Meta: Facing Race (RvB s10)--DFvQ

CW: imperialism, racism, white supremacy

One of the things that sets the PFL arc apart is that we finally start getting characters with faces. Prior to this, only VIC and the Counselor were seen out of armour, but even these early instances set up a strange dichotomy with faced villains and faceless heroes. Generally speaking, because of the medium, the reason we never see faces is that there are no faces in multiplayer, and economic/technical limitations of the early-00s meant that animating VIC’s face involved a crude, uncanny overlay of lips that move over a still. The reason PFL has so many faces (and why they stopped having faces afterwards) is because of the significant increase in non-machinima animation in the Monty Oum era. Thematically, however, the faces of the Freelancers emphasize the facelessness of the sim troopers and draw attention to the complex operations of race, power, and anonymity in RvB.

 

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