By coincidence, I was reading “Foundation and Empire” and shortly after getting into it, I started binge-watching “Jessica Jones.” I say “by coincidence” because I had no idea that the Mule from the Foundation and Jessica Jones’ Kilgrave were pretty much the same villain.
The air of paranoia as the non-mind-control enabled super villains try to deal with the mind controllers in both works is very similar. There’s a constant sense of the protagonists trying to avoid walking into invisible spider webs and a sense that any mistake will result in getting mind controlled, which is one of the very few fates which can ACTUALLY be worse than death, as Jessica Jones makes abundantly clear. Dealing with either villain is extremely dangerous not just to the lives, but the sanity, of the protagonists.
The extant of the Mule and Kilgrave’s powers vary greatly, as do their personalities. When the Mule messes with your mind, it stays messed with. Kilgrave’s effects go away eventually. Both have weaknesses in their powers, which means they can be fought and defeated, though it’s extremely difficult. Well the difficulty level for Jessica Jones may be exaggerated since she has repeated plot-driven instances of being dumb as a box of rocks.
And there are considerable differences in their personalities. The Mule is much saner than Kilgrave: the Mule has no particular interest or need in tormenting others, whereas Kilgrave takes delight in tormenting his mind slaves (who are aware of what they are doing even as they are forced to do it). But the Mule is ambitious and galactic in scope which makes him much more of a death dealer. The Mule wants to (and does) conquer the entire galaxy, which entails quite a few deaths. In fact, in Second Foundation he bombs a populous and advanced planet that is the capital of a small interstellar empire into the stone age because he thinks his enemies may reside there. So he’s not a nice guy, by any means.
The mind control that these villains exert offers quite a few chances to explore topics relating to free will and psychology and consensuality which the writers of Jessica Jones exploit quite adroitly at times. Asimov doesn’t do so much with that, but that is because he is pursuing bigger themes: the notion that the failures of government and the resulting unnecessary human misery they cause are psychological in nature, not some vague product of “human nature” but manipulable aspects of the human psyche that might be controlled to the benefit of all humankind by a more advanced society.
I also found some resonance with these themes in some current news: the discovery that the influenza virus might influence those who have it to go out and mingle in large crowds – and stories about toxoplasmosis, a condition in which brain parasites transmitted by cats which get inside mice and make them reckless and attracted to the smell of cat urine, which also can get inside human brains and make us reckless too, which may be linked to road rage incidents. No word about the smell of cat urine, but I’ve smelled cat urine, and … either I don’t have toxoplasmosis, or it does not cause humans to be attracted.
Yo, Kilgrave and the Mule’s real life analogues are viruses and amoeba-like parasites ya’ll, and THEY ARE INSIDE THE HOUSE!
There are also interesting analogs here to the villain of the ultimate mind control horror story, “I have no mouth and I must scream,” Max Lord from DC Comics, and the Blight from Vinge’s “A Fire Upon the Deep.”
But why have all the fun to myself. Have at, boys and girls!