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True Detective IX - Cohle Logic


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Childress just didn't look menacing, his two accomplices did. They should have delved more into the cult as well - it was obviously well-connected with the political connections and such, but all we got in the end was the death of one more psycho redneck


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Childress just didn't look menacing, his two accomplices did. They should have delved more into the cult as well - it was obviously well-connected with the political connections and such, but all we got in the end was the death of one more psycho redneck

How was Childress not menacing? The opening scene with him is freaky as hell and the man himself is scary looking and acting. He's huge and powerful and crazy in a scary way.

And them not delving into the larger dimensions of the cult is part of the point. That's why at the very end Marty tell Rust to not worry about it. They got their man, they did their part. They can't fight all the evil in the world on their own, there's too much of it. They are, as the metaphor that ends the series says, small dots of light in a sea of black.

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How was Childress not menacing? The opening scene with him is freaky as hell and the man himself is scary looking and acting. He's huge and powerful and crazy in a scary way.

And them not delving into the larger dimensions of the cult is part of the point. That's why at the very end Marty tell Rust to not worry about it. They got their man, they did their part. They can't fight all the evil in the world on their own, there's too much of it. They are, as the metaphor that ends the series says, small dots of light in a sea of black.

-He looked like a big dumb baby. Which was partly intentional, I'm sure, but I didn't find it as threatening as LeDoux or that other guy. The opening scene is indeed freaky, and gross, but that's due to the circumstances (talking to a dead/bound corpse of a father, getting frisky with his sister) rather than anything special he brought to the table. The changing voices was interesting, I'll give you that, but I just found his physical appearance kinda weak for a main villain. Perhaps if he'd been shaved bald, he could have had a scarier Judge Holden look

-Yeah, I got that as well. But there should have been more to it than just a couple throwaway lines about the rest of the cult. Not asking for all the loose ends to get tied up or all the evildoers to be vanquished, just more acknowledgement of the vast conspiracy that had been a dominant plot aspect for much of the season

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Eh, for what it's worth I find villains like Tywin or Gus Fring far more menacing and interesting than the Eroll/Ramsay like.

I feel quite differently about it, to be honest. With guys like Tywin or Gus, there's a certain level of predictability and logic to their actions, even if they are more overtly dangerous because of the power they hold. The loose cannon types, the psychopaths - they're much harder to come to terms with on a psychological level. Ultimately, things like order, law, peace - they benefit people like Tywin & Gus. I guess what makes villains like Ramsay and Errol (who I don't think share that many similarities, but can see why you'd make the comparison) so frightening is that I don't understand the mindset - I can't predict their next moves based on any sort of intuition or line of reasoning. They're intimidating not only because it's hard to know what they're thinking, but also because what they're thinking doesn't have to make sense to anyone other than themselves. So while their ability to inflict damage (physical, mental, emotional) is somewhat more limited in terms of scale, it's also more frightening and personal.

Which isn't to say that I have a preference for one over the other, as there are effective examples of both types of antagonists to be found throughout fiction and in real life.

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I know I'm pulling a "Donnie" here and wandering in to the conversation on the last page. So apologies for that. Anyway, has anyone here read The King In Yellow? I'm thinking about getting it as one of my summer books to read and wanted to get some opinions on it in relation to the show, as in did it add any thing to the show for you after reading it?


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-Yeah, I got that as well. But there should have been more to it than just a couple throwaway lines about the rest of the cult. Not asking for all the loose ends to get tied up or all the evildoers to be vanquished, just more acknowledgement of the vast conspiracy that had been a dominant plot aspect for much of the season

I don't things like The Yellow King Cult really holds up under scrutiny, so they really have to be dancing around the edges like this. The moment they show the core of the cult, it will just be five, well connected, bad guys that learned to rape and kill from their father.

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-Yeah, I got that as well. But there should have been more to it than just a couple throwaway lines about the rest of the cult. Not asking for all the loose ends to get tied up or all the evildoers to be vanquished, just more acknowledgement of the vast conspiracy that had been a dominant plot aspect for much of the season

What more do you want? We get references and they clearly exist and have for a long time, but the plot is not about the vast conspiracy and they aren't taking them down anyway.

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How was Childress not menacing? The opening scene with him is freaky as hell and the man himself is scary looking and acting. He's huge and powerful and crazy in a scary way.

He's just some generic the Hills Have Eyes hillbilly expect he does a silly accent.

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Yeah, found him to be a bit of a let-down. It was hard to see how he could be some kind of quasi-mystical cult personality, hard to imagine his relationship to Ledoux and the other one, would have been nice to see a Manson-like hold over them. Especially with the climactic hide-and-seek head game with Rust and him, where he's using this Voice and calling him "little priest" and all that, that part could have, should have been set up better to make him more believably the crazy but persuasive Yellow King quoting potentially-supernatural-forces-wielding bad guy, rather than "incest-having-redneck." But eh, whatever, it wasn't that big a deal. The real horror was in what him and the others were doing, what they did, like how Rust (et al) reacted to that video, or in the rest of the episodes where there's this nihilistic sense of despair just underlying everything. A bad guy was almost superfluous really.


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The real horror was in what him and the others were doing, what they did, like how Rust (et al) reacted to that video,

Honestly, I found the reaction of the sheriff on the boat laughable. It reminded me of when some evil dude's plan to rule the world in cartoons is ruined and you get that NOOOOOO!! and zoom out to outer space. I actually played that part several times and laughed out loud at each one.

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Well, that's the beauty of not showing it. You can just go ahead and imagine something really horrible, and we don't actually have to see it. Which is a bonus since we the audience come into this expecting True Detective, not A Serbian Film.


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How is screaming at a girl being murdered and raped laughable, we dont know what sort of sick torture shit was on there.

If you think it's laughable to be truly horrified and scream at something like that it probably says more about you.

i thought the villain was creepy as shit.

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He's just some generic the Hills Have Eyes hillbilly expect he does a silly accent.

This. And also. He stands up and tells the audience, "hey in case you missed all the hints, I'm the killer"

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How is screaming at a girl being murdered and raped laughable, we dont know what sort of sick torture shit was on there.

If you think it's laughable to be truly horrified and scream at something like that it probably says more about you.

i thought the villain was creepy as shit.

It'd not the act of screaming. Its the way in which he screamed. Very cheesy.

I'm pretty sure the last episode was written at the last minute after struggling to figure out a satisfying ending

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It'd not the act of screaming. Its the way in which he screamed. Very cheesy.

I'm pretty sure the last episode was written at the last minute after struggling to figure out a satisfying ending

Nah, the whole thing was written before filming even started and filming was all done in one go.

It just turns out he was writing a story that wasn't trying to trick you or be super complicated.

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Nah, the whole thing was written before filming even started and filming was all done in one go.

It just turns out he was writing a story that wasn't trying to trick you or be super complicated.

Sure. But that episode could still have been written in a rush. Or rrustration

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Sure. But that episode could still have been written in a rush. Or rrustration

Not from any description of the writing process. Or for any reason really.

There's nothing in the ending that indicates there was any confusion or indecision about what that ending was going to be about.

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