For Reals - 07 - HD

I think it is a reasonable reaction to the deterioration in the environment he saw (that said, he hasn't been involved in the actual filming in many many years, which isn't surprising given his age; he mostly does narration, and I am not even sure how much editorial control he is given)

David Howe

I acknowledge the possibility that filming the first part of the series could have brought about a massive change in perspective and therefore focus for the show. That could have happened. OTOH, I look around and note that it is all the rage right now to use anything anyone with credibility in any media with any popularity as a soapbox to preach a political message. It's easily possible the switch was planned from the start.

John Trauger

I truly despair of humanity sometimes.

Mark

I think he just became an increasingly rabid environmentalist over time (and I don't blame him, we have messed up the planet badly) But more thinking about the "core" which has moved from being cute animals to dying corals...

David Howe

::Cries::

Prof Sai

Can cars running regular gas be "detuned"? Maybe that was what I was reading about. Yes Elliot, people are in favor of oil spills.

Prof Sai

I hate to be *that* guy, but there aren't any diesel F-150s. That's why the study is all HD - F-250, 2500, etc. and up - trucks. Only recently have smaller diesels shown up in the half-ton trucks.

Kevin Wright

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but "Rolling Coal" is a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal

B. P.

Much would depend on whether the switchover to environmental advocacy was planned or unplanned. If it was planned, the advocacy was always the core. The early focus on rare footage would be considered the bait before the switch in order to build an audience for the environmental message.

John Trauger

Honestly, Duke Nukem probably has the most sane and reasonable motivation of any of them.

Crushogre

I might suggest consideration of the attenborough "planet" documentaries? what were originally about new and hard to obtain footage of animals in their habitats, became increasingly about the environmental harms the human race have inflicted, and the urgency of fixing those before it is too late. Now, the most recent examples have made no bones about billing as environmental advocacy, but there was a fair transition period where they were billed as the former but focused a lot on the latter. Where was their "core" during that transition?

David Howe

okay but now I wonder if that's just because no one has yet, thankfully, come up with Smogcoin

Danielle Church

@Crushogre Thank you, this was so helpful! 💖 @Lee Jackson omg? hi??? 😳

Danielle Church

That's why, I was told, some people go to armadillo races- to see the crashes!

allanfranta

I've seen that argument in some of the fiction too (especially, if I recall, in the Certain Point of View anthologies) where Joe Imperial sees the Empire that way. Of course, the higher-ups didn't tell the lower ranks what they were really up to. And the average citizen just got the PR.

Narzain

Back to the "core-of-the-show" topic, I hear there are quite a number of Star Wars fans who actually root for the Empire. From what I understand, these guys claim the Empire brought peace and unity to the galaxy, while the rebels are basically terrorist scum disturbing the order and taking good imperial lives. First time I heard about it was when that one Mandalorian episode aired, where the pilot of an imperial shuttle accuses the rebels of genociding millions of imperial citizens on the death star. Apparently that scene was meant to refer to a common argument brought by these "imperialistic" fans (and point out how wrong this argument is considering, you know, Alderaan). I'm not sure I really understand this trend, but it seems to exist and if so I guess it makes a fine example of a fanbase adhering to a show while opposing its most basic premise.

Rémy

Captain Planet's Rogues Gallery generally were "pollutiung for the sake of poluting". Yes, there was usually some other angle, such as money, but they still tended to blindly lean towards polluting without reason just because, even when there were alternatives. Granted, the writers had to make the villain's laughably evil, they had to ensure it was obvious that there was no good reason for why they were doing what they were doing. Otherwise it raises too many awkward questions regarding real world practices

Thisguy

Tim Curry has a way of making memorable villains. Incidentally, he voiced MAL in Captain planet in the first season.

Thisguy

Oh jeez, in 2020 EPA found that rolling coal was having far larger impact in the US than the whole of the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal. Half a million trucks producing more than 9 million truck's worth of excess emissions... EDIT: Dang, and that study was focused on larger vehicles, ignoring your garden variety F-150 bro coal rollers...

jubs

Wasn't just a bried fad, "rolling coal" in particular is still a thing, unfortunately... Might not be as popular as it was back then.

jubs

I did not write *this* Duke Nukem's theme song. :)

Lee Jackson

Another fairly good example I've seen pretty often: People who watch motorracing for the crashes. Hard to call someone a fan of motorracing when their main interest is in seeing people almost die doing it, not the racing itself.

jubs

Someone on Captain Planet said "The only good tree is a dead tree." It was not a sophisticated show. There are however real-life examples of people actively hating the environment. When Obama was elected, there was a brief fad of people intentionally de-tuning their cars to make them blow smoke. The fad was brief because people realized how much money they were wasting on extra gas. That isn't precisely hating the environment itself though. It is more like "I hate this person so much that I am going to actively destroy what they care about." But that is a real thing that happened.

Prof Sai

I think it was a combination of his design and Tim Curry's voice acting.

Chronos Cat

Hoggish Greedy, Sly Sludge, and Looten Plunder are in it for the money. Duke Nukem thrives off radiation and wants to make the world into a paradise for himself. Verminous Skumm wants to conquer the world. Dr. Blight does it for SCIENCE.

Crushogre

I have heard of people thinking Hexxus from "FernGully" was cool. But maybe they simply found the heroes annoying.

Stephen Gilberg

The pollution is still incidental to their plan, tho. They don't say, "Awright, look at all the smog we're making!"

Stephen Gilberg

Someone pointed out that bitcoin miners are essentially Captain Planet villains. Make money by producing lots of pollution.

I want to say that it kinda depended on the villain? Like, there was one guy who had the "evil businessman" shtick, so they usually gave him some kind of "I'm doing this to make money" rationale, while some of the others were just kind of "I'm doing this for the lols" types. That said, it's been a long time since I watched it too, so I have no idea whether any of the ostensible "business plans" actually made sense or not, but I do wanna say that there were some?

Michael Brewer