I Am the Sickle, and I Am the Wheat

October 18, 2024 5:48 AM

A Blood Moon (YT 16:29) - A Legend of Zelda short film about the war from the point of view of a bokoblin soldier, by Dan Weller. [trailer (YT 1:54)]
posted by lucidium (12 comments total)

Oh this looks fun! Will watch fully this evening.

Was confused because the animation style looks so much like Joel Haver's, who also does videogame parodies with this kind of rotoscopish look. (And other things, like the hilarious Toilet Paper Bears). I wonder if he's just using the same animation software or there's something else happening? One of Weller's earlier videos has "Made with the Joel Haver animation ritual" in the description.
posted by Nelson at 9:02 AM on October 18

This is something substantial in a small form. Thanks for sharing.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 9:17 AM on October 18

This was great. I was certainly not expecting it to go so hard.
posted by General Malaise at 10:31 AM on October 18

Very nice, but since I've never played these games (more of a PC person, myself), I've had to make some assumptions about the lore, and maybe some of you can answer these questions: Does the Blood Moon make enemies respawn? Does Link go around throwing explosive barrels?
posted by JSilva at 12:06 PM on October 18

JSilva: Yes to both. The Blood Moon happens at random(ish) intervals and when it occurs, basically all enemies respawn (except the big bosses I believe). Explosive barrels are items strewn about that you can throw/launch into enemy camps (or whatever you desire).
posted by General Malaise at 2:03 PM on October 18

Bokogoblins are kind of the foot soldiers Gannon's army. In Breath of the Wild, usually they're only found sitting idle at camps with randomly strewn explosive barrels to shoot fire arrows at. They're not even strategically placed camps to protect any held territory. Occasionally you see them harassing Hylian NPCs whose scripted path wanders near a camp, but there's never any planned attacks made (a previous game had a side story arc about a moblin general that puts you on wagon chase), just some dudes grilling meat on a campfire or wandering one of the many long ruined settlements. Tears of the Kingdom (an unusual direct sequel to BoTW) has a series of side quests where you march in and destroy these camps with the help of a shoddily armed Hylian militia (with pitchforks and mops as spears and buckets as armor).

The game itself is not very introspective about its morality. Link saves a princess, and kills bokoblins. You know they are bad because they are ugly (and because they attack you on sight). The plot and lore are really not central to the games, more of a framing device for a series of puzzles and light combat. BoTW introduced physics oriented environmental mechanics like grass fires, wind, rainstorms, and rolling boulders, that helped make encountering each camp a little different and unique -- roll a bolder into a stack of explosive barrels, set a field of grass on fire (which then sets explosive barrels on fire), hide in some tall grass and stealth your way through the camp, etc. The blood moon itself is just a layer of lore painted over the need to reset the game state before it runs out of RAM tracking everything you've changed, as it is very, very massive.

Basically, the game has about as much moral depth as Disney's Sleeping Beauty, and this short tries to more than make up for it.
posted by pwnguin at 3:00 PM on October 18 [1 favorite]

I was not expecting Bokoblin Apocalypse Now. This was kind of amazing.
posted by ourobouros at 3:41 PM on October 18 [1 favorite]

If you are stealthy in playing BOTW or TOTK and you spy on Bokoblins and Moblins, you’ll witness them engage in conversations and eat-sleep-wake cycles.

Also the guy in the clothing dye shop in Hateno Village clearly has some bokoblin in his family tree, which raises some interesting questions.

From a game design standpoint, Blood Moons are how the game clears its short term memory, so all the enemies Link destroyed respawn. Speedrunners have been known to force a “panic” Blood Moon in the middle of the day if they do a lot of combat and move superfast through the overworld.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 4:40 PM on October 18 [1 favorite]

Wow that was remarkable. I thought it was just going to be a cheap gag or meme. And certainly it's got a bit of that, but it goes a lot harder. The Apocalypse Now comparison is appropriate. It's the sort of deep cut, I'm not sure how many people will appreciate it. But it's good.
posted by Nelson at 9:49 PM on October 18

It really has some unnecessarily good writing and production for what is essentially just the classic video game webcomic joke of "this game mechanic would be pretty messed up if it was real".
posted by lucidium at 2:40 AM on October 19

Very nice, but since I've never played these games (more of a PC person, myself), I've had to make some assumptions about the lore, and maybe some of you can answer these questions: Does the Blood Moon make enemies respawn? Does Link go around throwing explosive barrels?

[Deep South tobacco CEO voice] Now ah, this here ah, Bowsuh charactuh... enlighten me as to hhwhy Mistuh Mario's got such animus for the boy

- Brooks Otterlake/@i_czzzzzz
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:01 AM on October 19 [1 favorite]

I've watched this three times now and it really is just very good. I think it's strength is that its a little oblique, in the end you're not quite sure if it's seeing something deep or if it's just elliptical. I'm good with that.

I think that Tears of the Boko from last year might be better though. It's shorter and the gag is more accessible. They're both great but maybe start with this one.

What's funny is his other videos are pretty terrible. I watched the dune parodies, also the waffle House ones. I mean not awful but not clever and not worth the 90 seconds each one is. It's kind of wild that this most ambitious long-form video is the successful
posted by Nelson at 10:20 PM on October 25 [1 favorite]