Legion Explained: Symbolism & Visual Storytelling

We explore how FX’s Legion uses visual storytelling techniques and symbolism to give us a window into David Haller’s mind. As the Marvel character struggles to distinguish his mutant powers from insanity, the show uses creative camera, sound, editing and lighting to express what he’s feeling and how he perceives the world.

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the central question of FX’s
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mind-bending new x-men adaptation legion
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is the nature of main character David
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Hallows mind David has been languishing
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for years in a mental hospital
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convinced that the voices he hears and
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the past supernatural occurrences he
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remembers of schizophrenic
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hallucinations
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I’m insane you idiot but soon David
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learns the truth he’s a mutant David
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your whole life people have told you
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you’re sick what if I told you that’s a
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lie what if I told you every memory you
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have of mental illness voices
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hallucination was just your power every
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strange happening in his life is called
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into question or as memory as a result
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of a broken mind or the manifestations
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of his vast telepathic and telekinetic
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ability the definition of an unreliable
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narrator David struggles to distinguish
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between past and present memory and
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imagination reality and insanity can his
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mind or anything the audience sees be
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trusted I have to know
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it’s real what stands out about Legion
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is the way it’s visual storytelling
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translates David’s confusion anxiety and
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disjointed thinking for the screen
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through experimental use of camerawork
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editing sounds transition and lighting
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to represent David’s questionable grasp
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on reality Legion constantly requires
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viewers to challenge what they see in
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here these cinematic devices also
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illustrate how his powers form a unique
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lens through which he perceives the
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world this creative window into David’s
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mind might inspire us to look inward at
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our personal dreams and worldviews as
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well as the monsters that may lurk
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beneath the surface to determine whether
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our subjective realities could be the
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key to unlocking our own superpowers
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legions out-of-the-box camerawork and
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editing not only places us in David’s
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mindset and keeps us questioning but
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they also imbue the visuals with deeper
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symbolic meaning standard third-person
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shots give way to first-person views
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when we are meant to see as David does
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images of childhood are displayed as if
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they are adil eco movies
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David is seen through security cameras
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and from behind glass as both other
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characters and viewers observe and study
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here often events will switch from a
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full-screen perspective to a cinematic
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widescreen one this suggests the
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automating nature of reality and fantasy
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and reminds the audience that what they
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see may be untrustworthy
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a fiction variable speed of action
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speeding up and slowing down on a whim
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further distorts reality and mimics of
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feeling of insanity or feeling out of
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control for those watches these camera
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techniques take the cinematic concepts
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of point of view to the extreme far
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deeper than just seen through David’s
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eyes we’re seeing the world by the
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filter of this very unusual mind when
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superpowers come into the equation this
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filter becomes more like a kaleidoscope
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when David’s mind enters Sidney’s body
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the camera zooms through David’s eye
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into his mind his memories are caught on
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display as they leave his body and enter
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hers and their worlds are figuratively
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turned upside down the camera literally
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turns upside down to convey this to the
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viewer
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when nightmares plagued David he’ll ever
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say
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is bad while his mind flashing through
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jumbled memory text suddenly appears on
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the screen and we see his mind actually
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go down the rabbit hole
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when David reaches out with his mind to
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find his sister Amy he levitate Sydney
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and himself off the ground and they
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disappear in a flash of light they
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reappear as ghostly projections watching
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Amy as she is interrogated only to
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disappear once more shown as water
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droplets hitting the surface as they
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Rima T realized in a lake in each of
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these examples the use of superpowers is
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expressed symbolically with their
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distortion of reality on display so
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iving home the notion that what we are
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seeing transcends or bends natural laws
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of physics we take for granted these
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visual choices are often juxtaposed with
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sound that’s out of sync with what’s
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being shown to an schematically as a
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telepath David and thereby the audience
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can hear characters speak without ever
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saying a word and yet the police say
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they found on loose in the apartment
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just rope burns on your neck the voices
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that play him whisper in our version or
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build to a scream it’s unclear whether
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these are Minds he’s reading or
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creations of insanity in his dreams
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voices call out to David that our
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unassociated with what he is seeing
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David sees it like the action voices
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slow down and speed up or hold the phone
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yogurt and klonopin Wow
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of cocktail sometimes people speak and
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no sound is produced at all
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other times no one speaks yet through
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David’s telepathy we still hear them you
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act cute down at one point the whole
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show even becomes a silent movie
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complete with dialogue colors the
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jarring disassociation of sounds from
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the physical act of speaking keeps us
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questioning whether far from being just
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mad David might see deeper truths from
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the rest of us like David we can’t know
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for sure we can’t access subjective
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reality or a definitive answer beyond
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his subjective perception much of Legion
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takes place within David’s memory
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sometimes David is merely recalling a
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past event sometimes he’s dreaming David
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even visits an astral plane that exists
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somewhere between memory and dreams
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thanks to the powers of memory artist
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Tana me David and others will
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consciously through the landscape of his
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mind as if his memories of rooms in a
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house the appearance of this landscape
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is often indistinguishable from that of
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reality but instead of an abstract
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concept memory is made into a tangible
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physical space and the character’s
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ability to go back and interact with
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that space suggests that while our
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memories may define us we also have the
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ability to look back and redefine them
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the frequent alternation between the
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present and memories of different
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periods of David’s life aims to confuse
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viewers are we seeing the present a
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dream a fantasy or a memory or is it all
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of them at once impulses centrally nerve
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endings electricity in the brain we help
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fake it on the same quick cuts blur the
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line between each seems switch back and
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forth at lightning speed causing the
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same disorientation in time for the
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audience the David experience is trying
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to pass his reality while these abrupt
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cuts caused confusion for slower
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smoother transitions between scenes also
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serve to make memory reality and fantasy
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difficult to distinguish here cutting
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between shots is avoided scenes fade
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into one another or the camera pans from
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one to the next the seamlessness
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indicates a fluidity of time as well as
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the truth that for David and for us past
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present and dreams are
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separate as we like to think they all
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flow into each other to create a
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continuous consciousness which defines
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our deep identities and how we see the
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world
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the colors blue and red especially in
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lighting convey David’s mental state and
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split self as he wrestles with his inner
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monster
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the show eventually reveals that David’s
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madness is the result of his psyche of
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war with a parasitic psychic monster
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that infected his mind when he was just
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a baby this monster is actually a mutant
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like David named amar Farooq who is
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called the shadow king since a mutant
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like me this monster takes many forms
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the yellow-eyed man a horrifying
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storybook character and even appears to
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David as his friend Lennie were intended
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to associate blue light with the
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expression of David’s true self when we
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see blue light we know that David and
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not the monster is in control this is
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made clear when David uses carries
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device to trap the monster and regains
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control of his mind in a blinding flash
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of blue light blue is indicative of
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clarity truth and calm when scenes
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feature blue lights
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David seeing things as they are whether
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in the real world or within his memories
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David even takes the blue drug vapor to
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clear and calm his mind
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what is it blue yeah Oh blue in the
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astral plane Oliver seeks to provide
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David with clarity and safety from his
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mind within the blue ice fortress while
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outside of the safety of the fortress is
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where David encounters monster red
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represents the officer seems a lip red
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to indicate fear and loss of control
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when red is mentioned or we see red
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light we know that the monster is taking
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hold of David’s mind obscuring the truth
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and feeling David’s fears the Shadow
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King and the color red appear in moments
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of anger and desperation with
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uncontrolled use of David’s power as
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daemons tried to claw their way through
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the wall of David’s mind the crack in
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the wall seems red like blood the
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storybook that contains the monster the
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world’s angriest boy reads to bed she
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said his face turned red Lenny’s lying
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foreshadows the monster taking on her
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form
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[Music]
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when Sydney enters David’s body and
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loses control of his powers the mental
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hospital is cast in red with no ability
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to hold back David’s demons Sydney loses
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control of his abilities killing the
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real Lenny in the process the two colors
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also play off each other within the same
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scenes or the same shots to illustrate
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their opposing symbolic relationship in
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the show’s opening scene alternating red
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and blue lights from the police car
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illuminate the teenage David’s face as
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he begins his descent into madness it’s
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an immediate visualization of the two
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sides of his mind at war the same MRI
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machine scans in with both red and blue
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light as the monster takes hold sections
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of David’s brain scan first shown in
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blue light up in red when Sydney and
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David run from the Shadow King within
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David’s mind they run towards the blue
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light and away from the red and when the
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it makes itself known in the astral
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plane red light seeps through the
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windows into the Blue Room and then
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pours out as the door opens upon the
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monster these colors serve as a wordless
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touchstone for the audience – this thing
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was truth from lives and David from the
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monster before the Shadow King is ever
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revealed we intuitively understand that
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a dichotomy between the two colours
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represents an important split within
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David the color symbolism underlines the
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show’s ability to communicate in a
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visual emotional language beyond words
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to help us enter David’s mind and
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experience these questions on a deeper
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primal level in our world most of us
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have no psychic powers the David’s world
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demonstrates that perhaps we take for
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granted the power we have over our own
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realities how much of what we believe to
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be true is a lie we tell ourselves and
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how many of our impossible dreams could
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actually be within our reach if we
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simply chose to believe them David’s
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struggle with his monster is literal but
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his struggle reveals the two sides we
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have in each of us within our lives our
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memories and our dreams we all have both
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red and blue the red are the dark
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thoughts that haunt our sleep
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the confusion fears and doubts that make
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us feel as if we have no control the
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blue that
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– his versions of ourselves the things
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that make us who we are on our most
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fundamental level that no monster can
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change a weight or asleep just as David
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ultimately exercises his monster from
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this psyche we too can cast our fears
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and embrace our truest selves if we
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believe we have the power
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[Music]
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ah