E.S.A : English Secret Agent 1 & 2 (The Secret Clues)
*WARNING : SPOILERS FOR E.S.A : English Secret Agent*
While currently writing reviews (as well as the new E.S.A story of course), I thought I’d write a little piece on the symbolism and metaphors sprinkled throughout the lore of the series (In the most modest way possible). I’ll try not to be too congratulatory, I just thought it’ll be fun to highlight, and give insight into to some of the things I put WAY too much thought into when writing both stories. So enjoy!
The first thing I wanted to address is the character “Ghost”, and his significance.
Now obviously “The Ghost” has the most important relationship with Caroline, and is the main antagonist of the story, without him it’ll be nothing (and Caroline would still be back home hating her life). But there’s another hint to his importance to the story (within the naming of the character), which could confuse some as while he is in hiding, there’s no real significance to his name…
A second meaning to his name refers to the drug bust that Caroline was involved in 20 years ago, and how the situation she gets involved with when “The Ghost” captures her, echoes the events that happened all those years ago (something she’d never expect in her wildest nightmares to endure again). Making him a ghost of her past, but this time she learns from that experience, and eventually finds a way to get through this one as a result (like all good ghosts, this one is fit with a lesson to help better the future).
Another thing I wanted to touch upon was how Caroline was seemingly hypnotised by “The Ghost”
Now while I’m no psychologist, a repeated association between two events, images or memories once exploited could possibly provoke the subject to have a switch within themselves so that whenever one is triggered, a reaction immediately brings the other up in their minds. For instance, an old experiment, gave way to a big breakthrough as Ivan Pavlov trained his dogs to salivate at the ring of a bell instantly. He did this through association : He’d feed the dogs, and whilst doing so would ring a bell to the point that they were so used to it that anytime they’d hear the bell, they’d know it’s dinner time.
And, while it’s still a stretch that a woman having evocative sex with Arabic men, continuously (combining her twisted fantasies with this harsh, now sugar-coated reality) would then immediately mean that any other sight of a middle eastern man from then on, would get her weak at the knees, I it feel could possibly happen considering just how high stress/tension of a situation shes in, and just how much they do it for (seemingly months before she’s rescued). *Anyway, psychology lesson over*
The third thing I’d like to talk about is the main influence for both stories *excluding Female Detective JAV films*
That influence iiiiiissss…
Austin powers
Yep, believe it or not. One thing that really inspired me (both in the catsuits and the British theme) is Austin Powers. Mimi rogers being the mature, sexy spy was very influential, so the idea that this could be extreme and X-rated was even more appealing to me, even though the series is filled with sex as it is.
And then when I was coming up for ideas of a sequel to the story, the idea in AP of carrying on a legacy, and the daughter donning the same outfit and being a spy like the mother, was incredibly inspiring when writing E.S.A 2, I even put a little nod to the series by naming Carolines daughter Vanessa. If I was aware of how the series would go then I would’ve changed Carolines name to Marie (Like Mimi Rogers character) also, but it was too late by that point.
The final thing that I wanted to touch upon, is the catsuits (Both Caroline's and Vanessa’s)
Now, while I didn’t specify where exactly in England Caroline lived on the first story, in E.S.A 2 it is very explicitly stated that it’s the City of Durham (Found in the north-east of Britain), and as you’ll see in the story (plus on the cover of the story) Caroline is wearing the classic black catsuit, whereas her daughter Vanessa is wearing a red one. This is done purposely as a visual nod to the flag of Durham City (where both girls are from), so without even trying it the girls are always repping their hometown, wherever the British Secret Intelligence decide to dump them.
*One could also note that the white in the flag represents the fact that they’re both White British women in a foreign land*
Another significance to the British government changing the “Agility Suit”s colour for Vanessa (that is touched upon much more in the story) is the fact that they’re attacking the Red Star online server of Korea (or at least are being attacked by it), so the operation itself is called Operation Red Star. And her catsuit is in line with this (don’t ask me why).
So, there we have it, just some food for thought for anyone a little confused by anything in both stories. This could almost work as a guide of an accompanying piece alongside both stories, and If not it was a lot of fun either way, wasn’t it? Till next time,
JC
A think-piece on my new story!!!