History Recap / LoveDeathAndRobotsJibaro

* LogicalWeakness: CompellingVoice can't work on someone who can't hear it. The Golden Woman eventually finds a work-around for this.

* MakeMeWannaShout: The siren's cry seems to also have a physically destructive element.

* SceneryPorn: The backgrounds team REALLY flexed their nature scenery skills in this episode, all in the director's signature hand painted style.

* FirstTimeFeeling: After Jibaro strips the Golden Woman's gold, he drinks the bloody water and gains his hearing. He freaks out and becomes vulnerable to her voice.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: The Golden Woman. At the beginning of the episode, she targets the group of Knights Jibaro was traveling with after Jibaro accidentally drew her attention, with it being unclear whether she did so because she felt threatened by their presence or simply because it's in her nature to kill any passerby. As well, the WhamShot at the end of the episode shows that she's done this to possibly ''hundreds'' of other victims before, and their bodies and skeletons were littered at the bottom of the lake. Having said that, when she sees Jibaro is unaffected by her "song," she instead attempts to seduce him rather than murder him.

* EnthrallingSiren: The Golden Woman is a mysterious lady covered in gold and jewellery who resides in a lake. She drives men to carnage and eventual death with her eerie wails.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Jibaro gets one near the beginning when he spots a nugget of gold in the lake, snatches it up to check it, then furtively looks around to see if anyone else saw him find it. This handily establishes his {{greed}}, which later drives his actions towards the siren.
* EvilVersusEvil: On one hand you have a siren who wantonly kills knights. On the other hand the deaf knight is greedy and brutally mutilates her (while understandable, since he saw her kill lots of people, is still framed as wrong).
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Golden Woman is covered in gold and jewellery. Even her face is an elaborate mask. It all seems to be part of her body, like the outer layer of skin, given she bleeds whenever it is removed.

* FirstTimeFeeling: After Jibaro strips the Golden Woman's gold, he drinks the bloody water and gains his hearing. He freaks out, and becomes him vulnerable to her voice.
* GenreBlindness: Jibaro doesn't actually make sure he killed the Woman before he skins her. He also chases her through the forest and kisses her, even though he knows she kills people by luring them to their deaths. These are big no-nos to anyone familiar with monster stories (in any medium), or the rest of this anthology.

* {{Greed}}: It seems the entire interest the knights had in the Golden Woman was in the "golden" part. When Jibaro knocks her out, he and starts ripping away all the golden scales and jewelry.

* LeftForDead: Jibaro tossing the siren's body back in the water, without even checking if she was actually dead or, for that matter, killing her in the first place. This allows her to recover and, ultimately, exact her revenge. Although, to his credit, being made able to hear is not something he could have foreseen.

* NonMaliciousMonster: ZigZagged. From what's shown, the Golden Woman is living alone precisely to not cause harm with her voice. But when she feels threatened, all bets are off - and the bottom of the lake is littered with ''layers'' of bodies of people who tried to kill her in the past.
** The solid gold fish scale sequins on her clothes hurt anyone touching her, like a porcupine. Any kind of physical closeness would hurt her partner. Part of her fascination with Jibaro seems to be that his 24 hour armor keeps him from being (easily) hurt by her. Not that it stops her from hurting him during a kiss with her razor-sharp ruby red sequin-covered lips and tongue.

* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: ZigZagged. On one hand, it's a story with knights wearing plate armor and charging on caparison-clad horses, while fighting (or at least ''trying'' to) a siren in a virgin, deciduous forest. On the other, everyone is AmbiguouslyBrown and the Golden Woman herself is clearly inspired by South Asian cultures, both in the design of her clothes and even the dance she performs. She also draws from Myth/SlavicMythology, particularly creatures like the Sirin.

* BloodIsSquickerInWater: The lake turns light red from all the hacking the knights did to each other before perishing. Then it's put UpToEleven after the Golden Woman apparently dies, as all the rivers connected to the lake [[RiversOfBlood turn into deep, crimson red]]. ''Upstream''.

* FalseCameraEffects: Despite being fully animated short, the "camera" gets smudged with blood a couple of times.
* FirstTimeFeeling: Jibaro becomes able to hear after stripping the Golden Woman of her gold, causing him to freak the F out, and making him vulnerable to her voice.
* {{Greed}}: It seems the entire interest the knights had in the Golden Woman was in the "golden" part. Jibaro, when managing to knock her unconscious, is busy ripping away all the golden scales and jewelry.

* RapeAsDrama: While not explicitly a SEXUAL violation, Jibaro's assault on the Golden Woman and ripping the gold off her is pretty much a metaphor for it. [[BrokenAngel She]] [[HowlOfSorrow reacts]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge accordingly]].

* SympatheticPOV: Notably, it switches by the mid-point of the short, ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux''-style. First we start with Jibaro, a traumatized knight that uses his disability to successfully fight against a murderous siren. After doing so, the perspective switches to Golden Woman, who is presented as the victim of a greedy looter, up to portraying the whole thing as a [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape-like experience]]. Although it must be noted, the way she approaches Jibaro before that also reads like assault, with Jibaro visibly freaking out (because her golden lips badly cutting his mouth) and pushing back only for her to ignore it. The story itself deliberately doesn't take a solid stance, leaving it open who, if anyone, was a hero or a victim in the story.

* EnthrallingSiren: The Golden Woman is a mysterious lady covered in gold and jewelry who resides in a lake. She drives men to carnage and eventual death with her eerie wails.

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Golden Woman is covered in gold and jewelry. Even her face is an elaborate mask. It all seems to be part of her body, like the outer layer of skin, given she bleeds whenever it is removed.

* FatalFlaw:
** For Jibaro, its Greed. He shows a love of gold and is busy picking bits of it while the other soldiers are preparing, and it eventually culminates in him sticking around the Golden Woman for a chance to strip her gold from her body. As the SoleSurvivor of her initial attack (thanks to his deafness) and her eventual fondness for him, he very easily could have left the lake and save his own skin, but his insistence of staying behind to [[BullyingADragon get more out of her]] is what eventually did him in.
** The Golden Woman's is Lust. Her intrigue with the SoleSurvivor of the soldiers was born from her fascination with [[ILoveYouBecauseICantControlYou her inability to harm him,]] and, despite him being one of the conquering soldiers who were there to rob her to begin with, her infatuation with Jibaro ultimately gives him the opportunity he needed to steal her gold and leave her feeling betrayed and violated.

* HumanoidAbomination: The Golden Woman is this. While extra material describes her as a sort of siren, she doesn't especially follow the look of traditional sirens (which have bird traits and originate from Greek mythology, while here she is humanoid, fishlike and visually inspired by South Asian cultures). The Golden Woman certainly looks humanoid, but acts more [[BlueAndOrangeMorality like an animal,]] is covered from head to toe in golden jewelry that is ''physically attached to her body,'' and has the power to drive people to dance themselves to death by screaming. Also, she seems to have some spiritual connection to the lake itself, as it runs red upstream when she is stripped of her gold and left for dead by Jibaro, and then said river develops healing properties that cure Jibaro's deafness.

* InterfaceScrew: The in-universe camera gets smudged with blood a couple of times.

** For Jibaro, its Greed. He shows a love of gold in the stories beginning and is busy picking bits of it while the other soldiers are preparing, and it eventually culminates in him sticking around the Golden Woman for a chance to strip her gold from her body. As the SoleSurvivor of her initial attack (thanks to his deafness) and her eventual fondness for him, he very easily could have left and saved his own skin, but his insistence of staying behind to [[BullyingADragon get more out of her]] is what eventually did him in.

* HumanoidAbomination: The Golden Woman is this. While extra material describes her as a sort of siren, she doesn't especially follow the look of traditional sirens (which have bird traits and originate from greek mythology, while here she is humanoid, fishlike and visually inspired by South Asian cultures). The Golden Woman certainly looks humanoid, but acts more like an animal and is implied to have BlueAndOrangeMorality, is covered from head to toe in golden jewelry that is ''physically attached to her body,'' and has the power to drive people to dance themselves to death by screaming. Also, she seems to have some spiritual connection to the lake itself, as it runs red upstream when she is stripped of her gold and left for dead by Jibaro, and then said river develops healing properties that cure Jibaro's deafness.

* HumanoidAbomination: The Golden Woman is this. While extra material describes her as a sort of siren, she doesn't especially follow the look of traditional sirens (which have bird traits and originate from greek mythology, while here she is humanoid, fishlike and visually inspired by South Asian cultures). The Golden Woman certainly looks humanoid, but acts more like an animal and is implied to have BlueAndOrangeMorality, is covered from head to toe in golden jewelry that is ''physically attached to her body,'' and has the power to drive people to dance themselves to death by screaming. Also, she seems to have some spiritual connection to the lake itself, as it runs red upstream when she is stripped of her gold and left for dead by Jibaro.

* DeathByMaterialism: Jibaro could have lived if it wasn't for his lust for gold that made the siren turn against him.

* HemoErotic: The Golden Woman is covered in solid gold fish scales clothes that are razor sharp and tend to get lodged into flesh. When she starts kissing Jibaro, it shows her lips are covered in ruby red jewels that are ''also'' razor sharp, and he starts bleeding from the mouth soon after as they make out.

* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: ZigZagged. On one hand, it's a story with knights wearing plate armour and charging on caparison-clad horses, while fighting (or at least ''trying'' to) a siren in a virgin, deciduous forest. On the other, everyone is AmbiguouslyBrown and the Golden Woman herself is clearly inspired by South Asian cultures, both in the design of her clothes and even the dance she performs. She also draws from Myth/SlavicMythology, particularly creatures like the Sirin.

* HorsingAround: Jibaro is so scared, he just keeps rushing his horse, until the trunk of a fallen tree knocks him out of the saddle.

* TragicMonster: The Golden Woman is lonely and her CompellingVoice is her curse, as anyone who hears it is driven insane, even when she ''doesn't'' want this to happen. On top of that, since she's covered with solid gold, it makes her a prime target for being hunted down.
** The solid gold fish scale sequins on her clothes hurt anyone touching her, like a porcupine. Any kind of physical closeness would hurt her partner. Part of her fascination with Jibaro seems to be that his 24 hour armor keeps him from being (easily) hurt by her. Not that it stops her from hurting him during a kiss with her razor-sharp ruby red sequin-covered lips and tongue.

* TwentyFourHourArmor: Jibaro sleeps overnight while still wearing his full-body plate armour.

* AmbiguousEnding: It is left open if the Golden Woman is dying, permanently limited in her powers or will eventually heal.
* BloodIsSquickerInWater: The lake turns light red from all the hacking the knights did to each other before perishing. Then it's put UpToEleven after the Golden Woman apparently dies, as all the rivers connected to the lake turn into deep, crimson red. ''Upstream''.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Jibaro tossing a siren's body back in the water, without even checking if she was actually dead or, for that matter, killing her in the first place. This allows her to recover and, ultimately, exact her revenge. Although, to his credit, being made able to hear is not something he could have foreseen.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Jibaro gets one near the beginning when he spots a nugget of gold in the lake, snatches it up to check it, then furtively looks around to see if anyone else saw him find it. This handily establishes his greed, which later drives his actions towards the siren.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: The main character turns tail after witnessing the carnage that happened to the other knights.

* SympatheticPOV: Notably, it switches by the mid-point of the short, ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux''-style. First we start with Jibaro, a traumatised knight that uses his disability to successfully fight against a murderous siren. After doing so, the perspective switches to Golden Woman, who is presented as the victim of a greedy looter, up to portraying the whole thing as a [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape-like experience]]. Although, it must be noted, the way she approaches Jibaro before that also reads like assault, with Jibaro visibly freaking out (because her golden lips badly cutting his mouth) and pushing back only for her to ignore it. The story itself deliberately doesn't take a solid stance, leaving it open who, if anyone, was a hero or a victim in the story.

** The solid gold fish scale sequins on her clothes hurt anyone touching her, like a porcupine. Any kind of physical closeness would hurt her partner. Part of her fascination with Jibaro seems to be that his 24 hour armor keeps him from being (easily) hurt by her. Not that it stops her from hurting him during a kiss with her razor sharp ruby red sequin covered lips and tongue.

* VillainProtagonist: The knights aren't there to save anyone - they are there for the gold the creature is covered in. This even extends to Jibaro, who is the point of view character for almost the entire short and ultimately meets his death over greed, rather than running away or at least making sure he actually killed the siren.