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Forum namePass The Popcorn
Topic subjectCheck my post #157.
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=6&topic_id=711055&mesg_id=715822
715822, Check my post #157.
Posted by wallysmith, Wed Sep-21-16 04:52 PM
I was already mostly in agreement with imcvspl's post #170. You were the one that (initially) disagreed with him, so that's when I replied to you.

Fine, screw the "plucky", but all those examples I cited are different takes on the "protagonist takes on evil corporation" theme. We can debate semantics on just how similar/dissimilar they specifically are to Mr Robot, but at the end of the day they all portray a similar theme.

> Imcvspl is saying that everything is controlled by corpoterrorist and a totalitarian state ala 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale. In both those books and some others, it's done well, was fresh, and the end of Handmaid's is actually hella unique. But if corpototalitarianism is what THIS show becomes I'm going to find it boring/cop out ish

Honest question, what did you think E Corp was when you first started watching? Mr Robot portrays E Corp as basically Goldman Sachs, Apple and Google all rolled into one. They control the financial sector, hardware, software and who knows what else. I'm really baffled that the theme of "corpototalitarianism" is taking you by surprise because they kinda hammered you over the head with it from the very beginning. Elliot sees and hears "Evil Corp" everywhere for a reason, right?

> What you are talking about has been done to death as well. But what was fresh for me where these things: one, the major flaw in the savior character having mental illness. Two that the rebellion was actually successful. And three that they were inhabiting a "post-apocalypse" landscape that hadn't gone to shit.

Right. Check post #157, I already specifically mentioned that stuff:

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"The "post-apocalypse" premise has been explored ad nauseum in so much media but never in this fashion. Fight Club ended with the credit card buildings going down. Mad Max is a post-war world, not post-data. There are a lot of neat little nuggets in Mr Robot that show how this world develops. I loved that brief little scene where Elliot was walking through that daily swap meet, and you get glimpses of what, basically, is a reversion to the barter system."
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Sure, I agree with your three points. Those are all elements of great storytelling. Not sure how that's relevant to the original discussion though.

What I find interesting is that you initially disagreed with imcvspl's post #170, by calling it potentially "boring". You changed your mind when he expounded in post #179. What you failed to see is that I already touched upon a number of his points already in post #157:

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"And the scene that absolutely blew my mind last night was Price's proposal for government support of ECoin. Everything is coming together now. If you control the currency, you control the world. There's a reason why the US Dollar is a safe haven currency and if Price can supplant the dollar with ECoin... it's stunning the amount of power he will wield. This is why Price was so resistant to stepping down, how he was able to leverage a two TRILLION loan (INTEREST FREE) from the Chinese... and why Jack Lew agreed to let E Corp issue ECoin loans.

It's such a refreshing, nuanced take on the "supervillain" and I am thoroughly impressed. Why? Because it all makes sense. The world's superpower cannot continue on a paper currency forever, Bitcoin is the wild west and E Corp is the pinnacle of "too big to fail".
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There's more in that post too. Seriously, maybe you should read it.