prokopetz:
prokopetz:
kazorus:
prokopetz:
Every time someone tries to explain the metaplot of Supernatural to me, it basically ends up sounding like redneck Dragon Ball Z. I’m sure there’s some nuance I’m failing to grasp here.
Care to elaborate on that?
…I’m not even offended, just absolutely curious. From the stuff I’ve seen and heard about Supernatural I can’t see the connection.
Mostly, I get the impression of a show that doesn’t know how not to escalate.
Every threat’s gotta be quantitatively bigger and badder than the one that came before. Every deus ex machina’s gotta be shinier than the last one. Every season’s gotta end with a massive eleventh-hour powerup for our heroes, only for the next season to raise the stakes enough to put them back in the underdog position.
It’s like, you beat the Devil himself? Well, now you’ve gotta fight the Devil’s cousin Phil, who has conveniently gone entirely unmentioned up until now, but he’s totally twice as evil.
That last paragraph was literally supposed to be the most ridiculous hypothetical example I could think of, and people are messaging me to say “his name was Metatron, not Phil”. I can’t even make fun of this show.
I think it’s time for entertainment to stop obsessing about Saving The World because we just don’t CARE. Stop endlessly raising the stakes, entertainers!
Saving one person? I’m right there with you.
Saving a small group of friends/family? Ohhhh my heart.
Saving a subculture/community? This is my jam. YES. YES.
Saving a city? Maybe as a finale. Sell it to me and we’ll see.
Saving a country? I’ll just about allow it.
Saving the world? LOL NO.
Saving the Universe? Slow down Doctor Who, nobody cares.
Saving ALL OF TIME AND SPACE AND HUMANITY AND HISTORY AND PLUTO AND GRAVITY AND GOD AND ALL THE ANGELS? oh my god, are people still watching this? have the advertisers fallen asleep, or
There is a reason why charities put faces in their ads. It is because the actual number of, say, homeless LGBT youths is too big to comprehend - it just seems like too big of a problem for you to do anything about. So charities “introduce” you to the face of the problem - here is a crying teen, her name is Layla, she’s homeless, you can help her right now, she just needs 80 cents a day to change her life. If charities begged you to open your wallet and SAVE THE UNIVERSE you would glaze over and walk past. The universe? People can’t even comprehend climate change. We can barely stay on top of our social circles. We just about understand our own local politics.
Once you get past a big number, human interest drops off - it’s sad to hear that 3,000 people died in a natural disaster, but we care more about one girl not being allowed at her prom. This is why news teams focus on the shot of the lost teddy bear, or the terrified child clutching their starving kitten - these are the small problems that make the big problems seem Real.
There is a concept called Dunbar’s number - the amount of humans that each human can care about. It’s thought to be roughly 150 people, the size of your theoretical “village.” Your friends, family, coworkers, Internet buddies, neighbors - there genuinely is a limit to how many people you can fit in your heart. It’s the average amount of friends that people have on Facebook.
At around this number of people, true democracy is said to break down, because you can no longer offer all voices equal weight and must start electing spokespeople.
150 people is about the limit of our comprehension.
Stuff that tugs the heartstrings? Saving the tiny inbred Wizarding World. Saving people who remind me of my friends and neighbors. Saving the local library. Saving the spaceship full of people. Saving the sufferers of a disease. Saving this particular dog. Saving a marginalized community - honestly, this is the plot of almost every Discworld novel, and there are over 40 of those and we never got sick of them.
But yeah, don’t try to get my attention by putting The World at stake. I’m not even sure I like most of it.
As Stalin said, "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.“
