With each passing week of Ukrainian events, I get a feeling that I have seen some elements of those events before, in popular culture. Namely, in two titles, that I quite like: in Harry Potter and in Half-Life
2. Now before you call me mad...
The way Irina Farion of the Svoboda party has been going on about the Russian-speaking population of the South-Eastern regions calling them for cattle and creatures that need to be exterminated, along with any Ukrainian who supports them, resonates strongly with Death Eater propaganda on Muggleborns, "Mudbloods", who need to be exterminated and registered as creatures, along with any those supporting their rights, "Muggle-lovers".
Farion's own behaviour is best depicted in Helena Bonham Carter's depiction of the psychotic female Death Eater, Bellatrix Lestrange.
And the whole Right Sector movement finds clear parallels with the Death Eaters in general.
For Half-Life
2, I see parallels in the resistance fighting for freedom from an alien occupation, where some humans actually side with the aliens, with Dr. Breen being at the head of collaborationists, urging the resistance to lay down their weapons and accepts their fate in being "improved" by their extraterrestrial "benefectors". The resistance are heavily outnumbered by both the alien technology and the collaborationist armed forces, the Overwatch, while in cities, the "peace" is kept by Civil Protection, cornering anyone whose look they don't like. So my parallels there:
Dr.Breen = Turchinov/Yatsenjuk
The Benefectors/Combine = USA/NATO
The Resistance = The Resistance
The Overwatch = National Guard
Civil Protection = Right Sector
Some telling images from the game, is when the resistance members fight a losing battle against armoured vehicles, screaming "Get the hell out of here" at the aggressors, while Dr. Breen's voice in the background urges everyone to accept the benefits from "our benefectors" - to become improved transhumans.
Furthermore, the events of game take place in an unspecified Eastern-European county, where the lettering on the signs is written in Cyrillic, often in Russian. Game developers said they did not pinpoint any specific country, but rather created an amalgam of the region. However, in Half-Life
2 Episode 2 the player enters a coal mine, which name is "Шaxтa Пoбeды", "Victory Mine", or more precisely in the general context of Eastern Europe "Mine, commemorating in name the WWII Victory". Coal Mine? A name in Russian? In my mind I now place the events in the area of Mariupol, as the game also features extended coastline in a shallow sea, Azov...
Can anyone name any other resonance points? In other popular culture items?
