Topics: AvaKane

Filter Topics by Category

10

Fusion: The Flexible Metaphor in Steven Universe

Examining the dynamics of Fusion in the world of Steven Universe and how it’s flexible in multiple meanings by Sugar’s creative world-building application of variety of "kinds" of fusion and its undertones.

  • Like Mrs. Incredible? Hmmm... – Tigey 8 years ago
    5
7

How World Building in Steven Universe is Framed Through The Lens of a Child

In the Cartoon Network production Steven Universe, creator Rebecca Sugar deliberately focuses on the child protagonist Steven as through what Steven learns (or does not take notice of), the audience can gather the hints of the backstory, motives, and origins of the gems.

  • I believe that this exact topic is already being written about, and is currently a pending post? https://the-artifice.com/?p=81501&preview=true – Connor Gregorich-Trevor 8 years ago
    3
3

The "Running Gag" of Antagonists' Families in Rick and Morty

It seems to be a prevailing joke in Rick and Morty that the often-alien antagonists frequently have domestic families and lives that even humanize these supposed antagonists. Even the Freddy Kuger-esque dreamscape killer has a quaint domestic life.

In some ways, it also reminds us that these creatures have stakes too. It parallels in some way to Rick’s family man status. Rick, though a sociopathic, self-centered scientist, is also a family man. How does the existence of their domestic lives ultimately cement how chaotic and complex the multi-verse is and mirror upon Rick’s domestic life?

  • This is really interesting, I never thought about it much until now but you are right, they give a lot of antagonists backstories. A good way to look at it in a neutral way is that it promotes the idea "we do things for others." Although Rick is selfish he cares deeply about Morty and his happiness as seen in him killing the Jelly Bean King that sexually harassed Morty. It's an easy thesis to support considering the end of season 1 Rick gives up the Wubalubadubdub phrase when he finds fulfillment in being with his grandchildren. – Slaidey 9 years ago
    1
1

In Bruges: Harry, Ray, Ken as Schillian archetypes

In Martin McDonagh’s action-tragicomedy film "In Bruges," the assassin Harry represents the overbearing State-figure that philosopher Friedrich Schiller warns about in his Fourth Letter in "On the Aesthetic Education of Man." Harry’s employees, Ray and Ken, are "The Man," subjected to Harry’s authority. How does the movie express these characters as Schillian archetypes?

  • Really really happy someone wants to discuss this movie. Actually after reading the script and re-watching, I had an idea for a similar article, but comparing it to Dante's Inferno. I've never read Schiller, so I'd love to learn about it in this context. – Travis Cohen 8 years ago
    1
  • Have you taken a look at McDonagh's screenplay A Behanding in Spokane? I think you might be able to find some similarities between the two sources. Attempt to tie his writing into multiple sources. – LukeRMcLaughlin 8 years ago
    1
3

Open your Valve, Ignatius: A Confederacy of Dunces and the function of the valve

Ignatius Reilly of the late Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces is one of the most mercilessly disgusting, crude protagonists in literature in his words and his public display of impolite bodily functions such as belching. The mention of his pyloric valve is a special motif, sometimes inconveniencing the protagonist with its pain.

How does Toole use Ignatius’s digestive function and the function of the valve to convey how Ignatius preaches his blasphemous and pretentious ideas.

  • I think this can also be connected to other authors and works like The Marquis de Sade and Rabelais. Many of their characters use the same bodily functions in "public" for uses that have ranged from the political to the carnivalesque. – DClarke 9 years ago
    5
3

Riley's Consciousness of the Irreversibility of Time in Inside Out

In Pete Docter’s Inside Out (2015), Bing Bong woefully watches his "rocket" fall into the dump and laments, "Once we traveled back in time. We had breakfast twice that day." Though seeming to be a throwaway remark at first, the line is more resonate due to the imagined subject of time travel alluded to there.

  • This is a cool deep read into that line. The way Bing Bong lamented it, that bittersweet feeling (I was choking up) of time's relentless finality is what audiences resonated with (mostly all adult). I think the motif of the memory spheres is something interesting to think about in this case. In a way, the preservation of those core moments in Riley's life are the preservation of time itself, despite its finality. Time, to the Emotions, I think could be this subjective context where the idea is that the way they understand Time is different from, or maybe even accumulates into, Riley's understanding of time as a human being. Different how? Not entirely sure.... but I think there's some value in determining whether or not the irreversability of time is understood the same way between Riley and the Emotions. Joy can freely replay, choose, and save the memories she thinks Riley needs or wants (which results in the process of memory recall in her head) - could that be considered a way of getting around time's finality? Does memory serve as the one way out of time's shadow over our process of growing up? – thebrobster 9 years ago
    1
  • I think the line is particularly powerful as well because it refers to a state in childhood where we think we'll never grow up, that time never stops, or that things will go on this way forever. When we look back as adults, we long for this carefree moment in our lives. Bing Bong was the physical manifestation of childhood, as one of its markers, an imaginary friend. **SPOILER** When he disappears we realize that Riley is growing up, and that she will never go back to that period in her life. It's a marker that her childhood is gone, and she is entering adolescence. As much as we want to go back in time and bring back Bing Bong, he is lost forever. We cannot travel back in time. – Emilie Medland-Marchen 9 years ago
    1
1

Ascension as Proportional to Restriction in Studio Ghibli's Princess Kaguya

In Isao Tahakata’s Princess Kaguya, the heroine undergoes a process of ascension in the form of her class status (and later, perhaps spirituality) and suffers the restrictions of Japanese mores in upper-class life.

    1

    Kuvira's Single Deep Breath in the Legend of Korra

    One of the most chilling ending shots in the Legend of Korra is the scene of Kuvira, the Book 4 antagonist, taking a single deep breath after essentially sacrificing her betrothed to a deadly gunfire. This article analyzes how within a single breath Kuvira’s intricacies are revealed.

    • Honestly, I think you should write this article yourself since you seem to have an idea of what these intricacies might be. I personally thought that that breath wasn't really a breath of hesitation or mustering of will, but more of a sigh of annoyance (as in a "another pest has appeared that I must remove" sort of way). I'd love to hear what you have to say about it though; this seems interesting. If you'll comment back, I'll remove this right away. – Austin 9 years ago
      2
    3

    Top 10 Remarkable Moments in Steven Universe First Season

    Steven Universe, a Cartoon Network production by an Adventure Time alumni, not only entertains, but tugs at the heartstrings.

    • This article would need an detailed introduction regarding what the program is along with using videos of the scenes mentioned, if they are available. – Ryan Errington 9 years ago
      2
    2

    Undertones of Post-Catastrophe in Adventure Time and Steven Universe

    Both Cartoon Network productions, Adventure Time and Steven Universe (made by an Adventure Time alumni) share an intriguing aspect: their settings are later revealed to be post-catastrophe as their episodes progress.

      0

      The Preservation of Art in The Secret of Kells

      Delving into the importance of art in Tomm Moore’s Secret of Kells.

      • I think you could even expand this to Tom Moore's film Song of the Sea that was just released. It has the same art style as The Secret of Kells. – Cagney 9 years ago
        1
      • This is a quality topic. I just saw this movie for the firs time about a month ago and immediately spent several hours looking up information about it. It's beautiful. I would love to see an article about this (I don't think I know enough about it to do it myself). Since no one has chosen this topic in a while (I see it's been almost a year), can you feasibly write it yourself? Consider yourself encouraged to do so! – Katheryn 8 years ago
        0
      1

      Spousal Abandonment in Tahakata's Princess Kaguya

      Delving and analyzing the brief allusions of spousal abandonment in the Studio Ghibli film, Isao Tahakata’s Princess Kaguya.

      • Having recently seen Princess Kaguya myself, I feel you can cover more themes. Such as the consequences of individual actions and their relation to human failings, like greed. – Ryan Errington 9 years ago
        0