There are no heroes in the world of Love, Death & Robots. It is the "Decameron" in the postmodern world, and the object of irony is human nature. It and "Black Mirror" are two carriages that go hand in hand in the world of sci-fi dramas, using the future and the unknowable to show people what they are.

Love, Death and Robots Season 3 Poster

"Love Dead" has a more ancient atmosphere. It likes to tell some mythical and legendary stories. It only coats a layer of sci-fi gold on the joints. Both the body and the mind have been circulated in human society for a long time. It is more nostalgic for the past than the vision for the future. It's far from urban civilization, allowing the story to take place on a wasteland, ocean, mountain or alien surface. CG technology puts insects, mice, crabs and ancient gods in front of the audience vividly, expanding the content of the content. In these uninhabited places, the meaning of robot is redefined - not only the three intelligent robots in the first episode, but also all existences beyond human cognition. A robot can be a grizzly, an ancient god, a moon, a swarm of bugs.
We have reason to guess that the kitten that successfully landed on Mars after the demise of mankind is also a robot. The level of intelligence in cats is clearly beyond human experience. Cat Survivalism is the most soothing of all apocalyptic scenarios. "Love Dead" is used again and again, making the old audience smile knowingly. This is its reluctance to make progress, but also its warmth.

"Love, Death and Robots" Season 3 Stills

Among the three elements of love, death, and robots, death is the heaviest. "Death" is the inevitable journey and destination for all stories in this season. "Robot" symbolizes unknowable and powerful forces. "Human" is love. Although love is very rare, it still exists little by little. Nine stories that allude to human nature, because the existence of love has meaning.
Black Mirror loves to satirize humanity's over-optimism, naivety, conformity and numbness as a collective. "Love Dead" rarely deals with the evolution of social formations, always targeting one or a few people. Contrary to "Black Mirror", the small group of humans in this show is always facing extinction. They are pessimistic, working their own way, struggling to survive. In the dilemma of individualism, the characters in "Love Dead" fully demonstrate the dark side of human nature.
The double-standard farmer in E07 took the lead in provoking a human-rat war, using a knife to kill rats and killing rats everywhere. Seeing that the Rat Clan was about to be wiped out, he was sympathetic to the Rat's heroism and turned his back. Humans who are easily moved and swayed, do cruel things on both sides, and are keen to pretend to be gods, all based on whim.

"Love, Death and Robots" Season 3 Stills

The story of the two soldiers tells the story of the strong outside and the hard. Soldiers are the strongest in the crowd and are not afraid of killing, but at critical moments, they are often limited by their identity as soldiers and make decisions that lead to death, and they are easily deceived at the juncture of life and death. The protagonists of E05 and E08 are a team of powerful soldiers. The dialogue between them imitates the clichéd and light-hearted ridicule in film and television dramas, giving the audience a piece of sugar before the injection. Soldiers do not know that their opponents are far more powerful than human beings, and that the power is a creation of human beings. The E05 Grizzly is a super weapon created by the US military to tame Afghanistan. E08's ancient evil god longs to be "released", much like the incarnation of the hostages the team wants to save.
Humans use violence to create invincible opponents. Audiences who have been fed monster movies for more than half a century are all too familiar with this setting, but not tired of it. After the release of "New Ultraman", I still want to watch it, and I have been filming "Love Dead" endlessly.
Whether as a soldier of the pawn or a government of the brain, humans have always tended to respond to crises with extreme violence. The short and subtle E04 unfolds a minimalist and violent history of zombies taking over the Earth. Finally, the high-energy weapon penetrates the earth and is fired from the surface of the South Pole. The earth becomes a sphere traversed by rockets, shining like fireworks.

"Love, Death and Robots" Season 3 Stills

Human greed turns into a mythical dirge in E09, which leads to the slaughter of ships and a fire in E02. Humans are obviously very weak, and there are many characteristics of death in their nature, and they are not willing to unite. E01 tells the story of three robots exploring the remains after the demise of mankind. The screenwriter didn't rack his brains to imagine the possibility of future class changes, but made a caricature collage of the status quo. The death of the poor parodies scenes from zombie films like The Walking Dead, killing each other to their death. The death of the tech rich has the (imaginary) taste of that class, who wanted to replace their hands with tech, and all starved to death. The sanctuary for politicians locked and killed in the mountains is like the scene of the Nazi secret meeting. Both the political ecology and the natural ecology are fragile, and nature is also dead. The 0.01% rich people at the top of the tower launched themselves to Mars, and the result was not good. The final winners were cats and robots. The barriers between different classes are unbreakable. In the end, benevolence is sought, and all classes die in their own prisons.

"Love, Death and Robots" Season 3 Stills

Like satirical stories throughout the ages, it is the glimmer of humanity that keeps these stories from weightless. Because people are not useless, their stories are worth reading. Human curiosity has led scientists to go deep into the worm's nest to find a way to make human beings happy forever. It was a trace of human sympathy that made the farmer finally raise a glass with the Rat Tribe (the Rat Tribe didn't even poison him, so it can be seen that there is also humanity), which is quite warm.
In E03, Masha, who was surviving on foot on Io, dragged her companion's body forward. When she was about to endure, she started the drug injection, and would rather be mad and exhausted than die on this desolate planet.
Dilemma, drugs, hallucinations, and the final leap, Martha's story is like an ancient sacrificial ritual that took place outside Earth. The drug makes hallucinations and reality indistinguishable, first the dead companion Bolton becomes Europa's medium, and then Martha herself. She became Europa itself, with a calm voice and immortality. Isn't that what the shamans and Wu Xian did during their brief channeling? Isn't this what human beings have always sought to integrate with the universe? The play did not capture Martha's personal history and the "egotistical" knot in the original book, but only used poetry, music and silence to make her final choice have a sense of human destiny.

"Love, Death and Robots" Season 3 Stills

The most outstanding of the "Love Dead" series are stories that reflect the complex nature of human beings and connect ancient memories. E03 uses atmosphere to affect emotions, E02 relies on superb storytelling skills. This story has nothing to do with science fiction. It is the kind of survival story that will be passed down from generation to generation in the crowd and eventually become a legend.
It is a story of a strong man triumphing through wisdom, courage and cunning. The male protagonist's method of gradually killing the crew is perfect, and every step is based on his grasp of human nature. He was originally just a pawn on the ship, but in a very short period of time: 1) established authority (survivor halo); 2) used the halo to kill the strongest opponent on the ship first; 3) used the information asymmetry generated by the referendum to find out the crew Character, and then used the short-term hesitation created by false votes to quickly get rid of the two second-strongest opponents; 4) At this time, only the crew members with weak combat effectiveness were left. He knew that everyone was cowards, and cowards were unreliable, so he did Be prepared to be assassinated, and kill the remaining members; 5) Burn the Cancer Monster, survive alone, and save the islanders by the way.
Is the hero a good guy? It's hard to say that his original intention was to protect himself, and the ruthlessness of the execution of the crew showed that he was not a good person at least. Taking self-protection as the premise, he needs to make a choice: save the crew, or save the islanders he has never met (perhaps more cowardly than his teammates). The male protagonist chose to save the islanders without hesitation. This decision is based on a combination of certainty (the crew are selfish cowards, not necessarily the islanders) and the number of people who can be saved (the islanders outnumber the crew), which is rational.
The ending of the story has a long aftertaste and hits the hearts of the audience. In the end, the male protagonist sat on the escape boat and watched the fire devour the big crab family. His life and death are unknown, and there may be more monsters in the sea. In addition to worrying about whether he can escape successfully, we can't help but imagine: if the male protagonist is a madman who has no nostalgia for life, what a terrible person he should be. Let him die at sea, is it kindness to other human beings?

"Love, Death and Robots" Season 3 Stills

The most acclaimed E09 of the season, the compliments mostly come from the art form and emotional power. The style of this episode is like a game scene, with a slight distortion of reality, and the gray and dark tones highlight the complexity of vegetation and clothing.
There are many open readings of the story online, most pointing to colonial brutality. It is also good to think of it as the classic story of Du Shiniang sinking into a treasure chest in anger, and a heartless man and a female ghost being obsessed. Day and night are switched in a mirror like a horror movie, and the water goddess mistaken the deafness of the warrior for not being greedy, and developed a love for him. The warrior only wants the goddess's full body of jewels, the murder makes the lake a tide of blood, and the misplaced love leads to the end of both.
There is only a thin line between science fiction and mythology, and there are many stories that originate from the lack of awe and the insatiable greed of human beings. In "Love Dead", which is more and more immersed in the apocalyptic atmosphere, such stories will only increase. Because we can no longer face the future cheerfully, we have lost our innocence, and we are completely unhappy.