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No, not someone's face. Well, that happened at least once, but not what I meant.
Okay. Venture Brothers has always been a sort of half-loving, half-mocking parody of all the old adventure shows. Mainly Johnny Quest, but everything even tangentially related to that has been thrown into the mix, from Scooby Doo to GIJoe to Getter Robo. A fairly silly yet also cynical world, an odd mix of reality and loopiness.
With this week's new episode, it's finally gelled for me. They actually managed to lay out a rational, plausible underpinning for all this craziness. It's never actually spelled out explicitly all in one place, but a lot of it came out in the struggle between the Monarch and Jonas Venture Jr.
To wit, the OSI and the Guild of Calamitous Intent are likely two sides of the same organization, which has existed for decades as a way to channel mad genius into safer pursuits. Maybe each originally existed as exactly what they seem to be on the surface, but for at least a generation they've worked hand in hand to keep the evil geniuses from intentionally blowing up the world...and the good geniuses from accidentally blowing up the world.
The parry-and-riposte code duello of the Guild may be kinda hard on the minions (who die in job lots on both sides of the game), but civilians seem relatively insulated from it all. And the actual geniuses being held in this ritualistically violent playpen rarely die, although they may get mangled and humiliated. It's a noteworthy violation of the rules when the Monarch starts killing his arches, and Brock Samson points out the danger of simply killing the badguys, as does Doctor Girlfriend (who, as an aside, seems to have decided to go back to basics, ditching the Doctor Mrs. Monarch thing).
Cast in this light, it's easy to recognize the true antagonists of the series. These are the people who, for one reason or another, violate the code. Monarch, who is too obsessed with Rusty Venture to play by the rules. Phantom Limb, who wants to overturn the game and use it to gain more power. Jonas Jr., who is simply mystified by the silliness of it all and risks upsetting the applecart.
On the other hand, Doctor Venture grew up fully immersed in the game. He doesn't see it as silly, he sees it as the way the world works. He knows all the rules, and while he may cynically manipulate them, he makes no attempt to leave the system. He's not necessarily even aware that there's an outside to escape to!
Similarly, Brock Samson makes no attempt to get out of the game, but in his case it's because he's a professional. He's part of the system that keeps the madboys in the playpen, and he knows it. He'll kill minions with remorseless efficiency, because that's how the game is played, but he'll never kill the Monarch. Hell, he knows it's his job to keep the Monarch insulated from reality...he's an orderly in the madhouse.
Off to the side you get people like General Hatred. The General seems to have seen through the curtain at some point, and decided it was too sweet of a racket to disturb. Maybe at one point he had that mad fire of inspiration in him, or maybe he was originally a minion who found himself caught up in the game as one of its patients. Either way, he has accepted the game, likes the game, and isn't above a little disingenuity to help keep the game going. He'll take the occasional hatchet job on the behalf of the Guild to keep the peace. Such as it is.
Of course, not everyone involved in the game is really a willing participant. Hank and Dean are innocents, probably too stupid to ever become madboys themselves like their father, and who might just get chewed up like Johnny Quest's stand-in did. And one expects a lot of minions don't really know what they're getting in for...the new Number One seems to take it all too seriously, for instance.
But those hapless sorts aside, we rarely see actual innocents, and they often regret getting involved. For instance, the fan club kids who got trapped in the Venture Complex underground, or any normal with the bad judgement to befriend the child of an adventurer. Coming to Camp Rusty is truly hazardous in ways beyond just the potential of getting attacked by surgically uplifted gorillas! They might find themselves eternally trapped in the game! And the game is pretty well hidden, to the point that people like the President of the U.S. don't necessarily know what's going on.
As dangerous as it may be to simply approach the edges of the game, though, it does seem to work. There's no truly monstrous types like the Joker around, no one who seems actually likely to rip up the foundations of society and rebuild it in their image (enclaves like Unterland aside). The Guild and the OSI must quietly kill anyone they think can't be encouraged to play the game. The biggest danger comes from those who fake compliance long enough to reach a high position, like the Phantom Limb did, or who manage to blunder into power too quickly to be vetted, like Jonas Junior did.
Okay. Venture Brothers has always been a sort of half-loving, half-mocking parody of all the old adventure shows. Mainly Johnny Quest, but everything even tangentially related to that has been thrown into the mix, from Scooby Doo to GIJoe to Getter Robo. A fairly silly yet also cynical world, an odd mix of reality and loopiness.
With this week's new episode, it's finally gelled for me. They actually managed to lay out a rational, plausible underpinning for all this craziness. It's never actually spelled out explicitly all in one place, but a lot of it came out in the struggle between the Monarch and Jonas Venture Jr.
To wit, the OSI and the Guild of Calamitous Intent are likely two sides of the same organization, which has existed for decades as a way to channel mad genius into safer pursuits. Maybe each originally existed as exactly what they seem to be on the surface, but for at least a generation they've worked hand in hand to keep the evil geniuses from intentionally blowing up the world...and the good geniuses from accidentally blowing up the world.
The parry-and-riposte code duello of the Guild may be kinda hard on the minions (who die in job lots on both sides of the game), but civilians seem relatively insulated from it all. And the actual geniuses being held in this ritualistically violent playpen rarely die, although they may get mangled and humiliated. It's a noteworthy violation of the rules when the Monarch starts killing his arches, and Brock Samson points out the danger of simply killing the badguys, as does Doctor Girlfriend (who, as an aside, seems to have decided to go back to basics, ditching the Doctor Mrs. Monarch thing).
Cast in this light, it's easy to recognize the true antagonists of the series. These are the people who, for one reason or another, violate the code. Monarch, who is too obsessed with Rusty Venture to play by the rules. Phantom Limb, who wants to overturn the game and use it to gain more power. Jonas Jr., who is simply mystified by the silliness of it all and risks upsetting the applecart.
On the other hand, Doctor Venture grew up fully immersed in the game. He doesn't see it as silly, he sees it as the way the world works. He knows all the rules, and while he may cynically manipulate them, he makes no attempt to leave the system. He's not necessarily even aware that there's an outside to escape to!
Similarly, Brock Samson makes no attempt to get out of the game, but in his case it's because he's a professional. He's part of the system that keeps the madboys in the playpen, and he knows it. He'll kill minions with remorseless efficiency, because that's how the game is played, but he'll never kill the Monarch. Hell, he knows it's his job to keep the Monarch insulated from reality...he's an orderly in the madhouse.
Off to the side you get people like General Hatred. The General seems to have seen through the curtain at some point, and decided it was too sweet of a racket to disturb. Maybe at one point he had that mad fire of inspiration in him, or maybe he was originally a minion who found himself caught up in the game as one of its patients. Either way, he has accepted the game, likes the game, and isn't above a little disingenuity to help keep the game going. He'll take the occasional hatchet job on the behalf of the Guild to keep the peace. Such as it is.
Of course, not everyone involved in the game is really a willing participant. Hank and Dean are innocents, probably too stupid to ever become madboys themselves like their father, and who might just get chewed up like Johnny Quest's stand-in did. And one expects a lot of minions don't really know what they're getting in for...the new Number One seems to take it all too seriously, for instance.
But those hapless sorts aside, we rarely see actual innocents, and they often regret getting involved. For instance, the fan club kids who got trapped in the Venture Complex underground, or any normal with the bad judgement to befriend the child of an adventurer. Coming to Camp Rusty is truly hazardous in ways beyond just the potential of getting attacked by surgically uplifted gorillas! They might find themselves eternally trapped in the game! And the game is pretty well hidden, to the point that people like the President of the U.S. don't necessarily know what's going on.
As dangerous as it may be to simply approach the edges of the game, though, it does seem to work. There's no truly monstrous types like the Joker around, no one who seems actually likely to rip up the foundations of society and rebuild it in their image (enclaves like Unterland aside). The Guild and the OSI must quietly kill anyone they think can't be encouraged to play the game. The biggest danger comes from those who fake compliance long enough to reach a high position, like the Phantom Limb did, or who manage to blunder into power too quickly to be vetted, like Jonas Junior did.
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Dean seems like he's slowly coming into his own this season. I hold out hope for him.
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Did you miss the episode last season where they showed the repeated slobbering chews they've been subjected to? I think we're on Hank&Dean clone revision #15...
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From: (Anonymous)
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As your observations prove out, this season really seems to be based on universe building, and it's just becoming more delightfully nutso the farther along it goes. It's a screwed up world, and the folks living in it are major testament to that fact.
-XV
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1) The Guild operatives using "protagonist" and "antagonist" to describe their positions. They're describing their employees in terms of narrative structure, rather than what they do. What role do these organizations serve? They turn dangerous people into storybook characters, giving their lives narrative to keep them apart from everyone else.
2) On the opposite side, the Action Man referred last week to "arching Castro" in the 60s. This struck me as worth noting simply because it shows the structure as being global rather than American, and that a protagonist to one region would be an antagonist to another; American hero Jonas Sr. was, no doubt, the Antichrist and an Enemy of the Revolution when Castro's regime was that young.