![]() ![]() At the end of the journey, some of the companions get a Blue Pill moment before we say goodbye. Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy, and Clara are irrevocably changed by their experiences with the Doctor. Recent seasons hinge entirely on a companion choosing the Red Pill of adventure to begin their journey. ![]() While no actual pills are involved, the Doctor invites each new companion to travel with him through all of time and space, opening their eyes to a whole new way of looking at the world. The episode’s message undercuts the traditional Pill theme-it’s not adventure that is most appealing to our hero, but living a life surrounded by her loved ones.ĭoctor Who has turned both aspects of the Pill theme into a integral part of every companion’s story. The end of the episode heavily implies that the hospital is the true version of reality, and Buffy is effectively taking a Blue Pill of delusion that will bring her a more adventurous life. In this case, the implications of the Red Pill’s adventurous reality and the Blue Pill’s peaceful delusion are flipped. Buffy eventually makes her choice-not based on whether or not she’d be able to be a hero and fight monsters, but which version of reality contains those whom she loves. Her monster-fighting friends tell her that the hospital is the hallucination, and Buffy is forced to choose between which version of reality she’s going to accept. In a sixth-season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Normal Again”, Buffy learns that her whole life filled with monsters and vampire slaying is nothing more than a delusion produced by schizophrenia, and that she’s been staying in a hospital with a team of doctors trying to help her overcome her psychosis for the last six years. Science fiction and fantasy love to play with this trope and all of its implications. Stories give us the opportunity to live vicariously through adventurers who get to choose to eat the red pill. We get enough of that in our own lives, thank you very much. No one wants to read a story that doesn’t have any conflict or change, following a character through his or her daily life while nothing interesting happens. Stories usually favor the “Red Pill” choices, because those are the exciting ones that kick off the plot. Naturally, Beowulf chooses glory (red pill) over peace (blue pill). At one point, he gets to choose between living a long, peaceful life with his family or dying a glorious death in the heat of battle. ![]() Beowulf, a thousand-year-old Old English epic poem, follows the great warrior hero Beowulf as he defeats monsters. ![]() While this narrative device gets its name from The Matrix, it’s actually an ancient storytelling technique. Why is it so popular? I think it’s because it speaks to a deep part of the human spirit. Sometimes pills are involved, other times it’s simple amnesia, or some kind of device to plop the hero back into their pre-story life. We see this Red Pill/Blue Pill symbolism all over the place in pop culture, especially geek culture. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. The blue pill allows Neo to go back to his normal life, while the red pill would allow him to fully wake up from the illusion and begin a quest for truth. A man named Morpheus explains to Neo that the illusion they’re in is called the Matrix, and serves to stop humans from discovering that they’re nothing but slaves. Our protagonist Neo, who is slowly discovering that his perception of reality is an illusion, is offered the choice between taking a red pill or a blue pill. You all remember that iconic Red Pill/Blue Pill scene from The Matrix, right? Just in case you don’t, let me recap it for you. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |