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Most disturbing image in The Second Renaissance

posted 21 years ago by juno_nova
189 replies | jump to latest

I think many people would unanimously agree The Second Renaissance parts I and II are the most disturbing episodes in the Animatrix. So what are the most disturbing and memorable images you’ve had of those anime features?

For me though it would have to be the image where the human soldier has his arms and legs torn off as he was being pulled from his mech. Coupled with his cries of help and his scream makes a very disturbing scene.

[–] winterhorrorland 16 years ago

The parts when:

The lady robot is being beaten to death "I'm real!!" will haunt me.

The man being ripped out of the mech. "OH GOD HELP ME!" his pleading is nightmare fuel.

And the wounded soldiers in the messed up hospital (sorry no quote).

And the fact that the robots used humans as a source of energy.

Extremely disturbing.

[–] liudvikaz 16 years ago

I just re-watched animatrix and it still haunts me from the beginning.
1. AI's are treated as slaves.
2. One AI kills human, out of fear of dying and the whole AI race has to pay for it.
3. People killing robots, I would have been at the million machine march right behind the robots.
4. Then UN deny 01 request of admission.
5. After ineffective war they decide, *beep* it lets destroy the planet.

People dying didn't disturb me at all, they asked for it.

[–] Franzkill 15 years ago

Way too many distribuing images for me:

1. When the UN unanimously agree to Operation Dark Storm and you see the man clapping with the sickening smile then it switches to a skeleton clapping. Literally echoing mankind's enevitable and crushing defeat against the machines years later. Scary stuff.

2. Man getting ripped out of the mecha suit which everyone has mentioned. Horrible to watch but in a way the first time I watched it I said to myself 'we should have known better' because looking at the way humanity was portrayed in that I sorta think we deserved it.

3. Humanity in general as becoming arrogant, lazy and unpleasent.

4. Lack of free will and good grace which was the greatest gift bestowed upon mankind until the machines were built. Since they were doing all the work desperate and suicidal decisions were made at the last minute such as Operation Dark Storm and the nuclear bombing of 01. Rational thinking?

5. Human experementation on both the dead and surviving members of the war. Come on I mean whilst people were still alive, that was just sickening Almost made me throw up imagining if that became a reality.

6. Woman getting beaten to death and turning out to be a robot.

7. Scenes inspired by notable points in history such as the robot who were shot in the head from behind and the million machine march. I think that was the point when I had to say 'yep humanity is screwed' to myself realising that we are just repeating our past mistakes as that smart woman said in the court case.

Robots being treated as slaves, jews, blacks, you name it.

8.

[–] Degree7 15 years ago

I think the most disturbing scene for me was that funky ass robot signing the peace treaty at the UN where he just scans a barcode on. I don't know why, but it looked disgusting, like some kind of insect with little pincers jiggling up and down with multiple, enlarged, red eyes and it's completely alien voice. It seemed inhuman.

And then you get to observe the remaining human leaders, mere shadows of their former selves, gaunt and hiding behind cheap sunglasses, with suits. They almost resemble the Agents themselves. Mere tools for the machines at this point.

And then the bug-like machine detonates a nuclear bomb, vaporizing the last remnants of human civilization (you can even see the outline of one poor sucker's skeleton as he gets a full frontal dose of cosmic radiation).

So bleak and dark and depressing. Pure DOOM!

Contrary to popular belief, it is impossible to overdose on marijuana... though many have tried.

[–] pUREcoin 15 years ago

When the female robot whimpers "I'm real" after her face was ripped off.

[–] anthony3000 15 years ago

Aside from generally what other people have mentioned, in a broader view what I'd consider the most disturbing was the machines ability to so quickly adapt to the humans war efforts. It appeared at first that they were merely "soldiers" in a sense that there were robots...with weapons, yet so suddenly, humans were unable to defeat the "new" machine, AKA the ones with the tentacles and red eyes.

I really think the most disturbing aspect was how humanity was suddenly nearly completely helpless. To me, the most disturbing actual image was seeing the rows of "enslaved" people

[–] nnq2603 9 years ago

Agree, beside all other things, the moment when robots decided that they won't never resemble human (start with our appearance) again (just a historical reason because of human create AI robot according their shape at the beginning).

They set a boundary there, they refuse being look like human, they came back and re-design themselve as more combat-advanced, war-efficient, and simply more powerful machine. They no longer want to have any connection with us both appearance and historically (now they look like octopus-spider thing and all thouse numerous enslaved people live in matrix know nothing about true history, they just go on as if nothing happened).

[–] paulalexburns 15 years ago

The scene where the men killed the female robot like they were raping her, with her breasts draping out and everything.

[–] hitomo2008 15 years ago

in fact, the violence of humans against human-alikes is really disturbing

but the matrix is all about methaphors and philosophy, so when
you realize that it isnt about a conflict between robots and humans, but
shows a conflict of humans against humans in there struggle to adapt
themself to a simple thing like 'change' ... wich is infact the nature of the universe...
the humans are resisting the need to negotiate and formation of symbiotic relations...
in the end they were forced into this, not really by the actions of the machines ...
the humans destroyed there own sky, there own hope ...
they were forced into the symbioses by a destiny wich was created by themself...

so the most disturbing scene/image could be at the very end of the second part
when the parents are transforming into agents ... and the little child
has to realize the truth ... and the viewer may realize, that this is reality ...

[–] iron_man26 15 years ago

personally i found the creepiest part was how the machines decided to play their own game and stop designing themselves to imitate how humans look. they decided they were no longer integrated into human society, so they took on their "natural" form.... absolutely CREEPY LOOKING BUG TENTACLE ROBOT ALIEN THINGS

[–] mica1884 14 years ago

I'd say it was the very last moments of TSR2 that did it for me: the parts where the terms of mankind's surrender are signed - with the machine doing its creepy barcode/Stephen Hawking voice thing/nuclear suicide - and where the survivors are being experimented on. The dude with his skull cut down the middle and brain exposed, where the machines were playing with every nerve and cell they could to get different reactions . . . just turned it off right after that.

Six years after I first saw the Animatrix, "Second Renaissance" is the only sketch that really jumps out at me on account of those moments.

But now I'll take a slight dip into unrelated territory, forgive me:

Half of the comments left so far have made me cringe - what with people claiming the moral high ground via their actions and words, then suggesting that all of mankind would deserve/deserves/deserved to be pushed near extinction and enslaved for fuel . . . seeking justification for mass murder via the actions of a segment of "Renaissance"'s human population . . . such ideas are no better than those espoused by humans in the first part of the story.

As a matter of fact, they're far worse. Thoughts like that make the strongest argument possible to illustrate that the machines and their "robot sympathizers" - who quite possibly hail from our present-day Daniel Andreas San Diegos and James Jay Lees - do not and could not ever have had living souls.

Saves me a whole lot of trouble.

[–] Abaration 13 years ago

Yeah, that thing basically exemplified the 'human's are Bastards' trope. I felt no sympathy for the people (except the little kid at the end and that poor soldier).
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With endless love, we left you sleeping. Now we're sleeping with you. Don't wake up.

[–] zachbobbob 13 years ago

Everyone seems to be mentioning the woman getting beat or the the soldier being ripped out of the mech suit - which are both pretty horrible.

For me is was when the machines first started harvesting humans for energy, but they weren't in pods like we see in the films, they were just piled on top of each other jacked up, surrounded by wires and screaming. And then the scene after showing their skeletons and corpses being piled up. That scene was damn disturbing for me.

[–] jacejeanes 9 years ago

Definitely agree. The other disturbing scenes being mentioned most often were mostly short lived horrible events, where as that one of harvesting humans, keeping them alive, conscious, and in constant terror and agony was like a vision of hell. That's a proper mind-*beep*.