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Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 4, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Why does Ross, the largest Friend, not simply eat the other five?

I've been trying to watch a few of the "Northern European" shows that have been streaming lately, 1899 and Elves are both at the top of my mind.

I don't understand what people get out of these shows. Characters don't react to things in recognizably human ways, they don't communicate with each other. No one expresses curiosity, no one remembers what other characters say, they seem to follow an internal script that doesn't match up with that's actually presented on screen. I'm reminded of Westworld Hosts shuffling through a hackey, rushed scenario with no actual human there to riff on it. My attitude really is becoming the meme:

Why does Ross, the largest Friend, not simply eat the other five?

I'm just not sure if what I'm seeing is due to Cheapness/badness. It's not bad ACTING, the production is all solid and competently staged. The IDEAS are there in the premise, they're just executed so shallowly I'm not sure the writers themselves understood them.

The American equivalent is excessive #CurrentYear dialogue and a gibberish handwave-y moral myopia.

Are regular Nordics/Germans actually this stiltedly dull in real life? Is there some sort of cultural context I'm not getting? I "understand" Anime, in that it has a lot of genre conventions, and I might be doing the equivalent of asking why the loser has a hot girl living in his closet, or why every fight is just characters standing still in a field while they internally narrate/charge up their ki blast.

This is in my head in particular because of "Troll." I've seen Shin Godzilla, and I've seen Trollhunter, and I just don't know how to relate to human beings who can't tell that two of those films are good and one is shit.

Also, feel free to complain here about bad TV that confuses and infuriates you. Maybe I'll feel less alone.

Emöyssön? Komunikeissön? Kuriositi? Martin Luttör nevör mensshöned tis. Is not Nordik.

While we are stiltedly dull in real life, at some point this created a self-feeding cycle with local cinema/TV, with the primary mode of expression always being realism and the primary mode of realism being all characters being stilted and unemotional and the narrative being a thing happening after a thing happens after a thing happens as the plot plods on towards its inevitable conclusion. Then some Frenchies and such found the Nordic cinema and thought it delightfully exotic and jocked a few auteurs up, and if you're an artist in a small country there are few things more likely to make you a star than praise from those in the know in a bigger, "actually cultured" country, contributing to the cycle all the more.

No, I'm not a particular fan of local audiovisual arts...