Recasting the series glory, did “Love Death + Robots Season 3” do it?

! ! ! There are spoilers inside! ! !

When Season 1’s debut is at its peak, but Season 2’s critically acclaimed drama launches its third season, what’s your attitude toward it?

Are you expecting it to surpass itself, recast the glory of Season 1‎, and sweep away the haze of the second season?

Or do you hope that it will not be as good as the season, and the situation will get worse, and it will further fall below the lower limit, so that netizens who are watching the fun and do not think it is a big thing can make more fun?

Whichever you are, “Love Death + Robots Season 3” will probably leave you with a little regret.

Because as far as my personal perception is concerned, the most pertinent evaluation it should get is “less than the best, more than the bottom”.

Ask “Love Death + Robots” what is the greatest charm of Season 1‎, and different people may have different answers.

For me, this answer has two points – one is the different styles of the different episodes that perfectly fit their content; the other is the cleverly designed twists and deep themes in the plot.

Diversity poster for “Love Death + Robots” Season 1‎18 episodes

Regarding the first point, we can learn from the delicate and depressing, atmospheric and “steampunk” images and political and human irony of “Sonnie’s Edge”, the hymn “Sonnie’s Edge”, which tells about underground beasts, resistance and life with an O. Henry-style ending. The sketch “When the Yogurt Took Over” is full of exaggerated and comical big-headed doll styles in contrast:

“Love Death + Robots” Season 1‎”Sonnie’s Edge” (left) vs. “When the Yogurt Took Over” (right)

In the 18 episodes, “Love Death + Robots” Season 1‎ tried a variety of animation styles.

From extremely realistic 3DCGs ​​that can almost be faked to the real ones, to flat animations with a comic style, it can be said that everything is available in a large quantity, providing the audience with a very rich viewing experience.

Not only that, but while the volume is large, the quality has not fallen. The third episode “The Witness” is definitely the pinnacle of the series so far in my opinion.

The animation effect presented by “The Witness” finds an almost perfect balance between the two styles of realism and animation

At this point, compared to the predecessors, the third season is still a bit different.

The first is the fit between the style of painting and the theme – although I am just a layman watching the fun, but in terms of personal perception, there are a few episodes in the third season that did not meet expectations. The most typical example is the seventh episode “Mason’s Rats”.

In this episode, as a farmer, Mason wants to get rid of the mice in his warehouse, but he did not expect that these mice have become quite intelligent, and even learned to make and use tools, so Mason chose to professional Rat extermination company for help.

After a failure, the rodent control company suggested that he use the latest TT15 rodent control robot.

Equipped with an air-cooled automatic cannon, an armored chassis, and the same targeting technology as a Navy drone, the “killing machine” lived up to its promise, slaughtering rats in a farm warehouse.

But even in the face of such an overwhelming and terrifying opponent, the mice did not collapse, but instead attacked the TT15 one after another, vowing to defend their homeland to the death.

Unfortunately, while they did their best to damage the TT15, they couldn’t beat it.

Just when the last few mice were about to become “dead under the knife”, Mason chose to kill the TT15 with one shot.

It turned out that after witnessing this tragic battle, he was deeply impressed by the courage of the mice.

Finally, the episode ends when he drank the wine the rats had brewed himself as a thank-you, and called the rodent company to cancel the order.

As for the content to be conveyed by this episode of animation, I personally think that it can be simply summarized as “using absurd alternative stories to express the damage caused by human beings to the ecological environment while the development and progress of science and technology, and calling for ‘harmonious coexistence between man and nature’ through the ending. “.

Under this premise, I think that using a more cartoonish style and designing the images of the mice to have a “human appearance” may be better than the current film.

Secondly, because the volume is only half of that of Season 1‎, “Love Death + Robots Season 3” is at a natural disadvantage in terms of the diversity of painting styles, and the paintings in episodes 2, 6 and 8 are quite similar. The wind further magnifies this disadvantage.

From top to bottom are episodes 2, 6, and 8 of the third season

As for the second point, compared to the stunning reversal of “Sonnie’s Edge” in Season 1‎ and the deep themes of “Beyond the Aquila Rift” and “Zima Blue”, this season is still slightly inferior overall.

I believe that for every “Love Death + Robots” fan, the reversal in “Sonnie’s Edge” is quite amazing

In contrast, I personally think that the most brilliant reversal comes from the second episode “Bad Travelling”.

In this story, a captain struggled in the woes created by the ferocious and terrifying man-eating giant crab and the fearful crew, and finally succeeded in killing the giant crab and its “children” and escaped, and at the same time saved countless lives. s story.

Faced with threats and demands from the Cannibal Cancer, Captain Torrin asked the crew to make their choices through an anonymous vote.

According to the Cancer Monster, whether to take it and its countless “children” to Fayden Island with thousands of inhabitants not far away and take them to an uninhabited island,

O means to go to an uninhabited island, and X means to go to Fayden Island.

When the voting results were announced later, the captain said that he had actually marked each piece of paper by folding the corner, so he knew who voted for each vote.

So he found two of them “cowards” who put an X on the ballot.

Immediately afterwards, he executed them without hesitation.

The ship began to sail to the uninhabited island in the target, but the crew seemed to change their minds in fear.

Finally, after escaping two murders by the crew and sending them all down to feed the crabs, the captain revealed the answer for us—

Here, the captain’s tears are a nice little highlight, adding a lot of humanity to the character

Without the excellent plot of Season 1‎, this reversal is actually quite a good level.

But compared to “Sonnie’s Edge” “unexpected, reasonable” reversal of God, this reversal of “Bad Travelling” seems to be too much.

Smart viewers who are used to big scenes may have figured it out when the crew tried to murder the captain.

As for the depth of the theme, the No.1 in my personal mind this season is the ninth, which is the last episode – “Jibaro”.

This episode, full of symbols and metaphors, hides an indictment of the colonial history of South America under the veneer of “the knight who coveted the treasure of the banshee in the lake and finally committed suicide.”

From the beginning of the episode, as long as the camera cuts to the hero Jibaro, it will enter a “silent” state.

Coupled with this close-up of his ear below, it is telling the audience that he is deaf.

As for what the knights and missionaries are alluding to, I don’t need to tell you what everyone knows.

Jibaro’s deafness, although it made it difficult for him to communicate, also made him a blessing in disguise, and he was not buried at the bottom of the lake because he was not confused by the cry of the banshee in the lake like everyone else.

This gold-covered banshee in the lake is obviously a symbol of what the Europeans called the “El Dorado” and was eventually destroyed by the Spanish colonists: Inca Empire

Seeing that the protagonist is not tempted by himself, the banshee obviously thinks that “he is different from them”, instead of killing him, she takes the initiative to show her love.

But obviously, she thinks too much, Jibaro is obviously more interested in the gold and silver treasures on her body. Taking advantage of the Banshee’s kindness to himself, he ends up killing her and stripping her of all her treasures.

However, what he did not expect was that after drinking the lake water stained with blood from the corpse of the banshee, his deafness was miraculously healed.

So, in the shrill and desperate screams of the scarred banshee after the resurrection, Jibaro finally danced to death.

This kind of plot development is exactly the same as when the Spanish colonist Francisco Pizarro deceived the Inca emperor Atawallpa with a hypocritical friendly attitude.

Francisco Pizarro lured Atawallpa into meeting, and took the opportunity to launch a sneak attack that captured the emperor himself and killed more than 7,000 Incas.

The difference is that the historical: Inca Empire does not have the ability of a banshee to come back from the dead, and naturally it cannot complete any revenge.

What awaited them was the fate of complete destruction in 1572 after arduous and tragic resistance.

Such a core, coupled with excellent picture expression and production level, in terms of a single episode, even if you look at all three seasons, it can be regarded as an absolute superior work.

But unfortunately, compared with the presentation of beautiful illusion and cruel reality in “Beyond the Aquila Rift”, the philosophical discussion of the dispute between “rationality” and “sensibility”, and the reduction of complexity contained in “Zima Blue” , The path of returning to the truth and returning to the basics still seems to be a small pattern.

Season 1‎Episode 14 “Zima Blue” contains a kernel that can even rise to the level of the path of truth

Of course, having said all this, I don’t mean to belittle “Love Death + Robots Season 3”.

In fact, from the above content, you can also see that although it is still slightly inferior to the first season in the top collision of “Ace Vs Ace”, the overall quality of the third season can definitely be regarded as the animation series in recent years. The best.

After all, the appearance and strength are all online, and there are still little easter eggs that make people smile. The experience of watching it all the way is definitely higher than the calm feeling of Season 2.

In short, if you are an old fan of the “Love Death + Robots” series, after the disappointing performance of Season 2, the third season may not fully reproduce the glory of Season 1‎, but it will certainly be able to restore it to a considerable extent. Lost word of mouth due to Season 2.

And this kind of “transition can change” performance also allows us to keep looking forward to a possible fourth, or even fifth and sixth seasons in the future.

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