Author: Offbeat Thesis

Avatar vs Avatar, Or: How The Adaptation Trap Traps Us All

Offbeat Thesis

I’ll admit, the first time I saw Netflix’s version of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I was disappointed. I didn’t hate it as much as most of the internet seems to have, but I also don’t worship Nickelodeon’s version of Avatar: The Last Airbender the way that many others seem to. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t fall into the same Adaptation Trap that everyone else did. The same trap that, frankly, is all too common.

That being said, after choosing to rewatch the first season of Netflix’s Avatar to remind myself a bit more of all the changes the series had made, I realized that I had fallen into the trap. It’s still not the greatest show ever, and there are things I think could’ve been done better, but when viewed on its own merits, stripping away the expectations I had based on the Nickelodeon’s Avatar, I began to appreciate the choices made by the creative teams inside Netflix. I began to understand what the Netflix teams were going for, and I began to enjoy it a lot more.

That’s because Nickelodeon’s Avatar and Netflix’s Avatar are different things. Not only should they be different things, but the change in medium necessitates that they be different things, as it does when media is adapted from one medium to another, or when media is adapted from one audience to another. Said necessity is necessary because media doesn’t actually translate between formats or audiences, which includes the same audiences at different ages or places in life.

Whether Netflix was successful with their adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is less important in this conversation, largely because the criticisms I’ve seen simply don’t address whether that version is actually good on its own merits. They don’t judge it based on whether it succeeded in its clear goal, and they certainly don’t consider the strengths and weaknesses that are inherent when adapting media. I obviously haven’t seen every video essay or short, so I have no doubt that there are plenty with more nuanced views that don’t fall into the Adaptation Trap, but of the ones that have been fed to me, all have fallen for the same Adaptation Trap that I’ve seen as the vast majority opinion for the entirety of my 45 year life. In this case, the Adaptation Trap isn’t new, but the internet has optimized and monetized the process in a way and scale that was previously unimaginable.

The Adaptation Trap

To use a rather imprecise metaphor, the Adaptation Trap is a Chinese Finger Trap. The more you pull at the trap, the tighter it grips you. The only way to actually escape it is to relax, let go, and let the trap loosen, so you can easily get out of it.

Frankly, it doesn’t just trap audiences. Chinese Finger Traps require two sides to be trapped, although the studios, publishers, executives, and creatives don’t get trapped in the same way. Where audiences get trapped by their own preconceived expectations, the producers of adapted media mostly get trapped by cost and returns on investment, technological viability, the ability to directly translate the source material, their own creative freedom, and audience expectations (among other, smaller, traps). For the producers of adapted media, these all pull against each other in different ways based on which mediums are being adapted to and from, making each type of adaptation difficult in its own way, thus adding to the tension of the Adaptation Trap.

The Adaptation Trap for Producers

When adapting a novel to a movie, as an example, the most basic functions and features of each medium is so unique as to not even be the same language. A 300 page novel (which is about the average length of a novel) is structured in a very different way than a movie for a number of reasons. First, the pacing of a novel is wildly different. The 300 page novel takes, on average, 5 hours to read (The Fellowship of the Ring‘s 423 pages takes about 7 hours on average to complete). This isn’t to say that time is exactly one-to-one. An author could take several paragraphs to describe, in exquisite detail, the scene being laid out and descriptions of each of the characters, as well as how they’re feeling, which in film could take mere seconds to reproduce accurately. The point is that because it’s not a given to expect the reader to consume a novel in one sitting the way that it’s expected that a viewer is expected to watch a film in one sitting, a novel isn’t required to flow as quickly and as smoothly as a movie does. Novels have their own pace, which means how they flow is incredibly different, and thus adapting a novel to a movie requires changes and concessions to match the expected pacing of a movie.

Even when adapting animation to live action (or vice versa), even assuming it’s the same format, such as television to television or movie to movie, nothing is actually a one-to-one adaptation. For one, the expressions of an animated character vs that of a human actor are dramatically different. An animated character can no more perfectly replicate the subtleties of human movement or facial expressions than the human actor can match the flexibility that animation can afford, which doesn’t even include how a physical form looks good or bad when comparing live action vs animation. Even the scenery and costumes provide their own sets of constraints, with neither can perfectly match each other, either. That’s not to mention the cost of production. What something costs to produce is very different when comparing animation vs live action, especially when talking about returns on investment.

The constraints of each medium, require a domino effect of changes, even if you were to try to as perfectly match the other medium as is possible. A scene that is incredibly powerful in one medium may not land in another. In order to accommodate the changes of those kinds of scenes, other changes need to be made in other scenes to be adjusted. Over a long enough timeline, entire plot points will need to be changed or removed, and others added, due to those adjustments. Which doesn’t even include fiscal constraints. Depending on the many variables, what gets included or excluded can just as easily be chosen based on how much it would cost to produce a particular scene vs how much the production company or studio can make off of that scene. If a particular scene is deemed to be not profitable enough, it will be cut, which requires its own set of adjustments.

Then there is a question of artistic expression. Even assuming that every scene can reasonably be perfectly replicated, what’s the point in replicating it? The further you are from a matching medium, the more reasonable it is to as closely align something as you can. A book-to-movie adaptation is far enough apart that the value of bringing the descriptions alive certainly makes some kind of sense. Animation-to-live-action adaptations, on the other hand, are so similar as to require quite a bit more justification to actually produce it. There’s very little real value in adapting things so similar unless there’s something new to say. Some new perspective. Even if it’s just a style change, like adapting a comic book into a manga. If the only change is to be formatted in the Manga style or drawn by Japanese artists, but it’s otherwise nearly the same, why bother? It’s a waste of effort by everyone. Shot-for-shot recreations are creatively bankrupt and risk being deemed not worth it by the some odd 98% of potential media consumers who don’t spend all their time on Reddit, thus making it a riskier financial move than making the 2% of potential viewers mad, who are still likely to consume it, if for no other reason than so they can go online and complain about it all day. Money doesn’t care if you consumed it ironically, out of spite, out of curiosity, or out of genuine interest.

For the production side, this is where the Adaptation Trap comes into play. Every change made, regardless of the reason, draws the story further away from the source material, which then starts to beg the question of how worth it is to directly follow the source material. How far do you stray? Is it better to confine yourself as close to the source material as possible or do you resign yourself to stick to the essence of it? What is the essence of the source material? Then there’s the audience to think about. What is important to the audience? What can you leave out? What can you absolutely not leave out? How will they react to the changes made? Would they be more mad if you changed a lot or if you were as faithful as possible, but had to change a few key details? Would they feel cheated because it’s just more of what they had before? Moreover, are the rantings of the internet actually reflective of the wider audience, and how much should you cater to it?

Honestly, the best way for producers of adapted media to avoid falling into the Adaptation Trap is to not try to attempt it in the first place, but the best way to avoid being ensnared by it is to just tell the best story you can with the pieces you have available to you.

The Adaptation Trap for Audiences

For the audience, the Adaptation Trap looks very different. A lot of it comes down to expectations and hype, the later of which is probably the more self-destructive behavior. Don’t get me wrong, hype is understandable. It’s exciting to be excited, and hype triggers a lot of the same neurochemical reactions as an adrenaline rush, but much like with adrenaline, a hype rush comes with a hype crash. The higher the hype, the harder the crash. It’s fair that some of the blame may be laid at the feet of the studios, who for sure create hype of their own, but when it comes to adaptations, that’s simply a beast that’s impossible to contain. The more established the adapted media is the more uncontrollable the hype rush will be, which is great for initial sales, but comes at the risk of a greater crash, especially if expectations aren’t met, even if those expectations were never set by the studios in the first place.

The expectations piece is the most perilous element of the Adaptation Trap. This is in no small part because of how expectations can be set internally by the audience, and without any regard for the constraints that the producers of adapted media have to contend with. It’s true that not everyone is aware of those constraints, which is very reasonable, as that’s not their job to know that. The problem can also be exacerbated by internet video essayists with more opinions than experience about what is and isn’t possible, creating an even larger expectation gap than would’ve otherwise existed.

This isn’t to say that audiences shouldn’t have expectations of the media they’re consuming. They should. It’s important to set standards by which storytellers should be required to achieve. They should be held to a standard of quality. Of whether they told a good story. Of whether they executed their vision well. For adapted media, that also includes how true they were to the story. They don’t necessarily need to be accurate to the text as long as it meets its purpose. As long as the vision is clear.

It’s the preconceived expectation that becomes truly toxic. It should absolutely be expected that the producers of adapted media execute the adaptation well. Predetermining what that adaptation should or shouldn’t be is where it starts to sour, especially before even seeing the first trailer. Changes will be made, and what changes need to get made will be up to artistic discretion, but what they will never be is exactly what anyone wants it to be. When the audience, be it one person or a whole community, decides what an adaptation should be, they lose track of what it will be, walking themselves right into their half of the Adaptation Trap.

The best way for audiences to avoid falling into the Adaptation Trap is to not succumb to hype or preconceived expectations, but the best way to avoid being ensnared by it is to tamper your hype and expectations. Be excited to see something new based on a thing you already love, and ready yourself to judge the movie based on whether it was good or not, not how close it was to being what you saw in your head.

The Follies of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender

As I said up top, Netflix’s version of Avatar is not without its own many mistakes. Truth be told, the biggest mistake I think it made was trying to stick too close to Nickelodeon’s Avatar. Obviously, it strayed very far away in many ways. By structure, it barely resembles the original. Sure it has a lot of the same pieces, but they’re scrambled around and remixed. Things are put together in ways that are borderline incoherent. That, in my opinion, was their first mistake.

I don’t know if it was the creative teams wishing to shoehorn in elements from the original because they felt bad about how much they changed or the studio forcing them to cram as many of the original elements back into the show for fear of social media backlash and endless video essays, but they could’ve easily done away with almost all of it. Most of it was superfluous and only served to muddy the waters. What they should’ve done was distilled the show down to its core parts and sprinkled in easter eggs and set pieces as they could reasonably fit.

At it’s core, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a story about the redemption of Aang as he discovers the extent of the consequences of his actions when he ran away and his path of redemption as he attempts to atone for them and make amends by bringing balance back to the world. That also makes the Hundred Year War a critical element of the show, as it’s the entire catalyst of it, and sets up Zuko and his story. His relationships with his friends, Katara, Sokka, Appa, and adding Toph, Suki, and Zuko over time are also incredibly important. Momo, while a persistent figure in the show, isn’t important for the sake of Aang’s growth, and mostly exists as a sight gag. Uncle Iroh, Azula, Mai, Ty Lee, and Ozai are critical to Zuko’s story, who is critical to Aang’s story, so they all must be there, too. Finally, the aesthetics and the entire setting of the show, including the four nations is critical, as it sets the tone and is the central thesis of Avatar, which is the importance of the harmony of balance in a world.

There are also several key moments in the series, fixed points in history, if you will, that must always happen, such as the key events of The Siege of the North. Other events, like Toph discovering metal bending, are still critical, but they don’t have to exist exactly as they did in the original. Most of the rest could’ve been omitted and only placed back in as it made sense for those characters to fill a necessary role in the adaptation, not to cram them in there because they were a part of the original. There are also many changes that would’ve made for a better story, or even arguably should’ve been done in the first place. As an example, it actually makes a ton more sense for Azula to be Zuko’s older sister (also adjusting Mai and Ty Lee’s age to compensate). While I’m aware the point was to make her more of a prodigy, thus making her accomplishments all the more impressive, Azula being seventeen or eighteen fits her character better, and doesn’t detract from those accomplishments, many of which would still be impressive if she were in her thirties.

It’s not like there’s no precedent in adapted media. Every single MCU movie took the pieces that were central to the characters and scenarios and reinserted pieces as was needed. The Final Fantasy VII remakes significantly revamped the original, changing the game almost entirely, but keeping the core of the original. Amazon’s Fallout show tells a story that very well could sit inside its adapted world, but it doesn’t follow any of the stories of any of the original games. I could go on forever, but the point remains that adaptations that stray from their source material can still be very good and very well received. Netflix, too, could’ve succeeded had they not fallen into the Adaptation Trap.

How to Escape the Adaptation Trap

As mentioned above, the Adaptation Trap is a bit like a Chinese Finger Trap, in that it’s two sides pulling against each other, where the solution is for both sides to relax. In the actual Chinese Finger Trap puzzle, the trick is to meet in the middle. What that would look like in practice would be for the adaptation producers to always strive for more accuracy while the audiences should always be more flexible with their expectations, but I don’t think that’s actually good practice, which is why I say that both sides need to relax, not meet in the middle.

First and foremost, stories need to have a purpose to be made, more than just to make money. In a world with currency, especially in the capitalistic world we currently live in, produced works need to not just make money, but make a sizable profit. As the saying goes, it’s show business after all. Still, stories told without a reason other than profits is a story without purpose. One only needs to look at Solo: A Star Wars Story for proof of that fact. Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender also seems to fall under that category. While the creatives involved clearly cared about telling a story, and I feel like they did as good as to be expected given their restraints, it’s not clear they had a story to tell going into it. I would imagine that Paramount had just run out of video games and collectible card games to cram Avatar into.

For adapted works, there’s the additional layer of whether anything is added by adapting the source material. Just making a live action version of an animated show just isn’t enough to be worthwhile. Adapting a book or comic book to a movie or show, whether it’s live action or animated, just for the sake of it is justifiable, as it’s at minimum a significant enough format change and it makes the original works more approachable, but I would argue that it’s just barely justifiable in most cases. Adapting The Lord of the Rings makes sense because of its epic scope, while there’s a whole lot less value in adapting something like Fahrenheit 451, even if Fahrenheit 451‘s message has more societal value (and it being one of my early favorite novels), which may end up finding new prescience in a potential AI-centered world.

The best way to avoid the Adaptation Trap on the production side is to have something new to say. This is actually where Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender shines. Where Nickelodeon’s Avatar focuses more on redemption and duty, Netflix’s Avatar is more centered around regret and atonement.

Perhaps no moment better exemplifies this than the introduction of Bumi in both series. In Nickelodeon’s Avatar, Bumi is introduced in the episode, “The King of Omashu.” In that version, Bumi has a wizened puckishness. He tests Aang with a series of challenges, with a purpose of showing Aang how he needs to be more adaptive and creative in combat, how to grow as the Avatar in order to bring peace to the world, and to showcase that Aang needs to find a neutral jing master to teach him earth bending. In Netflix’s Avatar, Bumi is introduced in the episode, “Into the Dark.” In that version, Bumi is bitter and angry at Aang for abandoning the world for the last 100 years, and he’s not testing his old friend, rather he’s attempting to punish Aang, who is able to atone for his transgression by offering Bumi the whistle he’s been holding onto.

Also in the “Into the Dark” episode, Iroh is confronted with the damage that he wrought to the Earth Kingdom soldiers, especially during his siege of Ba Sing Se. They also show the funeral for Lu Ten (Iron’s son) in “Into the Dark,” and all the pain and regret that befell Iroh. It showcases how that broke him as a man. It also highlights the warrior culture, and is an early look into Zuko’s love and empathy for his uncle.

Finally, the producers of adapted media need to stop feeding the fans chum. Integrate the original as much as is reasonable, and include fun easter eggs when it won’t detract from the story, but leave the chum behind. Including Cai (the cabbage guy) is a great easter egg that doesn’t really detract from anything while still bringing in a little joy (which is frankly needed for Netflix’s Avatar). Conversely, the haiku scene was a huge record scratch that really didn’t add anything of value.

For the audience to avoid the Adaptation Trap, they need to learn to stop worrying about their preconceived expectations of the adapted media and start celebrating the changes that were made that elevate the story, while being critical of where the adapted media falls flat on its own merit. It’s okay if what they do is very different, especially if it’s a necessary change to meet the constraints of the new medium. It’s even okay if the tone gets dramatically shifted. It’s not okay if a story is wildly uneven, scenes don’t serve the wider narrative, if the acting, directing, editing, etc., is subpar, or if events take away from the service of the story. Most of all, if you want to avoid the Adaptation Trap, enjoy the story for what it is, not what it’s not.

The Fall of Ted Lasso, Or: How Media Literacy is Important to Enjoying Stories

Offbeat Thesis

The internet often talks about the fall of Ted Lasso, by which they mean the perceived fall from grace of the show, especially in the third season. They mean the shift from the mostly saccharine first season to the diluted second season to the bitter third season. Think pieces and video essays around the world complain that the show lost its way. As is the entire thesis of this site, the internet is always wrong.

When I say the Fall of Ted Lasso, I don’t mean the fall of Ted Lasso. The show, Ted Lasso, is not a sitcom, a medium full of sacchrinitiy, whose conflicts are mostly misunderstandings, unusual circumstances, and cruelty. Despite the jokes, its sweet veneer, and its happy endings, it’s not necessarily accurate to call the first three seasons of Ted Lasso a comedy (technically it is, but it’s also mostly not). Those first three seasons of Ted Lasso are about the Fall of Ted Lasso, or to be more precise the downfall of Ted Lasso.

From the very beginning, the show tells the audience exactly what it’s doing and where it’s going. The very impetus for Ted Lasso to agree to go to coach for AFC Richmond in the first place is because his marriage was falling apart. His wife, Michelle, had fallen out of love with him and asked for space. While he obliged her, putting the Atlantic Ocean between them, Ted Lasso starts his journey in Ted Lasso in a hurt and confused state, trying to understand what happened to their marriage and why he can’t fix it.

Before we move on, we need to go back to the basics a little, so I can show my work. There are two main factors at play: Tragedies versus Comedies and Rise, Fall, Redemption. The first is required to understand the second, which is an observation of my own, so I’ll start at the beginning because I’d rather repeat something everyone knows for the sake of those whose education systems failed them.

Tragedies versus Comedies

Many, if not most, people are aware of the dynamic between the original use of comedy and tragedy, but not everyone is. For those unaware, in their most simplistic definitions, a comedy is the rise of the protagonist (or protagonists, but we’ll say it in the singular for the sake of this essay), often ending with a joyous celebration, where a tragedy is the fall of the protagonist, often ending in some kind of mournful observation.

While comedies are often full of joy, jokes, and banter, that’s not always the case. There is very little fun that exists within the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but under that ancient definition of comedy, that’s exactly what it is. The heroes encounter many great struggles, but in the end they overcome them to save the day, followed by a grand celebration. Even the likes of Batman Begins, which has very little humor or lightheartedness and lacks any kind of joyous celebration, is still considered a comedy in this context because it ends with a triumphant hero.

In the same way, a tragedy doesn’t need to be joyless to be a tragedy. Romeo and Juliet, which has many lighthearted moments, and at many times could be mistaken for a romantic comedy, is no less a tragedy. It ends with the dual suicide of the two star-crossed lovers, worse due to a tragic misunderstanding.

Modern American audiences do not seem to like tragedies for the most part. Plenty exist. Se7en and American Beauty are shining examples of modern American tragedies (or at minimum they’re the ones that pop to my addling Elder Millennial mind first), but the vast majority of media made for modern American audiences end on a high note. While I think that ending on a low note in Ted Lasso could have been more fitting in many ways, I don’t know if it would’ve served the story as well, and it for sure would’ve alienated the American audience it was appealing to. As a result, the denouement for Ted Lasso needed to be joyful, thus negating its position as a tragedy, even if the whole of the story was building towards tragedy.

[As a bit of an explainer, a denouement is the resolution of a story following the climax. It’s where character arcs are tied up, story arcs are resolved, events are explained, and/or the moral of the story is highlighted, among other things. The denouement precedes the conclusion and the epilogue.]

Ted Lasso otherwise follows the downfall of Ted Lasso, culminating in Ted’s “Thank You and Fuck You” monologue from the penultimate episode, “Mom City,” which is the actual climax of the series, not the final game of the season against West Ham United. Yes, at first glance it would awkwardly place the entirety of the final episode, “So Long, Farewell,” of Ted Lasso as the denouement, but it actually more accurately applies to the events of the episode, or at least the events leading up to the epilogue.

The scenes of “So Long, Farewell” play out as moments wrapping up the stories of each of the characters in Ted Lasso, as is tradition in planned series finales of shows, especially with sitcoms. What it is not is a standalone story with a distinct beginning, middle, and end. Thus, the entire final episode of the first three seasons is a denouement, whose goal is to send off all of the heroes of the story into joyful endings, thus making it a comedy, despite its climax.

In a brief summery of “So Long, Farewell,” Rebecca Welton is tempted to sell either some or all of AFC Richmond, Roy Kent and Jamie Tartt fight each other over the affection of Keeley Jones, who rejects both of them, the team performs a rendition of The Sound of Music‘s “So Long, Farewell” for Ted Lasso and Coach Beard as a farewell gift, Trent Crimm finishes his book, Nathan Shelley returns as an AFC Richmond kit man, and AFC Richmond beats West Ham United to get second in the Premier League, during which Rupert Mannion finally loses his temper and leaves the stadium in disgrace as his team is on the cusp of losing, culminating with Ted and Rebecca having an emotional farewell and Beard choosing to stay in London to be with Jane while Ted returns to Kansas City. In the epilogue, Rebecca runs into the man she met in Amsterdam after running into his daughter, she sells 49% of the team to the fans, Trent changes the name of the book from The Ted Lasso Way to The Richmond Way, Rupert is removed as West Ham’s owner, Roy becomes the new head coach of AFC Richmond, Sam is on the Nigerian national football team, Jamie reconnects with his rehabilitated father, the Believe sign is restored, Beard marries Jane Payne, and Ted is home, coaching his son’s soccer team.

Rise, Fall, Redemption

While I make no claim of being the sole person to have figured out this pattern, especially considering how prevalent it is, the one that I’ve noticed that endures is Rise, Fall, Redemption. The pattern exists at all levels of a story, and permeates throughout it. The story as a whole, each act, the individual scenes, and all of the characters have their arcs of Rise, Fall, Redemption. Even tragedies, who forgo redemption in its climax or during the denouement, still have moments of Rise, Fall, Redemption throughout.

What do I mean by Rise, Fall, Redemption? In short, the Rise is the initial improvement beginning from homeostasis, by which I mean as it existed at the beginning of the cycle; the Fall is the setback or downfall from the peak of the Rise, which is triggered by conflict, and ends below homeostasis; and the Redemption is the final improvement, which ends the cycle in an even better place than the end of the Rise. This, I know, is a very nebulous definition, but the Rise, Fall, Redemption exists at all levels of storytelling, and each character, conflict, chapter, and story has their own Rise, Fall, and Redemption, so an initial definition that is non-specific is necessary to lay the groundwork to show how it works in general before showing how the first three seasons of Ted Lasso is the Fall of Ted Lasso.

To provide a baseline example of Rise, Fall, Redemption, I’ll show how it exists in its most platonic ideal, which is in the original Star Wars trilogy. Across the original Star Wars trilogy, A New Hope is the Rise, The Empire Strikes Back is the Fall, and Return of the Jedi is the Redemption.

The homeostasis at the beginning of the trilogy is the Galactic Empire is in seemingly total control of the galaxy, with some resistance, chiefly from the Rebellion. Throughout the course of A New Hope, the primary protagonists (Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo) and the secondary protagonists (Chewbacca, R2D2, and C3PO) of the trilogy are collected, they mount a assault on the attacking Death Star, destroy the Death Star, and celebrate the Rebellion’s first major success against the Galactic Empire. While there are plenty of ups and downs, the trajectory of the story is upward. The story, and its characters, are on the rise.

In The Empire Strikes Back, the Rebellion suffers a major defeat where they lose their base on Hoth, Luke Skywalker leaves the Rebellion to get more training, Han Solo is betrayed by Lando Calrissian and captured in Cloud City on Bespin, Luke abandons his training with Master Yoda (who dies) to save the other protagonists, it’s revealed that Luke is actually Darth Vader’s son, and the protagonists limp off to lick their wounds, defeated. Throughout the movie, events transpire and choices are made that place the heroes of story in a much lower place than where they started. It’s true that there are some small victories, in order for them to fall below where they started, even those small victories have to be bittersweet.

In Return of the Jedi, Lando Calrissian becomes an additional secondary protagonist, Han Solo is rescued by the rest of the protagonists, the Rebellion mounts an attack on the second Death Star still in construction, Luke Skywalker faces of against Darth Vader (who is redeemed), Emperor Palpatine is defeated, and the Rebellion celebrates the eventual downfall of the Galactic Empire. The story starts at a low spot, still lower than where they began at the outset of the trilogy, but throughout the course of the movie, they’re able to generally quickly rise to new heights, achieving their ultimate goals completely. They didn’t just destroy a second Death Star, they defeated the Emperor and took down the Galactic Empire. Redemption isn’t just getting you back to where you started, but in a much better place than where you ended the Rise.

The Fall of Ted Lasso

Unlike most stories, the Rise of Ted Lasso doesn’t happen during Ted Lasso, or rather it’s more accurate to say that it wasn’t explored during the show. It’s mentioned as a part of the setup, and otherwise referenced, but it’s not fully explored. In summation, Ted Lasso led the fictional Wichita State Shockers to their first national title, as Division II championships, the first in the school’s history. He didn’t lead a good team to the ultimate end. He started with a “garbage program” and won in his very first season with the team. He even ended with a celebration in true Comedy fashion, and in the denouement he became an internet sensation.

For every Rise, there is a Fall. As pointed out earlier, Ted Lasso starts with Ted Lasso in the midst of a marriage that fell apart. They aren’t explicit with what happened, but being a head coach at the college and professional levels is incredibly time consuming all year round. There is always a training camp, somewhere to go for scouting and recruiting, some kind of combine, workouts, and some kind of game management to be had. For head coaches, and probably a lot of the coaching staff, it’s an 80 hour week all year long. Being in a relationship with someone who works that much is a lot like having a long distance relationship with someone who you live with. It’s easy to imagine how Ted and Michelle’s marriage fell apart. It’s also easy to see how as the person working that much wouldn’t necessarily be aware of a marriage falling apart as it’s happening.

That’s where Ted Lasso starts. Equal parts not quite fully understanding why his marriage is falling apart (well fallen apart, but he didn’t know that), trying to maintain a brave face, and keeping up his positive attitude, Ted Lasso braves on, doing his best to make a bad situation as good as he can. He’s not yet aware that he’s a total mess, as Sassy Collins would eventually inform him.

While not everything in Ted Lasso’s life in Ted Lasso is in a downward trajectory (as mentioned, Rise, Fall, Redemption is a cycle that exists at multiple levels throughout an entire story), Ted Lasso’s journey (as opposed to the trajectory Ted Lasso) is marred with more struggles than successes, and even those successes are often undercut by his struggles. As a prime example, in “Make Rebecca Great Again,” the night before AFC Richmond’s victory against Liverpool’s Everton FC, Ted is being pushed to sign the divorce paperwork by his soon-to-be ex-wife and her lawyer, and he ends up snapping at Nathan Shelley. After their win, the team goes out to celebrate, which is where he has his first panic attack, during Rebecca Welton’s rendition of “Let it Go.”

This isn’t to say that Ted Lasso itself isn’t as a whole more tragedy than comedy (denouement notwithstanding), as the struggles that Ted Lasso endures are at the center of Ted Lasso, but I will say that it’s a bit less clear. Ted Lasso’s story isn’t the only one that exists in Ted Lasso. Nathan Shelley’s entire arc is Rise, Fall, Redemption as perfectly partitioned by each season. Keeley Jones’ arc also perfectly maps to the three seasons of Ted Lasso. Rebecca Welton’s Fall happens en media res, where hers starts before the series starts, and her Redemption arc starts at the end of the first season, concluding with meeting the mysterious man from Amsterdam (Matthjis) in the episode, “Sunflowers.” Roy Kent’s Fall is also in progress at the beginning of Ted Lasso, shifting to Redemption when he joins the coaching staff, although his relationship with Keeley is in Rise until he breaks up with her, and is currently in Fall. Coach Beard’s primary Rise, Fall, Redemption arc happened before the events of Ted Lasso, where he and Ted became friends as special teams back-ups, his drug addiction, and eventual Redemption as becoming a permanent assistant coach and friend with Ted Lasso (although his relationship with Jane Payne is a different conversation). Each of the rest of the characters have their own Rise, Fall, Redemption arcs, existing at various points before, throughout, and after the first three seasons of Ted Lasso, but I’ve provided enough examples to establish the pattern.

To hit the highlights of Ted Lasso’s personal arc, by which I mean the things that actually have a significant impact on Ted’s life, in order to show my work properly, within the first three seasons of Ted Lasso are:

  • Ted arrives in London to coach a sport he has no experience in, in a Hail Mary effort to save his marriage on the verge of collapse, who is hired with the express effort of imploding the team (a la Major League), and is met with resentment and outright hostility by the fans, the press, and the players
  • Michelle and Henry, his wife and son, visit Ted, where Michelle eventually confesses that she no longer loves Ted, and believes she never will again, to which Ted lets her go and agrees to a divorce
  • Ted signs his divorce paperwork after being pushed by Michelle and her lawyer, as well as his first panic attack, although it ends in a night with Sassy Collins
  • The Diamond Dogs are formed in order to help Ted process his feelings about sleeping with Sassy
  • Ted and Coach Beard get in a fight about his attitude that wins and losses don’t matter
  • Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, a sports psychologist, is hired, who Ted resents, and has an adversarial relationship for a long time, although he eventually comes to respect and rely on
  • Ted falls into despair on Christmas after his attempt to have some kind of celebration via FaceTime goes awry, although Rebecca swoops in and rescues him from things getting truly dark
  • Ted suffers his second panic attack of the show, and the first in public, which is the impetus of him seeking help with Dr. Sharon
  • While getting ready to go to the funeral for Rebecca’s father, Ted has his third panic attack, where he reveals that his father committed suicide and how that impacted his life; Nathan Shelley leaks to the press that Ted has been having panic attacks, which was the real reason why he left the game earlier in the season
  • Over FaceTime, Henry casually shows Ted a gift he got from “Jake,” who is later revealed to be his former marriage counselor, Dr. Jacob Branson, which has him reeling
  • After another night of passion, Ted asks Sassy out, which she declines, explaining that he’s a total mess, later confirmed by the Diamond Dogs
  • Ted finds out Henry bullied another kid, which is antithetical to who Ted is
  • Ted goes to an American themed restaurant where he watches a Chicago Bulls game and has an epiphany, leading him to independently reinvent Total Football, which leads the team to massive success, eventually qualifying AFC Richmond to play in the (UEFA) Champions League
  • Ted finds out and Dr. Jacob is taking Michelle to Paris, where he assumes he will propose to her, which sends him into a tailspin, even enlisting Rebecca to hire him a private investigator to find out, although she eventually talks him down and Ted returns to enjoy his time with Henry
  • Ted confronts his mother in the aforementioned “Thank You and Fuck You” speech, where she tells him to move back to the US, as Henry misses Ted and needs him
  • Ted quits AFC Richmond, returns to Kansas and coaches Henry’s team.

Obviously, while not everything listed above is negative, nor is it everything that happened to Ted, but the things that truly impact Ted’s life, which is a lot different than the things he does teaching life lessons to others or helping them, when compiled, it’s hard to not see a downward trajectory. It’s hard to see the first three seasons of Ted Lasso as anything other than the Fall of Ted Lasso.

Even though there are other things that surround Ted Lasso in the show, and all of the characters and events have their own arcs, Ted Lasso is ultimately about Ted Lasso, and the tone and events of everything going on around Ted have to be in service of the about its central figure. Hence, Ted Lasso is mostly a Tragedy, which the Internet mostly didn’t get, which is why most people didn’t like it as much as they could’ve.

Enjoying the Story Being Told

There is nothing easier than being passive, and that’s just as true for consuming media as it is as anything else. Don’t get me wrong, not everything needs to be analyzed and deconstructed, Ted Lasso included. There is a ton of value in just mindlessly consuming a piece of media that makes you feel good in some way, that’s a totally fair way to consume media. However, developing strong media literacy can help you understand and appreciate what you’re consuming more, even the most mindless drivel, but that experience will always be enhanced by trying to understand the story trying to being told. Yes, even reality television.

Criticism has two definitions. The second definition, and the one that most are familiar with, is expressing negative judgement of something, someone, or actions taken. The first definition is the analysis and evaluation of the attributes of media, including literature, poems, music, movies, shows, plays, art, or just about anything that can be analyzed or evaluated.

When you apply that first principle of criticism, the goal is to find a deeper understanding of the media being engaged. It’s important to understand the artistic intent, otherwise you can’t make an effective analysis. Sometimes you can point to the artist’s own words, but all too often you have to look to the text itself, metaphorically speaking, to identify an artist’s intention. If you don’t, you risk missing the point entirely, and take away the wrong message. That’s how you have the widespread misunderstanding of “The Road Not Taken” from just about every commencement speaker ever, and along with it a message that was never intended. Or, if you want a more succinct and widely applicable example, the idiom of “a few bad apples” is a misread of the metaphor, “one bad apple ruins the whole barrel,” which is to say that the rot of even one bad actor can infect the rest of the people in a group or organization, which is why it’s important to remove the rotten “apple” in the first place.

In the case of Ted Lasso, by taking the time to analyze the actual text of the show and not just let the good vibes that the first season is using to create a contrast for the Fall of Ted Lasso wash over you, you’re better able to understand and appreciate what’s going on in the second and third seasons a whole lot more. Which isn’t to say that you necessarily need to have figured it out right away. It was no more obvious to me at first as it was to anyone else. I, too, initially dismissed the initial clues about the direction that the writers were talking us down. It wasn’t until the second season episode, “Carol of the Bells,” where Ted Lasso was on the brink of absolute despair before being rescued by Rebecca, which is some 60% of the way through the second season, when I really started to realize what they were doing.

Criticism isn’t a thing you do once and forget about it forever. It’s a thing you do throughout an entire piece of media. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a thing you have to be actively doing all the time, especially if you’re just consuming it for entertainment, but it’s wise to check in with yourself every now and then, or at minimum when it breaks your expectations. Did they fail to achieve their goals or should you reassess your expectations? The easiest way to do that is to determine whether what they’re doing now is actually in line with what they’ve always been doing, even if you didn’t realize it at first. Were the clues always there, even if you dismissed them, or is there a ton of inconsistency? If you want to go further you can, or you’d rather not then you can skip it, but if you just dismiss a piece of media just because it didn’t achieve your expectation, then you’re the one missing out.

Epilogue: The Redemption of Ted Lasso

I had begun this 7-8 page essay a bit before the start of the fourth season of Ted Lasso, where at the time of publishing the fourth episode of the fourth season, “Greyhounds’ Day Off,” just aired. So far, it’s following the Redemption stage of Ted Lasso’s story to a tee. For those interested, I suggest watching the next three seasons of Ted Lasso with that pattern in mind. It should put a ton in perspective as you’re watching it.

[Old Content] Introversion in an Extroverted World

Offbeat Thesis

Note: This is an essay I wrote a long time ago when I first considered doing Offbeat Thesis. It’s just not a reflection of the direction I’m heading towards now. Still, history is worth preserving.

This is a piece that I wrote for my Speech class four years ago. I quoted heavily from the cited websites at the bottom, but I didn’t use quotation marks and citations within the text is because it was for a speech class, and thus wasn’t necessary. I am sharing this information in my blog because I think it’s useful information for both introverts and extroverts to have. It is by no means new information, but it’s nice to have it collected in one place.

INTRODUCTION:

Attention Grabber: I am an introvert. It may not seem it, but I struggle in a society that seems to be built for extroverts. I never really liked going out and doing the same things as my extroverted friends, but when I was younger I could easily bounce back from the drain. It wasn’t until a year ago, when I went to Las Vegas for my then brother-in-law’s wedding, that I realized that, for introverts, being overstimulated is like dealing with a hangover. It wasn’t until I started doing research for this speech that I discovered that there is a physiological reason why we introverts have a tendency to recluse ourselves.

Topic: Today I will explain to you what it’s like for an introvert to live in an extrovert’s world.

Preview of the Main Points: First, I will give you some insight into the introvert’s brain, in context as opposed to the extrovert’s brain. Second, I will explain how those differences in the introvert’s brain affects how we perceive the world. Third, I will show that Western society is geared towards extroversion, and discuss how that affects the introvert.

**1st Transition: Before I show you what it’s like to live in an extroverted world, you first need to understand the biology of the introvert’s brain.

BODY:

First Point: There are physiological differences between introverts and extroverts.

1. The cerebral cortex is the outer covering of gray matter over the hemispheres. These include areas directly receiving sensory input. The association cortices are important in more complex cortical functions including memory, language, abstraction, creativity, judgement, emotion and attention. The neocortex are the more primitive areas are involved with olfaction and survival functions such as visceral and emotional reactions. The primary visual cortex projects to areas surrounding it, called the visual association areas, where signals are interpreted and form is recognized. There are additional aspects of visual function that are represented in other regions of adjacent cortex, which is necessary for color recognition and recognizing movement. There are auditory association areas surrounding the primary auditory cortex. These areas are involved in the interpretation of sound. In the dominant hemisphere the cortex surrounding the auditory cortex is required for understanding language.

2. According to German psychologist, Hans Eysenck, the behaviors of introverts and extroverts are due to differences in cortical arousal, which is the speed and amount of the brain’s activity. Compared with extroverts, introverts have naturally high cortical arousal, and may process more information per second. Additionally, scientists obtained behavioral and psychophysiological measures as participants, consisting of 16 introverts and 16 extroverts, performed a visual go/no-go task. Although no extroversion-related differences in reaction time emerged, introverts showed faster premotor processing but slower central and peripheral motor processing–as indicated by latencies of the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) and electromyographic (EMG) data, respectively–than extroverts did.

3. Research has also shown that introverts have more activity than extroverts in brain regions associated with vigilance control. Vigilance is sustained concentration, defined by the ability to maintain concentrated attention over prolonged periods of time. During this time, the person attempts to detect the appearance of a particular target stimulus. Research has linked increases in mental workload and allocation of attentional resources with increased activity in the prefrontal cortex. As such, subcortical brain regions associated with arousal play as a critical role in performance of vigilance tasks.

4. The premotor cortex is immediately anterior to the motor cortex and has many of the same connections as the motor cortex. This region receives input from the sensory association cortex as well as feedback from the basal ganglia. Electrical stimulation of this area tends to produce more complex movements and a higher stimulus intensity than the simple movements. Introverts’ premotor cortexes process external stimuli more quickly.

5. The reticular activating system ignites brain activity, which has a higher basal activity for introverts than for extroverts. Basal is the minimal level of activity. The reticular activating system emanates from the brainstem and projects upward to the cerebral cortex via the thalamus. The influence of this system can be described in behavioral terms, such as the ability to think and also the kind of thoughts we have, or it can be described in terms of brain wave activity. The reticular activating system can be described as the ignition system of the brain. It is the system, for example, that helps get your brain geared up to a higher level of activity so you can get out of bed and start your day.

**2nd Transition: Now that you understand how the introvert’s brain takes in information, I will explain how these differences cascade in an extroverted setting.

Second Point: Those physiological differences affect how introverts and extroverts experience social situations.

1. Because introverts process more information per second, if you put introverts into an environment with a lot of stimulation, such as a loud restaurant, they will become overwhelmed or overloaded, causing a sort of shut down to stop the influx of information. Because of this fact, introverts tend to avoid such active environments. Extroverts, on the other hand, are only minimally aroused, so they seek out highly stimulating environments to augment their arousal levels.

2. Increased vigilance from introverts means that introverts have heightened awareness of actions around them, thus increasing the overwhelming sensations. More recent studies indicate that vigilance is hard work, requiring the allocation of significant cognitive resources, and inducing significant levels of stress. Since an introvert is naturally taking in an overwhelming amount of sensory data coupled with an increased amount of vigilance, compared to extroverts, that overload becomes significantly more stressful.

3. The ability to process stimuli faster in the premotor cortex means that that overwhelming information that is being heightened is processed quickly. While it’s true that the premotor cortex is linked to the motor cortex, and is used largely as a means to react to instruction and planning of action, it is easy to see how a overwhelming environment that is heightened by increased vigilance that causes stress would be a burden at the part of the brain that wants to act.

4. This higher basal activity for the reticular activating system means that introverts are naturally more stimulated than extroverts. Simply put, introverts naturally have a higher idle engine than extroverts. Coupled with an engine that wants to react quickly to an overwhelming amount of sensory data that is enhanced by increased vigilance which is causing a lot of stress, it’s no wonder that introverts prefer a quiet night in than a bright, flashing, loud, and intrusive club.

**3rd Transition: Knowing what it’s like is only a small part of the picture.

Third Point: There is a natural bias towards extroverts, which creates problems for introverts

1. Researchers estimate that extroverts make up 50%-74% of the population. There is no definitive data to support any percentage, and any number would be an estimation at best. It was originally postulated that extroverts outnumbered introverts 3:1, but it wan’t until recently that number has been challenged.

2. Western culture, especially American culture, is biased towards extroverted ideals, which an extroverted ideal dominates and introversion is viewed as inferior or even pathological. As a whole, it is the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight. Western societies ideal praises oratory strength and favors the man of action over the man of contemplation. In a culture that is biased against them, introverts are pressured to at like extroverts instead of embracing their serious, often quiet, and reflective style.

3. Since social environments are geared toward extroverts, they are overwhelming to introverts.  Western culture is built towards extroverted ideals. This has bled into all facets of life, to include places of entertainment and relaxation. Bars are a great example of this simple fact, which often play imposingly loud music and have all sorts of games and distractions, all accompanied by bright lights. Music at concerts are played at deafening levels, which all too often come with an even wider assortment of flashing lights, lasers, and set pieces. These things that draw extroverts like a moth to a flame, because they require the extra external stimulation that introverts get at rest, are painful for introverts who must endure them to enjoy any piece of Western civilization.

**4th Transition: Now that we have a better understanding what it’s like to live as an introvert in an extrovert’s world, let’s review what we have discussed so far.

CONCLUSION:

Review: Today I shared with you the biology of an introvert’s brain, how an introvert’s brain processes sensory inputs, and a world that is seemingly overwhelmingly extroverted for introverts.

Ending: Now that you have a better understanding of what it’s like to be an introvert, you have a better understanding of the living hell that the Las Vegas game floor was for me. I was only on the floor when I absolutely had to be, but when I was, the flashing lights, loud sounds, and pervasive hum of conversation was simply unbearable. If I had gone when I was younger, and had the energy to withstand such a sensory onslaught, I might have enjoyed myself, even a little, but the older you get the longer it takes to recoup from attacks on the body and the brain, and the more you want to avoid things that hurt you.

Citations:

[Old Content] Why Breath of the Wild’s Princess Zelda is Actually a Positive Feminine Example

Offbeat Thesis

Note: This is an essay I wrote a long time ago when I first considered doing Offbeat Thesis. While I continue to stand by the piece, it’s not a reflection of the direction I’m heading towards now. That’s not to say I won’t write a similar piece in the future, maybe even using Zelda as the subject, but it won’t be exactly this. Still, history is worth preserving.

Ooh boy. That’s going to get people real mad real fast, but it’s not click-bait. I honestly believe it, and I hope you’ll understand why I say it by the end. Just keep an open mind and hold on to your outrage until you’ve heard me out.

A very quick background as to why this is coming now, and not over a year ago when the game came out. It’s a lot less complex than you’d think (as is often the case). When Breath of the Wild came out, I was in the last leg of my senior year of college. I tried to play some, but (despite what non-English majors will tell you) English is a no-joke major, especially in your senior year. Double that as a non-traditional student with real-world adult responsibilities. I simply didn’t have time to get engrossed in the story, and I ended up losing all the free time I had. So, over a year later, as my life has started to cool down I decided to start all over.

A Hero is Born

IMG_0178.JPGWhy do I think that Princess Zelda is a positive feminine example? Because you get to see her hero’s journey. Granted, it’s through Link, but it’s there nonetheless. We don’t just see Zelda as the powerful sorceress that she is by the start of the game. We see her from the beginning, where she lacks any confidence and is unsure of her place in the world.

This is important. Many heroes are a victim of their world and their circumstances. Luke Skywalker was the child of Darth Vader, Frodo the inheritor of the One Ring, and Don Quixote lost his grip on reality. That didn’t stop them from doing the right thing when it was their time to stand up, but it is important to remember where they started.

In fact, Zelda starts out as an even stronger character than many of her male counterparts. She knows she has the power to be the hero her people needs. It’s not that she doesn’t have the drive to be great. She just doesn’t have the confidence in herself to think she alone has the strength needed to defeat Ganon. That lack of understanding of her own strength pushes her to try to fall into the background, and use her knowledge and scientific understanding to aid in the effort to defeat Ganon.

The primary difference between her and her male counterparts isn’t so much about capacity as it is approach. While unfortunate, men are culturally driven to step out into the world without any regard for anything in front of them, where women are discouraged from seizing the reins of control. As a result, when confronted by each of their arduous tasks, the male heroes jump straight into traffic without regard, where female heroes take a more self-consious journey.

A Strength of Spirit

IMG_0603I want to get one thing out of the way. In most incarnations of Princess Zelda, she is a total bad ass. Ganon doesn’t lock her up in a tower as a part of some weird Mario/Bowser fantasy. Princess Zelda is almost categorically the most powerful person in any kingdom of Hyrule. Ganondorf locks Princess Zelda up for that exct reason. He’s afraid of her, and is very strategically removing the biggest threat first.

Do you know who Ganon is not afraid of? Link. He may fear the Master Sword, and he’s long since learned to not underestimate its weilder, but Link is only a threat in that he is routinely the one that unleashes Princess Zelda. Note that I didn’t say frees or saves. All he does is unlocks the door and stands with the sword in hand to strike the final blow to seal Ganon away again.

In most Legend of Zelda games, Princess Zelda is far more self-assured, and has a greater understanding of what’s needed. In the original Legend of Zelda title, the reason why she was kidnapped by Ganon is because she split the Triforce of Wisdom and spread it across the kingdom. That is a high level understanding of what she needed to do, and an act of extreme power. She split apart an artifact of divine power and hid it all away behind very powerful guardians.

IMG_0604Breath of the Wild‘s Princess Zelda is obviously not there for most of the memories that Link recovers. She grows little by little over time, but it’s not until the end that she gains the wisdom and understanding needed to unlock her true potential. I could see where that moment could be misconstrued as her only being able to come into her own for the sake of a man, but I don’t think that’s the way it was at all. Princess Zelda doesn’t unlock her true potential to save Link.

Watching Link fall like that helped her realize that the power she had didn’t come from some shrine, a piece of technology, or an incantation. Princess Zelda always had the strength. What she realized that it was okay to fall. That the only thing that mattered was the fight. The fight for her friends. The fight for her people. The fight against the forces of evil. The fight for everything that is good in the world.

Heroes in All Sizes

IMG_0605How does this make Princess Zelda a positive feminine role model? Because in our culture today women are more free than ever to step out into roles of power. Do we have a long way to go? Yes, but the tides are shifting quickly now. What that also means is that we need to see women at all stages of development. It’s great to see a Diana, Princess of Themyscira, who are fully actualized, and can take on the world with confidence and bravado.

It’s also important to see many different types of women, at various stages of life. If all we see is women at the prime of their power, how are young women going to know that it’s okay to try to find your way there? Is it not going to be hard to think of all great women as being perfect the first time out? What happens if they falter? They can’t look to Wonder Woman for support during struggle, but they can look to Princess Zelda and see that failure is always an option. You can always get back up. The fight is what matters most.