#;; and before he sold her she was TOTALLY ISOLATED from others. the only notion of love she had for so long came from books and stories and

[kaerinio]

this is a reminder to myself to write a headcanon about the evolution of dany's perception of love. what it means to her. what has inspired it. the importance of it. her deep craving to love and to be loved and for it to all be done freely . . . unapologetically. also, thinking about how for dany, there's a revolutionary power that comes with love because she is someone who has, in the past, forsaken the opportunity of love to instead do what is right for her people.

[greekletters]

insert clever title here..

honestly, I was going to try to bait you all with a better title, but this is all I got..

not really a prompt, but more of a topic... 

The Kissing Booth

When you had imagined college life, you had always thought about late nights studying in the library, or parties where you would go out drinking with your friends, or complete isolation and last minute study sessions in your dorm as you prep for exams.

Having to run the bottle ring toss stand for the dorm hall's charity event wasn't even anywhere near your college to-do list. But here you are. Carefully standing up about forty glass bottles on a table.

You always hated this game. It was completely rigged. The rings you had to toss were always smaller than the bottle tops they were supposed to fall on.

To make matters worse, you had found out that your roommate and love of your life would be running the kissing booth. Of course, Weiss Schnee had no idea that she was the love of your life. But that was a minor detail.

Luckily for you, Weiss' booth had presale tickets. So you may have bought some, just in case. What you hadn't anticipated was her booth being right next to yours.

"Oh hey Blake, looks like we are going to be booth buddies." You look up to see Weiss setting up her sign and placing a plastic bag of some kind on the shelving behind the booth.

"Yeah. Looks like it."

"Did you get stuck doing the ring toss again this year?" She tilts her head to the side and gives you a small smile.

"It's not that bad. I just hate when people, well, really when the kids don't win. It's totally rigged. I usually just give the kids the prize tickets anyways." Shrugging, you set about five more bottles on the table.

"Well that's very kind of you. They said my tickets sold out this year. So I'm a little nervous."

"I mean, why wouldn't they?" It falls out your mouth before you can stop it.

She looks away, smiling. Probably because you're blushing like an idiot because you've totally embarrassed yourself. Not like the two of you have to share a room for the remainder of the school year.. oh wait.

By the grace of God, when you stand up you see Pyrrha making her way towards you, purposefully.

"Hi ladies! Are you ready to go? We are about to open everything up!"

"It's as good as it's gonna get." You mumble as you place the little plastic rings along the counter top of your booth.

"As enthusiastic as always, Blake. Weiss? How about you? You have the only booth to sell out of tickets before we open."

"Really?" There's a slight crack in her voice.

"Most definitely. Yang is quite upset that her booth didn't sell out first."

"I mean, who would honestly pay to arm wrestle her? You're already going to have to pay for your own medical bills when she breaks your arm or wrist." Weiss giggles into her sleeve, and it makes you smile.

"Now, now, that's not fair to say. I asked her to behave and participate fairly."

"Well hopefully she listens." Weiss says as she hops up onto the stool behind her booth.

"Alright, it's go time. So I have to head back up front and make sure Nora and Ruby don't eat all the food. Or set something on fire."

"Wouldn't be good to have a repeat of last year, would it?" You say, and Pyrrha looks at you clearly unamused by the smirk on your face.

As soon as Pyrrha is gone, Weiss leans over towards you.

"Remind me, what happened last year?"

"You mean you really forgot that the two of them tried to deep fry every kind of food they had at the concession stand and the wall caught fire?"

She doubles over in laughter, slapping her knee.

"No, no I didn't forget. But it never gets old. The two of them smelled like corndogs for a month afterwards. Pyrrha was so mad."

The first group of kids approaches your booth and you take their tickets, handing them each three rings.

"And yet, even after the concession stand bonfire, Pyrrha thought it was a good idea to throw the same kind of fundraiser again this year."

None of the kids get any rings on the bottle, but you give them all a prize ticket anyways, and they walk off.

"Yeah, especially since half the money we raised ended up going towards the damages."

"What booth did you run last year? I forgot." It was true. You just know it wasn't the kissing booth.

"Face painting. And I was terrible at it. It was more like a 'Picasso painting in five minutes or less on your face' booth. Kids kept asking for animals or super hero masks and it was just a mess."

"Oh yeah, I asked you to paint a flower on my cheek and it looked way more like a jellyfish than a flower." She grabs one of your rings off the table and throws it at you.

"Who did the kissing booth last year?" She asks, propping her chin in her hand, looking off pensively. But she answers her own question. "Coco. How could I forget? She got in trouble for… how did Pyrrha refer to it?"

"Aggressively trying to suck face with every willing participant." Your air quotes are only to emphasize the ridiculousness of Pyrrha's word choice.

"Poor choice of words, considering it was Coco, so everyone that wandered by was willing."

"You aren't wrong. Still funny though."

Another five or six groups of people come and go from your booth. Weiss' booth still remaining unvisited. But for some reason, she seems unbothered by the lack of people.

"Have you started studying for Goodwitch's exam yet?" When you stand up from picking the rings up off the floor, you face her direction.

"I finished the readings and taking notes but I haven't started studying yet, no. You?"

"Not really. I started to color code my notes but then I was just too distracted."

"Too busy worrying about running the kissing booth, huh?"

"Actually, yes." It surprises you. Weiss isn't the kind of person to let certain things distract her from school work.

"Good news," you look both left and right from your seat, "doesn't seem like you're as busy as you thought. So not much to worry about after all."

"Right? So much for a sold out booth. I even went out of my way to figure out a way to not actually kiss people."

"Wh-what do you mean?" The nervousness in your chest building exponentially.

"Well, I didn't really want to kiss anyone in the first place. So I had to figure out a way to get out of it, without just quitting. So I got these." She leans over and places the plastic bag on the counter top of her booth.

"Hershey kisses. You bought a bag of chocolate?"

"This way, I can technically still give anyone a kiss, but not have to physically kiss them." She dances a little bit on her stool. Clearly proud of herself for coming up with the idea.

"That's kinda smart." It's all you can think to say as your brain comes to realize how much money you just spent on carnival tickets for basically no reason at all.

"So imagine my disappointment when there are no visitors to my supposedly sold out booth." She huffs in defeat.

"More good news, we have less than an hour left, so it's almost over. And you get to keep the chocolates for yourself."

"Still somewhat disappointing."

Suddenly, from around the end of the aisle, Jaune appears, with an armful of tickets.

"Speaking of disappointment." You mumble,

"Those tickets better not be for me." The look of terror is plastered on Weiss' face.

"Hey guys!" He's always so chipper. It's exhausting. "There's only like half an hour left of the carnival so I figured I needed to come drop these off if they plan on getting used."

"Oh God no, please God no." Weiss repeats a few times under her breath.

"And these are…?" You ask him as he lays them across the entirety of your booth's counter.

"Your tickets." He says to you like it's obvious. "You know, all the tickets you bought for the kissing booth. At first when Pyrrha said you had bought them all, I was a little confused. But she told me to just be quiet and bring them here for you. I still can't believe you bought every single one. That's like, over eighty tickets!"

If it were possible to die from embarrassment, you would be six feet under.

"Thanks, Jaune. I'm sure Pyrrha will be delighted to hear that I have received every single one of my tickets, right now, standing here. Now, please do me a favor and leave so I can die in peace."

"Alright then. You two ladies have a good night!" With that, he wanders off back the way he came.

When you finally turn to the right and look in her direction, Weiss is propped up on her forearm and leaning against the booth. Her eyes narrowing as she looks at you. This certainly hadn't been how you thought this would go. You had been hoping she would never find out.

"Just when exactly were you planning on telling me that you bought not one, not two, but ALL of the tickets to my booth, Blake Belladonna?"

"Never? Probably. Maybe eventually?" You fidget nervously.

"Why would you do that? How much could that have possibly cost? Over eighty tickets? You shouldn't go around wasting money like that!"

"It wasn't a waste." You mumble as you begin to start cleaning up your booth, placing bottles back in their boxes under the table.

"What do you mean? Of course it was."

"Selfish maybe, but not a waste." You take a deep breath. "Because maybe I didn't want to spend my night watching other people kiss you, over and over while I supervised the ring toss." Folding the legs of the table, you slide it back against the wall. "It was for charity too, so I didn't waste my money."

You don't really want to wait for her to say anything back. You already feel like your heart had arm wrestled Yang, and lost. So you start cleaning up all the tickets Jaune had left scattered on the booth. Habitually, you count them as you fold them into rows.

"How many?" Her voice almost seems far off, or like you're hearing it through a wall.

"I'm not letting you pay me back for the tickets, Weiss. I'm not sad or feel guilty that I bought them" You dismiss any notion similar to that as well.

"Blake Belladonna, how many tickets did you buy?" Her voice a little more stern this time. Rolling your eyes, you look over at her.

"Eighty four. There are eighty four tickets." Humiliated. You feel humiliated as you hear her shoes scuffing along the floor as she walks over towards you.

"Hold out your hand." You glance up at her suspiciously.

"Why?"

"Just do it, please." She lightly stomps her foot. So you stick out your left hand, palm up.

She reaches up and places a single chocolate kiss in your palm. And you just stare at it for a few seconds.

"Only one? I mean, technically I bought eighty four, so shouldn't you give me the whole bag-"

Before you can finish saying anything she grabs your face and pulls you down, pressing your lips together. If you weren't dead before, you were now.

"Took you two long enough. It was getting painful to watch after three years." The addition of another voice startles the two of you into separating.

Looking over, you see Pyrrha standing at the front side of your booth, holding a box full of supplies under one arm.

"And I'll be taking a few of these, as payment for my continuous pain and suffering that you have caused me over the years." Reaching her hand into the candy bag and grabbing a handful before she walks off.

"I can't believe she took my candy." You say as your eyes follow Pyrrha around the corner.

"I guess you're just going to have to redeem the other eighty three tickets the old fashioned way." Weiss says as she rips one ticket from your collection.

[nullset2]

Why New 3D Mario Games Suck

Before I go to bed I want to write a quick article about my opinions of Mario games. Ah, Mario games... I will never tire of you. Crisp and clean, to the point and joyfully so. Just jump, mofocka. Games that revel in the concept of moving around, making it inherently fun. Is there more noble of a proposition in gaming? Has there ever been more lucid game design?

Yet, I think that modern Mario games suck.

Like everyone and their grandmother (and if your grandmother plays Mario send her my regards, she's cool as hell, dude) I've been playing Mario 3D All Stars to have me a nice time. However it does reinforce this idea that I've always had, that Mario games, even though they may share the same broad aesthetic values and mechanics, are different from each other by nature. In this article, I propose that this change over time has actually been for the worse, leading to a loss of complexity in platforming game design with each successive iteration which is being traded away in favor of more cinematics and bombastics.

First things first, we have the beautiful Mario 64. A timeless classic and most of us' first foray into 3D games (yes, this was the very first game I ever played where the notion of the third dimension actually mattered. I had already played Star Fox but in Star Fox you don't really move in three dimensions, you're just in a plane going on rails and you cannot move completely freely). I played this before I even touched Doom or other first person games of the sort.

Minor parentheses by the way: did you know that Star Fox was inspired on the Inari Taisha temple? The beautiful, big long mountain shrine in Kyoto full of orange gates?

Fox translates to Inari and its creator, Dylan Cuthberth, who loved Japan a lot, got inspiration from it which he applied to his new bizarre fucking mind bending 3D tech which he then pitched and sold to nintendo and then became the basis for the Ultra 64, which was to come, and thus one of the main pillars of all modern 3D gaming as a whole? Holy shit, right? In Star Fox you cross gates to gain powerups and to make it fun to maneuver around with your Airwing... How come that I had never seen the connection?

But anyway. Back to Mario 64.

It is commonly told that Mario 64 was created by Miyamoto parting from the concept of a "secret garden". Most of the development time initially, it is said, was spent on Miyamoto and Tezuka, Mario creators, fine tuning the movement system in an isolated garden map without any enemies or hazards.

The purpose of the secret garden was threefold: first, the team was used to designing Mario games as 2d platformers and they were uncertain about how to take Mario games into the 3D era (a literal, flat-out equivalent conversion of classic mario, think Super Mario World, powerups and all, was considered at a certain point in development, creating linear, obstacle course stages with a beginning and a goal, the remnants of which still linger in the final game as the bowser stages, an idea which was finally fleshed out with the Mario 3D series on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, 20 years later (!)), so they needed a way to hash out ideas about how to design this new installment.

Second, Miyamoto took as one of the goals of the project to design Mario's movement with a supreme level of fidelity, so he'd use this area to test and test and test all of Mario's acrobatics, to make them feel smooth, convincing and entertaining to play. He'd say that as long as a move didn't feel right in the garden, it couldn't be used in the final game, creating in the end as something that feels a little bit like ninja acrobatics on rollerskates or ice skating.

Third, the team eventually realized that, since 3D content was incredibly expensive to create back in 1995, when commonplace computer 3D animation and design was still quite in its infancy, they needed to develop the skill to design little sandboxes which were good enough to run around in over and over without getting tired of them (think of it as if constructing a highly detailed, complex diorama, an idea fleshed out finally in Captain Toad from Super Mario 3D world, again, 20 years later (!)). This was to create more content for the game while reusing the same architecture and geometry for the levels, since resource usage had to be maximized. The remnants of the garden are still present in the final game, as the Castle Grounds.

So, do you see the level of SOUL invested here? The level of care, the amount of love placed into each and everyone of Mario's moves in Super Mario 64? And the results show it: the game allows the player to tackle all objectives at their own pace, in their own terms, however way they can. The game forces nothing down your throat: blast to the island in the sky? Well, maybe just long jump to it if you're gutsy enough, no need to wait until you unlock cannons. Or get the 8 red coins first if you want. Or just fuck it, and go and release the chain chomp first because he looks very cool and this is probably the first power star that all people who play the game get first. Or just, fuck it, you can skip that objective all together if you want, just collect enough stars for the next door unlock.

Jump, double jump, triple jump, dive, dive from jump, punch, breakdance kick, backflip, turn and backflip, long jump, wall jump, grab objects and throw, jump-shortkick, slide down, ground pound, fly from triple jump, swim, crouch... and even crawl. I count a total of 20 possible interactions with the environment, maybe even more I'm missing. All movements completely available to you from the start to mix and match the way you best see fit (except for flying, which is unlocked like 15 minutes into the game). The world is yours and you're free, go nuts son. The only variable is your skill at the movement system.

So you can probably see why this is delicious design. There's never a single way to clear most power stars in the game, instead the decision is left to the player, which the game trusts is smart enough to figure out solutions to problems on their own. Wanna jump for it? Sure, if you can. Want to wait unil you got the powerup? That's cool too. Want to go play another level? Sure thing! OR FUCK IT! JUST RACE THE KOOPA IF YOU WANT!

So you can probably see why I loathe the fact that the sequel was based exclusively on giving people a dumbed down version of the same shit, with a fucking dumb water pack.

Come 2002 and under pressure to perform, the team releases Super Mario Sunshine and it's the most bland, dumbed down sequel ever (though, could anyone really live up to such a predecessor's prowess?). In an attempt to make the game accessible to more players (tm), the game is stripped out of its complexity. Mario no longer moves as a gracious, roller skating gazelle that can navigate the world in the most agile and beautiful way ever. Instead you screech down to a halt the second you stop pushing the direction stick instead of providing people with that most delicious sense of momentum and friction SM64 had. Boo Hoo! Baby think 3D platforming is too hard? BABY CANNOT HANDLE PING PING WAHOO ON THE N64? Then we give babby a water nozzle which will allow them to correct any miscalculated jump ever (it's insulting that this is the best solution they managed to come up with) HOORAY!

But hey! Sunshine has good things about it! Uh... the water is pretty! (that's probably where all the development time and resources probably went anyway).

SAY WHAT? WE GOT TO RELEASE THIS YEAR? AND THEY WANT US TO INCLUDE 120 STARS AGAIN? FUCK! WE RAN OUT OF TIME; JUST ADD BLUE COINS, DUDE! YEAH WHATEVER! SHIP IT! THIS IS THE GAME! I'M GONNA GO LIE DOWN AND HAVE A BEER! FUCK IT!

Mario Sunshine is not a bad game, but it's not a bold, groundbreaking game like its predecessor was. It detests and rejects the fact that you are a competent platforming game player. It nerfs everything down. It makes it almost impossible to lose. It plays things too safe and too easy, replacing action game design with flashing lights, prettier graphics, and an easier experience; it has its moments but it's an inferior game mechanically: jump, double jump, triple jump, hover, rocket jump, turbo run (why), walk on tightropes (why), spin in air (why), spin from ground into high jump, turn and backflip, swim, spray water, spray water and dive, wall jump, ground pound. It's only 16 moves -- less than its predecessor --, and they have less complexity and are easier to execute.

Not only that but you're no longer free to tackle objectives the way you see fit. The world is now a container for several course-clears, and no longer allowing for the freedom of open world games. If you pick Shine 1, you WILL clear shine 1 in that run of the level. If the game wants you to watch a cutscene (of which there were none in SM64), you WILL watch the fucking cutscene. Wash rinse repeat until you get enough shines to clear the lamest end boss in video game history.

Again, it's not a bad game but it reeks of suits getting involved in the process and demanding shit to be made easier because otherwise it wouldn't sell. It reeks of misplaced priorities. It's a pretty game and it's nice for an afternoon, but after that you just have blue coins left and hooooooooooooo weeeeeee I'm not touching that shit. The most asinine side quest I've ever seen in a video game: to find blue coins hidden in random spots, usually by cleaning a spot of graffitti, and exchange 10 of them for a single shine, the collection of which cannot be stacked and forces you to watch a cutscene every time. Reeks of laziness.

Then Mario Galaxy comes out and Jesus Christ. It's like they don't give a shit at this point. Open-world, acrobatics-centric 3D Mario is just fucking gone. This is probably the point where it became cheap enough to make 3D content en-masse that they just started copying the classic Mario formula in 3D to churn out content.

The bad thing, is that at a certain point it feels as if the games play themselves and I've always been against it and will always be against it because I'm into games due to the fact that they're something which engages my brain. I don't like games which just keep me there, passively looking at the screen, reacting to quick time events. I want to be immersed, engrossed and I want to feel that nice sense of exploration and fun experimentation that you only get with open world games.

The games are back to linear now: even though, in Sunshine, they made an effort to at least make things seem open world, they don't care anymore in this one. It's all just linear levels happening in planetoids which you visit in a sequence, to, yet again, remove all hazards and all notion of challenge and complexity, even more than before. And you have to shake the wii remote to spin to top it off, and this gives you a free save if you miscalculate a jump. The galaxy games were extrapolated through the 3D series: Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World (strong candidates for most bizarre title to a video game ever), to form which is called the "course clear" vein of 3D mario games, starting from the Galaxy games.

See, nintendo themselves differentiate between "Course-clear" 3D Mario and "Open World" 3D Mario. Once Super Mario Oddysey got announced, they came out with this interesting infographic about their classification for 3D Mario games:

Don't get me wrong again, there's nothing inherently bad about these types of Mario game, and Galaxy 2 and Mario 3D World are both some of the best video games ever created, but I think that something got lost in transition when compared to the sublime finesse of the movement system in Mario 64. The way it respects your intelligence, the way it drops you in an open world and gives you freedom, the way that its worlds are built, I think that all of this has never been paralleled, not even by nintendo themselves for some reason, and I think the reason why this happened is that, maybe the excellence of Mario 64, quirks and all, was a product of its time and the limitations in production ability for 3d content and graphics that surrounded its creation at the time.

Yet, Lo and Behold! 2017 is here and Super Mario Oddyssey is in the horizon and it promises to be the Next Big Thing (tm) since sliced bread. A TRUE and HONEST return to form, to the Glory Days of Mario 64! And the game is way too enthsiastic with its embracing of Super Mario 64 nostalgia: there's literally a whole level inspired after the Mario 64 castle grounds in Mario Oddysey and the whole notion of absolute freedom from Mario 64 (somewhat) returns (but not completely because you still are subject to doing a main big event per level, after which the rest of the level unlocks; once you clear the game, the second half of the game unlocks even). And the emphasis is back into acrobatics again, which is a good thing: playing with your hat can get you places if you're handy with it.

But my biggest gripe with Super Mario Oddysey is that it's not completely honest as it claims to be. It's a course-clear game hidden under a coat of paint of an open world-game. It's literally Zelda Breath of the Wild's half-assed design all over again: big empty world full of collectibles, with tiny "levels" to be found. Once you find a game, it's time to do a thing --wash rinse repeat. In Mario Oddysey you explore around until you find a pipe or a door or a character and you get plunked into a Super Mario 3D World style course-clear game with additional collectibles. So it's not really the game which it was told to be. The levels don't feel like beautiful dioramas, and the acrobatics, even if nice, are nowhere near as rich as the SM64 acrobatics. There's infinite lives this time around, so there's no real feeling of risk. The game rehashes its own content, you make a tower of goombas, cool. Then you make it again, twice as long. Then you make it again, in the water. Then you make it again, in the beach level. Then you make it again, in the ice level. Then you make it again. Then you make it again, then you make it again...

You could argue that they were onto something with the capture system, because it's an attempt to enhance the movement system while at the same time it's trying to keep things interesting, but the bad thing is that this is really not the case. Captures are contextual, and you're expected to capture an enemy, do something with it, then leave it behind, so it's not a skillset that you build up on, it's yet another course-clear level in a disguise.

So even though it's a good game, it's not the game that it set out to be, I'm sad to say. The Brilliance of Super Mario 64 is yet to be rivaled, and Nintendo should feel ashamed of it. It's been 20 years, man. Where has your mind been all along?

Alright Nintendo, to conclude, here's a freebie for you. This is how you design your next Mario game so it fucking kicks ass: you bring back the SM64 movement system and ADD ONTO IT. Do NOT take away from it, just ADD. Complexity is good in games. All of your fans are fucking 30 year olds, they can handle a complex game.

Next, you develop a vast, broad, massive open world. Think GTA-size. You set up 1200 stars and you place them all over the world in ways where it is EXCITING by itself to explore the world. Make it so people can collect stars at their own pace, ANY WAY THEY WANT, and expand the world accordingly. Keep the Super Mario Oddyssey persistence, where once you capture a moon you don't have to go back to a menu screen, that was a good addition. Embrace the diorama mentality and go nuts with the world. Fill it with waterfalls, caves, chasms, canyons, and provide the player nothing but their acrobatics to clear everything in the world. Avoid pre-scripted sequences (they can still be good for some things like bosses). And make the world seamless, none of this island in the sky thing anymore. Moving around and getting stars should be their own reward, not "getting to find a course clear level".

[swinterwriting-blog]

Final Blog Post: Psychoanalysis and Poststructuralism in Black Mirror

Black Mirror is a television series that explores multiple facets of a new technological world, and our place in it. In this series, many of the different problems encountered are not new, but just a more direct reflection of the problems we already have because of our advancements. In the episode I will be analyzing, Bing says, “All we know is fake fodder and buying shit.” While his society is more obviously synthetic, the problem he exposed is still very relevant today. In “Fifteen Million Merits,” elements of Psychoanalysis and Poststructuralism were tied throughout. While exploring the episode through these lenses, it becomes necessary to note that this is not a distant or imaginary society, but rather a metaphor for our current situation.

In the second episode of the first season of Black Mirror, the creators explored a new, Postmodern, socialist society. This episode is called “Fifteen Million Merits.” The episode is a satire on entertainment and human thirst for distraction. In this world, everyone must ride exercise bikes in order to power their technological surroundings and earn money. Everyday activities are constantly battered by advertisements that cannot be skipped without large payments. Obese people are considered to be lesser people, and either work as janitors (where they receive verbal abuse) or are humiliated on game shows.

"Bing" has inherited “about 6 months’ worth” of currency from his dead brother and has the luxury of skipping advertisements as often as he wants to. In the bathroom he hears Abi singing and tells her to enter a game show called Hot Shot, which offers a chance for people to escape the slave-like world they live in. Bing talks her into it and, feeling there is nothing "real" worth buying, buys her the ticket, costing him almost all of what was left to him. The judges and the crowd appreciate her lovely singing voice, but they state there is no room for a simply “good” singer and instead give her the “chance” to be a porn star. After lots of pressure is put on from the judges and the crowd, and after taking a drug which is basically compliance in a cup, Abi reluctantly agrees.

Bing returns to his cell without Abi or any money. When a commercial showing Abi performing appears on the screen, he can't skip it (he doesn't have enough money) and he tries to escape his cell, hitting the screens surrounding him until the glass breaks. He hides a shard of glass. Over some time he shown cycling harder than before, and not spending any money so he can save up to buy another competition ticket.

He is able to avoid taking the compliance drug before he goes on stage. On stage he interrupts his dance performance, pulls out the shard of glass, and threatens to kill himself on the show. He then rants about how unfair the system is and how heartless people have become. Bing expresses his anger for how the judges took away, corrupted, and sold the only thing he found that was real. The judges, instead of taking his words into consideration, are impressed by his 'performance' and offer him his own show, where he can rant about the system all he likes.

Bing accepts and is shown finishing one of his streams in his upper class new home. He pours himself another drink and stands staring through a wall-length window at a vast green forest, in a cell much larger than his original. This demonstrates that anything can be commercialized and bought.

Throughout the episode, many psychoanalytic ideas are scattered. A key concept in Psychoanalysis is ‘lack’, developed by Lacan.

“According to Lacan, we are born into a condition of ‘lack’, and subsequently spend the rest of our lives trying to overcome this condition. ‘Lack’ is experienced in different ways and as different things, but it is always a non-representable expression of the fundamental condition of being human. The result is an endless quest in search of an imagined moment of plentitude.” (Storey, 105)

The concept of ‘lack’ is one of the most prevalent in this episode of Black Mirror. The people have everything they need--food, water, shelter, physical exercise, and lots of “entertainment.” The society they live within, which is simply a more vivid reflection of our own, feeds them so many different types of junk in an attempt to fill this ‘lack’ with consumption; the controlling group does not want these people to look for anything “real.” They can buy all of the pornography they want, they can watch shows of people worse off than they are (the overweight people), they can buy any landscape for their room. However, in this very synthetic world, the lack they feel is magnified by their pampered, yet slave-like, existence. Bing seems looks completely lost in his cell, as do the rest of the characters shown. Even when they are together pedaling, they isolate themselves, and seem truly depressed.

           Several other ideas from Psychoanalysis are illustrated in “Fifteen Million Merits.” As soon as we created language, we left the Real—an unchanging presence, and entered into the Symbolic—the world we have created. Every technological advance we make takes us further from the Real, and deeper into our world of symbols. This is translated through the episode, when the main character, Bing, says “It’s all just stuff…you’ve got something real.” The people in this futuristic society have reached a new level of symbolic consumerism. They are never seen buying themselves new clothes, shoes, hairstyles, however, they are shown consistently buying these things for their “dopples” or internet representations. They are literally buying nothing, wasting money on cyber shoes they can never wear. In this world, very similar to our world, they are more interested in how they appear online, rather than taking care of themselves in real life. In our society, we would rather put on a snapchat filter that slims down our face, instead of taking care of our body through exercise. Is that not the same as buying new shoes for your cyber “dopple,” instead of buying new shoes for yourself?

           One of Freud’s theories can be used to examine the repressed sexuality of the people in this episode.

“…that is to say, they are diverted from their sexual aims and directed to others that are socially higher and no longer sexual. But this arrangement is unstable; the sexual are imperfectly tamed, and, in the case of every individual who is supposed to join in the work of civilization, there is a risk that his sexual instincts may refuse to be put to that use. Society believes that no greater threat to its civilization could arise than if the sexual instincts were to be liberated and returned to their original aims (47-8).” (Freud)

By consistently giving the dominated people (who appear to be deprived of sexual relations) a consistent flow of commercialized “sex,” those in power are “imperfectly taming” the people. They are trying to keep them just satisfied enough so that no sexuality will interrupt their daily pedaling, and no revolts will occur. Looking at this dystopian society, there really would be no greater threat to those in control, than the threat of sexuality and the overthrow of its commercialism.

           Another Freudian notion, dreaming as a form of expression, can be examined in the episode. Freud describes dreams as “perhaps the most dramatic staging of the return of the repressed.” In this episode, Abi talks about a new technology for sale; a technology that can control dreams, and make them pleasant. Looking through a Freudian lens, this is another way the society can subjugate their citizens to complete control. In our dreams, our innermost desires, fears, and memories come through in many different ways. By controlling a person’s dreams, it gives the person in control access to the subconscious, and thus almost total control of the dreamer, and their deep thoughts and feelings.

           A Poststructuralist view can also be applied to “Fifteen Million Merits.” In his discussion of Poststructuralism, Storey explains, “…meaning is also always deferred, never fully present, both absent and present” (Storey, 131). This is especially notable in the portion of the episode after Bing rants at the judges. The head judge is able to take Bing’s exact words and thoughts, and repeat them back at him and the audience for a completely different purpose, evoking an entirely different reaction. The meaning of these words used at almost the same time was different, only a momentary stop in the continuing flow of interpretation.

           In a world of constructed binary oppositions, it is preached that there are no shades of grey. As a final blow to Abi, one of the judges says, “Realistically sweetheart, it is that or the bike.” Abi, completely shocked by the reaction of the judges, is told that she can either live a life of pleasure, happiness, and wealth, or live a life stuck on the bike. The people create this binary opposition that any fate is better than one pedaling. While this might not have necessarily been true, the language used by all of those watching indicated that it would be ridiculous for her not to take this “opportunity,” even if she found her new future even bleaker than her old one.

           Post structural theory explores the relationship between discourse, knowledge, and power. This discourse, the TV show, is a method of controlling the knowledge people have, and how they have it. By creating a show that lets people escape, it controls who escapes their mundane existence, and where they escape to. By taking Bing’s speech and turning it into his own channel, they are now able to censor what he says, who sees it, and the amount of rebellion he is allowed to let shine through in his speech. Discourse integrates us into these systems of the control of knowledge and power.

           Black Mirror, and “Fifteen Million Merits,” portrays us as we already are. A different look was applied to the show to make it easier for us to recognize both the corruption, and the disparity of our lives. However, we do have the ability to make change. Knowing about ‘lack’, and other elements of Psychoanalysis can help us avoid falling into consumerism and the many potholes of social media and technology. Looking at theories of Poststructuralism, especially binary opposition, can open our minds, allowing us to recognize the many truths they cover up. “Fifteen Million Merits” offers us many lessons and opportunities to recognize these qualities in our own lives, and the chance to grow from it.

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/fifteen-million-merits-105765

 Works Cited

Storey, John. An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. 7th ed. London: Prentice Hall, 2001. Print.