But seriously, nice video. I love your stuff Bob. I've never spoken my mind before, but I've been watching your stuff since around your 5th episode or so. Very rarely have I disagreed with any of your points and I encourage you to create more amazing videos riddled with philosophical thought and logical rhetoric. Aha ha ha~
Link will be easy,what with Arthurian legends providing a sword in a stone, J.R.R. Tolkien giving us elven warriors, and pretty much all the other Fantasy tropes that are out there. Still would be interesting, though.Mario on the other hand would be harder to pin down, at least for me. Bob's second video, I think, did cover some religious themes, but aside from that, Mario is unique. I do know he was originally going to be Pop Eye, though, in Donkey Kong. Maybe Bob will talk about unconventional heroes? What do you have to say about the subject, Mr Chipman?
For some reason, I've been having trouble getting the videos to load from here, regardless of which browser I use, but I can get them to load from ScrewAttack.
The video cut out for me, so I can only respond to part of it... and even then, not in depth since I'm not a Mega Man fan and nor is there something blatant I should agree/disagree with.
I did find the history of the word Robot itself interesting. It's not something I would have ever expected... and that's pretty much all I saw... still, great video!
@bwmedia I have the same problems you do. Usually searching the video up on Screwattack works for me, but if that doesn't, then... I'm sorry to say that we'll might have to wait for a Youtube video to come up.
Anyway Bob, I forgot to add this: I'm a PC gamer... well, that, in the sense that I refuse to pick up a console controller, mainly because I can't use one effectively anymore, but that's aside from the point. The last three or four videos, I'm pretty sure I disagreed with you and voiced where I did pretty strongly. I mean, usually where I did, I, especially in the last one, defended the grungy games more than anything (in that case, Halo as art), and that's why I'm unsure.
So... am I one of those PC gaming snobs mentioned in the video?
Didn't like this video. It made a lot of connection, but a lot of them didn't go anywhere.
Megaman is definitely a memetic descendant of Astroboy, to the point where Megaman as the blue Astroboy parallels Sonic as the blue Mickey Mouse pretty strongly. And Astroboy definitely has some shades of Pinocchio. That was good. That's true.
The rest just looks like you spent an hour on Wikipedia reading random pages. So instead of a really strong chronological connection (Pinocchio > Astroboy > Megaman) you get this weird net of memetic connections that circle around with out going anywhere. (Megaman > Robots > Asimov > 2001:A Space Odyssey> ? > Da Vinci > ?> Metropolis > The Other Metropolis > Osamu Tezuka > Pinnochio)
Da Vinci has nothing to do with Asimov. Nothing. Asimov had no idea about Da Vinci's robots when he made his most influential work. And Asimov is only weakly connected to Astroboy.
So, yeah, there was some good stuff, but a lot of stuff that didn't really need to be there.
I like most of your stuff, but this was kind of lame in comparison to your best. Good luck next time.
I feel the same way as Zaxser - lots of neat background information, but I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make. That Mega Man is in fact a successor in a long chronology of robot fiction? Yeah, uh, okay, and the same could be said of nearly anything else in the genre. While I certainly appreciate the effort, and I enjoyed the video, I feel like this might have departed a bit from your usual types of discussion - though to be fair, coming up with new topics can be difficult, as I've found after starting my own blog.
The dissertation on robots was pretty interesting, and I loved the big brough-ha-ha over Tezuka-sama, but I think you're selling the Indiana Jones series short. You could go pretty deep into it's pulp roots if you wanted to.
I think this is a case of the work demonstrating the prejudices of it's creator. Not that that's a bad thing, I just think it's a bit unfair to impugn other works as simple because their roots aren't as interesting to you.
Excellent work, felt a bit short, very informationally dense and gave a real sense of your passion for the subject.
I actually enjoyed it in the exploration of the history that influenced megaman's archetype of boy-robot saves the world.
However, I think it needs work, but it's a first try at a new idea. In my opinion, if I can say you strode a little too far into the Overthinking part of your show with Bayonette and Building a better gamer but your last two videos have been fairly exemplary , and I hope you do this again, possibly with an old school character who's origins are a little murkier ....like say Samus Aran?
In addition, Id like you returning to your roots covering the bullshit and the controversies in the gaming world.
I agree with Zaxser as well. I wish we saw more stuff like your Bayonetta video--there was some hearty, well-thought critique of the Bayonetta character design there. You really focused on her and made a point. Here, it felt like you were just explaining where a lot of our stereotypes come from. Still an entertaining vid, and I learned some stuff about Tezuka Osamu, but I think ultimately not your best stuff.
I have to agree with others here, what you spoke of was more in terms of robots in general rather than concepts relating to Megaman universe in particular.
For example, the influence of the two scientists, Doctor Light and Doctor Wily could be easily seen as a sort of Asimovian concept of how some would abuse the A.I and how some would treat it as close to human.
I actually though this was the worst video you have made so far.
First, I agree with the main criticism that the same thing about megaman could be said about nearly ANY robot character. When you go so broad that you are considering magical creatures (golems and even Pinocchio I thought was a stretch) as robots I think the whole point becomes weak. Sure, Pinocchio influence astroboy who was a heavy influence on Megaman, but give that SPECIFIC connection instead of equating Pinocchio to robots.
However, there is a much much larger problem at hand here when doing something like this. In Literature in New Critical thought this would be called the intentional fallacy. It seems here that you are saying that these are all the things that inspired megaman; all the things that megaman was intended to be. I know it sounds trivial, but it would do a whole lot more to the video just to explain what megaman makes you think of. If megaman actually makes you think of a Golem, or Pinnochio then say that, but I think you would be much more hesitant to actually say that. (Or perhaps not with the Japanese title: Rockman hmmmm...)
Sorry to leave a very long winded comment, but I really feel that you butchered this character analysis. It could have been so much better, and I've seen you do so much better. (I LOVED your "I <3 Bayonetta" episode) However it is much easier for me to give criticism because I don't actually do anything like this. =P
Hey Bob, here's a fun fact, Ishinomori also wrote and drew the Nintendo Power Zelda comic based on A Link to the Past. The character Roam is essentially a palette swap of Jet Link aka Cyborg 002 from another Ishinomori series Cyborg 009. Surprised you didn't bring that up
Great vid as always... Just wanted to pop in and say it's pronounced "Kah-men" Rider. I did find the Da Vinci stuff really interesting, and I'm a big fan of Osamu Tezuka. His titles of God of Manga, and Godfather of Anime are both well deserved. What did you think of his series "Buddha"? I found itto be a very well written, very imaginitive re-imaging of the life of the man who started one of our planets biggest religions. It was also the first work of his I ever read. I'd love to sit down with some collected edition of Astro Boy someday... Might give the 2003 remake anime a spin...
Cool video. Just thought I'll add that the idea of artificially created people goes back even furthur than Da Vinci and the Golem. I'm pretty sure you've heard of Hephaestus, the Ancient Greek God of metalworking (known as Vulcan by the Romans). Well according to legend, Heph constucted several women servants out of metal to help him out when blacksmithing. The word 'automaton' comes from Ancient Greek. That's rights folks, the idea of robots goes back as far the Ancient Greeks.
Another thing I just noticed you forgot: The charatcer's names. In Japan, MegaMan is called Rockman, the girl is called Roll, and the dog is named Rush.
Rock & Roll, and Rush. Yep, it's all a big pun, folks!
You're a smart, very well-learned guy Bob, so your extreme bias towards retro-nintendo characters never ceases to amaze me. You can label Halo and Uncharted in a matter of seconds yet it takes an overlong video to say "Megaman is based on Astroboy" I appreciate you like to show off a lot but you can do so in much less hypocritic ways, like in your Bayonetta video. It's a shame you don't like to be called a retro-fanboy because that's what you are, just an overthinking one.
26 comments:
First!!!! :D
But seriously, nice video. I love your stuff Bob. I've never spoken my mind before, but I've been watching your stuff since around your 5th episode or so. Very rarely have I disagreed with any of your points and I encourage you to create more amazing videos riddled with philosophical thought and logical rhetoric.
Aha ha ha~
Was never a big MM fan, but this was interesting.
Can't wait to see a Who's Your Daddy on Mario or Link though.
Link will be easy,what with Arthurian legends providing a sword in a stone, J.R.R. Tolkien giving us elven warriors, and pretty much all the other Fantasy tropes that are out there. Still would be interesting, though.Mario on the other hand would be harder to pin down, at least for me. Bob's second video, I think, did cover some religious themes, but aside from that, Mario is unique. I do know he was originally going to be Pop Eye, though, in Donkey Kong. Maybe Bob will talk about unconventional heroes? What do you have to say about the subject, Mr Chipman?
Very nice educational vid. can't wait for more overthinker :)
For some reason, I've been having trouble getting the videos to load from here, regardless of which browser I use, but I can get them to load from ScrewAttack.
Anyway, interesting video.
finally!
The video cut out for me, so I can only respond to part of it... and even then, not in depth since I'm not a Mega Man fan and nor is there something blatant I should agree/disagree with.
I did find the history of the word Robot itself interesting. It's not something I would have ever expected... and that's pretty much all I saw... still, great video!
@bwmedia I have the same problems you do. Usually searching the video up on Screwattack works for me, but if that doesn't, then... I'm sorry to say that we'll might have to wait for a Youtube video to come up.
Ergh, where's an edit button when you need one...
Anyway Bob, I forgot to add this: I'm a PC gamer... well, that, in the sense that I refuse to pick up a console controller, mainly because I can't use one effectively anymore, but that's aside from the point. The last three or four videos, I'm pretty sure I disagreed with you and voiced where I did pretty strongly. I mean, usually where I did, I, especially in the last one, defended the grungy games more than anything (in that case, Halo as art), and that's why I'm unsure.
So... am I one of those PC gaming snobs mentioned in the video?
Didn't like this video. It made a lot of connection, but a lot of them didn't go anywhere.
Megaman is definitely a memetic descendant of Astroboy, to the point where Megaman as the blue Astroboy parallels Sonic as the blue Mickey Mouse pretty strongly. And Astroboy definitely has some shades of Pinocchio. That was good. That's true.
The rest just looks like you spent an hour on Wikipedia reading random pages. So instead of a really strong chronological connection (Pinocchio > Astroboy > Megaman) you get this weird net of memetic connections that circle around with out going anywhere. (Megaman > Robots > Asimov > 2001:A Space Odyssey> ? > Da Vinci > ?> Metropolis > The Other Metropolis > Osamu Tezuka > Pinnochio)
Da Vinci has nothing to do with Asimov. Nothing. Asimov had no idea about Da Vinci's robots when he made his most influential work. And Asimov is only weakly connected to Astroboy.
So, yeah, there was some good stuff, but a lot of stuff that didn't really need to be there.
I like most of your stuff, but this was kind of lame in comparison to your best. Good luck next time.
I feel the same way as Zaxser - lots of neat background information, but I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make. That Mega Man is in fact a successor in a long chronology of robot fiction? Yeah, uh, okay, and the same could be said of nearly anything else in the genre. While I certainly appreciate the effort, and I enjoyed the video, I feel like this might have departed a bit from your usual types of discussion - though to be fair, coming up with new topics can be difficult, as I've found after starting my own blog.
The dissertation on robots was pretty interesting, and I loved the big brough-ha-ha over Tezuka-sama, but I think you're selling the Indiana Jones series short. You could go pretty deep into it's pulp roots if you wanted to.
I think this is a case of the work demonstrating the prejudices of it's creator. Not that that's a bad thing, I just think it's a bit unfair to impugn other works as simple because their roots aren't as interesting to you.
Excellent work, felt a bit short, very informationally dense and gave a real sense of your passion for the subject.
I actually enjoyed it in the exploration of the history that influenced megaman's archetype of boy-robot saves the world.
However, I think it needs work, but it's a first try at a new idea. In my opinion, if I can say you strode a little too far into the Overthinking part of your show with Bayonette and Building a better gamer but your last two videos have been fairly exemplary , and I hope you do this again, possibly with an old school character who's origins are a little murkier ....like say Samus Aran?
In addition, Id like you returning to your roots covering the bullshit and the controversies in the gaming world.
Hope this doesnt come off too much as flaming
~The Lost Sorcerer
I agree with Zaxser as well. I wish we saw more stuff like your Bayonetta video--there was some hearty, well-thought critique of the Bayonetta character design there. You really focused on her and made a point. Here, it felt like you were just explaining where a lot of our stereotypes come from. Still an entertaining vid, and I learned some stuff about Tezuka Osamu, but I think ultimately not your best stuff.
Cool, simple, charming... I love this subseries already, Bob.
How do I contact the Game OverThinker?
I've got an idea for a new topic he might be interested in.
I have to agree with others here, what you spoke of was more in terms of robots in general rather than concepts relating to Megaman universe in particular.
For example, the influence of the two scientists, Doctor Light and Doctor Wily could be easily seen as a sort of Asimovian concept of how some would abuse the A.I and how some would treat it as close to human.
I actually though this was the worst video you have made so far.
First, I agree with the main criticism that the same thing about megaman could be said about nearly ANY robot character. When you go so broad that you are considering magical creatures (golems and even Pinocchio I thought was a stretch) as robots I think the whole point becomes weak. Sure, Pinocchio influence astroboy who was a heavy influence on Megaman, but give that SPECIFIC connection instead of equating Pinocchio to robots.
However, there is a much much larger problem at hand here when doing something like this. In Literature in New Critical thought this would be called the intentional fallacy. It seems here that you are saying that these are all the things that inspired megaman; all the things that megaman was intended to be. I know it sounds trivial, but it would do a whole lot more to the video just to explain what megaman makes you think of. If megaman actually makes you think of a Golem, or Pinnochio then say that, but I think you would be much more hesitant to actually say that. (Or perhaps not with the Japanese title: Rockman hmmmm...)
Sorry to leave a very long winded comment, but I really feel that you butchered this character analysis. It could have been so much better, and I've seen you do so much better. (I LOVED your "I <3 Bayonetta" episode) However it is much easier for me to give criticism because I don't actually do anything like this. =P
Keep up the hard work!
I object to your insulting Ringworld by comparing it to Halo. :P
Hey Bob, here's a fun fact, Ishinomori also wrote and drew the Nintendo Power Zelda comic based on A Link to the Past. The character Roam is essentially a palette swap of Jet Link aka Cyborg 002 from another Ishinomori series Cyborg 009. Surprised you didn't bring that up
Great vid as always... Just wanted to pop in and say it's pronounced "Kah-men" Rider. I did find the Da Vinci stuff really interesting, and I'm a big fan of Osamu Tezuka. His titles of God of Manga, and Godfather of Anime are both well deserved. What did you think of his series "Buddha"? I found itto be a very well written, very imaginitive re-imaging of the life of the man who started one of our planets biggest religions. It was also the first work of his I ever read. I'd love to sit down with some collected edition of Astro Boy someday... Might give the 2003 remake anime a spin...
Cool video. Just thought I'll add that the idea of artificially created people goes back even furthur than Da Vinci and the Golem.
I'm pretty sure you've heard of Hephaestus, the Ancient Greek God of metalworking (known as Vulcan by the Romans). Well according to legend, Heph constucted several women servants out of metal to help him out when blacksmithing. The word 'automaton' comes from Ancient Greek.
That's rights folks, the idea of robots goes back as far the Ancient Greeks.
I absolutely love it! A perfect history lesson for my generation.
Another thing I just noticed you forgot: The charatcer's names. In Japan, MegaMan is called Rockman, the girl is called Roll, and the dog is named Rush.
Rock & Roll, and Rush. Yep, it's all a big pun, folks!
You're a smart, very well-learned guy Bob, so your extreme bias towards retro-nintendo characters never ceases to amaze me.
You can label Halo and Uncharted in a matter of seconds yet it takes an overlong video to say "Megaman is based on Astroboy"
I appreciate you like to show off a lot but you can do so in much less hypocritic ways, like in your Bayonetta video.
It's a shame you don't like to be called a retro-fanboy because that's what you are, just an overthinking one.
This was so all over the place, I'm surprised you didn't trace the genealogy of energy beams and lasers.
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