+1000 (Gaming)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Thursday, February 18, 2021, 11:26 (1464 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by Kermit, Thursday, February 18, 2021, 11:32

It’s a lot easier to accept Super Mario as just a video game that’s supposed to be fun without really considering the values of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario perpetuates the notion of women as reward. Rescue the Princess, get a kiss.

I think this is 100% why in Mario Odyssey at the end of the game Peach leaves on her own and doesn't get with anyone.

If we’re really going to poke at that angle, we could just as easily say the game is presenting the idea that bravery, determination, and the willingness to self-sacrifice are behaviours that other people admire and find attractive. Which happens to be generally true.

And when you are a hero in real life, what happens when you then DON’T get the girl? How would the message you just expressed affect you then?

You put a lot of responsibility on one story. If you have been formed by a culture the inherently values bravery, determination, and self-sacrifice (which by definition means you've been exposed to more sophisticated morals than "do good, get a cookie), you already realize that disappointment is a possibility. One hopes that by a certain age you've witnessed unhappy endings or heard stories about them and in the process have gained some psychological tools that make disappointment more bearable. But it's not a bad thing that fiction is satisfying in ways that life is not. Fiction can often help us by presenting the possibility of a satisfying ending, if not now, in the future.

What happens when you come back from a war, and nobody really gives a shit about what you did there?

You write "The Things They Carried," and get nominated for a Pulitzer, and you raise that number from zero to several million.