I watched Shrek the Third recently, and this was just a silly little comic I made. Since Justin Timberlake plays Artie in the movie and talks about being king at several points, this was one of the ideas came to my head XD The lines are slightly adjusted to accommodate TBT (FYI, I don't think Branch would go as far as banishing his brothers tho)
I watched this video essay talking about the sympathy for monsters. I didn’t realize that when people were kids they never felt bad for the dragon that would be ‘slayed’ in those children books yk. I feel like especially with this generation people are being taught more empathy like with stories like shrek (ya I did use it as an example like don’t even) where the ‘monster’ is a character who deserves empathy, like shrek. Like he literally just vibes in his swamp and people hate on him, I see in a lot of monster stories it’s there’s always an element of the monsters being invaded, even when you supposed to root for the invader(humans) which is find really fascinating. Like in the back of our minds when creating stories like this there’s always an element of humans invading or the monster being a “living obstacle” (Curious Archive (n.d.) Sympathy for the Monster). Curious archive also brought up a point that I never noticed, that when the monsters are shown to be on the ‘good’ side or sympathetic too they go up against an alien, a different type of monster. He mentioned colonialism in the YouTube video as well and it made me wonder like why these monsters need to go up against something otherworldly to show that they are worthy of sympathy from the other side, I’m referring mostly to Kaiju(mainly Godzilla) at this moment. Even in these stories they emphasize that humans are somehow separate from the “natural” order and the monster is there to protect it or the other way around, there is never the message of both should exist together without the existence of another monster threat to both sides. It is that colonial mindset that we are separated from nature that I think these tropes stem from, which makes sense especially with Kaiju when looking at the origins of it. Why does there need to be a side of humans vs monsters/nature instead of humans learning to be with monsters/nature again? That’s also why shrek is good because he helps the other animals in the forest and helps Fiona be herself which I really love :). Another take on sympathy for the monster is how we looks at marginalized people, like in Guillermo del toros movie the shape of water. I love the portrayal of how the monster is as an actual being and not just a crazy fish guy, and ya the main girl does get with him but it’s the way he understands what it is like for her in a world that at the time (and still today honestly) didn’t accept or care about disabled people, you can see in the other two supporting characters they are also marginalized as well and it makes sense why they were the ones to help fish guy n the main girl escape, because they too understood what it was like to be perceived as an other in their society. This trope doesn’t even have to apply to monsters specifically and just the “bad” side in general in stories as you can see time and time again a lot of villains are made to be disabled or marginalized which again is why I love the shape of water, shrek and also megamind too because they subvert these tropes, humanizing these dehumanized characters and actually respecting them in their story as people and not just as a “living obstacle”.
I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND WATCHING CURIOUS ARCHIVES VIDEO SYMPATHY FOR THE MONSTERS because he voiced everything I thought and more in that video :).