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[HP_Wuvcraft]

People who keep saying I missed the point. I understand that there's a greater point they're trying to make with each episode. I get it. Please stop saying I missed it... its not that deep or subtle to miss. This isn't rocket science told through interpretive dancing.

I'm simply saying the NTR element they're using as a plot device bothers me. I've only seen 3 episode and 2 of them have had it... its a bit much for me if this is a reoccurring theme (which it seems it isn't?... Thanks marzlapin). I don't want that shit in my head. I've made dumb jokes about NTR in the past but I'm seriously not a fan of the stuff.

I guess I should clarify myself if it helps. If you are going to argue of the technicality of the concept of the NTR effect then knock yourself out but being pedantic to that level will simply just rob the meaning out of any concept. A concept is not some well-defined thing. It has fuzzy edges and grows deeper in meaning and morphs to ideas that it can overlap with even if it doesn't cover the entirety of the idea. The plot devices scenarios I mention both have strong indication of this concept and that being used as a re-occurring plot device is what I'd like to understand more about this series if I'm to continue watching.

Dude, you are projecting your own hangups on the show.

There are no NRT elements.

 

[Randam]

So you watched the 2nd and 3rd episode!?

 

[hipbabboom]

That synopsis of episode 3 is killing me.

Well that wasn't my synopsis of episode 3 but I will share with you what I think is an interesting interpretation of the theme of episode 2:

I can't help but to feel like the show is an allegory of modern the modern day tech industry where the billionaire elite use the talented amongst the masses to develop and proselytize the technologies that dehumanize and enslaves us into the fuel they used to drive their vision of a pristine world for them and their tools to enjoy.

I see the ending imagery and see a world built by the tech elite who've always championed climate change and some of the rhetoric that the earth is overpopulated with humans who are consuming the earth's resources. You look at the shift to game-ify life and the growing concept of virtual products associated with real-world effort being a fair trade when in reality money from real world effort is being pooled by the elite by the working class who are spending it for increasingly virtualized experiences that over nothing more than entertainment value. It seems to somehow fit with the vector that modern society if carried out to its logical extremes.

This allegory has been covered in quite a bit in film and many works of fiction in various incarnations. I'm not trying to frame the episode as being an anti-progressive and anti-global warming propaganda but I will say that seen from a certain angle, it is a cautionary tail about leaving control of the way our societies develop to wolves baring noble causes in their jaws begging us to look closer while lulling us to forget they're wolves who will do what wolves do.

 

[groansey]

Well that wasn't my synopsis of episode 3 but I will share with you what I think is an interesting interpretation of the theme of episode 2:

I can't help but to feel like the show is an allegory of modern the modern day tech industry where the billionaire elite use the talented amongst the masses to develop and proselytize the technologies that dehumanize and enslaves us into the fuel they used to drive their vision of a pristine world for them and their tools to enjoy.

I see the ending imagery and see a world built by the tech elite who've always championed climate change and some of the rhetoric that the earth is overpopulated with humans who are consuming the earth's resources. You look at the shift to game-ify life and the growing concept of virtual products associated with real-world effort being a fair trade when in reality money from real world effort is being pooled by the elite by the working class who are spending it for increasingly virtualized experiences that over nothing more than entertainment value. It seems to somehow fit with the vector that modern society if carried out to its logical extremes.

This allegory has been covered in quite a bit in film and many works of fiction in various incarnations. I'm not trying to frame the episode as being an anti-progressive and anti-global warming propaganda but I will say that seen from a certain angle, it is a cautionary tail about leaving control of the way our societies develop to wolves baring noble causes in their jaws begging us to look closer while lulling us to forget they're wolves who will do what wolves do.

Yeah you totally nailed it, Black Mirror is about the evils of a progressive climate change agenda.

...

A literary analysis brought to you by hentai and gamergate.

 

[hipbabboom]

Yeah you totally nailed it, Black Mirror is about the evils of a progressive climate change agenda.

...

A literary analysis brought to you by hentai and gamergate.

I guess ideas can't considered unless they're reduced to summaries less than 128 characters, generalized and then evaluated.

I guess that's fine too.. lets go with that. Who are some of the people in today's world do you think most fit the bill for such an agenda?

...also why hentai and gamergate?

 

[kyser73]

15 Million Merits is an extrapolation of the contemporary Talent Show, projected into a world where automation has essentially relegated humans to hamsters on wheels as a means of producing energy, with the titular talent show as the only way out.

Abi ending up on a porn channel is nothing to do with infidelity, and everything to do with her refusing to accept the limitations of her talent & wanting whatever fame she can grasp.

Bing's story takes that one step further - he sells his real feelings of anger in exchange for the easy life he has at the end. His betrayal of himself for comfort is the culmination of those shows message.

It is literally nothing to with NTR.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

15 Million Merits is an extrapolation of the contemporary Talent Show, projected into a world where automation has essentially relegated humans to hamsters on wheels as a means of producing energy, with the titular talent show as the only way out.

Abi ending up on a porn channel is nothing to do with infidelity, and everything to do with her refusing to accept the limitations of her talent & wanting whatever fame she can grasp.

Bing's story takes that one step further - he sells his real feelings of anger in exchange for the easy life he has at the end. His betrayal of himself for comfort is the culmination of those shows message.

It is literally nothing to with NTR.

Bing's story is also really relevant to this past election.

Everybody watches this shit unfold, they nod their heads and say "Yeah! You're right!"... then they go back to being complacent.

 

[jellies_two]

Jesus stop using the acronym NTR like it means something to most people because it doesn't and here is a thing: it doesn't mean anything to Charlie Brooker either. Nothing. It just so happens that your anime pattern matching mind finds a pattern over two sequential episodes one that is almost meaningless to anyone else (thank god).

 

[Irminsul]

...also why hentai and gamergate?

Dunno about gamergate, but you just mentioned NTR as if it were nothing and everyone would know what you're talking about. And it's not like there isn't an English word for it that would perfectly fit what you wanted to say.

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again?

 

[Maximus.]

Toby Kebbell is an actor that is just woefully underappreciated and cast in too much shit. Dude was great in Entire History of You (S1E3)

I loved that episode. Good actor.

 

[groansey]

...also why hentai and gamergate?

I guess I just made a leap in my head between hentai - gamergate - the alt-right - climate change denial... Sorry if this isn't you.

 

[marzlapin]

OP I think you need to figure out the difference between infidelity and a cuck fetish, because they are not the same thing.

 

[Carn82]

Brooker just likes to front-load his smut, OP should be fine from S2 and onwards.

(but seriously, OP needs to rebalance some things regarding the importance of certain plot elements).

 

[hipbabboom]

Jesus stop using the acronym NTR like it means something to most people because it doesn't and here is a thing: it doesn't mean anything to Charlie Brooker either. Nothing. It just so happens that your anime pattern matching mind finds a pattern over two sequential episodes one that is almost meaningless to anyone else (thank god).

Its hard to speak to nuance when we're communicating in absolutes like this. Ive tried to explain what I meant when using the 'ntr' but guess it holds no meaning other than to me who likes anime because many believe I consume copious amounts of hentai. Ive mad many sarcastic posts in my past so that's my bed to lay in I guess. I pattern that I did match the scenes I reference though, whatever you might call them to make it more meaningful to you and less anime-like, is something that concerns me. I don't think that its wrong to ask if the series often ties ion similar patterns.

I'm definitely noticing a pattern in how people may form conclusions based on patterns that they've rushed to form so I understand how it can be frustrating and all's I can ask of you in an attempt to be amicable is to understand that I'm not trying to drag the show through the mud. I actually like most of what I saw and have various thoughts on it. Ive tried to move on from the ntr thing based on feedback from others who were able to grasp the pattern that was setting me off so I'm past it now.

Apologies for any frustrations I caused you.

 

[hipbabboom]

Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again?

Probably

 

[ArjanN]

OP I think you need to figure out the difference between infidelity and a cuck fetish, because they are not the same thing.

Pretty much this.

Just because cheating or infidelity comes up in a story, that doesn't automatically make it NTR.

Also, NTR always seemed to me to be for people who get off on self-loathing, not sadists.

 

[FortuneFaded]

I introduced my brother to Black Mirror over Christmas. We watched the first two episodes. He was hesitant about the darkness but wanted to watch more with his wife. He has no idea what he is in store for.

 

[kyser73]

It's worth pointing out that S1&2 are very much UK-focussed efforts, and a lot of the references in both are call backs to Brooker's previous TV work such as Nathan Barley, Dead Set (Zombies + Big Brother (the TV show not 1984)) and much more so, his TV criticism column Screen Burn and satirical TV listing TVGoHome.

Get to know those & it contextualises Black Mirror perfectly, plus they're hysterically funny too. Watching the Chris Morris comedies Brass Eye & The Day Today will further the context too.

 

[hipbabboom]

Pretty much this.

Just because cheating or infidelity comes up in a story, that doesn't automatically make it NTR.

Also, NTR always seemed to me to be for people who get off on self-loathing, not sadists.

I should clarify my understanding of NTR: I always interpreted witnessing the act of your partner cheating as being the core aspect of ntr. The arousal part and the cuck thing wish I've understood were never part of the meaning I wanted to convey.

If this is incorrect then pardon me.

 

[Davey Cakes]

I introduced my brother to Black Mirror over Christmas. We watched the first two episodes. He was hesitant about the darkness but wanted to watch more with his wife. He has no idea what he is in store for.

He's going to love Man Against Fire. Hah.

Shit gets DARK towards the end.

 

[kyser73]

I introduced my brother to Black Mirror over Christmas. We watched the first two episodes. He was hesitant about the darkness but wanted to watch more with his wife. He has no idea what he is in store for.

If they made it through The National Anthem & 15 Million Merits ok they'll be fine.

 

[NekoFever]

Also probably not the best to just namedrop types of hentai as common knowledge.

I don't know. OP going for the obscure hentai term that most people won't understand when there's a perfectly good and widely understood English word tells us a lot about where he's coming from.

 

[Eidan]

This is a strange little thread, I have to say. Stranger yet that the OP evidently had no issue with the episode that had a guy fuck a pig on national television.

 

[whytemyke]

I mean, technically, the first episode is about a guys wife being cucked by a pig as well.

OP is on to something!

Spoiler

Not really

 

[Carcetti]

So this is what anime does to people.

It should be outlawed.

 

[JoeNut]

im with the rest of people who said wtf is NTR and why would you write it that way?

looking at the responses, no it's not really a theme in black mirror.

 

[CloudWolf]

How can you miss the point this hard?

And no, it's not a common theme and no, you're not supposed to get enjoyment out of those aspects of the episode, it's there to showcase how twisted the word has become.

Well that wasn't my synopsis of episode 3 but I will share with you what I think is an interesting interpretation of the theme of episode 2:

I can't help but to feel like the show is an allegory of modern the modern day tech industry where the billionaire elite use the talented amongst the masses to develop and proselytize the technologies that dehumanize and enslaves us into the fuel they used to drive their vision of a pristine world for them and their tools to enjoy.

I see the ending imagery and see a world built by the tech elite who've always championed climate change and some of the rhetoric that the earth is overpopulated with humans who are consuming the earth's resources. You look at the shift to game-ify life and the growing concept of virtual products associated with real-world effort being a fair trade when in reality money from real world effort is being pooled by the elite by the working class who are spending it for increasingly virtualized experiences that over nothing more than entertainment value. It seems to somehow fit with the vector that modern society if carried out to its logical extremes.

This allegory has been covered in quite a bit in film and many works of fiction in various incarnations. I'm not trying to frame the episode as being an anti-progressive and anti-global warming propaganda but I will say that seen from a certain angle, it is a cautionary tail about leaving control of the way our societies develop to wolves baring noble causes in their jaws begging us to look closer while lulling us to forget they're wolves who will do what wolves do.

 

[watershed]

I clicked this thread earlier and was completely lost after reading the OP, and I've watched Black Mirror. I had no clue what NTR is. Reading the definitions provided in this thread, I think the OP is doing some weird projecting/connecting of things that are not intended in the show itself. I think you're really just exposing your own weird hang ups on this whole NTR thing.

 

[Oppo]

I clicked this thread earlier and was completely lost after reading the OP, and I've watched Black Mirror. I had no clue what NTR is. Reading the definitions provided in this thread, I think the OP is doing some weird projecting/connecting of things that are not intended in the show itself. I think you're really just exposing your own weird hang ups on this whole NTR thing.

pretty much.

i think it's weird that "caught cheating" has an acronym in Japanese erotica

frankly OP you should stop watching, not because of this but because who knows what other hyper specific predilections or "patterns" as you term them will cause - well i don't know what reaction but apparently it's bad

 

[Paltheos]

Hey, I just watched S1 a few days ago!

The Entire History of You might be the best episode of TV I've ever seen. It's fantastic.

It's good, definitely. I find it a bit repetitive though and there's not enough going on otherwise to really hold me otherwise. Compare it to 15M Merits where there's a bit more happening, and more visuals, and a climax I didn't predict. I've watched 4 episodes, and 15M Merits is my favorite so far.

 

[Kathian]

I find your reaction utterly bizarre.

 

[hipbabboom]

I guess I just made a leap in my head between hentai - gamergate - the alt-right - climate change denial... Sorry if this isn't you.

No worries. I'm not under the impression that the allegory I was drawing was the only way the episode could be interpreted. In fact, I think a few posters have already pointed out the common interpretations which I also figured. I just became fixated on the common re-occurring theme throughout the episode which was conservation-like. The "cozy" minimalist living, the constant recycling, the bio-engineered food, the non-fossil fuels power source, etc... which all led to the culmination breathtaking shot of a green lush wilderness seemingly devoid of human influence. When looking at the machine that runs the life of most people in that world and its function as the vehicle that brought the MC to the conclusion, I sort of arrived at the allegory being a potential comment the creator may have wanted to make but that's not necessarily implying that was their intent.

I find your reaction utterly bizarre.

I can appreciate this though I have to warn you its easy to read into the extremes of my OP; no fault of yours obviously