Chapter 282: The Battle of Two Cities
Compared to ten days ago, Ogasha already has a deeper understanding of the Leader.
And the more she learned, the more she feared the Leader.
And fear brought her endless confusion.
Will they really have a good future by becoming enemies with such an opponent who has almost no flaws?
“Hmm…” Mrs. Ogersa rubbed her eyes with a headache.
She didn't dare to think about it too deeply, because even if she did, she couldn't come up with any solution, and it would only increase her fear.
She tried to calm herself down and continued writing down the information.
"Zuan's economic situation..."
"Zuan's technological situation..."
"Zuan's military might..."
Ogatha writes about what she saw and heard in Zaun
Compared with the "sage politics" of the leader that she fears the most, the leader's economic achievements, scientific and technological inventions, and military construction seem less important.
After all, the economic and technological levels of the Twin Cities are already sufficiently developed. It is normal for the Leader to achieve success in the economic and technological fields after taking over Piltover.
As for the military strength of the Leader... To be honest, leaving aside the "nuclear weapon" of Goddess Janna, even in this small pond of the Twin Cities, no matter how well the conventional military force is built, it is simply not enough in front of an old power like Demacia.
Therefore, when writing about economy, technology and military, Ogersa's writing style is always relatively relaxed.
What made her worried was still to come:
"culture--"
"The threat posed by trendsetters in the cultural field requires us to be vigilant and guard against it."
Ogasha directly used the word "threat" in the letter to express her concern about the achievements of Leader Culture.
"Your Majesty, King Jarvan, you may wonder if the illusory art and culture, novels, music, and dramas that are only used for entertainment, can really have such a destructive power?"
“My answer is yes.”
"In fact, based on my observations these days, culture, and the ideas that spread virally along with cultural works, are the most formidable 'weapons' of the trend-setters."
Having written this, Mrs. Ogersa couldn't help but think of her own reaction after watching the main theme musical "Zaan Slaves" with members of the German delegation at the official invitation of the Leader.
The plot of this musical is entirely based on the personal experiences of Zaun slaves, and the focus of the plot is to restore reality.
Logically speaking, this realistic story that reflects the suffering of the lower classes should not have much appeal to a seasoned feudal warrior like Ogatha. Even if she read it, she would not be too moved.
But what can we do...the music in this musical are all world-class masterpieces that Levi borrowed from his "Earth Music Library".
The song is a famous one handed down from generation to generation, and the singer is the star singer Seraphine.
As a result, this musical made Ogatha cry uncontrollably.
In the play, when Takeda Saito, who represented the old forces, was eliminated by the Leader, some people in their diplomatic mission composed entirely of Demacia nobles couldn't help but stand up and applaud.
"This shows the role that cultural works play in transforming and penetrating people's thoughts." Recalling the involuntary , Ogsa became more and more frightened.
"And the most frightening thing is that the leaders are not only good at promoting their ideas through mainstream musicals, which are serious cultural works."
"Our President Levi is not only a talented composer, but also seems to be a brilliant writer of popular novels."
"He is very good at mixing serious mainstream ideas into popular literary works that pursue entertainment, and in this way quietly conveys the political correctness of the leader to readers."
"For example..."
For example, Zaan recently launched a comic, and there is also a live-action movie adapted from the comic.
(Yes, there are movies in Zaun. Don’t ask, just ask Hextech)
The name of the movie is "The Battle of Two Cities".
The story is about a world without Wind Leaders, a story that takes place in the "future" of Zaun.
The script was written by Levi himself, and the actors were friendly appearances by the leaders.
Among them, Jinx plays Jinx, Wei plays Wei, Caitlin plays Caitlin, Silk plays Silk, Victor plays Victor, and Mel plays Mel...
"A parallel world, the future of Zaun, based on a true story."
"It's such a novel and interesting story that is full of entertainment. I think even a ten-year-old child who has no interest in serious political themes will be interested in watching it."
This is exactly the case.
Compared with the mainstream musical "Zaan Slave", this highly commercialized "The Battle of Two Cities" obviously has a wider audience.
Although this generation of Zaun people have a personal experience of suffering, they actually prefer the realistic "Zaan Slaves".
But children, people of Piltover, and outsiders are all clearly more receptive to the more entertaining "The Battle of Two Cities".
“While ‘The Battle of Two Cities’ looks like a pure entertainment work without any politics involved, in fact, the ideology of the leader is quietly hidden in every detail - it not only exists, but is everywhere.”
This version of "The Battle of the Two Cities" was actually slightly adapted by Levi and has many differences from the original version.
The original version said it was "The Battle of the Two Cities", but its real name is actually "Arcane". This name is more appropriate.
After all, Zaun and Piltover are industrial cities where workers make up the majority of the population, but there is not a single worker in the entire film... It can hardly be called "The Battle of Two Cities", it can only be called "Jinx's Search for His Family: Two Cities".
As the adopted daughter of two successive Zaun bosses and a veritable little princess of Zaun, Jinx's personal experiences are actually difficult to truly reflect the suffering of the lower classes of Zaun.
Levi understood this.
Because putting aside the political correctness of the trendsetters, for ordinary audiences who just want to have fun, the stories of princes and princesses are more interesting than the stories of peasants.
Ordinary people’s daily lives are tiring enough, and everyone just wants to put themselves in the shoes of the prince or princess and have a good time.
If the protagonist of "The Battle of Two Cities" was not Jinx, but an inconspicuous Zaun worker——
Then there is a 1% chance that this work will become a classic, and the other 99% chance is that it will flop in the cultural market where entertainment is paramount.
But to create a classic that truly reflects the suffering of the lower classes and at the same time can attract the vast majority of viewers...how can the average author achieve that level?
Anyway, Levi doesn't have this ability.
He couldn't even write a work like "Iron Man", let alone "How the Steel Was Tempered".
What's more... these days, not many people read "How the Steel Was Tempered".
Therefore, in order to expand the audience and to maximize the strengths and avoid the weaknesses , Levi did not change the main storyline of "The Battle of the Two Cities".
The protagonist is still a heroic character like .
He simply mixed more details into the story, allowing the workers, slaves, and ditch orphans who truly represented the bottom of Zaun to appear inadvertently beside the protagonist as supporting characters.
That's enough.
It only takes a few scenes to make people deeply feel the despair that old Zaun brought.
The output of ideology sometimes only requires a few scenes hidden in the nipple music.
There is no need for direct preaching. After seeing what the situation in old Zaun was like in a world without the Wind Leader, the audience will naturally be interested in understanding the Wind Leader's theories and how Janna's thoughts brought changes to this land.
certainly……
In addition to adding these details, Levi made many other changes to the script for various complex reasons.
Mr. Jess, for example, raised strong objections to the script.
He felt that he was not that obsessed with power, and insisted that Levi delete the line "Please call me Senator Tallis" before he agreed to make a guest appearance.
Another example is...
Miss Mel is now the third-ranking figure in the group and a well-known senior official.
As the president of the association, it is certainly not appropriate for Li Wei to describe the love scenes of his subordinates who he lives with day and night in his "creative" literary works.
Otherwise, let alone Mel, the entire association would probably think he was a pervert.
Therefore, in order to take care of the image of a leader as a cadre, Levi made some changes to the script at the beginning of the adaptation, changing the all-night communication between Mel and Jace into an all-night conversation.
…
Mrs. Ogersa naturally didn't know much about these behind-the-scenes details.
She had no interest in paying attention to that.
She only saw that "a series of popular literary works, represented by "The Battle of Two Cities", launched by the leader have achieved huge commercial success in Zaun, Piltover, and even in the more distant Noxus."
"They are exporting their ideology to the world in this silent way."
"The audience of the Leader's literary and artistic works will naturally become admirers of the Leader's ideology. And the admirers will easily accept the propaganda of the Leader's political workers on the Ghana ideology out of admiration."
"And the leader's promotion of Janna's ideas..."
That would be even more terrifying.
Ogatha thought of her daughter, Lux.
This little girl was abducted by the leader for a while, and when she came back, she turned into a bastard who forgot her roots. She didn't want to be a noble, but insisted on liberating serfs.
I don’t know what kind of magic potion Seraphine gave her.
Is the leader's theory really so attractive? Why did she feel only disgust and fear after reading it?
"Ah..." Thinking of this, Ogasha couldn't help but put down her pen in frustration.
She has been in Zaun for ten days, and Lux has been imprisoned for almost ten days.
For ten days, she had been trying to persuade her daughter, saying all the good and bad things to her.
I don’t know if this girl has reflected on this.
Ogatha knew that she couldn't keep Lux locked up forever.
If Lux hadn't come to her senses yet, and let her bring such a rebellious daughter who was both infected by magic and "infected by wind" back to Demacia...
She didn't even dare to imagine what kind of trouble this silly girl could cause in the country, and how much shame she could bring to the Mianwei family.
"lady!"
Ogasha was just worried when the maids came through the door:
"Miss Lacus asked me to tell you—"
"She said she's thought it through and she wants to talk to you about it."
