Violence and (Geek) Entertainment

[AnotherGuy]

Consequences and realism is something superhero movies are pretty poor at. And dumb down audiences eat it up and keep on supporting the machine so Hollyweird keeps making the same shlock year after year. It's why I disliked Man of Steel. And it's not just violence, it's everything. There is absolutely no critical thinking happening in these movies.

 

[SableWyvern]

I think more media, even media aimed at children, should better show the consequences of violence. Don't go thinking I'm a monster, I'm a reasonable person after all, at least I think I am, so it's not like I want to expose a six year old to an episode of GI Joe where Duke holds Scarlet as she attempts to hold in her intestines after Stormshadow guts her with a katana. While that's a reasonable consequences to having someone slash your belly with a razor sharp sword, I'm inclined to keep things age appropriate. And I do think injuries and even character deaths can be age appropriate for children.

My brother plays in an occasional OSR/Stonehell game I run for my niece and nephew (ages around 9 and 11). I don't tend to adjust the way I run the game for the kids (I'm a little more circumspect in some areas, but overall, not a huge difference).

Last session, my niece used a sleep spell on some berserkers. My brother decided they needed to be despatched to prevent later issues. If my players want to murder helpless foes, I'm not going to sugar coat it so, when my nephew's cleric joined in the slaughter, I mentioned the mace caving in heads. My brother thought that was a bit much. I just shrugged -- he's the one one that encouraged this course of action, if he doesn't want his kids involved in this kind of violence, don't suggest that course of action.

To be clear, I don't usually add that level of detail in this particular game, but if you're going to go all murderhobo, you don't get to ignore what that means.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

realism is something superhero movies are pretty poor at

Way to point out the bleedin obvious. “Superhero” and “realism” are diametric opposites. But that’s not a problem in itself. Entertainment is not supposed to be realistic, it’s supposed to be entertaining. The overwhelming majority of movies are not realistic, the superhero genre is just more up front about it. Man of Steel was a bad superhero movie.

 

[Retros_x]

Entertainment is not supposed to be realistic, it’s supposed to be entertaining.

I think the part that makes me thoughtful is that these heroic violence without consequence or suffering are popular entertainment and the main thing. It feels a bit concerning in current political climate. Where are the big comedies in cinema that I had in my youth for example.

In general I also don't like when the consequence of violence is not shown. What I also would like to see more is not just the consequences for victims and collaterals but also the consequence for the characters and systems and societes who are violent. That it does something to people. But there is often not even a hint of reflection of the own deeds.

Makes me love the story of Vinland Saga more, where the main character really reflects on the violence he did to others.

 

[Tonguez]

I just recall that Stephen King did Maximum Overdrive and Tommyknockers which just shows that over the top kills are equally pornographic and movies need to play to their audience be it family friendly PG or X rated gore

 

[MarkB]

Just to point out, in Captain America Civil War they did revisit some of the prior movies' action scenes and show that there was a human cost to those events, using it as a driving force for that movie's plot.

And Infinity War managed to make the scale of its cost in lives pretty clear, with the long-term consequences being keenly felt in Endgame's Five Years Later scenes. And while, yes, many of those lives were restored in the end, that event still gives me much to think about in terms of how many more lives must have been lost in the immediate aftermath of the Snap that were never restored.

I do get the point, though. I remember thinking that the cartoon violence of the Home Alone movies was far more dangerous to expose kids to than anything in actual cartoons, because it gave the impression that doing those things for real would cause no major consequences.

 

[Ryujin]

People have been referring to this "problem" ever since Wile E. Coyote ran off a cliff and Daffy Duck got shot in the beak with a shotgun.

 

[TiQuinn]

You say this but many European cities - particularly tourist heavy ones can become extremely quiet on back streets in the late evening as everyone is either at dinner, in a bar, or home. Obviously varies. I remember walking around Venice at 9pm and being amazed that we saw 3 people in about 30 minutes of walking, obviously Paris is busier but it’s not beyond the realms of possible. My gut feeling was that street chase was much later than 9pm!

Maybe it’s because I’ve been to Rome so I knew exactly how busy that place can be even at night. Venice, yeah. It’s on an island, and the canal system means there’s not a lot of major streets and less traffic overall. But even then, that’s just a single example. I’ve noticed this in other movies where the locations just feel so unnatural because they are clearly depopulated.

 

[The Soloist]

Escapism vs Realism: Your choice what you want to watch and how often you want to watch of each. I'm not judging.

Did King have a new book to sell when he said that?

 

[Ryujin]

Maybe it’s because I’ve been to Rome so I knew exactly how busy that place can be even at night. Venice, yeah. It’s on an island, and the canal system means there’s not a lot of major streets and less traffic overall. But even then, that’s just a single example. I’ve noticed this in other movies where the locations just feel so unnatural because they are clearly depopulated.

Shooting the chase scene between The Joker and Batman, for "Suicide Squad", on an empty street in Downtown Toronto. Yonge Street is never empty, if it's open. Not even at 3:00am. There were a couple of hundred people watching the filming from the third floor windows in our Student Campus Center, who had to be shot around.