Quinnfernal
Is it just really easy to accidentally make movies about eugenics
Quinnfernal
Cars 2, Idiocracy, Sky High, Bee Movie
Snake-Kun
Bee Movie?
Quinnfernal
as bluecanary pointed out
moontouched
it definitely is if you do not think about the repercussions
moontouched
so it seems to me
Quinnfernal
the bees win the rights in court to not be exploited by the honey industry
Quinnfernal
and then immediately become so lazy that it causes an ecological apocalypse
Quinnfernal
and it turns out bees are only happy if they're being exploited, because it's their nature
Snake-Kun
is THAT what Bee Movie is about???
Quinnfernal
it's one of various things bee movie is about
EsperBot
I don’t think that’s really eugenics, although it is a line of thinking that’s very popular with the sort of people who are also into eugenics
Quinnfernal
Idiocracy is the most egregious one I think
Quinnfernal
the entire plot of the movie is about the fear of inferior breeding stock overcrowding the world, causing the downfall of mankind
bitchin camaro
yeah idiocracy is literally just a movie about eugenics
Quinnfernal
it's a movie where the ideal course of action would be to go back in time and institute government policies to cull the poor
Ramases II
Considering that superpowers are genetic and non-superpowered individuals are either useless or villainous, I'm gonna throw in the Incredibles movies here too
Quinnfernal
Brad Bird just generally has a weird fixation on Special Individuals
Quinnfernal
Ratatouille's "anyone can cook" theme even in its end of movie uplifitng version is "natural cooking geniuses are super real but can come from anywhere"
Quinnfernal
Tomorrowland was about a guy seeking indigo children to pave the way for a glorious future
Quinnfernal
Incredibles, well, "We keep finding new ways to celebrate mediocrity but when someone is TRULY SPECIAL"
bitchin camaro
i feel like "some people are naturally talented" is like, not specifically eugenics, the issue is just that people then take the additional step of somehow making it genetic
bitchin camaro
at which point it becomes eugenics
Quinnfernal
yeah
bitchin camaro
and it's just interesting how many people TAKE that step
Quinnfernal
Brad Bird probably isn't a eugenicist
Quinnfernal
but his fixations lead to a lot of eugenicists nodding their heads in agreement
DIE!Ba Nana
Yeah
Jack Raid
Knuckles in the Archie Sonic comics
DIE!Ba Nana
People seem to enjoy the concept of 'naturally talented'
Quinnfernal
oh boy
Quinnfernal
tell me about knuckles the eugenics
DIE!Ba Nana
Just... maybe stop linking it to ~gEnEs~
moontouched
its like an easy thing to be like "look at this special boy" but apparently very hard to think about it for more than five seconds and not make the Special bloodline/genetic/etc related
moontouched
like i get WHY because 'special secret family powers' is a great plot hook but also............please think about the repercussions.............
moontouched
the implications............thanks
expired milk
oh boy yeah archie knuckles was... yeah
expired milk
okay so a big part of that was penders's ideas for the main series would often get vetoed by sega, but then the same ideas would be approved if they weren't about sonic
expired milk
which is why he wrote so much about knuckles and gave him his own spinoff for a while
Jack Raid
expired milk
: let me handle this
expired milk
got it
expired milk
you can probably tell it better anyway
Jack Raid
Quinnfernal
: so basically Knuckles' dad Locke had a nightmare that was a vision of the future
Jack Raid
where Knuckles would be facing this horrible unimaginable threat
Jack Raid
to prepare him, he took Knuckles' egg and bathed in in Chaos energy radiation so he would be born a living Chaos Emerald
Jack Raid
Then throughout his childhood made sure he would be exposed to the best learning and training, which involved a lot of keeping him from his mother and abandoning him and making him think he was the last of his kind
Jack Raid
flashforward to years after Penders got off the book
Jack Raid
An evil echidna scientist takes advantage of all of this to turn Knuckles into a super-energized knight templar he can manipulate into burning down the world he thinks is corrupt
Jack Raid
Locke has to sacrifice his life to undo the hex that is controlling Knuckles after getting an earful from Knuckles' OTHER mentor and girlfriend that this happened because Locke had a bad dream and then decided to microwave the baby
Jack Raid
Jack Raid
anyway that's the story of Knuckles and eugenics
Quinnfernal
I always did wonder about the context of microwave baby
RobotApocalypse
stories about people with super special talents and stories about bloodlines are both very common types of stories to tell, and then people just....combine them, without thinking about it
AzureChrysanthemum
Yeah the big issue is that eugenics, like racism, are heavily baked into European/American culture
AzureChrysanthemum
Divine right of kings and all that
AzureChrysanthemum
Even though America was ostensibly a rejection of that we still go hard on it because it justified the slavery and racism
Be Maki-Mine🎆
I'm having trouble verifying that the creators described The Incredibles as a commentary on "Gifted Children", but certainly a lot of people described it that way on their own, which really pinches as the discourse on academic tracking has continued to develop
Ramases II
America got the Enlightenment version of that
Ramases II
Which is Divine Right of Money
A Grinning DM
I feel like X-Men is somehow simultaneously anti and pro eugenics
Ramases II
X-Men has run for so long under so many authors it has taken every conceivable stance on its basic premise