(orig posted 11 Nov 2003)

More blathering about the Matrix, specifically, fighting in the Real World and Persephone. (And whoo! What a dress! Only in the Matrix could you wear that still be able to move.)

Gore Or Less

There was a distinct difference in the fight scenes that occurred in Zion compared to the fight scenes that occurred in the Matrix. The fight scenes in the Matrix were always surreal, and long, and despite taking terrible punishment, characters never look seriously hurt. This was not the case in the real world, as was exemplified by the fight scenes that took place in the real world.

In the Matrix, you occasionally see blood when a character spits blood in the middle of a fight, but nothing more than that. The fights that occurred in the real world were grueling. Bane/Smith looks horrible after just a few moments fighting with Trinity, something that would have not even have phased him in the Matrix. The fighting too, is different, more of a down and dirty brawl than the almost beautiful and artistic scenes that occur in the Matrix. In the Matrix, when someone takes a blow you barely notice it. The character simply looks as if they got the wind knocked out of them, but when Bane/Smith and Neo fight in the Logos is was graphic and painful and I had to look away.

At first I wondered why Neo was fighting so badly, for his training should have been as effective in his real body as in the Matrix, except that his real body was unable to ignore the blows the way the mind was in the Matrix. It was, I think, necessary to do, to not only distinguish between the real and the Matrix, but also do completely dispel the idea that Zion was simply another Matrix. If it had been, then Neo would have been able to ignore the blows he received there are easily as he ignored the punishment his body took in the Matrix.

Though to be honest, the wimp in me could have done without all the blood and gore.

Queen of Hell

When I first saw the S/M party scene, I couldn’t figure out why they were there. The second time, I saw the elevator button, the red one, which was worn so it looked as if it said “HELl”. At that point, I immediately understood why unlike the scene in the restaurant, Persephone looked so content and happy. She was in her element. This was not the territory of the Merovignian, but her place and her power. Which was interesting. It was simply unexpected for her element to be not one of refinement and beauty, but of sadism and pain. I completely forgot that she is, after all, Queen of Hell.

It also seems to mean that if Persephone had wanted to, she could have controlled what happened, but she didn’t. Once again Persephone allowed someone to save their love from Hell, but unlike Orpheus, Trinity didn’t look back.