I've seen Blade Runner 2049 twice now and there's definitely a lot to unpack. I haven't been able to get it out of my head. These are my thoughts.
SPOILERS
To me, one of the most interesting themes explored in the film is the meaning of love. All the major characters view love differently and their perspectives are reflected by their actions.
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For Ryan Gosling character K, love means presence: K's relationship with Joi is one of the most emotionally potent parts of the film. He simply wants the company. And he wants it to be available whenever he wants it. He can turn Joi on and off as he chooses and never asks anything of her besides her presence. He knows that after a period of her being turned off, he can turn her back on and she'll be there for him, unconditionally. It's that unconditional love that he's looking for, something humans often (though not always, unfortunately) get from their spouses and parents. He has Joi as a "spouse", and much of his arc in the film is devoted to his search for his "parent." This desire to feel special, to be loved, gives him purpose.
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For Joi, love means giving someone what they want: Joi's purpose is to indulge the desires of her companion. Her presence is meant to reinforce everything he wants to feel. She whispers into K's ears what he wants to believe. He wants to believe he's "real," that he has a purpose beyond being a tool, and so she tells him that. He wants to feel normal and wants to express his love normally, so she calls over a tangible woman so that he can, uh, make love to her. She pushes him further into his fantasies, helping him truly believe he's more than just a replicant, that he was born and not manufactured, even if that's probably not something a replicant should believe. She doesn't necessarily give him what's best for him, only what he's looking for at any given time.
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For Deckard, love means giving someone what they need: Deckard plainly states that "sometimes to love someone, you've got to be a stranger." He doesn't allow himself to indulge his desire to see his child, because he knows that's not what's best for them. He has a pragmatic view of what love is, and he sets up a complex trail of misinformation and mystery to try and isolate his child's identity from the world, and to isolate himself. This is, of course, almost the polar opposite of K and Joi's ideal of love. Instead of trying to be there for his child at all times, he wants them isolated from him. It's his absence, and not his presence, that demonstrates his profound love for his child. (And, tragically, his child is literally isolated, all alone in a bubble.)
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For Niander Wallace, love is a means to an end: Wallace's concept of love is also pretty plainly presented. Love is more important to him than anything else even though he's drained it of its emotional foundation. I mean, he literally names his #1 replicant Luv. For him, Luv is a resource that does whatever he asks her to do. He also wants to manufacture love, both in the form of Joi and in the form of replicants that are capable of reproducing. He uses it as a weapon in the literal sense, with Luv acting as his enforcer. And he also uses it as a weapon in the metaphorical sense by showing Deckard a copy of the woman he loved to manipulate Deckard into revealing information about his child. Furthering this idea is the fact that he wants to find the child, the product of Deckard and Rachel's love, in order to dissect it and understand how he can create replicants capable of "love" that can create exponentially more children. For Wallace, love is the key to everything, which sounds romantic, but it's demystified. It is only a way for him to push forward his vision. (Haha, dude's physically blind AND blind to the meaning of love. Deep.)
I'm not sure I would go so far as to say that love is necessarily Blade Runner 2049's central theme, but it was the most interesting one to me because of how each character views it and how their views inform their actions in the film. It truly is a beautiful film and I think it's going to continue to stick in my mind. Thanks for reading this, unless you didn't, then thanks for being you.
What do you think about the themes of love in Blade Runner 2049?
EDITS: grammar is important
Submitted October 08, 2017 at 04:27PM by Im_Not_Even_The_Guy http://ift.tt/2hYoKLC
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