Things I Noticed About Knights of Guinevere (Part One)
Offensensitivity warning for those unfamiliar with the show - it is intensely gore heavy
First off, an apology. I got smacked in the head by a free-roaming plotbunny, care of my writing group. I'll be back on that particular bullshit later on in my day. Preferably after I get done with the expected bullshit. Anyway, this Knights of Guinevere is a new 2D animation published for free on YouTube by Glitch Studios, makers of Murder Drones and The Amazing Digital Circus.
Offensensitivity warning for those unfamiliar with the show - it is intensely gore heavy. Be warned. Some images below are potentially nasty.
It's been met with a lot of... let's call it fandom activity. Positive and negative. I'm not going to directly address the discourse, but I might reference the odd pieces here and there. Do yourself a favour and don't look up the discourse. Your day will be a lot better for that particular inaction.
This is part one because my new method of acquiring screencaps keeps crashing and I have reached my tolerance for such shenanigans. This is just the things I have noticed. Not the stuff pointed out by lots of other fandom things.
Now. In no particular order... stuff I noticed.
This is not the face of a child happy to see their parent. This gives anger and apathy. There has to be something off about the family dynamics, behind the curtain.
Orville Park has a blue spot on his forehead. Is this tech or is it the first signs of Blue Gunk Poisoning? Also, it's pretty obvious that Orville is modeled after good ole Uncle Walt. This family has to be obscenely rich to pull the shit they're pulling in the show. Just saying.
IMAGERY! I love me some imagery. Guinevere Prime [Fandom name to tell her apart from the rest of the Park Guineveres] has had some of her insides taken out and the resulting "cables" resemble an umbilical cord. There is a very weird mother/daughter dichotomy going on between Olivia and Guinevere Prime, with Olivia (I think) playing "Operation" on Guinevere to "fix her". And then using the "cables" to pull Guinevere around like a dog on a leash.
She's not gentle about it either. Yikes. Someone should've bought that kid a therapist.
Re-enforcing the child metaphor, Guinevere Prime holds a foetal position on her way down to the ground. And moments later...
The metaphor gets twisted by showing "birth blood" on Guinevere Prime's legs as she continues her tumble to the ground. I live for shit like this. There's layers here and I want all of them.
There's a time-skip montage, with lots of warrens to explore, but I was enraptured by...
This is not the face of someone genuinely happy. That smile is a plastered-on mask to appease her master/owner/surrogate child, Olivia (not pictured, but in the same shot) on the red carpet. This is the smile of an abuse victim performing an appeasement in the hopes that it will work to lesson the next session from their abuser.
There's pain in those eyes.
Look who I found waiting at the Park Planet transit stop. I'm sure this is Sparky as a young man.
Olivia as a grown woman, out of the eyesight of the public, dresses like an old-timey princess even when working on something spilling Blue Gunk everywhere.
I initially thought that Frankie's nose was Like That because someone broke it. Now it looks like it was always like that? Or, worryingly, someone broke her nose when she was really young.
This could have happened naturally. She looks like she's of the age to be shedding baby teeth. BUT... I worry about Frankie's childhood home life.
Especially when I consider this shot. This shot is fucking TELLING my dear readers.
If you re-orient this shot so that Olivia is vertical, the rest of the room is at a Dutch Tilt. Chef's kiss for the creepy vibe, people.
Either Young Frankie was a scrappy kid or... There's darkness lurking. Waiting to be found.
Our heroines are literally living in the park's garbage. Everything unwanted from the park comes down below and finds another purpose.
Just a reminder, this lass is both buff and tough. Also I love the dichotomy of this happening right after she says the words, "Not the most sophisticated solution."
Frankie's co-worker is missing an arm and we can infer that she was never compensated about its loss.
Is the black a fake eye? Some tech? Some random ball bearing he stuck in there instead? Who knows?
Note how the police here are in full hazmat gear. And wearing disguises so nobody can dox them.
Old-ass Olivia is way more childish and immature than Young Olivia. Holy shit. There's trauma all over this show and, as a writer, I am loving the flavours in all this angst juice.
Well. We made it all this way without a hot take, so I shall give you one of mine.
