The Color Game - Defenders Edition
Sorry for another long one...I've been quite wordy lately for some reason! Edited to add a trailer to show what I'm about to babble on about.
At work on Friday, I got into a rather heated debated with the copy repair guy over DC and Marvel (geeks tend to gravitate toward one another...it's a sickness). The color issue came up and, let's face it, the DC movies are gray, even to those without extremity color sensitivities (more on this in a mo-mo). Needless to say, it won me the debate, so it was worth it (and he was kind of a jerk anyway, so I got a that pleasure as well).
Friday night is usually "horror movie Fridays" anyway, but I made the mistake of watching Paranormal Activity first and, well, even I have movies that scare the crap of out of me (and that's one of mine), so horror movie night ended early and I went back to Supernatural. But, because my emotions were still high from the afternoon debate, I couldn't help but notice that Supernatural was a very gray, non-color show as well, and I needed some color.
For this story though, I need to backtrack just a bit. Most of you guys know I was/am an artist. I say "was" because I haven't produced a piece of art in 25 years or more and I say "am" because I was born an artist and I will die one, whether or not I produce anything else in my lifetime.
Artists see everything in brilliant colors. We are often so distracted by colors, they interfere with what we're actually looking at or doing. All you can think about is how you can translate what you're seeing to canvas, doesn't matter what else is happening around you. Sometimes that gets you into trouble, especially with OCD added to the mix.
Over time, I've muted that sense just to make life easier so I can focus on the right things (focus is still a "fluid" term in my world, but still). I would still say that "my muted" is still probably several times stronger than the average person's normal view of colors, but for me, it's still a major downer. I do tend to soften the mute a bit involving any form of escapism, TV, movies, even reading, but over these years, it's changed my perception...darkened me maybe and even my escapism has muted down...I tend to pay more attention to the action and the characters now more than the colors.
But, when I "was" an artist, I didn't know I was an Asper. It has been reported that Aspers (and Autistics) tend to see, taste, smell, hear and just about every other sense in color too and I'm no exception. That is a lot harder to explain, so I won't try. I have learned to keep those thoughts to myself because I'm weird enough as it is. I didn't understand that aspect of myself until my diagnosis clicked it into place. For some reason, since my diagnosis, I've sharpened these other, non-vision senses more instead of muting them. Another hard explanation, but it makes it easier to be "me" without actually showing "me". I can still "see" in brilliant color without actually "seeing" them. Weird, I know.
So back to the story at hand...I felt the pull back to The Defenders and I noticed something I never noticed in the five previous viewings. Yes, I had noticed how colorful the show was, almost to a fault (because it was often distracting to me), but I had never noticed how each character's color (Daredevil - red, Jessica Jones - blue, Iron Fist - green, and Luke Cage - yellow) bathes each character at all times. As the scenes switch, the colors switch. It's really prominent individually in the first couple of episodes before they meet.
Two characters can be standing in a shot and the dominant character's color may be the dominant screen color (aka, Jessica and Matt may be bathed in blue street light as Jess talks, but there are red stop signs and red flashing lights along the way until the conversation changes and the color transfers back to Matt and his reds, and then the blues come out in touches). Danny and Luke were harder because yellow and green tend to mesh more than butt heads like red and blue, but you could still feel the shift. Only when they are all together in the restaurant in episode 4, do the colors all show up separately and not fade from one to another, but there are no other dominant colors but red, blue, yellow and green and they are still all very separate (but still together...if that makes sense).
When they start to have difficulties with one another in the middle episodes and begin to go their separate ways, the colors split back out and even become muted and broken in places like in the abandoned theater, but there are still bright touches in spots. You really don't see other colors at all, just blue, red, green, and yellow, they just become harder to spot. For example, in the theater, there are four panels on each wall with each individual color, but the wallpaper on each is torn and damaged, like the Defenders are becoming. And when Danny is tied up, the lighting in the room is green, but the graffiti is red and blue with yellow spackle on the walls.
But only towards the end, when they are officially a team, do the colors become team-like. You see each character blanketed in all the other characters colors, but still separate...red in one background corner, blue in the middle, yellow to the side with a green foreground surrounding Danny and then the shift when the next character comes into frame.
The only thing I did notice in all viewings was that Alexandra's world was white or gray or cream. It was so barren it was stark and I think that was intentional so that the "color" moments would be more noticeable, but other than that, I don't know what that purpose was. The other Hand members worlds tended to black...but when it comes to black and white, you are talking more about light and color reflection and absorption versus actual colors, so that's a different topic. I'm not really sure of the symbolism of the white and black of the Hand. Usually black is associated with evil, but Alexandra was the leader of the evil, so why was her world white? Things that make you go hmmm...
After a couple of episodes, it became a game...like my favorite game as a child...Simon. Anyone remember that game? Four colors that would light up and you had to push the buttons as they lighted up and they got faster and faster? I went through three of those because I loved it so much.
Each scene became 'find as many Defender colors as possible'. Then I started realizing I could anticipate which character was about to appear by the shift in hues or when bonds were strongest by the melding of those hues. Certain characters friends wore their friends colors, but there were still other characters colors scattered throughout and around.
Then I started noticing how the lights from my TV played off items in my house, so the "Simon" became more complicated. My peripheral vision (as weak as it is by the keratoconus) was picking up items around me as fast as I was seeing on screen. I could still enjoy the show while my eyes constantly scanned TV and my surroundings. It's the most "alive" I've felt in months!
I think it's one of the reasons why I'm so attached to these shows and these characters (for the record, the individual shows aren't as prominent on the color scheme as The Defenders). They stir emotions in me that I haven't felt in a long time. Other Marvel movies do the same. Even of the gray of The First Avenger, the reds, blues, and whites of Cap's colors stand out like a beacon of light in the darkness of the war. Asgard has a rainbow bridge and Ragnarok was the most colorful Marvel movie of them all so far. Iron Man's suits are vivid in color whereas the Iron Patriot is colder and more metallic. Even the Guardians have varied hues of skin. These all have meaning.
I still swear that the "hope" aspect of the series is my main draw, but now I understand an aspect I didn't understand before, something I wasn't consciously aware of before, but somewhere, in the back of my weird little brain, I had to know, or else I wouldn't have kept dwelling on the darkness and the grayness of the DC world as an excuse.
Give the "Simon" version of The Defenders a try! Red, blue, yellow, green, blue, green, yellow, green, green, red. I don't think I'm the only lunatic that would find it fun! I actually watched it three times this weekend and saw new things every single viewing!
At work on Friday, I got into a rather heated debated with the copy repair guy over DC and Marvel (geeks tend to gravitate toward one another...it's a sickness). The color issue came up and, let's face it, the DC movies are gray, even to those without extremity color sensitivities (more on this in a mo-mo). Needless to say, it won me the debate, so it was worth it (and he was kind of a jerk anyway, so I got a that pleasure as well).
Friday night is usually "horror movie Fridays" anyway, but I made the mistake of watching Paranormal Activity first and, well, even I have movies that scare the crap of out of me (and that's one of mine), so horror movie night ended early and I went back to Supernatural. But, because my emotions were still high from the afternoon debate, I couldn't help but notice that Supernatural was a very gray, non-color show as well, and I needed some color.
For this story though, I need to backtrack just a bit. Most of you guys know I was/am an artist. I say "was" because I haven't produced a piece of art in 25 years or more and I say "am" because I was born an artist and I will die one, whether or not I produce anything else in my lifetime.
Artists see everything in brilliant colors. We are often so distracted by colors, they interfere with what we're actually looking at or doing. All you can think about is how you can translate what you're seeing to canvas, doesn't matter what else is happening around you. Sometimes that gets you into trouble, especially with OCD added to the mix.
Over time, I've muted that sense just to make life easier so I can focus on the right things (focus is still a "fluid" term in my world, but still). I would still say that "my muted" is still probably several times stronger than the average person's normal view of colors, but for me, it's still a major downer. I do tend to soften the mute a bit involving any form of escapism, TV, movies, even reading, but over these years, it's changed my perception...darkened me maybe and even my escapism has muted down...I tend to pay more attention to the action and the characters now more than the colors.
But, when I "was" an artist, I didn't know I was an Asper. It has been reported that Aspers (and Autistics) tend to see, taste, smell, hear and just about every other sense in color too and I'm no exception. That is a lot harder to explain, so I won't try. I have learned to keep those thoughts to myself because I'm weird enough as it is. I didn't understand that aspect of myself until my diagnosis clicked it into place. For some reason, since my diagnosis, I've sharpened these other, non-vision senses more instead of muting them. Another hard explanation, but it makes it easier to be "me" without actually showing "me". I can still "see" in brilliant color without actually "seeing" them. Weird, I know.
So back to the story at hand...I felt the pull back to The Defenders and I noticed something I never noticed in the five previous viewings. Yes, I had noticed how colorful the show was, almost to a fault (because it was often distracting to me), but I had never noticed how each character's color (Daredevil - red, Jessica Jones - blue, Iron Fist - green, and Luke Cage - yellow) bathes each character at all times. As the scenes switch, the colors switch. It's really prominent individually in the first couple of episodes before they meet.
Two characters can be standing in a shot and the dominant character's color may be the dominant screen color (aka, Jessica and Matt may be bathed in blue street light as Jess talks, but there are red stop signs and red flashing lights along the way until the conversation changes and the color transfers back to Matt and his reds, and then the blues come out in touches). Danny and Luke were harder because yellow and green tend to mesh more than butt heads like red and blue, but you could still feel the shift. Only when they are all together in the restaurant in episode 4, do the colors all show up separately and not fade from one to another, but there are no other dominant colors but red, blue, yellow and green and they are still all very separate (but still together...if that makes sense).
When they start to have difficulties with one another in the middle episodes and begin to go their separate ways, the colors split back out and even become muted and broken in places like in the abandoned theater, but there are still bright touches in spots. You really don't see other colors at all, just blue, red, green, and yellow, they just become harder to spot. For example, in the theater, there are four panels on each wall with each individual color, but the wallpaper on each is torn and damaged, like the Defenders are becoming. And when Danny is tied up, the lighting in the room is green, but the graffiti is red and blue with yellow spackle on the walls.
But only towards the end, when they are officially a team, do the colors become team-like. You see each character blanketed in all the other characters colors, but still separate...red in one background corner, blue in the middle, yellow to the side with a green foreground surrounding Danny and then the shift when the next character comes into frame.
The only thing I did notice in all viewings was that Alexandra's world was white or gray or cream. It was so barren it was stark and I think that was intentional so that the "color" moments would be more noticeable, but other than that, I don't know what that purpose was. The other Hand members worlds tended to black...but when it comes to black and white, you are talking more about light and color reflection and absorption versus actual colors, so that's a different topic. I'm not really sure of the symbolism of the white and black of the Hand. Usually black is associated with evil, but Alexandra was the leader of the evil, so why was her world white? Things that make you go hmmm...
After a couple of episodes, it became a game...like my favorite game as a child...Simon. Anyone remember that game? Four colors that would light up and you had to push the buttons as they lighted up and they got faster and faster? I went through three of those because I loved it so much.
Each scene became 'find as many Defender colors as possible'. Then I started realizing I could anticipate which character was about to appear by the shift in hues or when bonds were strongest by the melding of those hues. Certain characters friends wore their friends colors, but there were still other characters colors scattered throughout and around.
Then I started noticing how the lights from my TV played off items in my house, so the "Simon" became more complicated. My peripheral vision (as weak as it is by the keratoconus) was picking up items around me as fast as I was seeing on screen. I could still enjoy the show while my eyes constantly scanned TV and my surroundings. It's the most "alive" I've felt in months!
I think it's one of the reasons why I'm so attached to these shows and these characters (for the record, the individual shows aren't as prominent on the color scheme as The Defenders). They stir emotions in me that I haven't felt in a long time. Other Marvel movies do the same. Even of the gray of The First Avenger, the reds, blues, and whites of Cap's colors stand out like a beacon of light in the darkness of the war. Asgard has a rainbow bridge and Ragnarok was the most colorful Marvel movie of them all so far. Iron Man's suits are vivid in color whereas the Iron Patriot is colder and more metallic. Even the Guardians have varied hues of skin. These all have meaning.
I still swear that the "hope" aspect of the series is my main draw, but now I understand an aspect I didn't understand before, something I wasn't consciously aware of before, but somewhere, in the back of my weird little brain, I had to know, or else I wouldn't have kept dwelling on the darkness and the grayness of the DC world as an excuse.
Give the "Simon" version of The Defenders a try! Red, blue, yellow, green, blue, green, yellow, green, green, red. I don't think I'm the only lunatic that would find it fun! I actually watched it three times this weekend and saw new things every single viewing!
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Linda