jaenaera

I THINK THAT MARCO IS A DISGUSTING REPULSIVE SHIT WHO REFUSES TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY OF HIS ACTIONS.

Yeah. For a moment I had to check if the author really is a woman as I felt the misoginistic vibes quickly. That's why I don't know what to think about her as I wonder if she made him like this on purpose and she did her job wonderfully or if its her own misogyny slipping through this character. (But I'm gonna choose the optimistic option and assume that she planned all this and give the benefit of the doubt).

The first thing - he sexually abused Jasmin, even though she's unable to understand what even sex or pregnancy is, her mentality is of someone who is theoretically a person, but perceiving world and behaving more like an animal. She needs to be constantly looked after as she's unable to fulfill her basic physiological needs like eating, cleaning after herself, she can hurt herself with anything. Just like a literal BABY or a cat who's gonna devour your antidepressanta if you leave the lid open)!! Having sex with a human like this is evil and disturbing as fuck. Also he talks about his baby before it's even born like its HIS baby and HIS only and in all of this she's just an incubator. *throws up*

The second woman - his sister. HE TREATS AND TALKS ABOUT HER LIKE SHE'S THE WORST PERSON EVER. Like she's an evil mastermind behind all his misery xD what the fuck did she do to him? Is she a symphatetic character? No. Do I think her children are creepy as fuck and find their family dynamic so weird - Yes. But is she any more disturbing than any of the other characters? Absolutely not. She actually is one of the least disturbing ones.

Third character - his mother

He spends so much time lamenting over his father and reminding himself of these happy memories of him before he got old and sick, but BARELY mentions his mother ever. Like to the point I started wondering if she died when he was a kid and just doesn't have that many memories of her.

I THINK THAT MARCO IS A DISGUSTING REPULSIVE SHIT WHO REFUSES TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY OF HIS CHOICES.

Yeah. For a moment I had to check if the author really is a woman as I felt the misoginistic vibes quickly. That's why I don't know what to think about her as I wonder if he made him like this on purpose and she did her job wonderfully or if its her own misogyny slipping through this character. (But I'm gonna choose the optimistic option and assume that she planned all this and give the benefit of the doubt).

The first thing - he sexually abused Jasmin, even though she's unable to understand what even sex or pregnancy is, her mentality is of someone who is theoretically a person, but perceiving world and behaving more like an animal. She needs to be constantly looked after as she's unable to fulfill her basic physiological needs like eating, cleaning after herself, she can hurt herself as anything, just like a literal BABY or a cat who's gonna devour your antidepressanta if you leave the lid open)!! Having sex with a human like this is evil and disturbing as fuck. Also he talks about his baby before it's even born like its HIS baby and HIS onyl and she's just an incubator. *throws up*

The second woman - his sister. HE TREATS AND TALKS ABOUT HER LIKE SHE'S THE WORST PERSON EVER. Like she's fucking evil mastermind behind all his misery xD what the fuck did she do to him? Is she a symphatetic character? No. Do I think her children are creepy as fuck and find their family dynamic so weird - Yes. But is she any more disturbing than any of the other characters? Absolutely not. She actually is one of the least disturbing ones.

3. He spends so much time lamenting over his father and reminding himself of these happy memories of him before he got old and sick, but BARELY mentions his mother ever. Like to the point I started wondering if she died when he was a kid and just doesn't have that many memories of her.

1. As a feminist activist they both moved me so deep partly because they both focus on the topic of misogyny and women suffering that comes from the simple fact that they're women and therefore they're preyed upon by men (in case of Substance it was all these nasty old trump-like men seeing women as nothing more than sexual objects they can monetize without moving own finger. On the other hand, in Obsession it is this Bear loser, who thinks he's better than all the predatory men cause he's a nice, awkward guy, but in reality he's the worst type of entitled piece of shit who doesn't bat an eye abusing Nikki as long as she's not freaking out. These both films phenomenally take these traumatic experiences of womanhood (body-dysmorphia self hatred vs. concept of your male friend that you trust torturing you to fulfill his desires) and make the viewer feel how terrifying these truly are. You keep relating and feeling sorry for the female protagonists, as you see parts of your own stories in theirs.

(offtopic but I need to mention that the song that plays in Obsession during the car scene when Sarah's talking to Bear and before the brick enters the picture is the same song that played when my predator boyfriend and I kissed for the first time. Yeah, I thought I'm gonna pull out my hair as I heard the Kids song playing :^)))

Anyway,

2. The motif of two entities in one body, fighting each other. The original identity struggles to survive as the second one spirals and gets more desperate to destroy the original one. There are corresponding themes of self-harm which I find really fascinating.

3. Both Bear and Elizabeth Sparkle are so miserable and messed-up mentally, that they're unable to let go of the thing that is actively killing them. Bear knows that Nikki's affection is an illusion and the real, pre-wish Nikki is suffering trying to get her conciousness back, but he still, when he called the help line, doesn't say he wants to cancel the wish. He asks to *alter* it. Nikki is having nightmare crash outs multiple times a day and yet he's so entilted and pathetic that he still prefers that to Nikki pre-wish that simply wasn't interested in him.

4. THE SOUND DESIGN

I don't even need to elaborate. In case of Obsession it was impossible to forsee when the sudden change from silence to uncanny freaking noise will happen. I was trying to find the pattern to it so I wouldn't shit myself everytime it happens and yet, every time it took me by surprise. Pre-wish Nikki screaming to the phone when Bear called the line, Nikki's absolutelly weird sounds when Bear tells her she can't go for the boys nights at Ian's. Ahh love it.

In the case of Substance I loved this characteristic, weird sound that played every time something deranged was going to happen or happening already.

5. The overall weirdness

It's definitely more visible in Obsession, starting in the very first scene of Bear preparing for "the reveal of his feelins towards Nikki" with this random waitress. When I realised it was just a strange worker to him I thought "who the fuck does this". Then there is dialouge with Nikki just after Bear made his wish and she keeps behaving in such an uncanny disurbing way. She says this double "yeah" when encouraging him to go to her house, mixing so many different emotions and specific expressions at once. It's the first time we see pre-wish Nikki fighting the new Nikki. The whole playing Jenga scece, the way Nikki moves (the walking backwards scene made me SOOO scared or the corner of the bedroom scene....), the way she tries to figure out the social norms...In Substance there are all this hyper-sexual scenes of Sue doing excercices, posing vulgarly to photos, looking basically like a porn star. The angles, the focus on people eating or eating while speaking that makes them act of consuming food look so reprehensable and nasty. The way nobody even pretended it wasn't all about extreme male-gaze and extreme sexualization of human body. The way Sue talked to the journalist on the talk-show, the way she smiles when she lost her teeth ugh....so good....

This lyrics fragment made me think of Maekar, some time after Bealor's death but grief-stricken still, going through his chambers when visiting King's Landing only to realise he started to forget the details of big brother's face. And so he stayed grieving and blaming himself till the day he died.