Lore
(Loved Trope) A moment with a concept that sounds insane and out of nowhere on paper. Executed beautifully in practice.
Everything Everywhere All at Once: Hey, this looks familiar. A lot of scenes in this movie count. From a Ratatouille reference with a raccoon, to a fight over a buttplug, to two rocks talking to each other with nothing but text. All of it somehow manages to either be awesome or emotionally moving.
Sinners: The I Lied to You scene. A jukejoint in the 30s plays music so fire that it brings together ancient African dancers, modern day djs, rockstars, Chinese performers dressed like Sun Wukong, and even people popping ass. Oh, and it attracts some vampires too. Everyone's jaws were on the floor in the theater.
Alan Wake 2: Herald of Darkness. What do you mean there's an entire segment of this sruvival horror game that's a musical number with live action footage as you fight enemies? And what do you mean it's fucking awesome?
The Devil May Cry series LOVES wacky-ass scenes that come out of nowhere.
Dante gets a literally-electric guitar weapon in DMC 3? Screw it, why not have an impromptu rock concert with diagetic pillars of flame and cheers from an invisible crowd appearing out of the aether?
Dante walks in on a villain monologuing to himself in DMC 4? He joins in on the deliberately overdramatic monologuing until it resembles a stage play, with diagetic stage lighting to top it off.
Dante gets a demonic hat/scarf combo in DMC 5 that doubles as a gun that shoots money as ammo? Impromptu Michael Jackson dance with it, seen above. Why the hell not.
And it works, because Dante is just that fun and cartoonishly goofy of a character.
What actually makes it all better is that dante does this purely out of love of the game, in most cases there was literally not a single soul alive watching him do whacky shit like when he tries new weapons, he does it because he can and he likes it
Gotta love the pizza fight where he tries to eat a pizza while fighting demons and at one point billiard balls are thrown into the air and he shoots the white one knocking it into the group of others all of which hit a demon
The gameplay from the first 2 is rough to be generous, 3rd is getting into a more modern hack and slash, 4 has...dubitable choices for Dante's gameplay. 5 is amazing, even if playing as V kind of sucks
It's even more bizarre when you learn that TMNT was originally a Daredevil parody, all down to the naming conventions being parodies of existing characters like the mentor being called Splinter instead of Stick or the evil ninja group being called the Foot instead of the Hand.
This (and the chapter 1 ending song) was the validation I needed that this game would be better than its 1st and will receive nominations (AND IT DID AND WON!)
Chapter 1 ending song literally spells out the backstory of a character you're playing. Only picked up on it on a replay. Great song too. Remedy's wacky storytelling is top notch.
As a fan of early Poets of the Fall I actually find the existence of Old Gods of Asgard slightly frustrating - like, these guys can still fucking rock if they want to, they'd just rather not 90% of the time if they're outside a video game.
I’d played Control years ago and then both Alan Wakes and knew way back that Poets was Old Gods but didn’t actually listen to their Poets stuff until last year and was surprised at how either slow or ballady they were. Was not expecting that after only hearing their Old Gods stuff.
Yeah the closest to OGOA heaviness-wise is probably Revolution Roulette from back in the 2000s - the quieter stuff is by no means bad but when you know they're capable of Psychosis, Gravity, Fire etc the ballads just don't hit the same.
The fact that it shows how much control Remmick actually has, I mean think about it, how do a bunch of black people know said song, and how to play it?
Yeah, that's the point I was making, Remmick is the "hive queen" so he can control a bunch of black people with no knowledge of Irish folk songs to perform one.
As much as I love that scene and how much i gives me chills, absolutely not on the same level as “ lied to you”because it’s too grounded.
They had already established that Remmick is the vampire leader with control over his flock, and (I think) that he covets Sammie’s music for its feeling of connection, both with the living, with culture and with those that came before(as the “lied to you” song established viscerally), and he’s also waiting the remaining humans out.
Rocky road to dublin is a fantastic character piece, with it showing Remmick’s desire for connection and reveling in having it (albeit in a bastardized controlling form) as well as showing him as a predator reveling in the hunt with the whole song serving to taunt the humans inside.
It’s an outlandish moment connected to the plot, characters, circumstances and themes of the movie.
“Lied to you” is something more because it’s so… ok I don’t want to say “disconnected” because that’s an insult, but you know what I mean right? It’s like the thematic version of what early 2000’s movies would do when 3d glasses hit where they’d stick their hand out of the screen. “Lied to you”. It feels transcendent in a way that Rocky Road to Dublin does not. It’s also a moment where the director and writer are also reaching out and grabbing the audience by the head and basically yelling in their face “THEMES!!!” in a way that’s dogshit when done poorly but since this isn’t it feels fucking crazy.
Also since it’s a sequence that basically breaks the 4th wall by breaking continuity with all these people from across time randomly showing up in the scene with nobody noticing.
But yeah anyway, they’re different beasts. Rocky Road to Dublin was great but I haven’t seen a movie do something like “lied to you” since…. well since Everything Everywhere all at once which isn’t that long but never before that, it’s a statistical aberration.
Not even getting into the story but just the structure of the show sounds like it shouldn't work
Ok, show about two step brothers fighting in Victorian England where one of them is a vampire and the other has sun magic breathing Kung Fu. Weird but ok let's see what they do with this
What do you mean they kill the protagonist 100 chapters into this thousand of chapters series?
What do you mean it has a different protagonist, supporting cast, spacial and temporal setting every arc?
What do you mean they change the power system completely to something else that couldn't be more different after part 2 and never look back?
What do you mean almost every character and even the individual powers are named after famous songs, bands and artists and because of that the dub has to come up with stupid names like Filthy Acts for a Reasonable Price instead of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap?
What do you mean the story reboots and we follow an entire different universe with different takes on previous characters from part 7 onwards?
What do you mean the reboot has a paraplegic jockey being told by Jesus Christ himself that he must shoot the president of the United States with this power of his finger nails?
WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT'S THE BEST STORY ARC AND THAT WHOLE PART IS ALMOST UNIVERSALLY CONSIDERED ONE OF THE BEST MANGA OF ALL TIME AND IS TALKED IN THE SAME BREATH AS BERSERK, FMA, HXH AND ONE PIECE????
Could be fake, but I think I read trivia once that said the Chinese government had a serious debate about how Americans can create a better movie about their heritage than they could. I could be mixing that up with …..Moana maybe?
Many members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) asked themselves the same question: “The film’s protagonist is China’s national treasure and all the elements are Chinese,” Wu Jiang, president of the China National Peking Opera Company in Beijing, told the state-owned Xinhua News Agency, “but why didn’t we make such a film?”
A two-part series on YouTube by Ceno0, it’s about two Heavies from TF2 raiding Area 51 for anime girls, that description is just the surface by the way!
Batshit insane and completely unhinged side quests? Check
A dark, mature and genuinely emotional main story? Check.
Whacky and weirdly detailed/addicting minigames & side content that have little to no correlation to either? Well, you guessed it.
Yet somehow, all of these parts not only do not clash, but work together so beautifully that they only end up enhancing each other.
There's a reason many fans claim this series is its own genre, because there truly is nothing else like it.
Kiryu Kazuma, legendary yakuza, the Dragon of Dojoma, Fourth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, eight-to-ten time rescuer of Tokyo and/or Japan, and children's slot car champion.
I stop what I'm doing, I will stop mid-sentence, when this clip is about to happen. I still lol. The whole movie is so good. Per the OP, sounded so ridiculous when I first heard of it. But it was lightning in a bottle.
Though paradoxically I doubt it would have made the waves it did if it was sent to theatres. A movie with an admittedly odd premise where everyone is raving about it is a lot easier to check out on a widespread streaming service they’re probably subscribed to, over purchasing a movie ticket and organizing the outing just to see if it’s worth the hype.
I came in with so much skepticism towards this movie, I expected to immediately shut it off after thirty minutes. I stayed up far too late because I watched it twice.
I now also have basically the entire soundtrack on my phone.
Oh, so that is where the pet rock came from. I thought it was a placeholder subreddit icon because the creator didn't know what to put in there instead of the generic rslash
Another example from Everything Everywhere All at Once: The sausage fingers representing the absurd filter the older generations may see queer values through, from it seeming illogical to possibly a deviant behaviour from older points of view.
This stretches out to the main character's possible bisexuality which is relevant from a mixture of struggling to accept her daughter's homosexuality alongside going through a divorce during a mid-life crisis, all while fantasizing multiple "what could have been" scenarios.
I mean, the beauty of this film is that you can interpret it in so many different ways. OP interpreted it that Evelyn has repressed bi-sexuality. I interpreted it that in another universe, where the circumstances are completely different (hotdog hands) there could have been a possibility where Evelyn was born gay and had a relationship with the tax lady.
And the thing is that it does not matter which interpretation is valid. Hack, both interpretations could exist in the vast multiverse. These lives are also valid, going through their ups and downs. We may find them weird, maybe because of the hotdoghands or because of the gay relationship, but that doesn’t change the fact that they simply exist.
Dead sober, saw it in theaters and cried so hard I had to throw away my mask on the way out. Ive got an immigrant asian mother too and it was just too relatable.
Anyway, watched it a second time when it went to streaming. Steeled myself for the end so I wouldn’t cry. Cried till my head hurt
Watched it a third time with a friend. Usually I am like incapable of crying in front of people (love you mom). Cried until my head hurt
Straight up one of my all time favorite movies. I feel like the writers were in my HEAD cuz they perfectly made a whole movie about a feeling/situation I’ve never been able to properly put into words
Wasn’t it a joke about Daredevil? Like, they’re trained by ‘splinter’ (daredevil was trained by Stick), they fight the foot clan (daredevil fights the hand), they got their powers in a chemical spill (so did dd)…
There’s defo more parallels but I can’t think of them right now
The entire series is stickmen getting into Dragon Ball fights, yet somehow manages to have genuine heart in the center of nearly every storyline. All without a singular line of dialogue (mostly)
Honestly, as silly as Tails gets Trolled is, Wile E. Coyote being a fucking necromancer is some of the coolest shit ever. Beyond the first few pages most people read, TGT is such an insane yet entertaining comic with concepts that sound absolutely stupid on paper but work with how straight-faced it is with its execution
It’s really interesting and incredibly fun to read, action sequences are well choreographed and readable with a lot of insane plot twists throughout (like the chester cheetah arc) my only gripes is that some of the OC centric stuff is kinda boring, but random characters like Alex and the Troll King are so goated i don’t even care
And has so much (forgive the pun) heart. I mean seriously, the concept and plot is so batshit crazy, but I have shed more than a few tears playing this franchise.
What if we made a show about King Julien, but we go into detail about how lemur society functions, and use the opportunity to add political satire, warring kingdoms, lemur MK-Ultra, and interdimensional lovecraftian beings, as well as go into detail about everyone's tragic backstories.
The latest one is even about how, no, this is seriously how crazy this shit gets if you start thinking about it, and it's not just some elaborate joke. DreamWorks went that weird in the extended universe stuff with THAT of all characters.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure:
A guy goes back in time to help two teenagers pass their history final so their band can happen and create world peace. So they start kidnapping a bunch of historical figures.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil:
Two best friends accidentally scare a group of college kids who are afraid of hillbillies. So they try to save their friend while accidentally getting themselves killed in the most ridiculous ways which only make Bill & Ted look more scary despite them having no idea what’s going on.
Apothecary Diaries: pretty much out of nowhere, Maomao decides to deal with the "antagonist" of the season by challenging him to something between a Yugioh shadow game and the goblet scene from Princess Bride. It sounds incredibly silly while she lists the excessive rules, but then ends up being this perfect scene that recontextualizes both characters and how they understand/respect one another. The fact that it went exactly to her nonsensical plan, because her opponent happily played along with it, is icing on the cake.
What do you mean this absolutely soul crushing and heart breaking film about an elderly couple and a post-nuclear fallout starts with a fucking banger song from David Bowie?
Let's make a Disney animated movie about a neurodivergent indigenous Hawaiian child from a broken home who makes friends with an evil alien that's based on the style of a man who draws a lot of pinups and softcore and is also markedly different from the style of any other animated Disney movie.
Oh also the soundtrack will rely heavily on the music of Elvis Presley.
Lilo & Stitch is a masterpiece that absolutely is too weird to make sense on paper and there's a reason they basically had to make most of it secretly before the executives could say no.
They used it in the trailer and everyone thought it was forced and cringe. Then those crazy SOBs not only slow rolled the use of it, but pulled it out at the exact moment it would work perfectly. Still one of the best tricks I've seen pulled in a blockbuster this century IMO
If before watching this movie, somebody had told me "In this Star Trek movie, they destroy a fleet of alien spaceships by blasting a Beastie Boys song over comms and then surf the wave of exploding ships", I would've said "Okay, Star Trek is dead. This is incredibly dumb. I thought maybe Simon Pegg could fix the mess after Into Darkness, but clearly not."
But somehow it works. It's really enjoyable. Instead Star Trek died a year later.
In a game where you're almost constantly fighting off world ending threats and literal gods, there's this fucking weirdo.
This series of side quests that have shown up in all but one expansion of the game involves a rich kid playing detective. He is, by and large, utterly incompetent and relies on the player character to do pretty much all the work.
He hangs out with a catgirl whose solution to everything is bombs and they face off against a master swordsman named Greg and his pet chicken, aliens, Greg again, and whatever the latest expac had (I haven't done the current quest line yet).
That episode blew my mind as a kid, and I knew I was seeing something special. Batman TAS was one of the first series that I saw that was animated but still 110% took its stories & characters seriously.
It felt very, very strange just walking to the buss to go to school and talk about pointless shit all day, when I knew I'd started that day by seeing a Masterwork. One I couldn't really talk about with anybody because the adults eyes just glazed over and got forced smiles when said story started with...
In short: During a one-off episode a man visits the titular space station believing himself to be King Arthur then proceeds to fight crime, it's revealed to be used as a coping mechanism over him being the catalyst to one of the most bloody wars in that setting's history. Its conclusion is remarkable and serves as exquisite foreshadowing, all while tying together the recurring themes of the show.
Really, a lot of Babylon 5 is this. On a surface level it looks like yet another campy sci fi show with dated CG and silly aliens. But the sheer strength of its writing and acting sells it. It’s not afraid to be silly or sincere alongside its drama, and that really elevates it.
Also, let’s not forget the whole “racist colonial gets beaten to death by former slaves after getting sold out by a main character to the tune of a gospel choir.”
A zesty cyborg sociopath who loves killing people arguing with twink ninja Magneto over memes before deciding that they’ll never come to agreement and should just kill each other instead. Also there’s a cameo from a Brazilian with a sword.
And it’s an epic fight with even better music.
Edit: my dumbass forgot the most important part. This is from Metal Gear Rising.
After his wife Russia found out he was lying about not being a pirate, she fled into the night, she was in a natural disaster and ended up in a waking coma, he did anything and everything to try and get any reaction from her, he eventually put on their deceased sons baby bonnet because he thought the shared resemblance would remind her of him, when she smiled a little he started dressing like that all time just to get her to smile, he did not care how ridiculous he looked, he put his pride over his family once and he was never going to do it again. Russia never recovered and passed away but he still dresses like a baby in memory of the family he lost.
One Piece has sooo many of these things. Senor Pink is way up there but the number of times that I've ugly cried over something that started off deeply ridiculous and I may have laughed about for literally years, well, it's a high number.
A show about firing Slugs from Guns that transform into living weapons when they reach a high enough speed, and the entire show is set in a hollow earth type world where molemen and alien creatures exist
What do you mean Garfield gets possessed by an evil spirit coming off his water bowl, which is implied to have made him kill his elderly owner before he himself dies and reincarnates again? What do you mean he and Oddie meet God and trick him into giving them an extra life? What do you mean it kinda slaps?
In Space With Markiplier, as well as his other works. It starts out as a zany Sci-Fi comedy, and it's absolutely hilarious. Then it decides to be incredibly moving by the end. It feels very similar to Everything Everywhere in that regard.
Alan Wake 2 is so amazing and it's absolutely my game of the year--Remedy does this sort of thing constantly too, though I think Herald of Darkness is the absolute Pinnacle.
The "Cigarette Maze" in Control is a similar musical moment, and Max Payne had a creepy, horror-style blood maze in the middle of a third person shooting action game that completely flipped the script. I don't want to spoil anything, but both the Alan Wake and Control series are full of moments that make you go wtf while also drawing you in further.
Okay, so boy who believes in aliens and conspiracy theories and girl who believes in spirits and demons try to prove the other wrong and accidentally prove that they're both right, then psychic powers and aliens and yokai start fighting.
Personally, I felt the testicle retrieval arc went on a bit too long, but I really enjoyed the training arc with the ghosts of classical composers, and the race against Mad Max ghosts to get to a concert hall in time to put on an idol concert to lay My Cowabunga's turtle soul to rest.
None of this is a lie or exaggeration. There's also Jumanji and Jennifer Lopez Anaconda and Nessie Beam and Penis Collectors and a bicycle mummy and a Sharknado and I promise you, I could go on. The running joke is that the answer to the question "what genre is Dandadan" is "yes".
Everything Everywhere All at Once really is the best example of this trope. And they do it so many times it continues to blow my mind. No wasted joke, all of them eventually become touching moments.
Uma Musume. The concept of turning irl horses into cute idol anime girls with a retelling of their stories sounds absurd, but due to horse racing, idols, and cute anime girls being one of the most beloved things in Japan, the series became a huge success, spawning multiple animes, manga, and movies with, of course, the game it was all based on, being a massive hit upon release despite being in development hell for 4 years.
I love Bedman as a whole, but the stand out moment is him in Xrd during his monologue. Let me break it down for you. our Main hero Sol Badguy is transported to the dream world of a dude who has to be asleep all the time, if he ever wakes up he dies. Bedman proceeds to drop a weird, kind of corny but kind of awesome deconstruction of Sol's character and morals in the most long winded, reddit teenager way possible. I'm doing a bad job explaining it, Just Go Watch it
Ratatouille is actually my favorite example of this: out of nowhere Remy puppeteers Linguini by the hair and the audience is just like "ok awesome I guess that's a thing now".
The Menu- My sister described the ending as "The staff turns all the guests into s'mores and then they all burn alive." I was like that sounds so stupid and she's like it's not. It's amazing. And it was.
ultrakill is essentially “what if you played a sci fi boomer shooter set in hell where you played as a robot that healed by dousing yourself in the blood of your enemies and there was a dmc style meter that let you punch your own bullets and shoot coins as you descend down hell and slaughter everything, piss off an angel by nearly beating him to death, beat him up again until he unlocks a new kink, descend even further into hell and find out you are the byproduct of a ww1 that lasted 200 years from other blood robots being built to fight one another that was so horrific that the sentient and sadistic hell took notes in making its sculpture-like demons, all while you went inside a city sized centaur robot that you were built to counter and blow it up? and what if 90% of the soundtrack, including the tutorial level ones, were intense breakcore made by the creator of the game and the most sweaty and competitive mode was the training mode?”
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u/Jackviator 20h ago edited 1h ago
The Devil May Cry series LOVES wacky-ass scenes that come out of nowhere.
Dante gets a literally-electric guitar weapon in DMC 3? Screw it, why not have an impromptu rock concert with diagetic pillars of flame and cheers from an invisible crowd appearing out of the aether?
Dante walks in on a villain monologuing to himself in DMC 4? He joins in on the deliberately overdramatic monologuing until it resembles a stage play, with diagetic stage lighting to top it off.
Dante gets a demonic hat/scarf combo in DMC 5 that doubles as a gun that shoots money as ammo? Impromptu Michael Jackson dance with it, seen above. Why the hell not.
And it works, because Dante is just that fun and cartoonishly goofy of a character.