Hello... So, I make this thread after pondering in a long time about why a popular theme for entertainment is often mainly about 'time'. As time seems to contain a particular sense of mystery and easiness access to make the consumer feels the complexity and grandness of the product. To make it clear, I take example of "Kimi no Nawa" as a popular title of movie. The movie revolved around 'time' to make a certain things possible eventhough 'time' isn't the main point of it. Also "Steins Gate" as a title that obtain 9+ ratings in MAL (myanimelist) or even the latest Marvel movies (Avengers : Endgame) take 'time' as its core of the story. So is it really that 'time' as a theme attractive enough to producer or a certain feature in 'time' theme to make the impossible happen make it into a stable form of element in their products? I only know that the 'time' theme weakness is a forced plot or that a certain event is just feels forced. I feels sorry for the bad English as I myself can't bring all of what I really want to say in this thread. I don't really know Western product so maybe you can give an input to this thread by sharing your thoughts
It is just like any other major idea, fascinating. The same thread can be made by replacing time with say, aliens, space battles, ai etc etc.
But time take a certain large spot as a 'masterpiece'. You can't say the same if the theme is teenager romance. People will only just say that it is 'good' and not be a masterpiece
Maybe what I really want to ask is why 'Time' can take a 'masterpiece' spot easily compared to the rest of the theme
I think its because 'time' is familiar yet sometimes deep at the same time, the 'deep' part often make people wonder "what else you can do" and "what kind of effect did it cause" which is engaging, while making a huge amount of plot twist in the author arsenal's to make the story progressing . But, i do feel that 'time' is more like an easy excuse to introduce something 'new' in a long-time series, an easy plot twist for a short movie and yet a grand scheme for a "masterpiece". ...is what i think. Sorry if what i write is not understandable, its difficult to word it out :").
Time itself isn't particularly interesting. Instead, there are two concepts that people really love about time. 1. The ability to do it over. Epic **** ups that can be fixed if you can discern the cause and fix it. 1b. Also the corollary, David and Goliath - where the tinier the patch that'll fix the utter tragedy in the future, the more amazing. 1c. Also the corollary, I must know everything - sometimes the only way for someone to know what happened is to be right there. Even if fake, it gives credence to some stories when history is told with such seriousness that there's no way it can be utter bulls**t 2. Sci-Fi. The technology isn't here yet. This concept is extremely broad as it can open into a whole host of different options. Maybe an exploration of what the future will be like. Or maybe the technology from the future is needed to solve the problems of the present.
Yeah, and it feels weird when you go back to your old comment to find that what you said is utterly ridiculous. When that happens, i do feel like burying myself in the abyss
It’s not necessarily time but any plot point or event that happens, they are never the primary focus, the main focus is moral development or abstractions that hold the true significance of what is going on. Time just so happens to be a good theme to use because it is so mailable, like how magic and sci-fi are used a lot for the same reason, they are easy to play around with so as to convey what the author is trying to show.