Kai’s Clothes
quote:
Originally posted by DalekTek790:
[b]If you just do a side-by-side comparison of the common Kai and the retro Kai in [i]I Worship His Shadow[/i], [i]Super Nova[/i], or [i]Brigadoom[/i] it’s quite clear that they can’t be the same clothes.[/b]
I can see where you’re going, but you’re probably being a bit too literal about this. [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] I wasn’t going to get all that serious about this subject, [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img] but the clothes are an extremely effective visual metaphor and by thinking of them only as an assassin’s uniform you’re taking away from the power of that metaphor.
Of course they’re [i]actually[/i] two different costumes. The differences in pattern could be there for any number of reasons–different fabric textures weave together more or less easily, the way certain colors photograph, the whim of the costumers, [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] whatever. I don’t believe anyone expected viewers to make a side by side comparison.
The reason I believe we’re meant to think of it as the same clothes is because that idea has the most meaning in terms of the story. Your first view of Kai is of this glorious technicolor creature, he crashes into the Foreshadow and you see his life being sucked out of him. Half an hour later, you see one of the crypts in the catacomb opening and there is the same beautiful creature, but without color, without life. And it takes a few seconds to realize that he’s still in his original clothes, but a degraded form of them: jewels torn off and colors blackened with age or tarnish, whatever. It actually produces a jolt and helps bring home visually the degradation of his being. And it does so in cinematic terms, no verbiage (like mine) necessary. I actually got the same kind of jolt again in Brigadoom when the clerics carry dead Kai out at the end, and he’s once again in black.
Don’t get me wrong, speculating on the other assassins is fun–but let’s face it, we’ll never know. I just think what they actually did works great on both an intellectual and emotional level.
elmey (who will write about anything except the proposal she’s supposed to be working on! [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img])
[ 17-03-2002: Message edited by: elmey ]