Just watched ‘Jibaro’ episode of love, death and robots 3. That was the most eerie, beautiful and frightening daylight horror I have ever seen. I am stunned
The horror of the garrison running and dancing to their deaths. The horror of the man’s face when he sees the woman is made of gold. The horror of the kiss cutting his mouth. The horror of someone clearly born deaf hearing for the first time. The horror of the siren seeing her body after what had happened. The horror of her trying to dance but being unable. The horror of her pain. The horror of the knight’s dance. The horror of the bottom of the lake absolutely shining with knights’ armour.
just found out love death and robots did an episode akin to la belle dame sans merci … brb consuming media
that was so visceral and well-crafted. i think they did a really good job capturing and symbolizing the greed of colonialism, as well as the way it intersects with sexism
This episode of love, death and robots was powerful. I didn’t realize the cultural significance of the story until reading up on it afterwards. The story follows a Siren smitten with a soldier who is unaffected by her deathly scream. Jibaro is an alternate version of the Siren’s tale. The original Greek mythology talks about Sirens who have beautiful voices that seduce men at sea to leap to their deaths. If a Siren is unable to woo a man, then she commits suicide by diving into the water.
In Love, Death and Robots’ Jibaro, we see a Siren, like Sindel from Mortal Kombat, whose scream drives people insane. The story begins with an army that appears to be colonialists. The lead is a deaf soldier. Considering all the gold that adorned their horses, it appears this group has been colonizing and looting as they expanded. The Siren senses threat and attacks. While the rest of the troops are vanquished by the screaming and dancing Siren, the deaf soldier, is unharmed and makes a run for it.
The Siren is intrigued by this soldier. Clearly, she’s come across a deaf person for the first time. Later, she sneaks up next to him and spends the night. The soldier wakes up and can’t take his eyes off the bejewelled beauty. He follows her, and they eventually embrace and share a passionate kiss. Her lips and teeth are so sharp that it cuts the soldier, and he bleeds.
We see a turn of events when the soldier knocks the Siren unconscious, savagely rips through her chest (symbolic of sexual assault) tears all her jewels and adornment away from her body, and tosses her into the river. Her blood is magical and floods the river in a Shining-esque manner. The soldier washes his face in the water, and this causes his hearing to be healed, making him vulnerable to the Siren.
At first it appears she is dead. Her body floating limply in a river of blood—is horrifying to witness. When suddenly she moves. When she rises out of the water… she realizes what happened and is devastated. The shame, humiliation, and overwhelming sense of violation is so apparent. The Siren exacts revenge for his betrayal by performing a fatality on the undeaf soldier with her scream. The man suffers a choreographed death as he moves into the river and sinks to the bottom of the river.
The ending of Jibaro places emphasis on the metaphor of toxic relationships. Both of them were attracted to each other for their own selfish desires, and as we all know, that can never end well.
The deaf soldier fancies the Siren only for the ornaments on her body. And the Siren is intrigued by this man only because her otherwise fatal scream had no effect on him. They are drawn to each other for incredibly wrong reasons. Soon, the man strikes first to claim what he really wants. This backfires horribly, with the return of his hearing. After such brutality and violation, the Siren has lost her grace and can no longer dance. What is witnessed is pure unadulterated pain and rage. She screams in agony and takes the man down, and even though she ultimately wins (with his death, and her survival), it is a hollow victory. He has taken something so precious from her, and she is now forever changed.
This piece was powerful to me, as a woman who (like many I have known) has experienced this kind of trauma. Of being violated, having your innocence ripped away from you so cruelly, and illustrating how one feels inside in the aftermath of this. Though she survives, she is mutilated. Though she exists, she is half dead. The silence echoes eerily around her when she ceases to scream. The lake is a metaphor for her emotions, the sky expansive emptiness, the forest her crowding thoughts… and how ultimately alone she is in this.
