Paging Dr. Freud. Dr. Freud, please report to the Prometheus medical bay immediately.

This isn't a review of Prometheus (though, for the record, I liked it). In fact, I'll do my best to avoid spoilers in this post, so feel free to read on if you haven't seen the movie yet but plan to do so.

What I want to blog about today is the movie's concept art and makeup. You probably know that H.R. Giger was the driving force behind the look of the original Alien. As far as I know, he didn't have any direct input in Prometheus, but his indirect influence flows everywhere like kinky black slime. Just look at the images below. I picked these mostly for their Freudian squick and Lovecraftian overtones, except for the last two. Those, I threw in because they look like excellent brainwashing pods.

The artwork here is by Ivan Manzella. If you choose to repost these images, please be sure to give him credit for them.

I gathered these images from three different sources: this Concept Art World page, this io9 page, and this io9 page. If you like what you see below, just follow the links for more - but beware of mild spoilers.

Damn, I love Rule 34

Recently I got distracted while poking around on Know Your Meme, but it was worth it. I know a lot of people view Rule 34 images with the same kind of horrified fascination they give train wrecks, but I just think they're funny. Damn funny. That's why I ended up doing a Google Image Search to bring you more of this insanity. Fortunately, I already had the Godzilla/King Kong one, so I can attribute it directly to its originator. Plus, I found a website about yarn fetishists ages ago, so it made a perfect addition this post - especially since it's the only thing on this page that exists in real life (I think). Anyway, if you want to see more people who love total enclosure itchiness,  here you go.

Oh, and just so we're clear, I fully support the knitters' right to laugh at my fetish. In fact, it's kind of fun to think what a "Rule 34: No Exceptions" poster based on a Lovecraftian MC story would look like. Perhaps it could involve that proto-facehugger from Prometheus, eh? Does anyone out there want to give it a go? ;-)

Ray Bradbury, RIP

Ray Bradbury was one of my earliest science fiction obsessions. Even when I moved on to darker and squickier material, I never forgot his (mostly) benevolent influence. Mr. Bradbury, this is for you.

So here's my rant about the MC in The Avengers

I'd read some spoilers beforehand (which I'd mercifully half-forgotten by the time I saw the movie), so I knew Loki used mind control on at least a couple of important characters - which means the spoilers come from me after this. If that matters to you, bail out now and come back after you've seen the movie.

Okay, now: Why did the MC in The Avengers have to be so unsexy? It's not like the writers had to soften things because they weren't playing to a fetish audience. Even Saturday morning kiddie cartoons make MC hotter than this. And The Avengers even had altered eyes, which you all know I love. So why did the MC come off as so...boring? It's not that the victims were male; trust me, even if Loki had gotten to Black Widow, it still wouldn't have turned me on.

I don't know what my fellow fetishists thought about the MC in The Avengers, but here's why it didn't do anything for me. Besides the hazy eyes and one brief moment of gushing from Dr. Selvig, he and Hawkeye didn't really seem controlled. Their allegiance had changed, but everything else about them stayed the same.

I think it's telling that Loki said Hawkeye had a good heart before taking him over - and that Loki couldn't take control of Tony Stark. Why didn't he just go for Tony's head or arm when tapping his chest didn't work? I think Loki had to go through his victims' hearts because that's what he was really controlling: not their minds, but their loyalties. Sure, Black Widow saved Hawkeye with (if I remember how she put it) "cognitive recalibration"; and sure, Barton had a post-rescue speech about having something scooped out of his mind and replaced with something else. But that was just talk. He and Dr. Selvig didn't act like sleepwalkers or robots when they were under control. They acted like themselves with just one difference.

But oddly enough, Loki talking about his power was pretty hot. If the MC scenes had played out the way he described them, I'd have had a much harder time sitting still in my seat.

I pulled these quotes from the Internet Movie Database, so forgive me if the wording is a little off. You'll get the point anyway.

First, here's Loki's tantalizing idea of making Hawkeye betray Black Widow:

No, I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you! Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear! And when he wakes, he'll have just enough time to see the work he's done, and when he screams, I'll break his skull!

And then there was this speech, which probably doesn't reference MC at all, but which would be a hell of a turn-on if it showed up in an EMC story.  As a matter of fact, I had really high hopes for the plot when Loki said this. Too bad those hopes were shattered.

Kneel before me. I said... KNEEL! Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.

Alas, MC hotness in The Avengers was not to be. Now, don't think I didn't love the movie anyway. I could rave for hours about Black Widow's badassness or the charming snark of Robert Downey, Jr., or my surprised delight at seeing Mark Ruffalo (of all people) eclipse both of them. But this is a blog about erotic mind control, so you'll just have to let me pout for a minute. I've raved elsewhere. ;-)