When they don't make the demons evil

demons they're everywhere in fiction whether or not it's your favorite horror movie or one of the many anime that heavily embraced the demon Trope and often probably because the spiritual and religious context in which we were introduced to Demons their morals run opposite to what we'd consider good but what if they didn't have to be evil what if they were still a monster that the hero had to face but there wasn't this implied morality how might that influence a story and what can it teach us about media literacy welcome to a running series called exploring fear in my name is pay and today we're talking about when the monster is an evil so one of the most common things you're taught when you're learning to write is something called the four types of conflict person versus person person versus self person versus society and person versus nature there's also this expanded list where there's seven total the remaining three being person versus fate person versus the unknown and person versus technology I think those three are extensions of the original four but before we get there people are that you could take any conflict in a story and it would fall under one of those seven categories and maybe even depending on how you look at it one of the four often stories are not made up of just one type of conflict but there tends to be an overarching primary conflict there are some examples that are more obvious and others that seem complex is Avatar the Last Arab Ender person versus person with Ang fighting oai or is it person versus self Ang overcoming the internal conflict that comes with the responsibility of being the avatar whether or not it's him coming to terms with the fact that he ran away in the beginning of the story or finding a non-violent solution that both satisfies his responsibility as the Avatar and his personal morals not to kill rules in screenwriting and literature tend to be less definitive than you'd think but they still help guide us in understanding and analyzing storytelling now monster movies often fall into the category of person versus the unknown alien the thing it predator and in all of these cases there's generally speaking an assumed malice these monsters don't just exist they are going out of their way to pursue Our Heroes and threaten their safety these stories are built around the general human inclination to fear the unknown We're Not Afraid of the Dark we're just afraid of what could be in it that we can't see the inclination to assume malice in the unknown is actually the entire premise behind the Dark Forest Theory it's also a natural byproduct of something that all living things experience the overwhelming urge to self-preservation at least to the point of reproduction is a fundamental part of evolution that asterisk was included by the way because of animals like salmon and praying mices those guys are crazy so person versus the unknown is built around that fear but if you were to look at person versus nature you wouldn't assume malice just existence in Cast Away none of the challenges the protagonists face come from a malicious Place bad WEA that takes the plane down or the harsh living conditions that he needs to survive they're not evil they're just nature and this is where frear and Beyond Journey's End comes in there are demons in this show and actually before the story started they were the primary antagonist but I believe demons in furin represent nature not the unknown and that's incredibly important for understanding and interpreting the morals that are implied in the story so at first glance I don't think everyone would agree that the demons INF fur and aren't evil but I do think there's a pretty good case to be made because so far in the story I think every action a demon makes can be tracked to two major purposes the first is that demons eat humans the second is that demons just like any other creature have an urge to self-preserving of evolution and survival of the fittest all of the tools and skills demons have developed are a byproduct of those two major factors language for example is something that furin specifically focuses on a lot demons use language to trap and self-preserving so while they don't even really know what a father is they know if they bring it up they're less likely to be killed because essentially this is an extreme and complex form of pattern recognition there are many different studies done with animals to measure cognitive ability for example the mirror test is an animal capable of recognizing itself as an object in a mirror rather than another animal it showcases self-awareness based off of current research only a handful of animals have passed this test so far when these cognitive Studies have extended to animals ability to understand and communicate in human language there have been a couple major barriers like the ability to ask questions now demons in furin are capable levels of communication beyond that I'm just arguing that the use of language comes secondary to other forms of communication in their culture their primary form of communication seems to be based off of shows of strength kind of like a herd of animals that has a leader their social hierarchies are based off of Mana which represents the strength of their main tool of self-preservation magic so let's answer the question as to why why this is all important in the seventh episode of furin there's this line between furin and lugner where he says she looks at him like he's a wild animal to which she responds well aren't you something I've argued a lot in this series and in general is that art exists Beyond itself stories rarely exist in a vacuum inherent to Art is both interpretation and morals and themes when I first watched Fen the writing decision surrounding demons was something I was incredibly hesitant about often especially in Western media humanoid creatures that are the target of discrimination are used as a thinly veiled metaphor for racism because of this Trope and tendency when demons were first introduced in furin I was very nervous that it was some sort of dog whistle demons were introduced as these unredeemable dangerous creatures and I didn't like that implication it felt like a writing decision that got muddied because of context completely independent of the story so this is where the thesis of the video comes into play by understanding the type of story being told for example the form of conflict you can better understand the theme being implied lied if this is person versus person or person versus unknown suddenly there's bigger implications but if it's person versus nature we no longer have that assumed malice and implication in that situation humans and demons must both act out of self-preservation it's not evil for humans to act in self-defense or for demons to try to sustain themselves they're simply at odds with one another because of their natural inclination and I think if you go back and watch a lot of these scenes from this Arc of furin you'll notice that none of the Demons seem to act from a place of malice they are creatures with ego and coldness disconnects from things that we would normally Define as human and with this new lens there's no metaphor or dog whistle applying to human conflict it also makes for an incredibly fascinating antagonist for Our Heroes to face I feel like this is a really cool subversion of the evil demon and this also extends Beyond furin there's this common discussion especially in anime about the inclusion of bad things in media in art when should or shouldn't Terrible Things be included in anime I often see people justifying the inclusion of terrible things in media under the lens that it makes it more realistic but more often than not I feel like these dark topics aren't treated with the respect they deserve a piece of fiction can include terrible things but it's really important that the story condemns them I also believe the more severe a dark topic is the more important it should be for the story if characters are justifying the theme must run in opposition take for example the controversial book Lolita at first glance you might look at the story as justifying or glorifying heinous acts but the point of the story is actually to criticize the topic it's written about to oversimplify the protagonist is the bad guy and the entire story is to explore how he can convince himself what he's doing is okay it's built around the rationalization of unacceptable actions and this criticism of the topic is why it can be accepted as a classic despite its very controversial topic now I'm incredibly critical of the popular running series moku tensei and I think that criticism comes from the central conflict in the story because the thing that initially got me to try the show was the premise of redemption people told me that the story was about someone who's bad learning to be better I think that's a large reason why people love the show as much as they do and I believe aspects of moku tensei do a very good job especially in the first season of including dark things that seem relevant to the story Rudi's unhealthy obsession with sex is a byproduct of his selfworth this show constantly dances around the line of what is isn't acceptable but in the first season it felt like largely there were consequences for his bad actions the author wasn't condoning them and in the finale in some ways it felt like they treated the entire topic with more respect and that in retrospect Justified more of the Season before it but I feel like so much of that progress and growth was undermined in the next season and more than anything bad actions seemed glorified as much as criticized I thought Mich kensei was person versus self rudus overcoming his shortcomings and pitfalls growing and learning the impacts of his actions that everyone is a human being and they deserve respect but I feel like the story became person versus society and then suddenly all of the hypers sexualization that was being included stopped feeling Justified the bad actions were rewarded by understanding the type of conflict a story is engaging and it can help you understand the morals being argued art is meant to be interpreted and an interpretation is not definitive my perspective on mokut tensei is far from absolute it's likely tons of people disagree with what I'm saying and that's okay but Michelle gensei lost me because I was consuming the story under the assumption that Rudy was on some sort of path of redemption a character meant to be liked despite his shortcomings who would eventually grow through them the more I saw the way they executed that story the less I believed it was the actual story they were trying to tell whereas with Fen at first I was so hesitant but the more I sat with it discussed it and talked to people around me the more I feel justified in consuming the content and the moral argument being implied and that was all supported in better understanding the tools used to tell the story because if the demons aren't evil it adds so much to the story

Channel: pey talks anime

Views: 49,116

Keywords: anime, anime video essay, pey, pey the musician, Frieren, Frieren video essay, exploring frieren, pey talks anime, pet talks anime, pey frieren

Id: PvvPcgnUNvE

Length: 10min 27sec (627 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 10 2024