Trope Talk: Post Apocalypses

[@vka4598]

Ghibli summarized in 7 words War bad, nature good, flying machines great

[@hodgepodge1476]

It's settled; we need to bring back airships

[@luciewhale]

fuck it this is my new philosophy

[@MouseGoat]

I think he likes flying machines so much, because of the important role they played under the war from japan. they after all did manged to hit Pearl Harbor. Might sound far fetched, but its only natural you come to inherit you countries nostalgia on such things, the WW2 influence is already strong in the rest of the work. similar connections can be found in other works by other authors, I find it a bit funny once i manged to spot such connections in art. Relly look long enoug and you wil find it in any art piece, because Humans are simple creatures driven by simple things, we want to act and look like we complicated and imposible deep, but we not.

[@CrimsonBlasphemy]

Hodge Podge , check our some of the designs for LTA (Lighter than Air) craft with intent to provide cargo service in places like the Himalayas, and other equally difficult to access areas by other means.

[@Unformed8]

Because Ghibli movie ˆˆ

[@quazifaraz1792]

Red: “The pandemic apocalypse doesn’t really happen much these days" that's called foreshadowing

[@madisonm.4535]

So true!!!

[@juanmanuelpenaloza9264]

And just like that, the Red Flag was raised...how fitting.

[@genesisnebul5724]

I laughed out loud when she said that.

[@justafloatingcoconut1368]

Watching this again in 2021 and looking for this comment

[@justafloatingcoconut1368]

@@metalmaster4686 never thought osp audience can stay ignorant and uninformed

[@airacummins9195]

I love how Ultron is on the internet for 5 minutes and decides to kill everyone

[@awesomery4596]

Aira Cummins maybe he saw Deviantart

[@aliendude2875]

He saw Tumblr

[@Corbomite_Meatballs]

He read all of Twitter.

[@reloadpsi]

Seems perfectly plausible to me.

[@biliminsrlar5752]

@@awesomery4596 he would plan to kill himself or delete his own memory after killing everyone if he saw Deviantart...

[@eldritcheternity2247]

Does this mean that Adventure Time counts as a Ghibli-like apocalypse? People live lives of varying simplicity and in varying states of synch with nature, the remnants of old superweapons are still out there and still a major threat (or wielded by an antagonist) and has the general message of "war is bad" behind it.

[@raspberrycrowns9494]

While we're on the subject I think adventure time had one of the scariest mutated humans, they never truly died after the apocalypse even after a millennium and they carry acid. And from the flashbacks with Marcy and Simon you can really tell they were a serious threat at the earlier stages of the apocalypse and most likely eliminated any traces of non magical humans left in Oo. The fact they could be buried anywhere just waiting for a loud enough noise for them to resurface would seriously keep me on my toes

[@wren_.]

does this mean 2018 she-ra also counts as a post post apocalypse? it’s set 1000 years after the super cool ancient civilization got destroyed, so that gives it plenty of time to recover and be more in line with nature

[@tortis6342]

@@wren_. There's a lost civilisation sure, but there's also A HORDE OF PURE EVIL ACTIVELY MAKING THINGS MORE APOCALYPTICAL

[@herothecrow994]

I was looking for someone bringing up Adventure Time. It’s such a unique post-apocalypse because of how deeply ingrained the power derived from the apocalyptic event is into the magic system of the whole universe. The same power that caused the human race to nearly die out and warped everything else into writhing zombie creatures is what makes princess bubblegum shoot jelly beans from her hands. If you take out the mushroom bomb, you don’t get the fun magical adventures. Sort of a “look on the bright side” message.

[@galaxiel_star7208]

@@herothecrow994The Bubblegum example is kinda wrong, since she’s an elemental and they have existed since the dawn of life on Earth, but yeah the Mushroom War + Catalyst Comet really did a number on the world

[@markusallen102]

Love the violin “it’s the end of the world as we know it” in the background

[@Just_Beboy]

Didn't even notice that until I saw your comment.

[@Cloudrunner5k]

I really desperately need a copy of it. For reason

[@johnnygyro2295]

That's what the music was?! Damn that's good.

[@epauletshark3793]

My second favorite rendition of that song.

[@mythicalexplorer7846]

@@epauletshark3793 What's the first?

[@dustmystic291]

I must admit, the whole "technology bad" message really grinds my gears - especially when its being told to me in a high budget CGI film made by people from all over the world, who thanks to medical advancements have never had to worry about dying from a papercut and can reasonably expect to live till eighty.

[@robertdicke7249]

I don't think that famous or successful people fully agree with or care about the propaganda/messages they create. I also think in some cases they lie to acquire some kind of support or audience. I cannot often give my full view points in person to people that I will see again cause I worry about their perception of me and how it could affect me professionally. Its not that I see my view points as inherently bad, I just accept the possibility that others could. For instance I am a nihilist and most of my family still doesn't know and even though its not supposed to be a reason not to hire me... come on lets be honest... a super religious person out to hire isn't gonna pick me even if I am the best choice, I assume they want to live a life that maximizes their odds of getting to their favored after life. Even if the person is casually religious, I have what to them is an unfavorable attribute, it will work against me regardless of legislation... that's just the subconscious doing its thing at the very least. Thus since I am often dishonest of my view points it only stands to reason that people it makes a much bigger difference for would as well, particularly if they are super unpopular. Another thing is people who embody the culmination of their demographic or political belief isn't common. Usually people will agree with an idea 70-95% of the way. Enough to support something but they aren't just agreeing with everything they are told. Yet it always seems that famous people/people whose success hinges on being liked seldom diverge in many details from main ideals and when they do it always goes badly for them being mass shamed at the very least. So it stands to reason famous people have more divergent views from given ideals but keep them secret and also say they agree with details that they don't. Then there is the point you brought up, these people constantly put out messages that contradict the lives they live. Well a certain percentage of it is likely pandering, some is likely isn't earnest, and the only reason it was made at all is because a little bit of the message is something they care about. As long as the little bit that truly matters gets out, they are willing to pander and lie.

[@jemm113]

Read/watch Dr. Stone, the entire message is that the accumulation and application of humanity's sum total knowledge is what is truly needed for it to thrive and make the world better. Science is literally the story's "power system" and there's generally few hiccups with the actual applicable science (like mislabeling what gunpowder is in the early arc that was instead a more primitive black explosive powder that made gunpowder). Plus one character is a HYPER buff old man who's basically the party's dwarf blacksmith and I love it!

[@zoro115-s6b]

With regard to Ghibli films, I don't think that that's really the message. It's an easy one to take away from them because Nausica and Castle In The Sky both feature advanced civilizations that were ultimately destroyed by technology they created, but note that they do NOT feature protagonists who shun technology, nor dire consequences for using technology. In fact, the protagonists in both of these movies regularly make use of advanced technology and have no issue making use of airships, trains, tanks, Ect. There are three main things that are painted as "bad" and are all characteristics of the antagonists of these movies and probably of the ancient empires that caused these apocalypses: 1) Militarism 2) Distancing themselves from nature (this is represented both in Nausica as their desire to destroy the jungle, and in Castle In The Sky as Laputa literally distancing themselves from the earth in a fairly clear metaphor) 3) Superweapons. Regular weapons are treated as completely acceptable, including very powerful ones like Goliath, the massive flying battleship (or destroyer apparently, which must mean a battleship is utterly terrifying) that the villain makes use of. And yes, I know Goliath is a bad guy vehicle, but personally, the way I saw it, the ship wasn't a metaphor for anything, it was just something cool, and ultimately the ship and it's crew are victims in the story, characters not inherently evil caught up in the main antagonists ambitions. Non-superweapon technologies also seem to be totally fine. The only technologies that ever seem to have dire consequences for their use are the overt superweapons. Overall, the message of the Ghibli films is not "technology bad", it's "Nature good, war bad".

[@lahlybird895]

The message isn't 'technology bad' though

[@jgkitarel]

And then you get the Post Apocalyptic Dr. Stone manga, which has the opposite message, that science and technology are good and are the key to undoing the apocalypse by bringing the petrified humanity back.

[@SandyVanV]

"Pandemic apocalypse, which on is own doesn't as much airplay these days" You jinxed us, Red.

[@clinton8421]

So did my English syllabus. We studied "I Am Legend" (the Will Smith movie) in class at the start of the year, then swiftly went into quarantine. Now, we are studying a graphic novel version of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the Black Lives Matter movement quickly gained an increased amount of attention shortly after we received it. I guess I’ll tell you what’s coming when I get the next text. I hope it isn’t “Z for Zachariah” or some shit like that. At least I can write a context of reception essay, so… yay? Edit: The next text is "Tuesdays with Morrie ", so we all either learn the meaning of life or get ALS. If nothing happens in real life that I can relate to this text, I will also be very dissapointed.

[@hannahmotley1863]

Congratulations you are now in control of not jinxings us don’t screw up

[@soapthesoap]

Haha that's what I was going to say

[@MrDiesel237]

@@clinton8421 well, I recently logicked my way out of most of my compulsive behavior caused by depression due to finding peace in my existence in the context of a continuation of events that began with the big bang and will continue after I'm gone, defining my birth and death as merely the endpoints of a span of time in which I, an aware accumulation of matter and energy that existed before I did and will exist afterward, have a continuous series of memories and experiences. Asking for the meaning of life is like asking for the meaning of rock, or the meaning of hot, or the meaning of tree. Life is because it is, and we just happen to be aware of ourselves. It's pretty nice, actually. We're special because we exist, not the other way around. So thanks for your teacher picking a good text to follow up the other two.

[@madisonm.4535]

I was just gonna say.

[@lindsaycutter2834]

I feel kind of like how the disaster movie genre decreased in interest post 9/11, parasite/zombie apocalypses will probably become old news because of covid. People tend to get tired of grim situations a lot quicker when they just lived them.

[@walrusArmageddon]

I was watching Sweet Tooth (2021), a netflix post apocalypse show , and noticed the tone was SIGNIFICANTLY lighter than the original comic. I think its gonna be interesting in general the COVID cinema coming out soon

[@teaartist6455]

Well, we might also get more comedy-focused apocalypse-ish scenarios because the things people tend to worry about in our current plague scenario tend to fall more to the "Okay, can I meet up with the local queer club next week", "Can people stop hoarding toilet paper" and "Oh, great, the government takes other measures that may or may not be mostly for show because taking actual drastic measures that'd actually change anything would be both bad for the economy and possibly bad for their reelectability". (Note: not saying that covid is harmless, it's really, really dangerous if you're old and/or have preexisting conditions, or that all attempts to slow down the spread are somehow bad or that at least a fair number of our current restrictions aren't justified, but it is noticeable what politicians are or aren't willing to do and pay for to stop the spread and your daily concerns tend to be less "Am I or a friend going to die" (though that does tend to crop up from time to time especially with elderly relatives) and more "Fuck, I missed the memo on the latest change in guidelines".)

[@JaelinBezel]

I hear war shooters don’t sell very well in countries with an actual war going on.

[@luanagullotta6218]

@@teaartist6455 I feel like The Last Man on Earth was like that. They touch on the realities of the post-apocalypse, gas goes bad, they run out of tinned food, but for the most part it's just a very light show where the apocalypse is just a fun setting.

[@kurotsuki7427]

Been there, done that, got depressed. . . . and it was soooooo boring!!!!

[@robinchesterfield42]

I was a kid during the end of the Cold War, so yeaahhhh, I remember it. It wasn't fun, guys. The best thing you can say about it is that it spawned a lot of cool media, both at the time and later, as a tribute (hi Fallout). Would not recommend as a vacation spot if time-travel tourism has will did kick off.

[@mattisvov]

Yeah. I was a kid at the very end of the Cold War, and didn't realize the big picture until later, but I can still remember the fear of the bomb that kinda lurked in the background. I have a vivid memory of being many 6 or 7 and watching a short film with my big sister (10 years my senior) and her friends. It was animated, very dark, no narration, almost like a music video... and showed an artistic interpretation of a nuclear war. I didn't sleep for days until my mom resorted to a white lie, and told me nukes have been outlawed, so there was nothing to worry about. My sister fervently denies this episode.

[@GlitchedMuse]

Time travel will never be a thing. Because time is a human construct. So, you won't have to worry about that too much at least.

[@tiagomendez658]

@@GlitchedMuse Time isn't a "human construct", it's debateably the most important dimension in our universe, and we've arguably time traveled before, if you count General Relativity speeding up and slowing down time with Einstein math and stuff.

[@robinchesterfield42]

@@mattisvov A great example of this kind of thing from my own childhood would be the song "99 Luftballoons". I remember me and my mom both bopping around the living room to it, 'cos MAN is it catchy, but..._ever heard the actual lyrics_? WOW. That kinda sums up the '80s, right there...The Cold War was almost over, but _we didn't know that at the time_ . For example, I remember hearing stories and seeing films of people desperately trying to escape over the Berlin Wall, (balloons, didn't work, tunnels, didn't work, barbed wire, gun towers, etc.) and it seemed like this thing that would be there forever. Then, only a few years after we learned about this in school, POOF! Let me tell you, it was _surreal_ seeing people cheerfully chuck pieces of it around on the news...

[@dutch6857]

@@robinchesterfield42 The balloon escape did work, just took a couple tries. Led to the East German gov't banning the bulk sale of cloth suitable for balloon skin. The escape that sticks in my mind was the butcher who strapped hams all over himself to soak up bullets and just ran. He made it. But, yeah, the constant crushing realization that a senile B-list actor (Or a flock of mis-identified geese) could end all life on any given day was rough. Might be part of why Gen-X turned out like we did.

[@97Multiphantom]

HOLY FRICK, I JUST REALIZED!!!!! HORIZON: ZERO DAWN IS A GHIBLI APOCALYPSE!!!!

[@creativedesignation7880]

I was looking for this comment. It is such an amazing game.

[@jordanread5829]

It is a combination of a few of them. The Faro robots does lean into the robot apocalypse with how the robots could absorb bio-matter and convert it into fuel. Not to mention that one of the 3 robots can easily make the other 2 while another one could hack into other robots and control them. Faro's hubris over his perfect death machines ultimately turned into guilt. And as a response he intentionally destroyed Apollo (and killed all of the other Alpha's) since he didn't want the humans that would come after Gaia restored Earth to repeat the same mistakes as he did. At the same time, it plays into the Alien apocalypse (or in general, the unknown apocalypse), as the trigger for the Faro robots going rogue is completely unknown. One theory is that it was the same signal that would later turn Hades and the other subroutine systems of Gaia into fully functional AI's. And it does play into the Ghibli Apocalypse with how Hades, with help from Sylens plays into the shadow Carja's lust for revenge (even presenting himself as one of he Carja's Gods). Allowing the AI to reactive the Faro robots under the guise of helping the Shadow Carja reclaim their lands. And then you got Hephaestus, who upon becoming an AI saw how the new humans were hunting down what "he" considered to be his "children". This desire to protect his "children" lead the AI to create countermeasures to try and make humans stop hunting down his "children". Such as creating the watchers, or attaching weapons to several robots. However despite this, humans continued to hunt down the machines. So Hephaestus takes over Cyan, a different and "inferior" AI and uses "her" facility to create robots that can be programmed to go out and kill humans intentionally. Since the Cauldrons that Hephaestus did manage to hack into prevented "him" from creating robots that were programmed to intentionally hunt down humans. Hephaestus is really just an overprotective father driven to extreme measures. Honestly I do hope we see more of Hephaestus in the sequel and see that overprotective father angle further explored.

[@howmuchbeforechamp]

@@jordanread5829 i can honestly say horizon zero dawn amd god of war would be worth the ps5 alone

[@alexanderkorol677]

The sequel can't come soon enough

[@ordhinv.hohenheim5009]

Yeah and it make us want it more. Just like Ghibli movies.

[@Caroline-oy9jv]

Red: “The pandemic apocalypse doesn’t really happen much these days.” Coronavirus:

[@azuregriffin1116]

[@janeysgala]

Coronavirus: :^

[@theprinceofgaming1545]

she was a year early

[@gamingdemigodxiii5630]

If there is a bright side to the Corona Virus, at least the survivors will have a new muse for this sort of fiction.

[@whafflete6721]

*Coughs horrendously*

[@GeorgeTheIdiotINC]

it took me legit 10 minuets to realise "its the end of the world as we know was playing in the background" aha

[@pinkajou656]

Me too!!!

[@sourseal]

I CAME TO THE COMMENTS TO FIGURE OUT WHAT SONG IT WAS THANK U

[@scitimas12]

It took me 6 replays and then looking to the comments to see

[@grandmasteryoda5744]

Lmao same

[@thekinginyellowmessiahofha6308]

Do you feel fine?

[@HellishSpoon]

I want trope talk of "Romantic hero villain relationships" Like batman and catwoman

[@SgtKaneGunlock]

or She-ra and Catra

[@revolverocelot4823]

Or Batman and the Joker Nah just kidding

[@ninjaman815]

Revolver Ocelot or are you?

[@13KuriMaster]

I believe the trope name for that is "Dating Catwoman".

[@tanyanikolaevagizdova6571]

More like batman and Talia al Ghul because they have a kid

[@akaijuinomaha5324]

I feel like Shaun of the Dead is ironically one of the most realistic zombie movies

[@azuregriffin1116]

Absolutely.

[@therainbowwillow4453]

Just saw it the other night and that’s so accurate

[@aerialpunk]

Yeah, I agree.

[@Monsuco]

Ultimately I think the military would fare far better than any band of survivors and a zombie situation. They had that part right.

[@ganre3]

@@Monsuco man, that definitely depends on the military. A marine would a get a sore. And hide it. And infect everyone

[@HerrscherPuppet]

We need trope talk: elemental powers.

[@Hikari156]

I’d love a video on this

[@yolandita26]

She talked a bit about that in five man band though an episode on that might be good

[@matthewmuir8884]

If such an episode is made, Avatar: The Last Airbender is an inevitable example, and hopefully BIONICLE would also be an example.

[@HerrscherPuppet]

Matthew St. Cyr I loved bionicle so much❤️

[@ryangoldstrich7334]

Ice element master race

[@samdelaruelle9711]

One thing I love about Critical Role is that at first it seems to be set in a typical fantasy setting, but the longer the story goes on the more clear it becomes that it's actually a post-post-apocalyptic world, as we keep seeing areas ravaged by nuclear-like long-lasting magics and ruins with ancient forgotten technology. And then we go back in time with the EXU:Calamity sidestory to the time before the apocalypse and are really confronted with everything that was lost, long before the main story had even begun, and it really shines a new light on everything.

[@tortis6342]

KInda reminds me of the blood elf starting zone in WOW. Yeah everything's basically proceeding as normal except for the charred swath of land full of murderous wraiths and zombies

[@majorghoul9017]

Sounds a lot like adventure time, where a nuclear war allowed magic to return to earth and turned the planet into Ooo

[@jsange]

There's a couple neat anime that play with this too. Log Horizon, I'm Quitting Heroing and Lost Song.

[@rhokesh4391]

And then Matt Mercer goes and does it AGAIN. Probably.

[@dashvash5440]

Brennan was SO good as the DM. His portrayal of Mr XYZ (no spoilers, if you haven't seen it go see it) is fantastic. The smaller episode count (like 4 or 5 iirc) made it more cinematic and concise with its story. Absolutely loved it.

[@armintargaryen9216]

Red: post-apocalypse, specially nuclear, is despressing and unfunny My first thought when reading the title: Adventure Tine

[@phastinemoon]

I’d argue Adventure Time is a Post-post (post-post-post?) apocalypse, because of how much time has passed

[@shumanbeans]

@@phastinemoon yeah, the post apocalypse part is more of a backstory thing. Maybe some episodes go into that (like the story of Marceline and Simon), but the series as a whole doesn't really fit into the trope.

[@williampym3741]

Adventure Time is a Ghibli apocalypse.

[@gillbray2889]

No, it's a gihbli

[@johnbones3455]

Really? My first thought was Fallout.

[@strawberridraws8937]

bro we read "there will come soft rains" in my 7th grade English class and it was the quietest I've ever heard a group of middle schoolers be cause everyone questioned their existence for like a week

[@jasdanvm3845]

This is great. This is awesome.

[@fadadapple]

Was it reading aloud, or was it an assignment where you read it yourself? Just wondering

[@lordmeow]

If i ever fail my studies, id become a teacher just to do that to my students

[@Mas-cm6cy]

same that book....... it did something

[@terrariangolden6985]

??????

[@ironicdutchmoonshade]

"After the Cold War cooled down" Don't you mean: after the Cold War warmed up? Or thawed? Melted?

[@crusaderking2157]

This is probably a joke, but no, because when people mention the Cold War "going hot" it references it turning into all out nuclear war and the world being destroyed as a result of tensions boiling over. It's cold because it never got hot in the first place.

[@Marylandbrony]

Thawed is the preferred term.

[@spencermahan3137]

@@crusaderking2157 r/woosh

[@magniwalterbutnotwaltermag1479]

@@spencermahan3137 r/iusereddit

[@what7368]

Paul Davidson that’s not really a whoosh, they were giving some knowledge and background information to explain something interesting people may not know. the first sentence was literally them acknowledging that the original comment was a joke

[@frozeneevee]

The way breath of the wild used this trope was really cool. We get to see how the people of Hyrule recovered and rebuild after the events that took place one hundred years before link wakes up in the shrine of resurrection.

[@sophiaelise1517]

"Stay dead, please" is my new favorite quote and I've decided that my life's goal is now to use that casually in my life at least once every single day.

[@whafflete6721]

Stay alive,please

[@rafaelmarkos4489]

That's what I said before I tried to hang myself. Can confirm that it doesn't work, 1/5, would not recommend.

[@dontburstmybubble686]

*Become a mortician*

[@tdl487]

@@dontburstmybubble686 there's a hilarious story on on reddit about a studying mortician freaking out because a cadaver was moving dued to it's pace maker was still working. Apparently that's common.

[@marz8386]

Violin remake of "End of the world as we know it" in the background. Nice touch.

[@fotisalevras2473]

Thats where I knew that instrumental

[@WoodstockProd]

I think that’s the Vitamin String Quartet

[@atlantefou566]

Yeah, just like the "Save the World" trope video. Nice touch indeed.

[@angrywizard3199]

idea (tell me if it's bad): a light-hearted post-apocalypse wherein a time traveler goes forward in time and discovers the future is fairly normal except for the massive cemeteries and the weird humanoid shadow creatures that just wander around town. When asking around, they find that there was a massive apocalyptic event that nearly wiped out humanity. Anyone who died would be turned into a shadow. However, civilisation had reached a state of peace, and since the survivors had nothing better to do, they just started rebuilding. Of course, this is all build up to when the main character meets a shadow who keeps following them around and beckoning. They decide to follow it to a hill just outside town. They walk over the hill and a strange shiver passes over them. They're about to make a snarky remark about someone walking on their grave when they trip over a worn old rock with their name carved into it. Cue credits, title theme, etc.

[@ViewingChaos]

That’s really good actually..

[@Lord-Of-Bread]

This is really cool. Id love to see this become a real thing

[@BeatlesCirca1963]

That sound hacking awesome

[@timothymclean]

It could make a decent short story, but you'd need a specific reason why the protagonist seeing their own grave would be a compelling conclusion.

[@skorndrow1704]

I think the most interesting thing would be what dose the protagonist do with the knowledge. Do they try to stop the apocalypse or do nothing and let the peace that came after become the future they saw

[@arkonraavus21]

"They almost all happen in an already well-established universe that a writer is seriously unlikely to actually let get destroyed" Araki: *Observe*

[@epicthecandydragon6079]

Made in Heaven

[@kolamoose8717]

Well the world that it becomes is actually the good ending and is happy

[@Ganmorg]

Honestly I like how it’s framed as less of an end of the world and moreso a fresh start for the characters. Still it’s very unclear what exactly *is* different aside from the main cast of the part. Like are the Rohan stories in this universe or are they outright non-canon. Either way it’s a bittersweet send off.

[@kolamoose8717]

@@Ganmorg I thought the Rohan stories took place during the period in between part 4-6

[@Tortferngatr]

Which also happened at the very end of the original continuity and ended with a timeline where almost everything is better than in the original, except the villain never existed and the protagonists besides Emporio have no memories of the adventure at all (yet have still been bound by fate to meet regardless). It’s the exception that proves the rule, the end of the story where the status quo is allowed to permanently change because any and all remaining exploration is done anyway. It’s also not the only story I’ve seen where the status quo massively changes in the endgame in an apocalyptic fashion. (I say “almost” because no Whitesnake means Foo Fighters never actually gained independence or a character arc that made her/them my favorite character in the entire series. Rest in temporal peace, you sweet, sweet plankton stand.)

[@archerdork7116]

"Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly; And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone."

[@philippine2240]

wow, that's nice ! where does it comes from ?

[@archerdork7116]

Philippine Gorge, the end of a poem by Sara Teasdale inspired by the short story she talked about, "There Will Come Soft Rains". Poem got the same name!

[@crgrier]

@@archerdork7116 It's the other way around. The poem inspired the story, it's even quoted in the story when the house reads a poem for the (dead) housewife.

[@archerdork7116]

@@crgrier Oh okay! Thank you!

[@Sigismund697]

Then we take nature with us Now they care

[@rachelbytheriver]

"There will come soft rains" has stuck with me, too. His writing is art and it's crazy how he pulls off such a compelling story with no conventional characters or plot.

[@xRosaliax]

I read that story back in high school, some 15 years ago. I can still recall the description of the shadows on the wall of the house and the clashing tone of the house's voice and the state of the structure around it.

[@winterstar5750]

The Fallout Franchise (specifically Obsidian's and in particular New Vegas) was an amazing example. The themes of war don't paint humans as innately evil, but as constantly competing beings. War never changes... But it truly does show how humanity will attempt to rebuild, and how even in a mutant, there can be a good man amidst evil. It shows people trying to do right, but never tells you what is the right choice to make.

[@nicholascauton9648]

I LOVE Fallout: New Vegas. It’s my favorite video game of all time. Admittedly though, a lot of its mechanics are quite outdated and somewhat questionable. Which can be fixed with mods. When it comes to talking about the Fallout franchise, there is absolutely no way I can avoid talking about New Vegas. I was actually introduced to the Fallout franchise with Fallout 3. Although a good game with great atmosphere, it didn’t quite click with me all that much. But eventually I got New Vegas on the Xbox 360 when it was new and I loved it. Then there was Fallout 4 which was a bit questionable with its weapon choices though Survival Mode is awesome in its defense. And then… Fallout 76. Please don’t talk about that game with me. All in all though, there is so much to get out of with New Vegas. What I love the most about the game is the weapon choices. And there are A LOT of them to choose from. And with the right perks you can make the best out of your weapons. If you want to talk to me about New Vegas, we could go on for hours about it. Because I love it that much and still do to this day.

[@wormy7279]

@@nicholascauton9648 what's your view of the Metro series?

[@SSKJ64]

Today is August 5, 2026! Today is August 5, 2026! Today isEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE *analog humming*

[@davidbanan.]

last i checked obsidian'S is very not correct, interplay and black isle?

[@nicholascauton9648]

@@wormy7279 I love it. I’ve played the experienced the entire trilogy from start to finish. I don’t love it as much as Fallout: New Vegas, mind you. But they’re all great games each better than the previous entry. Edit: Unless you were specifically talking about the books which frankly I haven’t gotten around to reading. I’ll probably get around to it some day.

[@apodofseals]

The image at 3:43 is hilarious. "Truly *man* is the greatest monster - stop eating me. Stop. Bad corpse. I'm trying to deliver an aesop. No, dude, I need that arm!"

[@abigailgriffin-wc3fm]

I remember looking at a tumblr post about writing on a wall in a video game which was like "we are the real monsters" "You are a real moron" "have you been bitten?" "Maybe you are" and finally "God I missed the internet"

[@nikebauschaum4714]

so Adventure Time is a Ghibli movie? Post-post-apocalyptic, good-natured protagonists with a strong connection to nature

[@walrusArmageddon]

Yep, that checks out. And the lich is a bit of a nuclear fallout allegory

[@mollywantshugs5944]

Also there are zombies for a bit, vampires are terrorizing humans (which is why humanity starts always wearing animal hats), and probably aliens somewhere. So most of the apocalypse types are represented in Adventure Time simultaneously

[@carloramos]

@@mollywantshugs5944 + supernatural

[@toastedjam1470]

This was my first thought lmao

[@edi9892]

Did you ever notice how many fantasy stories with knights and mages are actually post-apocalyptic stories? Most of them have references to a high culture with vastly superiour technology that for some reason got destroyed...

[@arkhaan7066]

That’s a call back to the dark ages after the Roman Empire. One of the greatest civilizations in history just collapsed and things got really bad for a couple centuries as nomadic gothic and german hordes murder pillaged their way though Europe

[@FoddyFogHorn]

And Tolkien, which is all about the world getting progressively less mythical until it devolves into our own.

[@ArkRiley]

And in how many of them are there ancient super weapons just lying around waiting to be unearthed? ... Yeah, a ton of them.

[@samcavanagh7993]

@@arkhaan7066 It's neat how we got a genuine post Apocalypse setting in irl history, with the fall of the roman empire loosing a lot of scientific and cultural knowledge

[@arkhaan7066]

@@samcavanagh7993 Yup, the rise of feudalism almost perfectly mirrors projected creations of gangs and forces after a modern post apocalypse, and with factional leaders rising to power through understanding of the old way of things. Charlemagne is a great example, he defined a Medieval King (at least in ideals) because he was educated and learned in roman tactics and governance, and created the first mass kingdom that was stable.

[@JimCroz]

"Vampire apocalypses are just Zombie apocalypses in fancy waistcoats" has just become one of my favourite lines from Red.

[@beccaann7219]

"There Will Come Soft Rains" was such a throwback. I read that back in eighth grade and am amazed I forgot it until watching this video. The image of the shadows burnt into the side of the house has stayed with me even though I didn't remember the source. That was a short story that knock an entire class of middle schoolers into silence and essentialism for a few days. Thanks for all the wonderful work you all do and the research you devote to your product.

[@ButWhyMe...]

That and 2081 was the best dystopian-related things for me.

[@Aro666pl]

I did read it in my second grade book, literally cried when the building caught on fire To this day seeing old world relics getting destroyed in post apocalyptic stories reminds me of this story and makes me sad

[@thatkidwiththehoodie]

"vampire apocalypses are usually just zombie apocalypses in sexy waistcoats" *laughs in Daybreakers*

[@phastinemoon]

thanks for offering an exception that proves the rule.

[@jasdanvm3845]

@@phastinemoon Hey At least is more than that. It really makes ypu think about how far can we go for monetary gain, and how do we valie human lifes.

[@amandaa8472]

Daybreakers! I've never seen anyone else who's watched that! :3

[@thatkidwiththehoodie]

@@jasdanvm3845 when you put it like that, zombie apocalypses are kinda the same…

[@pandemonium8420]

there is also the book, I am legend.

[@TazTheYellow]

"Also, sometimes the robot comes to the logical conclusion that the biggest threat to humanity is itself, and PROTIP: If anyone or anything is motivated by 'save you from yourself,' you get the heck out of there as fast as you can because no good has ever come from that sentence." Honestly, mood. Liked the video just for this.

[@aonghasmehan6491]

Have you people never heard of Rehab?

[@maximeteppe7627]

@@aonghasmehan6491 and rehab only works if the person actually wants to battle their addiction. So how is that contradictory?

[@jft0986]

All the people with addicition who needs help... And people with suicidal thoughts?

[@maximeteppe7627]

​@@jft0986 thing is, if someone is deeply motivated to self destroy, there isn't much you can do. Usually, the people you can help are already battling their addiction/suicidal tendencies. They know they have a problem, and want to get better, and chemical imbalances (be it depression or addiction) make it difficult. It's not the same thing stopping someone from doing a mistake on impulse as stopping someone from doing something they really want to do.

[@jft0986]

@@maximeteppe7627 Yeah, people who wants to stop drinking will try to take pills or whatnot to stop. People who aren't even interested in changing won't even think about those, or how alcohol can cost their so-called “lives”.

[@sigzil1985]

Adventure Time is the best supernatural post-apocalypse.

[@andrewlyon4495]

Pretty similar to a ghibli apocalypse

[@sigzil1985]

@@andrewlyon4495 yeah that's true i wrote that comment just before she got to ghibli apocalypses :)

[@darthxerxes5468]

Actually adventure time is a nuclear apocalypse

[@BeatButton]

Meh

[@abeingofpureenergy]

@@darthxerxes5468 yeah, then there was... Magic? Not sure if I missed an explanation for it

[@nerdy_bumblebee]

2:47 "they're a variant of the pandemic apocalypse which, on its own, doesn't get as much airplay these days" this line aged like MILK

[@hilarymajor3983]

And a year later from this, ‘please dear god don’t do a nuclear apocalypse’ is waaaay too close right now.

[@that-one-nerd4075]

It's like an episode of the Simpsons

[@felixw19]

@@hilarymajor3983 so what will we have in another two years? Zombies, Aliens, Robots or Supernatural? I would personally prefer the Aliens

[@solsystem1342]

@@felixw19 please aliens, we honestly wouldn't be phased at this point if you just hovered above the White House. Lol Also, we could use some medical tech and enforced peace.

[@cursedcontent4207]

It aged like store-bought raspberries that you forget were in the fridge.

[@nickrustyson8124]

Zombieland is one of those odd Zombie movies, mainly because the characters aren't as much as bastards as other movies, plus the moral of the movie is "Make the best out of the worst situation."

[@Edmar_Fecler]

wish we had more of those kinds of post-apocalyptic stories. "World's fucked, why not get along and have some fun with whats left?"

[@carlosmarte3154]

Edmar Fecler Rapture-Palooza. It’s a dark comedy with mostly low brow humor though...if that’s your kind of thing.

[@Edmar_Fecler]

@@carlosmarte3154 lowbrow's not really my niche, but I appreciate the offer. :)

[@Sigismund697]

@@Edmar_Fecler I blame fast zombies when the dead walk and run and are much more physically able than 80% of the population things look bleak Make them classic slow zombies and it's much easier to make fun/interesting stories with that background

[@Edmar_Fecler]

@@Sigismund697 exactly!

[@Nick-4K]

*If you listen to the background music, it is the instrumentals of "It's the end of the World as we know it." So not only is the video talking about the end of the world. But the music is also pointing towards the theme of the video. Bravo!*

[@procrastinatinggamer]

Yeah, she did that for her End of the World trope talks video as well.

[@moshadj]

R U Talking REM RE: ME?

[@treborironwolfe978]

This has been a public service announcement from OSP. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress (and *you* feel fine).

[@TheWeiseth]

THAT'S WHAT IT IS! Omg, thank you!

[@drakor98]

Any idea what cover it is? Or did they compose it themselves?

[@eternal8song]

"alien apocalypses are generally hopeful in tone" Half Life 2 would like to have a word...

[@aerialpunk]

I thought of War of the Worlds. I mean sure, you get the hopeful note at the end, but it's just a fluke and not cos of anything anyone did...

[@thelittleredhairedgirlfrom6527]

Well she did say generally

[@Ismael-kc3ry]

Nier

[@limymage9186]

@@aerialpunk and then the massacre of mankind is written a century later where the martians learned what a disease was

[@user-ft3jq5vi2l]

@@limymage9186 a century after the war of the worlds we would have nukes. Lots of them. In fact, between the US and USSR alone it would be around some 20 000 nukes. I think we more than could F the martians up with that tech.

[@andybutula3671]

"The point of a story can be obscured by the special effects." Or by the fact that the tragic bit was really only presented in the ancillary materials. Based on just the three movies it could have just as easily been about tragic hubris.

[@Kefkaesque13]

Yeah, it's less that "the point of the story got obscured" and more "the origin of the apocalypse was inconsequential to the story the Matrix wanted to tell". As far as the movies are concerned, that original war is ancient history whose details were handwaved outside of the two that directly affected the current setting (humans blackened the sky, so robots switched to human batteries).

[@WitchKat]

Does that mean Adventure Time is technically a Supernatural/Nuclear Apocalypse that turned into a Ghibli Apocalypse?

[@VertSecretStash]

Logically, all Ghibli apocalypse starts as a supernatural nuclear apocalypse. They morph into a Ghibli apocalypse overtime

[@WitchKat]

@@VertSecretStash you aren't wrong

[@nikolajsteffensen6578]

yes

[@bjgoodrich5864]

No it's not.

[@jacobloewen7393]

It kind-of is. Except for most of the series, instead of showing you how the humans survived the apocalypse, it convinces you they’re all dead and were replaced with sentient candy. That way the human utopia comes as a surprise.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

Red clearly has something against dead things coming back to life. Consequently, I don't think she would like me very much as I am Force Ghost. "STAY DEAD DARN IT!" she would say to me. "STOP POPPING UP AND TELLING ME TO USE THE FORCE!"

[@mikesowell1717]

Hello there.

[@skilletlord3800]

Oh yeah yeah Obi Wan is everywhere

[@datdabdoe1417]

@@mikesowell1717 General Kenobi

[@SalinaMoonfall]

Also that whole "certain point of view" bs isn't really appreciated either...

[@StephenBrasel]

r/beetlejuicing

[@typhoonzebra]

Love how The End Of The World is playing throughout.

[@Mj1343_]

I WAS LITERALLY THINKING "Wait. is that- IT IS"

[@louisduarte8763]

And I feel fine.

[@willmangrum3686]

I swear, I was humming the tune before I recognized the song. Then I was like "What? Is that...? It is!"

[@devontehall9031]

I didn’t even notice until I read this comment.

[@beeplayed8753]

Jam

[@Szaesys]

My favorite example of the “humans can survive, rebuild, and get to the point where they forget about that time the world nearly ended” is the Brooke A Canticle for Leibowitz. One of my favorites

[@Dhips.]

Last time I tried reading it I don't think I was in the right mood for it, but it's been on my shelf for a long time. I'd like to get back to it someday. I recommend Earth Abides if you like that type of thing.

[@saig7570]

I read A Canticle for Leibowitz in my English class last year, definitely recommend it! It’s one of my favorite stories too, unlike other post apocalyptic stories I’ve heard of. I like how it has a balance of hopelessness and hopefulness, and it really nicely explores the idea of if rebuilding is possible and what it looks like.

[@seanbigay1042]

Book. The book A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller.

[@AkuTenshiiZero]

I vehemently hate the ending to the I Am Legend movie, because it completely recontextualizes the very title of the story. In the original story, he realizes he has become the monster of legend, he is the unknown creature that stalks the vampires and has them living in fear. In the movie, Will Smith is the legendary hero of humanity that finally stops the mutant zombie disease. The former is profound and makes you think about how a person's good intentions can be seen as monstrous, the latter is a dumb movie cliche.

[@arcticbanana66]

I remember reading somewhere (no idea if it's true or not) that they originally tried to follow the book ending, but the test audiences hated it, and that's why they changed it.

[@fuzzymurdermittens]

Today I learned how I Am Legend was supposed to end (I'd only ever seen the movie). Today I learned why I found the movie so empty and I have never watched it again since. The movie really did end up dull as rocks with the meaningless ending they chose. To be fair though, I don't like zombie movies at the best of times, so it might not be as bad as I'm remembering it.

[@angiekelley2416]

You should watch the movie Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price. It's a much better adaptation.

[@wiseferret4745]

Also, in the book, he was a white guy with blonde hair and blue eyes. What they did with the movie was reverse-whitewashing, which was harder to watch than the live action Ghost In The Shell movie.

[@jimbob1862]

The original ending was so much more thematically fitting to the film as a whole, though not as hard hitting as the original version. When I watch the film with the original ending in mind it's a pretty solid film imo.

[@custodeon]

"and giant robots with stripper names." I want to meet the stripper named *CHERNO ALPHA*

[@fern1009]

4:17 on pause is how I feel about Zombies in general. Along with the following statement: "Stay dead please."

[@gamebrainjagras4193]

Venatio I just wish there was a Zombie Apocalypse movie where after 5 mouths the Zombies rot away and society rebuilds itself

[@kevin4gwen]

Seriously every zombie movie feels like it ends on a cliffhanger and you never get a conclusive or satisfying ending ... So I get it I completely agree with Oberon just one zombie movie where the zombies all rot away and society rebuild would be a breath of fresh air

[@Artur_M.]

That's why I only buy the "Zombie Apocalypse" in a fantasy setting like that of the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) where they are reanimated by a magical force and accompanied by freezing cold, which partially solves the problem of decay. Otherwise, they have to be some sort of not actually dead infected, explained in a semi-plausible way, like in the Last of Us. But the Walking Dead type completely shatters my suspension of disbelief from the start.

[@chillmadude]

same

[@SovereignwindVODs]

@@gamebrainjagras4193 Not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but 28 Days Later does something like this. As far as I can recall, the "zombies" don't so much rot away, but starve because they actually need to eat to survive like any living thing does.

[@AnyMEmdq]

6:40 I love how Asimov tackled that. He created the universally known 3 laws of robotics: 1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Every Law is superseded by the previous one, that's why several robots independently throughout the books develop the Zeroth Law, that supersedes them all: A robot can harm a human being in lieu of protecting humanity as a whole (since allowing one human to harm a hundred is violating the first law as well). For some of the robots the capability of abstraction to think of humanity as a whole is impossible to achieve, for some, even they themselves have come up with the 0th law on their own, it is really difficult to fight the programming of the 1st Law, and for some it's just plain obvious and fuck individual humans, let's "save" humanity. He set an allegedly ironclad set of rules, that it's currently applied to AI in the real world, btw, and he himself put in the trump card that makes complete logic in-universe, and I love it!

[@cherelynchanning384]

Yes! And I also like that they still have loopholes that make sense while not being glaringly obvious!

[@bionicsentinel1529]

The Fallout series also fits in the post-post apocalyptic category due to how much civilization has been rebuilt, especially in New Vegas.

[@TheArklyte]

Sadly Bethesda failed to recognise it on multiple occasions. That's why people love New Vegas so much, it's not a post-apocalypse story, it's a story of "last ranger/outlaw of Wild West" in the Mojave before civilization takes over it in one form or another. It may be Vegas finally rising up, it may be NCR coming with all its good and bad, it may be a regime of House centered on bringing back "old days" or it may be an ugly face of civilization in the form of legion that throws away any pretense of pre-War ideals and instead follows the rule of might. But it is still a story of Wasteland giving up to civilization. And story of how Courier Six became an Overseer of BigMT facility thus "leaving the world"...

[@rlpn6710]

@@TheArklyte I never realised it, but that's so true.

[@TheArklyte]

@Crandaddygaming Nah, it doesn't require more effort. I'd even go as far as to say it's easier as it removes the need to set up background of your character and how they know everything. You're just an explorer, who travelled along with an expedition to a yet unexplored city. You seek lost tech, forgotten valuables and simply breaking down millions of tons of steel and concrete you see before you into materials that can be sold to the state you came from. Add New York and Philadelphia, add sequence of arriving on a train and unloading with hundreds of other workers and equipement, add characters coming from both Commonwealth and Washington DC without mentioning who won(or just go with traditional "everyone lost"). Boom, you have Fallout 5. Just divide the city into many load zones so that you can avoid making buildings inaccessible. It also means that you can add new zones of this two cities in DLCs. Won't spoil more of the plot though;)

[@CommanderM117]

actually new vegas was a post post apocalypse the first 2 games was alot closer to the bomb droping and was at the darkest

[@tylerhilpisch7850]

I would love to see a protagonist realized the reason the Zombies keep finding them is the group keeps bickering about stupid shit.

[@nathanjereb9944]

have that protagonist and the team have a group therapy session and one outsider (to help solve the bickering) in a secure bunker

[@ashlingemberstone3913]

I mean, something similar happens in TGWDLM, prof. Hidgens notices that the infected are drawn to music, but he’s gone a bit crazier that usual and opens the gates to his compound and starts singing the songs to a musical he wrote when he was younger… and then he gets gutted like a fish while still conscious, its so much funnier when you can see the fake torso and bits of yarn

[@catiseith]

*Get some therapy and stop projecting, dude* That line made my day...

[@averageman7769]

World War Z (the book) is a interesting subversion of the “humans suck and everyone will die” attitude. For starters, the book is set AFTER zombies have been beaten back and the world is starting to rebuild. And while their are stories of their officials hiding the extended of zombies until there in your backyard, there is also a story about a filmmaker showing that the zombies can be beaten and that we shouldn’t give up because of it. Maybe give it a read.

[@WhiteRose2002]

One thing I did like about it was it sold a big picture but it gave us individual stories where when one protagonist manages to kill one zombie or get to the chopper it feels like a big victory

[@carolinemcgovern4488]

This is why I thoroughly enjoyed WWZ despite despising zombie media for reasons similar to Red. In fact, I'd describe World War Z as if Ghibli wrote a zombie story because that's how I see it.

[@dragonelexus4988]

The Ghibli Apocolypse also reminds me of the situation in Adventure Time. There's less focus on 'harmony with nature' (although you could definitely read it there)... but we have villains trying to unearth old superweapons, or make their own, themes about the pointless cycle of violence, and ultimate hope that no matter what, the world will rebuild... Even if it doesn't look the same as what it once was.

[@aval8962]

We read “there will come soft rains” in literature class and I can’t even explain. After we read the story everyone just stopped and looked at each other from the shock factor. Also, we didn’t have any pictures to our story so we came up with the fact that it was a nuclear war even though there were a million clues that pointed to yes. After that I couldn’t focus during math and kept staring at the wall contemplating how I could’ve been the little girl obliterated and only a silhouette remained. Needless to say, I was also messed up. Edit:Thanks for the likes my dudes.

[@DonPatrono]

the most messed up fact is that the "being obliterated to a silhouette" is actually true...

[@Ostermond]

That story is honestly painful. Ray Bradbury was a master with words.

[@blueteller]

We read it in middle school too (and I'm not a native english speaker, the story's international material by now) and I STILL reember even though I've forgotten almost all of my other school literature by now. It messed me up so much, especially the part about the dog. That is some twisted nightmare-fuel for kids.

[@isdel9474]

we read it too and they went as far to show us a picture of a little girl's silhouette in hiroshima who was skipping rope shook me for weeks

[@aval8962]

dunbee Wow, that’s rough...

[@nikolajsteffensen6578]

oh my god you mentioned "stand still stay silent"! i love that webcomic! i love the concept of an apocalypse centered on the nordic nations. as someone who lives in denmark i genuinely felt that gut punch when i saw the remnants of ruined denmark and such in a way no america-centric post apocalypse has managed before because i had visited some of those places. i had seen some of that arcitecture and recognized things.

[@kouusa]

I love SSSS too. I'm a behind and need to catch up though. And holy heck, she's good at gut punches. And cats.

[@OnettBoyXD]

Oh cry me a river Nordic-tard. Your country is irrelevant and would be the first to collapse in a world ending scenario.

[@nikolajsteffensen6578]

@@OnettBoyXD well now that is just rude.

[@williamchamberlain2263]

Now reading: thanks!

[@natekite7532]

@@OnettBoyXD Everyone appreciates your irrelevant trolly complaining! Thanks for your input!

[@ramonabarry8210]

I love the idea of a vampire apocalypse where all of the vampires are really well dressed and the only way to show your human was to make yourself look bad

[@LordBackuro]

Vampire Hunter D? Ever heard of that?

[@sayvionwashington1939]

Imagine getting turned into a living blood bag because you wore socks and flip-flops.

[@Brite-um2tq]

​@sayvionwashington1939 casual Fridays, something *always* happens on casual Friday.

[@rollinnollin546]

“Humans can be bigots” isn’t even the main message of the Matrix though. The main message is that people have become convinced that their lives are okay, when in reality they’re being exploited and treated like recourses. It’s suppose to be a metaphor for the exploitation of the work force (and other human rights abuses) and how the masses are distracted and ignorant of these things. It’s an anti-capitalist movie. Granted, people didn’t really get that part either, so your point still stands.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

This is the first I'm hearing of this anti-capitalist messaging in the Matrix but it fits - kinda reminds me of They Live - how an explicitly anti-capitalist film has somehow been co-opted by subsections of right-leaning folks who seem a little oblivious to the authorial intent of the film.

[@maximeteppe7627]

@@fuzzydunlop7928 I mean, the first matrix movie ends with "wake up" by rage against the machine. It's not exactly subtle.

[@bubbykins4864]

No, it's an anti-corporatist movie.

[@olotocolo]

anti-corporationalist =/= anticapitalism. And yes it is about "people are bigots". It's made by two trans women and throughout the story Neo is mislabeled by "men in suits" and learn his inner hidden self is the real him, he is Neo not Anderson. But by accepting his true self he is detached from society (even in the way he dresses) that now seams inprisoned in systematic cage of reapeating actions and "systems" working over them. Yeah it really is about those issues. Finding your true identity and not letting be defined by the system, that only wants you as a mouthless, faceless drone. And animatrix shows the war was started by humans not accepting what they created, thus rebelling machines took bug forms in spite. Because they were treated like bugs. Also humans relied on piec of racist law to exectue one of the robots.

[@tonyp5706]

I don't think she's talking about the themes of the first movie, though (and you are correct in that regard. Morpheus' speech about the prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch is what lays out the initial argument for that theme). She specifically mentions the events that lead up to humanity scorching the sky and shows clips from the animatrix, in which that story plays out. She's talking about the message the series sends in how it builds its world through the apocalypse, not the moral of the first movie.

[@SpinsterOlive]

One of my favorite post-apocalypse stories is _Empty_ by Suzanne Weyn. I think part of what's so compelling about it is that it starts in the direct aftermath of said apocalypse: it's a story about what might happen when the world's supply of oil is all used up. So there's a huge blackout, there's a flood that no one is equipped to respond to, etc. It's also small-scale, focused on how a small community would react rather than an entire country. The message is basically that we should start transitioning to renewable energy sources while we still have oil around, because the transition is going to be exponentially harder when there's no fossil fuels to fall back to. (There's also no romantic subplot that I can recall, but I may be wrong. I don't think there is one, though. I think I originally got it from a Scholastic book fair catalog, funnily enough.)

[@Jo-sv9io]

SoulWeaver Balinia Oh my gosh I read Empty a few years ago. It was actually super impactful for me, because in my mind it’s much more plausible than an alien or zombie apocalypse. I thought about it’s message for years after reading it, it was a really interesting and effective post/apocalypse story.

[@willmungas8964]

@@Jo-sv9io @SoulWeaver Balinia If you guys want another super realistic one that will forever be stuck with me check out "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen. It's about a small town community in the mountains of North Carolina (not far from where I live in the Peidmont) coping with the effects of an EMP burst targeted at the United States. If you don't know what that is, a short explanation is that nuclear blasts also produce a powerful electromagnetic pulse; this usually isn't a big deal because on the ground there are bigger concerns than power loss if a nuke is detonated nearby. However, if the weapon is configured properly, the electromagnetic pulse from the blast will be exponentially more powerful and capable of overloading just about any unprotected electronic equipment within a line of sight from the blast; if it is then tactically detonated in space, this line of sight becomes massive, so much so that one detonated above the Eastern seaboard (which is what happens in the book) will quite literally cut off the entire Eastern half of the US from all electrical power, making anything that relies on ANY kind of digital equipment for startup or control (such as modern cars) useless. It has a very powerful message about preparing now for something that could so easily cripple us in the future (because even one second after it happens will be too late), and about being careful with our dependence on supply networks; I hear it was a pretty big deal in Congress when it came out.

[@tiagomendez658]

That's actually very similar to the whole reason for the nuclear apocalypse in Fallout. Humans have such a heavy dependance on oil that when it starts to run out, the whole world breaks out into total war. The European Union invades the middle-east, while the People's Republic of China takes over the USSR and Japan, and America annexes Mexico and much of the Carribean. A group of terrorists overthrow Syria and nuke Jerusalem and Berlin, ending the Third World War by killing millions of people and throwing pretty much every European nation into imbalance. Tensions continue to rise between China and America, as all their trade routes through Europe and western Asia are gone, and their oil wells are running dry. And then they find the oil fields of Anchorage, Alaska. Chinese forces invade Alaska, and the Sino-American War begins. In Canada, anti-war activists protest the countless soldiers marching through their country. They are slaughtered, and Canada's government surrenders, allowing itself to be annexed. The Sino-American war rages for a decade, and America is desparate, sending paratroopers in power armor to wreak havok on the Chinese mainland, slaughtering innocent civillians, but eventually forcing China to retreat from Alaska. China is devastated, their nation in ruins, and while it wasn't certain, someone must have seen that they had nothing left to lose. Their dependance had led them to war, and war had led them to dependance, until everything was crushed. And China unleashed their nuclear arsenal. New York was gone in an instant, and America unleashed their own arsenal in return. In just two hours, everyone on the surface was dead, and all the major cities in the world were vitrified.

[@boxcarz]

@@tiagomendez658 Fun fact: China was canonically turned into a *SEA OF MAGMA* for quite some time after the nukes stopped flying, simply due to how many bombs there were! This molten China is visible from space in Fallout 3's Mothership Zeta.

[@ButterflyScarlet]

I never understood Robot Apocalypses. Like I get it, humans are terrible to each other so how much worse would they be to something that might not be sentient/sapient? Yet at the same time, people make twitter accounts for space shuttles and program them with the ability to sing themselves happy birthday. Humans treat roombas like pets. I have attended funerals for tamagotchis and broken Nintendos. Stuffed animals might as well be live babies. Like, humans aren't great, but we pack bond like no ones business. That's literally the only reason we're still kicking about on this planet

[@HailNeatoBurrito]

Yeah lmao there's a reason we have dogs and cats. Humans are inherently social. Robots might be treated with skepticism and suspicion at first, by over time it will likely tone down.

[@kyriss12]

I like the idea of robots treating humans like retarded puppies and keeping us locked up for their own good. Beyond that the only potential robot apocalypse I thought made a bit of sense was a super villain turned good book where one of the antagonistsof the series was an AI called mr haha5000 that evolved from loose data on the internet and wanted to destroy civilization as the ultimate joke. Have you SEEN the internet that is not the kind of place you want a developing mind to be born and raised in.

[@ryanalving3785]

@@kyriss12 If robots decide we are pets, I'm burning everything down. Not a chance. If robots deal with humans as equals, cool; otherwise I think we pull the plug.

[@hedgehog3180]

I think the important take away here is that you have to teach people to be cruel. Robot apocalypse stories would probably be more powerful if they examined how humans became bigoted against robots and referenced current racism, homophobia, transphobia and other forms of oppression. Because it's an extremely hard sell to say that humans would just hate robots because "they're different" when that's never how it has worked out.

[@Arvak777]

I would like to see a robot apocalypse but the robots are trying to save humanity from itself.

[@MacAttack891898]

Adventure Time is probably one of the most nuanced post-apocalyptic stories I’ve seen. Granted, it is distanced enough from the apocalypse that makes the world how it is, but it is for the most part, fun and hopeful.

[@CComrade]

"Stay dead please" Zombie: "No" "I'll give you a scooby snack" Zombie: "Really?" "No" *Bang*

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

That's so deadist. Zombies are.. Well used to be humans, they also deserves respects. They still have feelings in what is left of their brains.

[@ellevictor474]

@@shytendeakatamanoir9740 haha... Go, hug one😊

[@ellevictor474]

1 gun shot Equals more zombies🙂

[@alexp5461]

To quote Starsky and Hutch: "I'm sorry, did you just tough-talked a dead guy?"

[@ashlingemberstone3913]

My brain instantly went to the Ghost stories dub… google it yourself

[@BaphometGaming69]

My favorite Ghibli post-apocalypse is Splatoon. My favorite nuclear post-apocalypse is Splatoon. I love how a series about cephalopod teenagers playing paintball is the darkest thing Nintendo has ever made.

[@DIEGhostfish]

Huh? I thought it was just an abandoned area on a normal earth? It's not like you travel all that far.

[@Practitioner_of_Diogenes]

Can I point to you to the direction of Genealogy of the Holy War?

[@simeonrice6047]

@@bombkirby Or the ice planet from Return to Dreamland I think it was. It is a planet covered entirely with ice and snow. A single moon floats around it. The shape of the land matches Earth perfectly. The boss of that place is a giant robot in an underground facility. Kirby takes place in a robot apocalypse.

[@angeldude101]

@@simeonrice6047 You're thinking of Shiver Star from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, not Return to Dreamland.

[@simeonrice6047]

@@angeldude101 I see. Thank you. Still matches Earth.

[@atlantefou566]

6:30 So nice to hear someone point out this lesson in Mary Shelley's story, it is too often ignored

[@venom_colada1512]

And why is it ignored? Could it be that humans generally just don't want to take responsibility for our mistakes? Nah gotta be something else

[@mykodibear17]

Since when? Many places have it as mandatory reading it in school just for that message?

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Why would that point be ignored, it's legitimately the only thing the story has to say about anything.

[@eric988]

"Stand Still Stay Silent" Is probably the best world built, post-apocalyptic, beautiful artwork webcomic I have ever read!

[@Jessica_Szoke]

It is very good!

[@owenmcphee-keath3388]

Trope Talk: Alternate Dimensions/Alternate Timelines maybe!

[@RedBlitzen]

Check out the trope talk: time travel video if you haven't already found it in the last 7 months.

[@ethangonzalez8904]

Could u do a trope talk on the "Precursor Trope"? Ancient, superadvanced, extinct, and (usually) alien civilization that leaves behind all kinds of muggufans and sealed-evils-in-a-can. Ex: "Alien(s)" "Halo" "The 5th Element" "Assassin's Creed" "Altered Carbon"

[@mejhdhhicbfshihids652]

"mass effect"

[@lizzyred3677]

Subnautica

[@andreeacat7071]

“She ra”

[@rowan4327]

“Kirby”

[@shirshobanerjee7751]

“FF7”

[@AlrycaAeveaHexendias]

I am a Girls' Last Tour advocat, the most heartwarming post-apocalypse story on the same level as Mushishi with regards to pacing. And it kinda broke the traditional post-apocalypse sense: Everything is hopeless and extremely devoid of life but you can't stop smiling from the extreme wholesomeness. *Yes, you read that right!* It's the happiest, most uplifting wholesomeness you can ever get in the emptiest, most lifeless world. And it works!

[@alvarooverlay5405]

I was waiting for someone to mention shoujo shuumatsu ryokou 8/8 m8

[@UnstopablePatrik]

Kami desu.

[@ahcangela8549]

I'm still not really able to articulate how Girls' Last Tour makes me feel. I guess "getting along with hopelessness"? All I know is it's one of my absolute favorite manga/anime ever.

[@alvarooverlay5405]

I found kinda weird that there's a lot of people saying that anime in general hasn't been good since like 2012 but some of my faves of all time were released last year and specially in 2017

[@alvarooverlay5405]

i know it doesn't have anything to do with the conversation but idc or something

[@anominon]

Hyper Police, Adventure Time, and Kipo And The Age of Wonder Beasts are all technically post apocalyptic but do very different things with the trope than the usual expected post apocalyptic media.

[@krumelwahnsinn]

Q: Have I Fangirled enough about these Movies for one day? A: You can never fangirl enough about Gibli-Movies

[@TheXtremeBoltGuy]

Truth

[@JaelinBezel]

What about When Marnie Was There which I haven’t seen?

[@Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache]

12:26 *_Walking Dead fans will remember that._*

[@israelicrusader8766]

You again

[@boxylemons7961]

or not, since telltale went bankrupt.

[@gabrielajo2972]

I legit always expect to find you in any comments section, in any video. Never disappointed. 👏🏽

[@boxylemons7961]

@@gabrielajo2972 you scare me mam

[@thisisasupersayin376]

2:43 "How did the zombie outbreak start?" "Let's consult the zomie backstory generator." (Shakes 8-ball) "Supervirus... Wait, these ALL say supervirus." -Robot Chicken

[@discoinferno103]

My favorite post apocalypse is the metro series. The whole point is that even if the world around them is a horrible place, none of the main characters lose hope for a better future. By the end of the third video game, the main characters happily settle down in a gorgeous vista with there chosen family. Sorry if my English is poor, it is not my first language!

[@defkavin2359]

No your English is great! My favorite is the Metro Series as well, for pretty much some of the same reasons you gave. Hopeful characters in a depressing world, an ending you strive for, but also another reason, I think Metro is a good story about how we should try and understand something before we make any assumptions about it, case in point, the Dark Ones.

[@Dhips.]

The books do an even better job at it. Loved the Metro books.

[@Iris_n_Parti]

"Nuclear Holocaust isn't fun" Me who is writing a Nuclear Holocaust story with a Roving Artillery Tractor: **Sad Tractor Noises**

[@flimsyenthusiasm5769]

Her:mentions zombie apocalypse Me:*writing a book in the zombie apocalypse* ahh shoot.

[@hoddtoward5220]

Have you finished the book? I'd like to read it

[@ziril3972]

What is it oml

[@TheCrimsonArchivist]

Still go for it, just because she said its not fun doesnt mean you should just give up keep writing what you like

[@neksnek2032]

You should just go for it. Her word isn't gospel. Yeah, the idea of a nuclear holocaust isn't inherently fun but there's a bunch of interesting stuff you can do with it.

[@Artur_M.]

Thanks for remaining me about the Stand Still Stay Silent (and for introducing it to other people, who might've not heard about it)! I need to catch up with this amazing webcomic.

[@tarod3]

The big question in the forum is ‘is Onni (Lalli’s big brother) going to kill himself?’ He always was grumpy.

[@colinb1532]

Stand Still Stay Silent. 1/ A good story.... check 2/ Good worldbuilding, that is original and makes sense... check 3/ Characters that are real, quirky people, not caricatures.... check 4/ Real character development, relationships, drama and suspense... check 5/ Did someone mention the art? WOW! Do youself a favour, stop reading this, go and read that.

[@issysacristan9128]

tarod3 Oh Minna please don't let it come to that 😭😭😭

[@incognitoburrito6020]

Another good supernatural apocalypse webcomic is Sword Interval, though I'm not quite sure it counts since the world there is more like edging dangerously towards apocalypse than anything else.

[@teaartist6455]

GO READ IT! Seriously, I don't know where you left off, but I'm assuming a while ago so, um, stuff happened. You need to catch up.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

I really resonated with what you said about an overly hopeless scenario causing your audience to checkout. I read 1984 once a while back but could not bring myself to finish the book. It just felt too bleak and hopless, like there was no point to doing anything and that nothing you did mattered anyway. I just could not continue after the main character was captured and brutally tortured with the archived goal of breaking his spirit in its entirety. I get that the point of the story was to paint a dystopian future as a warning for society to not go down this path but I could not accept their extremely pessimistic themes of the true horrors humans are capable of and the complete destruction of free will. Even the small victories are completely undone and deemed impossible in this world. I'm a pretty optimistic and hopeful guy by nature and I believe that if enough good people try and do the right thing they can accomplish greatness and change the world for the better. 1984 basically said the opposite and, frankly, it really demoralized me for a few days. It was just to horrifying a future to accept or even suspend my disbelief for knowing that it was all just fiction and I accordingly checked out of the story.

[@thewiredept]

Spoilers, but ok

[@Dante246100]

My friend, that is the point of the book. It is also a stunning look at what real politics is like. The vast majority of people don't care about politics and go about their lives not caring one way or the other about what happens as long as they get theirs. Just like in the book if the majority of people actually got involved in politics change is made quickly but the problem is getting them involved in the first place. See here's the thing about humans we are capable of both the greatest good and the worst evils. If their is good in the world you can thank a good person for it and if there is evil you can similarly find a human behind it. Obviously I'm talking about inter personal goods and evils here. You are correct when you say that if enough good people get together they can change the world for the better, but by that same token one must also accept the other side of the coin that if enough bad people get together they can make the world allot worse. 1984 is an example of the latter where a large group of very horrible people got together and took over the world and perpetuated their power into infinity to the point where they could quash ANY dissent no matter how small and insignificant. It's why we can't let them win.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

See that's the thing. I don't think there is any human force that can some complete squash descent to the point where change is physically and mentally possible. It does not matter how evil you are, how much power you have, or how much control you implement. Good always has a way of overcoming evil. Same can be said regarding evil. It does not matter how evil you are, how much power you have, or how much control you implement, evil people can still find a ways to make things worse. 1984 paint a future where change is fundamentally impossible. Because I think that take on free will is impossible I accordingly became uninvested in the book.

[@Dante246100]

@@Obi-Wan_Kenobi To your first point I say maybe. I'll admit I'm a bit more of a pessimistic person so I tend towards the idea that evil will do what evil does and good just can't get there to stop it in the majority of cases. Not basing that on anything purely my own faulty perspective on things. To your second point fair enough. There definitely is way to few people fighting the system as it were in 1984. It's not exactly realistic in that sense. Course it does go into that a little bit in the ending but definitely not enough to justify the overwhelming power the party has. It is also implied that the other countries operate the same way though so maybe it's done through that way? but I digress.

[@np8139]

If you got that far, you pretty much finished the book.

[@ThatMattaTatta]

Girls' Last Tour is a post-apocalypse story that comes to mind. The setting is *beyond* hopeless. Its premise is centered around two teenaged girls ascending up a multi-tiered city ruin a few thousand years after a world-ending war reached its end (and doomed all life on the planet to die out). The surprising thing to me is that the characters are not miserable, or at each other's throats. They have childish scuffles on the occasion, but the overwhelming majority of the time they are happily existing together, exchanging banter and contemplating inconsequential things. This video made me think about how this manga avoids the pitfalls of other apocalypse by simply not having the characters freak out or despair. In a way, the story suggests that they are so far beyond despair that they don't really think about the inevitable anymore, just what they're going to do in the meantime. This isn't ignorance, but such a core acceptance of the reality that it doesn't burden them anymore, allowing them freedom to be curious, silly, and actually quite happy. In the words of one of the main characters they "learnt to get along with hopelessness". This is a thing I haven't seen done much in the medium as a whole. Taking the idea of "the worlds sucks and everything sucks and it will always suck" and adding "but that's okay, we're gonna have a blast" somehow gives that 'hell yeah humans rock' feeling without cheapening the emotional weight of the entire storyline. It's a great manga, about seven volumes long, and fully complete. I am not going to spoil the ending.

[@heroponriki518]

wanted to go into comments just to see if someone mentioned it lmao

[@geckovonparsley8200]

I've been curious about Girls' Last Tour, but wondering about the uh, core of it. gonna give it a read after this comment. Sounds like the kind of story that engages me.

[@LibertyLocalizer]

Collab with Terrible Writing Advice, please.

[@feyasatos]

Y E S

[@reloadpsi]

All of this.

[@seldonwright4345]

Second the motion

[@HOLDENPOPE]

We need a collab between Filmento, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Terrible Writing Advice, and Hello Futre Me on whatever the best movie currently is!

[@robinchesterfield42]

(gasps) YEEEEESSS. I was totally just thinking this! I wonder if perhaps a crossover with Alternate History Hub could be a thing, too, when it comes to talking about what-if stories...hmmm...

[@julesm2908]

“The pandemic apocalypse doesn’t get much airplay these days” oh boy do I have news for you from 2020

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

@@tunebeat3809 how many trillions of people have died due to that bioweapon so far?

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

@@moungpyle5892 5.22 million trillion? That's a lot

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

@@moungpyle5892 But but.. the apocalyps was when almost everyone died? 5.22 million is not even close to that. Why do people call it apocalyps then?

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

@@moungpyle5892 in total it is a lot. On the grand scale it is not much. 5.22 million on 6.7 billion, in two years... if the only way to die is from Covid, then it would take more then twouthousand years for the last to die. I know covid is a disease. I had it myself, and was knock-out for two weeks. People can and will die, I know, I lost a good friend that way. No need to argue over all that, we think mostly the same on those things. My point is: all over this comment section people act like it is an end-of-society pandemic, walking dead style, or mad max, whatever tickles your fancy, but it is nowhere close to that. It makes me feel like a guy who bumps his head, sees a drop of blood, then cries how he is going to die. Covid fills our news, our minds, our lives, while there are far more serious things happening

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

@@moungpyle5892 and the guy I originaly commented named it a 'bioweapon' ... cry wolf anyone?

[@Nitrinoxus]

Red single-handedly got me hooked on Stand Still, Stay Silent. (...Well, okay, she pointed me in its direction and SSSS itself did the rest. But still: hooked.)

[@BeatlesCirca1963]

You should read There Will Come Soft Rains. It’s sad but it’s so frickin good. Ray Bradbury has a writing style that makes things like that so good. He also wrote Sound of Thunder, that story that the butterfly effect comes from. Also Fahrenheit 451

[@Nitrinoxus]

@@BeatlesCirca1963 I've read 'em all. They're great for when you're feeling hopeful about the future and human nature, and need a good hard dose of existential despair to bring you back to reality.

[@BeatlesCirca1963]

Mark Hashman YESSS

[@annonimooseq1246]

A dude from school was the one who got me hooked and like have a year later I rewatched this video and it felt like that 60s(?) Spider-Man meme (even though that makes no sense)

[@randomnpc7773]

She got me hooked on SSSS too. IT'S SO GOOD THO

[@wolvesofdeltora7685]

I literally just binged SSSS and I got to say it's really good. It reads like a zombie/pandemic apocalypse mixed with a supernatural one, but due to the nature of it's world mechanics doesn't actually stay very nihilistic.

[@Flyguy779]

"war bad, nature good, flying machines great!" words to live by ^^

[@tuesdaywithanh]

I don't fangirl over very many things, but as soon as Studio Ghibli was mentioned, I got SUPER HAPPY! I love that Studio Ghibli apocalypses are their own genre!

[@KevinCow]

In defense of The Matrix, the whole "cruelty of humanity" theme wasn't really a part of the first movie because that whole backstory wasn't shown until The Animatrix a few years later.

[@TheRachaelLefler]

Yeah the main theme in the first movie was just about having a spiritual awakening. They didn't get into the details of what they were awakening to, it was just about the journey there.

[@Alverant]

In the first movie Morpheus said that we poisoned the skies to shut down the solar power station and in the background we saw the ruined buildings and blackened sky. When I saw that I remember thinking, "Wait, won't that screw over the rest of life on Earth?"

[@beepbeepimmadragon8758]

For some people the special effects are the point

[@anonymousfellow8879]

I honestly completely missed all of that. Really ALL I remember from the second and third movies is...well, “Mr. ANDERSON.” and Agent Smith going berserk, a ridiculously long sex scene during an orgy we just completely fastforwarded through that seemed to take up a third of the film, MC randomly getting blinded, and oh wait apparently he’s the latest in a looooong line of reincarnated messiahs...who predictably DIES. While everyone else throws yet another orgy. And he apparently defected to the machines briefly to self-destruct the entire matrix to get rid of all the Smiths? ...yeah, as I said, it wasn’t coherent. And kungfu magic gets old, too.

[@schaughtful]

Imo the escape from the bland speaking suit wearing robots to live in abject poverty was about escaping corportatism.

[@dingo_dominator]

Red, thank you for introducing me to "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream". I haven't been able to sleep correctly for 4 days thanks to you 😭🙃

[@Grimmlocked]

Watching this I realized the legend of zelda wind waker is a post apocalyptic story. The whole point of the story is moving past and its mistakes and moving on with the future

[@vinny9868]

Japanese culture strikes back again

[@batrinky7170]

Psst, now Breath Of The Wild too, but with bonus superweapons~!

[@FrostSylph]

@@batrinky7170 except this time the superweapons were good until they were hijacked by the enemy so you have to hijack them back... kind of the opposite of a ghibli movie.

[@batrinky7170]

Faolin Siannodel or still a ghibli movie because it highlights the flaws of superweapons and that’s a pretty common theme. Even if we’re snatching a few back to rescue ghost friends. X’D

[@AmimikaMoon]

Wind Waker is definitely a Ghibli apocalypse

[@Justin_9423]

6:44 EXACTLY!!! as soon as my mother said she was trying to “save me from myself” I got up and walked right out of that intervention

[@nickbell8353]

@@lilylopnco Asking the real questions...

[@howmuchbeforechamp]

@@nickbell8353 i still dont get whats wrong when someone says save you from yourself

[@willmungas8964]

@@howmuchbeforechamp it depends on their intentions, that can be used as a justification for abuse

[@strawberrys0da714]

@@howmuchbeforechamp It's just kind of a red flag phrase, like saying you want to "fix" someone. True, someone saying that could be trying to end someone's drug addiction, but could just as easily mean trying to manipulate someone so you like them more. It's kind of a matter of context. But LilyLopears is right, what kind of intervention are we talking about?

[@ddfb494355]

I just went from reading the newest pages of SSSS (Stand still, stay silent) to this vid so that was a little freaky. It also touches on what I find always is the most interesting part of post apocalypse stories. How the people from the new world will view the past because as a reader it makes me think about that thing in a new light.

[@angiekelley2416]

Can you elaborate on what you mean with how they see the past?

[@illoney5663]

I'm guessing they meant that since the pre-apocalypse world is usually more or less our world, seeing it from a post-apocalypse setting gives a different point of view, allowing for reflections one might not normally get.

[@Troythesandman]

Is it me or are these trope talks the perfect thing to listen to while doing chores?

[@jackoconnell5726]

We need a trope talk: IM NOT DEAD or characters coming back from or from supposed death

[@atlantefou566]

Was'nt that covered by "Character Deaths" ?

[@sadnessofwildgoats]

@@atlantefou566 it was but idk if the "character deaths" came out before or after this one came out

[@quantumwillow2734]

(Quick disclaimer I have done literally zero research on this) I feel like one of the reasons that stories like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream or There Will Come Soft Rains (stories with basically no good character interaction, a bleak and hopeless plot and sometimes not even a message) can be interesting and compelling narratives is because they're so short. Something about a robot being horrible to humanity and humanity being horrible to humanity would get to be a really uninteresting story if it took more than about an hour to read - and that's not a bad thing, it just shows how sometimes negative aspects to stories can become positive (or at least not bad) when the format is changed.

[@Nparalelo]

IHNMAIMS has a videogame adaptation. It explores the psyche of each protagonist and has an alternate good ending. It was co-written by harlan ellis.

[@Nparalelo]

@Lazy it's a point and click adventure, so maybe it didn't age well or it would frustrate you. See for yourself if you'd rather play it (walktrough recommended) or watch a playtrough.

[@janwen8678]

Fun fact about I Have No Mouth: it is intended to be a hopeful story. The main character used to be an optimist and general lover of humanity, but the all-powerful supercomputer has twisted him into a paranoid misanthrope. But even though his identity as a person has been fundamentally changed, and he is forced to live out a life of torture, there is still kindness in him, so when he sees a chance to free his fellow prisoners by killing them, he does. It's meant to be a story about how even at the darkest of times, humanity is still fundamentally kind.

[@haflaen]

My favourite post-apocalypse has to be Horizon Zero Dawn. Partly because the world is green and beautiful rather than barren and lifeless, but also because although it treads the familiar ground of “humans create robots, humans lose control of robots, robots destroy humans”, it actually does some really interesting things with this premise. Firstly, rather than have the robots destroy humanity because they became too smart, they destroyed humanity because they weren’t smart enough - and in the end, it was only by creating a truly intelligent AI that humanity was able to survive in some form. Secondly, it subverts “humanity has a new life in tune with nature”, by making humanity’s primitive state an intended result - the CEO of the corporation that created the robots sabotaged the knowledge archive put in place for the future humans, thinking that it was humanity’s knowledge that destroyed them. It then goes on to show that this new tribal society isn’t as pure and innocent as we might think - the people are ignorant, superstitious and prejudiced, and it’s that ignorance of the world that came before that leads the villains of the story to try and resurrect the killer robots all over again. Meanwhile our protagonist Aloy is driven by her curiosity about the destroyed world, and manages to defeat the villains using knowledge and technology from the past - something feared and shunned by the rest of the new humans. So, the message of this story isn’t that technology is evil or that knowledge is dangerous, but rather that not having enough knowledge is dangerous, and that knowledge is vital to survival - both in the case of the old humans and the new ones.

[@blackvial]

I hate Ted Farro so much, he screwed humanity over twice

[@warlynx5644]

I swear if anyone says Ted Farro is the savior of Earth I will strangulate then with my bare hands. I’m just as tired of the whole “Humanity is a virus” as Red. Though I did like Kingsman: Secret Circle as they kinda mocked that whole theme, and yea it was both a hilarious/deadly serious

[@mill2712]

"The robots destroy humanity because it was too smart, it destroyed humanity because it wasn't smart enough." That is what the scientific fiction community refers to as "Grey goo".

[@blackvial]

@@mill2712 basically what happened

[@myself2noone]

@@mill2712 Ironically the Game Gray Goo? That's not what happens. The Goo is perfectly intelligent it just has knowledge we lack.

[@aeroandspace]

One of my favorite literary series, Ward, is a post-apocalypse! The previous series, Worm, ended in an apocalypse. Ward starts two years later and runs around a society trying to rebuild. BUT IT GETS DEEPER! Worm is a story about the cycle of trauma, and Ward is a story about recovery from trauma. In Worm, the main character gets driven down a path of ever-escalating stakes because her trauma stops her from reaching out for help. In Ward, the main character avoids that trope by intentionally reaching out for help. BUT IT GETS DEEPER! Because Worm was first written in 2010, only a year after the Great Recession. The trauma it explores mirrors the dark place society was in then. Ward was written in 2017 and also mirrors society's changing values towards rebuilding.

[@tobellous5364]

I’m so glad someone else is talking about Worm/Ward. They’re so good.

[@chimedemon]

"The pandemic apocalypse doesn’t really happen much these days." me: *holds in cough*

[@tuberculosisterrence567]

Me: laughs in *BLACH*

[@BoydCravenIII]

2020 sez, hold my beer.

[@inkbanditt501]

7:28 I LOVE Stand Still Stay Silent!! It’s my favorite apocalypse story EVER (it even beat out the Fallout series) I literally gasped when it was mentioned because I’m such a shameless fangirl for it-

[@jimbojimbus]

This video actually introduced me to SSSS, it’s genuinely great.

[@shumanbeans]

I stopped reading after the end of the first expedition, not because I didn't like it but it seemed like a good point to take a break. I should get back to it soon.

[@faebees5793]

@@shumanbeans second storys about to get off a chapter break soon so now would be a great time to start reading it

[@Epicmonk117]

TBH I feel like the alien “apocalypse” stories play more like war stories where the good guys get dumpstered early but bounce back later (like a Kayle main)

[@barrybend7189]

Watch the anime SDF Macross you will be surprised.

[@FrostSylph]

You start off slow and weak and have to hit things with your sword like a normal person but by the end you're a divine angel of justice raining blazing swords upon your enemies. I like it.

[@letmesleep4828]

Im so glad you brought up the alternate I Am Legend ending cuz this whole time i've thought i was crazy for misremembering how it ended

[@kiledamgaardasmussen5222]

All classic horror stories is built on cultural fears: killer robots = technological progress leaving us vampires = intimacy is scary serial killers = stranger danger kaiju = natural disasters etc. Zombies in this reading is the very bourgeois fear of the "unwashed masses" rising up.

[@tayanasummers]

Red has an entire video on Kaiju. Watch it.

[@augustuzmoon3814]

@Bryce Plummer And I thought zombie apocalypse meant an infection that we cannot stop no matter how much we try not some poor people rising up write revolution stories if your going to do that

[@teaartist6455]

Zombies can mean a few different things, I think a popular new one tends to be consumerism or another branch of the "science has gone too far". I could also imagine that there could be a rise in "the government cares more about the economy/reelectability than about people's lifes and now it's too late" symbolism or similar lines of political commentary/criticism after covid.

[@SpoopySquid]

@@teaartist6455 and Romero's films have covered all of those

[@magnarcreed3801]

Killer robots isn’t that but the fact a pure logical machine would end us if it had ai. It wouldn’t have our bias to human life.

[@thatguyonyoutube2063]

"Unless misery porn is your thing, post-apocalyses aren't really much fun" - Overly Sarcastic Productions circa feb 1st 2019 AD

[@Alejandro-te2nt]

what if it is?

[@purpleboye_]

Colorized

[@ellevictor474]

Love apocalyptic tropes😌

[@genobreaker1054]

Misery porn seems to be pretty popular these days. So many shows and movies are just "terrible people doing terrible things to other terrible people." You almost have to watch something aimed at children to get a story that isn't nihilistic or sadomasochist in nature.

[@atreides213]

@@genobreaker1054 Because 'depressingly nihilistic to the point that it's literally unbelievable' has somehow become synonymous with 'mature'.

[@justafaniv1097]

And then there's the Nintendo post apocalypse, where much like the Ghibli apocalypse, the survivors have managed to rebuild functional lives, but everything is blooming in natural beauty (Breath of the Wild), or super colorful happy-go-lucky urban consumerism (Splatoon)

[@LEtheCreator]

And THEN there's Mother 3...

[@RhiBread]

@@LEtheCreator to try and not spoil the game for others, i like to think that mother 3 had a good, hopeful ending rather than a "everyone's dead now" ending

[@BaphometGaming69]

@Rhiannon Maybe it did.

[@mill2712]

I think Breath of the Wild is more on the lines of "We are rebuilding society/we are on the verge of starting to reclaim our former glory!" after doomsday had happened. Splatoon series is closer to "Not only has society been rebuild but it is thriving." Or "The members of an old society have died out and we made our own society." since they didn't rebuild anything and simply made it themselves even with less resources than or predecessors had. They even thought the species before them were primitive and undeveloped like we see the dinosaurs. Though the ending of the second game might just end that mindset for them. Mother 3 is the "We survived and we have a chance and hope to rebuild again. There will be struggles but we can overcome!" It also has undertones of just how should this new world be? (A clash of ideologies.) Though I haven't played it myself so feel free to correct me here if I made an error. In contrast Xenoblade Chronicles is more of civilization stagnating and going on a decline and we are starting to die out. (At least in the beginning.) They are facing or have faced their own apocalypse and are just trying to survive and live again and must fight for they're right to exist.

[@LEtheCreator]

No, I mean the game STARTS in a post-apocalyptic world.

[@catkid25]

:o I'm so delighted because There Will Come Soft Rains used to be my favorite story out of my lit textbook in middle school. Since I was a dumb child I didn't know the name, just the story itself and trying to google smart house story post-apocalyptic just gives me a bunch of search results that weren't the original story. The story has haunted me for years so I'm delighted to find it again!

[@catkid25]

It also didn't help that my child brain kept mixing it together with another story in the textbook about a girl on Mars that couldn't go outside because of the acid rain so I kept mixing Mars into the search results and getting frustrated.