[OOC] Essay
Feb. 26th, 2012 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slashgogglesSo this is an essay streamlining Rex’s development from S1 up to “Target - Consortium” of S3.
Season One – The Life That Changed
Holiday: How do you think that makes him feel?
Six: How he feels isn’t the concern of Providence.
Season One establishes the fuckitry that is Rex’s world. People turn into monsters. Not everyone gets saved and even our “heroes” are damaged, crazy, paranoid people. Rex himself is in a world he barely understands.
Rex is very quickly outlined in the first episode “The Day That Everything Changed” in a succinct manner. Rex is cocky, brash, likes to make a strong impression. But we also see that he’s insecure, not sure of who he has to be and who he wants to be. He wants to belong somewhere and he wants to be worthwhile. As the season progresses, Rex learns to define himself outside of Providence. He’s able to break free, and still help people without suffering from a total loss of security. His “act” of cockiness stops being an act and becomes a part of Rex’s character.
Another aspect of Rex that’s dominant in Season One is Rex’s relationship with Six. Rex needed Six for reassurance, to know that he was on the right path. However, this contrasted with Rex’s innate moral compass. Rex wanted to save people, Six only wanted to follow Providence protocol. Rex didn’t believe in giving up, despite the fact that he’s well aware he’s in a warzone. He understands that he can’t actually save everyone. However, he never fully accepts this. Rex does have a hero complex, where he has to be able to save people. As much as he resents it, he knows it defines him. Without his abilities, he’s nothing. Which is why, in the finale, he accepts his choice to stay on in Providence and be the “cure” despite the fact he could have had a normal life.
This Rex would have had problems in camp. He would never be able to reconcile his job with his own personal longings. He would never be able to leave for a long period of time without any contact from Six. He is more his own person at this stage, but we never see complete independence from Providence.
Season Two
Six: I’m happy for you, Rex. You always said you wanted to find your family.
Rex: Thanks, but you know what? … I already did. Cesar may be my brother, but you, Holiday, Bobo, you’re who I have a connection with.
Season Two further develops the concepts in Season One, but with more knowledge on Rex’s past and the complications that come from himself defining his own family.
Season Two isn’t as streamlined as Season One when it comes to Rex’s development. Obviously, the biggest change that happens in Rex’s life is Cesar, his older brother, and with him, the promises of Rex rediscovering his past. However, Cesar is a complete stranger to Rex, giving him the needed motivation to become fully independent and forge his own bonds of family. Rex starts coming into himself and his decisions.
We also see Rex taking on problems that he would have consulted others on. Such as Quarry’s “death” and his acceptance of Breach, it shows that Rex has a higher belief in people than previously shown, but that doesn’t make him naïve. On the contrary, Rex is capable of making difficult decisions when it concerns the people he cares about. Even beyond that, it shows that he’s capable of destroying his enemies through ulterior means. Rex has always been open about attacking/hurting anyone who opposes him or gets in his way. This was not the case with Quarry who he sold to Van Kleiss. This point of Rex being hardened, I’ll address in another section, but the show starts revealing that while Rex is naturally a good person, it is offset by his environment and the life he has to lead.
Which brings us to Season Three.
Season Three - Spoilers
John Scarecrow: Face it. You’re your own worst enemy.
I am defining this season as the “Shit has gone down x 100” Season.
Basically, Rex’s world, the shitty one, has been turned into a shittier world. EVOS are no longer saved, they’re controlled and brainwashed. The chances of them returning to their families or lives drops even lower and the population agrees with this. Providence’s motto changes from “Cure, Contain or Kill” to “We are control. Control is security.” EVOS are hunted, prosecuted and caged. Rex breaks from Providence to form their own covert group where they start hunting down the Meta-Nanites.
This is very big shattering of whatever we have come to believe in the last two seasons, which makes this one the most emotionally effective one when it comes to playing the fiddle with your heartstrings. Rex himself suffers a lot of damage in this season. His self-confidence is not what it was, his spouts of anger become more extreme and driven. It’s also the season where Rex is killing people on-screen.
So far, Rex’s development centres on his upheaval. Providence betrays him, he loses his “home”, all the items that belonged to him, his purpose changes subtly to include Providence as his enemies. Rex decides to become more extreme, more pro-active in the worst ways possible. In “Assault on Abyssus” Rex consciously decides to drown the equivalent of a Providence army, the people he used to work with. People whose names he knew. And he doesn’t even flinch.
The Weapon
We haven’t been given many details on Rex’s past in Providence, but it is easy enough to gleam what we need to know. Basically, Rex’s life in Providence (for at least a year) went like this.
- He was always training
- He was put in a broom closet.
- Any contact he had with Providence soldiers was ignored. They didn’t speak to him, didn’t listen and pretend they couldn’t see him.
- He had no toys, just one ball.
- The only place where he was given space to do anything was the Petting Zoo. Which was filled with dangerous EVOs.
- The only people who he had actual contact with were: Holiday, Bobo, Six and White Knight. White Knight saw him as a weapon and weapon only, Six was an emotionally repressed assassin, Bobo had his own priorities. Thankfully, Holiday was a saving grace, which is why Rex latched onto her with his “crush”.
Rex’s personality, as I said earlier, is divided into an outwardly, cocky persona with another side of insecurity and need. To fight against Six’s emotionally nonchalance and repression, Rex is outgoing, flamboyant with issues on authority figures. He’s able to compromise and talk about his feelings with Holiday, and slowly with Six as well. But there is a part of Rex, incredibly well-trained in his reflexes and quick action that starts showing up more and more in Season Three. In the last two seasons, there was no need for this facet of his personality to surface, since there was some measure of security in his life and lifestyle.
That security is gone. Rex is unable to trust people anymore. He doesn’t understand anyone’s motivations, he immediately reacts with anger and defensiveness, and his coping methods stop working. He can’t always justify his decisions, which is why he stops Six from destroying the Consortium. But he stops thinking about the moral consequences and begins to simply act. Remove Providence from Abyssus? Easy, just drown them. Quarry has him? Drill into him until he turns into dust.
I’m not 100% sure if this was intentional or not, since we know in the very first episode that Rex was willing to destroy Van Kleiss. But Van Kleiss cannot be equated to the rest of the people in the show, whom Rex has been always giving up his life for. Meaning Rex has gained a need and understanding for violence and will use more often than he ever did before.
Rex In Camp
Rex has friends in camp. He has, for the first real time, a support system. There are people who will look out for him, whom he does trust implicitly, to make sure his mental and emotional well-being is okay. Yet, the backlash of recent events has made himself trust his decisions less. It’s not that he sees enemies everywhere in camp, it’s that he cannot make himself trust or like people anymore. He’s more willing to kill people off, bring them down in any way he sees possible and won’t tolerate anyone hurting the people he cares about. Rex in camp wants to cut down his reliance in other people so that he’s not open to attack.
But deep down, Rex feels bad for himself. He knows better, that life at home isn’t the same at life in camp, but he’s finding it harder and harder to rationalize that when events at home keeping hitting him where it hurts. He wants to be better, wants to do better, but he’s unwilling to! Rex also feels that no one is really going to understand what he’s going through and won’t really accept help of any kind. Right now, Rex fully believes he’s on his own and no one is going to be able to save him.
Questions, thoughts, ask why there's a lack of Ronan in this essay.
Season One – The Life That Changed
Holiday: How do you think that makes him feel?
Six: How he feels isn’t the concern of Providence.
Season One establishes the fuckitry that is Rex’s world. People turn into monsters. Not everyone gets saved and even our “heroes” are damaged, crazy, paranoid people. Rex himself is in a world he barely understands.
Rex is very quickly outlined in the first episode “The Day That Everything Changed” in a succinct manner. Rex is cocky, brash, likes to make a strong impression. But we also see that he’s insecure, not sure of who he has to be and who he wants to be. He wants to belong somewhere and he wants to be worthwhile. As the season progresses, Rex learns to define himself outside of Providence. He’s able to break free, and still help people without suffering from a total loss of security. His “act” of cockiness stops being an act and becomes a part of Rex’s character.
Another aspect of Rex that’s dominant in Season One is Rex’s relationship with Six. Rex needed Six for reassurance, to know that he was on the right path. However, this contrasted with Rex’s innate moral compass. Rex wanted to save people, Six only wanted to follow Providence protocol. Rex didn’t believe in giving up, despite the fact that he’s well aware he’s in a warzone. He understands that he can’t actually save everyone. However, he never fully accepts this. Rex does have a hero complex, where he has to be able to save people. As much as he resents it, he knows it defines him. Without his abilities, he’s nothing. Which is why, in the finale, he accepts his choice to stay on in Providence and be the “cure” despite the fact he could have had a normal life.
This Rex would have had problems in camp. He would never be able to reconcile his job with his own personal longings. He would never be able to leave for a long period of time without any contact from Six. He is more his own person at this stage, but we never see complete independence from Providence.
Season Two
Six: I’m happy for you, Rex. You always said you wanted to find your family.
Rex: Thanks, but you know what? … I already did. Cesar may be my brother, but you, Holiday, Bobo, you’re who I have a connection with.
Season Two further develops the concepts in Season One, but with more knowledge on Rex’s past and the complications that come from himself defining his own family.
Season Two isn’t as streamlined as Season One when it comes to Rex’s development. Obviously, the biggest change that happens in Rex’s life is Cesar, his older brother, and with him, the promises of Rex rediscovering his past. However, Cesar is a complete stranger to Rex, giving him the needed motivation to become fully independent and forge his own bonds of family. Rex starts coming into himself and his decisions.
We also see Rex taking on problems that he would have consulted others on. Such as Quarry’s “death” and his acceptance of Breach, it shows that Rex has a higher belief in people than previously shown, but that doesn’t make him naïve. On the contrary, Rex is capable of making difficult decisions when it concerns the people he cares about. Even beyond that, it shows that he’s capable of destroying his enemies through ulterior means. Rex has always been open about attacking/hurting anyone who opposes him or gets in his way. This was not the case with Quarry who he sold to Van Kleiss. This point of Rex being hardened, I’ll address in another section, but the show starts revealing that while Rex is naturally a good person, it is offset by his environment and the life he has to lead.
Which brings us to Season Three.
Season Three - Spoilers
John Scarecrow: Face it. You’re your own worst enemy.
I am defining this season as the “Shit has gone down x 100” Season.
Basically, Rex’s world, the shitty one, has been turned into a shittier world. EVOS are no longer saved, they’re controlled and brainwashed. The chances of them returning to their families or lives drops even lower and the population agrees with this. Providence’s motto changes from “Cure, Contain or Kill” to “We are control. Control is security.” EVOS are hunted, prosecuted and caged. Rex breaks from Providence to form their own covert group where they start hunting down the Meta-Nanites.
This is very big shattering of whatever we have come to believe in the last two seasons, which makes this one the most emotionally effective one when it comes to playing the fiddle with your heartstrings. Rex himself suffers a lot of damage in this season. His self-confidence is not what it was, his spouts of anger become more extreme and driven. It’s also the season where Rex is killing people on-screen.
So far, Rex’s development centres on his upheaval. Providence betrays him, he loses his “home”, all the items that belonged to him, his purpose changes subtly to include Providence as his enemies. Rex decides to become more extreme, more pro-active in the worst ways possible. In “Assault on Abyssus” Rex consciously decides to drown the equivalent of a Providence army, the people he used to work with. People whose names he knew. And he doesn’t even flinch.
The Weapon
We haven’t been given many details on Rex’s past in Providence, but it is easy enough to gleam what we need to know. Basically, Rex’s life in Providence (for at least a year) went like this.
- He was always training
- He was put in a broom closet.
- Any contact he had with Providence soldiers was ignored. They didn’t speak to him, didn’t listen and pretend they couldn’t see him.
- He had no toys, just one ball.
- The only place where he was given space to do anything was the Petting Zoo. Which was filled with dangerous EVOs.
- The only people who he had actual contact with were: Holiday, Bobo, Six and White Knight. White Knight saw him as a weapon and weapon only, Six was an emotionally repressed assassin, Bobo had his own priorities. Thankfully, Holiday was a saving grace, which is why Rex latched onto her with his “crush”.
Rex’s personality, as I said earlier, is divided into an outwardly, cocky persona with another side of insecurity and need. To fight against Six’s emotionally nonchalance and repression, Rex is outgoing, flamboyant with issues on authority figures. He’s able to compromise and talk about his feelings with Holiday, and slowly with Six as well. But there is a part of Rex, incredibly well-trained in his reflexes and quick action that starts showing up more and more in Season Three. In the last two seasons, there was no need for this facet of his personality to surface, since there was some measure of security in his life and lifestyle.
That security is gone. Rex is unable to trust people anymore. He doesn’t understand anyone’s motivations, he immediately reacts with anger and defensiveness, and his coping methods stop working. He can’t always justify his decisions, which is why he stops Six from destroying the Consortium. But he stops thinking about the moral consequences and begins to simply act. Remove Providence from Abyssus? Easy, just drown them. Quarry has him? Drill into him until he turns into dust.
I’m not 100% sure if this was intentional or not, since we know in the very first episode that Rex was willing to destroy Van Kleiss. But Van Kleiss cannot be equated to the rest of the people in the show, whom Rex has been always giving up his life for. Meaning Rex has gained a need and understanding for violence and will use more often than he ever did before.
Rex In Camp
Rex has friends in camp. He has, for the first real time, a support system. There are people who will look out for him, whom he does trust implicitly, to make sure his mental and emotional well-being is okay. Yet, the backlash of recent events has made himself trust his decisions less. It’s not that he sees enemies everywhere in camp, it’s that he cannot make himself trust or like people anymore. He’s more willing to kill people off, bring them down in any way he sees possible and won’t tolerate anyone hurting the people he cares about. Rex in camp wants to cut down his reliance in other people so that he’s not open to attack.
But deep down, Rex feels bad for himself. He knows better, that life at home isn’t the same at life in camp, but he’s finding it harder and harder to rationalize that when events at home keeping hitting him where it hurts. He wants to be better, wants to do better, but he’s unwilling to! Rex also feels that no one is really going to understand what he’s going through and won’t really accept help of any kind. Right now, Rex fully believes he’s on his own and no one is going to be able to save him.
Questions, thoughts, ask why there's a lack of Ronan in this essay.