I've been a fan since the begining, and have noticed a trend toward "foot sensuality" in many episodes. In the original on LTV, Aeon appears to be on the cover of a Foot Fetish magazine (aptly titled Foozwak), as well as the creature licking her feet after she dies. (I've still never gotten an answer of the significance of the creature.) In seasons to come, several episodes have subtly focused on Aeon's or her friends' feet.

Any comments or answers for this?

-- Matthew J. White (mjwhite@agate.net), July 02, 1998

Answers

Er...you're right?

-- Philip Mills (philip.mills@cableinet.co.uk), July 02, 1998.

I understand that the feet sensuality was a focus in the first season, but when else did feet or feet sensuality play a part? The only other episodes where I think feet played a part in the story were in the third-season episodes of "A Last Time for Everything" (Scafandra's feet were dubbed with hands), and "Reraizure" (in the revealing photos of Aeon and Trevor, Trevor is licking Aeon's feet). But, when else do feet play a large part in the story? I'd really like to know.

-- TGoodchild (JoeShmo808@aol.com), July 03, 1998.

Would "Buttertoes" (from Thanatophobia) have any significance here, or is that just unrelated wordplay?

-- Philip Mills (philip.mills@cableinet.co.uk), July 04, 1998.

Maybe somebody already said this, but that blue creature licking aeon's feet at the end of season one is a blue, bald Trevor

-- Frostbite (foo@bar.com), July 05, 1998.

Not in my opinion. The only similarity is that it has two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. There's nothing definitively 'Trevor' about it, no matter how much we'd like there to be. :-(

-- Philip Mills (philip.mills@cableinet.co.uk), July 05, 1998.

Phillip, what are you talking about? He looks exactly like Trevor!

-- Frostbite (foo@bar.com), July 08, 1998.

It would make sense if the creature was Trevor, at least to me. But why is Aeon on the cover of the magazine? Chung has obviously woven this little quark into the storyline of the first season, and has made brief allusions to the foot thing in following edisodes. Does Chung have a foot fetish? Maybe he should write a book.

-- Matthew J. White (mjwhite@agate.net), July 08, 1998.

Another 3rd season example of this foot fetish thing is in episode 1, "Utopia or Deuteronopia?". Trevor chases Aeon, or rather, Aeon leads Trevor, into a hidden fetish parlor, and knocks him unconscious. When he comes to, he is forced to watch a Breen military officer file Aeon's toenails and kiss her feet.

-- Mat Rebholz (mer5@dana.ucc.nau.edu), July 08, 1998.

Q: Why is Aeon on (not) Foozwak? A: It's her job. She's a part-time model as well as a Monican enforcer.

-- Philip Mills (philip.mills@cableinet.co.uk), July 09, 1998.

Another episode tha shows this foot fetish theme is "Ether Drift Theory". Near the end, when Aeon is trying hopelessly to escape the paralytic fluid. She removes her boots, and a close-up of her bare feet are show as she ascends a rope.

-- Robert (rfbeck@deltanet.com), August 03, 1998.

Is there any significant in reference too all this foot stuff that she gets stuck in the foot by the nail at the end of season 1? Or am I grasping? :)

-- Tama Wise (tama@mngtgate.mnt.waikato.ac.nz), August 13, 1998.

Im yet to check it out entirely, but is there also a corolation between the foot she got nailed, the foot shes holding up on the cover of the Fetish-ist magazine and the one that the blue Trevor look alike is licking? Just in continuing wonderance of exactly what all this foot stuff is about :)

-- Tama Wise (tama@mngtgate.mngt.waikato.ac.nz), August 16, 1998.

As for why there is so much going on with foot fetishes in the series, I believe this is partly just another extention of Chung's desire to make Aeon look "as outrageous (and sexual) as possible". But like all things he puts into the story, certainly this has some origin in his psyche. And as for the confusion between characters that people think are Trevor (like the blue guy), I've noticed that Chung tends to draw his male characters with similar features in many cases. Take for example the short for MTV, "Loaded". The main character has features very similar to Trevor: the hooked nose, etc. This all seems to be another example of Chung's often apparent fixations in his work, unconscious or conscious, whatever, from the "blonde-brunette women" pattern (see other question), to sexual fetishes, to trains (ooo, another sexual referrence?), to facial features. It's all so interesting...

-- Mat Rebholz (matrebholz@yahoo.com), August 20, 1998.

Ja. Like I said, it's not Trevor. It may be Aeon's fantasy version of him, heck, it may even be his fantasy version of him. But it's not him, so you can't reference that situation to his character.

-- Philip Mills (philip.mills@cableinet.co.uk), August 21, 1998.

I cant remember which short this is from, but Fon once uses her foot to save herself. She shoots a Breen guard who is high on a balcony in the chest with a grapple. When he falls, she uses it as a counterweight to pull her up. Then, another Breen from down below shoots her rope, and Fon starts to fall. Luckily, she sticks her FOOT in between the rails of the balcony, and pulls herself up. Maybe I'm reaching too far, but it's just another example.

-- Owen Black (Ob200bpm@aol.com), September 07, 1998.

According to W.C.K. Aeon Flux Episode Guide, the Blue guy is simply referred to as "Aeon's Dream Lover" Take it for whatever you think that means, Trevor or someone else. (I doubt its supposed to be Trevor, he never seemed to be into foot fetish.)

-- ChaosKnight (hellfire@surfshop.net), September 08, 1998.

this may not go too well w/ the foot fetish theory but I have a comment to TGoodchild. Scaphandra(sp?) had hands for feet because they were implants. if you listen closely, she makes a reference to a part in C or D or whatever section to "watch your feet" and if memory serves me, i think Fon says "is that where you lost them?"

-- B. Perry (perry@mfi.net), November 01, 1998.

I don't care what anybody says! That blue guy is Trevor! (Or at least Aeon's fantasy version of him) Go to yer VCR right now and watch the end of season one. YES! NOW! Press freeze-frame during the close-up of the blue guy's face.(GO! NOW! Don't just sit here and read this!) Now, tell me that isn't Trevor.

Quit reading and GO!

-- Frostbite (Foo@bar.com), November 01, 1998.

Sorry Frostie. I always thought that was just some heavenly being whose job it was to service Aeon in this odd little afterlife. Also, did no-one else notice the curiously seductive shot of the bottoms of Aeon's feet in that short, where she's wearing nothing but a silky-looking sheet over her hips, and you can almost see between her feet (i'm not a dirty old man, honest, tell me you didn't notice that!) Also, the blue guy had an outrageous tongue. I can't help but think the foot licking was merely a suggestion of something a little more overtly sexual that they probably couldn't have gotten away with showing on tv. (Or maybe Chung just wants us to know where Aeon's erogynous zones are).

-- alex (meat_machine@hotmail.com), November 06, 1998.

Like I said, they're in the same style, but not the same person (though I wouldn't complain if it was Trevor). I thought Varsh looked like him. Same difference.

-- Philip Mills (philip.mills@cableinet.co.uk), November 06, 1998.

i'm just throwin this in the mix: Rubio/Rubedo there's that one balcony scene when she's watching Trevor eat a cracker spread with a parasite that crawled out of his hand while on the television the horrors of the latest plague ravashing the city plays on the news. Aeon puts her weight on the nail in her sole (soul?) and she loses her cool, etc. Kinda like the nail in Trevor's back in the Demiurge episode.

Of course, there is no nail, just as there is no true Aeon death. Aeon/Time. Aion, and the significance of the fish symbol.

Peter Chung/Carl Jung

-- Day of Brahma (dayofbrahma@aol.com), October 26, 2004.

This has little to nothing to do with feet, but everything to do with footprints, and the paradox of taking the road less traveled.

Wow, i must say i am in awe of intersections.

i will admit, that i chose the pseudonym "Day of Brahma" not quite randomly, but randomly in the sense of the fact that i keep a pool of cool terms in my head pretty much at all times, most of which i never get the chance to use.

where i get those words from is likely a combination of sober research, schizothymia, and what i presently choose to call "leading the witness" and "data recovery". As you might guess, "leading the witness" presents a unique set of logical and philosophical questions. But left-brain objections to right-brain investigations are not always sustained.

Fortunately, the "data recovery" technique is fairly free of politics once one is willing to suspend disbelief.

With this in mind, the following point is alarming for me anyway, and i just discovered this minutes ago:

1) i don't recall ever pondering "Demiurge" in the same minute, hour, or day as "Day of Brahma". i am, however, aware that the presence of both terms in my subconscious isn't a static affair. this explains some of the causality.

2) i just discovered (or rediscoverd via classic cryptomnesia) that there exists a unified theosophical connection between the historical conceptualization of the "Demiurge" and the historical conceptualization of the "Day of Brahma". these connections are richly encapsulated in some literature that i had not been aware of until minutes ago. let's just say, it's like waking up for the first time Wednessday, October 27 to the existence of the Bible as a significant cross-cultural text.

3) i purposefully chose the name "Day of Brahma" before this happened because i figured that anybody who might incidentally look it up would have their mind blown by the definition. i did NOT realise that i would ultimately end up blowing my own mind as well.

4) given the overwhelming volume of esoteric/Esoteric literature to which these effects pertain, i am now a bit thankful for the schizothymia. experiences of coping with schizothymia help counteract the "oh, dear goodness i have an intellectual ice cream headache" effect.

5) this time, however, i was not brought to tears by the sweetness. some ancient seeds still grow when replanted.

-- Day of Brahma (DayOfBrahma@aol.com), October 27, 2004.

oops, a few clarifications:

1) i apologize for placing this (and former entries) in the foot fetish section, but tis chronological correspondent to my thoughts as they came. My real- life synchronicities place this here, including the comic book reference, etc.

2) i made a self-contradictory assertion

obviously, the two terms coexisted in my thoughts as i decided to post commentary here, on this site, but ONLY in terms of syntax and effects (as in: gee, people will really like my cool email name, and it will freak them out to read about it *AND* hmm, i liked that Demiurge episode the most, i'm gonna spill my mental beans on it here. )

3) I'm not totally zapped in the noggin as to lose all sense of logic and chronology. However, i was zapped by the synchronicity of discovering that there's a

4) When I refered to "the Bible" in my last post, i really meant "ancient [religious] scriptures, including the Bible". there is a hugely important distinction.

5) By the way, in regards to the obvious episode, the baby monster quite literally consumes other peoples' time is my theory. That is why it is gluttonously (or healthily, it is a baby after all) fat, and the people who it sucks on end up happy (the happiness virus) or sucked dry (the scientists and soldiers). I think perhaps Aeon is able to survive its feeding because

A) she is female B) she is quite literally AEON, TIME-incarnate

hence, the only real affect it has upon her is to present an alternate timeline of shameless and and honorable motherhood for her. that is what the Child's gift is to her. a fulfilling motherhood. of course, all babies cry out and and create a ruckus, but that's just part of their normal development. it's just that Peter has chosen a most unusual baby, and a most unusual mother to depict, much like the Demiurge episode.

6) Don't bother trying to isolate the facts from fiction in the texts which i still have failed to mention directly by name. Why? Now there's a happiness "virus" that causes insanity for ya. How do you think I got this way in the first place? yeah, i was probably born this way, but you are what you eat, and books are food for thought. Trust me, don't bite off more than you can chew. Aeon Flux is the lite kiddie version of "ow, my brain hurts, but i dig this encephalisation"

7) If anyone out there is actually reading this and actually understanding me, then yea! perhaps there IS a god, and she's still got her head screwed on tight.

-- Day Of Brahma (DayOfBrahma@aol.com), October 27, 2004.

8) hmmm. regarding my previous message... since my last post, i did encounter a person who seems to have fully understood what i was talking about. that person also kindly warned me of the perils and limitations of bringing up yesterday's new age brain fashions to flesh out present day drabwear. this is actually a very good point which i would paraphrase as: Don't belive everything you read-- ESPECIALLY mysticism. It is also important to note that the human experience is common and shared and interactive enough to allow for plenty of cross-cultural pollination. That being said, there's still plenty of advantages to having a multicultural approach to information, even fiction.

ok. back to the foot thing. i have no idea. however, i'm going to improvise, and just brainstorm a bit more about the Aeon Flux filmstuff:

possible foot allusion explanations:

1) since the series is about strange technological societies, perhaps the fetishes hinted at represent further details of a society which most would find totally alienating. this is not totally unlikely since there is also a current of de-sexualisation in the films; if everyone walks around half-naked in battlegear (or at least Aeon can), then that society probably has sexualised other things than mere nakedness. this is somewhat supported by the episode with the gal who has the spinal injury, but is seduced by (Dr.) Trevor who comes by routinely to replace her prosthetic vertebrae. Some of this seems to be the case in real life: The machines of marketing and profit try to make anything and everything they sell look appealing-- to the point of attempted sexualisation. You could say that the marketing industry fetishises the products that they market. You know, "sexy" accessorising. Or as others put it, "sex sells". So, in an odd futuristic (fictional) society such as Monica or Bregna, the (non)sexual is different than what we are familiar with, just like everything else except the underlying psychologies.

2) I remember one episode where one woman licks anothers locks of hair as she passes by. In that same episode, I think Aeon licks her gun while watching people kiss.

3) Perhaps the intent is to alienate or tease or please the audience a bit by painting a negative picture of sexuality via circumlocuting suggestion.

4) Perhaps the intent is to alienate or tease or please the audience by using harmless non-sexual images to depict sexual ones. Then again, perhaps it is the reverse.

5) Perhaps these pseudosexual scenes represent a kind of false coitus. In other words, a false/nonrealised exchange. A false/nonrealised interface. A false intercourse. This is supported by the scene in which messages are transferred via french kisses. The point is hammered home when the second french kiss data transfer is refused by clenched teeth--a false/nonrealised exchange. That same episode concludes in kind of a coitus interruptus.

This is why people should not be hasty in their judgements of other humans' behaviours. Intention is unobservable. i think Mr. Chung understands this and has encapsulated it cleverly in his works.

This is how(/what) I think. How(/What) do you think ?

-- Day Of Brahma (DayOfBrahma@aol.com), November 04, 2004.