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ithinkthingsaboutstuff · 4 years

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how would you analyze the rebooting scene?

Thank you for the ask, (but i think you’ll be sorry, lol)

Ok here we go (i did this to myself)

I said before that this scene is a masterclass and I’m going to show you why I think that, but strap in its going to be long one.

the version of the scene I’m looking at is 3:46 secs (note this version a quick cut to J’onn but i will ignoring that, for the sake of time and my sanity)

the scene opens with this

Brainy is locked in a chair, but we are looking at his right hand of all things

Note: this is were he wears his ring (that has been taken from him) so this open shot is saying, Brainy is being held back and his ring (legion/ friends) can’t help him.

a few shorts later that is conformed for the audience.

Note: that the rings is what is in focus and not the man holding it and it too is locked up (on a chain)

so safe to say that the ring has always been a symbol for Brainy himself or his core beliefs (as a hero) he say’s as much in earlier ep’s (before the alien march i believe)

this is a good example of visual symbolism and its done in two shorts.

moving on.

the next few beats go like this, ‘don’t hurt her (nia)’ ‘or what’ he gets zapped

but then this dialogue

“Ever one else here got these crazy powers but you as far as i can tell are blue.”

“are blue” is met with this image.

he tilts his head and the Brainiac symbol is on full display, so dramatic irony, we (the audience) know there’s more and we are about to find out how much.

“The girl (Nia) on the other hand”

is meet with this

so this has done two this

1) he have moved way from thoughts of himself (getting away)

2) We are looking at his ‘human’ or organic face and eyes (not the brainiac lights)

Brainy’s face then moves from, ‘i need to leave’ and into ‘take me not her’ this done by Jesse closing is eyes for a second and opening then again

he next is a back and forth of you will not hurt her. but then he gets hit by the gun. this then leads to lights on his head flashing and then cuts away,

note that

1) His head is leaning back and is looking up

2) the sound (hissing) and lights flickering

so he is in a state we have never seen him before.

now this then cuts to Eve and J’onn so I’m going to skip that. this is how we renter the scene,

the sound is still happening, coupled with his discomfort (understatement), but we are looking in, like we are an unknown entity overbearing but distant

note that you can’t see face’s (expressions) from anyone most notable being Brainy

a shot like this distance us from the emotion of what is happening, that’s amplified with the next shot

we are literally creeping in, like we are the thing his is trying to keep out or away from him.

note: this could also be seen as brainy himself losing his emotional attachment to himself

but he can’t keep ‘us’ away as the very next shot is

a close up like this is always for emotion.

but he is sounding less human (voice being more robotic) or at least less himself (lights flickering) it is also a dutch tilt and those are used to show ‘something is not right here’ or ‘this is not as it seems’

and he is not talking about himself “why would anyone hurt her”

so his self attachment is all by gone, and he has all but given up on his own fight, as stated by his captor

“he’s done…on too the other one boys.”

it is then meet with a music drop and a matter a fact

“no”

this is when things, get layered

there are a few more mechanical shifts sounds

met with different types of ‘No’

this is also meet by some flickers of back and forth between himself, this shows an internal shift of keeping them here “no, no” (don’t leave) to “No,you can’t.” (stay back, something is inside me) this is done with tone of voice and micro expressions.

so this writing when viewed the first time makes us question who he is talking to now, because dialogue alone makes it sound like he is still talking to the guards

(and the not so micro ones)

this is when he falls back on or uses his last line of defiance his ‘Little Box’s’

this is the last big red flag for something is about to go down and its not going to be good.

“But eventually box’s get opened.”

but this makes the audience ask in Brad Pitt in the movie 7 fashion

‘What’s in the box!’

and for those paying attention Brainy answers that question before it starts

“there’s a story about that right…Greek.”

(I have already mentioned this part before in another ask but since i’m lazy and unoriginal, i’ll do it again)

this moment is a good example of conscious and subconscious intertextuality

the use of Little Box’s has 2 meanings in this scene.

1) the show made a coping technique out of it as a way to seal away unwanted pain

2) as to what is in this book is ref to Pandora’s Box

now what was in Pandora’s Box you ask

Oh! Out of the box flew every kind of trouble that people had never known about before: sicknesses, and worries, and crimes, and hate and envy and all sorts of bad things. The bad things all began to fly away like little bugs, all over the place.

Pandora was very sorry now that she had opened the box! She tried to catch the bad things and put them back in the box but it was too late. They all flew away.

https://quatr.us/greeks/pandoras-box-greek-mythology.htm

this double meaning is used as a way to tell us was is going to happen without actually tell us, and is good solid writing.

and going back to the angle of this shot looking up at someone usually shows them having power over someone in the scene,

but thanks to the acting here

it shows that he is powerless against himself.

this is the moment before he loses himself (momentarily) to the Brainiac’s

the camera tilts again (this time onscreen) while it and Brainy move in a snake like fashion.

“your just primitives.”

in a Voice that is clearly not Brainy’s (in a literal and metaphorical way)

“and I have worked so hard to….to get back here.”

the Voice in this line fades back down to his real voice (so he is still fighting)

the line is also solid writing as it takes on different meanings

1) the literal, ‘i have worked hard to come to the past’

2) the metaphorical ‘I am working hard to get control of my mind again.’

3) the emotional ‘I have worked hard to get to a good emotional sate.’

and again this angle show how he is powerless against himself.

the next few shots are the camera swaying back and forth and he goes a small disjointed rant about time travel (and space travel)

the camera swaying is showing the mood swings but it is also showing the state of his mind

‘it could go either way’

(and Jesse’s back and forth is seamless.)

then finally a calm before the storm moment as he ‘fully regains himself’

with “the point is, the point is..I’m from the future,”

then to a rational but angry

“my species has ancestral memory.”

the lights are still going so this has not pasted.

“and my ancestors very bad people.”

then cut to

“I remember everything!”

oh this shot

(Jesse’s acting top notch here (that single tear still gets me) )

1) the lead in from ‘bad people’ to ‘I remember’ so sharp and intense

2) this shows that he is actually seeing everything they have ever done (world killers)

3) this shot removes the Brainiac symbol from sight again, as this is Brainy’s agony and not there’s (they don’t feel anything lest of all regret)

and this shot is also how we know he has just lost against who he is fighting. and the fact that this is only time we see him in profile this could mean symbolically he has just been ‘split in half’.

then a few moments before

“uh oh”

this angle again but this time meet with a ‘glee’ then leading into a cry (the last cry) for help Brainy uses.

“I don’t want to.”

then the head goes down and silence’s, then

this time the Brainiac’s symbol is the main focus, the dutch tilt is back, so Brainy is gone,

then this leads to the rise and lifting up of Jesse’s body, like his is being filled with air

the he says how he has been aligned with with his family, and how he has been rebooted,

as this happens the camera sways back and forth but slowly this time, as to show that shows its gently moving into his mind and making itself more comfortable before, so the camera straights up and he states

“that was a calamitous mistake.”

then he breaks free and beats them brutally braking bones and smashing in heads (but not killing oddly enough)

but the first thing he does is

pull the ring to himself but unlike all the other times in s4 he does not grab it rather

he garbs this guy’s neck

so if Brainy ‘is the ring’ (symbolically speaking)

then he is still chained up, in these next fighting beats. (again bashing skulls and breaking bones)

then there is this moment

a taking in a new mind set (literally),

then the camera spins around him and cutting to his side to show him put out his hand and then this

remember Ring= brainy

high angle = power

so the rebooted brainy has power over the chained up one (symbolically)

then he pulls it off the chain (but dose not put it on, that we see anyway)

J’onn walks in and ask

“what happened”

his response

“i’m free.”

double meaning is double meaning (i don’t have to explain that one)

there are few other things i noticed in this scene

1) like how the fight scene had a deeper or inverted version of Brainy’s usual theme music.

2) there are 3 big lights on the wall hanging over the scene (like the brainiac’s)

3) most of this scene is close ups and that is not easy to do (acting wise)

4) he takes down the scientist last (thought that was worth pointing out)

so yes this scene is one of the best the show has ever made (for me anyway) its very layered and well planned and well executed,

now do i think every thing i listed here was intentional for the reasons i listed them, no (that’s insane)

but that doesn’t matter, the point is i was able to make and find these connections using the film language that was presented,

but this scene is filled with character building (brainy with Jesse’s acting ability’s), season long payoffs (little box’s) and setting up story’s and premise’s for what was going to be next season, that is now this season (s5.)

so no matter which way you look at it this scene is so well put together that it could be it’s own short film, and no one would have batted an eye.

that’s the mark of good story telling (in this case acting, writing and directing) if you can take out all context and still be its own peace of work.

and this is all just my take someone else could come in and see something totally different and that’s great.

[and just for fun I will throw in the scene and you can take a look and see how you feel for your self

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPvPkDxhxoY]

#long post #meta #brainiac 5 #querl dox #brainy #supergirl #man #i do not like myself all that much to i #why am i like this #this is what i do for fun #wow #anyway this is a thing that happened #jesse's acting man #its so good #the angles in this scene were great #and the music was well done to #but i was to lazy to mention it

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