Just A Fleshsuit Doing The Most

*Tries to be positive* *fails miserably* *keeps trying* He/Him

[themothwhisperer]

//Spoilers ‼️ for the movie Obsession//

Nikki being the victim in this movie is literally not up for debate btw.

Bear f*cked up big time. He paid the price, sure, but not before causing a lot of damage and trauma around him. Especially to Nikki.

There are two key moments for me that clearly highlight how Bear is truly not a good guy and never was. At all.

Firstly, and most importantly, when Nikki asks him to kill her as her possessed self is sleeping and unaware of their interaction. This is Bear’s first very straightforward opportunity to fix his mess. If he truly cared about her and her wellbeing, he would take immediate action. Like kill himself. Sucks, but gotta do what you gotta do, man. But no, of course. Bear takes personal offence into the idea that she’d rather die than forcefully be with him. It’s pathetic and enraging. Let’s remind ourselves here that Bear is regularly r*ping her (and forcing other forms of intimacy on her as well), enslaving her mind and quite literally stealing her entire life from her. The notion of consent is simply nonexistent and he’s actively okay with that. Before everything spirals into total chaos, he just wants to alter his wish, not erase it fully. He still wants that control over her, whether she is happy or not. She pleads for liberation from this curse and Bear decides to victimize himself, be selfish again and then he walks away. Ruining his ultimate chance.

Secondly, the suicide scene. Here’s the thing… It’s too late at this point. He missed out on several opportunities to make things better and he kept on prioritizing his power over Nikki. It led him to a point of no return where his life is irreparably turned upside down, his two closest friends were killed (because of him) and Nikki’s possessed self represents a very real danger for him (all his fault, once again). There is only one way out of this: He needs to die. Even with this unavoidable truth, Bear manages to fail again. He swallows all the pills and a few seconds later, he cowardly tries to undo his actions. The storyline leads to him overdosing and dying regardless, but this moment is decisive to represent his true character. It still wasn’t enough, somehow, for him to end it all. Truth be, it was unfortunately too late for Nikki one way or the other. The trauma was just too massive with the murders and the self-harm. He ruined her entirely.

If you ask me, the title is about him being horrendously obsessed with her, not the other way around. His obsession led him there. He refused to take a risk and potentially get in the friendzone. This was unthinkable and impossible to accept for him.

And also, that sickening story she presents at the party… It’s not just to generate a deeply uncomfortable and eerie atmosphere, it’s not just to shock the audience with its content. It’s about them. It’s literally them. She mentioned feeling a sibling-like connection with him. Nikki is being abused and tortured by someone she considered a brother. This is a tale about his cruelty. This is her cry for help. And it breaks my heart.

Masterpiece of a movie, truly.

[yurimom]

obsession was great. the themes are especially great when viewed thru a feminist lens. i think you could even go so far as to view it as a metaphor for reactive abuse (the way bear makes a wish for nikki to love him more than anything in the world / be obsessed with him, then lets everyone believe she’s just gone crazy put of nowhere, all while still not wanting to end his relationship with her. of course it’s not one to one but the subtle themes are there.)

i also enjoyed how the film showed what everyday violations of consent can look like…media often shows the most obvious, often-dramatized occurrences of it, but this depicted a more common way of it showing up.

bear did indeed take advantage of nikki while she was in a mentally unstable state. he was well aware her consent was compromised. all the while he is very insecure about it, knows what he is doing, becomes aware even that nikki is aware and it is hurting her, continues doing it. i love that this film names this. it even critiques “not like the other girls” anti-feminism through sarah, who sees it as nikki taking advantage of bear…then she ironically tries to take advantage of bear’s vulnerable state herself by coming onto him.

also on a smaller note nikki’s batshit incestuous gorey hansel and gretel story had great prose i enjoyed it. my partner pointed out that before the wish, nikki saw bear as a little brother figure. meaning the hansel and gretel thing very well could have come from real feelings of disgust, like it nearly feels like an incestuous relationship to her.

and the ENDING. a lesser film would have insisted that, in these circumstances where the wish can only be broken if one of them dies, the male lead must survive between the two. but there was no self sacrifice from nikki out of “love”, there was no moment of lucidity or jealousy or rage where she kills herself, bear is forced by the narrative to take full responsibility for what he has done to nikki. what’s more— he reaches for a gun, almost uses it, ultimately decides on overdosing on pills. my partner and i personally think this was intentional commentary on masculinity, by having bear consider, then reject, the way men typically choose suicide in favor of the way women typically choose it. just a fun detail and maybe we’re both batshit.

good movie. all of that said though i’m sure a lot of people will boil it down to “haha women are soooo crazy…”

[officialdietcoke]

one of the things i admire most about obsession is the deliberate denial of any kind of optimistic ending, as well as the method by which that is executed. i’m thinking, specifically, of how the musical cues are utilized to pull multiple bait-and-switches on the audience: the way the music swells when bear is explaining the wish to ian and asking for his help; when bear puts the gun in his mouth; and when he takes the oxycodone.

obviously, if ian wishes away bear’s initial wish, that’s a happy ending! if bear dies in the bathroom and we cut to black, the audience can hold onto the hope that the wish breaking allows nikki to go back to her life before!

but those endings, especially the latter, would be dishonest. i appreciate that the film makes us sit in nikki’s anguish instead, bc i appreciate that it understands that she was equally affected by this, if not more so! an ending that bleak is honest to the concept and to the consequences inherent to the concept and i think it shows a great deal of respect for nikki. it’s an acknowledgement that nikki experienced something deeply violating and now has to somehow learn how to cope with it.

[thebowieconstrickter]

Was thinking about how fitting it is that Bear wants to be a food critic while Nikki wants to be a writer.

He wants to complain about the creations of someone else, adding nothing but despair to their lives, refusing to contribute anything helpful or new.

She wants to create something original but is stuck in an imitation of herself, forced to reenact a plot she hates.

[he-wears-fine-things-well]

“What’s so bad about being with me?” You raped her. You changed her so fundamentally she is literally not the same person anymore. You took her body and her mind with no consideration for her own feelings about you. You dominate her life in a way she no longer has a life. You took everything from her but her life. She begged you to kill her but in your mind her not loving you was a fate worse than her death. It was never about you but you made it so anyway. She literally doesn’t exist without you. That is what your obsession did to her

[spiralboundd]

"is being with me so bad?"

KILL YOURSELF LITERALLY EXPLODE EVERYWHERE HOLY FUCK!!!! FREE HER!!!! GOD!!!

[susiephone]

i love that Obsession didn't do the "oh if you'd just asked her out she would've said yes" thing.

like that kind of "you didn't need magic, you could've gotten what you want the honest way" dramatic irony can be effective and i see why a lot of writers use it for "be careful what you wish for" plots like these, but i love that Obsession is like, "no. she doesn't like you like that. there is no version of this where you end up dating her, and you need to get over it."

and nikki clearly did value bear's friendship and care about him; if he'd been honest with her about his feelings, she probably would've tried to let him down easy and remain friends - but of course, it's unlikely that he would've been willing to remain friends. bear's both too cowardly to admit the truth to nikki (which would've prompted her to reject him outright and at least given him closure), and too obsessed with her to just quietly accept that it wasn't gonna happen (which would've let him maybe start to get over his crush and move on). he's both convinced they belong together and unwilling to be direct in doing something about it, and he doesn't get even the barest comfort of knowing the real nikki loved him all along. she didn't. she liked him, but she didn't love him. and he swapped her out for a version of her that "loves" him... but doesn't like him. and he still wanted to try and make that work, even knowing the real nikki was trapped and miserable inside the shell of her body, being used by the thing he willed into existence. the tragedy doesn't happen because what he wants is within reach and he doesn't realize it - the tragedy happens because what he wants is impossible, and he refuses to see that until it's too late.

[turnipoddity]

not me

[trudicatcandle]

She is in the sunken place and her place is occupied by a demon who will kill himself if it's not loved back. Nicky is the monster of this movie but it's also the victim.

[summerbrook]

it is terrifying that bear only sought to "alter" his wish rather than cancelling it but what is even more terrifying is that he wouldn't even have called the number had nikki not inconvenienced him. if she did not act in such extreme ways bear wouldn't even have a problem. which is sooooo sooooo terrifying because he was completely fine living and being "loved" by nikki who he knew wasn't the real her. he claimed to love her, but even when she started acting like a totally different person it was water off a duck's back for him. he DIDN'T CARE whether it was the real nikki or an entirely different person.

even when she begs him to kill her, he does not feel even a shred of pity for her; he only worries "is being with me that bad".

the only reason he tries to change anything is because her behavior started to scare him FREAK him out. had she acted in a meeker way, bear would've lived with her HIS WHOLE LIFE knowing she ISN'T the real nikki NOT GIVING A FUCK about what she would've wanted. PERIOD.

the more i sit with it the more i realise that the title of the movie did not refer to nikki's obsession with bear but rather his obsession with her. because i know fs that what he felt for her definitely wasn't love.

[starvariety]

if i think too hard about nikki’s experience in Obsession i feel physically ill. imagine one second you’re just walking up to your house after a night out, and then the next, you’re looking out of your own body, but you’re not longer in control. you’re a prisoner to a terrible, unnatural version of yourself that only exists because of a choice someone else made. when you scream, nobody listens. when you claw your way out for long enough to explain that this isn’t you, nobody listens. when you beg the man who trapped you in this situation to put and end to it, to set your free, he just. doesn’t. listen. and then when you do finally regain control, all your friends are dead, and you are covered in their blood. because of a choice someone else made

[trudicatcandle]

Im so glad they changed it so she survived because it made everything click in the movie for me. It was the last thing Bear Ruined for her.

[starvariety]

if i think too hard about nikki’s experience in Obsession i feel physically ill. imagine one second you’re just walking up to your house after a night out, and then the next, you’re looking out of your own body, but you’re not longer in control. you’re a prisoner to a terrible, unnatural version of yourself that only exists because of a choice someone else made. when you scream, nobody listens. when you claw your way out for long enough to explain that this isn’t you, nobody listens. when you beg the man who trapped you in this situation to put and end to it, to set your free, he just. doesn’t. listen. and then when you do finally regain control, all your friends are dead, and you are covered in their blood. because of a choice someone else made

[furiosa-femininst]

Based

[wegotfanfictionathome]

No fr, we gotta find some way to ward off the refill incel guys

[ceruleanheaven]

nikki begging bear to kill her and all he does is ask whats so bad about being with him. one of the most nauseating scenes ive ever witnessed

[acefuruya]

I genuinely appreciate how obsession doesn't try to frame bear as morally grey but just fully leans into how deplorable he is. a lesser movie would have tried to give him redeeming moments along the way but no, at every single crossroads bear makes the wrong choice. when the customer service rep asks him if he wants to cancel his wish, he says no, and asks to alter it. when nikki, the real one, begs him to kill her, he asks her "if it would be so bad to love him", and right at the end, backs out of killing himself and tries to throw the pills up. he is the villain, not another victim, not a confused, cowardly boy, the villain.

[serendipitous-posts]

Just saw the interview where Curry Barker explained that it's totally possible to get a normal wish from the One Wish Willow, and I love the way they did that so much. The reason Obsession happened isn't because it's trying to twist Bear's desires into something evil. It's not even because he phrased his want wrong. Obsession happened because Bear got his hands on a magic item that could do anything in existence, and chose to force someone to fall in love with him, which is an inherently evil thing to do.

[modernmusess]

there’s something so gutwrenching about the fact that the female characters in obsession have real dreams and wishes but never get the chance to see them realized, while both male characters waste their wishes on short-term selfish satisfaction. they were complex, free-spirited young women who just wanted to create art, and they were destroyed by a man determined to confine them to his superficial perception of them. nikki wanted to be a writer, sarah wanted to be a tattoo artist and now neither of them will get to be anything at all

[nessa007]

so i just saw obsession