How I See It

[Burning Eden]

This is how I see it...The little guy is obviously the victim, the big black one is the abuser...At the beginning, the black figure cuts off the little ones legs which can be seen as a metaphor for a lot of things...perhaps he doesn't want the little guy to run away or maybe it means the little guy can't escape his future, completing the cycle of abuse...Every time that the abuser approaches the victim, the little guy goes lifeless and falls over...Maybe it means he's trying to play dead so his abuser will leave him alone...The video is set in a big room/box with multiple boxes in the walls...The room is the little guy's prison because he tries to open up the boxes to see what's outside, yet he never leaves the room. Whenever the black one sees his victim opening up a box or finding some kind of creature, he puts a stop to it and shuts the place back up. Perhaps he doesn't want the little one to escape his prison...The paintbrush thing seems like a metaphor for turning the victim into the abuser..."I have come full circle".. The black guy tries to paint the little one, but the paint never shows up...In the end the little one paints himself black though which seems to suggest that only he can choose whether he will "do unto others what has been done to him".... Also later on in the video, the big one opens up the back of his head and inside you see a picture of what looks like that little guy spinning around in circles...I think that suggests that the abuser has been through the same trauma that he is inflicting upon victim. As for what the other characters represent, I'm not exaclty sure...The catepillar may represent soemthing of a metamorphisis or transforming...He has the head of the victim so maybe it symbolizes the victim trasforming into the abuser. Hmm, well thats all I'm going to write...I know not all of it may be exactly 'correct', but this is what I think of when I see the video...

[Finite]

Thats basically how I see it too.
I think the spinning headed child signifies some sort of onlooker of sorts, possibly someone witnessing the abuse.
The sort of lumpy ripped apart thing sneaking away from the oppressor is, what I guess, another abusee that was attempting to sneak away, only to be killed by the abuser? The onlooker then comes around finding out that the ripped apart one is already dead by the time it gets there. At the end of the video, you see the black figure closing the box, revealing other boxes. Perhaps this is where the ripped apart character came from? Id appreciate any follow up.

[FutZ]

yea, the cycle of abuse scenario seems pretty much the general message somming across...what's been said i can't disagree....

in regard to the insect symbolism...throughout literature.. insects are generally symbolic of metamorphosis and change ....this can be adapted to the the terrible "maturation" of the child as he eventually metamorphosises to become the abuser...

on a different level the insects could be seen as the child looking in or on to the smaller insects as symbolic for his future "martyrs" or objects of his abuse...

the paint brush...isn't that a form of sex tool? i'm not that knowlegable with the objects of bondage but i thought it was some kind of titilation device used to pretty much ...get 'em going...maybe in this light it's significance grows in that it becomes the physical symbol of the actual abuse....and thus when the child is given it in the end it symbolises his change and "maturation"...the black paint followed by the child's head tilting in dissapointment implies how the child has become numb and tained by the abuse (before the brush tickled, now it slides) and thus (as the cycle goes) must turn to some other "holy medium " to bring about "release" and "peace of mind"

the boxes...these i see as symbolic of both the child's, and the leather mannequin's inner selves...their fears, emotions and psyche.... and their being trapped inside of them, trapped in themselves, the game the cycle...

i'm actually not sure about the boxes and would like to hear some opinoins on what they mean to you......

i'm almost definately wrong....but i might be right...

BTW if there is anyone in australia that is doing "change in self" as a topic for their final english school exams...i used this as supplimentary material and i kicked arse so use it......it works :) peace

[Graffing]

I think when the little guy paints himself at the end it's supposed to be a form of self mutilation. Similar to abuse victims who habitually cut themselves.

[Burning Eden]

Well I believe that the child painting himself is a representation of him turning into the abuser because as he does it he seems to look really hopeless. The abuser tries to paint him a couple times but the paint never shows up, only when the little one does it. To me that signifies that only YOU can decide if you will continue the abusive cycle. *the part that disturbs me is at the end where the black figure is painting the child with the brush and the child reahces up to stop it but the the black one puts his hand over the childs...* The room I think is inside the victim's mind... the prison he creates in his mind... yeah the boxes do seem like they are the inner parts of the characters. I still wonder if the black figure and the little figure are the same characters through the whole video. The lyrics change in the song from "do unto others what has been done to you" to "do unto you now what has been done to me" Perhaps the child in the beginning grows up in some pont of the video and changes into the abuser *the black figure*... I say this because it is the child who finds the bee in the jar *possibly signifying his future victim* and then later on there is a picture of the black figure playing with the bee on his fingers... That's just a theory...