This month's challenge was suggested by ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
oryx_leucoryx
oryx_leucoryx writes:
How about double agents in literature and movie? Especially when they are essential for the success of the more 'obvious' hero?
A while back my husband and I watched Dark City. We quickly realized that while John Murdoch is supposed to be the main character, the hero and savior, actually he couldn't have done anything without Dr Schreber. He couldn't have understood the situation, nor could he have prevailed in the confrontation with the Strangers. And considering that Schreber attempted to contact Murdoch from the very beginning of the movie, it seems he had a plan in place for a while and was waiting to find a person who had the traits that allowed to carry it out. IOW he was Severus, except there was no Albus in the picture.
This thread is for the listing of stories and/or movies where a double agent is central to saving the day. Where the plot depends on the actions of the one who joined the enemy but ended up sabotaging it.
Don't only list stories and movies, discuss them, compare them to Severus, point out similarities and differences.
But please, since this is going outside of the Potter fandom: leave a brief synopsis for the books/films you want to discuss and preferrably give us some links where we can learn more.
Have fun! There will be banners. Really. Promise...
oryx_leucoryxThe December Challenge:
Double Agents in literature and movie
Double Agents in literature and movie
oryx_leucoryx writes: How about double agents in literature and movie? Especially when they are essential for the success of the more 'obvious' hero?
A while back my husband and I watched Dark City. We quickly realized that while John Murdoch is supposed to be the main character, the hero and savior, actually he couldn't have done anything without Dr Schreber. He couldn't have understood the situation, nor could he have prevailed in the confrontation with the Strangers. And considering that Schreber attempted to contact Murdoch from the very beginning of the movie, it seems he had a plan in place for a while and was waiting to find a person who had the traits that allowed to carry it out. IOW he was Severus, except there was no Albus in the picture.
This thread is for the listing of stories and/or movies where a double agent is central to saving the day. Where the plot depends on the actions of the one who joined the enemy but ended up sabotaging it.
Don't only list stories and movies, discuss them, compare them to Severus, point out similarities and differences.
But please, since this is going outside of the Potter fandom: leave a brief synopsis for the books/films you want to discuss and preferrably give us some links where we can learn more.
Have fun! There will be banners. Really. Promise...
She's a young woman that joins a Super Secret Organization called SD-6 that she's lead to believe is a CIA branch. There are a lot of things that should have made her suspicious (such as the rule about killing anyone they reveal their occupation to) but she was blinded by naivety and a her own feelings of self importance. Sydney's deck of cards feel on top of her when she made the mistake of telling her fiance the truth about her. Her fiance was murdered and her father (who's also in SD-6, it's a long story) reveals the truth, that SD-6 is a criminal organization. She decides to go to an actual CIA branch and offer herself as a double agent.
Like Snape, Sydney was young when she joined up and naive or in denial of what they were getting into until the person the love becomes a target because of their f*ck up. They were both brought on as Spy types who would get as much information as they can from their targets. Incidentally, they also both wanted to be teachers (although for Snape it was more for the spying position). Sydney has friendships and a personal life that are completely separate of her life as a spy and that seems to shift until she doesn't have relationships with anyone outside her line of work. Snape, similarly, doesn't seem to have any acquaintances who are not tied to the war (in fairness, few people in HP do).
In contrast, Snape's role in the the DE's/Order is less physical with less missions vs Sydney being the Kick Ass SuperSpy. Snape's mission is long term (get information about Dumbledore, the War, etc.) while Sydney's is more of a mission of the week with occasional storyline arcs. Their personalities are also very different. Sydney is a much more forgive/forget type person than Snape has shown himself to be. She is also able to move on with new love interests and new friends whereas Snape is unable to move on. Sydney is also a more outgoing pleasant person, while Snape is more of an introvert and mostly unpleasant.
That's all I can come up with for now. I haven't watch Alias in a long time so correct me if I'm wrong on anything.
-GloryGirl
The first is Elim Garak, from my all-time favorite "Trek", "Deep Space Nine". He's a fascinating character - polite, urbane, a bit mischievous, and, as he keeps telling people, harmless - at least on the surface. When you look just a bit deeper, he is ruthless, capable of cruelty, deceptive, and dangerous. Young doctor Bashir is convinced he is a spy, an agent of the Obsidian order. And the doctor's right. But when you look still deeper, Garak is capable of love, and is intensely loyal to the few people he cares for. He's loyal unto death. We know this because, in one of the key "Garak" episodes, Constable Odo has to knock Garak out in order to drag him to safety. He refuses to leave Enabran Tain, the man we later discover is his father. Garak so longs to redeem himself in his father's eyes that he is willing to die a pointless and useless death to show his loyalty.
Does this make him a good man? I'm not sure - no more than is Julian Bashir. Trying to analyze Garak's character is like peeling an onion, layer by layer. Is there actually a center to the man, or merely an endless series of layers? Watching the friendship between Garak and Bashir was one of the joys of the series to me. Both men are profoundly alone, and lonely: both are hiding secrets they will not reveal easily - if at all - to anyone else. Julian is always trying to find out who Garak really is and asking pointed questions; Garak is always deflecting his questions with a wall of irony. The sniping never stops. And yet the friendship that arises between them is deep and true. Garak allows Julian Bashir to learn things about him that no one else knows.
Back to earlier question: is Garak a good man? Perhaps not in the way Snape is, but there are similarities. In what he chooses to reveal to Bashir, we learn that Garak is vulnerable, and that he's capable of both love and loyalty. There is a certain integrity to the man, in spite of all his lies and ruthlessness. We can see, if we look closely, that he loves his country, but not uncritically. He hates stupidity and waste of life; he can feel compassion - for lost children, for example. On DS9, he masquerades as a tailor, and I, for one, believe him when he says he hates being a tailor. But he is very good at it.
For those who don't know the show - and even for those who do - here's a link to one of my all time favorite scenes. Garak has just been attacked and is in the infirmary, where doctor Bashir is examining him. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vtk-bX2
The second person I thought of is Gabriel Syme, in G.K. Chesterron's "The Man Who Was Thursday". This slight, fair, foppish young man is a poet who infiltrates a group of anarchists in order to bring them down from within. Syme doesn't bear much resemblance to either Snape or Garak, but may be more like Snape. Although he considers himself a rationalist and a lover of order, Syme is in fact a romantic. And he is haunted and comforted through his adventures by the memory of a lovely girl's red hair. The other thing Syme has in common with both Snape and Garak is that he's very brave, and prepared to sacrifice himself for a cause he believes in. This is a zany book with rather sad undertones - like Syme himself. It's really hard to describe, but, if you're interested, and like turn of the century lit like Conan Doyle, I'd recommend that you read it.
That's it for me!
This spy is Razumov in 'Under Western Eyes' by Joseph Conrad.
Razumov lives in Tsarist Russia, and is solitary and studious young man. He is working for exams which will give him preferment as he is poor (he may be the illegitimate son of a Prince :)). Razumov has made the aquaintance of a fellow student, Haldin. Haldin is a revolutionary and after carrying out a political assassination, he seeks help from Razumov. Razumov feels trapped, and that his future is being taken away. When escape plans fall through, Razumov panics and betrays Haldin to the authorities. Haldin is executed and Razumov later recruited as a secret agent. He spies on the revolutionaries who believe him to be have been a co-conspirator of Haldin's and do not suspect his betrayal. He dislikes them but at the same time feels remorse over Haldin. He then meets Haldin's sister who views him as a friend. Having lived a life without affection, Razumov takes a while to realise that he loves the girl. In an act of atonement, he confesses to her and to the revolutionaries and suffers a beating which disables him permanently.
There are obviously points where Razumov' story touches that of the young Snape and the story examines guilt, remorse and responsibility. The descriptions that seem very Snape-relevant are:
The narrator observing Razumov the spy: 'It occured to me that his clean-shaven... face was really of the very mobile sort and that the absolute stillness of it was the acquired habit of a revolutionist, of a conspirator everlastingly on his guard against self-betrayal in a world of secret spies'.
Two reflections about and by the secret police chief who recruited Razumov:
'The power of Councillor Mikulin consisted of the ability to seize upon...that side in the men he used. It did not matter to him what it was - vanity, despair, love, hate, greed, intelligent pride or stupid conceit - it was all one to him as long as the man could be made to serve. The obscure, unrelated young student Razumov, in the moment of great moral loneliness, was allowed to feel he was an object of interest to a small group of people of high position....a young man who had near to him no trusted intimacy, no natural affection to turn to'.
'He saw great possibilities of special usefulness in that uncommon young man on whom he had a hold already, with his peculiar temperament, his unsettled mind and shaken conscience, and struggling in the toils of a false position....It was as if the revolutionists themselves had put into his hand that tool so much finer than the common base instruments, so perfectly fitted, if only vested with sufficient credit, to penetrate into places inaccessible to common informers'. (quotes from the OUP paperback edition 2008)
Voldemort and Dumbledore, much?
Maidofkent