A New Icon is Needed
Jul. 18th, 2024 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse I should probably make myself a Mona Lisa Overpod icon, so you all can see at a glance when I'm hyping (or talking about) my podcast and respond accordingly. The fourth episode has dropped. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7I9RjNxKXWczWK8ZKC2J3d, in which we discuss the second Ghost in the Shell movie, Innocence.
I failed to articulate a point that I desperately tried to make during the podcast--like, I think I try twice (at least during recording) and I think I failed both times. It was one of those moments when, as I was driving to the store, immediately after we'd finished recording when I was fully hit with an "I shoulda said."
I will say that listening to part of it last night before my iPad's battery ran out, I was impressed with my co-host's editing ability, because I managed to sound pretty articulate all around.
But, so, the point I was trying to make was why Innocence fell flat for me. I managed to discuss the fact that I felt like the movie missed an opportunity for a gut-punch in the feels, despite having all the elements that should have made it possible. What I failed to articulate is this: there was a scene that was missing--not one intentionally left out by the director, but one that should have been written in.
The basic story, if you don't know it is that there are these sex bots gone wild. They are turning on their owners and murdering them. It is immediately clear that this is a cry for help (because one of the sex bots begs for help before Batou dispatches it in the LITERAL opening scene.) Through the course of the investigation, we discover that the sex bots are being "ghosted" by actual trafficked human children. In the end the children are sort of rescued, but then are admonished for "causing trouble" and murdering people. That alone is unsatisfactory, which I was able to express. But, the scene that we should have had but never got was seeing how the people who owned these sex bots treated them. I am not asking for a gross sex scene, but I would have liked to see something to show me, as the viewer, whether or not their violence was justified. As it was, we just had to imagine the worst. We had no concrete evidence that the people who died deserved their fate or whether or not it was more complicated than all that (which would have then tempered Batou's weird lecturing about the harm done by children who were trying to escape sex slavery, and worse, since the ghosting eventually killed the hosts.)
It was a kind of show don't tell. We were told by a number of people how the sex bots felt about being used and abused, but we never got to see the sex bots feel anything other than a blank-faced murder spree.
That ended up making the film seem hollow as a result.
At least for me.
Anyway, even if you skimmed this, I feel better for having had a chance to finally articulate my point! Listen, if it's your thing. if not, well, hopefully we'll hit something at some point that will be.
I failed to articulate a point that I desperately tried to make during the podcast--like, I think I try twice (at least during recording) and I think I failed both times. It was one of those moments when, as I was driving to the store, immediately after we'd finished recording when I was fully hit with an "I shoulda said."
I will say that listening to part of it last night before my iPad's battery ran out, I was impressed with my co-host's editing ability, because I managed to sound pretty articulate all around.
But, so, the point I was trying to make was why Innocence fell flat for me. I managed to discuss the fact that I felt like the movie missed an opportunity for a gut-punch in the feels, despite having all the elements that should have made it possible. What I failed to articulate is this: there was a scene that was missing--not one intentionally left out by the director, but one that should have been written in.
The basic story, if you don't know it is that there are these sex bots gone wild. They are turning on their owners and murdering them. It is immediately clear that this is a cry for help (because one of the sex bots begs for help before Batou dispatches it in the LITERAL opening scene.) Through the course of the investigation, we discover that the sex bots are being "ghosted" by actual trafficked human children. In the end the children are sort of rescued, but then are admonished for "causing trouble" and murdering people. That alone is unsatisfactory, which I was able to express. But, the scene that we should have had but never got was seeing how the people who owned these sex bots treated them. I am not asking for a gross sex scene, but I would have liked to see something to show me, as the viewer, whether or not their violence was justified. As it was, we just had to imagine the worst. We had no concrete evidence that the people who died deserved their fate or whether or not it was more complicated than all that (which would have then tempered Batou's weird lecturing about the harm done by children who were trying to escape sex slavery, and worse, since the ghosting eventually killed the hosts.)
It was a kind of show don't tell. We were told by a number of people how the sex bots felt about being used and abused, but we never got to see the sex bots feel anything other than a blank-faced murder spree.
That ended up making the film seem hollow as a result.
At least for me.
Anyway, even if you skimmed this, I feel better for having had a chance to finally articulate my point! Listen, if it's your thing. if not, well, hopefully we'll hit something at some point that will be.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-19 12:18 am (UTC)I kindasorta have a sex bot story that I've noodled with, on and off, for years. And I think the main reason I haven't written it ever is because every time I start, I think to myself, "should I really be writing this?" and the answer is consistently, "no." I typically wish more people would ask themselves this before they write a sex bot story.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-19 01:06 pm (UTC)As an aside, I've been really enjoying your podcast, too, by the way!
no subject
Date: 2024-07-19 01:15 pm (UTC)And thank you! Who'd have thought I'd be any good at it.