| Khuutra said: Don't mince words with me, you know as well as I do that the operative word in that clause was "approaching", which is to say that it is not an example of realism but it is far more realistic and disturbing than the series norm up to this point. The act of tearing someone's head off with his hands isn't the crux of the issue, it's the presentation. When Kratos tore off Medusa's head it was violent but it was also heavily stylized, almost comical, so that you could say "cool!" instead of "gross". Taking off Euryale's head had the same thing going for it, even though that was a considerably more brutal scene. The difference here is that the art direction is leaning toward gore as a stand-in for spectacle, which does not work as well as the series' previous stylization. Again. "Approaching realistic" does not mean "partaking in realism", it just means "more realistic than the previous norm." Watching the skin on Helios's neck tear so that it revealed the muscle tissue underneath it before his head came off was gross. It wasn't funny, it wasn't cool, it wasn't bad-ass, it was just gross. |
I don't know if you're arguing if the realism and presentation crossed the line, or if you're still standing by your statement that it's "approaching" the point that it's so real that it's gross.
As for gross, I didn't think it was really gross because it didn't seem real. Skin isn't like Latex. The only gross I felt was more like an conscious acknowledgement in that "Wow, this is really violent", rather than actually feeling sick in my stomach.
It was extremely over the top. Was it funny? Some might think of it. For me I thought "Holy shit, Kratos is REALLY pissed off", and felt less sympathetic for him/pitied for how obsessed he has become with revenge and causing pain. And the brutality only added to this.
As for the scene with Eurayle's head being comical, I would argue that others might think the Helios scene was comical, because of how ridiculous and over the top it was (Helios continuing to scream AFTER he had his head ripped off?). I didn't think it was really comical. Ridiculous, and over the top? Yes. And I can easily see why it would have been comical to others, and would have understood it.
