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yoshis-island420 · 2 months ago

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Strickler's a Control Freak Part 2: The Second Reckoning

Oh, hey, remember me? The Strickler-Control-Analysis, Trim-Should-Have-Stayed-Analysis, and the Steve-Excalibur-Analysis guy?

Yeah? Cool.

Here's more Strickler psychoanalysis, ya fiends. Plus some Angor too! Courtesy of me analyzing one conversation between the two for an hour straight in discord liveblogging...

Nonetheless, the hour I spent analyzing this scene alone while watching, and then the 2 hours it took to write this should be proof that I'm unwell.

And I'm not even talking about Angor here, if this was a psychoanalysis on Angor we would be here for another several hours.

Ok so technically this is an expansion upon my first Strickler analysis in which I highlighted one very important thing with some examples to match.

Strickler is a control freak. He controls everything from other people (Jim, Barbara, and Angor immediately come to mind) to his own persona (cool and collected). When he loses this control, he violently lashes out and attempts to reassert his control, but it never really works.

The example I gave for Strickler's violence originally was a more literal and physical interpretation. Funnily enough, with Angor too. In which, after Angor threatens his power through the psychological manipulation via the pixies, says "you are a dog, and this is your leash!" and punches Angor. Now after rewatching Episode 15, Mudslinging (a liveblog that took me 3 hours for a 20 minute episode), I found another less literal example of not just Strickler lashing out in violence, but also how he attempts to control those around him.

Let's start with this. Now, Strickler begins this conversation with a specific tone, and I say tone is important because it will become significant later. Strickler's tone is a little hard to place for the beginning 2 statements, but I personally found it to be a mix of toying and grand, as if he was talking down rather than equal to Angor. I say this because next when Angor asks a legitimate question "It's on fire?", Strickler laughs, but it's not really directed at the question but rather Angor himself. I would argue that this is a display of his self-centred and self-focused nature, he thinks it would be ludicrous for Angor not to know what electricity is despite Angor's circumstances (mind you of which Strickler has had a hand in playing into with that ring on his finger), but entertains him anyway.

The next thing Strickler does after that displays that self-centred orientation even more, for some reason he buys Angor a coffee? Like, this is an assassin you just literally enslaved like probably a week or two ago, who's been trapped in a temple for who knows how long, and now Strickler is placing his standards upon Angor, who's probably never even heard of coffee before. I say this is so weird because Strickler's basically attempting to treat Angor like a coworker here and not the guy who's soul is inside the ring on his finger. It's like Strickler is placing this coworker expectation on Angor and expecting good results. This is also a form of control, Strickler by getting Angor a coffee is attempting to control their dynamic. Strickler knows what their dynamic is, the enslaved and the ring bearer, but he's trying to manipulate Angor into a different dynamic, this is an attempt to save his ass later, which would not work in any way. This will lead to a reality check in this conversation later on, thanks to Angor.

Strickler quite blatantly states one of his desires that I had mentioned in my original post, that he wants him and his changeling brethren to rule the world. But... when it's paired with this shot with him standing alone over Arcadia with the line "revenge and insurance" we all know that he wants to be the big man in charge. He played under Gunmar and Bular's oppressive feet and now wants a bite into the power game himself, using Angor. This shot exemplifies Strickler's self-centred nature and his desires for control all within a couple of seconds.

As Strickler explains that Jim wants to free changelings from the Darklands, this shot happens. A slow pan from Angor hidden from sight behind Strickler to being in view. Strickler in this moment, is stating how he wants control over someone else, IE preventing Jim from getting into the Darklands (by killing him-). But the pan to Angor behind him shows that there's someone else that Strickler should be far more concerned about controlling. Angor is 10x more the wild card than Jim, Strickler doesn't fully know Angor's capabilities or personality, he doesn't know what Angor really wants (despite the fact that it should be obvious). If Strickler's pride didn't blind him, then he would know better than to enslave a wild card assassin to kill a 16-year-old because that kid is threatening his sense of control.

(AUGH I LOVE THIS PANNING SHOT-)

Strickler ends this shot by turning around and stating this:

As I stated earlier, this is not really that true. Strickler's priorities will always firstly lie for himself. He could not care less about other changelings exemplified by him throwing Nomura under the bus to Bular (I forget which episode, I think during or after Waka Chaka) and kicking around NotEnrique in the S1 P1 finale.

Angor, the perceptive little shit, knows this already. As we know he likes observing and playing with his prey before killing them, "the hunt is a game" after all. The panning shot just ends up adding to this fact, Angor is sizing up his next prey, and it's not Jim right now (mind you later on this episode Angor was in fact studying Jim, inside and outside combat situations).

This next large statement Strickler gives us is such a wild tonal shift within a sentence or two. Firstly, Strickler says, with the tone of cold hard reason, says not to underestimate Jim. Then, he goes on to say, in a fancier tone, that sure, he could deal with Jim himself, but I rather not... I rather not. Strickler rather not do it because he's terrified of what Jim is capable of. I said this before, but Jim roles in and within a few months, the power of friendship, wonky timelines, and plot armour beats Gunmar's son. Strickler's fear is partially what leads him to not only coming back, attempting to eliminate the threat that is Jim, but also enslaving Angor in the first place, both of which are attempts at control. This is a desperate attempt to regain the control he lost.

Angor knows this, look at his face. This smug bastard already knows all of this. Then Angor, in a little test of his own, begins to mock Strickler, telling Strickler upfront that he's a coward.

Angor points the shadow staff at Strickler, a subtle threat of weaponry. A display of the control Angor actually has over this situation, he's toying with Strickler right now.

Then he approaches Strickler fully, standing in close to his face. This is also a blatant show of Angor's dominance in this situation. Angor not only physically bests Strickler, he also mentally bests him, because who's the one winning the mind games here? It's not Strickler attempting to create a coworker relationship with Angor nor is it Strickler talking about his desires to rule the world on top. It's Angor towering over Strickler with a smug grin on his face because he knows if Strickler ever takes that ring off he's killing him on the spot.

Then this is where Strickler lashes out "violently". He doesn't physically lash out this time, but he very blatantly shoves the ring in Angor's face and states that he's the one in charge, an attempt to show that Angor is the one without power. But Strickler’s tone is shaky, his hand even shakes a little bit in the scene too, such a confident statement to make for someone who both looks and sounds very scared. Strickler is scared not just because Angor is a threat but also because he’a losing the control he feels he needs to have over Angor. Strickler is bascially hoping that Angor will take the statement and not push further.

But Angor knows that the statement isn't true, this is a desperate attempt from a terrified man against a much more powerful and confident one. This is why he stalks around Strickler, like a predator sizing up prey. And while Angor stalks around him, Strickler is still holding up the ring, still desperate to keep the control he's barely grasping onto and only drops his hand when Angor is out of reach. Angor's talking about hunting unique game, and while yes he is speaking of Jim, it's not just Jim who he's talking about here.

Then Angor just toys with Strickler a bit, while also asserting that he still holds control of when and how Jim's kill happens. Angor will obviously do it, because he has to, but he's not going to let Strickler boss him around like a dog. Strickler has some control but not all of it, and Angor reasserts that logic within the short scene above. He gave Strickler some conversational mercy but if Angor pushed I would imagine that Strickler’s attempts to regain control would become physically violent like his pixie scene.

Strickler's attempts of regaining control through Angor have already failed. Because Angor Rot sizes up and toys with his prey before getting the kill. And getting the kill he nearly does.

This entire conversation between Strickler and Angor greatly exemplifies my entire theory on my previous analysis of Strickler. Firstly, Strickler will always prioritize himself, his desires, and his safety over anyone and anything else, no matter the moral cost. His desires to be at the top of the food chain, controlling the world is shown when he speaks of protecting his "changeling brethren" that he had previously so easily thrown under the bus. He also states that "the rein of Gunmar has ended, it is now my turn" which is pretty obvious in itself too. Then of course, he wants Jim dead, an uncontrollable variable, but his own hubris blinds him and Strickler picks the biggest wild card to enslave the soul of so he doesn't have to be put in the fire against Jim.

There's also the entire point that Strickler is weaker than almost every opponent he's gone up against. Jim's a freak of plot armour nature, Bular held plenty of control over Strickler, Gunmar was not to be messed with, and Angor's wild card supreme. The second Strickler thinks he has an inch of control, Angor tells him what it really is to his face. Strickler's not only weak but he's also a coward.

Of course there is also the point of Strickler lashing out when he loses control. When Angor threatens his thin sense of control, Strickler physically shoves his biggest weak point against Angor in his face and then says "I'm in charge". Don't make me laugh out loud Strickler, you really should be dead by now, the karmatic justice should have slammed you over the head like a cartoon falling anvil.

And now there's a new point to add to the mix here, Strickler was doomed from the start.

There was no way he could feasibly control Angor and prevent his future death. The second he picked up that ring his death should have been sealed in stone.

What turned into a poorly written redemption arc should have been a gravestone with the word "hubris" written all over it.

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