MBELDOG BLOG

The term 'reaper' is used a lot in entertainment, for whatever reason. In Doctor Who 'reapers' are extradimensial flying reptilians whose tails are shaped like scythes, in the XBOX360 game Mass Effect they are squid-looking sentient machines who appear every 50,000 years to harvest all sentient organic life, in the film Doom (based on the game) John "Reaper" Grimm is the protagonist who saves the day (stargate stuff), obviously a reference to the Grim Reaper which is what the creators of the reapers in Doctor Who based their design on (hence the scythe, see a scythe over Helena's head in Mirrormask). I watched The Reaping about a week ago which also contains loads of occult and (trauma based) mind control themes. Sticking with scythe's, the main occult symbol used in this film is an upside down cross/crucifix with a scythe/sickle blade at the end of it (wiki describes it as an upside down sickle with a cross through it).

The Grim Reaper also features in a classic 1998 adventure game called Grim Fandango (see box-art at link for 6 pointed stars and whatnot) by Lucas Arts (subliminal all seeing eye/ purple masonic square or L shape/ and others logo below), which had me spellbounded for a good while when I was younger, it's main influence is Aztec art and myths, it is extremely cinematic (for its day). The Grim Reaper can be seen as a representation of Charon, he was the ferryman of Hades who took the newly dead across the River Styx to the underworld, if they could pay. This is what 'Manny' does in Grim Fandango, gives them passage to the after-life, if they could pay, the number 9 train was the preferred method of travel. I'm increasingly becoming more aware of how much video games have this kind of stuff in them (a recent trailer for Haze blew me away), makes me wonder what kind of effect endless hours of blowing people up in Counter-Strike and shouting down the microphone at faceless people had on me as a kid. Also, I was just thinking today about 'leetspeak' which was a way for us game addicts to communicate 'originally' or something... L337 is the most common one typed which is clearly symbolic (I cannot account for this synch, probably not conspiracy), see wiki link. Perhaps we were all subconsciously worshipping the 'elite' which is what 1337 is short for as we discussed our "1337 pwnage kills".

I probably don't even need to say anything about this, especially considering my recent posts and those from Hidden Agendas, Mercurial Talismans, Celtic Rebel, Atlantean Times and I'm sure many others I've missed. This will be a very short post (unbelievably tired, travelling up north and back past couple of days), just pasting the description of the new show by Joss Whedon (he did the incredible Firefly series that had overt mind control/subliminal programming in) from wikipedia. The show Dollhouse will air on FOX in January 2009 for an initial 13 episode run. This new one from J.J. Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield etc.) seems right up my alley also, Fringe. Assuming the world hasn't collapsed in on itself by then, I'll cover them no doubt.

"In Dollhouse, Dushku plays a young woman named Echo, a member of a group of people known as "Actives" or "Dolls" who volunteered for the work in the Dollhouse. They give up five years of their lives, and at the end they receive a large sum of money and no memory of anything they did for the Dollhouse. The Dolls have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas, including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language, for different assignments. They're then hired out for particular jobs, crimes, fantasies, and occasional good deeds. On missions, Actives are monitored internally (and remotely) by Handlers. In between tasks, they are mind-wiped into a child-like state and live in a futuristic dormitory/laboratory, a hidden facility nicknamed "The Dollhouse". The story follows Echo, who begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware.^[14][2] Beyond Dushku's character, the show will also revolve around the people who run the mysterious "Dollhouse" and two other "Dolls", Victor and Sierra, who are friendly with Echo. Although the Actives are ostensibly volunteers, the operation is highly illegal and under constant threat from Paul Smith, a determined federal agent who has heard a rumor about the dolls on one end and an insane rogue Active on the other."


And also another description.

"Echo (Eliza Dushku) a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse."

This video is a must watch, see how they confuse their personalities at the beginning, isn't it cute. :S