#thesis meme

In the game Yakuza: Dead Souls (© Sega), the zombie virus instills its victims with feelings of pure euphoria. This makes the zombies’ quest to infect others an almost altruistic one, as making someone undead also guarantees them perfect happiness. This dramatizes the main thematic conflict of the series: the problem of wanting to die. In Dead Souls, the prospect of death is more alluring than anywhere else in the series. Yet protagonist Kiryu Kazuma resists it. The ersatz relief offered by zombification – or by suicide, or self-sacrifice – is worth resisting because despite the bleak picture painted by terrible events or a suicidal worldview, no one is beyond redemption or hope of recovery. The game is non-canon; “dead souls” are possible only in a crazy world where zombies exist, a world not our own. Every moment you resist the urge to give up, your soul is alive and there is hope. In this essay I will

The ‘thesis-statement’ meme is a good meme because it allows serious meta to be passed off as a joke in a humorous and palatable format. This has the double advantages of a) allowing people who are seriously analyzing media to get more exposure, and b) encouraging more casual fans to think deeply and critically about the media they consume. In this essay I will

In the video game Yakuza 2 (©Sega), Majima Goro changes his signature look to include a hard hat. Following his boss’ death and his separation from the Tojo clan, he is both newly independent and newly unsure, freed at once from external orders and the obligation to act on his own destructive tendencies. His adoption of the hard hat is emblematic of a new commitment to constructive pursuits, both literally and figuratively. In this essay I will