#or I’ve heard it’s not even necessarily taught in German schools anymore bc of . ahem. associations with certain governments

[6ebe]

I do think modern audiences’ obsession with criticising movies for being ‘derivative’ (mostly from 20th century media) is. Misguided. As if most of those works weren’t heavily derivative too. I once sat through an entire rant from a friend who was ragging on jk Rowling (as one should), but her criticisms revolved entirely around how derivative her work was - especially in regard to lord of the rings. And I was really biting my tongue to not tell her that lord of the rings itself as a work is almost entirely derivative itself. Both from works of folklore and fairytales and from Wagner’s ring cycle which is itself an adaptation of die Nibelungen. Very little in this world is ‘original’, and chances are if you watch a film and think it’s original you’re just unfamiliar with whatever source material it’s been inspired by. Homage to old stories and reinterpreting them or rejuvenating them for the modern audience and context.. is pretty much how the entire history of storytelling as a medium has played out. Yet audiences today are so obsessed with no spoilers and having the rug pulled out from under them that somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten that it’s ok for stories to be … predictable in a way and for audiences to be able work out the plot twists themselves before they arrive. Few audiences today watch the original Star Wars trilogy without knowing Darth Vader is Luke’s father. That doesn’t take away from the quality of those films or that story. If a story can be ruined by a spoiler or by being derivative or whatever then it’s not a good story in the first place. But being derivative in and of itself should not be seen as condemnatory.

#genuinely will never be over the first time i went to an opera house to watch das rhinegold (ring cycle act 1) #and afterwards I turned to my dad like ?? but this is the plot of lord of the rings?? and he was like… yeah 😭🤣 #I get why Tolkien refused to admit to that given the works reputation and associations but man #he didn’t even take all the white nationalist stuff out of his adaptation anyway 😭😭😭 #btw this is not me being a lotr hater #just me pointing out that many works that people criticise modern media for being derivative of #(the assumption behind such statements being that the ‘original’ 20th century work was NOT itself derivative) #were in fact heavily derivative themselves just from works that mainstream audiences may be less familiar with #like how many non Germans know the plot of die Nibelungen ? #or I’ve heard it’s not even necessarily taught in German schools anymore bc of . ahem. associations with certain governments #it’s a big point of debate apparently. shame that art co-opted by fascists can end up being labelled as fascist art despite never having #been created with that intent. but alas