Bill you horny old devil, you

Over the past two days I've re-watched the film Kill Bill. I've seen it before, I think probably multiple times, but something I love about watching or reading things things subsequent times are all the little things you're now able to spot, since you're not committing all your focus on the main plot.

It'd never really occurred to me before just how sociopathic Bill is. We know he had a relationship with Beatrix - that much is made clear. What I've picked up on through this latest viewing is just how much the other two female assassins in his Death Squad were spellbound by him. I think it's also quite possible that he seduced Elle and Vernita, too.

The final act of vol.2 fills the viewer in on just why Bill felt the need to assemble said Death Squad and vaporise Beatrix and her entire wedding party - she had betrayed him by breaking free of his spell.

Budd, the fourth member of the Death Squad is somewhat irrelevant to this topic since he's Bill's brother, and his spite for Beatrix is a clear manifestation of her betrayal of his brother. That's fair. If I had a brother, and that brother gifted me a Hattori Hanzo sword I'd probably kill in his honour too.

As for Elle and Vernita, there's no explanation as to why they despised Beatrix - both girls made that pretty clear. The only explanation is that they too had been spellbound - romantically - by Bill, and their jealousy over the closeness of he and Beatrix the cause of their visceral hate for Uma Thurman's character.

I know I'm neglecting O-Ren Ishii, but to me she's not a full-fledged member of the Death Squad. Sure, she's probably killed for Bill in the past, but in chairing the Japanese underworld it seems as though she's got her own thing going on, and has potentially moved on. That's not to say Bill doesn't have a little yellow fever, and that those two haven't boofed before. It's entirely plausible given we're currently discussing one of Quentin Tarantino's fictional worlds.

Before I derail this any further, or allow this post to devolve into a weird X-rated fan-fiction post revolving around which Kill Bill characters I would like to see shagging each other (c'moooon Gogo Yubari!), I'll get to my point:

Bill was a Romeo, a heartbreaker and a master manipulator, and in order to assemble and control his Death Squad, he used all the tricks in the male master manual.

That's what I learned today.