"Turn Ur Brain Off" - The Purpose and Value of Media Analysis

A general response to the anti-intellectual cretins in my comment sections who keep hurting my feelings by callin' me a big ol' nerd.
PATREON: / explanationpoint
TWITTER: / expoint140

[@sleeplessindefatigable6385]

This is interesting to me, because a while back, I watched a video about Revue Starlight, and all the fine gears going on in that, and about halfway through I had to stop watching, not because I deeply disagreed with what was being said, but because I suddenly felt deeply stupid and empty. See, I have a mild form of autism, and though it rarely affects my day-to-day life, I'll never be able to truly know if my interpretation of art is different to other peoples', or if my ability to enjoy or create art is inherently flawed, and the revstar video brought that into razor sharp focus for me. The video in particular was on about Karen's fight with Hoshimi and how it's all so full of all these delicious bits of subtext, when I missed every single detail. I watched, confused to the extent to which any of it was real, enthralled by the spectacle, and any details I picked up were more to do with the fact Hoshimi was using every dirty trick in the book because of course she would, the moment that fight gets into close quarters it's game over. I picked up on Hoshimi's plight for sure - the fact she was never as good as the others and worked herself into the dirt trying to do everything Maya or Claudine did by instinct, through sheer rote memorisation - but the moment the fight happened, the sheer gulf between what's real and what's not just overpowered any other more coherent thoughts I could have. It's like I suddenly realised that maybe I don't enjoy what I enjoy for any deep reason, or that I enjoy things on a hollow surface level, and no matter how deeply I think about things, there could routinely be swarms of fine details that I'm missing and may never pick up on. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I understand where those "turn your brain off" people are coming from because I see almost none of the details you find, and wonder if I can actually digest anything below surface level, but at the same time, the idea of just turning one's brain off seems ludicrous to me, because if you have to manually dumb yourself down to enjoy something, then that thing is probably pretty awful.

[@jessielefey]

As someone who also is mildly autistic, that's where media analysis really helped me. The perk of media is that most of the time, characters and even whole shows will just, like, tell you why they did it, in a way real humans won't. You can watch a show six times in a row, until you parse out body posture or intent or the tells in a character when they're lying. (I think it's why people like us are so drawn to animation, its tropes are exaggerated and well established so that even children can understand.) Once you get used to watching fiction critically, you can take what you learnt and apply it to real people. We're never gonna intuitively grok people, but we can learn how to make the observations and deductions on purpose when reflexes fail us.

[@Asehpe]

Sleepless, if you allow me... the reason why Media / Art Analysis is a discipline that is taught is that most people -- hell, ALL people -- don't start out capable of noticing all the details you're talking about. Some people notice some of them from the very beginning, most don't -- but ALL people learn to notice things they had never noticed even in media they thoroughly enjoyed the first time they watched it. What you're describing sounds like what I feel sometimes -- not because of autism, which I don't have, but because I always feel dumber than "professional" media / art analysts who see metaphors and connections between things I didn't see. Even now, after having read several books on the topic and thought deeply about it, I can see there's a difference between my perspective and that of someone who spent years learning about the topic from others who also spent years thinking and teaching about it. I'm an amateur, and I will always be one, and that means I will always miss things, even though I have no autism, and even though I am not really dumb (quite the opposite actually, at least in the spheres of life that I have really studied hard). Rather, what makes it worthwhile for me to watch analysis videos like Explanation Point's here is that they open new perspectives. I prefer not to think "why didn't I notice it myself?" (which is often true -- he often talks about things I DIDN'T notice in the original anime), but instead "ah! and how do I feel / think about this new thing this guy/gal has noticed?" Going even beyond the "do I agree with his/her interpretation?", there's the "if I see it from this perspective, how different does the experience of rewatching the show become?". You see? I could decide to simply feel inferior to people like Explanation Point, or Digibro, or Eyepached Wolf, and others with analytical skills that I lack. But I prefer not to. Because, frankly, there is no reason for that. My own experience, and my own perception (or lack thereof), and my reaction to their perceptions as expressed in their videos, are perfectly valid in themselves. They're also enjoyable. And every now and then, I may even be able to make a point, or even notice something, that escaped the radar of these great people. And when that happens, isn't that something? :-)

[@DeathByMinnow]

I go out of my way to notice as much detail as possible and still end up missing vast swaths of incredibly interesting stuff. That's part of why I follow channels like this one, to fill some gaps in my viewing experience with their talents.

[@hyenaedits3460]

I don't think the whole missing small details thing is specific to autism. That's why analysts exist, to point out the small details that people might miss and how they impact the story. I'm autistic and when I'm really interested in something, I'll notice things that other people don't. If I'm not so interested, I'll completely miss huge details. Sometimes I randomly miss huge details in things I love too, because my brain is dumb.

[@theMoporter]

As an autistic person; that's not autism. That's a depressive existential crisis. Non-autistics get them too.

[@VagabondTE]

Something does *NOT* need to be intentional to be meaningful.

[@kekero540]

I remember when I was really fucking depressed someone merely saying hello to me made my day.

[@VagabondTE]

@@usakenvi what do you mean "no". Your statement doesn't conflict with mine in any way.

[@williamchamberlain2263]

@@kekero540 +1 to that

[@VagabondTE]

@@kekero540 I would highly recommend checking out Jordan Peterson kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWPbYaCrr96frq8

[@lars7935]

On the other hand: Just because something is intentional doesn't mean there has to be much meaning behind it. Both in the positive ("art" just beeing "art" for the art itself) and in the negative way ("art" just beeing brainless shit).

[@blacknwhitestripe]

I want to bash my head against the wall when people start talking about "Don't think about it so deeply." I WILL think about it deeply! THINKING ABOUT IT DEEPLY IS THE WAY IN WHICH I CHOOSE TO ENJOY THIS MEDIA. Like holy crap, if they aren't having fun in the discussion, then why take part? (That's what Media Analysis is I think, a discussion about what people got our of said media.) I don't think I should have to defend what I'm doing when the most obvious and simple answer for why I'm doing it, is that it's fun. *Also I hate it when I'm trying to talk about world building and someone chimes in with "It's not raining on the island because of the mountains, the author just wanted to set up a dark mood." That is not the actual topic of this conversation; if I'm talking about made-up fictional geology I don't care for authorial intent. If you want to talk about how that rain represents fear or love or whatever you can start your own conversation. Sorry if I came off aggressive but this stuff has me: impassioned.

[@goldenapplesaga5446]

"I'm not educating people in any meaningful way" Bullcrap your helping me and tons of other people become a better story writer! I have a playlist of like 70+ writing tutorial videos and more than five of those videos are yours! Your absolutely educating people.

[@jahithoms4022]

Preach! Also send me the playlist feels like I could gain some useful insight from it.

[@joncarlosjones5041]

Can you also send me a link to the playlist? I would appreciate it too.

[@goldenapplesaga5446]

@@jahithoms4022 honestly I dont feel comfortable doing that. Its private and I don't know why but releasing that to the public makes me feel kind of exposed.

[@goldenapplesaga5446]

@@jahithoms4022 I will say However that its dominated mostly by Totally Not Mark, Explination point, A closer look, Lessions from the screenplay, and others.

[@jahithoms4022]

@@goldenapplesaga5446 dont worry about it then

[@fanboyistransboy5089]

Personally I like your media analysis because I want to make art myself and I like to think about how to make my stuff great

[@lmbusiness5300]

DAMN STRAIGHT

[@fredchallenger5278]

Another possible interpretation of "the light is off but the character is still smiling" story is that the protagonist has merely had such a wonderful experience (e.g. first kiss, finished a call with their partner, won the lottery, approved for a small business loan, etc.) and now not even absolute darkness could ruin their mood.

[@skadoosher7747]

This side of youtube is now officially the thinky hole

[@itme626]

Man I love when you go into detail with symbolism and stuff, I'm sorry that some of your other fans believe that it isn't important but I think it's not only entertaining but also allows people who care about it to have a deeper more thoughtful understanding of the stories they love TL,DR: I hope you continue to analyze this sort of thing with your content. I love your stuff

[@RileyG]

“Art is not arbitrary” THANK YOU

[@LegendaryRQA]

Unless the artists goes out of their way to say so in an interview. That’s the only point I disagree with in this video.

[@SeanMania213]

LegendaryRQA I disagree. The author by all intents and purposes is “dead” so to speak. Meaning is not black and white in the sense that it’s either there or it’s not. It’s a spectrum. You can try to create meaning for a work in a way that you specifically intended but often times in the process accidental meaning is created, either adjacent to the intended meaning or completely replacing what you intend all together. Hence expo’s example of his highschool novel idea reading very badly and racially problematic despite the fact that he in no way intended it as such. In that same vain someone who is trying to create a work devoid of meaning can still create meaning in that work even if they never wanted it to be there in the first place. Simply stating as the author “this means this because this is what I meant” doesn’t give you a get out of jail free card to have your work critiqued in the exact way which you meant it to be seen. If that was the case bad media wouldn’t exist, Art would be extremely easy, and M Night Shyamalan would have 4 oscars and a full Avatar the Last Airbender cinematic universe

[@chazzwozzio]

@@SeanMania213 death of the artist is something I embrace

[@LegendaryRQA]

@@chazzwozzio You really shouldn't. It undermines all the hard work Artists put into their creations.

[@chazzwozzio]

@@LegendaryRQA separation of art and artist is something I do for older artists. Kinda hard to enjoy say... HP Lovecraft when you know he is a huge xenophobe and antisemite. Or Pablo Picasso knowing he is a misogynist. Artists are flawed humans and to disregard them based on who they are and not what they do is silly.

[@Pudcup]

As a very simple man, I will never understand any media beyond what is not directly told to me.

[@MysticKenji2]

One thing I find interesting about the "don't analyze media' crowd is that holding such a belief is itself an analysis of media. It's just one that says very little about media itself and says a lot about the person holding that belief.

[@itachisenju9685]

R2Walker That’s entirely true, bigger than the person holding that belief is the people that hold that belief not just in entertainment media but everything in life, what does that say about the minds of people who exist in this world as a whole that when someone tries to think deeply about something or studies the deeper meaning of everything around them people tell the intellectual minded to “stop thinking so hard” “it isn’t that deep” it’s a shame how bad the mental condition of people and our society is today, are you as woke as you say you are? That “woke” s**t is nothing more than a hashtag to me.

[@tonberry2670]

There is nothing wrong with being critical of media. And I disagree with one point. Art is basically an expression of self. I would call what you're doing art.

[@sojjjer]

Ton berry that’s a lofty definition of art but ok

[@imaginaryboy2000]

Art IS self-expression, but not just for the artist. Art is an inherently subjective medium, and while an artist sees their creation in one way, there's no guarentee that anyone else will see it the same way. Essentially, and artist's interpretation of their art is as good as anyone else's, because their interpretation isn't where their art ends.

[@jahithoms4022]

Id say that's a very specific kind of art... Kinda like an abstract biography where you deconstruct a portion of your self to see what makes you tick before putting it back together... To me a more complete definition of art would be... A formulation and expression of an idea put to form so that can be more directly experienced and shared with others.

[@YourFaceisPretty]

@@sojjjer What other kinds of definitions are there for such an enormous concept... ?

[@TAP7a]

@@YourFaceisPretty Jahi's response above is a pretty succinct one. I need to think about it further to see if it needs tidying/extending/restricting but I think I agree with it on the surface

[@vee_kay21]

The phrase "turn your brain off and just enjoy things" has ALWAYS pissed me off, and I'm glad someone else shares my frustrations

[@ArkhanTheMack]

Why though? It's something that legitimately can be done. I watched Star Wars episode 9 yesterday and despite knowing 7 & 8 made no sense, and despite knowing as i watched it that the plot of 9 made no sense, I still enjoyed watching it because I just resolved not to think about the plot that much. I know that the plot of 9 is dumb and the majority of the movie makes no sense, but I still enjoyed it because I "turned my brain off" and just enjoyed the ride.

[@vee_kay21]

@@ArkhanTheMack I'm not saying that people can't enjoy what they want to enjoy, subjectivity is very important. If you're gonna watch a thing to enjoy it even though it might be a critical or analytical mess, I'm still going to encourage it. I guess I meant to say "I hate when the phrase 'turn your brain off and enjoy stuff' as a way to shut down critical analysis," I should have made that clear

[@Asehpe]

@@ArkhanTheMack Well Helmut, it depends on what you're capable of enjoying too. If you can enjoy Star Wars 9 despite is glaring flaws, then you can enjoy it, and you're not "turning off your brain", you're just ignoring the negative things about it that you don't like and enjoying the positive things that you do like. It's a conscious decision to not care about the flaws, not a physical "turning-off" whereby you become incapable of seeing said flaws. To me, it's like going to a child's birthday party and enjoying the entertainer's show, even though it is obviously aimed at 6-year-olds and is thus full of flaws for grownups -- I just decide said flaws aren't that important in this context, and enjoy it through the eyes of the kids in the party and through my own memories of what I enjoyed as a 6-year-old. I hate the phrase "turn off your brain" because I think it has nothing to do with what happens when we allow ourselves to enjoy our "guilty pleasures" -- it's just a wrong description of the whole process. It's more like a decision to look one way or another way or to judge certain things differently than it is a "dumbification process" as the name implies.

[@MxPokirby]

@sinwithagrin Wow, another "If you hate this, you're clearly racist/sexist, because clearly no other reasons to dislike it exist" argument. Tell me, are you enjoying your winter break from 4th Grade?

[@firebrain2991]

It's especially annoying for me (and I'd imagine the OC) cuz I enjoy things *more* when I don't have to "turn my brain off" for it. Thinking and drawing connections is a pleasure.

[@kimarous]

I see the phrase "turn your brain off" as defensive lashing out, that the analysis or critiques presented are interpreted as a personal attack of sorts, that they feel told "this thing is bad, therefore the media is bad and you are bad for liking it", prompting a defensive reaction which, more often than not, results in what's tantamount to the editorial equivalent of a lame comeback. At least, that's how I've been coming to terms with the concept and curbing my own reactions of that nature.

[@malikmuhammad9085]

Just made this go from 68 to 69 likes. *You're welcome.*

[@1993greeksoldier]

I wonder if there is also an inferiority complex in that response. If I just insult the interpretations that are complex and say they have less value than my own then I don't have to feel bad that my interpretation isn't as nuanced as theirs.

[@kyokyo718]

I understand the part "... and you are bad for liking it," even if it ultimately baffles me that anyone seriously thinks that far when a different opinion is presented, even if it's presented antagonistically. Sure it feels good to have your opinions validated, but if someone disagrees with my opinions on a work, why they disagree always overrules the fact they disagree. Maybe I just don't seek the base level validation and would much rather have an interesting disagreement over someone just nodding their head in blank agreement. I know some of it is that an unsettling amount of people genuinely cannot have a civilized argument because it turns into a shouting match and/or two people talking past each other, regardless of if it's something important or if it's about the silly cartoons about killing god with the power of friendship or whatever anime is these days.

[@cormTiger]

this is exactly my viewpoint as well. if something can be analyized as art, then it is open to criticism, and a lot of people see the art they like as part of themselves and therefore criticizing it is criticizing them.

[@Rynamony]

Creating stories is wild because when you revisit stuff you made, a lot of the times you find SO much stuff that's SO clearly there, and if it was made by someone else you would think it was %100 intentional but also you know the author didn't conciously put in there because YOU are the author and you know you didn't! Like, for example, I once made this character that had a lot of braids on her hair, and one of those braids went over her neck, why? because I thought that hairstyle looked cool, as simple as that. However this specific character kills herself in the story, and her suicide is very, very important for the plot. One day I was drawing her when I noticed "Holy shit that braid over her neck looks a lot like a hangman's noose" and that was just... So fucking cool, it blew my mind. So when I continued the story I did it with that in mind, and when I later drew her in a flashback, way before she started having the problems that led her to kill herself, I drew her in a different hairstyle, and now the braid over her neck was very clearly a representation of the problems she had that ended with her taking her own life. Not only that but I had already stablished the protagonist thought she looked prettier with her hair down (This was actually before I even noticed the potential symbolism) and my god that was so perfect, because now it was not only a "Hah, I guess the prota likes girls with their hair down." but rather "The prota wanted her to be happy and feels guilty for not helping her, or maybe even pushing her further towards the edge" (The prota used to help her tie her hair, this, again, was stablished before I even noticed the symbolism). In my experience, most if not all the symbolism I put in stories happens that way, I stablish something, and then further down the line suddenly realize "Holy fuck I can use this!" and then keep writing with that in mind. So yeah, I think stuff is there independent if authors notice or not.

[@jay.hartman1789]

Yeeeeeees. That's exactly what happened in my book, A Treasure Made of Death. (Not the hair symbolism, specifically, but the general adding of symbolic details.) After I finally got it published and started reading through my personal, physical copy, I just kept getting blown away by all the little details that I seeded into the narrative without realizing it.

[@lumas825]

I wonder if, when creating something, the subconscious mind makes connections between different things that the conscious mind is creating/thinking of -- say, between the color of a character's socks & shoes and what kind of a persona the character shows to society -- and, well, subconsciously adds those details while the conscious mind isn't really paying attention to that particular detail. Does that make sense? I mean, I feel I could've explained it better, but I'm not really sure how...

[@Rynamony]

​@@lumas825 I mean, I KNOW I add stuff straight from my personal experiences into my writing without even noticing, because so many times I've revisited something I made and be like "Oh goddamnit, this is about my relationship with my mother isn't it?!" So I guess what I'm trying to say is that if we can get to that level in which we don't even notice adding stuff that very obviously reflects our life experiences (sometimes very personal ones, even!) Then it's not too much of a stretch to think our subconscious mind can also go "Huh, this character's fun and quirky around close friends but tries to act cool and detached when in public, this character wears funny colorful socks under plain black shoes!"

[@nekoprankster2184]

Lumas825 I had this same thought after noticing stuff in my own writing. Specifically when I decided to take a character and increase her importance to the overarching plot and endgame, and realized that stuff already established in her fit in with foreshadowing her importance and her connections to the other endgame characters. And since the story in particular had a meta-narrative aspect about it too, I ended up having her character embody the idea of the story sometimes “coming to life” on its own via writing itself; whereas another endgame character is a foil to this by “coming to life” because the author forced them to, but deep down not really being alive because in essence the author is still puppeteering them and once the audience realizes that then the illusion of “coming to life” goes away.

[@Pigmedog]

i... may or may not have written around half of an entire novel without really realizing what my main characters amnesia means in a broader context because i was writing it more as a character dive and less about saying things about society, so when i took a look back and realized it actually said a huge thing about society it shoot me to my godamn core lmao

[@BIGJUNK1MILLION]

Just because a piece of media can be enjoyed without thinking too hard about it, it doesn’t mean it has no deeper meanings or is immune to criticism

[@researchinbreeder]

Missed opportunity to have the ExPoint character's "head" be red at the beginning of the video, and just never point it out. That way, the comments could draw their own interpretations. Is ExPoint-kun boiling over with anger from the comments, or is it meant to evoke a feeling that the video will be on a topic different from the channel's usual fare? Perhaps the change from Deku-Green means this video won't be about HeroAca, until the sudden change back before mentioning the Training Game fight. The possibilities are nigh endless, and that's literally the point of the video.

[@JambleBramble]

Pretty sure you're ignoring the obvious explanation: It's just red, bro

[@ExplanationPointAnime]

God, that's hilarious. Can't do it for brand recognition's sake, but real good.

[@jahithoms4022]

@@ExplanationPointAnime I'm pretty sure it would fall in line pretty well though...

[@PanAndScanBuddy]

@@ExplanationPointAnime It's not red? Fuck me this Colorblindness is just a constant struggle.

[@Makoto0729]

@@PanAndScanBuddy Not sure if that's a joke or in earnest, but assuming the best, no. It's green.

[@Lunacorva]

"Your interpretation is going to be different from mine. Mine is going to be different from the artists." And I think that there is really the only reassurance most people needed. The reason there is such a kneejerk negative reaction to media analysis is that it can often come across as the analyst TELLING the audience what the "correct" interpretation is, and what the author "really meant". Which I'm sure you can agree would be very presumptuous. To both put words in someone's mouth and also to tell the audience how they're SUPPOSED to feel. I haven't at all gotten that vibe from you to be clear, but I suspect that a lot of the kneejerk reaction comes from people who HAVE had to deal with the kind of analyst that tells you how you're "supposed" to think and then have a visceral gut negativity when they see media analysis elsewhere.

[@aliciadrigo3277]

This I agree with. Digibro,another YT anime analyst, comes off as a pretentious twat who's trying to force his own views of what's 'correct' in the anime medium down people's throats.Same with Mother's Basement too. I also don't care much for his constant beating a dead horse of SAO, which I honestly don't think is as horrifyingly bad as people make it out to be. To me, it's average at best and mediocre at worst. If a person comes across enough of these kinds of people,it can make them more inclined to shut out well intentioned criticism or analysis. Any audience doesn't like to be preached to,no matter how good your intentions might be. There's a reason why when it comes to the film industry trying to do shallow interpretations of 'diversity', people have started to catch on and started to get tired of people shoving their viewpoint in their face.

[@nETbKaH]

@@aliciadrigo3277 SAO is a real viewgiver, which makes money. Yeah, it's that simple.

[@beancheesedip8337]

Absolutely true. Reviewers like Mauler, Joseph Anderson and even YMS to some extent have this problem where they come off incredibly authoritative, but at least Joseph Anderson had the good sense to make a video about this topic specifically. YMS I don't think means to come off this way, but considering how his channel got fame from the fact that he was tearing bad movies apart, he can come across as "I'm telling you what to think." Mauler, on the other hand, is a different wheelhouse. While he has made it clear in other videos that he doesn't think people should agree with him, when you consider his weird obsession with "objective reviews" and how his reviews seem to be based entirely on little nitpicks about very specific artistic choices, he comes off like an asshole.

[@novelty_thief]

@@beancheesedip8337 Mauler acts differently to his words. Despite him saying that you don`t need to agree with him he also feels free to betray you by attempting to make an "immaculate analysis" that only consists of "objective observations". It`s a very assanine way to go about analizing media because at this point the majority of people get alienated since not everyone is into 5h video analysis. The real kicker about this is that everyone has an subjective view of reality because nobody can decide what objective reality is. Like no one can dictate that you have to breathe oxygen, that´s just how it is. And here comes Mauler with his attempt to play objective reality. It´s like he is indirectly telling you: "feel free to form your conclusion BUT keep in mind I looked over this medium WITH AN OBJECTIVE VIEW THUS MAKING MY CONCLUSION OBJECTIVE AS REALITY ITSELF! Your Subjectivity is INFERIOR to my "OBJECTIVE" Perspective!" TL;DR Mauler makes his views bigger than they are. He is just a flawed human with his own subjective worldview, so are his videos conclusions: subjective. He might have valid points on some occaisions but this practice of his is just very childish. It´s like a child saying "my power level is infinite I win byebye" and trying to prove it by turning every single stone to keep that idea going.

[@ufazig]

That is my exact problem with some of these media analysts as you called. They use little to no objective evidence, often rellying on personal or subjective views of certain scenes or narrative points (maybe using poor data correlation at best). Now, what I said here, alone, isn't by itself an issue. But then they use these subjective methodologies to make an objective statement about the author or about the viewers, usually in the form of comments such as "If you enjoy/watch/read X, then it clearly proved you're Y." or "Scene X clearly proves the author is Y and thinks Z". It gets much worse when they extrapolate these "Y and Z" characteristics to how the person is in real life as a whole, instead of just the thoughts about that particular media. This is just straight up lying, and it is just as non scientific as astrology of things like that.

[@Icynova]

My read on KZbin is that people (like me) watch videos (like yours) to have their feelings about other media (games anime TV netflix) confirmed. If the feelings/emotions are not confirmed though, this creates an emotional dilemma that they either deny (usually the easiest, first reaction, sometimes well thought out) or confirm and incorporate into a newer emotional response to both the original media as well as your content. It's why I enjoy these responses almost more than original content, I think.

[@TheSpeep]

Well, self validation is most definitely one of the reasons I watch this kinda stuff, but I also like learning about all the little bits of subtext I missed (and theres always some cuz I'm oblivious as fuck)

[@auntvivienne8669]

I think it’s not just confirmation that we’re looking for. Sometimes, you find something that you do or don’t like and you can’t quite figure out why. Then you’ll find an analysis or a review of it and it’ll help you understand your own impression of the work

[@tofupowda]

i find it so bizarre particularly because it's one thing to turn YOUR brain off, but to get angry because someone else seeks deeper meaning in the art they consume is just baffling.

[@TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

"Turn ur brain off" Me: Mine never worked in the first place

[@squeakretagent]

HOW ARE YOU EVERYWHERE?!

[@leviathan005]

@@squeakretagent I'm pretty sure you're thinking of his alter-ego: Just Some Guy With a Mustache

[@arenkai]

People who don't want you to think are never your friends.

[@TheKingBLOOZ]

10:19 "If you're an artist, the best thing you can do to improve your art is to find the truly great works of your field and UNDERSTAND what makes them so good.". This is honestly such good advice, this mindset is incredibly important to success. To find success, you have to understand how and why other people or things are successful. What worked and what didn't, and why? 10:49 "Studying trends and how certain ideas are conveyed in different media gives cultural anthropologists and historians a clearer understanding of how we thought during those times" CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT!!!!! having the context of the time period, region, political landscape, culture, religion, beliefs, ect. Is vital to appreciating art.

[@snorp_lord6141]

As a writer who loves to cram subtle stuff into as much of my work as possible, it's nice to see people explain the value of deeper analysis. Thank you.

[@etourdie]

I think the problem most people (that have problems with these analyses) have with this kind of analysis stems from English teachers who, instead of analysing the story for what the detail shows in the story, analyse the story and say that, "Absolutely everything was entirely intended by the author and I don't care if the author didn't intend it, the author intended it anyways"

[@beancheesedip8337]

Personally, I think it stems more from the idea that we're taught at a young age to read meaning into things and interpret every aspect of the story, which is all well and good, but despite the fact that interpretations of media are highly personal, tests and exams teach us that there is *one* correct interpretation and anything outside of that interpretation is a "failure to interpret the story." It also doesn't help that the fake stories tests will give you to interpret are like, the most obtuse shit in existence, where it's either four, really dry, sentences describing a pineapple sitting on a table with no embellishments or personal style to any descriptions, or some dogshit melodramatic paragraph about a young girl's quest to find her father's grave, and then multiple choice answers will be like, "The pineapple represents the duality of man and the table represents the truth of life as a steady constant in reality." That's what I think leads people to say, "It's just a pineapple!" Because it kind of is just a pineapple. It's designed to be a thought experiment intended to get you to think about it, but because there's no personal connection or relatable aspect about the stories given, there's nothing that makes you *want* to interpret the story, or more importantly, care enough to want to.

[@dragonmaster3030]

Personally I think English should stem away from just fucking books, not get rid of them but how about try different forms of literature. Some are good at poems, some novels, but those who prefer anything visual like a movie, light novel, comic/manga or anything of the sort should apparently shut the fuck up. Like why, why is always God damn books, many like myself find books boring as hell and then you proceed to wonder why I don't give a shit about your class, but maybe if we did something else I might actually give a fuck to put in some effort. Hell why not just let us do our own thing. I don't know about you but I'd rather write a essay or a few paragraphs every month over something I personally enjoy rather than write an essay every month on something I couldn't give less of a shit about only reading out of obligation and not interest

[@kyokyo718]

That speaks so much about lazy English teachers wanting regurgitation of knowledge rather than critical thought. One of my English teachers made an effort to never tell anyone in the class their opinion about the book and forced people to come up with their own interpretations and it was great for me, but this was a general education class not an AP course so it became pretty clear about halfway through the presentations who copied who and who actually attempted to deep dive into the material.

[@windwatcher460]

"If a thing is worth liking it is worth liking well," is such a good line. Thank you

[@MellyMellouange]

as an artist, I can tell you that the end result of making art _isn't_ the art itself, but what the viewer experiences when viewing it. As such, a viewer putting down an analysis of their own experience is a _goldmine_ of feedback that allows the artist to not only verify what worked and what didn't, but also to reflect on what was deliberate, what was incidental and what can be leveraged from the analysis to make even better things in the future. I really, really believe in the importance for art to speak for itself.

[@MathWizHQ]

It's funny how I've seen this kind of video/stance multiple times before, and yet I've never really thought about it from the perspective you presented here. I guess that makes the video itself an example of what thinking more about stuff can do, because even if the "Turn Your Brain Off" rebuttal has been made before, it's the way that response was formed that completely changes the context beyond the title. Anyways, great video. Possibly one of my favorites that you've ever made.

[@jman3247]

Art analysis is important because art is important. You really hit the nail on the head when identifying that the best way to improve as an artist is to find out why good art is good. Without an audience, the dialogue of art is incomplete. Further, not paying attention to *all* the aspects of a piece of art is like only half listening to a conversation. You'll get the gist, maybe, but miss some of the details that could have really made the talk worthwhile.

[@dillpickkle]

I love rewatching your videos and finding new references and sight gags that I missed the first time. Especially if I'm noticing a Worm reference.

[@dontpreorder2783]

As someone who is big dumb and can barely think past what excuse I’m going to use to not get out of bed I appreciate the hours of work that you smart people do by researching, analyzing and interpreting art that I’m two lazy and normie to seek out myself. Thanks guys

[@Diametric_]

I can't have been the only person who thought the lightbulb in the dark room was actually a noose, can I?

[@munumun]

dude what you do IS art, and dont ever say otherwise, please.

[@jahithoms4022]

Preach Cleric! Preach!

[@pepi7404]

I agree. If something is expressing the creators own thoughts or feelings, it's art as far as I'm concerned.

[@kylestreet7641]

I'm very glad that you made this video at this time. I was talking about the themes of a movie (Frozen 2) the other day when I was asked to just turn my brain off and watch movies. But that doesn't feel right to me, entertainment doesn't exist just to be consumed, it exists to be thought about. At least, I think the good stuff is, anyways.

[@princessthyemis]

I ONE HUNDRED PERCENT AGREE!

[@Kitsune10060]

never been a fan of the phrase 'just turn your brain off'. mostly cause I found some of the best shows work great on a 'brain off' level, but taking a moment to look at it with your 'brain on' makes it better.

[@koku6626]

I honestly watch your stuff (and Geoff's, but honestly not as much) BECAUSE you see what I'm not as trained to see. Watching your videos has helped me start to analyze media more for myself, to the point where (I'm a little embarrassed to say) that when I do these rants in my head, its framed like one of your video's. I will always love media with simplistic ideas (it infuriates my brother) but now I have more knowledge to form ideas about media in my own way.

[@gannumedes71]

Yknow... this is the best I think anyone has ever argued this shit. Side note your ability to mic drop every end of your video essays makes me endlessly jealous. Holy shit.

[@XerxesTexasToast]

One of the best manifestations of this is when you as an author stumble ass-backwards into some symbolism that nevertheless conveys EXACTLY what you were going for, and you don't notice it until a reader gushes to you about it

[@Bacchasnail]

Ya know. This actually helps me to understand the analysis we do in highschool. I used to being the camp that hated the analysis of books and thought the teachers were being pretentious. But the way you show it. Yeah. It's a wonderful way to get us to think in new ways, to analyze patterns, hell to just think. Thank you mate

[@aquamarinerose5405]

Though there is a bit of an issue about high school analysis that the stereotypical overzealous english teacher that wants students to draw deep symbolism from literally everything, but also specifically regurgitate THEIR interpretation of the text (or the interpretation that the class gave them to work with) causing kids to assume it's all pretentious garbage is its own issue.

[@Missisipia]

I almost never comment but I'll leave one for this video. I watch a lot of analysis and essays on KZbin and I think you just clarified (at least in part) why I like them so much. Delving into the mechanisms of anything is really fun ! Your videos in particular are precious to me. When I first watched watamote it really resonated with me but I never really understood why, watching your videos on it gave me a sense of closure after years of thinking about it for years! I'm not really able to develop my thinking when it comes to media because I often think "but that's not true that's just my opinion and bias..." hearing you confirm that, yes it is a valid way to analyse it really helps ! Thank you for all you do.

[@absoul112]

"Nothing in art is arbitrary." That is my favorite quote ever.

[@lucyarisato6850]

I see we're still keeping the worm references up. **Excellent**. As someone who 100% almost went into English as their major, I can appreciate it. Keep up the good fight.

[@Argusthecat]

Yeah, now I just want a video series *about Worm*. Or any webfiction at all, honestly. There's not enough about that on KZbin.

[@ExplanationPointAnime]

@@Argusthecat As much as I'd love to, it's just not logistically feasible. Not only is Worm way, way too long to do an in-depth analysis of (in a timely fashion), it has no visuals, so I don't know what I'm supposed to put on-screen while I'm talking about it.

[@shiki780]

@@ExplanationPointAnime The obvious answer would be various pictures of worms.

[@TheChessicfayth]

@@ExplanationPointAnime Psssssssh. Just find other anime characters with similar powersets. For the Endbringers grab some of the baddies from Attack on Titan and doodle on them in different colors. Then play it completely straight.

[@tezlapanda1132]

Is the worm reference the thing about making story choices with a coin flip?

[@lazyfigninja]

God bless you for this. I've been trying to get people to understand this for years. As someone who has been slaving over a comic for years trying to make it as awesome as possible, it kind of offends me when people just assume that art is just something people 'do' and completely disregard the craft and heart of it, like it isn't hard work. I absolutely love your content and I wish you the best, man. Thanks for making my day better with this stellar upload. It's so cathartic hearing someone articulate your own beliefs so poignantly.

[@jahithoms4022]

God I cant even put to words the amount of effort I go through before I even put pen to paper that it almost astounds me that people think that everyone just barfs out entire stories out of the blue when they "have an idea"

[@lazyfigninja]

@@jahithoms4022 Tell me about it. Just the first paragraph of the first draft of the beginning of a concept represents like a week or two of brainstorming and spreadsheets lol. It's insane. And then people who have never tried to do any of this before act like we're crazy for trying to analyze and study this stuff so we can get better at it and learn how to be more efficient and effective.

[@lazyfigninja]

@User Great Sometimes it does, yeah. Ultimately though, I've come to realize that I have my own style and I'm never going to be able to do what they did because that's not the style of art I want to make. When I see masterful works closer to what I want to do I get excited and inspired - there's a whole new work for me to study and learn from!

[@lazyfigninja]

@User Great Exactly. Never feel bad about your inability to achieve someone else's path; study it as a means to determine how to properly walk yours. We all partake of the human experience, so by experiencing as much as you can you empower yourself to find what makes yours unique. Expressing this uniqueness of self is fundamental to practicing art, as it forms the intentions that wield the craft. The better you understand yourself, the better you can intuit what to say/put into your work. Least that's how I see it.

[@trygveplaustrum4634]

The value of media analysis is not to show people another light in which they can view media. The comments are exceptions, but, thanks to the KZbin algorithm those who like and subscribe usually share the same views. There are many, many popular media reviewers (MauLer, Critical Drinker, etc.) that you probably have not heard of, let alone posted their images on the series of reviewers. That is a testament to this point. The value of media analysis is not to inspire people to create better content? Does it? Certainly. Sure. Out of the thousands of viewers, one or two get inspired to create things of their own. Of those one or two, none of their work ever reaches the consumer. After a year of my book's publishing, for example, to my knowledge, I have one confirmed sale. And I'm the fortunate one. I don't have remote access to Hollywood or Tokyo, so my work will probably never come to light. Unless you have Japanese subtitles, I doubt your work will either. The value of media analysis is the media analysis in and of itself. You are able to take garbage content, or even quality content, and add to that content in an entertaining manner. Look at the Star Wars "Legends" Universe if you want any proof that something can be made out of nothing. The content made by the analyst has value merely be existing. It is work hours directly translated into collective years of entertainment, adding all the views. And I personally think that's something very special. So thank you for making your content, Explanation Point. I might not agree with half of it, but I certainly enjoy its value.

[@lmbusiness5300]

Hey what’s your book called I’m rich

[@trygveplaustrum4634]

@@lmbusiness5300 "Mines of the Sister World." If you look it up on Google, Barnes and Noble and Kindle both have reading samples. You can read the first dozen or so pages without buying it, if you want to delve further. Sorry, I would give you a free copy, but that'd require sharing contact info, which I'm not fond of doing.

[@FraserSouris]

I don't think Mauler deserves that accolade given how most of his content his just a longer CinemaSins

[@spartansquid5931]

@@FraserSouris Oh hush, CiemaSin's ability to judge media isn't even 1/5th as consistent or competent as MauLer's.

[@duke86fan]

Tbh it seems like most people's problem with it really amounts to "Why can't I just have fun" Because they know that ignorance is bliss and they think that the things they just like having fun.. The idea that because you watch madoka you can't go back to the childish love of card captors sakura.. or for me.. wanting enjoy a 3 chord pop punk song after sitting through tons of experiential art. A Beatles song is still pretty even after hearing trout mask replica and can still love childish stories after reading the books consisted masterpieces.. You just got to be old enough to read fairy tales again

[@KhymChanur]

"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -- C.S. Lewis

[@MxPokirby]

I really wish the phrase "ignorance is bliss" would completely fade from the public subconscious. People keep acting like that phrase existing is the only defense they need to justify themselves being uninformed about things that matter, or something. It's like the concept of "being intelligent/mature *_and_* happy" doesn't exist to those people or something.

[@jaredhall5169]

I saw the Worm reference in this one and I want to personally thank you for mentioning it in one of your previous videos, because it is easily one of my favorite reads of the whole year.

[@P1nstr1p3]

Just gonna bookmark this to link every time a STEM major tries to claim that my field is bullshit... And thank you for making this! You hit a lot of the major points of the importance of dissecting art, and I hope you lean more into this style of melding anime and analysis!

[@MrLightlike78]

Analysis videos are kind of my jam. I love watching a show and then watching just about every review I can get my hands on to fill the void. You learn fun things about what you love and incidentally learn what chekhov's gun means :p among other things. Love your videos dawg

[@covereddonuts1279]

You do not understand how much I love to finding more meaning in anime and books. Your work is art, and your work is amazing.

[@zerstor3897]

This reminds me of something MauLer mentioned ( I think it was in his 5-hour video essay on the last Jedi) about analyzing art. He mentions that the value in dissecting what makes bad media bad provides contrast to allow you to more enjoy those which are good. You showed the other side of this, focusing on things which are good, but in mentioning your high school project, you create a similar situation. When it's analyzed, you realized the issues it had (or had them explained to you) and this gave you tools to watch out for it in the future, or notice and enjoy it's absence. In the words of Red: so, yeah.

[@swer9112]

Amazing video Ive noticed that people who are passionate about making things are almost always people who go beyond surface level to see what makes the things they like so great

[@TwistedBananaProductions]

"They care about making art" Could you tell Hollywood that.

[@PanAndScanBuddy]

Go see Knives Out No, shut up, go see Knives Out. I have spoken.

[@beancheesedip8337]

To be fair, bade movies made in Hollywood usually fall into two categories. 1) Work for hire projects where there's a script laying around, so producers will hire people to make a movie out of the script, regardless of the quality of the script or the artistic vision, talent, or care of the ones making the movie, mostly because the script could be made into something that trend surfs. 2) People who genuinely care about making a good movie, but just don't have the talent, skill, knowledge, or budget/artistic freedom to make something good. I know you're comment was sarcastic, but I just felt the need to say this.

[@VladDascaliuc]

@@PanAndScanBuddy Knives Out is pretty dumb.

[@eostyrwinn5018]

This feels like the existentialist verison of Art analysis. The meaning in art (or life) is the things you ascribe meaning to.

[@smartestmoronx19]

That is something I believed in art. Meaning isn't found in art but instead in attributed by the reader.

[@h.j.froehlich326]

There are few more aggravating things a person can say to you than "Stop overthinking [piece of media]."

[@cybersurgeon1261]

This is straight up my favorite video on youtube. Defend your passion. Do what you love. You are damn good at it. Don't let the schmucks, for even a moment, make you think it's not worth it.

[@shadedizzy]

I honestly forgot these people existed. I'm so absorbed in talking about the intricacies in various anime, movies, TV shows, etc that I forced these people from my mind after I started getting invested in story-telling. I absolutely love discussing and, even more importantly, thinking about any story that I find interesting(be it positive or negative). Not only has it made me a better person overall and give me something to be outwardly interesting to other people, but is also plain fun. Despite me not encountering these people anymore(albeit by sub-conscious choice) I can point out multiple people who go into EVERY STORY with the mindset of "turning off your brain". My mom is most likely the best example for me, because she is incapable of paying close attention to a complex fictional story. She thinks a story with flashy action and 1 dimensional characters are good because she can easily understand the cash-grabbing stories thrown at her textbook-consumer mindset. It just kind of aggravates me when people(like my mother) attempt to critique a movie despite never having any interest in relating it to any outside knowledge or experience. I remember when Black Panther came out and I was disappointed with the quality of the narrative. Not only was it just a boring plot, but I also guessed the entirety of the movie based on the first few minutes. I was later surprised, after exiting the theater, to find that the overall consensus of my family was positive. When I explained how bad the movie was to them they didn't really understand where I was coming from and indirectly told me my analysis ruined the experience(and by extension I should've just "turned my brain off"). Keep in mind, I only just entered high school at this point and was a bit of an ass, but now I can proudly say that you may hold whichever opinion you wish. But even with a healthy mindset on varied opinions, I still think the latter comment by my family was just inherently wrong, as this video proves. Sure, my analysis may have *spoiled* the movie, but it was the job of the writers and director to prevent that from happening. Making a predictable story after only looking below the very surface-level is not the fault of the audience, but of the writer, and blaming a simple consumer for pointing out such obvious faults is the exact wrong mindset to have about a movie. There are many things in this world that I understand, even if I don't necessarily agree with them, but this one opinion is something I don't think I will ever understand. Not only is the concept of me just "turning my brain off" very stupid, but also goes against my nature as someone who tries to better themselves in even the most mundane situations. I might sound a bit pretentious, but I really think I put in the effort to better myself every opportunity I get, even when watching a simple movie. I feel lost turning my brain off for anything, and it only brings less enjoyment to my experience overall. So much so that I can't believe it's possible for people to find greater enjoyment in "turning their brain off" than not. It is one of the many mysteries of man, but one of the only things that will get me to write a full, three paragraph essay in a fucking youtube comments section that no one will read anyway, completely wasting a good 20 minutes... unless?.. haha jk... unless?

[@s3studios597]

I disagree with the whole "author intent doesn't matter" thing. I agree it may not always be the best simply due to biases or incompetence or whatever it is, but I do believe it's something to take into consideration if for no other reason than providing context. There also is such a thing as looking too much into thing or just objectively wrong interpretations. Sometimes intentionally for the sake of pushing a narrative. Like if a 3 year old draws a picture of a blue bird, you're free to try to interpret racism or misogyny from it, but anyone with even a fraction of a brain cell is going to call you a fucking idiot. Or to use real life examples, the shitstorms with the Nessa "whitewashing", Shield Hero, and Demon Slayer "nazi earrings". Aside from those, I really enjoyed the video and agree with what you said. I see this stuff a lot and it always gets on my nerves. I like being able to have a deep understanding of why I like or dislike something or why other people like or dislike something as well as what makes things good or bad. I've been drawing all my life and I'm a game design student who also wants to try writing, so this kind of media analysis helps a lot in getting me to think about things. It's also confusing because everyone technically does this on some level. Hell, that's essentially what reviews are and if you have any type of opinion on something, even if it's really basic, you have reasons for why you like or dislike it. Analysis videos are the same thing, except they go a lot deeper into why they think something is good or bad.

[@petsan97]

The problem is that the whole "author intent" argument is used to imply that any derived meaning besides what the author intended has no value and isn't worth considering. Author intent definitely matters a lot on the whole, but it has zero impact on the validity of different interpretations. And no, no amount of overthinking things will let you arrive at meaning that truly isn't there. That's called pulling shit out your ass with no basis in reality and screeching when people call your bullshit, such as usually is the case with shrieking about racism and misogyny these days.

[@s3studios597]

The Random Dude For the forst part, I agree author intent isn't the be all end all; my point is just that it's not completely irrelevant and that it and outside interpretation have merit. For the second part, I'm not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing.

[@FraserSouris]

>"There also is such a thing as looking too much into thing or just objectively wrong interpretations. Sometimes intentionally for the sake of pushing a narrative. Like if a 3 year old draws a picture of a blue bird, you're free to try to interpret racism or misogyny from it

[@ufazig]

@@FraserSouris The fact that one could argue about something, doesn't mean that the argument is coherent to what is actually seen in reality. There are things that are objectively wrong. In fact, most things do. If I were to analyse a game, the technical problems (glitches, camera, control-response) are either present or not. I can't "interpret" something with this without being objectively wrong. You can try to analyse something superficial to give possible reasons for it's occurrence, such as you commented. But this attempt may lead to objectively incorrect conclusions, a.k.a, conclusions that do not correspond to observable and /or measureable events of reality. Or sometimes limited conclusions that can't be extrapolated. A lot of these analysis, and a lot of "explanations" in human sciences fall under these due to the inappropriate usage of statistics, achieving conclusions based on some measured data either without a proper data collection to begin with or without understanding of the inherent limitations of data interpolation methods (limitations that are mathmaticly proven).

[@zeonwillis377]

Every time i watch your videos i'm always so humbled, entertained, inspired and in most cases including this one speechless.The way you think,the words you choose and how you say them have such and impact on me i had to say something.

[@cooldude56g]

EP, I just wanted to take a minute, just sixty seconds out of my day to tell you that I always appreciate your work. You always feel like you have something meaningful to say about the things you cover, and you help me to appreciate certain works I consume moreso that I would without you. If I had known you had a patreon, I would have taken 8 years of college, gotten my degree in theoretical physics, reconciled Einstein's theory of general relatively with quantum mechanics, built a time machine, and gone back to the exact moment of it's construction. Godspeed

[@MultiBlah7]

Honestly this video is a good point to say I love everything about this channel, from the analysis to the humor and the style. I'm going to school for media and while I dream of producing things, my lack of confidence gets in the way. But media analysis, even if not produced like how you create things, is something so personal and expressive that I love it. Plus, when people write or paint or create art, with enough practice, they often introduce patterns and meanings without intending to. Media analysis is how those patterns get seen and elevate works to higher levels. Thank you for the awesome channel and the stuff you create.

[@curiousKuro16]

There's an inherent contradiction in liking shows like this and arguing that one should 'turn off their brain' when watching shows.

[@SeanMania213]

Well now we know where Expo stands in the ‘Death of the Author’ argument

[@liveonguitar5625]

The passion behind this video really moved me. You're a cool guy Bryant.

[@DomoMaximumMomo]

I wanted to comment because this resonated with me and an aspect of my creation! When I started creation, I made my oceans pink because I like pink and everyone always makes blue ones. I had no real intention other than it looking slightly interesting. Over time, existing with those creations, the oceans seemed to grow almost. They became much more in focus and shaped the sort of world I built around them. Small areas that feel almost lost in time surrounded by pink waves. They gained a symbolism I don't fully understand but it's one of melancholy and comfort to me. Others seem unsettled by them. I think it's very interesting how something decided at near random can become so meaningful with time!

[@MrSilentProtagonist]

I get what are you saying but when I see shit like "Philosophy of Goku vs Jiren" I'm thinking that there is a simpler answer. Goku's SSGSS form is blue because they already used red, yellow, and green and they are trying to pretend that it isn't just canon SSJ5. Goku's hair turns white when he achieves Ultra Instinct Mastered because they already used Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, and no hair color change and transformations is easier to make merchandise, moves in the video games, or trading cards. "Turn Ur Brain Off" shouldn't be an excuse for glaring flaws.

[@beancheesedip8337]

While I'd tend to agree that certain color or style choices can be just that: color and style choices, designed to either look cool or for merchandising, that doesn't necessarily exclude it from being interpreted deeper. I mean, just to use your example, the Goku vs Jiren fight has a lot of thematic resonance if you take into account every aspect of it, from their initial bout which ultimately triggers Goku's first use of Ultra Instinct to Universe 7's final attempt to defeat Jiren. On top of that, the individual hair colors of the different forms may have more meaning if you consider how Japanese culture views color. Often times, white is considered pure in Western society, but in Japan, white is often associated with death and strife. It could also be a way of linking UI to the angels, like Whis, when you consider that every angel uses UI without a problem, just by their very nature, which mastered UI is meant to symbolize Goku's "true" ascendance into godhood, if you will, especially when you take into account Vegeta's line, "Trespass into the realm of the Gods" (or something like that). Tl;dr while yes, I agree that sometimes certain aspects of media can be decided by the rule of cool or for marketing/merchandising purposes, that doesn't also necessarily preclude it from having a deeper meaning. If that were true, we wouldn't have some of the best superhero stories, whether it be in movies or comics.

[@moosesues8887]

Tf u mean goku vs jiren got no symbolism 😭

[@daltondaily1540]

This is kind of completely off topic, but I recognized that quote involving the character "Panacea". Worm, great web serial, glad to see something about it if even just used as background dressing.

[@Saint_Ada]

Me: comes home late, buying Christmas stuff, tired, wanna watch some youtube stuff. Explanation Point Guy: does video good. Me: entertained for video, wanna make a comment. Comment: nice

[@moosesues8887]

Yes yes good comment me like

[@resthejackal4238]

I... Honestly hadn't thought about finding meaning for the sake of yourself rather than for the sake of artist intent as a valid thing. I've got a lot to consider now, thank you!

[@failmasterjm]

Honestly I think most of the backlash against these kind of interpretations of art is the blame of public schools. I think the negative experience of being forced through dull english classwork makes some people lash out at things like this.

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

S C H O O L B A D. Imagine using anti-intellectualism to explain anti-intellectualism.

[@aquamarinerose5405]

@@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick The US Educational System is SHIT. That is not Anti-Intellectualism, that is "The way we teach children new information about the world is fundamentally broken and creates a generation of kids who despise reading and literary analysis"

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

@@aquamarinerose5405 Yeah, but that’s not a problem inherent to exclusively public schooling. That’s a problem with the entirety of the American academic institution. As somebody who’s currently working to become a public school teacher, and very much agrees that the American school system sucks balls, I don’t think it’s fair to simply put all the blame on educators. Every part of contemporary American society is made to wear down people’s media literacy. Putting the blame on “dull English class work” instead of “the interpolation of ideology into every aspect of American society” is a cop-out.

[@pepper3924]

I’m not good at thinking about stories with a good brain, so it’s damn awesome that you are here so I can see at things with a bit more depth then a weeb, thanks for doing the thing that you do, makes me very happy.

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

The only thing about this video I disliked was that the musical RENT was presented positively.

[@ExplanationPointAnime]

Fun fact! Never actually seen Rent! Just used it because Idina Menzel played a character, and that character is referenced (along with Elsa and Elphaba) by Menzel's character in If // Then.

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

Explanation Point Ah, I see. Then yeah, all in all perfect video. P.S. You aren’t missing much. Trust me.

[@lmbusiness5300]

Senpai noticed you.......

[@BRNakamura]

Damn, this became the biggest anime crossover ever at the end.

[@attitudes745]

"What's the point?" Sir, this is an explanation point.

[@FakeSchrodingersCat]

The problem is that most of these people have only had contact with this type of analysis in English class and depending on exactly how bad their teacher was they often either reject the very idea or get stuck in the mindset that there is an authoritative analysis usually provided by the author. Too many English teachers are far to strict and orthodox when they teach this subject demanding simple repetitions of the textbook and actively punishing opinion.

[@Petrico94]

Some things work without thinking too hard about them, and that's fine. The most important part of entertainment is to entertain, giving a moral or intricate plot is more of an amplifier to how fun it is. Still, for some people half the fun is seeing the hidden meaning or applying lessons from art to your own life. Ya know, the benefits of having a brain. When a story does this right and I notice it that makes me enjoy the work so much more. I always enjoy hearing others interpretations and may agree/disagree with their findings, but if it comes down to the curtains were green cause they were green then I'll either try to find a more thoughtful explanation for why the author wrote it that way or dismiss them as a bad writer with theme in mind. Even rough writers can accidentally set up a theme or symbolism based on ideas they had for a scene, bad writers or a bad adaptation will just skip over setting up themes and stick to very basic ideas. Worse if there are unfortunate implications to why the curtains are green and turning off your brain is just grading art on a curve. Analyzing art makes for better people and hopefully better art. Just saying to watch SAO and turn off isn't just disrespectful to anime and what it could be, but also the writer who made some amateur work about how the digital world is becoming more tied to the real world, and discarding that and anyway to notice it just makes it all the more worse.

[@brettc6132]

Thank god someone else said this, as I’ve been SO annoyed by this for my entire life. So often ppl will tell me I’m overthinking fiction when I analyze a story to any degree. They’ll say I should “turn my brain off” and enjoy it, but a) I literally don’t know how to turn off my brain, maybe I never found the button or something but I’m legit not capable of that, and b) if I could turn off my brain I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the “it” in question since analyzing stories is where my enjoyment comes from. Furthermore, it’s not like the things I analyze aren’t meant to be thought about, as the themes, metaphors, messages, etc. in a story legitimately exist in the text in question and I didn’t just invent it. This is particularly annoying when being told to turn my brain off and enjoy a story is a response to my negative opinion of a work of fiction. Like, if your response to someone saying they didn’t enjoy a story is that they need to turn off their brain and enjoy it then I legit want to know if there’s anything you DONT enjoy. Like, are these ppl literally incapable of not enjoying a work of art? Under that criteria, every single piece of art must be equally enjoyable, as any analysis of any kind is deemed overthinking it. I’ve come to realize that there are two ways to consume art: actively and passively. Some ppl are apparently just passive viewers, and they just experience art without giving any thought to it, and I genuinely don’t understand how to do this or what the criteria for what constitutes something unenjoyable to these viewers. Active viewers, on the other hand, analyze art and think about it. Passive viewers not only don’t seem to understand active viewing as a concept, but genuinely seem to think that the whole notion of interpreting and analyzing art is completely made up and pointless. Like, they seem to think that critics are just making things up to complaint about in order to seem intelligent, which is straight up mind boggling to me. You can tell when a work of art is made by a passive consumer of art, since to any active viewer it comes off as completely amateur, like the creator has no idea what makes art good. This can be seen in the vast majority of fan fiction, or when watching a child play with action figures. Thanks again for voicing this, as it has annoyed me since I first began consuming art as a child

[@romainvicta.]

Every god damn time you make a Worm reference I die a little inside knowing that you haven't made a video on it yet. Make a damn video on Worm!

[@SomeGuy1117]

He could only do maybe 1 chapter for the length he sticks to though. A full analysis of an arch would probably be longer than Lord of the Rings to watch. I'd watch it but I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on this one.

[@romainvicta.]

@@SomeGuy1117 I mean, sure, but who says he has to dissect an entire arc or even chapters? There's lots to talk about in regards to Worm, not just chapter or arc analysis.

[@studentoferror]

These concepts are really important to me and I'm really glad you made this. Thank you for going so in-depth. Please keep up the amazing work.

[@Icynova]

Can't believe I found Worm from your comments section. Crazy world.

[@DoodleRoss]

You add a new view for me in many of your videos!

[@reilarmwilktree]

Yeah we’re still burning can confirm

[@auntvivienne8669]

I had a French teacher in high school who said that there are as many versions of a book as there are people who’ve read it. We all experience art in different ways. No one has exactly the same life experience and perspective so of course no one is going to get exactly the same impression of a work of art.

[@dmua9551]

7:20 Seeing any reference of Worm gives me utter delight

[@Headphonemike]

your one frame analysis was brilliant and gave me a deeper appreciation for using subtle elements to paint a picture and tell a story. From the bottom of my heart thank you.

[@arielclark6782]

Speig Spikel is the funniest thing I've ever heard

[@shifaniel]

I seriously do applaud your ability to explain how the value of media isn’t diminished through analysis but instead intensified because of it. Enjoying a certain piece of media through an analytical lens is a way to appreciate the sentimental and deeper value that it holds and pinning it as “overanalyzing” is a disservice to the people who really are passionate about something and want to create and share their understanding with other people-it’s a way to genuinely connect with other people and society at large because you’re a partisan of something you feel good about.

[@camerongrow6426]

I don't believe anyone turns their brain off when watching something. If you like something it's because something about the show resonated with you or because the angle at which you watched something showed you hidden greatness. If you actually have to ignore what art is saying to you then your probably not having as much fun as you think

[@thatguy779]

Literally ANY piece of fiction can be enjoyed on a mind numbingly surface level, if that's the height to which you can scrutinize said media, it's not worth the time put in to even make it. It really isn't hard to make something substantial, to have to turn your brain off makes whatever it be an insult in my opinion, to art itself. They can do better, you can consume better and enjoy it at a base level.

[@catlover0000]

Don't think I didn't notice that worm reference you slid in there, because I noticed it.

[@caterpillarsss_]

I've just found your channel 1 hour ago and I'm hooked. Your videos deserve more recognition and I really like how you explain media analysis in this one. I have been thinking that it's stupid to try to perfect my creations. Be it my design work or my art that I draw as a hobby. Turns out I'm not stupid after all. Thank you for the amazing videos. I'm gonna binge watch your other videos now.

[@ZayitsII]

7:19 Nice reference, but, in this particular case, is it wrong that the more I hear the word "analysis" in the context of discussing Wildbow's works, the faster I close the web page? Maybe that has to do something with me being a Spacebattles denizen, but usually I see people say "interpretation doesn't have to be intentional" and "I found it, it's mine" when they mean "author should open his mouth wider, so we can put words in there" and "I've got a keyboard, therefore I decide which parts of the context matter". Sometimes the issue overthinking things, it's making logical "shortcuts" to validate a preconceived notion: the character's opinion is that of the author, a supposedly unrealistic detail is meant to enable a fantasy of his or comes from an unacceptable social background, a reviewer bending the truth in categorical expressions is "being essentially right". Rejecting that kind of argumentation isn't anti-intellectualism, it's natural discussional hygiene reflexively applied by everyone who doesn't want to spend hours upon hours quibbling over each dishonestly formulated argument the likes of which can be effortlessly thought up by the hundred. Even if the situation itsel doesn't apply to you, who puts effort and actual thought into his videos, I'd say the reaction to a rejection of your interpretation should instead be moving on, either to the next point or to the next collocutor. Sorry for the rant; must be the siren song of somebody being wrong on the internet.

[@wingdingdoes6687]

Artists can accidentally write foreshadowing and draw symbolism into their works without knowing it. People like you analyzing work can help create mythos and meaning that wasn't there before, and that's just so amazing to me!! Maybe that blue mug was meant to mean something, maybe it wasnt. But now that you point it out, it DOES. You've created that meaning, making you an artist! And the mug is now a colabiration of creativity and imagination

[@U.Inferno]

To recite a quote from a book by Brandon Sanderson: "The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon"

[@hellothisismufin]

Imagine you're watching a KZbin video, and all of a sudden... you have a thought. You didn't ask for this, you didn't choose this, and yet there it is.

[@BonsaiPop]

Oh he mad now,

[@chimedemon]

YOUUUUUUUU!!!! I luv u bb :)

[@sly3o]

I’ve previously watched your one-frame analysis. I found the idea of analyzing a single frame of an animation to be fascinating. When you analyze a painting, you typically only have what is on the canvas to examine. With animation, there’s so many individual frames that analyzing a single one of them to the extent you did was amazing. Seeing the amount of symbolism you were able to wring out of only a single frame was a pleasure to watch. I’ve been sincerely hoping you would make it a series, if possible. I’ve always enjoyed your work, please continue to do what you do.

[@Ichiyama22]

Commenters: OMG don't overanalyze the Chinese cartoons. Explanation Point: **HOW ABOUT I DO ANYWAY?**

[@Asehpe]

And more power to him for that!

[@michaelmagyar2059]

I really enjoy your videos. I study literary analysis and media criticism as a hobby and encounter many people making similar claims as the ones expressed in the video. I am very glad that you made this particular video, as I can always come back to it and remember why I love what I do. Thanks.

[@fictionarch]

I will never understand why people who make the "Why can't I just have fun" comment think they can't do both. I can acknowledged fairy tail as a shit show and still enjoy it and am currently doing that with fire force.

[@Yal_Rathol]

how dare you, fire force is great. i assume. i haven't watched it. the manga's good.

[@fictionarch]

@@Yal_Rathol Its allot of fun but as far as season one is considered the cast (save for 3 or 4 people) is still largely flat, largely annoying and the plot mostly takes a dip when it shifts from its focus on the infernal's and the tragedy behind them to a shonen villain cult who want to destroy the world, the fan service is awful (I don't normally get my narc on with fan service but when it A. breaks the flow of the story/events and B.makes me think the girls would be sexier without most of it then its a complete failure) tamaki is just the worst and the 2 blondes are so stupid that it stops being funny and just makes me feel they shouldn't be outside without supervision. there are things that I think are good, animations nice , I like like the theme of abuse going on with the cult members are hero's want to save (would be better if I cared about most of our heros), the captain of the 8th and his second in command is great and maki is amazing but yeah thats about it.

[@Yal_Rathol]

@@fictionarch by "two blondes" i assume you mean arthur and iris. and here's the thing, i can understand how and why a lot of the stuff in fire force would turn people off of it, but as i am shonen trash, i love everything about the psycho death cult, i find the fan service tolerable and i personally enjoy the characters. my only complaint about it is the simple sentence "that is not how a fire works", which is pretty weak as far as complaints go. also, if you have that much of a problem with it, don't go through soul eater. it's made by the same person who made fire force and is basically the same kind of series.

[@fictionarch]

@@Yal_Rathol been a long time since I last saw Soul Eater but I really liked it (hated the ending though) Soul Eater just had a stronger overall cast for me.

[@Yal_Rathol]

@@fictionarch the anime ending is bad, they caught up to the manga. the manga has a completely different ending, and also BREW works completely differently.

[@jessrandyss]

Love your stuff, existential point. Personally, videos like yours that go into in depth analysis help me try to process information and media that I consume in a critical way (fine tuned critical, not negative critical), which ultimately increases my enjoyment of it. So thanks, yo.