# Aeon Flux (animated), why so bizzare? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2006, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210 "2006-01-09T20:40:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/1 "2006-01-09T20:40:46Z")
I like most animated shows, but there’s just something…disturbingly _weird_ about Aeon Flux, it almost seems unfollowable a cow-orker let me borrow his AE-F DVD’s as i remember the show as rather cool from the old MTV “Liquid Television” days, but i _never_ remembered it being this freaky and disturbing, i mean a guy with a portal to another dimension in his stomach, and who appears to be out of phase with normal matter, the weird bondage fetish all the characters seem to have, the whole show seems to have a general feeling of “sliminess” to it… why don’t i “get” this show, it just freaks me out, yet i can’t look away, it’s morbidly, disturbingly fascinating lets not get into the fact that it seems to have a badly fractured/nonexistent plotline and seems like it’s written and animated by ADD-ridden monkeys… (band name!) can _anyone_ explain the concept of Aeon Flux to me, i consider myself reasonably intelligent, but this show, well, i can’t figure it out… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/2 "2006-01-09T20:59:42Z")
Aeon Flux doesn’t HAVE a storyline, fractured or otherwise. Each short has a plotline - usually fairly basic - but the series has nothing of the sort. It doesn’t even have continuity. Aeon died more frequently than Kenny, her relationship with Trevor Goodchild changed with the mood of the writers - ranging from completely antagonistic, to sexual passion fueled by a rivalry, and the world it was set in had no consistant character. It’s best summed up by your post: ‘morbidly, disturbingly fascinating’. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/3 "2006-01-09T21:03:09Z")
Aeon Flux is inspired by gnosticism. ([(Brief explanation here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6491858&postcount=37)) The gnostics have given us some Weird Shit. _Aeon Flux_ is pretty faithful to that. Each of the shorts is like a little _Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz_ – you’re pretty sure all that bizarre imagery means _something_… but unless you have the key to it, it’s just a bunch of Weird Shit. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/4 "2006-01-09T21:04:27Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > I like most animated shows, but there’s just something…disturbingly _weird_ about Aeon Flux, it almost seems unfollowable… I think that was rather the **point.** Something that hadn’t been done yet, you know? At least not quite in that way. (But see _Dr. Caligari_ – 1989 – [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097228/;](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097228/;) there was sa lot of surrealistic experimentation along these lines in the '80s, and frankly I rather miss it.) But if you must have an “explanation” – [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeon\_flux:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeon_flux:) > [@](#): > > Æon Flux is set in a surreal, futuristic universe of mutant creatures, clones, and robots. The title character is a tall, sexy, scantily-clad secret agent from the society of Monica, skilled in assassination and acrobatics. Her mission is to infiltrate the strongholds of the neighboring country of Bregna, which is led by her sworn enemy, and sometimes lover, Trevor Goodchild. Monica represents a dynamic anarchist society while Bregna embodies a centralized scientific planned state. The names of their respective characters reflect this: Flux as the self-directed agent from Monica and Goodchild as the technocratic leader of Bregna. > > The term Æon comes from the Gnostic notion of Æons as emanations of the God, who come in male/female pairs (here Flux and Goodchild). This juxtaposition also maps accordingly to the characterizations of Eris and Greyface in the Discordian mythos. Further mythic parallels can be drawn in likening Goodchild to Apollo and Flux to Artemis. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/5 "2006-01-09T21:04:50Z")
That sums it up pretty well. We don’t know a whole lot about the world that the show is set in, so we can’t even be really sure who is good and who is bad. (The answer seems to be ‘neither,’ since they’re both extremes.) The show also intentionally mucks with your sympathies as a viewer. If you watch the silent short “War,” they explain a little about that. During the episodes with dialogue, they either pose some complicated questions about good and evil and order and chaos, or they just do a lot of weird stuff with no meaning that allows you to project those kinds of ideas onto it. Either way, it keeps you busy and unsure. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/6 "2006-01-09T21:07:11Z")
I listened to some of the directory commentary, at the time M-TV wanted something different and weird. This fit the bill. To go back 10 years, there wasn’t a lot of animation out there so this was fun at the time. Or I’m talking out my ass. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/7 "2006-01-09T21:44:37Z")
So, to get all philisophical then, the fact that i don’t understand it, means i actually _do_ because there’s nothing _to_ understand, it just _IS_? and it has the plotline of _not having_ a plotline, right? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/8 "2006-01-09T22:02:40Z")
No, I don’t think that’s right. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/9 "2006-01-09T23:04:20Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > So, to get all philisophical then, the fact that i don’t understand it, means i actually _do_ because there’s nothing _to_ understand, it just _IS_? > > and it has the plotline of _not having_ a plotline, right? Nope. It doesn’t have a linear plot to follow, but it conforms to a coherant system and the individual vignettes make sense in that context. No straightforward plot =/= nothing to understand. Matthew Barney’s [_Cremaster Cycle_](http://www.cremaster.net/) doesn’t have a story arc, like, say, the _Star Wars_ movies, and many people looking at them with no background will probably find them totally incomprehensible and conclude that they’re just “weird for weird’s sake.” Still, if you already know the vocabulary of symbols that are used in the films, it’s all familiar territory and its meaning is explicit. _Aeon Flux_ is similar. If you’re familiar with its obscure background material, a lot of the “What the hell was that about?” moments become much clearer. Whether or not that would make the shorts more enjoyable for you is a matter of personal disposition – there’s no amount of explanation or background out there that’s going to make _Aeon Flux_ click into something as literal and rational as, say, _Clone Wars_. If arcane stuff or pure symbolism bores the tits off you, you’re probably better off not trying to make sense of _Aeon Flux_. Doesn’t mean there’s _nothing_ there, though – any more than there’s nothing to understand about a Hieronymus Bosch painting, relative to a Normon Rockwell painting. It’s easier to work out the literal story in a [Rockwell painting](http://www.artchive.com/artchive/r/rockwell/rockwell_blackeye.jpg): “The girl in the white dress has been fighting at school, and her mother has been called in to talk to the principal. Although the girl is probably going to be punished for the fight, it doesn’t matter to her at all. She got her licks in and she’s well-satisfied.” Decoding a [Bosch painting](http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bosch/delight/delightc.jpg) may require the viewer to be familiar with a large glossary of symbols – and ultimately the meaning is entirely allegorical – we’re never going to find a rational, literal explanation for why all those people are gathered together and why, specifically, so much bizarre activity is taking place. Certainly doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to understand there. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/10 "2006-01-09T23:07:55Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > So, to get all philisophical then, the fact that i don’t understand it, means i actually _do_ because there’s nothing _to_ understand, it just _IS_? > > and it has the plotline of _not having_ a plotline, right? …well… You’re almost there. It’s not there is NOTHING to understand. It’s that understanding it doesn’t matter. It is what it is. You understand it as much as you percieve and make sense of it yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/11 "2006-01-09T23:11:16Z")
I always saw the original Aeon Flux shorts as being all action with any context stripped away. We saw things like battles and escapes and chases but without having any idea what the motives were for the people involved in them. In the second series, we started to get some dialogue and characterization but we still lacked most of the background. So you could think of the cartoons as short extracts from a full-length movie - if you had seen the whole movie, you’d understand what was going on, but you only saw the one scene, so you had to guess. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aeon-flux-animated-why-so-bizzare/339210/12 "2006-01-09T23:35:41Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > why don’t i “get” this show, it just freaks me out, yet i can’t look away, it’s morbidly, disturbingly fascinating Seems like you get it just fine.