Hidden Agenda
New userpic today: Dirk the Daring of Dragon's Lair fame.
Ol' Dirk has given me many a laugh for my arcade token. Not only is the game (and Dirk's quest) impossibly hard, but you are continually rewarded with beautiful animations of dirk getting boiled, drowned, stabbed, shot, electrocuted, zombified, and burned alive if you fail; which is good since it happens a lot. So, beating this game really means spending enough money to have purchased one, while having just as much fun as someone who doesn't even get past the drawbridge stage. Hell, even the attract mode was worth watching. So, I view him as the ultimate quixotic video game hero and so deserving a slot in my icon set.
This places me at 5 icons now, so I may be getting a paid account soon.
I recall that Dragon's Lair had a cartoon show back in the 1980's, which reminded me of the D&D show on at about the same time. I *was* going to add an icon of "Eric the Cavalier" from that show, until I went out to Wikipedia and was reminded of what an unlikable character he was; although I did kind of like him for being the only stand-out one in the group... okay and I was *five* and we had the same name.
Then I read down the page and was hit with this rather political and controversial bombshell:
Series developer Mark Evanier revealed that Eric's contrary nature was mandated by parents groups and consultants to push the then dominant pro-social moral for cartoons of "The group is always right; the complainer is always wrong." [citation]
Okay, so I'm not advocating that we all join the tinfoil-hat brigade; this was back in 1983. But I am completely taken aback that this was a line-item on someone's agenda. And here I thought the GI-Joe PSA stuff was bad.
I included the citation link above since its the source referenced for that quote, since Evanier goes into much more detail about this and the rest of the show. I'll quote him again here, since he can sum this particular issue up better than I can:
We were forced to insert this "lesson" in D & D, which is why Eric was always saying, "I don't want to do that" and paying for his social recalcitrance. I thought it was forced and repetitive, but I especially objected to the lesson. I don't believe you should always go along with the group. What about thinking for yourself? What about developing your own personality and viewpoint? What about doing things because you decide they're the right thing to do, not because the majority ruled and you got outvoted?
We weren't allowed to teach any of that. We had to teach kids to join gangs. And then to do whatever the rest of the gang wanted to do.
What a stupid thing to teach children.
So there you have it. I can't help but wonder how deep this particular propaganda went into children's entertainment all those years ago.
Ol' Dirk has given me many a laugh for my arcade token. Not only is the game (and Dirk's quest) impossibly hard, but you are continually rewarded with beautiful animations of dirk getting boiled, drowned, stabbed, shot, electrocuted, zombified, and burned alive if you fail; which is good since it happens a lot. So, beating this game really means spending enough money to have purchased one, while having just as much fun as someone who doesn't even get past the drawbridge stage. Hell, even the attract mode was worth watching. So, I view him as the ultimate quixotic video game hero and so deserving a slot in my icon set.
This places me at 5 icons now, so I may be getting a paid account soon.
I recall that Dragon's Lair had a cartoon show back in the 1980's, which reminded me of the D&D show on at about the same time. I *was* going to add an icon of "Eric the Cavalier" from that show, until I went out to Wikipedia and was reminded of what an unlikable character he was; although I did kind of like him for being the only stand-out one in the group... okay and I was *five* and we had the same name.
Then I read down the page and was hit with this rather political and controversial bombshell:
Series developer Mark Evanier revealed that Eric's contrary nature was mandated by parents groups and consultants to push the then dominant pro-social moral for cartoons of "The group is always right; the complainer is always wrong." [citation]
Okay, so I'm not advocating that we all join the tinfoil-hat brigade; this was back in 1983. But I am completely taken aback that this was a line-item on someone's agenda. And here I thought the GI-Joe PSA stuff was bad.
I included the citation link above since its the source referenced for that quote, since Evanier goes into much more detail about this and the rest of the show. I'll quote him again here, since he can sum this particular issue up better than I can:
We were forced to insert this "lesson" in D & D, which is why Eric was always saying, "I don't want to do that" and paying for his social recalcitrance. I thought it was forced and repetitive, but I especially objected to the lesson. I don't believe you should always go along with the group. What about thinking for yourself? What about developing your own personality and viewpoint? What about doing things because you decide they're the right thing to do, not because the majority ruled and you got outvoted?
We weren't allowed to teach any of that. We had to teach kids to join gangs. And then to do whatever the rest of the gang wanted to do.
What a stupid thing to teach children.
So there you have it. I can't help but wonder how deep this particular propaganda went into children's entertainment all those years ago.