hey guys stick around to the end of the
video for her behind-the-scenes look of
what we got cooking up for the future of
wisecrack enjoy the show
[Music]
hey wisecrack jared here so just like
everyone else with the ps4 I've been
grinding my thumb's to nubs playing God
of War and if you haven't had the
pleasure to play it yet things are
pretty different this time around
something changed the force feels
different everything is different
boy instead of a roid raging Greek god
of destruction who's for experience
points kratos is now a melancholy dream
daddy complete with a child and a dead
wife this stark change in Kratos got me
thinking is this part of a much larger
zeitgeist see something is happening to
our heroes and if you don't believe me
look no further than Wolverine and Luke
Skywalker
how did Wolverine go from this colorful
murder machine to this angsty old man
and how did Luke go from this
starry-eyed Thunder King to this
disenchanted recluse and in the same
vein how did Kratos go from this blade
swinging harbinger of death to this
bummed out widower well to figure out
why this is happening we're gonna have
to visit the era defined by the king of
swagger the Duke welcome this wisecrack
edition on the age of the post hero and
stay frosty guys spoilers ahead before
the marvel industrial complex was even a
glimmer in Stanley's eye there was
another genre that dominated film in an
all-too-familiar way the Western
according to theorists will write all
westerns are born from one basic
formulation the story of a lone stranger
who rides into a troubled town and
cleans it up winning the respect of the
townsfolk and the love of the school bar
the other plots are all built upon its
symbolic foundation westerns from the
likes of John Ford Clint Eastwood and
Sergio Leone dominated the Hollywood
landscape for decades there was no need
for Iron Man or Captain America when you
had Clint Eastwood being a badass and
John Wayne leaking Americana all over
every set he walked on young fella
if you're looking for trouble I'll
accommodate you so what happened where'd
all the Cowboys go well Hollywood had a
sort of Western backlash instead of
producing traditional westerns they
started making a kind of anti Western or
what were called post westerns whereas
your traditional Western would bask in
the heroics of this Diane ain't much of
a living
the post Western would show us this the
basic idea is that post westerns
redeployed Western tropes to make new
arguments about the ideas that westerns
took for granted now like anything else
it's easier to show you how it works so
let's take a look at a true classic post
Western Unforgiven Unforgiven follows
William Munny a retired gunslinger whose
legendary talent for shooting was fueled
by his old friend whiskey I ain't like
that this whiskey does much much as
anything else
I ain't had a drop in over ten years now
sober and trying to live a peaceful life
raising pigs William gets pulled back
into the gunslinger life to save his
farm and family Unforgiven is a post
Western because it takes the formulation
of the Western and flips it the heroes
aren't mysterious and hardly clean
anything up but rather bring chaos with
them in a quest for peace that isn't
about a town or a ranch but about
themselves and the future this structure
of the hero leaving the world of
violence admit behind only to be pulled
back in is exactly the structure of you
guessed it God of War Logan and the last
Jedi
in fact they resemble the qualities of a
post Western almost perfectly so let's
start with god of war
Kratos left behind his violent past
incident
and went to the woods to raise a family
after his wife dies Ian a sonnet reyes
travel across the realms who sprinkle
her ashes from the tallest peak so we
can already see a retired warrior
looking for a calm life of chopping down
trees hunting and yelling at his son
look at me boy boy wait
but of course nothing is easy and he
gets roped back in when Balter gets wind
of his presence and tries to hunt him in
at Reyes on their journey similar to
William Munny who must drink whiskey to
revert back to the legendary murderer in
order to save the town and ensure his
family safety Kratos is forced to bust
out the chaos blades and revert to the
death machine we know and love in order
to save at Reyes immediately he's
confronted by the ghosts of his past and
the reality that he can't escape it you
cannot change break tomorrow
just like Kratos Logan used to be a
turbo badass death dealer I mean his
bones are covered in metal but wait
who's that living in the desert like
some kind of weird hermit it's our boy
Wolverine but he's old and sad and has a
daughter now and goes by Logan yeah but
we took you in I gave you a son Logan
imagines the Wolverine as a past his
prime limo driver who takes care of his
elderly foster father in the first few
minutes of the film his aversion to
violence is put on display seriously you
don't want to but soon he's caught up
protecting a young girl from assassins
cyborgs and other goons like in God of
War and Unforgiven Logan is only drawn
back into violence by his desire to
protect and help a younger generation
but despite his intentions the violence
follows him and an innocent families
farm is turned into a slaughterhouse in
response Logan tries again to leave the
violence behind but it sneaks back into
his life as Laura and the other children
are captured and Logan's got to do some
savings finally he comes to terms with
the violence takes a serum like a
certain whiskey shot and
hog-wild he embraces the violence as the
only way to save Laura and finally finds
peace similar to Unforgiven not to
mention Shane there's no levy for the
killer there's no going back from right
wrongs
brant bad sticks Logan and God of War
show us a former warrior turned
protector who must swap the shield for a
sword or gun or claws or blades of chaos
despite the fact that all they want is
to leave that life behind
they try over and over to get away but
they get pulled back in just what I
thought I was out okay Kratos wants a
peaceful life for his son and that means
war with the gods Logan wants to protect
Laura
that means releasing the beasts money
wants to help his kids that means
hunting down those who might come after
him it's the choice to confront their
painful nature for the sake of helping
others that ultimately redeems Kratos
Logan and Lonnie so how does the last
Jedi fit into this it's not quite the
same but just as those characters are
forced to Don a mantle they've dreamt of
leaving behind so too does space hobo
Luke Skywalker he isolates himself
renounces his Legend and even gives up
using the force from the force just as
the post Wester reevaluate s-- the glory
of the traditional western so too does
the last Jedi reevaluate the deeds of
the Jedi Order and the mess they've left
the galaxy in at the height of their
powers they allow Dark City is to rise
create the Empire and wipe them out it
was a Jedi Master who's responsible for
the training and creation of Darth Vader
but when the resistance is about to be
completely snuffed out Luke must stop
fleeing from his past and reignite the
legend once again to sustain the light
and save his sister Luke is ready to die
because just like the other characters
he's giving something to the Future the
myth of Luke's
so why is this happening to our heroes
well it all goes back to myths as Wright
said a myth is a communication from a
society to its members these social
concepts and attitudes determined by the
history and institutions of a society
are communicated to its members through
its myths but simply myths are the
stories society tells itself about
itself that's why we saw the post
Western emerge in the shadow of
Watergate and Vietnam we needed stories
that reflected an age of distrust in
institutions and a lack of belief in the
American myth it's similar to where we
ended up as a culture after the 2008
financial crisis and why suddenly we're
seeing this pattern re-emerge all over
the place we're even seeing this
self-critical turn in the greatest
mythic framework of our time the
superhero movie think about the best
Marvel movies Winter Soldier has Captain
America the poster boy for the American
Way questioning the US government we're
not just taking down the carrier's neck
we're taking down shields so or learns a
real leader has to confront their
nation's ugly history and all the pain
that comes with that Tony Stark has
space combat PTSD and Iron Man 3 and in
Civil War the consequences of his
actions come back to haunt him even
Superman has issues figuring out right
and wrong which is the one thing
Superman is supposed to know for sure
none of our mythical figures are spared
and this is what I mean by the age of
the post hero if post westerns emerged
as people tired of the same myths from
an era past our post heroes like Kratos
Logan and Luke Skywalker signaling the
same and if we're currently in the
process of questioning our cultural
myths
what kind of myths will we make to
replace them and what will these myths
tell us about the society we want to
build
thanks for watching guys and thanks for
sticking around things may look like
business as usual on the channel but
we've actually been busting our ass
cooking up some awesome new pilots
behind the scenes so we're working on
more shows about movies a couple shows
about current events more about science
and even a show about the stock market
so I'm gonna give you guys a little
sneak peek as to what's in the works
alright so first up we got a show that
is actually premiering in late June
called the film tourists where I go
inside cinema classics and break down
the film techniques that make them smart
and effective so where we usually talk
about ideology philosophy and subtext
here we're gonna be focusing more on the
form and the technique and how those
things make the film's so darn good yes
there I am inhabiting the shot of the
wolf of Wall Street the next one we got
up is called how did we get here which
is an animated series with a super
talented artist that I went to college
with her name is Tyler I'm so excited to
be able to bring her vision to the world
this is going to be exploring current
events and the forces that shape them so
this pilot episode is actually about
fake news and Fahrenheit 451 the Ray
Bradbury book another thing we have
going on is another explainer series and
it's more about culture criticism in
terms of real-life contemporary stuff so
our first episode is called was the
internet a mistake we're working with
the amazing illustrator of thug notes
and I'm super excited to be talking
about current events and talking about
stuff that's outside of media we're also
working on new science show so I'm sure
you guys have seen our new host helen
has been doing stuff like the psychology
the purge and the psychology of one
punch man we've got more of those kinds
of videos in the works as well as helen
has been working with a doctor at the
university of southern california his
name is dr. Jonas Kaplan and he's a
neuroscientist and he's actually giving
us access to a neuroscience imaging
machine and we will actually want to do
kind of our own experiments to see if we
can draw conclusions about how the brain
reacts not only to media but to various
things that we experience on social
media so this is kind of a dream come
true for me because I've always wanted
wisecrack to not only be about
reflecting on studies but being a part
of the research and studies process so
we're also working on a money show so
for those of you who listen to our
podcast show me the meaning you know
Ryan Ryan has been our editor for the
last four years and he's going to try to
get quotes
by investing in stuff like crypto
currencies penny stocks and possibly sex
robots so learning about how to be good
with money through Ryan being crazy it's
gonna be fun
also our pal Greg Edwards the genius
behind thug notes aka Sparky sweets PhD
will be returning to wisecrack with a
new comedy podcast that we're developing
together and you may have seen some
awesome new animations and graphics
appearing around the channel we're
working with the really really talented
Mike Perry so if you guys have ever seen
broad city the intro as well as the
interstitials between commercials is
designed by him and he's looking to give
wisecrack an all new look and we're
really excited to be working with him so
get ready for more cool like that that's
what we got in the works for you guys if
you want to see it early and see more
behind the scenes stuff I recommend
checking out our patreon at wisecrack
plus com not only will you be the first
to see these things when they're done
but you'll also get access to all of our
exclusive content so click here or click
the link in the description to go to
wisecrack plus com and by the way
wisecrack is turning 4 years old on
Sunday so I'll be celebrating by
watching Twin Peaks season 3 for the 4th
time catch y'all next time peace
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