harry warden (au?) design.........think itd be fun if he came back for real and the legend thats in the movies was true so thats the idea. uploaded a speedpaint too bc i can make those easily on this pc
actually while i’m thinking abt mbv (1981), here are some of my Thoughts and Opinions bc while it is one of my favorite movies, i Do have like two (2) major problems with it and one (1) Hot Take that theoretically addresses them both
(weird rambling under the cut, sorry this got longer than i expected)
okay so first off: the ending twist just…doesn’t work. it just Does Not work.
like axel only makes sense as the killer bc of his backstory, and the problem with that is that we only learn his backstory—and therefore, any reason we might have to suspect him as the killer bc horror movies Love to do the whole “trauma is a direct pipeline to becoming a serial killer” bullshit—AFTER we learn he’s the killer so it just feels tacked-on. and sure, you could argue that the love triangle was a factor as well, but the problem with THAT is that the movie doesn’t really touch on it after the Reveal, outside of like two (2) lines at the end, which would imply that, of the two, axel’s backstory was more relevant to his motive than the love triangle was.
and speaking of the love triangle, that brings me to my Second problem: the main character t.j. is like Actually the fucking worst. like the guy acts soooo creepily towards his ex-gf—says multiple times out-loud in public that he's gonna try and steal her back from her new bf, drags her away from her workplace (presumably during her shift) while refusing to listen to her as she says she doesn’t wanna go, just automatically assumes she wants to come back to him w/o letting her speak for herself, literally just will Not leave her the hell alone, acts guilt-trippy towards her as if HE wasn’t the one who fucked up their relationship, and generally just acts like he’s entitled to her as if she were his property.
the movie does at least (halfheartedly imo) call it out for the shitty behavior it is, which is better than most early 80s movies...but that only makes it all the more infuriating when t.j. ends up with sarah in the end. it’s justifying and romanticizing the notion of aggressively pursuing ppl who’ve already told you no (multiple times, at that). bc sometimes no actually means yes! /s
like yeah axel fuckin sucks too (see how he acts towards sarah during the party) but he at least seems ashamed abt it (see the scene shortly after where he bursts into tears) AND he also isn’t rewarded for his behavior at the end like t.j. is
so here’s my Official MBV Hot Take™️: t.j. would’ve worked better as the killer, whilst Still being the main protagonist.
for one thing, it would be an Actual twist (at least compared to your average slasher movie at the time and even now tbh) bc he’s been set up as the main character, but also wouldn’t be too out of nowhere bc 1.) this movie is structured in such a way that it focuses on t.j. enough to consider him the main character, but it doesn’t follow his every move, 2.) his uh. lowkey concerning tendency to react overly aggressively or even violently when things don’t go his way (dude started a fistfight IN A MINE), and 3.) his creepy ass stalker behavior towards sarah.
hell, there’s your motive right there: he wants sarah back, so he commits this harry warden-esque murder spree—making the valentine’s day party itself a red herring—in order to kill off axel and get away with it, allowing him to win sarah back by comforting her after the fact, which would play into the love aspect of valentine’s day.
(okay, it’s more entitlement than love, but you get what i mean)
it would Also be kind of an interesting contrast to harry’s spree imo? bc harry’s Whole Thing is that he killed these two ppl who not only genuinely wronged him/ruined his life, not only Also got most of his coworkers (who were probably also his friends) killed, but seemingly got away with it both legally and socially to the point where they felt comfortable enough to go to the valentine’s dance the very next year. but he also confined it to Only those two ppl, and that’s it (which is a part of why i hate the remake so much but that’s a whole different discussion). he didn’t go after anyone who wasn’t directly involved in the cave-in. so there’s this morally gray aspect to it all where the murders still aren’t justified, but harry’s a victim as well and it’s very understandable where he’s coming from.
but with t.j., it would be him being fully willing to kill most of his friend group—people he’s probably known his entire life, people who have done nothing to him that would warrant this—and intentionally ripping open this old wound in valentine bluffs that was finally beginning to heal, all bc his ex won’t leave her boyfriend and get back together with him.
well, it’s not the Only reason—he’s been angry towards this whole town for a While now, he’s pissed abt having to come back with nothing to show for it, he’s pissed to be back in that fucking mine again, he’s pissed at his dad, and he’s especially pissed that everyone and everything seemed to move on just fine without him—but it is the straw that broke the camel’s back, just one more reminder of how much of a failure he feels like he is.
and since he doesn’t wanna accept that other ppl (especially sarah) have lives outside of him and can’t just put everything on hold for him, nor does he want to actually work on these feelings of failure (bc that would mean having to admit that a lot of his problems are his own fault and he’s not the victim here), he decides to “fix” things by removing axel from the equation and let out some of the anger he holds towards valentine bluffs in the process.
it’s deciding to take matters into your own hands but for two very different reasons: trauma and a need to correct an injustice driving someone to do something drastic vs. entitlement, an unwillingness to accept fault, and a deep-seated rage towards Everyone And Everything in valentine bluffs finally coming to a head. a victim vs. a victim complex.
also.....there’s something abt the dramatic irony of the mayor’s son of all ppl taking harry warden’s place as valentine bluffs’ town boogeyman, all while being 10x worse than harry warden ever was, that just Feels Right in a narrative sense.
