studying the habits of snarks and boojums

Oct 31

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Oct 30

Man From Uncle Credits Files Transcribed for Ease of Access

blinkingkills:

If you wanted anime level stat uselessness, here it is

Alexander Waverly-  http://blinkstep.com/post/132193987935

Napoleon Solo- http://blinkstep.com/post/132194967380

Illya Kuryakin- http://blinkstep.com/post/132195633850

Gaby Teller- http://blinkstep.com/post/132196149455

Misc.- http://blinkstep.com/post/132197256295

(via blinkingkills)

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On Illya Kuryakin and the uses of violence

fabula-unica:

I cannot get away from thinking about that last scene with Illya, in which he is ordered to kill Napoleon because Napoleon has the disc.

Now, here’s the thing: this is some clever film-making. Because of course, Illya begins to have a psychosis reaction as soon as he gets this information, right? But which information? In other words, there are two important bits of information Illya is handed in that phone call: a) Solo has managed to snake the disc out from under him, and b) he has been ordered to kill Solo. So… which one is it? Is he freaking out because Solo got the better of him, or is he freaking out because he has to kill this man he has come to respect, to like, and to trust as he has very few, maybe, in his adult life? The film teases the viewer, and refuses to give us the answer directly.

The clue is this: every other time Illya has a psychosis reaction, it is in response to verbal or physical violence, threatened or otherwise. He does NOT have a psychosis reaction because someone has gotten the better of him, or because a strategy has not turned out the way he hoped, or because of a sudden plot twist. It is violence that he responds to, every time. Violence begets violence.

Illya has a psychosis reaction because he is being asked to kill. He knows it is unavoidable. He knows – or thinks he does, until Solo shows him the way out – that he has no choice. It is the imminent violence that is causing his reaction, and for the very FIRST TIME, he is having a psychosis reaction not because he is longing to kill, but because HE DOES NOT WANT TO KILL. This is huge. This is a character-defining moment for Illya. It is his first moment of powerful revulsion at violence, his first rejection of it.

Illya Kuryakin has a psychosis reaction because he does not want to kill; because something – someone – has become more important to him than his orders. I’m not trying to suggest that Illya at this point has a romantic attachment to Solo; I’m suggesting that their partnership, and loyalty to that partnership, has quietly become the single most important thing to him. If you doubt me, check out his foot pressing that pedal on the torturer’s electric chair, the torturer who caused Solo such unimaginable pain.

So this beautiful scene is doing double duty: it is showing us how deep, how powerful, is Illya’s connection to his partner, and it is showing us that maybe, just possibly, with a lot of help from that partner, he will be able one day to emerge from this horrible feedback loop his body is caught in, of pathological desire for violence.

tl;dr Illya loves Napoleon all other interpretations are WRONG WRONG WRONG.

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Oct 29

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