We finally gave in to temptation and just started chatting about Star Wars. For our Patreon video we were talking about the idea of pivotal pop-cultural landmarks that changed the cultural landscape in various ways. Star Wars definitely qualifies… but instead of finding other examples we just decided to indulge in a Star Wars only cast. We didn't do more than scratch the surface unfortunately though. It's a cool cultural phenomena and it's something we always refer back to when we talk about story structure. SO please bear with us as we indulge!

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Arkin Blade - twiddling strings on the guitar, soft repeating percussive notes on a xylophone, building a soundscape, layer upon layer till they’re joined by a spiky electric guitar with the promise of violence.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Extract from Holt's Mars, Performed by the USAF Heritage of America Band.

Featured comic:
The Ballad of Bill - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/apr/18/featured-comic-the-ballad-of-bill/

Featured music:
Arkin Blade - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Arkin_Blade/ - by GuyPercinn, rated T

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/

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- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

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What rights are people actually entitled to? That question is a lot bigger than you think!
The Quackcast today is sequel to last week's about entitled people, this one is about actual entitlements- what people SHOULD be entitled to. i.e. rights and such. It's a topic that Banes and Tantz really wanted to do and my purpose was to link it to writing and comics (not just theory and politics), which I think I did ok. This topic turned out to be very interesting.

Why are entitlements important? Well they inform the basic structure of any relationship between two people and any imbalance in the entitlements actually received VS those that are given is cause for conflict. At a societal level the community should all expect basic rights, if those break down or are removed this can have a shocking, drastic effect- as in Maus, A Handmaid's Tale, or Persepolis.

A red flag for bad writing is when the creator doesn't understand that people in a society have basic rights, as in something like the Deathwish, or Dirty Harry franchises- those are exciting rightwing revenge films but the worlds they depict feel totally “off” and not right somehow, as in a fantasy, because people's basic rights in those movies are suspended at will. The only way they make sense is if you see them as tales by an unreliable narrator; i.e. this is the world as the protagonist sees it, a serial killer perspective.

Different sorts of worlds have different kinds of entitlements based on their structure. Fahrenheit 451 or Logan's Run depict worlds bizarre to us because they're built very differently, one around the criminalisation of recorded knowledge and wisdom, and the other based on extreme ageism, but they are believable and make sense because people have rights and entitlements within those worlds.
Superhero worlds rarely address this aspect of story, what happens to people's entitlements when there are those who have the power of a god? What would happen to the insurance industry? To rescue workers? To the legal profession?

Banes took this topic right down to the ant's eye view:
What to do if you're being bullied at work, or school? What to do when someone's being rude. When someone embarrasses you, or tries to embarrass you, or belittles you? What to do in a disagreement? What are your entitlements in those situations? All that describes the seeds of conflict and suggest action needed to address that conflict


This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Guardians of Man - CHA-CHa-Cha-cha… serial killer, slasher music sounds.Echoing reverb on isolated percussion and creepy electronic, scene setting sounds all weave together to create this unsettling landscape of terror. THE KILLER IS BEHIND YOU!

Topics and shownotes

Links


Featured comic:
Gamma Blue Smoldering of Creel - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/apr/11/featured-comic-gamma-blue-smoldering-of-creel/

Featured music:
Guardians of Man - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Guardians_of_Man/ - by Gumshoecomix, rated M.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

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The Quackcast this week is about entitled bossy Karens. In fact it was originally going to BE “the Karencast” but the whole “Karen” thing is a bit sexist and pejorative. So why a Quackcast on overly entitled people then? Well aside from we stealing it from Tantz's newspost on Friday, those kinds of people make great minor villain characters. They can be comic relief baddies but they can also be deceptively dangerous when they really DO have connections to back up their arrogance!

We also talk about how human nature is often like a fractal, in that these patterns repeat at all sorts of different scales. In the case of the entitled you can see this in children's behavior, adults, corporations, and even entire countries. Tantz has an extensive background is psychology so she thinks a lot about this stuff! It was a good talk. If you're a Patron of ours, on this week's video we talk about the upcoming 2023 DD Awards and the new DD Anthology, and also a bonus minnie-Quackcast where we talk about the tragedy of comedians becoming serious actors, The Eternals and Dr Strange 2.

This week Gunwallace was too sick to do a Quackcast so I picked an old fave: the theme to Customer Service - slow, steady, cool. Dim the lights and slow dance to this gro0ve. Black satin sheets, sophistication, late night, let those clothes slip to the floor and get a little skin to skin contact.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Taken from Tantz's Newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/apr/07/a-sense-of-entitlement/

Featured comic:
Night Lights and Dark Places - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/apr/04/featured-comic-night-lights-and-dark-places/

Featured music:
Customer Service - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Customer_Service/ - by Synwells, rated T.


Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Have you ever watched a series devotedly then lost touch with it for some reason for a while and then gone back to it a couple of years later and tried to get into again but this time you look at it with a very different perspective? Or maybe you loved a movie when you were young and decided to watch it again as an adult to see if it holds up?

Reevaluation can be quite interesting! You see stuff with new eyes. Sometimes it holds up fine, sometimes you see new things and appreciate it in a whole new way, and sometimes you just see it as trash…

One example I give in the Quackcast was Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, those two Arnold Schwarzenegger fantasy movies from the 80s. When I first saw Conan the Barbarian as a kid I thought it was trash; it was dark, overly sexy, gory, stodgy, way too serious, had clunky effects, it was just too slow and the climactic scene wasn't satisfying. When I first saw Conan the Destroyer I loved it; it was brash, bold, exaggerated, fun, funny, completely over the top, and the ending was amazing. However watching them both as an adult I saw them very differently, I saw Conan the Barbarian as a clever and beautifully told story, almost an opera with a rumination on nihilism and Nietzsche with many interesting themes and an absolutely perfect ending, while Conan the Destroyer is completely silly and cartoonish with no themes, just whacky foolishness with some good fight scenes and Grace Jones.

Do things hold up when you revisit them? Do you change your opinions, or does nostalgia protect you against seeing them with new eyes?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Blank Galaxy - A pastel pink and white star field. A void, void of detail… quickly invaded by throbbing pixels glowing brightly and filling the world with scintillating detail. This is a pulsing, trancy, electronica sound.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Inspired by Em's newspost here - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/mar/30/crazy-ex-girlfriend-uses-genre-tropes-against-you/

Featured comic:
Guardians of Man - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/mar/28/featured-comic-guardians-of-man/

Featured music:
Blank Galaxy - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Blank_Galaxy/ - by EA_Espino_Comics, rated T.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS