1. The Fantasies
Each of the layers acts as a way of working through trauma and gaining back power - in the asylum layer, we address the fact that Sweet Pea is a patient, trapped here in a system beyond her control; in the brothel layer, Sweet Pea learns to dance and to indulge in an over-realised fantasy that places her as 'the main dancer' and lets her find herself through self-expression once more. In the battle layer, she becomes a strong warrior, slaying everything from Nazi zombies to dragons to robots (who aside from being fantasy tropes could represent fears of the darkness of the past, the surreal fantastical and the possible bleakness of the future respectively) in order to gain the tools she needs to escape her mind. Babydoll's dances are a point of contention in the film - in the first three, she performs in front of Madam Gorski, her psychiatrist and helper which allows her to succeed in achieving her goals. the only time she dances without Gorski there, she achieves her goals but begins a domino reaction in killing off the other personalities which Sweet Pea has realised she no longer needs. Even the dances of the others are notably symbolic - in the extended cut, Amber, Blondie, Rocket and Sweet Pea get their own dances, each of them representative and sexualised for the male customers: the helpful Amber is a maid; the compassionate Rocket is a nurse who becomes the victim of her own medicine; the enigmatic and ferocious Blondie is an 'exotic' princess who uses a sword in her dance; and Sweet Pea herself is a Joan of Arc figure, tied to the stake and set alight, although she ascends as an angel into heaven, foreshadowing her escape from the brothel/asylum.
Hell, even the fact that the music is completely anachronistic makes sense if you take the viewpoint that this is Sweet Pea in the current day and age, soundtracking her own adventures with mental tunes of choice, allowing Bjork, Queen and Annie Lennox to roll alongside every fantasy adventure possible. In my opinion, Sweet Pea emerges at the end of the film as emerging back into the real world and into a state of good mental health (symbolised by Paradise). Even her final speech talks of empowerment and having all the weapons you need, telling others to go ahead and do so. Even each of the goals and items in the brothel and fight worlds represent a mental tool to escape the prison of her own mind... A map, with which to make her way through the labyrinthian brothel/asylum Fire, which can be used to burn down the asylum itself A knife which she uses to cut down Blue, the ultimate obstacle and villain A key, which she uses to unlock those doors previously unavailable to her And Babydoll, her guide and 'perfect self', the angel who leads her through her journey With these tools, Sweet Pea can knowingly make her way through her mind, burn the dark parts of her past that are holding her back, unlock the doors and barriers she's placed on herself and kill any of the dark demons that stalk the hallways of her psyche, step-by-step believing that she can recover once again and escape. Click next to reveal my final thoughts...