Theme / Shows & Video Games Links.
I’m in my series: find links by major themes.
I admit I played Skyrim again yesterday, as I loaded some new mods that were quite entertaining. And while playing – it must be the age that does that – I realized that I was seriously mixing Skyrim and Oblivion.
If you don’t know either of these video games (totally major in this field), here’s a quick clarification. They are two games in the Elder Scrolls narrative series, which is set in Tamriel’s “Fantasy” universe, a universe very inspired by Nordic mythology: you will find species of Vikings, trolls, various elves, giant cats, bards, dragons, very active pagan gods, etc… – Each game develops a specific “world” located in Tamriel.
This series became cult from its third episode: Morrowind – we are in the early 2000s. It was followed by Oblivion, which literally consecrated this game. Then Skyrim. The last of the series, online and multiplayer, notably disappointed the fan community, because there wasn’t much we could do about it – and it had to bear comparison with the Great Elders. Great games, then – where each game has a major story and an infinite variety of secondary stories.
So I began to confuse the two games, and to look in Skyrim for the quests I had loved in Oblivion.
Finding myself stupid, I fell back on Oblivion, the movie – which has absolutely nothing to do with the Bethesda games except the title.
There, as a science fiction film, there it is a real masterpiece, everything is perfect in this film – and especially the fact that they play with their (poor and stupid) audience, who are fooled like a rookie. Do you know how they manage to play with us? By working on the character’s memory. On… Oblivion. Cheaters, I was tricked like a beginner.
(yes, I’m the poor and stupid audience… I loved being fooled like that, frankly, yes).
And – even with huge apriori against most SF movies that are so much to cry about – I would have gone to see Oblivion just because of the title: a movie that has the title of a great game? – well, of course I run to see it – and also Tom Cruise, it’s true – I trust him absolutely. As far as he’s concerned, I found three movies/three game-like titles and Halo in Rogue Nation. I look forward to the next episode of Mission Impossible by the way. I saw that, for them too, the news is really tough. Good courage to them all.
That’s it, I’m drifting.
It’s the memory that I miss. I’m sinking into Oblivion – forgetting what I was supposed to write today.
Okay, all this led me to chew on the concept: Oblivion.
Something from the past that suddenly resurfaces.
Something that the hero doesn’t identify well – or at all.
A shadow that haunts you.
A present that becomes foreign and hostile, because of the weight of this past, of this “thing” that will have to be resolved.
But I no longer have a game and a film. I have a whole British Encyclopedia. Video games, on this theme? there are so many titles that I give up counting them.
For fun, some titles – in the most famous ones. Kotor: do you remember the state of your memory in Kotor? Cecil in Final Fantasy IV, who is looking for his origins? Do you remember The Witcher, with Geralt and his amnesia? You can find that in Fallout, with that strange memory that haunts you: stuck in your cryogenic capsule, you see your beloved and and and ??? but what did you see? In Mega Man Zero, it serves the universe. In Harvester, where you arrive totally amnesic, it serves the horror. In Ghost Trick you’re an amnesic ghost – I’m telling you, lines and lines of titles that seriously develop this theme.
Oblivion, amnesia : that serves for everything in a game and especially to surprise you, by confronting you with places that you have known, with characters who know you and have precise ideas about the evil (necessarily) character that you are.
Concerning the other field, shows, novels, theatre plays, films, here again, I don’t have one story, I don’t have one play, I have the French Encyclopedia.
I can even start by doing my “space bitch” by putting Montaigne in the front row – Montaigne, the old Montaigne, so old that he scares everyone. Still, a guy who can write: “Marriage is like a golden cage. The birds outside dream of entering it. The birds inside dream of getting out”. – Well, a guy like that, of course I like him and I’m interested in him. It is not a question of representing all his Essays obviously. But there is plenty of room to invent a show – rather funny – on the theme of memory and oblivion based on his work. And what about Ulysses? Who gets a nice dose of amnesia? Circe, that “bitch from antiquity” that steals your memory and replaces it with Oblivion? Bone, by George Cesbro, if you want something more contemporary. You know the guy who wakes up in New York with a bone in his hand? And, and and….
The forgotten past – the past that makes you the one who is here and not another, it’s a theme that’s so deep in all of us that obviously, if you’re looking to build stories, you’re going to use that theme – and I will miss it?
Impossible.
So I’m at three major themes capable of creating links – links, whole bridges yes – between the world of entertainment and the world of games.
Piracy – Boxing (yes, I reduce it to boxing because I love boxing) – Oblivion.
The more I play, the more I find.
So I’m going to play.
There are so many more themes that will allow us to seriously link the two worlds – that will make people play – that will make them live “differently” – and that will bring to life all those funny people who have dedicated their lives to creating shows that will enchant the audience
I will – soon – reorganize my themes part, which will allow me to link shows and games in an obvious way.
Featured Image : Halo – Oblivion – novel by Troy Denning, a book released in 2019 … Halo is not at all a very well known game. Okay, that’s a stupid joke – which allows me to insist quite heavily: there are always links that are created from one imaginary universe to another, when you like it you don’t stop at one universe. Did you know that The Witcher came from a novel? 😀 I stop, that’s okay 😀
So I’m still locked up like this? While not locking me up, since I have the right (!) to go to work. But then I have to go home. No more theatre, finished, closed for 4, 6, 12 weeks. Is that the game? All right, I’ll play.
ALTAIR - Concepts 