#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.