Now that I've settled that bit of business...
Folks, I gotta say that while I've only seen a few episodes (due to inopportune timing and currently being preoccupied with obtaining as many Friendship is Magic and Homestuck videos as I can) of Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated, I've read a lot about it and I'm really quite fond of the show.
To most people, reimagining an old show's concept for modern times sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, and there are plenty of times this proves to be the case. But there are exceptions...
Which the thousand thousands of the brony community can back me up on.
Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated is a good example of this, my favorite feature of it being how they use actual storylines in this series; hell, it even explains why people think dressing up in costumes in the best way to commit crimes.
No, Cthulhu didn't do it...close though.
It turns out that beneath, the cursed treasure the main villain (an insane parrot who fancies himself the lovechild of Professor Moriarty and David Xanatos if it was raised by Frank Fontaine) is after happens to have housed a crystal sarcophagus that was, in turn, housing an eldirch horror who used what little psychic powers it had to make people think that in Crystal Cove (where the series takes place) the best wayt to commit crimes was by pretending to be a monster of some sort.The reason it did this was also to lure in mystery solving groups with a very specific member layout (a strong leader, a beautiful person, a shorter person with great intelligence, a skinny coward (albiet lovable) usually with a beard of some sort, and a talking animal. This specific type of group was the only kind that could free him.
These type of groups had actually been around for centuries and gone through many kinds of incarnations which I found as a lovely shout out to a certain comic.
No matter what though, all of these groups would often fall at the hands of a disk that served as a sort of treasure map to the beast's lair, at least until the current incarnation finally managed to destroy him for good.
Believe it or not, he isn't into tentacle rape.
Now after killing him, Mystery Inc. found themselves in a new timeline where he didn't exist and pretty much everyone affected by him and his powers had found, at least in those seen, a better life.Now this is where I bring up the reason I made this post; I suspect that this show may have been more than a stealth prequel, and a sort of animated adaption...of Bioshock Infinite.
Gaze upon a man badass enough to bitchslap Chuck Norris!
Now why would I have this opinion? First off, the endings are really quite similar; in Mystery Incorporated the heroes create a new timeline by killing the evil enity that caused all their troubles. In Bioshock Infinite the same thing happens, only to Booker Dewitt instead (because he and the main villain were the same person, this being necessary to prevent the alternate universes where he became Comstock from ever existing.)
I can think of a lot of dudes who'd love to see this...in a diferent context...and setting.
Another similarity is because of a similar theme with how events happen, specifically how in Bioshock Infinite, (as our cosmically powered cutie Elizabeth says) no matter what universe "there's always a man, always a lighthouse, always a city" and that all of Booker's lives lead to this same conclusion.Essentially she means every possible Bioshock game made..ever, and that Booker Dewitt is probably an analogue of Jack from the first Bioshock.
Who the fuck needs so many lighthouses?
Similarly, Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated gives a similar portrayal to the mystery solving groups that have existed throughout the countless centuries. Each one has a similar construct and aside from theme (or genders in two cases) is essentially the same, being a bit similar to the above mentioned Multiverse construct.
Anyone for steampunk?
With both these in mind, I'd like to bring up a final point...the third thing these two epic works of fiction have in common is how they both deconstruct concepts. Mystery Incorporated deconstructs the concept of Scooby Doo quite thoroughly, while Bioshock Infinite does it to extremism in general.There are however several quite obvious differences between both of them though, such as how (unlike Biohock Infinite) we know what happened for sure in the new timeline in Mystery Incorporated. Plus the finale for the show was released only a few days after Bioshock Infinite was released, so it's quite clear that these similarities were probably unintentional since they likely planned this out for a long time in advance.
On the whole though, I'll still keep my view of these two great works. I like the idea a lot and can't really see any real homages to Bioshock on this scale (intentional or otherwise.)
As we close however, I'd like to add that both stories would be been much more epic if these jokers were enemies in some way or form...
The main reason I liked Smoking Aces
Now then, while my Red Lanterns review is nearly done, I wouldn't mind if any suggestions on what you'd like me to write about were posted in the comments. Suggest whatever you want, and if either A I'm intriqued enough to use it or B enough people want to see it; I will write about it (provided it applies to fiction and doesn't involve Garth Ennis.)Bye-bye!
No comments:
Post a Comment