Esoteric Clips!

[IllusiveOwl]

Sometimes, intentionally or unintentionally, there is a real banger of a moment that has a nugget of real esoteric truth, or at least something that resonates in a potent way. Even though a lot of media is trash, there's still a diamond, here and there, made by real artists. I personally have a few of these and I'm really curious to see if any of you have any similar ones. Naturally, there will be spoilers.

(Addendum: Because of the policy of this site, I can have no more than 2 pieces of media in this message, so they'll be url's...)

Mad God: The Assassin Descends

This scene is a lovely symbolic journey through history, from the beginning to... our current skyscraper era. Honestly this whole film is a disgusting, disorienting, and magical journey in search of God.

House of the Dragon: "It's all a story. And you're but one part in it."

Within the context of a show, I found this particularly impactful. Lots of writers - most potently Alan Moore - equate our experience of reality to pages in a book. Can you really argue that your life is a story, within the grander story of the cosmos?

Mortal Kombat 1: "In my new era, all beings will have the opportunity to find peace. Whether or not they do, will be their responsibility, for my power only permits me to begin this endeavor. It is the duty of mortals to finish it."

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This one is soaked in so much irony. I haven't played a mortal kombat game in ages and got this one - 1 - on sale. It ran like shit, my PC can't handle it and refunded it, but opening the game up to see this POV of a godly being's experience was well worth the effort. It's funny that a game about goring your enemies has such a lofty moral at the start, but you could argue our world is a pit of violence and competition that we ourselves sacrifice peace for to participate in.

The Holy Mountain: I'm cheating with this one, it's too good.

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I wasn't able to find any exact clips I had in mind for this film, and honestly I believe this is a must for everyone on this forum. While I don't enjoy the manipulative background music to this video essay, it's short sweet and to the point, full of impactful clips & lines from the film.

When Black Birds Fly: From the House to the Infinite

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By far one of Jimmy ScreamerClauz's least disturbing films. I'd put a clip from his short film Ascetic in here, but it's hard to find a good clips, the whole film is a good esoteric clip anyhow. The transition from the known to the unknown is never pleasant, people see that picture of the dude sticking his head out of reality and think it's nice, but this film captures to a degree how jarring the abandoning of the old could be.

Westworld: "You have no control, and yet, you're so assured that you do. It's not scripted for you, it's genuine..."

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If a demon or God came down into our world, I think it would be similar to this, don't you? Or at least... a Black Magician. How do you know where you stand, in the great hierarchy of the cosmos? I wanted to get the Deep Peace monologue from this show but couldn't find it, so I'm settling with this.

The Big Lez Show: "It's inside our head, mate."

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The show creator has claimed to have done enough drugs to have a life-altering kundalini awakening and has dedicated a lot of time into the Big Lez show and the Sassy the Sasquatch show to try and get that across. The revelation of an MS Paint show realizing it's in MS Paint sounds pretty similar to self realization, in my humble opinion.

Anyway that's all I can think of this morning. Please, share any clips that you've got in mind and give your thoughts on it. Cheers.

 

[HolyLivingCreatures]

I'll have to check out your examples. I love the works of Alan Moore (probably my favorite artist ever out of any medium) and Alejandro Jodorowsky (a real one-of-a-kind guy who makes one-of-a-kind stuff).

I'm an early millennial, so Mortal Kombat was a huge deal when I was growing up. It was one of those games that scared parents, so of course the kids had to seek it out. Probably not as good of a game as Street Fighter II, but MK had blood! My formative violent game was Wolfenstein 3D, but I did pick up Mortal Kombat 11 a while back and was thoroughly entertained.

Here's a video game that I think is really special:

Planescape: Torment (1999)
The Nameless One is an immortal amnesiac who has been killed many times but always wakes again shortly thereafter, losing his previous memories and identity in the process. Throughout the course of the game he tries to figure out what his prior incarnations were up to and ends up reckoning with the harm he's caused in the past. It's pulpy weird fantasy D&D stuff, but it's surprisingly philosophical. And it came out before the movie Memento, with which its plot shares some similarities.

There is an optional companion named Dak'kon who comes from a limbo plane of chaotic neutrality, and for me he is the star of the game.

Spoiler: SPOILERS

His whole world was ever-shifting chaos, but his people came to KNOW themselves, and so they became real. And by KNOWING other things, they were able to create a civilization in the plane of chaos. They were eventually enslaved and brainwashed by a race of psychic vampires who worked them to exhaustion, consumed their essence, and discarded their corpses. As a result, the people completely lost their KNOWLEDGE. A prophet named Zerthimon emerged who taught the people to KNOW themselves again and overthrow their oppressors, but ultimately there was a sectarian schism resulting in a divided people.

Dak'kon is a fountain of fascinating lore if you read all his dialog options throughout the game, and all the audio clips that play when you select him or give him instructions are super quotable:

• "Endure. In enduring grow strong."
• "Balance in all things."
• "The flesh knows that it suffers, even when the mind does not."
• "There cannot be two skies."

However, the most famous quote from this game is the witch Ravel's question, "What can change the nature of a man?"