‘Those Chosen by the Planet’: Final Fantasy VII and Earth Jurisprudence

Sykes, Robbie

doi:10.1007/s11196-016-9497-2

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In recent years, cultural legal studies has widened its bandwidth, increasing the range of popular media it deems to be of jurisprudential significance. A variety of forms with mass audiences -including cinema [101,72,63], television [77,95,96], comic books [4,51,52,53] and video games [6,70,82,89] -have been recognised for their potential to critically appraise law and legal theory. Scholars such as William MacNeil have developed methods of analysis that identifies discourses of law immanent within popular culture and brings these into dialogue and critique with formal academic accounts of law [65].…”

Section: Session One: Reading Law and Music Finnis And Bowiementioning

confidence: 99%

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Natural Law

Sykes

Tranter

2018

Int J Semiot Law

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In Natural Law and Natural Rights, John Finnis delves into the past, attempting to revitalise the Thomist natural law tradition cut short by opposing philosophers such as David Hume. In this article, Finnis's efforts at revival are assessed by way of comparison with -and, indeed, contrast to -the life and art of musician David Bowie. In spite of their extravagant differences, there exist significant points of connection that allow Bowie to be used in interpreting Finnis's natural law. Bowie's work -for all its appeals to a Nietzschean ground zero for normative values -shares Finnis's concern with ordering affairs in a way that will realise humanity's great potential. In presenting enchanted worlds and evolved characters as an antidote to all that is drab and pointless, Bowie has something to tell his audience about how human beings can thrive. Likewise, natural law holds that a legal system should include certain content that guides people towards a life of 'flourishing'. Bowie and Finnis look to the past, plundering it for inspiration and using it as fuel to boost humankind forward. The analogy of Natural Law and Natural Rights and Bowie's magpie-like relationship to various popular music traditions ultimately reveals that natural law theory is not merely an objective and unchanging edict to be followed without question, but a legacy that is to be recreated by those who carry it into the future. Law's instruments of critique must not forget these transformative qualities.

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Section: Session One: Reading Law and Music Finnis And Bowiementioning

confidence: 99%

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Natural Law

Sykes

Tranter

2018

Int J Semiot Law

Self Cite

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“…Ashley Pearson and Kieran Tranter highlight the importance of the video game medium as a way to approach digital legality through an analysis of the Nintendo's definitional platformer Super Mario franchise [73]. Robbie Sykes, in this issue, examines the 1997 PlayStation RPG Final Fantasy VII [94] to critique earth jurisprudence [92] and Ashley Pearson has recently identified in the cult 2008 PlayStation 2 RPG Persona 4 [4] the psychology and psychosis of the legal persona [72].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing, Moving, Catching, Accumulating: Pokémon GO, and the Legal Subject

Shum¹,

Tranter

2017

Int J Semiot Law

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This paper argues that the augmented reality gaming application for smart devices, Pokémon GO shows the fate of the legal subject as a neoliberal monster subjugated to the limitations imposed by hypercapitalism. The game, derived from Nintendo's iconic Pokémon franchise, reveals the legal subject as a frenzied, diminished and impulsive being, allowed to see, move, catch and accumulate but unable to participate in more meaningful self-narration. It is not that the game is lawless, notwithstanding, anxieties in the semiosphere about users trespassing or engaging in criminal behaviour. Rather the game is over structured and highly limited, both within its game-play which is repetitive and impulsive, and in its absence of narrative. Unlike the classic Nintendo Pokémon games which are within the role-playing game genre, Pokémon GO abstracts the seeing, moving, catching and accumulating features of the classic games without the overarching narrative, questing and competition. In this Pokémon GO manifests the transformation of the liberal legal subject of capitalism to the neoliberal subject of a digital orientated hypercapitalism where seeing, moving, catching and accumulating is immediate and impulsive, obliterating the 'prudent' subject participating in their own self-narration.

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Digital creativity and ecolinguistics

Law

2024

JLPop

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This study explores the intersection of digital creativity and ecolinguistics through an analysis of ecological framings in the acclaimed video game Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (FF7R_inter). Given the rise of ecocentric games during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research examines how FF7R_inter incorporates environmental themes and the potential impact of these themes on players’ ecological awareness. Utilizing an ecolinguistic discourse analysis approach, the study investigates the linguistic and multimodal resources used in the game to frame environmental issues such as fossil fuel dependency and eco-terrorism from a multiversal inter-reality perspective. The findings reveal that FF7R_inter employs specific rhetorical strategies, including differences in ecological framings and semantic choices, to convey ecological messages, thereby contributing to the broader discourse on environmental sustainability in pop culture. This research highlights the significant role that digital games can play in shaping public perceptions of environmental issues and underscores the importance of integrating ecolinguistic perspectives into the analysis of digital media.

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‘Those Chosen by the Planet’: Final Fantasy VII and Earth Jurisprudence

Cited by 4 publications

References 16 publications

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Natural Law

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Natural Law

Seeing, Moving, Catching, Accumulating: Pokémon GO, and the Legal Subject

Digital creativity and ecolinguistics

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