#most of mm's strength lies in its atmosphere and its ability to convey all these overlapping ideas | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

metanarrates · 7 months ago

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watched a majora's mask analysis earlier today with my fiancee. my verdict is that I actually really enjoyed the op's interpretations, but that I wished that they talked more about mm's literal level and what one can get from it, rather than talking about those events as if they are strictly metaphor. yes, of course the metaphorical layer of the game is rich to dig into, but it's also such an open-ended and surreal game that it's difficult to nail down every single distinct metaphor that can be derived from its events. which is why I consider it necessary to discuss the way the literal layer presents itself and what sort of motifs and ideas exist there as a baseline before you begin looking at it as metaphor

#narrates #zelda #^ longwinded way of saying that i think that both the impeding inevitability of death #the way the characters react to it #and the question of whether or not termina is even 'real' or can be saved are all intensely interesting aspects of the game #regardless of metaphor. you are existing in a world where you empirically cannot change anything permanently until your very last cycle #and in a world that is potentially not real or is doomed in other ways. but your task is still to help these people and save it #which is interesting even before you get into the symbolic spiritual and metaphorical reads of the game #again thats not to say those reads are bad. i think those reads are what people find the MOST meaningful about mm #most of mm's strength lies in its atmosphere and its ability to convey all these overlapping ideas #its surrealism and the richness of its ideas is what allows for an audience to draw all sorts of meanings out of it #it's just also very meaningful in its LITERAL events and I enjoy that quite a lot!#also... I feel like you heavily have to acknowledge death of the author when dealing with mm #you cannot rely on what you think the author intended. because thats both unclear and does a disservice to the games open endedness #which means that your analysis tends to be far more meaningful when you discuss how IDEAS are embedded in the game #and how you personally constructed meaning out of that #rather than relying on your ability to convince me that your specific read was completely what the devs were thinking #idc about the devs tell me about YOU!#this video was way better than most at doing that but I just prefer mm analysis that is heavier on death of the author #edit: i don't mean you should discount cultural context. thats part of the ideas embedded in ths game #i just mean that I don't like arguments that rely on the idea that the devs INTENDED that cultural context to shape the games metaphors

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