Masters and Caves in a Post-Magic Age: He-Man and Philosophy Jeremy E. Scarbrough Masters of the Universe dominated children’s entertainment in the 1980s and it continues to enchant new generations and re-enchant original fans. Through innovative and unforgettable toys, a cartoon series, a feature film—introducing She-Ra and subsequently launching the Princess of Power series—a live-action…
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…
Understanding T’Challa’s Decision to Open Wakanda to the World Elektra D. Mercutio Okoye: When you said we were going to open Wakanda to the rest of the world this is not what I imagined. T’Challa: And what did you imagine? Okoye: The Olympics, maybe even a Starbucks. As the opening narration of Black Panther establishes,…
Call for Abstracts Star Wars and Philosophy Strikes Back Edited by Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. Eberl 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…
Please circulate and post widely. Apologies for cross-posting. Call for Abstracts Dune and Philosophy Edited by Kevin S. Decker The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series To propose ideas for future volumes in the Blackwell series please contact the Series Editor, William Irwin, at williamirwin@kings.edu The Dune series of books is often compared to The…
All’s Fair in Space and War The Appeal of Deception in Among Us Brandon Packard Among Us is a space-based deception game that is brilliant in its simplicity. In any given round, there are a number of crewmates (typically 8 in a full game) and a number of impostors (typically 2 in a full game,…
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 