Sonic Adventure 2 - A Postmodern Analysis

Disclaimer: I know “postmodern” is often an unhelpful term and Derrida himself never labeled himself or his work “postmodern”. Even just labeling the analysis "post-structuralist” would’ve been better in terms of accuracy, but all I wanted is a catchy title. (Also maybe the title will get me more views because of the commotion about postmodernism that Jordan Peterson caused.)

Sources:

On Derrida:
Colebrook, C. (2015) “Jacques Derrida: Key Concepts”, Routledge

On Baudrillard:
Kellner, D. (1989) “Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond”, Polity Press

On Sonic:

I'd like to thank Blazethecat310 and TheRealSonicFan for their Sonic Adventure 2 footage.

[blackattack]

this is the exact shit I try to pull when teachers gave me creative freedom with essays and presentations. Masterfully done.

[mesastreatexit]

omg the fade from Abraham to Robotnik's face in the same position is incredible

[gensoumusic]

"the sonic equivalent of aids" lol wut

[Papupipi]

"Maria's death was caused by the thought of a death that never in fact happened." I call this phenomenon "Anikin, you're breaking my heart" Syndrome.

[UltimateKyuubiFox]

Click on video expecting a meme > Discover a very well-structures analysis

Scroll down to comments expecting acknowledgement of this unexpectedness > Find continued genuine discussion of the philosophy referenced in the video

This might be the greatest place on the Internet.

[CB-qgyh]

I was expecting a silly video about Sonic Adventure 2. What I got was a deconstruction of life

[STBill]

_"Sometimes there's a need to do what's needed."_ Shadow the Edgehog.

[DeadEndFrog]

this is probably the best video on the subject, especially because its about sonic, and sonic is *obviously* not privlaged as a philosopic text in the eyes of philosophers therby commiting the problem in the video privlageing *high culture* over *low culture*
I hope this makes sense! Im sure this is intentional, very nice work!

[peterarsenault]

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Sonic Adventure 2. The dialectics are extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical postmodernism most of the levels will go over a typical player's head. There's also Shadow's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Derrida's Deconstructionist literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these characters, to realise that they're not just entertaining- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Sonic Adventure 2 truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Sonic's existential catchphrase "Gotta Go Fast, " which itself is a cryptic reference to Sarte's epic Being and Nothingness. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Shiro Maekawa's genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂

And yes, by the way, i DO have a Sonichu tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎

[lydiasteinebendiksen]

Seeing a picture of Baudrillard with live and learn over does something for me. It's so beautiful.

[FlameQwert]

This is unironically good. People will call it dumb or whatever, but the proper analysis of video games, the newest art form. within a coherent framework, is exactly the kind of thing that video games need if we want to break free from the formless, derivative stories and experiences that the video game art form has been trapped inside for decades.

[rallyupmankind]

This is a great essay, it is extremely weird to hear someone break down Baudrillard while the butt-rock of Sonic 2 plays in the background though.

[mikaelsanchez]

I love the cross fade from abraham's face to robotnik's face. Absolute art

[BigGeekEmpire]

As i'm watching this and getting deeper into it I'm like this guy can't be serious. Then I saw the name of the channel and laughed my ass off. This is all genius.

[kingofthebis]

This is the content I subbed for

yeah this is happening!!!”

[magnuskarlsson]

Great video. I just have one small criticism. For Derrida there's no such distinction between general and absolute responsibility. One can't be absolute responsible to the other, because there are always other others. Discrimination is irreducible, this is what Derrida calls arche-violence which follows from the unconditional coming of time, from the infinite finitude of différance. This means that the possibility of being responsible is at the same time the impossibility of being fully responsible. If one could be fully or absolute responsible then this would presuppose the existence of a fixed essence or identity, of a self-sufficient monad or substance, an argument that you rightly criticized in your video. Instead, as you correctly pointed out, Derrida proposes an hauntology (in contrast to ontology which is grounded on the principle of noncontradiction, on the metaphysical logic of identity, inherent to what Derrida called logocentrism, and instead develops a deconstructive logic of identity) which implies the constitutive undecidability of alterity that follows from the spacing of time, that is, from the impossibility of being in itself. Everything is essentially dependent on what is other than itself, and it's precisely this out-of-jointness of time which gives life or reality its ghostly presence, a presence which is precisely not present.

[theprevailingorthodoxy]

This channel should be way bigger! Great stuff!

[sonaliano]

I randomly clicked on this channel and found this video, just happens to be my favourite game

[kokujinblack]

almost cried near the end dude, don't know why but you explaining binaries with the story somehow moved me, almost to tears.

[Skizid]

I always figured the references to "My analysis of Sonic Adventure 2" was a bit you were doing. But holy shit you actually did it.