Friday, May 03, 2013

The X-Files Friday Feature: Death Eaters

Why Death Eaters? Well, that's a good question, really. Why, indeed.

Yeah, I've been throwing this term around, and I don't know if I've fully explained my insistence on it.

So, obviously, I'm a fan of the Harry Potter series, both the books and the movies, and I found the Death Eaters to be a compelling group of villains, sometimes a little one-note, but always creepy. They work in secret and rather than simply declaring all out war on the wizarding world that opposes them, they choose to employ manipulative tactics like threats and blackmail.

Sound familiar?

I also wanted to avoid any real world conspiracies. It's possible that Cancer Man and his colleagues are the Illuminati, for example, since that is a well known secret society and this seems like the kind of show that could bring it up. I didn't want to accidentally get something right and be talking about it as if I was spoiled for it.

The point is, I truly do not know who these people report to or what government, if any, they represent. They clearly have a global influence and have their hands in the dealings of just about everything important, it seems. And of course, the critical part, they don't really make waves. They still work in secret, even given the opportunity to do pretty much anything they want. There'd be almost nothing stopping them, right?

Well, there might be one thing stopping them. Betrayal.

I've mentioned that I see Cancer Man as kind of the Mulder of this organisation. He has his own way of doing things, and sometimes it gets him in trouble. But he also is very determined to follow through on everything. He nearly came undone when he thought the digital tape had fallen into the wrong hands, partly because he realised he was in danger from the group, but partly because he felt he had lost control of a situation that he had orchestrated in the first place. (Also partly because maybe William B. Davis isn't quite as good an actor as I initially thought.)

And this is why I see him as a possible triple agent: He's Snape. That occurred to me at some point recently, I can't remember what episode. But I remember thinking that maybe he was working his own angle. Maybe he's on his own side, which is what I thought of Snape after reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

And while he's outwardly rude to Mulder in person, he's actually done him quite a number of favours behind the scenes. Hey wait, that also sounds kind of like Snape, doesn't it? But if Mulder represents Harry in this scenario, there's a big difference in that Cancer Man seems to like his father. Well, only so much, since he still arranges for his death in some way.

Krycek, on the other hand, is not nearly so divided. He knows whose side he's on, even after the Death Eaters betray him and try to kill him. This is just the way they operate, and he chose to be a part of that. Well, I assume he chose it. Maybe he was blackmailed into it. Maybe he really was an innocent FBI agent but had a secret that they found out and were able to exploit.

Either way, he's more like some of the lesser (and less competent) Death Eaters. Pretty much just a henchman who really isn't very good at his job.

And as long as we're going with this analogy, I also wonder who would represent Voldemort. This group has a leader, right? There has to be some supreme evil master behind all of this. I doubt such a powerful organisation would have a flat structure and truly equal decision-making authority.

I'm sure we'll learn more about the dynamics of the organisation as the series progresses. The name and leadership and country of origin will probably wait until near the end of the series, if we ever learn those at all. I think we're more likely to find out the truth about Samantha Mulder.

I can hope, right?

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