promise

As someone who plays fighting games at a not-quite competitive level, I've heard a lot of things about the genre from non-fighting game players that have really thrown me for a loop. Now, these games aren't easy to get into, and the people who know the genre well are often pretty bad at explaining things to an outside audience, so I can't blame people too much for having a hard time picking up on how much these games are about decision-making and leading your opponent into making mistakes. What I can and will blame people for is their demonization of special move inputs as obtuse and difficult. I figured out how to do quarter circle inputs when I was a ten-year-old looking up Mega Man X and hearing about the secret Hadouken move. I have seen footage of dogs doing quarter circle inputs. You don't even need hands to do them! But I know that shaming people for being babies won't get anywhere. No one likes being told they're wrong, after all. So instead of a few hundred words of me mocking people for being scared of rolling their thumbs from one d-pad button to another, I'm going to respond to the other main complaint people have about fighting game special move inputs, that they don't understand why these inputs exist. There are some very good reasons that fighting games have continued to use these types of move inputs for more than thirty years, and we're going to get into them.

The first reason for these move inputs is that they make the game just a little bit less one-sided. The complexity of quarter circles, Z-motions, and the other common move inputs fighting games have help ensure that no one can do them every single time. Even the best players get them wrong occasionally. Whenever you mess up a move in a fighting game, that's an opportunity for the other player to mount a comeback. If moves were easier to do, the games would be much more oppressive, and nobody wants to just sit there and watch helplessly as their character's health bar gets deleted. The more chances there are for mistakes, the more chances there are for comebacks. Fighting games are inherently a genre where matches can get very one-sided, developers have to do anything they can to mitigate that.

The other main reason for these inputs is that they give the game's designers more ability to control what a move's strengths and weaknesses are. A great example of this is Street Fighter's Shoryuken with its Z-motion input. The Shoryuken is an aggressive move, used to go on the offense. Doing it usually makes your character invulnerable for the duration of the move, it hits hard, it's good for knocking a jumping opponent out of the air, it moves you forward (i.e., towards the opponent), and it generally has properties you want in a move you'd start offense with. However, if you do a Shoryuken and it doesn't connect or gets blocked, you're left wide open for a counterattack, so the move is very much a "high risk, high reward" sort of move. When you do a Shoryuken, you're taking a gamble that acting aggressively is the right call. How does the Z-motion input factor in this? In Street Fighter, you block attacks by holding a direction away from the opponent, either straight back or down and back. The Z-motion input is straight forward, then straight down, then down and forward. So if you want to do a Shoryuken, you cannot block. You must commit to acting aggressively, and you must accept the risk of eating a counterattack. The very action of performing the move reinforces its purpose.

To sum up, the two main reasons fighting games have such unusual inputs for their special moves are to keep matches from becoming completely one-sided in favor of whoever strikes first and to help the game's designers clearly define each move's strengths and weaknesses. There are other reasons for fighting game special move inputs to be the way that they are, but at that point we'd start getting into deeper weeds than I want to get into for something that's intended for a general audience. I hope that this brief look at the subject has helped show that even if fighting game special move inputs are difficult (and I genuinely believe most of them aren't), they're not arbitrary or mere sadism. Just because the reasons aren't obvious doesn't mean they aren't there.

 

[Firehawk242]

Harry Potter as a series is not very good entirely on its own merits. Even if we ignore the fact that Rowling turned out to be a horrible person, the series itself is firmly mid.

The problem is Harry himself. For all that the story is about him, he has virtually no agency. He is constantly being led around by the nose by one person or another. At best, he's being pushed from behind by Hermione. He is entirely reactive, and as a result the series feels shockingly scripted for a series that was so thoroughly improvised.

This is probably the main reason why so many fanfiction authors like to write various characters as being manipulative masterminds controlling Harry's life: Most of those characters ARE controlling Harry's life, though it's more because Harry can't be bothered to control his own life than because they're actually trying to manipulate him.

Taken all together, we come to understand exactly what Harry Potter is: A bland, boring, paint by numbers isekai about a protagonist whose personality is as close to an empty void as possible so you can easily slot yourself into their place. It even has the questionable takes on slavery that have become an unfortunate part of the genre!

Harry Potter succeeded entirely because it was released into a vacuum. It had no meaningful competition in its genre for the first three books or so, giving it plenty of time to embed itself into popular culture, at which point inertia took over. If it came out today, Riordan and other modern authors would so thoroughly overshadow it that it would be relegated to the bulk bin of also-ran YA novels.

Edit: I realized this did not meet the minimum words requirement, so I will now be analyzing the books individually.

Book 1, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone: This Harry is exempt from my criticism. He is intelligent, inquisitive, and makes several notable decisions with minimal outside influence. This Harry is a completely different character and I would gladly read an entire series about him. Unfortunately, that's not what we got.

Book 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Here's where it starts. Most of the plot is Tom Riddle in the diary leading everyone around by the nose, with Hermione providing the occasional impetus to the plot. We do still see the occasional shadow of Book 1 Harry in things like the decision to bring Lockhart with them when invading the Chamber, but ultimately the only notable thing Harry really did on his own initiative in Chamber of Secrets was setting up Dobby's freedom.

Book 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban: Our prime mover this time is Sirius Black for most of the book, and Hermione for the climax. The closest Harry gets to a notable decision is complying with a closed time loop. Though he did take the initiative to learn the Patronus charm, one last gasp from Book 1 Harry.

Book 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Barty Crouch Junior controls everything. Even down to Harry's approach to the various Tasks, Crouch is pulling all the strings. There's not much else to say here, so let's move on.

Book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Harry is being very deliberately kept out of the loop by Dumbledore at this point, so right away we're off to a great start. One might think that Dumbledore's Army would serve in Harry's favor, except it wasn't his idea. Hermione came up with it, and Harry was initially resistant to the idea. Hermione and Ron had to talk him around. Our climax was entirely the result of Voldemort's manipulations with Harry dancing like a puppet. The closest Harry gets to making a decision of his own in this book is giving Cho some space instead of going straight for the rebound.

Book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Real talk, does Harry actually do anything in this book at all? Okay, yes, he's Dumbledore's gofer in a few places, and he does get proximately involved in a couple assassination attempts, and of course there's his trainwreck of a relationship with Cho, but... that's it. On Harry's end, this is almost slice of life. Except people are dying and the main plot is finally happening. Harry isn't just a puppet in this book, he's practically a bystander. The actual movers of the book are Draco, Dumbledore, Snape, and of course Voldemort.

Book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Hermione is the one running most of their adventures, but when it all goes down Dumbledore is somehow still running the show despite being dead. Neville steps up and runs things from inside Hogwarts, but Harry is mostly just coasting on his Chosen One status.

Credit where credit is due, the Harry from the first book was a good character, but as the series dragged on he was quickly replaced with an increasingly empty void of a character.

 

[Exponent]

The Creator: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Essay

The Creator: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Originally, I envisioned writing this essay about how Gareth Edward's The Creator tackled American militarism in countries such as Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq through a science fiction parable pitting a United States apparently eschewing...

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The Creator: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Originally, I envisioned writing this essay about how Gareth Edward's The Creator tackled American militarism in countries such as Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq through a science fiction parable pitting a United States apparently eschewing artificial intelligence against a New Asia embracing that very technology. Indeed, many reviews of The Creator tout the film's willingness to engage with American miltarism and imperialism in a way that many other production shy away from, partly due to current political climate and partly due to big budget films relying heavily on sponsorship from the Department of Defense.

A piece focusing solely on The Creator's criticism of American militarism would be a straightforward and easy essay to write, given that the film uses America's war against AI to not so subtly draw parallels to some of the worse wartime atrocities we have committed such as carpet-bombings that killed tens of thousands civilians in Cambodia during Operation Freedom Deal1, which mirror the callousness displayed by the US military in The Creator when they deploy tactical nuclear weapons against areas in New Asia with heavy civilian populations using a massive military space station known as North American Orbital Mobile Aerospace Defense, or NOMAD. Another obvious example questioning the militaristic nature of the American government, this time referencing the War on Terror, would be how the nuclear attack on Los Angeles allegedly initiated by an AI is revealed in fact to have been due to a coding error by US military programmers rather than deliberate intent, eliminating the justification for the war in way that is uncomfortably familiar to those who remember the George W. Bush administration lying to the American people and international community about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify the 2003 invasion there.2 There is even an allusion to Ground Zero here in New York, with the movie's protagonist, Joshua Taylor, working as a part of a cleanup crew clearing debris and removing human remains in LA after an ostensible act of nuclear terrorism, which was used as a casus belli by the American government for declaring war against New Asia, though obviously the actual 9/11 attack was perpetrated solely by Al-Qaeda terrorists. I have mostly just covered events that happened in backstory so far, never mind the main plot of the film, and we already have science fictional analogies in The Creator evoking American abuses during the Vietnam War and the War on Terror.

I could write a decent essay only fixating on the metaphors the film uses to question some of the more atrocious American tactics and strategies employed during the Cold War and the War on Terror. In a world after the US has fought these conflicts and where it is currently arming Israel with the munitions it is using in conjunction with AI software to target densely populated civilian areas to eliminate minuscule and, in many cases, nonexistent threats, we can see how The Creator's message against unchecked American militarism and the targeting of innocents to achieve strategic objectives is extremely relevant now.

That would be a cop out, however, since any true review or criticism of cinema should not only cover the great aspects of a film, but its flaws as well. While The Creator has much to teach us about the dangers and damage caused by American militarism at its worst, the film also has some glaring blind spots that, when fully examined, could allow us to see additional lessons its story could have taught us. And once we do that, we can think about why this particular story was told the way it was and how it could be told better.

With that in mind, we can now talk about how well The Creator excels in its examination of American militarism and imperialism, along with the flaws that may distract from that message.

The Creator begins with a brief introductory montage explaining that films occurs in an alternative history where artificial intelligence and robotics technology advanced to point being able to develop robots resembling humans physically and psychologically around at least 1960s, when black and white television was still widely used. AI is widely adopted by world at large and proliferates to fill several niches in society.

Unfortunately, in 2055, an AI designed by the US military for defense triggers a nuclear explosion above Los Angeles, killing more than a million citizens. In response, Western nations unite to combat the AI threat and prevent humanity's demise. However, there is resistance to this new foreign policy from the people of New Asia, which continues to develop and accept AI technology. The military aims to eliminate Nirmata, the enigmatic mastermind behind the AI advancements, and constructs NOMAD, a cutting-edge space station capable of launching devastating orbital attacks with tactical nuclear weapons.

Notably, the montage explaining this new state of affairs shows a video from the 10th anniversary of the nuclear attack on LA where a high-ranking military official claims that the US "is not at war with the people of New Asia, but the AI they harbor" in a speech to lawmakers, though he observes that the Republic of New Asia "continues to develop AI, embracing them as equals." Through those remarks, we see that the US and its Western allies believe that AIs are not regarded as people, but property not deserving of rights at best and potential threats to be eliminated at worst. The official's language about being only at war with AIs harbored in New Asia rather the human civilians echoes assertions made by the George W. Bush administration in the lead-up to the invasion of Afghanistan that it was only fighting the terrorists responsible for 9/11 and Taliban, not Afghan civilians, despite at least 70,000 civilians dying during the war.3 All this serves to prime the audience to consider The Creator in the context of the War on Terror, New Asia serving as a metaphor for Afghanistan and Iraq during that global military campaign.

New Asia's portrayal does have some problematic aspects that become clear upon closer inspection, though. To begin with, New Asia encompasses Southeast Asia, Japan, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and parts of India, all of which are wildly disparate regions and nations highly unlikely to unify under a single republic through any politics grounded in the real world for a variety of reasons.i How The Creator casually conflate multiple radically different Asian cultures and nations being one monolithic mega-state while emphasizing known stereotypes about them in the form of New Asia could taken be as racist Orientalism. This becomes more awkward when we scrutinize the extensive infusion of Christian imagery by Edwards into a film that predominantly features landscapes adorned with Buddhist temples and robots adorned in ashrams and prayer beads or neon-drenched cities with stereotypical sweatshops where Asian workers build robots under substandard conditions, a depiction that could be strongly argued to be cultural appropriation, creating a clashing contrast with the film's attempt to convey an anti-colonialist and anti-jingoistic stance.

It is mildly disturbing that Edwards envisioned Asian citizens globalizing exclusively within Asian nations, excluding others. This approach does not showcase cultural progress. Instead, it results in the blending and dilution of numerous cultures. Edwards seems to prioritize reinforcing the old and tired East versus West narrative, incorporating a mix of anti-Asian stereotypes prevalent in various media.

Creating a science fiction film set in an amalgamation of stereotypes like New Asia is already questionable, but how The Creator portrays the only human-like representations of AI as being almost all only Asian is also offensive. The simulant characters in the main narrative of the film who the most human-like AIs are invariably Asian. By positioning AI as the antagonist for the protagonist, the film implies a certain skepticism toward Asian characters, evident in the fact that the sole instance of a non-AI Asian character occurs in the film's opening scene. Glaringly, there is an absence of Asian individuals in the US military and American society within the movie. The film limits the portrayal of Asian individuals with human-like AI features to confrontational scenarios, emphasizing a problematic association between Asian identity and antagonistic roles in the narrative that detract from the film's predominant message of criticizing American jingoism.

Returning to the narrative, in 2065, US Army sergeant Joshua Taylor is operating undercover in New Asia after his parents and brother were killed in the nuclear attack on LA in order to work his pregnant wife Maya Fey, who the US military believes to be Nirmata's daughter. When their home is assaulted by US commandos, Joshua's cover is blown, prompting Maya to flee from him upon discovering his true identity. She subsequently appears to die in a NOMAD nuclear strike shortly afterwards.

Five years later, Joshua is part of the ground zero cleanup crew in Los Angeles while recovering from the loss of his wife and unborn child. The blast zone in LA, which somehow remains a functional thriving city despite being next to the site of a nuclear detonation, is referred to as "Ground Zero" in the film itself, removing any doubt about allusions to the former Ground Zero site here in New York City or the political atmosphere following 9/11. We see Joshua clearing debris with coworker when they uncover an AI robot they pull from wreckage of out of bombed-out car with the corpses of a family. It is not until the robot reactivates and calls the name of a deceased child in anguish that we realize the robot was part of the family and had feelings for it, as Joshua's coworker observes in shock.

Which makes it all the more horrific when Joshua forcibly deactivates or, more accurately, murders the robot, all while it continues to cry out for the lost child. This distressing act unnerves even Joshua's coworker, who is later persuaded by him to believe that it was merely a machine uttering programmed lines.

This scene stands out as one of the film's more compelling moments, as it straightforwardly portrays the AIs as entities possessing humanity despite lacking a human form. It poignantly highlights the denial of their right to exist, a consequence of the American security state and prevailing jingoistic attitudes. The robotic chassis of the AI remains unproblematic by steering clear of the prevalent metaphor in later parts of the film that likens AIs to Asians.

Later that night, General Andrews and Colonel Howell of the US Army approach Joshua to join a mission to destroy a new weapon created by Nirmata, Alpha O, which is thought to have the power to shift the war in favor of AI despite the tactical advantages American forces enjoy employing NOMAD. To persuade him, they show a video suggesting Maya is alive, and he might reunite with her if he joins the mission.

In New Asia, Taylor infiltrates the weapon's compound while embedded with a special forces team, only to discover a robotic simulant resembling a young girl, named Alphie. Despite orders to eliminate her, Taylor disobeys and, with Alphie, seeks out Drew, his former commanding officer. Drew reveals that Alphie can remotely control technology and has the potential to become a formidable weapon. As they navigate through challenges, including an attack on Drew's apartment, Taylor learns that the raid years ago was based on misinformation regarding Maya being Nirmata.

Captured by New Asian forces, Taylor and Alphie meet Harun, a simulant soldier and Taylor's former ally. Harun asserts that the explosion in Los Angeles resulted from a human coding error, accusing the US government of unfairly blaming AI, which simply desires peaceful coexistence with humanity. Following his escape from captors, Taylor rescues Alphie and prepares to flee as Howell initiates an attack on the village. Alphie intervenes using her abilities, but sustains serious injuries from McBride. Bringing Alphie to Maya, Taylor discovers that Maya has been in a coma since the nuclear strike on their home and has been cared for by simulant monks. Due to simulants' inability to harm Nirmata, she is left in a state of being unable to die. The revelation unfolds that Alphie was modeled after Taylor and Maya's unborn daughter, scanned in utero. Distressed, Taylor decides to disconnect Maya from life support just as Howell and her forces arrive. They are subsequently killed by Harun, who informs Taylor that NOMAD must be destroyed for the war to conclude, only for Alphie and Taylor to be apprehended by US forces who airlift them before the village and its residents are bombed by NOMAD. Taylor and Alphie are flown out of New Asia, marking the end of any close examination the film had about New Asia and its society.

It is noteworthy to mention at this point that, although a significant portion of The Creator unfolds in New Asia, the film provides minimal insight into its government. The glimpses of New Asian government we do get involve the constant pursuit of Joshua and Alphie by the military and police forces, who systematically target and kill anyone aiding them. By depicting only these limited aspects of the New Asian government with a specific focus on military and police forces engaged in pursuits and lethal actions, the film perpetuate a narrow and possibly biased representation of the region. This portrayal contributes to stereotyping and oversimplification, suggesting that the entire governance structure of New Asia, and by extension Asian countries, is militarized and oppressive.

The film's awkward treatment of New Asia is exasperating, particularly when contrasted with the depth of symbolism and subtext it bestows upon the United States.emerges as a formidable force of mass destruction, boasting cutting-edge weaponry. However, an intriguing paradox surfaces as the military uniforms and overall design aesthetic appear to be entrenched in the 1950s or 1960s, a period marked by the intense geopolitical tensions of the Cold War in the real world. This stark contrast serves as a visual representation of the film's portrayal of the United States, depicting a society that has experienced arrested development. The nation, singularly fixated on its self-proclaimed war against artificial intelligence and investing trillions of dollars in the development of technological prowess, has evidently stagnated in other crucial areas. This stagnation is reminiscent of the real-world Cold War conflicts such as the Vietnam War, which diverted resources from societal progress, exemplified by the attenuation of programs like the Great Society.

In that custody of US forces, Joshua and Alphie are brought to Los Angeles, where Joshua is coerced into seemingly killing Alphie with an electroshock weapon. However, Andrews later uncovers the deception, and the duo escapes before Alphie faces incineration. Boarding a lunar shuttle at the Los Angeles Interplanetary Air and Space Port, Alphie maneuvers the spacecraft to land on NOMAD just as Andrews initiates a large-scale assault on remaining AI bases worldwide. Joshua sets a timed explosive as Alphie disables the ship's power. Before Joshua reaches the escape pod, Andrews activates a tentacled robot preventing his entry, compelling Joshua to eject the vehicle with Alphie inside. As NOMAD explodes, thwarting the strike, Joshua embraces a simulant resembling Maya, activated by Alphie using a memory chip containing information downloaded from Maya's brain after her death. Joshua spends his final moments with Maya as NOMAD explodes, resulting in their demise, while Alphie returns to Earth, observing people celebrating NOMAD's destruction and cheering her as the new Nirmata.

Having finished reviewing its narrative, I will acknowledge that The Creator diverges from the conventional human versus AI paradigm so many films tend to repackage for mass consumption. Rather than exploring the consequences of humans playing God and creating artificial life, the story unfolds around the recurrent theme of humans playing the role of the devil, threatening their creations and those protect them with destruction. In this context, AI serves as a symbolic representation for numerous groups that have borne the brunt of American imperialism and jingoism. The film draws unmistakable parallels to the Vietnam War, vividly depicted as the US military invades New Asia and ruthlessly bombs simulant AIs, all characterized by Asian faces throughout the storyline. However, it's crucial to acknowledge the problematic aspect associated with this portrayal in that it can encourage a skepticism and otherness toward Asians. This poor handling of the symbolism could be due to a lack of diversity on the creative team.

The simulants, all characterized by Asian faces, underscore a notable absence of diversity within the creative team. Crafted by Edwards and Chris Weitz, these apparently Asian simulants suffer from the same lack of depth and nuance that afflicts so many Asian characters in Western media. Despite the considerable talent of actors like Chan and Watanabe, they are regrettably relegated to the status of glorified background figures.

What is even more disconcerting is that the Asian simulants seem to exist not for plot development, but rather to serve as targets, frequently meeting explosive fates. The theme of war reaches its zenith when US forces relentlessly bomb the New Asian simulant on multiple occasions and with brutal intensity, hearkening to the Vietnam War. While the film unmistakably critiques US military might and imperialism, the imagery demands a more delicate touch, as opposed to the blunt force approach employed.

My initial intention was to explore how The Creator critically addresses American militarism, drawing parallels to historical events and emphasizing the dangers of unchecked military power. To a degree, the film engages with the issues of war, imperialism, and the consequences of military actions, providing a noteworthy commentary on the societal impact of militaristic endeavors.

The Creator effectively employs science fiction metaphors to question some of the more egregious tactics employed by the United States during the Cold War and the War on Terror. The film's portrayal of the American military, its use of nuclear weapons, and the manipulation of public perception resonates strongly with real-world events, highlighting the potential dangers of unrestrained militarism.

However, as much as The Creator excels in its critique of American militarism, it is not without its flaws. The depiction of New Asia, while intending to serve as a metaphor for geopolitical tensions, falls into problematic territory by amalgamating diverse Asian cultures and nations into a monolithic mega-state. This casual conflation of distinct regions and the portrayal of stereotypes could be interpreted as a form of racist Orientalism, creating a dissonance with the film's attempt to convey an anti-colonialist and anti-jingoistic stance.

Moreover, the film's limited insight into the governance of New Asia perpetuates a narrow and possibly biased representation of the region, reinforcing stereotypes of a militarized and oppressive society. The juxtaposition of the film's in-depth exploration of American militarism with its superficial treatment of New Asia adds a layer of frustration and raises questions about the film's overall message.

Despite these shortcomings, The Creator serves as a thought-provoking exploration of the consequences of unchecked militarism. By delving into both the strengths and weaknesses of the film, we gain a more comprehensive understanding of its nuanced narrative. This analysis encourages us not only to appreciate its poignant critique of American militarism, but also to reflect on how the film's portrayal of New Asia and other elements could have been handled more effectively. In doing so, we engage in a deeper examination of the storytelling choices made by Edwards and the potential lessons that could be drawn from this narrative.

Footnotes
1"Operation Freedom Deal," Wikipedia, last modified December 20th, 2023, Operation Freedom Deal - Wikipedia.
2"Rationale for the Iraq War," Wikipedia, last modified December 23rd, 2023, Rationale for the Iraq War - Wikipedia.
3Costs of War Project, "Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan," Brown University Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, accessed December 16th, 2023, Afghan Civilians | Costs of War.

Endnote
iThere are many reasons why New Asia is an impossibility geopolitically. The prospect of Bangladesh and India joining as one nation is ludicrous. Both countries gained independence in 1947 from British rule and the subsequent partition led to the creation of India and Pakistan. Bangladesh later emerged as an independent nation in 1971 following a war of liberation from West Pakistan. Since then, both Bangladesh and India have developed distinct national identities. Additionally, cultural and linguistic differences have also contributed to the separate and unique identities of the two nations.

Furthermore, likelihood of Japan and Taiwan becoming part of a greater nation is highly improbable. Japan, with its unique historical trajectory and maintaining a strong sense of national sovereignty, is not going to willingly relinquish its independence. Taiwan, even with its complex international status which complicate becoming a part of New Asia, operates as a separate political entity with its own government.

Bhutan has historically pursued a policy of maintaining its sovereignty and independence, avoiding entanglements in regional power struggles. Bhutan has also deliberately limited its engagement with the international community, emphasizing a cautious and measured approach to foreign relations. Geopolitically, Bhutan has valued its strategic autonomy and has avoided aligning closely with any major power in the region.

Altogether, New Asia's formation would be the ultimate coup in international relations and diplomacy.

 

[Hawkatana]

Mobile Suit Gundam and the Capitalist Realism of the Universal Century

By Hawkatana

Released in April 7th of 1979 by Nippon Sunrise and directed by series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, Mobile Suit Gundam (Kido Senshi Gundamu) is a mecha anime set in the year 0079 of the Universal Century, where most of humanity has moved into orbital space colonies around the Earth under the control of the nominally-democratic Earth Federation. The Federation is presently at war with the Principality of Zeon: a rebelling faction of space colonies seeking to gain their independence and conquer the entire Earth-sphere (the Earth and all its surrounding colonies).

The resulting "One Year War" results in the death of over half the human population, horrific war crimes on both sides such as Zeon dropping a colony on Sydney in "Operation British", and the introduction of the "Mobile Suit" technology: bipedal piloted machines of war capable of wielding many types of weapons. After his home colony of Side 7 is attacked by Zeon, series protagonist Amuro Ray accidentally finds and subsequently pilots the Federation's experimental "Gundam" mobile suit to fight them off as he and his friends are drafted into the military against Zeon.

Despite Zeon being the primary antagonist of the original 0079 show, the Earth Federation likewise is portrayed unfavourably, albeit not yet to the extent as Zeon. While ostensibly a liberal democracy, the Federation is shown to truly be a plutocratic oligarchy where the rich elites remain on Earth while the poor are displaced from their land and into space, and is just as willing to commit atrocities against civilians as Zeon are.

This is almost certainly informed from series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino's association with the left-wing Japanese student movements of the 1950's and 60's. These movements, often inspired by the writings of Karl Marx and other communists, made up the Japanese "New Left" of the time and were influential in Japanese society and politics. However, these movements amounted to very little in the long run, in part due to the suppression of said groups by the Japanese government, who were under the hegemony of the conservative Liberal Democrat Party, who remain the dominant force in Japanese politics to this very day. These experiences shaped Tomino's worldview going forward, and this theme of all the hard work bloodshed meaning nothing in the long term is a prominent theme of media set within Gundam's main UC (Universal Century) timeline.

This would be taken a step further in the direct sequel: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam in 1986. Set 7 years after the original series in UC 0086, the Earth Federation has created a secret police force known as the Titans, who oppress the Spacenoid population in an attempt to prevent another rebellion like Zeon. This however creates the Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG) led by the enigmatic Quattro Bajeena (who is secretly the major antagonist Char Aznable from the prior show) to oppose them and restore freedom to the colonies, as well as a new faction of Zeon remnants known as Neo-Zeon led by Haman Karn, who seek to restore the Principality and take over all its claims in the Earth-sphere.

Zeta shows the Federation on the verge of fascism brought on by the Titans, who despite being created by the Federation to restore order, are now out of their control and have become a de facto independent paramilitary organisation who not only inspire the very rebellions they were created to prevent with their brutality, but are perfectly willing to attack the Federation's own parliament in Dakar to maintain their grip over the Earth-sphere. This naturally paints the Federation as impotent and incapable of dealing with anything thrown its way without external help, a problem that would be exacerbated in the third series: Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (Double Zeta), where despite the Titans having been defeated, they initially surrender to Neo-Zeon's onslaught, only to change their minds at the negotiating table as the still-independent AEUG deliver a crushing blow to Neo-Zeon's forces. It grows even worse in the movie Char's Counterattack, where Char, having returned to Neo-Zeon takes over its remnants, drops a colony on Lhasa and attempts to destroy the Earth with the asteroid Axis to force all of humanity into space, only to be stopped by Amuro Ray, both of whom die in the ensuing battle.

Despite all this bloodshed however, nothing ever improves for the average people of the Universal Century. The Earth Federation, despite its continual deterioration into decay and fascism, remains an omnipresent force in the world in spite, or perhaps because of it all. This mirrors Mark Fisher's ideal of "capitalist realism": the ideal that capitalism has become so entrenched in humanity's very existence that it's impossible to imagine a world beyond it, with even critiques of the ideology being recuperated by the system.

The Federation, the neoliberal hegemony that it is exhibits many of the negative hallmarks of the liberal democracies of the west, primarily the United States of America and Western Europe, with supplementary material such asHathaway's Flash and Gundam Thunderbolt, and even mainline entries such as ZZ and Unicorn suggesting regions like the South Pacific, South-East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East respectively, regions considered part of the "third world" in real life, are treated poorly within the Federation. The bourgeoisie of the Federation exploit the labour of those not only in the poorer regions of Earth, but the Spacenoids in orbit, to which they deny political representation. And following the events of Char's Counterattack, Earthnoids must now pay a fee to stay of Earth or risk being deported to space, with said fee being deliberately too high to pay for the poor.

And yet, every single challenge thrown at the Federation from this point on is one of their own making, posing no real systemic challenge to the system of capital that defines it. The Sleeves: a Neo-Zeon terrorist group led by a clone of Char named Full Frontal that serve as the antagonists of Gundam Unicorn and Gundam NT seek to restore the Principality and create the "Greater Zeon Co-Prosperity Sphere" with the other space colonies to starve out the Federation. Hathaway Noa, truly the eco-terrorist Mafti from Hathaway's Flash wishes to remove humanity from Earth to let the Earth heal from climate change, while only assassinating the most corrupt officials within the Federation government. Cosmo Babylonia and their Crossbone Vanguard from Gundam F91 are a group of feudalists seeking to return to a system of peerage, regressing society backwards, Gundam Crossbone's Jupiter Empire merely wishes to destroy the Earth out of its leader Crux Dogatie's petty jealousy, and the Zanscare Empire from Victory Gundam wish to commit ethnic cleansing on all who oppose them.

Accentuating matters are Newtypes: humans who gain psychic abilities upon extended exposure to space, theorised to be "the next evolution of humanity". Despite its basis in the new age spirituality of the 1970's, Newtypes; described as being aware of the nature of life yet struggle to connect with others could be read as those with class-consciousness. Especially as two of the most well-known Newtypes: Amuro and Char were witness to all of Zeon and the Federation's cruelty and apathy for life, though both seem despondent that it will never change on its own. The only choices being Amuro seeking to preserve the Federation in spite of its faults and Char seeking to destroy the Earth out of nihilistic anger. For both, it is easier to imagine the end of the world than an end to capitalism.

This eventually culminates in the later sequels to Gundam Crossbone, in which the Earth-Sphere has descended into civil war comparable to Japan's Warring States period, with petty warlords controlling the various space colonies. No side with a vision for something beyond what already was has a chance of gaining victory in the war, leaving the future of the Earth-Sphere doomed to continue its trajectory of decayed capitalism, having to rely on external forces like the League Millitaire and the reformed Crossbone Vanguard. The only hope for humanity seeming to be a group of Newtypes led by ZZ protagonist Judau Ashita: now an old man sealing themselves in cryogenic sleep on a ship bound for Proxima Centauri, seeking to begin anew in a new frontier beyond the already-doomed Sol.

Despite the optimistic note most of the franchise's alternate timelines such as Gundam Wing, Gundam 00 and The Witch from Mercury end on, the Universal Century is doomed to play out the same conflicts with an increasingly-impotent Federation, and Spacenoid movements based in nationalism over class-consciousness out of a lack of a better world on the horizon.

 

[StarSingerBlue]

To Live Forever Among The Stars

When you open the first chapter of Nowhere Stars on your browser, this is the first sentence that meets your eye:
-"Nothing that makes us human is physical."


Nowhere Stars's protagonist, Liadain Shiel, is age thirteen, stuck in a hospice by a degenerative marrow disease, and her greatest wish is to live.

Attacked by a Harbinger, beings born of human emotion, she meets the Messenger, Vyuji, and in exchange for a promise of eternal life, becomes a Keeper, child of magic and change.

And yet, her body remains frail and weak, and her very magic is borne of her illness. What was once the bane of her existence is now her only tool to survive, and to be rid of it is to be rid of her magic.

There are many, many criticisms that have been levied towards the concept of immortality as a positive; from the memories of a thousand-year life blurring together, to more wider concerns of societal stagnation, but one that resonates beyond pure societal or physical limitations is that death is what pushes us. We build monuments so that we will leave something behind us; we write books so that our ideas may not be forgotten.
This persistent idea of loss bringing happiness has been espoused for millenia, notably in Augustine of Hippo's The Confessions. The happiness brought by material things is effectively tied to their presence; relying on food and drink, health and pleasure to be happy means to effectively enslave us to them; the flesh is weak, only through the medium of the mind can true inner peace be achieved, says Augustine.

Death grants meaning. Scarcity breeds want.


The first Harbinger Liadain meets, Yurfaln, seems to agree with this to some degree; born from the belief of another of the hospice's patients that his illness and imminent death allowed him to see the world in a different manner than before, it aims to share this revelation with whatever unfortunate passers-by happen to be nearby.

And it gives Liadain a gift as she kills it; to absorb the pieces of the Harbringers she kills, to incorporate them into her; a kind of immortality built from two bodies.
One can argue that Yurfaln is built to reject that idea of death-as-motive-for-all; it believes that its dying brings it knowledge unfound before, but not that all others may feel the same way.
For there are many reasons why we write books and build statues, and to assign a universal motive to all actions is beyond ridiculous.
And Liadain's life of dying has not brought her some greater revelation or a sense of how beautiful her last few days are; she is hollowed out, abandoned by friends and family, her only companion a stuffed axolotl, and left with a distrustful streak a mile wide (which does not serve her as the story progresses)
It is as she consumes the hearts of monsters, changes and changes and changes, her hair turning white, her blood becoming crows' feathers, she becomes more "human"(1) forging connections with others and finding happiness in her life.

(1) In the sense that emotional connections are held to be a vital part of "what makes people human".

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

We would like to announce Waging War Without Consequence: A Retrospective on the Narrative of the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" Reboot Trilogy by @Kei as the contest winner!

As for our runners-up, @Small Nerd with An Examination of Fighting Game Move Inputs, Or: Quarter Circles Aren't That Bad, I Promise
had a great clarity of argument, whilst @Variable with The Creator: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly was comprehensive and incisive, and @Hawkatana with Mobile Suit Gundam and the Capitalist Realism of the Universal Century provided great historical context.

Thank you to all for participating, and here's to the next Event Contest!