So the recent Death Battle has tried to make a snide jab at the DCEU saying that DC has abandoned it which is both completely unfounded and also reeks of their sheer lack of professionalism.
So there's two things to consider here: let us consider the factual nature of the statement first. This is not the case and very easily demonstrable.
Let's go over the very basics first. DC Comics if you look at their official website advertises Birds of Prey almost immediatly. Birds of Prey is the official 8th film in the DCEU and a spin off to the third film Suicide Squad. This is at the same time they are negotiating contracts with the main actors of the DCEU and are producing a novelization of the WW1984 film. What I'm trying to say is, DC cares a lot about their films.
The big controversy with Justice League was that Synder was taken off mid-production and Whedon was put on mid-production. This was done mostly due to scare tactics influencing DC higher ups. If DC didn't care about that, they wouldn't have done anything.
Also DC has a continual to make more films. Regardless of your feelings towards their quality, they actually made a combined $1,600,000,000 when the closest rival MCU in their first five films made $1,300,000,000 adjusted for inflation despite far nicer treatment from critics. Point being it's very profitable, especially given the amount of recent DCEU merchandise that DC and Warner Bros wants to sell.
This is clearly not factual.
More importantly it's so petty and unprofessional. I don't like Protege or Synnar yet I didn't mention anything about that when I made a death prediction with those characters. It's a juvilne tactic to create relatability that doens't address the poitns you are trying to talk about.
And the thing is, this isn't the first time DB has done this. I think back to Ragna vs Sol where they burn the script to BlazBlue because they couldn't understand it. Like regardless of what you feel about a series quality, why should that matter when trying to talk about it's nature in a versus debate. The very first thing that a person should learn in a versus debate is that this is not a contest of popularity, how good a series is, doesn't matter. You are just trying to figure out who would win, not which character people want to win.
I may watch more DB eps via secondary sources but I'm not watching it directly from them anymore because this is a pattern of behavior, an unwillingness to act mature about a debate. Yes the debate topic is juvenile, who'd win in a fight. But in a debate you try and elevate the debate I feel instead of making childish jabs.
I like you Imp, but I feel you're being unfair to DB in this case.
ReplyDeleteFor starters, it was just a joke. We don't actually know how Wiz and Boomstick actually feel because they're not the ones writing the show. Just like with the Ragna example you gave, that wasn't actually their opinions because they've never actually played Blazblue, and the episode wasn't even written by them or the research team. It was written by Nick, whose only seen the anime (Which according to even Blazblue fans is terrible, so I feel okay making fun of it). Hell, there are numerous occasions in which a joke an episode makes doesn't match the opinions of the DB researchers, so why are you lumping the entire show in with this when it isn't even their fault? That seems really unfair to me to refuse to watch an entire show because it's acting inappropriately for a debate, when you've never even had a debate with anyone involved with the show to begin with.
Allow me to start this reply by pointing ou this post does not once mention Wiz and Boomstick. This is not a targeted criticism on any persons, this is a criticisim of a series for acting unprofessionally.
DeleteYes it is a "joke" but that doesn't matter to me for a few reasons. First of all, this is a consistent standard for me. I've dropped numerous channels and series for making anti DCEU jokes because that is usually the fight sign they are going to make numerous statements that I find incredibly strongly disagreeable. The DCEU is an important series to me and criticism of it that I don't find vested in reality, particullary ones that are VERY clearly not vested in reality, even as jokes, suggest to me the person is allowing their bias to affect their judgement.
I can't comment on BlazBlue since I don't know anything about it and I'm going on second hand information but if someone says something that is clearly wrong disparaging something they don't like, even if it's supposed to be humorous it suggests they are not trying to be objecive when objecivity paramount to trying to find the truth of a matter.
All of this probably sounds pretty high-minded and probably snobby so let me try and pull this back to reality. Death Battle is a series. I don't have any way of showing my approval or disapproval save for writing blogs like this one and with my views, right? Not viewing is my way of showing disapproval. I'm sorry you don't like that I disapprove, but in such a binary system it seems to me perfectly "fair" to not watch to signal, in some microscopic way they are never gonna notice anyway, that this is something I consider wrong.
You say I'm lumping the entire show in, but the problem is I can't just watch the parts written by one person. I only have a binary way of accessing the show, watching it or not watching it. I can't just not watch the parts written by the people who made that joke because A: I don't know who did and B: that would be a nonsensical way of viewing that wouldn't demonstate anything.
Your last part I must admit somewhat confuses me. I don't see why it's relevant I've never debated them to think the conduct on display was unprofessional and speaks to a lack of ability to act unbiased, but even if that was the case I don't know why someone working for Death Battle would want to debate ME. I'm just some blogger giving my thoughts on usually versus topics. If they wanted too, I'd be to do so whether on vs conduct or on an actual matchup. I like to debate vs in general.
I hope this response does not sound patronizing. I appreciate the feedback. However I don't believe I'm being unfair. I think making a blatantly wrong joke against something you don't like is unprofessional and I strongly dislike it, and because my only involving with Death Battle is watching it, my
only way of showing disapproval is not watching. I'm not trying to single out anyone. Ben and Chad consistently hold that Wiz and Boomstick are characters so obviously I don't hold them accountable for what they say personally. However I can hold a show accountable for lines said in it's script. Oherwise there is no way to judge a show.
Oh no, don't worry. You never came across as patronizing. I'm just trying to understand you better, that's all. I'm just confused as to why someone can watch Death Battle's earlier episodes and not regard them as unprofessional, but then drop the series because of an episode which was otherwise spot-on with it's reasoning. Basically, how come you didn't drop the series earlier, when I actually felt it was unprofessional as opposed to Miles vs Static? An episode which, for the most part, was spot-on with it's verdict and reasoning. At least, for me anyway. Sorry for not explaining it better, I just wasn't quite sure how to put my feelings into words at first.
ReplyDeletePart 1 because blogger has character limit
DeleteThank you for taking my comment in the way it was intended. I was worried it would condescending.
I guess the problem is 4-fold here. In order from least to most problematic for me
A: I am realy tired of the DCEU, a series I love dearly to the point that I legit think of it as something that has changed my life for the better being constantly attacked and derided. The DCEU has always had a lot of support. Man of Steel may habe been incredibly controversial but it was still extremely popular with some people. This trend has continued with every DCEU film so far, save arguably the Whedon Cut of Justice League. It's really annoying in my DCEU community this kind of thing because if you hate it so much why don't you just stop paying attention to it? Let me be VERY clear, this is in no way the primary reason, this is just the least important point.
B: I hate this kind of joke. This kind of "let me throw an unrelated attack or criticism of something completely unrelated." If you read my death predictions I don't think I ever reference any series except the two I'm talking about (unless the series itself references another series) and certainly randomly disparage something else I don't like.
C: This is supposed to be a factual claim. Things like saying power scaling doens't work in Goku vs Superman 1 and 2 are like subjective stuff that nobody can really prove way or the other, though accepting one side seems to create absurdity. But this is a supposed claim to something objective and it's so easily debunked. This is something you can debunk in 30 seconds. If you're not going to do that much effort then that casts a really poor light into how much effort you put into your work. Yeah it's a joke, but a joke is supposed to be funny because it reflects reality in some way, outside arguably absurdism. This is a joke that suggests the person writing it didn't do really basic research and that to me is a pretty big problem. It would be akin to saying that a clearly untrue fact about a character like saying Goku came from Namek.
D: You are right I am probably nicer on older episodes but that is because they are older episodes. I made my first death prediction during season 2 and I'd like to think I've improved since then. This is season 7 of Death Battle, 2020. I'd have hoped they would have stopped doing this by now.
Part 2
DeleteAnd sure it would be an overreaction to go from someone eagerly awaiting each episode, who buys all their mechandise etc. to someone who constantly badmouths them but that's not the change for me. I don't talk about it much to not hurt the feelings of my friends affiliated with DB but I watch most Death Battle episodes once maybe a week after it's come out. All that has changed for me is I'm not going to care about it enough to eventually watch it which I don't think is strong reaction to "They still haven't gotten professional about this? They're still making clearly wrong claims?"
Maybe I'm being too harsh in a sense that I'm throwing the baby out with the bathwater but I was never a huge fan of Death Battle. This isn't a critique on Ben, Chad or the Writers of Death Battle mind you, this is moreso a critique on usin the video format to create a full vs series. I know the DB Team is obviously limited in time, both in how long they have to make each episode and how long an episode can be but the result is that most episodes don't include all the information and their fights lack much tactical depth or interesting fight dynamics. I'm not blaming them for not miraculously rising over the limitations of their medium but that doesn't mean I'm enthusiastic to watch it.
This is especially true because I don't care about most matchups they do. Death Battle almost never uses a series I personally care about outside of DC, and they use the parts of DC I am not invested in. I have a list of the 32 series I am really invested in and since season 3, outside DC they have used 1 (Yu Yu Hakusho) using a character I am not that interested in (Hiei) in an episode I didn't think was that good. I wasn't very interested in DB before and I'm not now with the only difference being I am probably not going to evenually watch it as I just don't care enough anymore.
I hardly think DB cares about one person leaving. Comments on the latest ep were far more negative about the new animation which I imagine is causing far more concern then any possible concern about some small blogger not watching anymore.
Ah, so you were never really a watcher of the show to begin with. Alright, that makes much more sense. Apologies for the misunderstanding, and for making you type your lengthy explanations. Take care, Imp!
DeleteNP. I narcissisically enjoy explaining my own opinions and thoughts :P Glad you seem to understand better now.
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