Midnight Mass Merits in Morally Ambiguous Media By Tylor Cunningham Often, interpretive disagreements about artworks are the very things that make those works interesting and worth engaging in further. When two people pull seemingly contradictory themes or messages from a story, that’s an opportunity to come together and compare notes; to see if there’s something…
On the Moral Status of Bloodbending Davis Smith Introduction During their travels around the world of Avatar, our heroes have encountered many people with strange or unique bending abilities. For example, they encountered Combustion Man, who could make things explode with his mind (“The Headband” 23:24-23:48and “The Beach” 15:21-16:16). None, however, are more troubling and…
Competing Ethical Systems in Ghost of Tsushima by Armond Boudreaux In its depiction of medieval Japanese culture, its astonishingly beautiful landscapes and imagery, and its hyper-realistic combat, Ghost of Tsushima is ground-breaking. One remarkable thing about the game that might have gone relatively unnoticed, however, is the way in which it invites a sophisticated…
Darkest Dungeon and Ethics Making the Most of a Bad Situation James Cartlidge Darkest Dungeon is a critically acclaimed, award-winning video game developed by Red Hook Studios which, since its release in 2016, has maintained a strong cult following. It tells a story of grim, medieval Lovecraftian horror and raises deep, difficult ethical questions in…
Black Panther, What if, and the Philosophy of Fathers and Sons Edwardo Raul Pérez Watching “What if … T’Challa Became a Star-Lord,” the second episode of Disney+’s What if, with my children, having just learned that my father died (but being emotionally unable to immediately tell my kids, because the words just wouldn’t come out,…
Damon Salvatore The Ultimate Vampire By Maria Pacheco de Amorim Far from being just another CW teen soap opera, The Vampire Diaries might be the moment that the vampire fiction initiated by Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) reached its highest state of self-awareness. Unlike Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is really about the burden of a…
Death Stranding Sam Porter Bridges is Staying with the Trouble Kristien Hens Death Stranding, a video game by Hideo Kojima, tells the story of a devastated USA and humanity on the brink of falling victim to the sixth extinction. The outside world has become a dangerous place, with toxic rainfall and ghouls and terrorists.…
Call for Abstracts Mad Max and Philosophy Edited by David Koepsell and Matt Meyer The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series Please circulate and post widely. Apologies for cross posting. To propose ideas for future volumes in the Blackwell series please contact the Series Editor, William Irwin, at williamirwin@kings.edu Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial…
Money Heist The Philosophical Bond of Resistance Caterina Del Sordo Money Heist originally appeared as a Spanish TV show called “La Casa de Papel”. Netflix acquired global streaming rights in December 2017, and within a few months the series became one of the most watched TV shows in the world and the most watched non-English…
Existential Shattering and Stoic Clemency in Sonic the Hedgehog Elektra D. Mercutio That iconic blue speedster Sonic the Hedgehog turns 30 in 2021. Feeling nostalgic, I reflected on a story featured in the 200th issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic in which Dr. Eggman, Sonic’s arch-nemesis, has an existential crisis after suffering yet…
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 