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Holy shit, this is a brilliant video, and the ending is immaculate.

The same that happened to tv shows and all movies.....wokiness and feminism...and whining and entitlement

Also 28:37, wouldn't you agree with Adorno that the classical Ancient Greek gods, unlike their Hellenistic or Roman counterparts, are flawed and humanlike? I mean I get your overall point but this stood out to me.

Very good. But at 10:45 is Jackson being ridiculous, most Anglo-Saxon life continued pretty much the same under the Normans. Also King Arthur probably dates back to traditions older than the Anglo-Saxons (post-Roman Brythonic and/or Sarmatian), so very bad example by Jackson.

fantasy movies were always slop, you're just biased towards the ones you grew up with. LOTR, star wars etc are actually quite bad movies. typical uninspired hollywood slop ripped off from ancient stories. Tolkien just copy pasted amazing traditional culture together into a low effort ripoff.

Its the desth of sincerity. Everything has to be self referential and tougue in cheek now.

I don't see this problem with Nimona at all. Yes, it has queer characters who aren't punished for being queer. At the same time, Nimona's whole arc is about how xenophobia and bigotry start, evolve and reproduce themselves in an institutional form, and how they are used by autocracies as tools for staying in power. There are strong implications that it IS about the queer experience in our world, and the allegory strikes the bullseye in all the right places on that. That being said, the juxtaposition of that allegory to Bal and Ambrosius' public displays of affection does not take away from the message, but strengthens it. It all works like a finely tuned machine.

You're forgetting one thing tho, thers currently a plague of creatively bankrupt bad writers (who are mostly political activists first and writers somewhere last) that's getting employed in most of the entertainment industry.

Loved this video so much 👏 I feel like your concept of 'enlightened' fantasy can be seen in a lot of sci fi. Like I alomost can't believe you didn't bring up The Matrix when disucssing enlightened fantasy. Because I would definitely classify it as enlightened - it absolutely reaches for the mythological, Neo is absolutely a mortal on the path to divinity...its just whether you class it as Fantasy or Sci-Fi.

I enjoyed this take, even though I only agree with maybe 60% of it :)

Starwars tracended shit. You like it out of nostalgia.

0:52 name série?

Awesome work. From the core idea to text and editing.

I'm starting to believe that due to late stage capitalism, large media companies have an agenda to annoy people with bad content and push the blame onto the left "woke" ideology so that they vote right wing parties that give more benefits to said large companies. There is nothing those companies would stand to gain from pushing out products that are undeniably bad narratively and in many other aspects while making them loaded with so much surface level and badly understood leftist ideas; other than the possibility to increase the voting base of political parties that will decrease the taxes those companies pay and the limitations they have.

What I don't like about the fantasy movies or series of today is 1. over explanation (there is no mystery in how something is work) 2. most Villains are humanized in a bad way 3. Boring plot. (which has nothing to do with the heroes journey itself). They try to make something that appeals to the "greatest common divisor" wich is never a good strategy. And what is now deemed as the greatest common divisor is make it dark and serious, or put humor in it. The villain always has often a tragic backstory so he is understandable. They take old storys like avatar remake it and take away the very things that made it so successful. Or don't get me started on Winx club. A super cute and trashy series but somehow the moved it into something dark, and dull, without the outfits and the lightheartedness that made the show successful.

I deeply appreciate the Witcher soundtrack.

Genuine lol at telling Sauron I see you

Do you think Xenogears is enlightened fantasy?

28:20 anarchism based? ;)

What’s happening to fantasy is what’s happening to everything else that people are passionate about and spend their time with. Corporations are ruthlessly commodifying and exploiting fantasy just as they are doing with music, sports, games, etc. There is no room for creativity, originality, and niche audiences. It all needs to be made to appeal to the broadest section of the population with the singular goal of making money. All the quirky, unique, bizarre, and beloved franchises of the past that succeeded on their own merits are relics from a time long past.

Man, I do love your stuff. I still have a tough time with the acting and directing choices, but you manage to draw out some principles of character arcs that are easy to miss due to the myriad issues surrounding it. I want more than anything to care so much about Vaders redemption, to see what was lost, mourn for the fall and make him tossing Palpatine into a pit all the more significant. Unfortunately, these movies don’t quite make that connection for me as a whole, but I very much appreciate your pin point analysis of the themes that were attempted.

generic content is much of a bigger reason why cinema died that artificial visuals.

Anyone saying the Hobbit movies are bad ought to rewatch them.

In the reference to the 'other transcendent works of fantasy' part. Where does the part after Harry Potter with a blackening crystal amulet come from?

Great video. Subscribed.

The best channel on RUclips. I wonder, have you read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke? That's the best magic for me - frivolous, funny, terrifying, unknowable, familiar, tied to the landscape. "The birds were like black letters against the grey of the sky. He thought that in a moment he would understand what the writing meant…The brown fields…were strung with chains of chill grey pools…The pools were a magic worked by the rain, just as the tumbling of the black birds against the sky was a spell that the sky was working…He was caught between earth and sky as if cupped between two hands. They could crush him if they chose…the language or spell seemed tantalisingly familiar now…After all, the world had been speaking these words to him every day of his life - it was just that he had not noticed it before."

Save me Arcane, League of Legends. Arcane, League of Legends SAVE ME

Good video ! What is the music in in your final monolog? Keep it up !

Wth, how does this video only have 2k views??? One of me favorite video essays ive seen in a while. Also one of my favorite magic systems depicted in fantasy has got to be Fullmetal Alchemist.

20:38 I think it was already said, but Greece wasn't actually gay

I cannot imagine turning on my TV, watching a show produced by a gigantic megacorporation by committee in a system designed to produce as much slop as possible to fill in streaming schedules, and then being somehow shocked that the stuff I am watching is bad. Is it just American corporate worship that people actually think that there is something wrong? This is working exactly as intended - these things are exactly what is intended and everything is going according to plan. It's slop, produced by people who know they are making slop for the purpose of filling out streaming platforms. The only reason they still hire writers is because AI isn't good enough yet to convincingly create a story but within a few years that'll no longer be the case. If you are going to corporate TV for quality products then I don't know what to tell you, but stop. Read a book or if reading isn't your thing then go check out the tons and tons of original quality content produced by independent creators on places like RUclips. And if you absolutely NEED super high budget special effects and the Amazon or Marvel Logo in front of your product before you can enjoy it then you are part of the problem.

Grey Jedi are better. You’re allowed to love. If you’re not allowed to love, it’s a crap system. Garbage. And wasn’t that the entire point of Star Wars? That too much of one side is bad? That the Jedi got so arrogant and conceded that they couldn’t sense the evil right next to them? Nah bro. You’re video is good, the Jedi thing? Wrong. So wrong. It’s called balance. Grey is king.

Ok. Ok, ok. I fully appreciate the emotional manipulation perpetrated on my brain eyes and soul. Not since nerd writer have I found so much joy in listening to someone drone on in a RUclips video. You're a fantastic writer, spectacular narrator and an amazing editor. Sorry to gush, I'm sure there are some points I take issue with, but goddamn, that was beautifully done.

Well done sir

Who is this dude? He talks in a ways that touch my heart...

Excellent and really thought provoking. Thank you.

This video is pretensious garbage.

George RR Martin is the epitome of the enlightened fantasy you're talking about.

Woke happening.

I listened accuratly, because your essay os interesting. But ur t-shirt is WRINKELED, man!

Brilliant job.

The absence of Game of Thrones is absolutely glaring in this video. Where is it? Because it seems to encapsulate everything you say is wrong with fantasy, but actually almost every fantasy fan who watched the first couple of seasons loved it and was enthralled (no comment on later seasons, every show tends to fall off)

this seems kind of like a case of "music these days bad" , forgetting that classics become classics because they're good, and all the other masses of shit that came out is forgotten with time. sure, theres a lot more awful visible films these days but thats to be expected when accessability to filmmaking has widened, and also the influence capitalism has over the medium is also expanding. also, i dont think its hard to define elevated horror. its just horror that's deep and usually good because its made by someone who's good at the craft, makes the film with love and thought, and isn't afraid to get weird and do shit that you don't see in mainstream films because they're afraid of taking too many risks. i think that the reason people can't take something like night of the living dead seriously is because of this inability to come to something you have bad expectations about which puts some distance between you and the subject, so you refuse to take it seriously or think about what your watching. by your definition of a b-movie, being something that deals with implicit vs explicit in elevated horror, which i don't know if i agree with, i forgot where i was going with this sentence. i got tired and no longer feel like writing a critical comment. nice video tho.

One silver lining of the recent election is maybe we'll have more people realizing that there is general evil in the world and stories can embrace that

i love the power of friendship

Thank you for making this video. I grew up on my dad's old bookshelf of fantasy and sci-fi. My mom read Tolkien and Harry Potter books aloud to us. My dad gave me Belgariad and Piers Anthony and Card and Orwell and Assimov and a ton of one offs. As a tism kid i needed a window into other people's inner worlds, so my old sci-fi and fantasy were my windows into philosophy, logic, and morality. The if thens. Thank you for articulating why the current fantasy, while enjoyable, doesn't feel like the classics. Like living riddles and epic world building without plot holes. It rubs me wrong that A Song of Ice and Fire and ACOTAR count as fantasy because they're Not the same genre as Wheel of Time. I miss being able to unabashedly root against my villains. I dislike being expected to hold space for the whys of them. Great video essay. Please continue making them. Also, thanks for using your voice instead of an AI voice because those are uncanny valley.

thank you for putting the last guardian score at the end. It's an overlooked gem <3

I agree that modern fantasy often struggles to balance mythic simplicity with contemporary psychological depth. However, I think worldbuilding is crucial in fantasy because it grounds readers, allowing mythological themes to resonate more effectively. Tolkien’s detailed Middle-earth, for example, adds realism and weight, making the mythic elements feel impactful rather than arbitrary. Also, I’d argue that exploring moral ambiguity doesn’t detract from mythological fantasy but can add depth. Complex, morally gray characters can still fulfill mythic roles by externalizing inner conflicts and societal tensions. Game of Thrones is a good example and kind of absent from your video.

This video is very impressive.