#The 50s the thing though. On account of the traitor + people actually surviving

[alhavaradawnstar]

Dawnstar is literally just like The Thing but with falmer or something instead of aliens

[lotusdiscussthis]

I know you posted a while ago about how Shuichi never gives Kokichi a chance and just writes him off, but I do understand him (Shuichi), maybe because I also have anxiety, but I know people who act like Kokichi does in real life, and while they seem cool in fiction, they’re toxic, tiring, and frustrating to be around in real life, especially for someone with major anxiety. Just food for thought.

Haha, I only just made that post the other day. It’s not like I wasn’t expecting this sort of response. Though I’m afraid the specific food you are feeding to me isn’t something I haven’t already considered numerous times before. Given how the narrative has played out, of course people who’ve played V3 would think the same way about both characters initially.

Saihara = Every man/Sensitive Cinnamonroll.

Ouma = Complex individual/Troublemaking D-bag.

Both of them just seem to fall on either one of the two categories by the majority of the fandom.

But y’see, what you’ve just said about one character being too toxic to be around and one being the anxiety baby is exactly what’s seriously wrong with how the story is woven. I have an issue with Saihara because he’s portrayed as a sensitive kind soul that has anxiety and depression. And it’s due to those aspects of his character, the characters and the narrative itself are just using that as an excuse to make you overlook his major faults. And the worst fault of his is… he just sucks as a detective, no matter how you look at it. All that talk about him being scared of revealing the truth and all the crying he does, is nothing but pathos when you look back on it. Pathos that make you go “Oh well, what happened to Kaede wasn’t his fault.”,…except that it totally was his fault in the end. At least 50% of it was. And it still baffles me to this day how blasé Saihara’s reaction was when finding out that Kaede was not Rantaro’s killer. For a guy that was sunken deep into his own insecurities and depression in Chapter 2, and how personally worried he was about whether or not he could’ve done something to save Kaede, he didn’t take that discovery as hard as one would think.

Anyone in his shoes would be all like, “OH GOD, HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID! I SCREWED UP! I SCREWED UP BAD-”… but no. Instead he’s like “HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY” and put ALL of the blame onto Monokuma and the game itself. Like,… how? This isn’t something that you just … get over instantly. And before you claim it as part of Kaito’s training or whatever, this sort of discovery would be DEVASTATING for a detective and as someone who supposedly cared for Kaede as much as he did. And yet Saihara didn’t even take a second to self-reflect on this or even go “I screwed up… but I’ll make it right”. NOPE. All on Monokuma.

That seems a bit too heavily inconsistent, seeing as we were already aware of his own personal values, his attachment to Kaede and his worst fears when playing as him.

Look, I have issues too, but using that as a means to overlook your own hypocrisy, selective-ness and your inability to take charge by yourself is just wrong. And yet, that’s all Saihara’s been doing.

But before I get too deep into the subject of empathy between player and characters, I think the most important thing to take into account when analyzing DRV3 is that you have to separate your own personal feelings from the game and actually *see* how the personalities and behavior patterns of Ouma and Saihara pertain to the story as a whole.

Let’s start by using the near end of Chapter 1 for example.

When Kaede was voted as the killer, Saihara went against his detective work in finding the mastermind and told everyone that “there was no mastermind”. Which is dumb. Whether the mastermind was actually related to the hidden room or not was yet to be determined, because they never actually went inside the door and find out what the purpose for it was. The door exists for a reason, but the mystery behind it was put on the back burner because of Saihara’s painful trauma over Kaede. Because of HIS pain, he decided from then onwards not to check the hidden door again. 9 dead students later, Kiibo went full war-mode and blew up the entrance and DA-DA-DAAAA! THE HIDDEN ROOM APPARENTLY HAD A PURPOSE AFTER ALL. Go figure, right?

Do you see the issue in only focusing on the protagonist’s emotions and nothing else? Because the game was clearly going for the “weak-boy-becomes-strong” character arc and had constantly reminded us of how insecure he feels, we were compelled to only listen to his inner turmoil and ignore the fact that he’s not doing anything useful in his freetime until someone gets killed. And when we’re not too busy on focusing on Saihara’s pain, we’d be focusing on Himiko’s. And if not Himiko, we put the focus onto Maki. Those who didn’t get enough attention just didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell to survive V3.

The fact of the matter is, V3 was heavily centered on the emotions of the three survivors than anything else. And because of that, we were forced to look at certain characters (such as Ouma and Angie) that even *dared* to actually put effort into stopping the killing game as the problematic troublemakers while the supposed good guys just get away with doing nothing to help the situation themselves until the finale.

You know who didn’t give up on the idea that there was a mastermind after Chapter 1?

That’s right. Not Saihara. Ouma. As I’ve said before, Ouma knew full well that the mastermind was monitoring them and also knew that there was a traitor within the group. It’s not that he’s a paranoid boy who couldn’t trust anyone, it’s because he’s incredibly cautious and has adapted to dangerous circumstances like the killing game before and knew how to avoid trouble. (Say it with me now, HE. IS. NOT. A. CLOWN. OR. PRANKSTER)

You say that Ouma was too toxic to be around Saihara, but Saihara didn’t have any issue hanging around Maki at all. The chick who promised not to kill anymore, but was still insulting Saihara a lot. She then broke her promise by going behind everyone’s back to kill Ouma, only to have that plan backfire badly, berated Saihara while secretly planned to sacrifice him and the rest of the class to get her payback against Ouma. Even after all of that, Saihara forgave her, ignored all the backstabbing she did and still saw her as a friend. That’s just… wow.

So why is Ouma a jerk, you wonder? Because when Ouma was saying that he wants to ENJOY the game, it’s because behaving like a twisted sicko would get you far in this twisted, sick game. Getting too buddy buddy and acting like you want to stop the game for even a moment would prove to be hazardous to your safety.

If the incident with Kaede has proven anything, being openly defiant against the game and acting self-righteous in front Monokuma would only paint you as a nuisance, thus making you a target. That’s why in Chapter 5, he told Kaito he had to *lie* to himself that he enjoys the game, so the person behind Monokuma wouldn’t kill him. And it’s not enough to just play it up in front of the Nanokumas, he had to be consistently twisted and evil so nobody would catch wind of it. And he had to be selective in finding allies, such as Gonta and Miu, because those two were the most valuable people within the group that wouldn’t carelessly disregard everything he says.

I think I’ve explained enough. I dragged this longer than necessary. I’ve explained how Saihara and Ouma’s behaviors have impacted the story. I hope this answer will suffice. Having to get too sucked into the emotions of the survivors can be fatal when not paying attention to the other elements of the story.

[mst3kproject]

Killers from Space

Oh, look. Peter Graves, Frank Gerstle (Dr. Frank from The Atomic Brain), stock footage of atomic tests, and some stupid-looking aliens.  Let’s do this!

A deep-voiced 50's narrator (old friend!  We've missed you!) tells us about an upcoming bomb test, and it's a good thing he uses the phrase 'tension mounts' or we wouldn't be able to tell.  After the test, scientist Dr. Doug Martin circles in closer to get readings – but then his pilot suddenly loses control of the plane!  Somehow Martin survives the crash, reappearing out of the desert a few days later without a mark on him except a weirdly right-angled scar on his chest.  At first he seems all right, but then he begins acting very oddly, which culminates in him stealing data from his lab and delivering it to a drop point in the desert, then crashing his car as he tries to flee.  Under the influence of truth serum, Martin reveals that he was kidnapped and experimented on by aliens, who are using the radiation of the atomic tests to create an army of monsters with which they will conquer the Earth!

This one hits a lot of notes: alien abductions, hypnotic regression, and superimposed footage of small creatures made to look big – including a giant gila monster! Considering the cast, the themes, the use of stock footage, and the fact that it appeared on The Film Crew, I'm honestly shocked that Killers from Space never made it to MST3K proper.  Our old pals New Petitions Against Tax and Building Code Under Fire even make appearances!  If Joel hadn't already promised us us widescreen-only, I'd fully expect to see it in the new season somewhere.

Killers from Space is a remarkably ambitious movie, actually.  It's got an interesting premise and tries to show us a lot of things – it fails rather spectacularly but damn, it tries.  For starters, consider Dr. Martin's curious dual role.  In the first half of the film, before we find out what happened to him while he was missing, he comes across as a possible villain.  His colleagues don't want him returning to work because he's a security risk, and their fears turn out to be well-founded as he steals data and turns it over to the aliens.  Then he remembers what happened during his abduction, and turns into the movie's hero as he desperately tries to undo the damage he helped to cause.

The idea of Martin becoming an agent for the aliens against his own will is a truly creepy one.  It is even implied that they intended he should die once he was no longer useful to them – having delivered the information they wanted, he quickly crashes his car.  I think we're supposed to believe it was pure luck that he survived with their hold on him now broken, rather than expiring in the wreck (although this would have been a lot clearer if he'd been at all injured in the accident).  There's an undertone here similar to that of It Conquered the World, with its fear that seditious elements could be anyone, anywhere – indeed, you may be a traitor and not even know it!

I also gotta say, I don't remember the last time I saw a movie that gave such a good, clear reason for why the ending is a chase scene in a power plant.  A lot of movies seem to randomly end up at power plants somehow.  This one goes there on purpose and the plant itself plays an important role in the climax.

Besides a paranoid spy thriller, the other thing Killers from Space really wants to be is a special effects extravaganza.  I mean, we've got planes flying perilously close to atomic explosions.  We've got aliens doing weird medical procedures using unimaginable technologies.  We've got cockroaches the size of rhinos, for crying out loud.  It is to the movie's credit that it does make an effort to show us all these things.  We actually see the aliens and their cities, we see Martin's heart being worked on outside of his body, we see the plane spiral out of control.  Unfortuantely, the movie's budget was in no way equal to its ambitions, and all of these things look stupid.

Martin's heart operation is seen only for a moment with the organ itself in silhouette.  That much is pretty good: it tells us just enough that we can imagine the rest, and doesn't over-reach itself.  Then we get a wider shot of a room full of random electronics and guys dressed as aliens, and the creepy factor simply implodes in a shower of giggles. We're in a cave. There's oscilloscopes and ham radios.  A set of calculations are presented to us that turn out to be high school algebra written on tinfoil.  And most memorable of all – indeed, probably the only thing anybody really remembers about this movie – the 'aliens' have ping-pong balls for eyes.

What, you thought I was exaggerating?  Look at that.  They literally took ping-pong balls, cut them in half, and drew eyes on them, and the actors had to talk while keeping their faces scrunched up to wedge the balls between their cheeks and eyebrows.  It looks ridiculous and the poor bastards can't move around much or interact with anything because all they can see are the insides of the ping-pong balls.  The guy playing the alien leader also has tremendous furry eyebrows.  He looks like a comedy interpretation of one of those Japanese demon masks.

The rest of the effects suck, too – not so vastly as the aliens, true, but they're still bad.  The plane circling the nuclear explosion is superimposed and transparent, which is at least amusing.  So are the flying saucers and alien cities, which are cartoons, and not even particularly well-animated ones.  The giant bugs and reptiles Martin encounters in the cavern are back-projected and never look remotely like they're in the same space as he is.  Some interesting things are done with the sound here in an attempt to make the creatures feel big and sometimes it kinda works, but mostly it just gives us Bert I. Gordon flashbacks.  The animals never look like they're aware of Martin's presence, and the scene just goes on and on and ON.  I got bored, went to the bathroom, came back, and it was still happening.

See if you can count how many times Martin rounds the same damn corner in this sequence.  Also, I think they actually set a cockroach on fire for the bit where the aliens zap it with gamma rays.  Cockroaches don't figure very highly in anybody's sympathy lists but come on, that was just unnecessary.  For one final failure before the credits roll, the nuclear explosion visible out the window at the end suggests that the power plant is several thousand feet in the air and at a sixty-degree angle.  Nope.  Sorry.  Doesn't work.  Looks dumb.  Goodnight.

I could end the review here, but instead I'm gonna start talking about flying saucers again.  Like This Island Earth, Killers from Space also has a bit to say about the UFO mythology – and much of it is astonishingly prescient.  Martin loses consciousness and awakens on a table, where humanoid beings with large, frightening eyes are performing medical procedures on him.  Afterwards, however, he remembers nothing.  Time has passed that he cannot account for, and he keeps having inexplicable nightmares, but the reason why remains a mystery until an artificial way of getting at the truth is imposed on him.  Then the story comes out, only for anyone who hears it to dismiss him as a madman.

The first proper 'alien abduction' is considered to be that of Betty and Barney Hill.  They arrived home from a trip and realized it had taken longer than it should have.  After having nightmares, they went and saw a psychologist who hypnotized them both, and got from them a story about how they'd been taken away by large-eyed humanoids who'd experimented on them.  The hypnotist himself never believed this was anything but an account of their nightmares, but other people have been more credulous and alien abductions went on to become a big thing.  My junior high school library had a copy of Whitley Strieber's Communion in one of those spinning wire stands... I hated going in there because I'd try to browse for books and there was that nasty little alien staring at me from the cover.

One would be tempted to conclude that Killers from Space took elements of its narrative from this story, the way I speculated This Island Earth borrowed from the death of Thomas Mantell and Not of This Earth drew on the stories of Men in Black.  To do so would be wrong, however, because the Hills' experience didn't happen until 1961!  Self-proclaimed 'UFOlogists' have argued that there is nothing in the popular culture of the time to have given people the idea for 'alien abductions', and so this must be something that actually happens.  Killers from Space proves that this is simply not true, and I would bet my socks the Hills had seen this movie.

(You may be wondering why the hell I keep talking about the UFO mythology. Or you may not, because if you've been following this blog for a while, you will have realized I have a crippling addiction to trash television.  I know way too much about bigfoot, the ancient astronaut theory, and how to dispose of a body, among other things.  You have probably also got some inkling of my complicated love-hate relationship with the movie Avatar, but that's less relevant to this review.)

So that's Killers from Space. It's got some interesting stuff in it, but fails at almost everything it tries to do.  I do gotta give it one more thing, though.  The title Killers from Space sounds like it's probably ridiculous hyperbole, if it has anything to do with the film at all – but no, the bad guys definitely are from space, and they kill at least one person (Martin's pilot)!  So while no, It didn't Conquer the World, the Monster wasn't particularly Mad, and The Thing that Couldn't,Died... this movie really was about Killers from Space.