Bloodmoon Episode 2: BloodRayne Part 2
We’re back to the cursed Louisiana Bayou over at my YouTube channel as the Bloodmoon series continues its look at BloodRayne‘s opening world. Check out Episode 1 if you missed it. If you’re only familiar with the Uwe Boll movies, get a look at where Rayne got her start and see her in a whole new light!
Editied text from the video description:
…Bloodmoon is a series that looks at the evolution and apotheosis of specific themes and archetypes throughout various video games via the medium of full playthroughs with open discussion prompts.
Questions and observations:
“City of the Dead” is a nickname given to New Orleans St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, the oldest cemetery in the city. Though spanning just one square block, thousands of people are buried here, hence its name. Notice how the “City of the Dead” in BloodRayne is flooded.
The Yonic imagery in the Maraisreq nest is obvious. Swamp monsters have been part of bayou folklore for generations, but seem to be a Western myth instead of a Native one (though there is a Swamp Woman figure roughly similar to the Irish banshee in Wabanaki folklore of the Northeast Atlantic coast). A famous example is the Honey Island Swamp Monster, a Bigfoot-type creature reputed to haunt Honey Island Swamp in Louisiana.
In Louisiana, the Creole peoples refer to the descendants of French and Spanish colonialists who intermarried. It can also refer to descendants of African slaves and Native Americans who were born into the community.
Rayne’s “harpoon” isn’t really a harpoon, and could more accurately be described as a kunai on a chain. It does, however, reinforce the game’s BDSM theme as well as evoke ninja imagery, which plays into Rayne’s acrobatic build and body language.
The link between vampirism and sexuality is an old one. What are some ways in which sexuality, and the transfer of sexual energy, has been read and interpreted? How do you think this applies to Rayne, a(n at this point aspiring) half-vampire dominatrix?
Marie Laveau was a real woman, a famous Voodoo priestess who lived during the early-to-mid 1860s. Voodoo (not to be confused with Vodou, a similar religion practiced in Haiti), is a syncretic religion that emerged in the African-American community of Louisiana out of a blending of various West African spiritual pathways and French Catholicism. Ms. Laveau had a massive and multiethnic following in her time, practiced Native American spirit work alongside Voodoo and became a kind of living folk hero. She is said to be interred in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.
Recent discussions in the contemporary magick community stress that magick itself is a neutral force: White/Black and Light/Dark should not be seen to map onto Good and Evil, and the spirits have moral codes above and beyond those of humans. What makes magick Good or Evil, in this framework, is whether or not it’s used for Good or Evil ends. It only matters what one does.
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