honestly, is fascist iconography necessarily grim? certainly there's the loading of other cultural icons (the christian cross is a medieval torture/execution device, all the nazi obsession with the totenkopf, which was also used in piracy).
as i understand it, fascism's "true" aesthetic is a pastiche of whatever symbolism one can shoehorn in to give the perception of prestige and strength. skulls, sometimes, but also birds of prey, german fascists with their mystical runes, the italian fascists with their eagles, stick bundles and axes of imperial rome, etc. we may understand fascists to be grim as the standard bearers of vicious reaction and barbarism, but their symbols (rather, the symbols they co-opt) aren't always so.
what i find forceful about villain aesthetics, particularly the symbols of their organizations, is that the pretense of anything but "Fear Us" is dropped. like mac might say, they are "going for gasps." it's the opposite of the sanitizing/anesthetizing symbolism of imperialism bringing glory and advancement to the world by protecting US from THEM or even the rather pablum messaging of the ISIS flag. villain aesthetics overtly lean into "yes, we are the baddies", which the actual IRL baddies rarely--if ever--do.
honestly, is fascist iconography necessarily grim? certainly there's the loading of other cultural icons (the christian cross is a medieval torture/execution device, all the nazi obsession with the totenkopf, which was also used in piracy).
as i understand it, fascism's "true" aesthetic is a pastiche of whatever symbolism one can shoehorn in to give the perception of prestige and strength. skulls, sometimes, but also birds of prey, german fascists with their mystical runes, the italian fascists with their eagles, stick bundles and axes of imperial rome, etc. we may understand fascists to be grim as the standard bearers of vicious reaction and barbarism, but their symbols (rather, the symbols they co-opt) aren't always so.
what i find forceful about villain aesthetics, particularly the symbols of their organizations, is that the pretense of anything but "Fear Us" is dropped. like mac might say, they are "going for gasps." it's the opposite of the sanitizing/anesthetizing symbolism of imperialism bringing glory and advancement to the world by protecting US from THEM or even the rather pablum messaging of the ISIS flag. villain aesthetics overtly lean into "yes, we are the baddies", which the actual IRL baddies rarely--if ever--do.