Sunday 18 February 2024

What is Poppy Playtime?



The titular character, Poppy the Living Doll

Poppy Playtime is a horror video game series that, for some reason, is popular among children. It consists on 3 chapters telling the story of an evil toy factory owned by the corporation Playtime CO. The factory has been abandoned after the disappearance of all the workers, and the player character, a former employee, decides to find out what happened to them. 

Poppy Playtime is a mascot horror game, games characterized because the player character is persecuted by a menacing mascot which was aimed towards children for some time before its corruption. Most of this games involve an evil corporation infusing people's souls into the mascots who then become aggressive and deadly.

Poppy Playtime and its characters are extremely popular and I think parents should know what this game is all about. 

The Lore

The story of the game is not resolved yet because the series has not ended. But here we will write about what we know. 

Playtime Co was a famous toy factory that was heavily involved in dodgy charity projects for orphans. It's founder, Elliot Ludwig, had a personal tragedy that greatly affected him: his daughter died. 

It seems that Elliot became obsessed with resurrecting people and so began experiments within his factory. He was interested on transhumanism and wanted to artificially expand the human life. 

One of the notes which we find referencing this experiments suggest doing experiments with poppy flowers and rats, suggesting to expand the experimentation to larger subjects. 

Throughout the games we realize that they experimented on orphan children, testing their abilities with games and keeping them inside an underground facility called "The Playcare". To cover for this operation, Playtime convinced the employees to adopt the children, but it is doubtful that they actually gave the kids a new family. 

During the gameplay we resolve different puzzles to advance towards the factory, while avoiding evil toys prowling around trying to eat us. This puzzles are solved with a machine called the grab pack, which consist on two mechanical hands capable of extending and conducting electricity.

This toys used to be humans, adults and children alike, but using a still unknown process they were turned into toys. This toys are carnivorous and have the capacity to bleed. Because of the abuse they endured, the toys became resentful towards Playtime. 

Not having a problem with abusing children, Playtime also had extremely careless worker security protocols. In a spin-off from the other games, Project Playtime, workers are constantly threatened by the larger toys. 

It is revealed in Chapter 3 that all employees (innocent and guilty) were executed by the living toys during an event known as "The Hour of Joy". This event was orchestrated by the Prototype, some sort of evil amalgamation of toys and who is the main antagonist of the series. The Prototype leads some sort of cult and kills the toys who resist his mandates, feeding them to the others. It seems that the Prototype was commanding both parties all along, but nothing has been confirmed. 

The Characters

Huggy Wuggy is the most popular character. If your child has asked you for an ugly, elmo-like blue-haired humanoid doll with enormous teeth, this is Huggy Wuggy. He doesn't speak and it's extremely aggressive. He appears on Poppy Playtime 1, and dies after falling from a great height and hitting his head with a pipe.   

Kissy Missy looks like Huggy Wuggy, but she is pink and friendly. She was involved in The Hour of Joy but seems to have changed her ways.

Poppy Playtime is a creepy but sweet doll with red hair and blue eyes. During her commercial, the company creepily suggests that Poppy is alive. Poppy has been rumored to be Ludwig's daughter, now trapped into this creepy and mysterious doll. She helps the player character to finish the second and third game, introducing him to the factory and asking for his help to defeat the Prototype. 

Mommy Long Legs is the main antagonist for the second game. She torments the player with multiple infantile games where if you lose you die. Whether is being smashed by a plush rabbit with cymbals or swallowed by mini huggy wuggies or a caterpillar pug, Mommy Long Legs will either annoy you or terrify you, depending on your age.  

Catnap is the antagonist for Poppy Playtime chapter 3. He is a giant skinny purple cat that releases a gas that drugs people, causing them  sleep and hallucinations. He haunted the children with the gas, and may be seen as a pale skeletal figure with reptilian legs and his jaw hanging extremely low

It seems that this cat is all about heroin, but I could be wrong. Poppy flowers are commonly found around the game and are associated with the experiments. 

Catnap worships the Prototype, because the entity saved his life once. However, this doesn't stop the amalgamation from killing Catnap by piercing his skull with his hands, when he fails to kill the player character. 

Boxy Boo is one of the characters of Project Playtime. He is a box with a reptilian face and springs with hands as feet as his extremities. He swallows people. 

The Smiling Critters are a plushie collection that releases scents. The player character is swarmed by these carnivores in chapter 3; their larger cousins are decimated by Catnap.

Other characters include Bron, Bunzo Bunny, Pugapillar, Daisy, Catbee and Candy Cat; these are usually found dead around the factory.

Violence and Sex? 

Despite being a horror game, Poppy Playtime has no brothels, no naked people, no swear words, no references to obscure sexual activities and no prostitutes, unlike many of the games I was familiar with as a kid. 

The violence, on the other hand, is something different. Originally, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 were quite tame with it. There were bloody toys and Mommy Long Legs dies swallowed by a meat grinder, but now things are getting heavy with Chapter 3. On the premises you can find bloody corpses of toys everywhere, sometimes hanging from strings like if this were a butcher house. Dark CGI videos imitating old VFX tapes are released as trailers or found within the facility. 

Chapter 3 is way darker than any of the other games and is not afraid of showing the depressing side of the story. This is about mistreated children, mistreated carnivorous toys, and insultingly evil behavior. 

A toy dog named Dogday (very cute, by the way) is slowly being eaten by other plushies. His legs are missing and ripped, fleshy cloth covered in blood hangs from him. As he dies, he tells the player character those who rebel against Prototype meet similar fates. Dogday is eventually infested by hungry plushies who devour his insides. He dies and his skin is used by the critters to hunt the player character.

Another being is a toy teacher at the Playcare school, Ms. Delight. She and her sisters were trapped in there, and eventually succumbed to cannibalism. She walks around holding a ruler with spiky pencils as a mace, and part of her face is missing. 

Yes, all very palatable for little brains. 

The Most Concerning Issues

For me the most concerning thing would be the fact that the toys are given life, because only God can give life. We will speak more about this in a future post, when the series is finished and we see exactly how it is that the toys are alive.  

While I recognize conflict and violence are an important part of our existence, I believe violence in video games should be limited, for while we may recur to it in cases of necessity, endlessly indulging in gory content will have negative effects on the mental health, specially on the mental health of children, who are impressionable and easy to scare. 

On the other hand, I would like to warn parents that there are many fetish videos out there including the titular characters, especially Huggy Wuggy and those akin to him. This are fan-made and unrelated to the main video game, and arguably more harmful than the game itself. 

Fortunately, none of this games is free and children can't just discharge them without their parents. They can, however, see the game in Youtube, where multiple people film themselves playing Poppy and anyone can access their videos. 

However, I do not want parents to panic, just to be aware that Poppy Playtime exists and some people seem to be very interested on having your children playing this game and buying it's merchandise. 

All that is needed is a close connection to them and a correct vigilance. 

Tuesday 6 February 2024

What is Five Nights at Freddy's?


Five Nights at Freddy's is a video game series which is extremely popular. Despite being a horror game, Five Nights at Freddy's is somehow popular among children... 

I would say form my own experience, that some children are not afraid or disgusted by the violence or creepiness of other games aimed at older audiences. However, this is not the case with all children. Everyone is different and can take different levels of terror. And even if it does not scare or repulse them, it may still have negative effects. 

I don't find the game particularly scary, but just because some random adult in the internet isn't afraid of this game doesn't mean a child couldn't be traumatized by it. 

I am writing this article so you can be informed about what this games are all about. 

FNAF Examined

Five Nights At Freddy's is a game about haunted animatronics roaming at night in a pizzeria. The player is a security guard tasked with protecting himself from the creatures for 5 nights, hence the title. This things can either bite your forehead off or stuff you to death inside an animatronic suit. 

Some of this videogames have cryptic minigames where the dark story behind the pizzeria is told.

This is a list of most of the games released. 

Five Nights At Freddy's 1 and 2. In all this games our player character is guarding the pizzeria at night, trying to survive the animatronics

FNAF 3 is about monitoring the pizzeria after it has been abandoned. The main antagonist is a zombie man on a bunny suit. and unlike the other animatronics, he is viciously evil. In my opinion, this would be the 2nd scariest game.

In Five Nights at Freddy's 4 you play as a little kid hiding from nightmarish animatronics in his bedroom. He is being viciously bullied by his older brother and eventually he dies after an accident caused by them involving an animatronic. FNAF 4 is, in my opinion, the darkest game. 

Five Nights at Freddy's Sister Location. This game is like the others, but with more variety on it's puzzles. Sister Location would be, in my opinion, the 3rd scariest game. 

Five Nights at Freddy's Pizzeria Simulator. Just like the others, but now you can also pretend you are the pizzeria owner. 

Five Nights at Freddy's Ultimate Custom Night. This game is just like the others, but the player can choose which animatronics he will have to face.

Five Nights at Freddy's Help Wanted and Help Wanted 2 This two are VR experiences. 

Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach. In this game, you are an orphan trapped inside a huge pizzeria mall trying to survive sketchy robot animatronics and a mysterious security guard. This game has a little game within it called Ruin, where this orphan´s friend goes to rescue him after the destruction of the mall.  

We also have Curse of Dreadbear which is a Halloween special and multiple other games made by fans under the permission of FNAF's designer, Scott Cawthon. Some of this games are more frightening than the original game, (I would mention Oblitus Casa & The Joy of Creation;) others are not.  

A Model of the Zombie Bunny from FNAF 3, Springtrap

The Lore

This video games don't have swear words, sex, whores or drugs, but the lore is theologically inaccurate and definitely not for little children. 

The background story has been decoded by multiple youtubers and it goes like this: William Afton was the owner of a pizzeria with large animal animatronics. One day, his youngest son (the FNAF 4 kid) was crushed by a golden bear animatronic after a bad joke. William Afton is a sociopath and this accident triggers him to kill children and stuff their corpses in the company's animatronics.  

Because the plot says so, this animatronics became possessed by the dead children and started behaving violently. One of them bit a child in 1987, which triggered the descent of the company. Persecuted by the vengeful souls of the children, William Afton hid on a rabbit animatronic, (the one from FNAF 3) but there was an accident with the mechanisms and he was impaled as the ghosts looked on. 

Afton was some sort of alchemist, and was able to extract something from the souls of the children that would allow him to keep himself alive (adrenochrome?). This guy becomes undead and haunts the players, boasting that he is always coming back. 

It seems that this guy will never stop prowling around, just like other horror franchises like Elm Street and Chucky where the villain never dies and keeps surviving (or resurrecting) by the power of the franchise. However, there are hints that despite bing undead he is being punished for his crimes. 

Some Relevant Characters 

William Afton is the serial killer alchemist behind all this. He is represented as a purple pixel art man in the minigames. Springtrap, Burntrap and Glitchtrap are some of the names given to him when he becomes undead and haunts things. The Glitchtrap thing is a computer undead monster that hacks the Security Breach robots and makes them evil.  

The Puppet is a soul-scarring being with a ghostly face. It was never a kid, but a robot who saw one of the murders. 

Circus Baby is the extremely annoying antagonist of Sister Location. She is Afton's daughter, accidentally killed when one of Afton's killer machines entered in contact with her. Circus Baby blathers multiple stupidities during the game and eventually tricks the playing character into the "scooping room" and kills him. 

The Mimic is an animatronic that is not possessed; he learned his violence by mimicking Afton. 

Chica and Roxy are some of the female animatronics. Chica is a chicken and Roxy is a wolf. The reason I mention them is because some people have sexualized them. Here they are, so you can recognize them and their multiple versions: 




Freddy, Foxy and Bonnie, who appeared on the first game together with Chica, are titular mascots for the franchise. 

Conclusion

Overall, I can't endorse FNAF fan because of the messed up and theologically incorrect lore, as well as the unnecessary gore in some of the video games. However to be fair I was actually surprised by how tame it was when compared with games like Grand Theft Auto V and Farcry. There are no prostitutes, no swear words, no filming pornography, no references to obscure sexual activities and no missions where you torture people. 

The violence is there but outside of FNAF 3 (where you may be able to glimpse Springtrap's rotting face) and the mini-game Cutscenes this videogames usually don't go too far. But calling this games "family friendly", as some ignoramuses in the media have done, is like calling your local modernist parish an exciting and inspiring place.  

Indeed, some children have been traumatized by playing this games. With so many family friendly games like Mario and Tetris, I don't see why any parent would let their minors enter the world of Fazbear's Pizzeria. It is pretty obvious from the beginning that it wasn't made with children in mind. 

Another problem would be the deviants making FNAF "art" in creepy furry websites like Deviantart and more mainstream domains like Youtube and Instagram; but then let us be fair to FNAF and remember this creeps enjoy perverting shows like My Little Pony and Paw Patrol as well.

I feel FNAF would be acceptable if it was less gory and if the background wasn't so messed up, but unfortunately, this is what we have. 

Sunday 4 February 2024

Subversive Things Pushed by the Establishment

I am not a subversive, and I recognize that. I am against the take-the-vax, say-my-pronouns, ludicrous current establishment of today, but if the establishment were Catholic I would be barely concerned. 

Neither do I believe that the elites are afraid of a revolution against them. People are sufficiently concerned about self-preservation to avoid revolution and live within what has been labelled "conformity", It's on human nature to chose being a part of society rather than treating freedom as the one and only purpose of our life. Plus, a full-blown revolution as dreamed by anarchists would bring about war, which the majority rejects as a greater evil. 

The modern system is powerful enough to stop any insurrection. However, it is power-obsessed enough to use multiple control mechanisms on its favor. Many believe that they are subversive because they engage in behaviors against the natural law and God. but this behaviors offer little resistance to the government, corporations and banks. This things are indeed promoted by the establishment itself, making you feel "edgy" while you are just a pawn on their paws.

In any case, here I present 7 things that the media told you were subversive, but still will make it harder for you to bring down the system. 

1: Drugs

People promise drugs will heighten your perceptions to the level of transcendence, helping you to obtain true freedom in the sense that you will "see the world as it is", uncovered by "illusions". 

But changing your perceptions to the point of dissociating from what you see around you isn't freedom.  

Drugs will destroy you physically and mentally, and in such state of affairs you will not be able to organize against the establishment, nor will you be able to build an off-grid utopia out of society. On the other hand, you are dependent on somebody else to be happy. Drugs like methanphetamine will literally make you incapable of experiencing pleasure outside of them. 

Various gobernors in America and Europe have actively legalized substances, and if private property is succesfully abolished, the addicts will depend on the government to consume their beloved intoxicants. 

Despite the fact that drugs are still forbidden in other countries, there are clues that the establishment actively participates in their production and marketing. 

Multiple rocktard icons and celebrities boast about how drugs make them more creative, and facing few problems from the establishment. Some people have suggested the war in Afghanistan was intended to increase the sales of poppy flowers and opium. On the other hand, we all know how the system promotes migration and the reduction of border security; something that benefits drug dealers. 

2: Sick Sex

All perverts rejoice in making decent people uncomfortable. Some feel their sodomy is a pathway to a greater transgressive enlightenment. 

However, how many of them realize the "homophobes" have less power than the system that defends their activities?

Degeneracy brings about certain health problems (eg; anal cancer, wounds from certain practices we refuse to mention), this will make you dependent and will not let you rebel against the establishment. Same goes for trans surgery, whose infamous "follow ups" and "side effects" may cause medical serfdom for a lifetime. Even if you like these side effects. 

The government makes itself look benevolent by letting the alphabet people do what they want, while in other areas they have no tolerance for dissent. The current elites love degeneracy. We can observe that from their interest in sex trafficking (Jeffrey Epstein), and from their promotion of the sexual rainbow:

1: Corporations making rainbow banners for June

2: The World Economic Forum suggesting there are too little gay characters in movies

3: "Conservatives" saying they believe gay people should be left alone  

4: The ridicule of religions that forbid sodomy. 

5: And of course, "Pope" Francis endorsing hellboy, James Martin SJ

3: Language Relativism

Most people think they are o-so-cool when they deny the very reality in front of their eyes. They say things like "O, nothing is real, nothing can be demonstrated to exist". They are being subversive against common sense, but that's it. How will this make you revolt against anything, anyway? 

When applied to language, it means words have no meaning in themselves and are useless. Every word is what I want it to be, not what it actually is. However, language relativism can easily be used to deceive the masses. You have a recession? Change the definition of recession and thus nobody can claim there is a serious economic problem out there. You can simply change the definition of oppression, so that nobody can accuse you of tyranny, or the definition of revolution so everybody remains at home.

Relativism itself is not a persecuted belief. For example: The TV is full of nihilistic relativism which eventually leads to language relativism. The Matrix Trilogy suggests nothing around us is real because we are controlled by robots. Dr. Strange and the Scarlet Witch can change time and reality as they seem fit. Elon Musk defended the idea that we live in a computer simulation. And the woke movement is full of this attitude as well.  

4: Teen Spirit Mentality

The belief that young people are wiser, more benevolent and more enlightened than their parents will certainly send many families to constant fighting. The youth are encouraged to rebel against mom and dad, grandad and grannie, teachers and the police. Movements in fashion and culture like the Hippies, Punk, Grunge, Greta Thunberg's teen spirit ecology, the Social Justice Warriors, Goth and others are perfect example of this mentality. 

However, you need to remember your mommy is not the leader of Blackrock! By rebelling against her because of a fad you don't really believe in, you are not abolishing the government or the politicians. Multiple cult leaders (eg; Feeneyites, the Apostates of Love) practice separating children from their parents so that they may become more inmersed into the cult. By creating an artifical chasm between parents and children, this fads may cause a family armageddon, in a perfectly deceitful act of divide and conquer. 

Eventually, many men who abandoned the traditional beliefs of their families became the sheep of the establishment. 

I feel that if the teen-spirit movements were actually subversive, the government would have repressed them with more strength. They faced opposition back in the day but eventually managed to get their cake and eat it too. Multiple teen-spirit fads are associated with promoting drugs and degeneracy, which we have seen are not subversive.

5: Rock Musick

Despite its rebellious lyrics, rock music is now a socially accepted musical religion that really can't claim to be directly against the establishment. It is true, however, that some rockstars genuinely attack the system. It is also true that the suspicious deaths of some of them can reasonably suggest they knew too much. 

But we are not talking about individual performers, we are talking about the rock and roll industrial complex. 

What is so edgy about buying records, dancing, listening to music and going to concerts? What is it going to do? Melt down the politicians? Explode the bankers? Convert all the masses in little Thoreau clones? Come on. Most of the lyrics either glorify sex or drugs, and I don't see how this can be so terrible for the establishment. 

Every celebrated rock bands - from The Ramones to Simon & Garfunkel - have been covered by the praise of the world. You can listen to them and consume their merchandise. The Sex Pistols were dedicated a show in Disney +. There are also multiple films aimed at children whose purpose is to glorify rock and the musical industry in general. "Subversive" rockstars like Dave Grohl, Rage Against the Machine and the Rolling Stones now play for the globalist "pope" and endorse vaccine mandates. 

6: Mainstream Feminism

Yes, feminism is rebelling against the "patriarchy" and other  institutions. Femenists engage in  unacceptable behavior like nudity, abortion, contraception, divorce, entitlement and even mistreatment and abuse of males, so they are subversive against common sense and the natural law. 

However, I don't see how feminism can actually destroy the establishment. Corporations benefit from feminism, because they have more employees - and can reduce their wages. A woman may be liberated from family work, but what is the point if you are required absolute engagement with your career? Career moms have a high-stress schedule that may distance them from their children, who in turn will be more dependent on the television and Skibidi Toilet videos. 

In contrast, radical feminist activists contribute to the weakening of males by a circus or humiliation and degradation, as well as division within society. Little do they realize that in order to achieve the o-so-important revolution violent, strong men united with each other are needed. 

The current powers-that-be know this and force feminism  everywhere they can. Male characters are changed with hilariously bad all-female remakes, women are given positions of power for virtue signalling, and the media encourages women to get abortions, protest for female priests and complain against every kind of perceived sexism. Not that the establishment cares about women, though. Mainstream feminism is just a circus for posers.

Conclusion

Rebellion against God & certain tenets of religions is easy to do. Everyone does it - its name is sin. 

But when we are dealing with the establishment, rebellion is harder, because the persecution of the system is easier and there are many reasons to conform. How many people embrace subversive behavior in the name of getting pleasure but fail to understand that if they really want to "bring down the establishment", they have to recur to actions not particularly known for the pleasure they give to you. 

It is ironic, and definitely something to consider. 

Monday 4 December 2023

The Worst Kids Movie EVER produced by Hollywood



Book of Life is a 2014 movie produced by Fox and it tells a complicated tale somewhat based on the Day of the Death. Some people have compared it with Coco, and arguably Pixar wrought some inspiration from it. This movie is mostly obscure and few care about it, the only reason I remember is because I am interested in animation movies and their messages for the audience. 

I decided to check it out and honestly I think this is the worst movie for children EVER produced by Hollywood. Yes, there are other even more obscure movies which are arguably worse in terms of quality, but this movies are made by extremely small studios with very little resources, not released internationally by Fox. This movie is not only bad in terms of quality; it recollects within it's stinky intestines most of the terrible messages I have protested against before. 

So sit back, relax, and prepare to learn about the worst kids movie ever produced by Hollywood. 

The Plot

The main plot of the movie is centered around a story a museum woman tells to a group of children; She says that when people die there are two options for them: the first one is the "Land of the Remembered", a happy place ruled by a pelagian skeleton lady named Catrina. They will stay there for as long as people remember them. Once they are forgotten, they will go to a depressing and gray place called "Land of the Forgotten", which is ruled by an cynical demon thing called Xibalba where they will live for an indeterminate time until evaporating into dust. 

All of this information comes from a the "Book of Life", a book in which information about everything can be supposedly found. 

One day, the museum woman tells us, Xibalba tells Catrina that he is tired of ruling the Land of the Forgotten and wants to change his luck. Catrina refuses arguing he is a liar and a cheater, but Demon Thing proposes to make a bet and she somehow agrees. 

They visit the Mexican town San Angel, where 3 children (Joaquín, María and Manolo) are playing. Joaquín is a poser who only cares about appearances, Manolo is  a courageous and sensitive simp and María is a vegan girlboss. It is obvious that the boys compete over María, so the entities bet as follow: If Joaquín marries María, Xibalba wins and can change his destiny; but if Manolo marries her, Catrina wins. 

Xibalba does the proper Demon Thing which is start cheating and gives to Joaquín a magical medal that will make him braver and protect him from death. This, he thinks, will make María fall for Poser.

María gets sent to a convent school in Spain as punishment for being a girlboss, Joaquín enters the military to become a hero and Manolo gets trained to be a bullfighter despite the fact his thing is music. Hem, What does this remind me of?

When they grow up María returns and everyone in San Angel makes a big bullfighting event starring Manolo. Manolo prepares to kill the bull but he sees María on the reflection of his sword, so he refuses to do so and everyone mocks him. Throughout the following night Manolo and Joaquín compete for her hand to the point of dueling. María, because she is a girlboss, refuses them both but eventually she falls for Manolo's songs and they kiss. 

Demon Thing sees this and gets angry, so he makes María enter in a cataleptic state and later offers to kill Manolo so that he can be reunited with her. Manolo accepts the assisted suicide and enters the Land of the Remembered, where he meets his pathetic bullfighter ancestors and his mom. 

While looking for María, Manolo finds out he got cheated and the girl is now getting married to Poser. He decides to travel to the Land of the Forgotten which is now ruled by Skeleton Girl to receive some help from her. 

After proving himself to a sauron-like entity; Manolo enters a cave full of candles where a being called the Wax Man who is definitely not a parody of God Almighty tells Manolo that there is nothing written for him in "The Book of Life" because he "wrote his own story" and so can get a chance to be with María. 

They visit Catrina who gets angry at being cheated by Demon Thing yet again and asks him to resurrect Manolo but Balby insists he will only let the lovers reunite if he faces his greatest fears. 

Meanwhile, a group of bandits under the leadership of a villain named Chacal are coming to San Ángel and will kill everyone. They start by killing Manolo's father, the one who forced him to be a bullfighter.

Manolo must now fight against all the bulls slaughtered by his pathetic ancestors, but he can't slain them so he instead starts singing a song about how killing bulls is bad so the beasts forgive him and the entities somehow manage to resurrect him.

Chacal is about to commit genocide but fortunately Manolo and his ancestors arrive and start humiliating the thieves. Joaquín loses his magical medal and this somehow makes him learn that being a Poser is bad. Eventually, both of them start working together and Manolo kills Chacal by smashing him with a bell. 

For a moment there is a silence because everyone thinks Manolo died but he is fine because our now humble Joaquín gave the magical medal to him. 

This is the end of the movie, so the lady finishes her story and the kids go back to school. 

1: First Problem: An Ugly Movie with Terrible Representation

Every single Mexican outside of the main cast has hideous noses that either protrude from their faces like trumpets or are squished against their faces like inflamed snout of a hog. The mariachis are not dressed like mariachis but like altar boys, there was a Catholic priest with a hairstyle that made him look ridiculous and even the bulls you are asked to respect look like something from a creepy nihilistic Cartoon Network show.

None of the backgrounds actually look like the animators went to Mexico and even the rip-off Heaven looks uninteresting. Their representation is either offensive or superficial.  I don't think representation is as important as critical theorists want you to believe, but if you are going to talk about real places in your movie you should try to paint them as accurately as possible so that no one is misinformed. 

The movie is set around the Mexican revolution (early XXth century), yet everyone acts anachronistically and it is infuriating. For example, the nuns enter the bullfighting show which is not something a nun of the time would do. Multiple things happen in this movie that should shock the majoritarily Catholic population of this city and yet no one cares. The revolution was a huge event that affected all Mexico and yet very few and ambiguous to it references can be found.

2: Second Problem: The Characters have No Depth

The characters have very little development and anything you learn from them is either hamfisted or evil. Joaquín, for example, offered the possibility of a good character arc by learning to be humble but he changes immediately around the last 20 minutes of the movie with little explanation. There are some attempts to tackle the topics of Coco with Manolo (your heritage vs your passion), but everything is lame and of course we have yet again, the Be-Yourself message. 

María is a girlboss with no development. I called her a vegan because  she thinks eating pigs and killing bulls is wrong; she also thinks that being a housewife is demeaning. I get that everyone in San Ángel was misogynistic but then the movie doesn't deal with this topics either. It just says "housewife bad, misogyny bad" and that's it.

Things do not improve with the entities. Catrina is charming but she participates in the bad messages of this movie by trusting Demon Thing will not cheat on her again, despite evidence to the contrary. 

I already mentioned Wax Man is likely a parody of God Almighty. This is because of his character design: he is supposed to be some sort of god, equilibrator of evil and bad, he Book of Life's best friend and his character design is similar to the images commonly associated with God.

Xibalba is a coward and throughout the movie does heinous things but then he says I am sorry -Something a real narcissist liar would also say- and everything is fine. It is also implied both Skeleton Lady and Demon thing have a toxic relationship and of course children will not learn from them how to solve their future relationship problems. 

3: Third Problem: The Worldbuilding is Extremely Foolish 

It is implied that the Book of Life is the "god"who gives his powers to Catrina, the Waxman and Xibalba. Why? Who wrote this book, why is he so powerful and why does it seem he has a will of its own? Nothing is explained. 

But the thing that really angered me is how death works in this movie. Just like in Coco: if you are remembered (either because you preserved your family or became a celebrity) it is alright and all happy, but if you are forgotten you will go to Hell, ruled by Demon thing and full of misery. Coco made the same mistake; but man, this movie takes it way too far and none of the characters seems to care. 

According to this cinematographic abomination, Celebrities and politicians will meet a happy afterlife just because people know about them; while everyone else (orphans, feral children, the infertile, poor and dysfunctional families, hermits and others) will go to Hell. It is not based on whether you are a sinner or a saint: your fate depends on the feeble memory of mankind. 

You know that when your movie for children has the plot of a cosmic horror novel; you have failed big time. 

To make things worse, this actually contradicts the only good message of the movie! Joaquín learns at the end of the movie that his pursuit of worldly fame is useless and he should be humbler, and yet in this movie your only way of maintaining your happy afterlife is by getting worldly fame, like Alexander or Napoleon. Why is this movie so stupid?

Conclusion

Other movies made by Hollywood only have one or two bad messages, and yet this movie has nearly all of the ones I have mentioned before in this blog, particularly, the Millstones in the Road series. 

It has the Be-Yourself Message with Manolo, it has the good villain trope with Xibalba, it has feminism with María, it has pagan and blasphemous theology everywhere, it has 2 extremely dirty jokes. It even has the suicide glorification part (the scene where Manolo receives assisted suicide from Demon Thing). I don't know if there is a movie worse than this one, but for the moment, and by judging both its message and its quality, this may be the worst movie for children ever made by Hollywood. 

Sunday 26 November 2023

Mexican Non-Binary Magistrate Receives Novus Ordo Funeral

This past Tuesday November 14th the notorious "non-binary" Magistrate Jesús Ociel Baena and his boyfriend Dorían Nieves were found stabbed to death in their houses. This Magistrate was a sodomite activist who worked in the mexican government. 

By the moment the official narrative says that they perished during a sentimental fight. The other official narrative says that these two died because of the deep hatred that the mexican people harbor towards the practitioners of obscure sexual activities, spawning a series of protests against the first one.  

For some people, if you think these two were not murdered for their inclinations, you are a national liar and a homophobe. 

But we are not focusing on the controversy here. Rather, I just wanted to call attention to the fact that "Magistrade" and lover received a funeral on a nominally catholic church in Aguascalientes.

A follower of queer theory should not be glorified or receive any funeral from the "catholic church", for the following reasons:

1. Queer theory contradicts catholicism and even novus ordism. Giving a catholic funeral to a believer of queer theory is like a muslim mufti receiving an hindu funeral. Queer theorists are apostates and outside the church, because of their stubborn subversiveness and their defense of sodomy.

2. Just because the couple "could have repented" before dying doesn't mean they didn't held a scandalous life. Public sinners should not be given public funerals, because this encourages the simple people to delay their conversion. 

3. This does not change even if they died violently due to hatred or discrimination. 

The funeral was celebrated in the formerly catholic Cathedral of Aguascalientes, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. The coffins were decorated with the rainbow flag. When the conservative novus ordos complained, the Vice President of the Mexican Episcopate Conference weighed in, justifying the presence of such symbols. 

He said: Baena and Nieves were "sons of God and our brothers" "We could not, in any way, stop receiving them in the Church. Especially when the family wanted them to be there (the cathedral)" When asked about the flags, the o-so-valid archbishop said "if they placed those flags, that meant so much for them, well, we respect that".

How unfortunate of you that the alphabet people do not respect you and your catechism. Feed the crows and they will rip your eyes apart. 

The conservative novus ordo website linked above attempted to rescue their church by asking a spanish novus ordo priest if such flags could be showed in a funeral. It seems that they believe spanish clerics have more authority than mexican Archbishops. 

Anyway, this priest, by the way, ignored the elephant in the room which is whether a public sodomite, queer theorist and blasphemer could be accepted for a catholic funeral, focusing instead on whether symbols (any symbol, but specially anti-catholic symbols) could be shown in a funeral.

Anyway, where is Francis? He must be busy covering up for rapists like Fr. Rupnik or making documentaries for Disney +. 

Friday 3 November 2023

Movie Review: Coco

 Recently I watched the 2017 Pixar production Coco, based on the Day of the Death, a ripped-off version of All Souls Day which focuses more on leftover pagan traditions than on purgatory. 

On this tradition, people make tables honoring their dead relatives. They place photos, bread and skulls made of sugar, as well as Cempasuchil (mexican marigold) flowers and some of their favorite objects. Some people actually believe their family members come to pay them a visit and even enjoy the gifts offered to them.

Such pagan BS was bound to attract Hollywood. This flick was really popular and it attracted my attention, not only because of it's problematic theology but also because I live in Mexico, so in a way this is how Pixar wants you to look at us. Here is my review, I hope it is useful, I didn't waste my time and you benefit from it. 

The Portrayal of Mexico.

Some people moaned and complained that Coco is "cultural appropriation" and doesn't offer a good representation of Mexican culture. This is actually not true, because for the most part, the portrayal of the movie is accurate. It was loved by the mexicans for a reason. 

There are some inaccuracies, however, and I would like to point the most relevant to the plot: while Day of the Dead is celebrated everywhere, the people who take it more seriously are the people of Pátzcuaro and Michoacán. 

This feast is mostly a thing of the poorer among us, the rich make the altars to people like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela while mixing it with Halloween. Children ask for "calaverita", which is a way of saying trick or treating. Not everyone believes the dead come to visit us, and even some novus ordo priest have openly criticized it. 

The Be Yourself Message Strikes Again

The plot follows a kid named Miguel and his dog Dante. The child wants to be a musician, but his family forbids it. Their great grandfather abandoned his family to become a successful mariachi and as a result they hate music. Here we have yet another be-yourself movie! Child must prove to his oppressive family that his dream is worth following.

Miguel is obsessed with Ernesto de la Cruz, a legendary mariachi and actor; the kid believes Ernesto is the aforementioned great-grandfather. This creep tells the audience to "follow their dreams and be true to themselves no matter what", and the kid swallows it up like a true fanboy. He comes out of his musical closet, only to be chastised and have his grandmother go full Pete Townsend and smash his guitar on the floor. 

Miguel does the Disney thing which is he runs away from home crying and attempts to find a new guitar. He steals the one that belonged to Ernestito, but some magical nonsense happens and he is transported to the realm of the dead. 

I know that be-yourself movies always portray the family as exaggerating on whatever they are imposing on the protagonist, but that is precisely the problem. All teens would like to believe their parents are going too far with those rules they don't want to follow. 

I feel this movie could actually use this as an opportunity to teach on the deception of worldly fame and material goods. It's a movie about dead people after all. But instead they do the be-yourself thing of giving the protagonist his cake so that he can eat it. 

Third Part: The Heresy Feast of the Afterlife in Coco

The afterlife in Coco has no remains of Judgement, Hell, Heaven or anything spiritual. This afterlife is in fact very similar to the world we live in: there are immigration offices, social classes, shows and celebrities, even food. There is even  a "final death".  

One would expect a movie about death to consider how we will leave everything when we die but for people who like to treat the afterlife as a nice little coping mechanism there is no purpose on meditating on this. 

The aforementioned "final death" on this afterlife is being forgotten by your family, something that drives most of the plot. Miguel needs to "receive a blessing" from one of his ancestors in other to go back home, but his great grandmother will only bless him if he promises to never play music again. Desperate to get his wish, he and a friendly skeleton named Hector who claims to know Ernesto try to access him so that the kid can leave as he wills.

Ernesto de la Cruz

When Miguel finally meets his idol, the mariachi is obviously egocentric but he treats the child kindly, showing him around his mansion. However, Hector appears and angrily calls out Ernesto for stealing his songs. It is revealed that Hector is not lying and that he was poisoned by the mariachi because he wanted to quit and go back with his family. Ernesto used his compositions to "have his moment". 

What I like about this character is that he shows the logical consequences of following the be-yourself message. If your only purpose in life is following your dreams, your passions and your desires, you are likely to do stuff like this. Whether on the little or on the big ways. Nobody can accuse Ernesto of being a hypocrite who acted in contrast to his beliefs. 

With this shocking plot twist Miguel learns that his family is more important to him, and that perhaps persecuting worldly fame and pleasures is not worth it because it may make you evil and you face punishment from the wrath of God, right? 

Well, yes but no. Miguel learns to appreciate his family, but since he gets his cake and eats it too by reconciling with his parents and getting to be a musician, the audience misses the message you would expect from a movie about dead people: that not everything is worth living for. 

And about the punishment from the wrath of God... well, Ernesto gets punished not because he went to judgement and was found worthy of hell, but because he is exposed as a liar and a murderer. At the end of the movie we notice he will be forgotten because Miguel's family convince the world of the truth about this creep. 

According to this movie being forgotten is the real deal. This links with another message subtly suggested to the viewer: poverty. Hector wore a fancy white mariachi dress when he died, but throughout the movie he dresses like a beggar because nobody remembers him fondly. People about to be forgotten (including some suspicious ladies), live in slums, while the powerful keep their mansions. 

These are the people less likely to be forgotten: serial killers, celebrities and politicians. Is Disney telling us that men of fame will remain in their pleasures while the humble are obliterated into nothingness? That will certainly encourage children to pursue attention and fame, wouldn't it? Even if their family goes extinct, everyone else will remember them for as long as the world stays with us. 

Conclusion

Overall this movie is mostly well written, presenting some heartfelt moments of reconciliation between heartbroken family members. This movie could be so much better if it had focused on the message I pointed out above, managing to tell a story that took death more seriously.

Of course this would mean Coco would be a completely different movie, with a completely different perspective on the afterlife, perhaps even being less colorful and energetic as it is now. Right now, it stands as a wasted opportunity. Let us hope that our life is not a wasted opportunity as well.