Sonic Adventure 2 - A Postmodern Analysis
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- Опубликовано: 2 апр 2018
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Disclaimer: I know “postmodern” is often an unhelpful term and Derrida himself never labeled himself or his work “postmodern”. Even just labeling the analysis "post-structuralist” would’ve been better in terms of accuracy, but all I wanted is a catchy title. (Also maybe the title will get me more views because of the commotion about postmodernism that Jordan Peterson caused.)
Sources:
On Derrida:
www.iep.utm.edu/derrida/
Colebrook, C. (2015) “Jacques Derrida: Key Concepts”, Routledge
On Baudrillard:
Kellner, D. (1989) “Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond”, Polity Press
On Sonic:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_A...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_...
sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_th...
sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Chaos_Eme...
sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Guardian_...
sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Biolizard
I'd like to thank Blazethecat310 and TheRealSonicFan for their Sonic Adventure 2 footage.
this is the exact shit I try to pull when teachers gave me creative freedom with essays and presentations. Masterfully done.
As an English teacher, you have no idea how happy reading something like this would make me.
God bless philosophy majors
"bless their hearts" is more like it ;)
Bless their banks is more like it.
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Sonic Adventure 2. The dialectics are extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical postmodernism most of the levels will go over a typical player's head. There's also Shadow's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Derrida's Deconstructionist literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these characters, to realise that they're not just entertaining- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Sonic Adventure 2 truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Sonic's existential catchphrase "Gotta Go Fast," which itself is a cryptic reference to Sarte's epic Being and Nothingness. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Shiro Maekawa's genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂
And yes, by the way, i DO have a Sonichu tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎
Peter Arsenault Thou should recive the RUclips Oscar for best comment
Your comment was most humerus, three cheers.
Peter Arsenault rr
Oh my god that was gold. Can I see your deviantart page?
Damn you had me.
"the sonic equivalent of aids" lol wut
NIDS: Neuro-Immunodeficiency Syndrome. RIP MARIA ROBOTNIK
Except that NIDS also destroys the nervous system of the victim in addition to disabling their immune system.
@Cipher *NO*
It's a totally Canon disease in the Sonic games and comics
Here's one of the many characters affected by N.I.D.S. Buns Rabbot aka Anti Bunnie
archiesonic.fandom.com/wiki/Buns_Rabbot
Ocelotl Chimalpahin I literally can’t even tell if the shit I read on that page is real or not. Never realized how fucking weird the Sonic lore was if any of that shit actually is a part of the canon
omg the fade from Abraham to Robotnik's face in the same position is incredible
Click on video expecting a meme > Discover a very well-structures analysis
Scroll down to comments expecting acknowledgement of this unexpectedness > Find continued genuine discussion of the philosophy referenced in the video
This might be the greatest place on the Internet.
UltimateKyuubiFox yes
Am I like, past the meme part yet? I just... I can't take this philosophical analysis seriously with Live and Learn playing in the background.
YT is the greatest place on the interwebs
"Maria's death was caused by the thought of a death that never in fact happened." I call this phenomenon "Anikin, you're breaking my heart" Syndrome.
Shankspeare Wasn't it called sand-sickness?
@@miguelcondadoolivar5149 I hate sand.
love wont save you, padme. only my new powers can do that!
Uh, it's very heavily implied the got shot by gun.
It’s appropriate because the Jedi are motivated by general responsibility, whereas the sith are corrupted by absolute responsibility which snowballs over time into a lust for power. This is the central premise of the major religions, however it must be noted that the Jedis’ solution is hardly ideal, nor is the ontology of Star Wars consistent with our reality.
_"Sometimes there's a need to do what's needed."_ Shadow the Edgehog.
doing the needful
It ain't easy being cheesy
Fuck you trolls
Wtf i love post modernism now
Omg same
This is unironically good. People will call it dumb or whatever, but the proper analysis of video games, the newest art form. within a coherent framework, is exactly the kind of thing that video games need if we want to break free from the formless, derivative stories and experiences that the video game art form has been trapped inside for decades.
I agree! Although for this video I mostly just wanted to introduce certain concepts by Derrida using a pop culture example, I will make more philosophical analyses in the future of either specific video games or video games as a medium in general
How might a philosophical analysis of a multiplayer game differ from a more narrative driven single player experience like sonic?
Chess represents the binary opposition of white and black, with the black serving as secondary or 'subservient' to white in a binary that mirrors racial classification, with the sides nominally identical and equal but black being subtly and necessarily inferior. This takes place within a symbolic psuedo-monarchic fuedalism. Though the feminine in the piece of the queen is afforded the most powerful and dynamic moves, affirming the strength and vitality of the feminine, the masculine King is the most valuable piece, affirming the rightness of the persistence of the patriarchal structure, despite the relative uselessness of he King. The pawns, interchangeable and vaguely unthreateningly phallic figures, are treated as entirely disposable, expressing through the actions of the player themselves the casual disregard for the oppressed under serfdom that was a hallmark of the era represented.
...I guess the author truly is dead... >_>
stayphrosty It depends on how the gameplay integrates with the story, and if a story exists at all. In this case, the video focused only on the story of Sonic Adventure 2 and not the gameplay, so I guess if he were to analyze a multiplayer game it wouldn't look much different.
Do it one league of legends. Is it even possible? Don't know but sure I would love to here it.
I was expecting a silly video about Sonic Adventure 2. What I got was a deconstruction of life
*L I F E I S F R A G I L E*
Live and learn, babyyyyyy
this is probably the best video on the subject, especially because its about sonic, and sonic is *obviously* not privlaged as a philosopic text in the eyes of philosophers therby commiting the problem in the video privlageing *high culture* over *low culture*
I hope this makes sense! Im sure this is intentional, very nice work!
This is a great essay, it is extremely weird to hear someone break down Baudrillard while the butt-rock of Sonic 2 plays in the background though.
Sonic Adventure 2 is not butt rock
🤣
Seeing a picture of Baudrillard with live and learn over does something for me. It's so beautiful.
And then following that with a sami runebomme and other tribal imagry just tops it off, omg
Great video. I just have one small criticism. For Derrida there's no such distinction between general and absolute responsibility. One can't be absolute responsible to the other, because there are always other others. Discrimination is irreducible, this is what Derrida calls arche-violence which follows from the unconditional coming of time, from the infinite finitude of différance. This means that the possibility of being responsible is at the same time the impossibility of being fully responsible. If one could be fully or absolute responsible then this would presuppose the existence of a fixed essence or identity, of a self-sufficient monad or substance, an argument that you rightly criticized in your video. Instead, as you correctly pointed out, Derrida proposes an hauntology (in contrast to ontology which is grounded on the principle of noncontradiction, on the metaphysical logic of identity, inherent to what Derrida called logocentrism, and instead develops a deconstructive logic of identity) which implies the constitutive undecidability of alterity that follows from the spacing of time, that is, from the impossibility of being in itself. Everything is essentially dependent on what is other than itself, and it's precisely this out-of-jointness of time which gives life or reality its ghostly presence, a presence which is precisely not present.
Thank you for pointing this out. I just re-read my source and saw how I had misread it, thank you, I appreciate it!
I love the cross fade from abraham's face to robotnik's face. Absolute art
This is the content I subbed for
“Awwwww yeah this is happening!!!”
As i'm watching this and getting deeper into it I'm like this guy can't be serious. Then I saw the name of the channel and laughed my ass off. This is all genius.
I randomly clicked on this channel and found this video, just happens to be my favourite game
This channel should be way bigger! Great stuff!
This video was my rabbit hole into becoming a leftist. Thank you CCK philosophy you are one of my favorite RUclips's.
the Sonic adventure 2 to leftist pipeline
@@CuriousGuy_ Shadow always was an ACAB comrade
@@chompythebeast And Sonic an anti vaxxer
Your channel name, along with the game chosen and how seriously the dynamic of binaries is applied to it, has me wondering if this is a troll channel. Your actual knowledge coupled with the dryness of your delivery are the ingredients for the sarcasm of the gods.
Its most certenly a new wave alt right channel that shits on gamers due to that one time jorden peterson said gamers are beta male cucks. Or something to that effect.
@@housemouseshorts can't tell if you're memeing but he's generally pretty left wing
I thought alt right has been trying to recruit all the anti-social gamer stereotypes
No not really,take a look at any "alpha male" channel. those channels tend to be tied to alt right ideology. They absolutely SHIT on men who play video games. Often With statements taken right from Jorden Petersons speachs "Don't think because you have mastered a worthless game you have mastered life" "You are good at playing children's toys but are you any good at life" "Gamers are incels" "violent incels are gamers" Trump tryed to bring back the violent video game hystaria of the 90s,within months of takeing office. The alt right absolutely hates gamers. Any gamers they recruit are pawns. @@BrightWhiteRabbit
@@housemouseshorts Do you still think that now?
The ultimate RUclips video
almost cried near the end dude, don't know why but you explaining binaries with the story somehow moved me, almost to tears.
I always figured the references to "My analysis of Sonic Adventure 2" was a bit you were doing. But holy shit you actually did it.
It's hard to see how this mode of deconstruction is not self-defeating. At the end of the video you say that binaries can be rearranged into "new and perhaps better systems." But "there you go again" setting up "binaries" such as new/old and better/worse. If there are no stable structures of meaning, purpose, and value, then there is also no stable rationale or motive to "deconstruct" (or not deconstruct)....Your thoughts?
You're right in a certain sense. Deconstruction cannot be an end-in-itself because it's impossible to ALWAYS be deconstructive if we want to function in the world. However, precisely because deconstruction gives us no inherent goals or positive guides to action, it can be subordinated to higher ethical demands, which is why Derrida spent a lot of time talking about notions like responsibility, hospitality and forgiveness in his later works. Now, of course, these ethical notions themselves can be subject to deconstruction, and so the best we can do is remain open to changes in the binaries we use and acknowledge that it never forms a closed system
Thanks for your reply! If the end result of his inquiry is to say that all virtues, values, and principles exist in a kind of creative tension with other virtues, values, and principles (e.g., "There's a time for war and a time for peace" --Ecclesiastes 3), then this seems eminently reasonable. What appears to be less so is if people take the next step of suggesting that since anything can be deconstructed, therefore there's no such thing as discernible truth, ethical or otherwise. But I agree that we should always live in a state of ethical-intellectual openness, as opposed to a sealed-off, dogmatic, unreflective closedness.
I'll sign onto Deconstructionism, what is it we're going to deconstruct?
Deconstructionism is the scientific method applied to philosophy? How so? About what does Deconstructionism hypothesize, make predictions, and then test out empirically to reach reproducible results?
Well I suppose I meant more as in that the scientific method is about constantly getting a better understanding of the world through being critical of our current understanding of it, and then examining our understanding and seeing if there's evidence to support it.
I think the aim of deconstruction is to better understand the world and to see if some of our current assumptions are wrong. You hypothesize that, for example,. morality is objective, and then predict that it will be, and then use all possible evidence to see if it holds up.
1:56 fucking hilarious, hearing this philosophical analysis just to segway int: IN SONIC ADVENTURE TWO
My lit analysis teacher always tells us "You give something it's meaning" I always knew there was something in Shadows story but I didn't have the research to know what it was. This is an amazing video, thank you
An astonishingly involving listen, simultaneously more serious and satirical in its sincerity (and yet still utterly sincere) than one would have thought going in. I don't fancy myself a learned philosopher myself, but my personal introduction to Derrida's works was through what I've come to refer to as the "Memetics Monologue" from the metafiction titled "Detective Pony" by Sonnetstuck. That story focused almost entirely on Plato's Pharmacy and its statements regarding how it pertains to modern memetics, so it's interesting to see other bits of Derrida's work.
What a Way Past Structuralist analysis. Yeah!
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle is my favorite game of all time. The music the dialogue, the stages , the story.
The ending of couse was shocking and emotional with the final shot of the blue planet.
Its regarded as the most memorable game on par with Sonic 3. Sonic 3 makes me tear up at the end. The music and imagery is truly beautiful. Powerful childhood nostalgia.
I never thought I'd see a philosophical analysis of this.
It just made it that much more meaningful to me.
Interesting video as an introduction to deconstruction. I've been meaning to read Derrida for quite some time now. I've only recently gotten into philosophy from a Frankfurt School perspective. As someone currently reading Habermas, I know that their philosophies fundamentally clashed, so I'm eager to get to know the other side of the coin.
It might also help to evaluate the differences between Adorno and Habermas, I'm not yet certain wich one of the two has the better case.
Ya know what, I could make an entire video just on how SA2 explores the natural/artificial binary. Sonic and Shadow alone exemplify this, as you pointed out in the video. The stark contrast in level designs, such as green forest vs. weapons bed (just to name one example) could also be used to make this point. I could make a pretty convincing argument that the SA2 devs were on some real postmodern discourse with this "evidence".
Your cherry-picking was phenomenal. You set out to apply postmodern analysis to a dumb (great, but dumb) video game and you did so brilliantly. This simultaneously validates the need for serious analysis of video games and exposes common flaws in literary analysis. Whether you meant to or not doesn't matter. As I said, you did precisely what you set out to do. Bravo.
I always found Shadow to be a fascinating character. Robotnik is far from your straightforward villain too. You don't need 4K graphics to tell a compelling story in computer games...
What does 4k graphics even mean.
@@videotape2959 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels.[1] Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 3840 × 2160 (4K UHD) is the dominant 4K standard, whereas the movie projection industry uses 4096 × 2160 (DCI 4K).
I'm very glad that there are still good channels on RUclips like this, watching this video just put a big smile on my face. Please keep making videos. Great work and congratulations on the 50k subs...
How does this not have more views?
This is so insightful!
This becomes very Hegelian near the end. Was postmodernism the first wave of remix culture?
In all seriousness yes. They understood remix culture was coming before we had the technology.
It's interesting to see a video done on this, i was actually thinking myself about the archetypal structure that Sonic Adventure has built up as well.
I was surprised that you didn't go into the heaven and hell aspect more since the Chao aspect of the game is such a huge part of SA2B. You could raise Chao's to be good or bad, and some to have halos by giving them love and nurturing them properly. But if you wanted a hell like baby, which eventually turns dark after a while of mistreatment, you could possibly achieve that by throwing them around, not feeding them much. Or Change them the way they are by feeding them certain foods. So it also plays part because it shows you sort of the root, or foreshadows reasons why shadow is the color he is. He most likely came from a dark place. Raised differently and wasn't nurtured like the brighter color chaos. That honestly can be a video on its own though since it's not storyline i suppose.
Cool analysis though!
I almost put this in my favorites playlist but I chose to put it in the one for LSD instead.
A fascinating interpretation. Small editing note that the sections of pure black feel distracting but other than that, well thought out and thought provoking work. Subscribed good sir! Well done!
I like that you call him Robotnik and not Eggman
Indeed, spectrums are a much more useful way of looking at the world than binaries. That is what Nietzsche originally meant when he wrote: "beyond good and evil." The post-modernists are just taking it steps further.
How are they taking it further? This kind of analysis of binaries is a favourite thing of post-structuralist and post-modernist thought and it frequently succeeds only to boil something complex down into polar opposites, which as you rightly say, is more like a series of spectrum, ones which do not even have binary ends but are more multi-polar. This kind of thinking strips the world of nuance, which you would think would make it easier to understand, but being easy to understand is not something post-structuralism is known for.
@@Saktoth Do you think Derrida invented these binaries? What are you even saying?
I just wanted to say that I love you please never stop.
Incredible work. I love Sonic Adventures 2 as a child. But now as an adult, and a filmmaker, this deconstruction is very important to me. Great work and I hope to see more
Not remotely the only way to analyze / understand the story, but an interesting approach and illustrative example of the particular deconstruction method. Worth a like.
I've never seen any of your videos before, but an analysis of Baudrillard's death binary while the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack plays in the background must be what having a stroke feels like
I'n actually mad that you got me genuinely invested in a philosophical analysis of SA2
like I hate that it makes sense
Finally a Sonic video that analyzes the plots and themes properly. It's not the typical Sonic video where some guy just sits down and insults Sonic 24/7 using outdated memes that aren't even funny. Please do more of these actually this was a very well done video. You should actually analyze future Sonic titles like Sonic Battle, Storybook Games, Shadow, and etc. Even other gaming series too like Final Fantasy or whatnot, I'd love to see what other stuff you can analyze! :)
I would dub this analyse "neo-post-modern-ism". Sonic vs Derrida what a mix ! ;-)
Excellent channel, too seriously cheerful to be ignored
Was
Not expecting such philosophical breakdown well done to one of my favorite games if not my favorite
Great application of analysis. Would it be too absurd or boring to do a series of philosophies applied to a single piece of media? Showcase how anything can be warped to fit a person's chosen perception and then illustrate how people choose their methods of perceptions to fit each individual's chosen beliefs. Or highlight the fallacies of altering personal perceptions and beliefs. Perhaps explain how perception is at times objective while still being entirely subjective to sensory apparatus. In any case, please continue.
That's actually a good idea, something I will consider. Thank you!
The fact that this video exists and achieves such great quality is a testament to your intelligence and creativity.
Also 10/10 meme lol keep doing you my dude
Thank you for this video and bringing back good old memories of 1 of my favorites games 😊
I feel as though this is an April Fool's video that couldn't be completed on time. Nice analysis.
Omg glad i found you. Please keep em coming. Your my peterson for gaming
Thanks for helping me understand deconstruction practically for my thesis
This is the exact kind of content I want to see. Great video
i always come back to this vid. playing the life and learn song is a touch of genius
Isn't this also related to "Hegel's wound", in which he discusses the Fall and the concept of freedom? Because Eggman wanted to save his daughter, he grew away from himself and his wish to save his daughter. If he had stood his ground, and even if his daughter had died, none of this would have happened. He'd still be a genius scientist, non-corrupted, and Shadow wouldn't exist nor this absurd quest for the Emeralds.
I don't even know if this accurate, I just read it and that "negation of the negation" part just triggered it off in my mind lol
The Abraham/Robotonik transition made me a postmodernist
That fade between Abraham and Robotnic... Something deep going on here
Why is this so good
This is my jam! Thanks for creating this video!
Yo this shits fire. Do a Foucauldian analysis of GUN tactics xD
Pokémon been dialectical since gold/sliver 😂
Since Red/Blue.
You ever notice how Sonic and Shadow have one eyeball with two pupils?
I love this video. Keep doing what you're doing.
You're a beast, liked and subbed.
This is the greatest thing I've ever watched thank God RUclips brought me here
"my good friend derrida"
Is that a motherfucking Contrapoints reference?
The introduction was amazing
"The Sonic version of AIDS"... the fug?
What an approach to this video game! Kudos. I'll sub for this.
DOWN IN PUMPKIN HILL I GOTTA FIND MY LOST PIECE
"In pre-modern societies, the ends of life are given at the beginning of life:
people do things in their generation so that the same things will continue
to be done in the next generation. Meaning is immanent in all the ordinary
customs and practices of existence, since these are inherited from the past,
and are therefore worth reproducing. The idea is to make the world go not
forward, only around. In modern societies, the ends of life are not given at
the beginning of life; they are thought to be created or discovered. The
reproduction of the customs and practices of the group is no longer the
chief purpose of existence; the idea is not to repeat, but to change, to move
the world forward. Meaning is no longer immanent in the practices of
ordinary life, since those practices are understood by everyone to be
contingent and time-bound. This is why death, in modern societies, is the
great taboo, an absurdity, the worst thing one can imagine. For at the close
of life people cannot look back and know that they have accomplished the
task set for them at birth. This knowledge always lies up ahead,
somewhere over history's horizon. Modern societies don't know what will
count as valuable in the conduct of life in the long run, because they have
no way of knowing what conduct the long run will find itself in a position
to respect. The only certain knowledge death comes with is the knowledge
that the values of one's own time, the values one has tried to live by, are
expunge-able."
This is amazing
The thought of a death caused a death
That crossfade at *8:07* constitutes a true high watermark moment for RUclips as a platform
Well done. I like your analysis.
Excelent channel. Have you considered doing a video in this direction of KOTOR 2 (knights of the old republic 2, one of the most philosophical games I´ve ever seen)?
The fact he’s getting this in depth about video game characters is sending me
Thank you! This is what I've been trying to tell my mom all these years
Somehow, I now see a connection between Quantum Computing, Post Structuralism and Post Pythargorean Occultism.
In Post Pythargorean Occultism (Kabbala etc.), there is a "Chaos" at the Center of the Universe which is not clearly separated into distinctions. Then, a process starts where the Chaos comes into contact with the "Realm of Ideas" and what exist gets separated from what does not exist, which in the end creates reality.
In Quantum Computing, the calculation is done via spintronics and several possibilities exist at the same time. An electronic unit gets the information of the spintronic unit and basically decides which possibility is the desired results and discards the rest.
And from what I unserstand of Post Structuralism, Nature is chaos and Language takes that chaos and uses a logical process of ordering the chaos into categories.
In a certain way, I think this describes similar processes.
And about the connection with Occultism. In Lurianic Kabbala, the Ein Sof is sometimes seen as the unconscious part and Aziluth, the realm of ideas, as the consciousness. Somehow, this also reminds me a little bit on Lacans Theory of the relation between language and the mind.
I love how I fucking forgot this was about sonic adventure 2 for a bit then it just hit me
I have ascended to a higher form of thinking
And shitposting
2 years later, Covid-19. Watching this again and I do not know why.
I love this channel so much, incredibly interesting
When your youtube worlds collide
Very well made.
I would love to see a video on Wendy Brown or Elizabeth Anderson's ideas on Private Government.
great video. thanks!
I love Sonic Heros
Haha.. I really don't get why this doesn't have more views!
Has HBomberguy seen this?
The description giving information about postmodern philosophers with like one refrence each, and then sonic gets a ton. Almost necesitated, as this video was made under the pretense that familiarity with SA2 was more prominent in than familiarity with postmodern thinkers. (only almost, since number of sources doesn't corelate to familiarity, and that familliarity relations only would apply to the target audience, and only given this is not made as such as an ontological statement)
As an artist I am in awe of your skills.
Live and learn coming in at 2 min felt great, but having the music continuously play while you spoke made it very difficult to listen to what you had to say and I almost turned off the video because it was so distracting.
Just giving constructive criticism because I was immediately pulled in by the first minute, and almost BUT didn't leave because I loved your points :) keep it up!
He's referenced this video many times before, time to finally watch it.
This man used sonic 2 player battle as an ex to philosphize. I was sold already by your content, but this really solidified it
I am so going to steal this and use it on my philosophy exam next week XD