like. something that really struck me during saw x is the stark difference in the way amanda treats male subjects vs female ones, and it's something that's also very apparent in ii and iii. she's kinder to the women and wants them to win - and even when she's playing the role of the docile taunting apprentice, she has fun with it. like it's flirting for her. it's definitely something that lends credibility to lesbian readings of amanda (something i am always shocked isn't like, canon) but it's also very...heavy, given the way men have treated amanda all her life. john and hoffman and cecil and her father in the original saw iii script. what amanda knows from men is manipulation and violence and i think it's a very powerful feeling for her, to get to be the one making men scared of her. i don't think she enjoys watching people suffer, but i think she enjoys not being the victim for once in her life.

it's also important that the two women involved in games she helps orchestrate that she DOESN'T feel sympathy for or find any connection with are kerry and cecilia. kerry, who was close to eric matthews and wanted him to be alive and well even AFTER finding out that he was violent and corrupt and planted evidence. and cecilia, who preyed on desperate and innocent people and either conned them or manipulated them into doing her bidding. women who either allowed her to be harmed or harmed people like her.

and god. it kills me that amanda is able to see herself in gabriela and recognise that cecilia manipulated her and used her as a pawn. but she isn't able to see that john, like so many men in amanda's life before him, is doing the exact same thing.