Tide-Implications?

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What is going on in this episode? It is the strangest..well...it certainly has a uniqueness to it. Has anyone else felt uncomfortable with the fact that you feel as if you are watching from an outside window, up above the level of the players? I really don't understand what everyone is trying to do, either, or for that matter why the characters personalities seem different. Aeon's not jealous, I don't even understand what is really going on, and I have the vague feeling the point is something else entirely.

-- Barb e (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), December 06, 2000

Answers

Oops. I just discovered I once started this OTHER column on Tide. Kristine's comment about the 20 backgrounds with each being two seconds long in 6 reps totally amazed me and Chaos's comment about Trevor is fascinating.

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo9@cs.com), March 02, 2002.

I get the feeling that RU-486 isn't exactly a fellow agent of Aeon's, rather, someone that she has conscripted in a pinch to get this job done, whatever it may be. Perhaps Aeon and RU-486, a loyal Breen, are fighting to protect Trevor from a Breen traitor intending to assassinate him (the masked man in blue), though each woman has her reason for doing so. Obviously, only Aeon and the assassin know how to escape the complex in one piece. RU, despite Aeon's obvious desire to keep Trevor alive (albeit a little roughed-up), can't see Aeon as an ally, as evidenced by her attempts or near-attempts to kill her throughout the episode.

Do I feel uncomfortable about the vantage point? Not really, as this seems to be the goal of many of the episodes, forcing one to one's own conclusions. I agree, Aeon isn't jealous upon seeing RU and Trevor in lip lock (or however you want to put it), rather, she realizes that RU's priorities aren't in line with hers in this critical hour. Note that Aeon is setting RU up for failure from the very start, giving her a test that is no doubt designed to determine RU's motivations (first, to find the key that can be found, second, to find the key that is impossible to find, because Aeon has it). This is further evidence in my mind to show that RU and Aeon are allies for the hour, and probably have only recently met, forced together by circumstance.

Now, the more important question: why is there a bathtub in the lift? (Of course, I'm kidding).

-- Matthew Rebholz (matrebholz@yahoo.com), December 06, 2000.


Notice that there is also a sink on the elavator and a ladder for purposes that go beyond me. The episode tide,being my favorite short and one that I've analyzed thoroughly, is an episode that can easily be misunderstood. You will notice that throughout the episode Aeon is trying to get a plug from one of the cabinets on either floor. She of course must have known before hand that it was to prevent the island/installation from sinking(notice RU-486 is oblivious to Aeons intentions ,however curious). Also in the episode RU486 seems to not be listening or rather taking orders from Aeon to find the key tag that would indicate the level that the cabinet containing the plug was on. If you'll notice (pay close attention because it can slip your eyes if you don't) Aeon soon realizes that RU-486 is simply bullshitting her. So as a test Aeon gets the key tag herself and as she points to the location from where she got the tag the audience sees that she is hiding the tag in her hand behind her gun away from RU's sight. After she comes in and sees that she did'nt find what Aeon found with greater ease earlier she throws the tag at her and decides that perhaps she and Trevor were conspiring against her or that Trevor was distracting her. Either way you look at it RU wasn't paying attention to Aeon (being distracted by Trevor) and she herself was planning on killing Aeon anyways.RU's stupidity gets her stranded after Aeon and Trevor are killed and in the end It was an episode where nobody won.

-- Richard N. (Seraftrev3000@aol.com), December 08, 2000.

Guy in blue won. Also, this might be repeating what everybody knows, but the point of this episode was that there are twenty or so backgrounds, each shown for two seconds, in six repetitions. The plot was written to fit in that structure.

-- Frosty the Snow Chick (mbkrooks@bellsouth.net), December 13, 2000.

Although, I wouldn't call that the entire point of the episode, rather just one of its aspects. Like the rest of the second season, it also deals with exploring death, and I'm sure there could be other goals as well.

-- Matthew Rebholz (matrebholz@yahoo.com), December 13, 2000.


From what Peter was saying in the Cinefantastique article the idea for Tide came from his frustration as a storyboard artist, where the story dictates how it shown. Tide was determined by a structure rather than a content. The defined repetition of 20 shots each for 2 second long for the 6 floors was used for the story to be told within. You can read the whole thing here (it is in 2 parts)

http://www.geocities.com/stateofflux/cinepg6.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/stateofflux/cinepg8.jpg

To me the actual plot could have consisted of anything, the structure almost lends itself to some king of chaos theory, where the next shot is incrementally altered by the previous and one action 1 or 2 floors before could result in a completely different chain of events further on.



-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), December 13, 2000.


William, how do you turn the page?!! This is the most interesting article, I've often felt frustrated by Tide, I have to wonder if it is not because it is more a mathmatical approach to a story than a narrative, math is not my very best subject here guys. I always had a feeling there was something else behind Tide. Although I couldn't even figure out what they were doing if it wasn't for this column, I am so glad to finally understand this short little brainteaser, great article, but how do you turn the page?

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), December 13, 2000.

ta da!

http://www.geocities.com/stateofflux/cinepg8.jpg



-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), December 13, 2000.


nuts, it did'nt work http://www.geo cities.com/stateofflux/cinepg8.jpg



-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), December 13, 2000.


Why is Aeon given an assignment, (remember the microfilm in the tooth or whatever) by Trevor? Trevor hasn't ever given Aeon assignments after this one...?

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 11, 2001.


Aaah! I mean Gravity not Tide, good god, I've committed the worst faux pas to the forum; ('cepting misquoting the name of John Lee's play, Hitler's Head, err...sorry) and that is referring to an ep incorrectly, and I call my self a lover of Flux, aak! (Maybe I can console myself with the fact no one knew the answer anyhow).

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 14, 2001.

I missed that (I was on a missi...ah..I mean out of town on the 11th). I think characters in the shorts have resemblances to the characters in the longer episodes (with dialogue) but are'nt necessarily meant to be them. For instance the Trevor lookalike in Gravity (and Tide) is probably not the Trevor we know in season 3.

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), February 15, 2001.

On what grounds do you base this assumption on?

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 16, 2001.

William, What the heck are you talking about? That is trevor, i don't see any resemblance to the other characters in the longer ep compared to the characters in the shorts, except for Aeon and Trevor.hmmmm :O)

-- Lady Morgan (AeonFluxFan1@aol.com), February 16, 2001.

Well, for a start they don't act like the real Trevor from the longer episodes. He does'nt act with the same authority and is not in the situations I think the later Trevor would really put himself in. The character in Gravity seems to much of an agent excecuting the plan (not the mastermind controlling it)

Also I was basing it more on the sequence of production. I always assumed as the LTV episodes were based on the initial concepts and without the time to really develop characters, the series was different to what we later saw in the MTV episodes. Although the same protagonist remained, I think the Trevor came out of this character previously developed in the short episodes. His appearance was used, the personality (and voice etc...) was added.

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), February 16, 2001.



Well....when the shorts were made there wasn't really a show in mind at the time, was there? then they later made it into a show. Ture that the personalities and voices were later added, but the resemblance in the shorts i only see Trevor and Aeon. They added on to the characters. As for the protagonist and the antagonist, i don't think there is one really. but that's just my opinion, :O)

-- Lady Morgan (AeonFluxFan1@aol.com), February 17, 2001.

precisely

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), February 17, 2001.

I always understood the shorts to have been Trevor before he assumed power. This actually raises an interesting point, because you both are rather 'experts' in Fluxlore, and may I add, passionate regarding it...my opinion is the series was created at the other studio by Chung and then fleshed out over at Colossal, the characters evolved, Aeon remained, what else, Aeon, but Trevor, (how like a man) moved ahead in his conquest of power and became the head honcho of Bregna. Wouldn't it be interesting to know him in his earlier days, when he was simply the agent in the trenchcoat.

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 18, 2001.

Trevor was originally an agent who was even more violent and destructive than Aeon. In the end, he mowed Aeon down with gunfire just as effortlessly as she did to the breen soldiers.

At least I think that's how it goes...

-- ChaosKnight (chaosknight@charterr.net), February 18, 2001.


Whoa! That makes sense,fascinating. Hmmm, even more violent and destructive, this is quite a story, I didn't know all that.

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 18, 2001.

But because the shorts were working on concepts, a main idea behind them was each was a story in itself. Aeon was in each one but she dies. There is start and end, not like the longer episodes where the season has some continuity. So the great thing about the shorts is that they lead to guessing. They make us guess what the background of each character is, what their relationship is with the others around them, because their are no real answers. This kind of story, once it is out there, any one can make their own interpretation. But I have gone completely off track, we were discussing Trevor, to be more exact his background, of which I have no idea ^_^

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), February 18, 2001.

It almost seems as if Chaos is a Breen sympathizer...

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

Sometimes I've wondered why Trevor wasn't the Breen soldier in War instead of that Varsh Lockney guy.

-- Frosty the Snow Chick (mbkrooks@bellsouth.net), February 21, 2001.

I think the shorts were used to test characters, the Trevor character came later. Varsh was just another characters from initial concepts that we never saw again.

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), February 21, 2001.

Thats all fine and dandy but what is, "TIDE" about? What is the messege if any? (By the way, u guys notice how Aeon licks RU's hair)

-- jon (jon@cmpmail.com), May 30, 2001.

I don't think there is a "message", per se. Like all of the shorts, it's about pushing technique and trying to sense a thread of intentions amid a bunch of raw experience. That's my explanation, anyway.

-- Mat Rebholz (matrebholz@earthlink.net), May 31, 2001.

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