tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17588150048861808612024-03-19T10:28:30.253+01:00The Nerdstream EraStefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.comBlogger887125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-46145272893876370102023-09-14T11:07:00.002+02:002023-09-14T11:07:00.144+02:00Ted Lasso: A complete series review<p><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I finally
managed to watch the final season of Ted Lasso. Of course, I would be in
dereliction of my duties if I did not tell you what I thought of the series as
a whole. Just to give you the tl;dr version of it: Ted Lasso really should have
ended after season one. it was lightning in a bottle it couldn't possibly be
sustained, especially not with a genre switch and an almost doubling of the
runtime of individual episodes. But let's not get ahead of ourselves and start
at season one and why it had the impact it had when it came out in 2020.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the
spring of 2020, the world was in the grasp of a worldwide pandemic. You might
remember it. The outlook was grim and with the first lockdown underway, people
were trapped inside and cut off from social connections. Way too often,
existential anxiety gripped people as well. In this general malaise, Ted Lasso dropped
like a bomb. Not only did it buck the general trend of entertainment media at
the time to be grim and about high-stakes saving of the world, It managed to
infuse its relentlessly optimistic titular character with a seriousness that
was completely decoupled from the irony and meta commentary so pervasive in
many modern media. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This,
crucially, did not apply to all characters in the series. Their often-farcical plots
provided serious obstacles for Ted Lasso that he needed to overcome. But he did
so by surprising everyone with positivity and by making real connections to
people and touching them in a deep way that was transported directly from the
screen into the hearts of the audience. It didn't much matter how little sense the
episodes made plot-wise. What was relevant was that they spoke to a deeper
emotional truth. Just consider the very ending of season one: Ted’s foil Jamie
Tartt had just scored the decisive goal against our heroes of FC Richmond, but
wasn't getting any joy out of it because of his shitbag father. Ted sent him a
note congratulating him on the win – and he smiled. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It is
moments like this that came as a surprise and a genuine plot twist, albeit a
small one, that really were at the heart of what Ted Lasso was all about and
what its success rested on. And for one season, that was perfectly fine. One
season at a specific moment in time where the needs of a large audience for
exactly this material were strong enough to overcome the traditional weaknesses
that a comedy format naturally has and that doesn't lend itself well to
expanding the scope dramatically.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And yet,
this is exactly what happened. Season 2 dramatically switched genres. the show
began to reimagine itself as a drama, without really abandoning its roots it's
a comedy. Dramedies are of fraught genre at the best of times, but trying to
reinvent yourself as one on the fly can only lead to disaster. Not only that,
the showrunners also got it in their heads that this switch merited and almost
doubling of episode length as to compete with serious dramas on television.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This was a
serious miscalculation. The characters sufficed as vehicles for jokes, but they
were not suited at all to serve as vessels for drama. That would require much
more depth than any of these cardboard stereotypes could ever hope to muster. That
is not to say that you couldn't make a drama about a football club with a
relentlessly optimistic coach facing off against the perils of the world. What
I'm saying is that you can't do this with these specific characters while
retaining any connection to what you did in season one and still retain the
whimsical nature and the jokes that your audience loved and that you can't let
go of because you fear you’d lose them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Therefore,
new characters like the therapist never clicked at all because they lacked the
root in the comedy and good wipes of season one and were clearly built for the
dramatic aspects of the show. the attempt to fill Ted with serious dramatic
depth also fell flat on its face. The only thing that at least partially worked
what's the conversion of Nate into the bad guy, but more because the material
of season one lent itself better to a retcon than the material of all the other
characters. his conversion came as a shock mostly because it went against what
season one had been all about and not so much as a “betrayal” of his character.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But in the
end, season two was not well received and in the Apple headquarters, panic was
palpable. I can almost see the committee hearing in which the way forward for
season three was decided. going back to the good vibes of season one that
people loved while retaining the dramatic aspirations in the structure of
season 2 which might forge the path ahead for nominations and awards. Of course,
this cannot work. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And in the
event, it doesn't. The season three is not quite as bad as season 2, but it's
merely non-offensive. It desperately tries to recreate the good vibes off
season one and to return to the more jokey format, but the absurd lengths of
the episodes in the equally absurd pretension that their dramatic storylines
have anything of value to say and need to be retained weigh the thing down like
a millstone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And so, we
returned to the good vibes of season one, which said committee seems to have
made out as the most important aspect of the success of the show. There are
still occasional jokes, but the quality is surprisingly hit and miss. They
seldom get over the level of a mild chuckle and oftentimes they left me
bewildered as to where something is coming from. Since the show also elected to
keep its pretensions to dramatic storytelling by giving several characters
something resembling an arc - more on that in a minute -, the jokes oftentimes
come out of the blue and have no real connection to anything that is going on,
leading to a very disjointed experience. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The best
example for this for me is when the players go to their national teams for the
World Cup and Dani Rojas becomes an incredibly aggressive person out of the
blue and injures his teammate van Damme. Inexplicably, this is treated as a
joke throughout the whole season, and this strange character change goes
completely unexplained. It is typical for the comedy structure because it
surprises the audience and everyone around the changing character, which on a
meta level is even acknowledged by all the characters, batch the effort to
combine a consistent dramatic arc with such surprising jokes falls flat all the
time. You simply can't have it both ways.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This might
be worth it if the dramatic arcs would work, which they really don't. The most
striking example here is Nate’s redemption arc. Completely out of the blue the
show, which has gone to considerable pains in establishing him as the big bad,
decides to make him into an object of compassion and pity and to let us root
for his romantic success. set romantic success is established by simply
existing. It is entirely unbelievable for any of this to happen. His girlfriend
and his relationship to her are a fantasy version of how relationships work if
women have no personality, agency or desires of their own. This isn't rooted in
a warped understanding of gender dynamics on part of the showrunners; they have
proven the feministic bona fides often enough. It is simply an expression of
the laziness surrounding the dramatic arcs in general.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ted himself
is a problem of another sort. His issues just are not worth the traumatic time
investment they are given, which leads to his story running around in circles
and revisiting the same beats over and over again. The constant need to create
positive vibes also runs counter to any dramatic development or exploration
because the positive or jokey scenes never really work together with the
dramatic ones and interrupt the proceedings. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The worst
plot of season three is reserved for Keeley. Her character stopped making sense
in season 2, because by all means she should have just dropped out of the story,
having lost most of her connection to FC Richmond and the goings on there.
Instead, she is given a business arc that is also a sheer fantasy version of
how a business works. I hate the trope of the workplace as a kind of resort in
which you work out your individual issues and in which no one ever works. This
is the case with Keeley’s firm even more so then with the football club itself.
It is entirely unclear, why anything she does would ever work, aside from “we
need to keep this character in the story”. it is therefore boring, almost
completely shorn of jokes and has the most forced good vibes of any storyline.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This leads
me to my main issue with the dramatic arc in general: no one ever seems to work.
People are always meeting in offices or training spaces to talk about personal
issues and to trade jokes, to engage in lovable team building exercises or to simply
hang out (seriously, doors do not exist in this series most <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the time), but there is no actual work
going on, not at the football club nor, especially, in Keeley’s office. this
was no problem in season one, where everything was mostly a comedy show. But if
you really want to tell dramatic stories, you cannot continue to operate in a
fantasy space. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The only
person to have something resembling like revelations or development is Rebecca.
Her parts are the ones reserved for the most genuine good feelings. But even
she doesn't get to anything cohesive and has some of the most cringy
developments of the whole season, such as her speech to the other club owners
which would work as a satire on Aaron Sorkin if it was intended as such.
Unfortunately, it isn't. Her last scene, in which she reunites with her love
fling from Amsterdam, it's also so forcedly saccharine that it hurts in the
teeth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is a
general trend with the good vibes of season 3. They are almost uniformly forced
and oftentimes at least border on cringe. The soundtrack is doing a lot of the
heavy lifting there. Generic upbeat and inspiring tones that could come from a
cheap commercial signal me in advance what I have to feel now, even if the
scene in question doesn't warrant it at all. The scenes often make little to no
sense structurally in the plot, such as in the communal singing of “Hey Jude” in
front of the pub. It is a beautiful scene taken in isolation but the plot
developments building up to it in the general arc in which it is integrated
make no sense at all. I'm always feeling emotionally abused by the show, giving
the good feelings and smiles a dirtied quality. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">All this
does not go to say the Ted Lasso was a bad show. It's just very mediocre and
workmanlike in its seasons two and three, and it could have gone out on a high
note after one season if it hadn't dragged on into this wide field of
mediocrity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-40916902925423928082023-02-05T20:42:00.002+01:002023-02-05T20:42:00.174+01:00Not quite there yet: Giants - Citizen Kabuto<p><span data-offset-key="7q7j0-0-0"><span data-text="true">The year is 2000. Planet Moon Studios published their first game, "Giants: Citizen Kabuto". It wasn't the first game for the developers. The reason they were allowed to make a game as a brand new studio for four years was that their previous project in 1997 had been "MDK", the visionary third person shooter. They came with a pedigree, is what I'm saying.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="7q7j0-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7q7j0-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7q7j0-0-0"><span data-text="true"></span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="fodbm-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fodbm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fodbm-0-0"><span data-text="true">The game they came out with was visionary. It featured three distinct solo campaigns, connecting to an interwoven and epic storyline, in which the players took control of widly different factions. In the multiplayer mode, these factions could face off against each other in huge matches, including base-building.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fodbm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fodbm-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="5ttbj-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5ttbj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5ttbj-0-0"><span data-text="true">The scope was breathtaking. The first faction, the Meccaryns, were humanoid Space Marines, flying around with jetpacks, wisecracking and shooting up stuff. You played a squad of five, and your high mobility and deadly weapons made up for your squishiness, as well as the fact that there were five of you.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5ttbj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5ttbj-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="6mfpk-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6mfpk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6mfpk-0-0"><span data-text="true">In Singleplayer, four of these guys were played by the AI, and you had to find them on an alien world with lots of deadly inhabitants, friendly but simple natives you needed to protect and lots of other stuff. The Meccaryn campaign was a blast, containing lots of different missions, great characters and lots of fun.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6mfpk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6mfpk-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="7o478-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7o478-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7o478-0-0"><span data-text="true">You then switched play to your erstwhile nemesis, the Sea Reaper Delphi. This race of mermaids was bound to the ground, unable to fly, but equipped with powerful magic and a wideranging bow. In the story, you rebelled against your evil queen and made common cause with the Meccaryns.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7o478-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7o478-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="5ok8u-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5ok8u-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5ok8u-0-0"><span data-text="true">Common cause was called for, since the last faction consisted of only one creature, but it was as big as godzilla and about as smart to boot. The titular Kabuto played like a romp, stomping around, eating the natives and growing in size and power. Not much was as satisfying as grabbing one of those pesky Meccaryns out of the sky and eating him.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5ok8u-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5ok8u-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="5j9de-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5j9de-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5j9de-0-0"><span data-text="true">That campaign of the Reapers wasn't quite as good as the Meccaryn one. The story as alright, but the gameplay was very repetitive. It leaned heavily into basebuilding, which was a very cool aspect of the game, but like with candy, there could be too much of a good thing.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5j9de-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5j9de-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="633d4-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="633d4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="633d4-0-0"><span data-text="true">Unfortunately, Kabuto's was even worse. Godzilla can't really have a character arc, and the designers clearly rushed this to the finish line. Every mission consisted of the same set of objectives: Go from A to B and smash C. This was so pervasive that in the final mission, where you had to reach a gate, the mission description (no dialogue anymore like in the previous campaigns, the designers just kind of gave up) actually read "Smash the gate (just kidding! walk through)". It's not a sign of quality if you parody your own writing.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="633d4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="633d4-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="39veo-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="39veo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="39veo-0-0"><span data-text="true">Still, the game was a lot of fun. We also played a lot of multiplayer back in the day. All the flaws you could kind of ignore in the single player (largely empty maps, glitching errors, the works) came back with a vengeance here, and it was very difficult to actually employ the strength of the Meccaryns - teamplay - in a LAN party environment.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="39veo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="39veo-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="eour3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="eour3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="eour3-0-0"><span data-text="true">Trying to build and maintain a base with the AI available back in the day and the limits of a 3rd-person-perspective in 3D environments that from today's view look like someone vomitted on the screen also didn't help. But this game came closer to what it was trying to achieve with its hugely ambitious set of objectives than many others.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="eour3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="eour3-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="30pt4" data-offset-key="8k37t-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8k37t-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8k37t-0-0"><span data-text="true">Asymmetrical gameplay between three distinct factions remains a goal often attempted and seldomly achieved. "Giants: Citizen Kabuto" came closer than most. That's to be commended and remembered.</span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-78698575800290439402022-09-29T17:31:00.008+02:002022-09-29T17:31:00.175+02:00Ignoring the black character<div data-contents="true"><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6d5o8" data-offset-key="6164v-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6164v-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6164v-0-0"><span data-text="true">The 90s were a weird time for representation in movies. We can pin the start of the trend to include a black side character in big movies to the 1980s, in form of the "heavy weapons nigger", a muscular black character carrying the biggest gun, being cool and stoic, getting one big action scene and being killed off safely before the finale to allow the white hero to shine. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6164v-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6164v-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6d5o8" data-offset-key="bifj3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bifj3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bifj3-0-0"><span data-text="true">This didn't cut it anymore in the 1990s, where now you had a wider variety of side characters played by black actors. Morgan Freeman got a lot of these roles, from "Robin Hood" to "Unforgiven" to "Shawshank Redemption". I want to talk about "Unforgiven" here, since I watched that one for the first time only a few days ago. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bifj3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bifj3-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6d5o8" data-offset-key="7k8ql-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7k8ql-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7k8ql-0-0"><span data-text="true">"Unforgiven" is a Western with and by Clint Eastwood from 1993. It's set at the tailend of the era, in 1880, appropriate for Eastwood's age, and more or less a coda on the genre. The plot is not very difficult: an aging ex-outlaw (Eastwood) has found peace, but not money, and when he gets the offer to kill two cowboys who "cut up a whore" for a bounty, after some brief reluctance, he jumps at it, recruiting his old partner (Freeman) to go along. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7k8ql-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7k8ql-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6d5o8" data-offset-key="17gas-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="17gas-0-0"><span data-offset-key="17gas-0-0"><span data-text="true">The pair ultimately succeeds, but the main story shifts from the cowboys to the sheriff of the little town (Gene Hackman), who rules with an iron fist and basically unrestrained and unchecked violence, which is to say, much like police in the US today. It's a long and proud tradition. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="17gas-0-0"><span data-offset-key="17gas-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6d5o8" data-offset-key="2su7d-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2su7d-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2su7d-0-0"><span data-text="true">What absolutely fascinated me about this movie is that the skin color of Freeman's character is not acknowledged even once. The character is having sex with the whores, is killing white cowboys, running afoul of the laws of the city, but there is no one reacting to this in any way. Instead, the reaction is purely to his actions (a reaction that is framed as way out of line, mind you, and justification for our hero to kill every last man bearing a star in the city). </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2su7d-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2su7d-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6d5o8" data-offset-key="9odsb-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9odsb-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9odsb-0-0"><span data-text="true">This is weird, to put it mildly. To me, it points to the evolution of these issues in film. Hollywood realized that they needed to include black characters more (there's a parallel development to this where it comes to women, but that's a whole other topic), but they did this by starting to "cast colorblind" and just include black actors in roles that would have been white roles earlier. In many movies, this is no real problem. I'd even argue that it's a good thing. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9odsb-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9odsb-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6d5o8" data-offset-key="dsqi8-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dsqi8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dsqi8-0-0"><span data-text="true">But if you produce period pieces, you can't just rewrite history like this. There is no way in hell a saloon in 1880 would not react to a black guy coming in, ordering something at the bar and then getting freebies from the thankful whores everyone else was boning with anything like the indifference that's shown in the movie. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dsqi8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dsqi8-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6d5o8" data-offset-key="erc21-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="erc21-0-0"><span data-offset-key="erc21-0-0"><span data-text="true">Never ever would law enforcement in 1880 be remiss to reinforce the racial order by showing the black man his place, instead of just reasserting "the law" (imagine Sylvester Stallone's Judge-Dredd-voice here, I guess). And after - spoiler - killing the man, never would they leave the opportunity go by reminding everyone that said racial order was upheld. But nothing of this gets even a word of recognition here. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="erc21-0-0"><span data-offset-key="erc21-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6d5o8" data-offset-key="2acqs-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2acqs-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2acqs-0-0"><span data-text="true">I guess this also represents a step in Eastwood's own approach to the issue. As his movies mirror his own aging and development, one-and-a-half decades later, he would organize a whole movie around the problem (Gran Torino). But it serves as a showcase now of where the discourse was in the 1990s, and how far we've travelled since then. </span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-53181025868935851712022-09-11T10:30:00.001+02:002022-09-11T10:30:00.185+02:00Episode 3 – Second of His Name<div data-block="true" data-editor="djdqc" data-offset-key="c3atf-0-0" style="text-align: left;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We return
to the House of the Dragon after another time jump. More than two years have
passed since the last episode and establishing these jumps at the beginning of
each episode is starting to develop in a comfortable rhythm, giving each
episode the feeling of a deep look into a moment in time, rather than a continuous
narrative. It feels a bit like a documentary in that regard. I really like it,
and it’s very appropriate. <span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The big
news: Viserys has a son, he’s just turned two this morning and Alicent is
heavily pregnant with the next child. A rival bloodline is gestating, and this
will surely lead to no trouble at all further down the road! But before Viserys
can enjoy the birthday party for little Aegon, the political plot comes
knocking. After almost three years of war, Daemon and Corlys are on the verge
of losing against the Crabfeeder, who is supported by the Triarchy. Viserys of
course insists that the involvement of the Triarchy isn’t proven, but this is
like assuming the Donezk Republics are not in kahoots with Vladimir Putin. This
is willful ignorance on display. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But who can
blame him? Aegon’s birthday party is a splendid affair, if not exactly geared
up for a two-year-old. But then, as Rhaenyra reminds the obnoxious Jason
Lannister, she doesn’t remember her own second birthday either, so that’s just
as well. In the event, it’s a joyless affair. Rhaenyra is constantly reminded
that everyone considers her to be at best an heir-on-demand, while Viserys can’t
enjoy the party. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This
becomes most apparent with the White Hart that supposedly roams the woods, an
auspicious omen for the new heir. Young Aegon of course is not the heir, but if
everyone assumes you are, at what point do you become one? This is a tricky
question that will be at the heart of the story before long. Omens, in the
meantime, are also tricky, in that they require a lot of intervention to actually
happen. One-and-a-half days of hunting do not produce the fabled White Hart,
which may or may not be an omen, but at least they fand <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A</b> Hart and prepare it for being killed by a thoroughly hung-over Viserys.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Here,
hunting is depicted like it usually works for these oh-so-very-masculine aristocratic
hunters: a host of servants prepares the kill. You then just pretend to do the
actual work. Viserys can’t even get that right. Too obvious is the deception,
too obvious the failure of the whole party. The attendant showing him the exact
spot where to put the gilded boar spear that Jason Lannister gifted him while
asking for Rhaenyra’s hand, now that she “lost station”, is just the straw that
breaks the camel’s back. Viserys is utterly disgusted with the whole affair. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And who can
blame him? Paddy Considine’s acting here is impeccable. Viserys is a man profoundly
uncomfortable with the situation he is in, and the set design shows this at all
junctures. Let’s talk about this a moment, shall we? When last time we saw a king
hunting in the godswood in “Game of Thrones” season 1 episode 6, it was three
dudes walking through the wood. This time, we get dozens of people, horses, CGI
animals, tents. And what tents! The royal tent is a palace of canvas, and it
allows for hosting lavish feasts. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Unfortunately,
these lavish feasts cannot entertain Viserys. As he informed us in the opening
of the episode, he just wants to enjoy the party, and all that he’s left is, to
quote, “fucking politicking”. The production design makes this clear through great
blocking: Viserys sits apart, on an elevated throne, with no one to talk to,
only servants to serve him wine and people advising or asking favors – often enough
at the same time. The camera cuts away to young Aegon, ten meters apart that
could as well be ten miles, and to Alicent surrounded by the court’s ladies, equally
far away. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As we see
when Viserys returns to court, it’s Alicent’s company that he craves most. She
is the one woman he can confide to, the one person he can trust and who seems
to be interested in him as a person rather than as a PEZ-dispenser for royal
favor. And the thing is: it’s true, at least in part. This episode really gives
Alicent a spotlight, first in the spat she has with Rhaenyra and then with her
husband. When she’s talking to Viserys, she almost immediately drops the mission
that her father gave her – make sure Aegon is named heir, all for the good of
the realm and to keep with the laws of gods and men, of course – and instead
counsels Viserys to send help to Daemon himself. Like Lyonel Strong, who seems
to be the one guy counseling Viserys not for personal gain, she actually seems
to act out of larger motives. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This makes
her falling-out with Rhaenyra all the more problematic. The two of them essentially
switched places. For most of their relationship, Rhaenyra was the social
superior. Now, she may be heir and princess, but Alicent is queen. And as she
reminds Rhaenyra when she sends the singer away, that trumps her friend’s station.
However, Alicent still wants to mend the relationship with Rhaenyra, she doesn’t
want the conflict that’s already brewing between blacks and greens. As her
father reminds her, though, politics is a stronger force. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Rhaenyra in
the meantime is all impetuous teenager. She brushes off Alicent and makes faces
during the whole long drive to the hunt. Despite Viserys’ gentle reproachments
about her duties as a princess (he pointedly doesn’t call her future queen
here, even if he doesn’t intend it, maybe) is falling on deaf ears. At the
feast, she’s alienating everyone around her, insulting Lady Redwyne (surely not
something that will come back to bite her) and Jason Lannister (ditto). And these
two are just the ones we’re shown explicitly. If she wants to be queen, she is
not doing this right, that’s for sure. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Rhaenyra is
in a weird in-between space here. She’s badass, as shown when she slays the
boar and brings it back, and she definitely could stake out her own identity in
a way that appeals more to the martial Westerosi society. When she stops Ser Criston
from killing the White Hart, she’s also doing her own play at potent symbolism,
even if Cole is the only one around to see it. These episodes do an incredibly
good job at laying the groundwork of the later Rhaenyra, with all her flaws and
her erratic ruling style during her short days in King’s Landing. Not that this
will keep the haters from claiming it all came out of the blue when it happens,
mind you. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Talking of
Cole, the kingsguard knight and Rhaenyra spark a romantic relationship here
without one touch, finding an easy rapport. The way in which Ser Criston jokes
about killing Ser Jason for Rhaenyra and her laughter in reaction show an
intimacy that Viserys only ever finds with Alicent, if that. Rhaenyra lives
intensely, and everyone else be damned. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And don’t
we know that attitude? Her uncle does the same thing, even if he chooses the
battlefield for it. The war, as established, is going poorly. We open the
episode with Daemon attacking the Crabfeeder and not finding him. Burning some
catapults firing at Velaryon ships doesn’t do the trick. His shouts of “Where
is Prince Dahar?” are the only line of dialogue Matt Smith will utter the whole
episode, by the way. The man uses his considerable presence to act the hell out
of this stuff non-verbally. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But who
cares where the Crabfeeder is; the man is not a character, he’s a foil to unite
even the warring factions, if only for a moment. He’s a force of nature, a
slasher-movie villain. He’s here to be disposed off, which is just what will
happen at the end of the episode. But for now, we’re at a Velaryon war council,
meeting two more members of the family. On the one hand, we have Vaemond Velaryon,
brother of Corlys, who’s much cooler on the whole “Daemon’s private war” thing
and warns of immediate mutiny. Then we have Laenor, the guy that Lyonel Strong
counselled Viserys to marry to Rhaenyra, a youth who’s full into the whole “proving
your manhood on the battlefield” thing and also a dragon rider, as will be revealed
to great effect in the ending of the episode. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The war
council is interrupted by a messenger bringing a missive from the king: ten
ships and two thousand infantry are being sent to bail Daemon out. It’s not
phrased like that, but the meaning is implied. Daemon snaps. In a beautiful,
entirely wordless scene that hinges on you paying attention to one sentence
Vaemond Velaryon said – that it would need a lot of meat to lure the Crabfeeder
out – Daemon rows onto the shores of the Crabfeeder’s hideout alone, waves a
white flag and offers up his sword, only to start murdering dudes and outrun volley
after volley of arrows. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Crabfeeder
knows something is wrong, both in the situation and with Daemon. We’ll get to
the latter, but it’s beautifully done how the Crabfeeder nervously scans the
skies for the dragons he assumes must come, seeing none, and sending more and
more troops out. And then, when everything seems lost for Daemon, the troops
stage their surprise assault, and Laenor roasts the archers. This allows Daemon
to go for the Crabfeeder. We are not shown how he kills him, as it’s not important.
The end result, in which a blood-spattered prince drags the carcass of his
enemy into camp says it all and is surely an intentional call-back to Rhaenyra’s
return to the hunting camp. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Still,
something is deeply wrong with Daemon Targaryen. I made the Jaime Lannister
comparison often, and here, it falters. This mad, suicidal attack is nothing
Jaime would have done. Trying to close the war out of spite before help can arrive
– totally. But this craving for attention from his brother while at the same
time shoving him away is a weird and self-destructive character trait, and
another thing he has in common with his niece. We also see he doesn’t much care
for the lives of his own underlings (the initial scene when the captive is
trampled to death by Caraxes is just great), which established his Targaryen
supremacist worldview. No wonder this guy will more or less abandon the war
later on to fight Aemond. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">That leaves
some closing observations. The episode already starts building up a scaffolding
for future storylins, introducing a lot of characters. For example, we get the
first appearace of Larys Strong, who will play a huge role going forward. The
allegiance of the Lannisters in the war to come is set up. This many characters
also allows the show to do something “Game of Thrones” never managed: to have a
lot of mid-level commanders we actually know to bite it. During the “Battle of
the Bastards”, there was really no one on the battlefield to die that we actually
knew. When the Fishfeed comes around, you can see actual Lannisters dying that
you’ve seen before. This is a structural storytelling decision that, much like
the time jumps, I can only applaud and that makes the show unique. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The production
design also continues to impress. The nightmarish beach of the Crabfeeder, the
whole hunt, all of it is communicating so much story and character in its
spectacle. It’s just satisfying to see budget and story to come together in
unison. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Another
stray observation regards Caraxes. The design of the dragon is very
distinctive. When you see this shape, you will know it’s Daemon, and that will
be important further on as we get to know these beasts and the role they’ll
play for the war. </span></p>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
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<![endif]--></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-87608201010849117992022-09-10T17:45:00.002+02:002022-09-10T17:45:00.164+02:00Lightsaber duels, ranked<p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="7vv7s-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7vv7s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7vv7s-0-0"><span data-text="true">I got into a discussion about the quality of lightsaber duels in Star Wars, so naturally I decided to provide a definitive and 100% objective ranking. I haven't seen Clone Wars and can't include those, but Rebels is in. Here goes:<span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7vv7s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7vv7s-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="esqf1-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="esqf1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="esqf1-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">1) Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, Episode V </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="5mooi-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5mooi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5mooi-0-0"><span data-text="true">"The Empire strikes back" is universally regarded as the best Star Wars movie, and the lightsabre fight between Luke and Darth Vader has to qualify as well. Why is it so good, despite being totally lopsided and featuring only a few saber clashes? One, there's the emotional stakes involved. The fight itself is just an expression of the big mistake Luke makes in seeking out Vader (from a certain perspective, at least). Its whole pacing and dynamic reflects that. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5mooi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5mooi-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="542bn-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="542bn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="542bn-0-0"><span data-text="true">Second, Vader is framed as this horror movie enemy, appearing and disappearing almost at will, with the deserted Bespin station as a really frightening background. It's great in terms of tone, and the whole setting is absolutely fantastic, ending over that almost endless drop, with the wind and Luke destroyed body and soul. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="542bn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="542bn-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="4plpj-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4plpj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4plpj-0-0"><span data-text="true">No lightsaber duel can touch you like this one, it has to have top billing. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4plpj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4plpj-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="3cjrv-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3cjrv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3cjrv-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">2) Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, Episode VI</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3cjrv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3cjrv-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="fqq70-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fqq70-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fqq70-0-0"><span data-text="true">A close second, however, has to be the final fight on the death star. Like with the whole plot of "Raiders of the Lost Arc", many wise-asses have noted that the result of this duel doesn't matter at all, since Palpatine and Vader were going to die in the Death Star explosion anyway. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fqq70-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fqq70-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="becno-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="becno-0-0"><span data-offset-key="becno-0-0"><span data-text="true">The duel, however, is the very definition of "existential victory", if there ever was one. Luke isn't going up there to defeat Vader or the Empereror, he's on the Death Star because he believes there is still good in his father and that he actually can beat the Dark Side. This is what he proves, where he really becomes a Jedi, and the crossed lighstabers over Palpatine's cackling face are a memorable expression of this. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="becno-0-0"><span data-offset-key="becno-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="2i0mn-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2i0mn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2i0mn-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">3) Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn vs. Darth Maul, Episode I </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2i0mn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2i0mn-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="fodh9-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fodh9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fodh9-0-0"><span data-text="true">If there is one criticism for our top two contenders exists, it's that they're not especially outstanding action sequences. Until 1999, fans had to rely on comics, video games and their own imagination for really suspenseful action spectacles as lightsaber fights. While the quality of "The Phantom Menace" remains somewhat debated, even the biggest haters will appreciate the final fight between the two Jedi and Darth Maul. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fodh9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fodh9-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="3s2d1-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3s2d1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3s2d1-0-0"><span data-text="true">The triel is noticeable for its frantic pace, a swinging of lightsabres that was inconceivable in the original trilogy and has remained the wet dream of fans until the release of a Phantom Menace. Maul is a great physical presence, the emotional stakes are serviceable and the whole staging of the triel with its revolving laser doors, the pit and of course the memorable soundtrack make this the last one on the winner's staircase. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3s2d1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3s2d1-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="qair-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="qair-0-0"><span data-offset-key="qair-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">4) Rey and Kylo Ren vs. Snoke's guards, Episode VIII </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="58gi3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="58gi3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="58gi3-0-0"><span data-text="true">Another episode of hotly debated quality, episode VIII does deliver to full satisfaction with Rey and Kylo's fight against Snoke's guards. The whole scene looks absolutely astonishing, the emotional stakes are high because we don't know how long this alliance of convenience will last, and the energy weapons wielded by the goons make for an interesting change in what we know and expect. </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="cnqnk-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cnqnk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cnqnk-0-0"><span data-text="true">We also get a very character-oriented choreography, with the two Jedi bringing their own mindsets to the fight and showing their compatability in each and every move, from the first back-to-back stance to the throwing of the lightsaber at the end. Without this fight, there would be no suspense nor believability in Kylo's outstretched hand afterwards. It fully delivers everywhere it counts. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cnqnk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cnqnk-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="flqr3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="flqr3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="flqr3-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">5) Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Anakin Skywalker, Episode III </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="5qo53-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5qo53-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5qo53-0-0"><span data-text="true">The final confrontation between the old friends is very well choreographed, features interesting locations and brings the whole conflict to a head, especially after the hideous disfigurement Anakin suffers at the very end. For me, however, it's always held back by the whimsy nature of some of the jump'n'run sequences and their CGI as well as by Obi-Wan's nonsensical statement about having the high ground. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5qo53-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5qo53-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="27k0s-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="27k0s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="27k0s-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">6) Rey and Finn vs. Kylo Ren, Episode VII</span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="kdth-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="kdth-0-0"><span data-offset-key="kdth-0-0"><span data-text="true">When the plot of "Force Awakens" was still a mystery and we couldn't be sure who was a real Jedi and who wasn't, this fight was really great - it gets cheapened a bit by the knowledge of the later movies, but as a finale, it worked great. The setup is very good, with Kylo wounded by Chewbacca and therefore not able to dispatch of Rey and Finn as quickly as he'd like, and the suspense of whether Finn will be able to stand his ground is sustained to the triumphal claiming of the sword by Rey, a shot that is beautifully mirrored in the finale when she confronts Luke. The breaking Starkiller base physically removing the fighters is also a nice touch. All around, a very good duel. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="kdth-0-0"><span data-offset-key="kdth-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="a9ro1-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="a9ro1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="a9ro1-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">7) Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader, Episode IV</span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="16db2-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="16db2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="16db2-0-0"><span data-text="true">The first duel we ever see onscreen can hardly be called that, as Prowse and Guiness just lightly touch flourescent sticks with each other, but this isn't about the action, it's all about character. Obi-Wan only fights long enough to see the others off and deliver some lines to Darth Vader, and the whole idea is that Vader will essentially transform Obi-Wan into something more with this, a classical trope of brutish enemies only thinking in terms of destruction. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="16db2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="16db2-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="irn9-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="irn9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="irn9-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">8) Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus vs. The Grand Inquisitor, Rebels Season 1</span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="3ngmv-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3ngmv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3ngmv-0-0"><span data-text="true">This is essentially a rehash of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon fighting Maul in Episode 1, but it has enough interesting elements to keep the audience engaged. The question of whether Kanan will bite it always hangs on the proceedings, the huge gulf in ability makes it interesting for Ezra and the many different levels of the location provide suspense on their own. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3ngmv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3ngmv-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="8hr4i-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8hr4i-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8hr4i-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">9) Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker vs. Count Dooku, Episode II</span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="1lggo-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1lggo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1lggo-0-0"><span data-text="true">Episode II ends with a lightsaber duel, because of course it does. That's unfortunate, because it didn't need to. With all respect to Christopher Lee, but he's not a man to fight with swords, and we've seen enough of those in the rest of the Geonosis sequence. Lucas is starting to rely a bit too much on swords in order to generate finales, a trend that will find its ultimate expression in Episode III. It also features the first appearance of gumball Yoda, which I really hate. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1lggo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1lggo-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="de5mv-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="de5mv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="de5mv-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">10) Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. General Grievous, Episode III</span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="8peqi-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8peqi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8peqi-0-0"><span data-text="true">Without having seen the Clone Wars series, it's difficult to care about Grievous, and the droid (?) is just not someone I can take serious as an opponent, even with four arms. The outcome against Kenobi is never in doubt and played too much for laughs in my view, especially given the blaster-y end. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8peqi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8peqi-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="scgf-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="scgf-0-0"><span data-offset-key="scgf-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">11) Yoda vs. Palpatine, Episode III </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="3koub-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3koub-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3koub-0-0"><span data-text="true">I will never understand why Lucas decided to let Palpatine and Yoda both have lighstabers, or let Yoda jump around like a gumball with too much caffein. The fight is not interesting until it reaches the Senate chamber, where the symbolism of Palpatine throwing actual Senate seats at Yoda makes this at least passably interesting. But how would these two ever settle a conflict with saber-y violence? It makes no sense and should never have been done. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3koub-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3koub-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="c8ifr-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c8ifr-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c8ifr-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">12) Ahsoka Tano vs. Darth Vader, Rebels season 2</span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="1k4s8-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1k4s8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1k4s8-0-0"><span data-text="true">Some fans might have found this event cathartic, after several seasons of Clone Wars and all, but I did not feel anything. It was obvious that Vader couldn't lose, the emotional stakes were non-existent, Ahsoka not very fleshed out in Rebels and the whole thing ends with a fake-out. Booooring. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1k4s8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1k4s8-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="6lh79-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6lh79-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6lh79-0-0" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-text="true">13) Rey and Kylo Ren vs. Palpatine, Episode IX</span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8kf1i" data-offset-key="c25lo-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c25lo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c25lo-0-0"><span data-text="true">You can't have a good lightsaber fight if you don't care, and Episode IX is "I don't care" writ large. The fight is static, with Palpatine fixed to his machine, and it feels like something from Dragon Ball Z, with Rey and Kylo winning by concentrating very hard and shouting in distress. Skip it. </span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-17636366227573252342022-08-30T18:14:00.000+02:002022-08-30T18:14:00.161+02:00House of the Dragon, season 1, episode 2 review<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We’re back
in the Red Keep, half a year later. From the beginning, this show is dealing in
different time horizons than does “Game of Thrones”. So far, it works…mostly. We’ll
get to the problem later. The new status quo is quickly established. Daemon has
installed himself as Prince of Dragonstone, and Viserys refuses to act against
him. Only when Daemon also steals a dragon egg and proclaims a marriage to his paramour,
with whom he claims having a child – the inciting incident of the episode – is
he finally willing to act. Otto keeps him from going himself – it’s dangerous,
you see – and goes in his stead. <span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It's a bit unclear
if the getaway here is supposed to be that Otto is putting the king and the realm
before his own security or whether he just hates Daemon so much. Maybe it’s both.
But Otto’s characterization remains too weak to be able to tell, unfortunately.
In the event, Otto arrives on Dragonstone with a detachment of Kingsguard and
his own household guard, presenting an ultimatum to Daemon, who shows off his dragon,
cowing Otto into the defensive. It's at this point Rhaenyra shows up, cowing Daemon
in turn and getting the dragon’s egg. The status quo is repaired, and Rhaenyra
showed her worth. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is, in
barest plot terms, one of the two beating hearts of the episode, the other
being concerned with Viserys’ impending marriage. But before we get to that, I
want to stay with Rhaenyra and the Daemon plotline a bit. This is the element
of the episode that’s beyond reproach. We meet Rhaenyra trying to do something
more than just pour wine in her new position as heir, but when she proposes to
use dragons against Daemon – to the delight of Corlys, who wants to see someone
to act here – the king shoos her off to choose the new kingsguard in a way a
parent sends the child away to play with some toys when the grown-ups are
speaking. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Nothing bad
will ever come from this, as Rhaenyra refuses the noble aspirants for the
positions – houses Caron and Mallister, respectively – and instead chooses,
whom else, Criston Cole. It’s because he has actual combat experience, you see.
The tournament doesn’t seem to play a role in this decision; Rhaenyra is shown
to care about her own sense of politics, looking for strength and disregarding custom
and station, as Otto counsels. It’s clear why she sympathizes with Criston Cole
here: he is disregarded because of his low birth, as she is disregarded because
of her sex. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In case you
missed that point, Rhaenys is making it perfectly clear when she calls out to
Rhaenyra for a heart-to-heart, spelling out the leitmotif of the show (all that’s
missing is her explicitly calling house Targaryen “the House of the Dragon” and
looking into the camera) by stating that men will rather burn down the realm
than to see a woman on the Iron Throne. Rhaenyra of course is having none of
it, but the talk does inspire her to go against her father’s command and to fly
to Dragonstone, scoring her first political success in the bargain and gaining some
respect. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Her
emotional state is also, shall we say, under development. When Alicent tries to
get her praying in the Sept, she appeals to Rhaenyra’s need for closure about
the death of her mother, but Rhaenyra is having none of that. She prays that
her father will see her worth. Alicent is shaken for a moment but quickly
adapts, counseling her friend that fathers aren’t able to talk to their
daughters and that she needs to open the conversation. In an ugly scene later,
we see just how unable Otto is to talk to his daughter when he berates her for ruining
her finger nails; she’s a prop to him and has to follow his orders. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Viserys isn’t
quite as bad, but when Rhaenyra tries to talk to him, he quickly shuts her off.
“You will learn”, he says, in the way that says “by experience, not because I teach
you, and the thing you will learn is to keep your mouth shut”, which is exactly
what Rhaenyra doesn’t want to hear. No wonder she flies off to Dragonstone. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But the balance
between ambition and the uncouthness of youth that the show is going for here
works well enough. It’s a subtle characterization, but already, no one should
be surprised when Rhaenyra turns out to be on the, let’s say, undiplomatic side
of things later on in the Dance. On the other hand, the same is true for
Daenerys in season 1 of GOT and nobody cared about that when season 8 rolled around,
so there’s that. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The other
big plot point of the episode is Viserys’ wedding. Aemma is dead for a half a year
now, but Viserys doesn’t want to remarry. However, as everyone around him tells
him, marry he must. He may be king, but he is not free (a lesson that he
haplessly tries on to pass to Rhaenyra in the worst way possible). Things are
expected of him, you see, and the realm is weak as long as there is only one
heir – and that one being a woman, no less, the other half of the coin no one
speaks out loud but that’s implied everywhere. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The show does
great work of communicating that everyone just assumes Rhaenyra will only be
heir as long as Viserys has no son. They would immediately back Daemon’s claim
if Daemon wasn’t, well, Daemon. Rhaenyra doesn’t really want to hear it, but it
becomes clearer with every scene. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The question
for Viserys, now, is whom to marry. Corlys takes center stage again, as he did
when he demanded action against the pirates in the Stepstones (we’ll come back
to them). He has a daughter, the lady Laena, and he proposes to marry her to Viserys,
joining their houses, sending a strong message to the realm and the Free Cities
and to strengthen the bloodline. It would also heal the rift from the Great
Council in the bargain. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The rub is
that Laena is all but twelve, and as she informs Viserys in a perfectly awkward
scene together, she isn’t expected to fuck him until she’s fourteen. Viserys is
visibly uncomfortable with the idea of having her anytime; she’s younger than
his own daughter, after all. He unsuccessfully and without a lot of drive tries
to argue for himself staying a bachelor, but everyone is adamant, with the
exception of Otto, who wants to keep the king warm until he falls for Alicent. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The latter
is doing a great job of getting into Viserys’ good graces, and it seems like it’s
honest on her part, which will make the following developments all the more
dramatic for sure. Over Viserys’ model of Valyria, his one passion project and
the only place in the Red Keep where he is truly happy, they bond more and
more. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">However,
this bond remains underdeveloped. And this is where the time jump falters. When
Viserys announces, in the major end-of-episode twist, that he will marry Alicent,
it comes out of nowhere. Otto looks smugly, but there’s no reason to assume he
was informed of this development beforehand – or anyone else, for that matter. It’s
not even clear Alicent knew what was to come. It certainly works on plot terms –
producing a likely unhealable rift between Rhaenyra, who failed to get an open relationship
with her father, and her best friend – and alienating Corlys, who immediately
goes to Daemon. But on a character level, I’m told what happens, but I just don’t
feel it. The impression I get is rather that I missed an episode worth of
character development. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The last big
player of this episode is Corlys Velaryon, who joins the rank of main
characters (as I predicted last week). The importance of the Stepstones and the
pirates for his fortune is established over the course of the episode, as is
his penchant for decisive action rather than discussing stuff in the Small
Council. Already you can see how much sense the future alignment between
Daemon, Rhaenyra and Corlys makes; they’re all alike in that regard. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
antagonist of that plot, which will surely become much more prominent next week,
is the Crabfeeder, a pirate only shown in Dutch angles, with weird lighting and
his face covered with a mask. He’s clearly evil, and therefore someone everyone
can get behind to fight against. His method of execution, namedropped in
episode 1, is to feed prisoners to the crabs, which is a gruesome and painful
way to die and gets shown in graphic detail. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
Crabfeeder is supposed to be financed by the Free Cities – although it remains
unclear if Corlys just says this to get the action he wants or whether it’s
really true – and seems on the verge of ruining house Velaryon. The stakes are established,
and Corlys talks Daemon into a strategic alliance against him. That scene is strong,
establishing once more the complications of the family dynamics within the
titular House of the Dragon – Daemon may talk shit about Viserys, but not
Corlys – and you can clearly see how these two get together. It’s a strong
setup for what’s to come. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">With that,
I want to go into some general observations. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">One thing I
neglected to say last week is the marked improvement in costumes over “Game of Thrones”.
Not only are they much richer in style and flourish – depicting the height of
power the realm is supposed to be – but the show also made an effort in giving
the house sigils their place in the sun. From the Hightower helmet and Daemon’s
dragon-winged helmet in the tournament last episode to the utterly useless yet
lovable statues representing the kingsguard aspirants to their lavishly embroidered
coats of arms, I really love this attention to detail. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The production
crew is also knocking it out of the park with the design of the Stepstones and Dragonstone,
both of which are shown in a nebulous haze, pierced by the full sun in the sky
(and Syrax, of course). As with “Game of Thrones”, the production values are
just impeccable and very pleasing to behold. </span></p>
<p></p>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-85959507460969686602022-08-26T19:04:00.000+02:002022-08-26T19:04:00.121+02:00House of the Dragon review, Season 1, Episode 1<p>Game of Thrones is back! Or, at least its 172 year distant prequel is. House Targaryen is at the height of its power, and as the voiceover in the first episode reminds us, the only thing that can bring down the House of the Dragon is itself. You can see Robert Baratheon protesting a bit, but then, he didn’t have to contend with dragons. And dragons are the centerpiece of this new show, as our very first sequence tells us, when Rhaenyra descends from the clouds on her golden dragon Syrax.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div class="sc-1sp3zau-0 jaefFT sc-1di2uql-0 jxudOF" data-tag="post-content"><p>She’s introduced as a soul sister of Arya Stark, trying to buck societal expectations and being aided in that by the forbearance of her father Viserys, a forbearance that can very easily be read as neglect. The pilot is giving us a strong framework in which to anchor what is to come, and aside from “Targaryens rule because of dragons”, another thing is that women are oppressed and sidelined in this society. Rhaenyra is a woman, and therefore she can never rule, and in case you doubt that, there’s the side character of Rhaenys to give precedent and a parallel running much deeper than only in the eerily similar name.</p><p>In quick succession, we’re introduced to other important players. There’s Aemma, Viserys’ wife and Rhaenyra’s mother, heavily pregnant. A tourney is about to start to celebrate the birth of her son, the presumptive heir. How do we know it will be a son? Viserys dreamt it. Alright, buddy. We meet his council, consisting of Master of Ships Corlys Velaryon, screaming “badass” with every fiber of his being. There’s Hand of the King Otto Hightower, obviously competent player at the Game of Thrones. Master of Whisperers Larys Strong is name-checked, as is Master of Coin Lyman Beesbury. There’s also Grand Maester…Grand Maester, I guess. He doesn’t get a name.</p><p>One seat, however, is conspicuously empty, which belongs to the Commander of the City Watch, Daemon. If that name sounds ominous, it’s because it is. The man is a major player, essentially introduced as Jaime Lannister with a dragon and a license for incest. His relationship with Rhaenyra is complicated; the one with the rest of the court is not: they hate him.</p><p>Lastly, there’s Alicent Hightower, Rhaenyra’s best friend forever who will never be separated from her, and Ser Criston Cole, hedge knight of no renown who will most certainly play no role whatsoever in the future. The stage thereby set, the very economic storytelling of the pilot can actually begin. It immediately sidelines a lot of these characters to instead concentrate on the big three: Viserys, Rhaenyra and Daemon. This is a very smart move, since the whole ensemble can be a bit overwhelming, and without the clear demarcations of “Stark vs. Lannister” that made the initial cast in “Game of Thrones” manageable, restraint is in order.</p><p>I already mentioned that Aemma Targaryen is heavily pregnant, and this pregnancy is the first of several plot strands in the pilot. Aemma informs Viserys that this will be the last time she wants to get pregnant, since so many children died in childbirth and she can’t bear it anymore, and just as with Ned Stark telling people they’ll talk upon his return, this is a clear warning sign of things to come. And indeed, the birth goes awry: the baby doesn’t turn, and Aemma, who told Rhaenyra that this is the “battlefield of noble women” (Catelyn would approve), faces an agonizing death on a bloody bed sheet. The Grand Maester tells a grief-stricken Viserys he, “as the father”, faces an impossible choice: letting mother and child die or kill the mother in hopes of saving the child by C-section.</p><p>In an incredibly disturbing scene, Viserys agrees to murder his wife, sitting by her side and telling her “they’ll get the baby now” and “I love you” as Aemma is totally panicked about her impending murder and then gets cut open while fully conscious, slowly bleeding to death. It’s absolutely gruesome, and given the current abortion debate raging in the US, darkly topical.</p><p>Already we can see – as with Steven Touissant’s casting as Corlys Velaryon – that HBO is intent on righting some wrongs from the original series. There’s more diversity, and there’s a clear message of woman power and oppression by the patriarchy imbedded in the narrative, both of which are not necessarily found like this in the source text. Not that such adaptational choices are a problem, but there’s a toxic segment in fandom that will get very hung up on this stuff.</p><p>The whole birth is brilliantly cross-cut with the tourney. It starts harmlessly, as the birth, with knights trying to poke each other with long sticks. When the birth starts to go bad, Daemon enters the lists, and immediately, things get twisted. He instantly tries to get back at Otto Hightower, his political enemy number one, by humiliating his son (and doing his level best to kill him, not succeeding).</p><p>But after that, the tournament begins to escalate: knights continue the fights afoot, killing each other in bloody ways as Aemma bleeds and cries in her bed. As Daemon finds his master in Criston Cole and the two of them slug it out in a manner that tries to outshine Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel”, all the while including Alicent and Rhaenyra by proxy in their fight, Aemma is murdered. While Alicent gets drawn in by Daemon, who all but forces her to give him her favor, who in equal parts makes Rhaenyra jealous and pisses off Otto and his son, Rhaenyra grants the victorious Criston Cole her own, getting back at her uncle. It’s clear that all of these actions will come back in a major way.</p><p>A second plot line revolves around Daemon’s exploits as commander of the City Watch. He reformed them into his personal goon squad, who instead of being corrupt stooges like Janos Slynt’s guard is a proto-fascist paramilitary terrorizing the city in order to “combat crime”. Their rampage through King’s Landing, where Daemon personally exacts his bloody brand of “justice” that would make the Taliban and ISIS ask him to moderate it a little bit, is hard to watch.</p><p>Here we come to what the creators themselves say they view as foundational for the franchise: the combination of sex and violence. And wouldn’t you know it, Daemon provides both. Seconds after he orders a man castrated – the result of which we get to see in its own close-up – we see him no less close-upped fucking whores with his goons in a brothel he rented out with his family money. The whole theme of a police force being essentially unchecked and violent, led and cheered by a legacy admission, is the other thing that cannot help but feel topical in this day and age.</p><p>After the death of Aemma and her son (the murder was all for naught, but Viserys doesn’t really reflect on his role in it, preferring to wallow in his own grief and making it all about him), the question of the succession with which the episode was introduced comes again front and center. Otto Hightower wants nothing more than to prevent Daemon Targaryen ascending the throne. Daemon himself wants nothing more and sees himself as the heir. And Corlys Velaryon is happy to either help Daemon or his own wife and therefore his children, whichever works.</p><p>It's Daemon himself who decides the whole affair, unintentionally so. In his cups, still reeling from the defeat against Criston Cole, he toasts the “heir for a day” and celebrates the death of Viserys’ son. When Viserys confronts him about it, he refuses to buckle and grovel and instead tells Viserys that he is weak, that everyone is taking advantage of him and that he should make Daemon his hand so he can “protect him from himself”. And with that, Viserys bans Daemon from court and proclaims Rhaenyra his heir, with all the realm swearing allegiance.</p><p>And so ends the first episode, and everything is resolved nicely, with hardly any problem on the horizon. Effective storytelling, as I said. If “House of the Dragon” will achieve more is hard to say and depends on the pivot to the other characters. But we’ll talk about that next week, hopefully.</p></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-41595754434179147872022-08-02T15:15:00.000+02:002022-08-02T15:15:00.176+02:00Rewatching "The Americans", season 6<p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="e07a0-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e07a0-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e07a0-0-0"><span data-text="true">Things have been going slower, but I since I received a diagnosis for Long Covid in the meantime, I guess "The Americans" for me will therefore be forever linked to the global pandemic. Cheery times! But oddly fitting, given the material. I finished the final season, so let's make this a proper send-off, shall we? <span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e07a0-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e07a0-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="9opqh-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9opqh-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9opqh-0-0"><span data-text="true">This season gives us the biggest time jump yet, roughly two years, into 1986. Gorbachev is now in power and negotiating an end to the Cold War, a coup is being prepared inside the KGB and Philipp has actually retired. Paige is studying - political science at day and spycraft at night - while Henry is happy at his elite school and develops his not inconsiderable talents. The most unhappy person is Elizabeth, for a change. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9opqh-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9opqh-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="ehttj-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ehttj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ehttj-0-0"><span data-text="true">Her decision to support Philipp's retirement means she has to pull double duty, which, given that she already did that before on account of her gender, means something like quadruple the workload. She's smoking like a chimney and looks like hell all the time. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ehttj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ehttj-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="doe2i-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="doe2i-0-0"><span data-offset-key="doe2i-0-0"><span data-text="true">But Elizabeth's state of mind does not allow for cutting back. Instead, she doubles down, in practically every department. The season opens with her nearly botching several assignments, always with a huge bodycount. This seems to be an expression of her mentality as much as anything, but the FBI will pick up the blood trail eventually, and Stan's final moment of epiphany is triggered over Elizabeth's unwillingness to continue covering up her smoking habit, providing Stan with the - wait for it - smoking gun to finally crack the identity of the illegals.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="doe2i-0-0"><span data-offset-key="doe2i-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="2sh5h-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2sh5h-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2sh5h-0-0"><span data-text="true">And if all of that wasn't enough already, Elizabeth also trains Paige for her new assignments. The girl is too young for the real stuff, but she's not being eased into it - Elizabeth and Claudia both let her run before she can walk, which finds its most gruesome fallout when Paige finds her mother with the brains of an American colonel splattered all about her face, product of yet another rushed and insufficiently planned - and frankly ill-adviced - venture the Center forced her to undertake. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2sh5h-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2sh5h-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="c2vii-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c2vii-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c2vii-0-0"><span data-text="true">Speaking of Paige, she's a shadow of her former self. With no real identity of her own, she's torn between worlds and conflates her private life with her new spy life more and more, to the horror of her parents, who react to this in the worst ways - Elizabeth by holding increasingly hollow speeches and abusing her mentally, Philipp by pretend-raping her to shatter her growing self-esteem. Paige is walking through her life as if controlled by someone else, and in a very real sense, she is. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c2vii-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c2vii-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="53rua-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="53rua-0-0"><span data-offset-key="53rua-0-0"><span data-text="true">Henry, in the meantime, is removed from all of that mentally as well as physically. Since leaving home, the worst he has to deal with are Philipp's guilt-ridden calls of empty nothings, and else he can concentrate on a better life. He's an object, as far as his parents are considered, and his sister dropped out of his life for good. Things creep back only when Philipp's life breaks down and the financial fallout threatens his ability to stay in school. It's fitting that he learns of his parents' identity last, from the mouth of Stan, who makes his surrogate fathership official. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="53rua-0-0"><span data-offset-key="53rua-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="fefiv-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fefiv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fefiv-0-0"><span data-text="true">It's Stan who has the most crushing revelation coming. The suspicion about the Jennings, dormant since the ill-considered awakening in the pilot episode, comes roaring back with a vengeance. Once on the scent, Stan follows it mercilessly, fighting himself at least as much as the Jennings. After all, what does it say about his life that his best friend is a Soviet spy? His life will be destroyed in the process, through nothing as much as through Philipp's poisonous passing gift of telling him about his own suspicion regarding Renee. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fefiv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fefiv-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="71lh3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="71lh3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="71lh3-0-0"><span data-text="true">Outwardly, the happiest person in the beginning of the season is Philipp, of all people. He retired, expanded the business and lives the dream of Morning in America. he even takes his employees to a bar playing country music and dancing to it. He loves this country he consistently fought against, and now he finally can do it without the cognitive dissonance of his old job.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="71lh3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="71lh3-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="aqc4p-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aqc4p-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aqc4p-0-0"><span data-text="true">But it's not to last. Philipp is a better spy than businessman and tanks the expansion, threating the family's livelihood in the process. And when the main plot rears its ugly head, he sees himself compelled to return and help out first Oleg Burov and then his wife. Both ventures fail and see his cover almost blown. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aqc4p-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aqc4p-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="bfpkt-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bfpkt-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bfpkt-0-0"><span data-text="true">For Oleg, it's even worse. He was demoted into political oblivion, but he's happy with it - a mirror image of Philipp's - but Arkady recruits him to help out in a secret operation to stop a KGB plot from killing Gorbachev. This requires him to be in the US as a private citizen, so if he's jailed, he's done. His wife and little child will be without him forever. You'll never guess what will happen next. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bfpkt-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bfpkt-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="8ko5s-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8ko5s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8ko5s-0-0"><span data-text="true">The main plot, despite its world-defining stakes, takes a second place behind all of this character stuff, and rightly so. It's the characters that make "The Americans" compelling, and the plot is useful only insofar as it propels them into action. We'll not be on the edge of our seats whether Gorbachev is killed in 1986; the relevant question is what this does to our protagonists. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8ko5s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8ko5s-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="co6t0-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="co6t0-0-0"><span data-offset-key="co6t0-0-0"><span data-text="true">In the end, they can single-handedly prevent the catastrophe, but it means the end for them. They need to flee, and heavy decisions need to be made. Leaving Henry behind certainly is the best thing, but what about the ghost that once was their daughter? After a brutally emotional stand-off with Stan, the Jennings flee to Canada - but Paige deserts them on the border, going back to Claudia's appartment of all places, where she pours and gulps down Vodka, facing a very uncertain and bleak future. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="co6t0-0-0"><span data-offset-key="co6t0-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="9pcc8-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9pcc8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9pcc8-0-0"><span data-text="true">The show ends ambivalent in many places, and the added coda of Philipp and Elizabeth's long escape to the USSR, not knowing what the future will bring, underscores that beautifully. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9pcc8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9pcc8-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="aubiq" data-offset-key="c24go-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c24go-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c24go-0-0"><span data-text="true">I do not rue watching this show, and I do not rue rewatching it. It's one of the greatest things out there. Don't miss it. </span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-45359830487186340382022-07-14T20:13:00.003+02:002022-07-14T20:13:00.316+02:00Channingography, part 4 - Jupiter Ascending (2015)<p><span data-offset-key="cpqqd-0-0"><span data-text="true">"Jupiter Ascending" is a sad story. Not because of the plot. That one is decidedly dark at its core, but the actual events unfolding are more or less lighthearted action. No, it's a sad story because of what happened. It's a big budget Sci-Fi movie by the Wachowski sisters, unrelated to any existing IP and based solely on their crazyly imaginary minds. Unfortunately, it's not good, and that's a shame. As a mini-tragedy inside this bigger waste, it stars Channing Tatum in its leading role (alongside Mila Kunis), and I'm not quite certain his career survived this hit. If Jupiter Ascending had been a smash, maybe Tatum's career would have profited as well. Who knows? <span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="88mob" data-offset-key="cpqqd-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5vjmm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5vjmm-0-0"><span data-text="true">But first things first, what is the plot? A cleaning lady (Mila Kunis) daydreams about a better future, as you do if you have a shitty job like that, so when a spacefaring werewolf with flying rollerblades (Channing Tatum) rescues her from a team of assassins and brings her to his old mentor (Sean Bean), who tells her she's the owner of the Earth, her life gets slightly disrupted. Because, see, the intergalactic One Percent own whole planets and farm them. The harvest is sentient beings, like us humans, and they're made into a very expensive ointment that provides life everlasting, which is why they had no problem seeding humanity on earth a few hundred millenia ago and waiting patiently until now. </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="88mob" data-offset-key="5vjmm-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5vjmm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5vjmm-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="88mob" data-offset-key="cqmv6-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cqmv6-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cqmv6-0-0"><span data-text="true">Well, now is now, and they want their harvest. As we learn, Mila Kunis is the genetic copy of one of the prospective owners of Earth, a particularily unsympathetic family of rich assholes (imagine Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the Kochs being all in the same family), and she needs to be killed so they can take over. Space Werewolf Tatum and his team try to prevent this, not only from a sense of obligation and honor, but also because he's in love with the royal cleaning lady. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cqmv6-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cqmv6-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="88mob" data-offset-key="9h4jm-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9h4jm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9h4jm-0-0"><span data-text="true">So far, so bonkers. Being done by the Wachowsksis, "Jupiter Ascending" fields copious amounts of CGI in order to sell the scope of the story - a galactic epic in traditional, never-changing love-story-structure - and breathtaking scenery. What it does not field, unfortunately, is good casting or chemistry between the lead actors. Tatum is alright as the Space Werewolf, although the stoic seriousness of the role isn't a natural fit for him. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9h4jm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9h4jm-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="88mob" data-offset-key="4unk4-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4unk4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4unk4-0-0"><span data-text="true">Mila Kunis, on the other hand, doesn't sell the downtrodden cleaning lady on the margins of society for one second. She's also not really excelling as the starry-eyed heiress to be, marvelling at the wonders of what she is experiencing (a thankless role under the best of circumstances, given the batshit-crazy shit happening around her). But as mentioned, the biggest breaking point for me is the lacking chemistry with Tatum; their love story never catches any fire. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4unk4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4unk4-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="88mob" data-offset-key="531fi-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="531fi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="531fi-0-0"><span data-text="true">Sean Bean is very serviceable in a role that doesn't demand much of him, and the supporting actors are also alright. The greatest sticking point for many would be Eddie Redmayne's performance as the main antagonist, who has an...interesting choice of acting style for it. Whispering hoarsely most of the time, he unpredictably breaks out into bouts of shouting. I like the shameless overacting, but it doesn't mesh at all with Tatum's stoicism and would be much more appropriate for a MORE bonkers style, for which the Wachowskis should have gone. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="531fi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="531fi-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="88mob" data-offset-key="8m7rl-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8m7rl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8m7rl-0-0"><span data-text="true">But they're playing it straight as a generic space opera, which I guess is the biggest mistake. Redmayne seems to think he's in "Speed Racer 2", which would have been the way to go in my opinion, while Tatum acts like he is in a new Matrix movie or something. Nothing fits. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8m7rl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8m7rl-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="88mob" data-offset-key="11in4-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="11in4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="11in4-0-0"><span data-text="true">The problem is less with the individual parts. The plot, the characters, the ideas, everything is sound. But it's like several people stitched the movie together without talking to each other during the process. And that's a real shame, because a self-contained blockbuster with a three figure budget (million, that is) and bereft of any setup for a cinematic universe or even a sequel is nothing one really sees anymore. </span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-90949939225299158862022-06-22T11:18:00.001+02:002022-06-22T11:18:00.174+02:00Rewatching "The Americans", season 5<p><span data-offset-key="76l8s-0-0"><span data-text="true">Things have been going slower, but I since I received a diagnosis for Long Covid in the meantime, I guess "The Americans" for me will therefore be forever linked to the global pandemic. Cheery times! But oddly fitting, given the material. I now finished the fifth season, and with only one to go, let's take a look back at what was what. <span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="62hqp-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="62hqp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="62hqp-0-0"><span data-text="true">The fifth season is absolutely stellar. Together with the fourth, it marks the high-water mark for the series, providing a somber, depressing and glacially moving, yet absolutely compelling drama. Things are falling apart, but as of yet, the center holds. The one with a capital C at least does, and if you view Elizabeth as the center of the whole thing - which one should, given that Keri Russel has top billing on the show - this holds true for the Jennings' as well. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="62hqp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="62hqp-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="e3u7c-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e3u7c-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e3u7c-0-0"><span data-text="true">Elizabeth is unwavering in her commitment to the cause, and oh boy, does this commitment get tested. There are two major "spy" storyline plots going on: the observation of a Soviet defector, using a faux family with a Vietnamese teenager as a proxy, and the investigation into and then acquisition of a mysterious grain research project. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e3u7c-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e3u7c-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="60hia-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="60hia-0-0"><span data-offset-key="60hia-0-0"><span data-text="true">The Soviet defector in question is a scientist who had it with life in the worker's paradise, and who can blame him? While he enjoys the life in the Land of the Free, his wife and son Pasha have major problems assimilating into US culture and lifestyle. For the KGB, this is a wedge to drive mercilessly, and they do. They're pretend adopted son Tuan befriends Pasha, only to secretly make his life an absolute hell. Elizabeth meanwhile befriends the wife, nudging her towards the idea of returning to the USSR, where they will be blackmailed, used and discarded. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="60hia-0-0"><span data-offset-key="60hia-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="2nl4s-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2nl4s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2nl4s-0-0"><span data-text="true">While we're at the subject of Tuan, the young spy serves as a dark mirror to the Jennings at every step. Even more radical and committed to the cause than Elizabeth, he has no moral compass whatsoever, no qualms and is absolutely ruthless. Even Elizabeth is appalled, and that says something. Tuan is a cautionary tale about what happens when you descent into the rabbit hole - almost as if the universe wants to tell Elizabeth something about recruiting teenagers to the cause. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2nl4s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2nl4s-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="7hqvl-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7hqvl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7hqvl-0-0"><span data-text="true">Speaking of which, Paige is in a messed-up place if there ever was one. Without being able to take her decision back and ask for the blue pill, she has to live with the terrible knowledge of her parents' real occupation, torn between the strains that secret puts her under the dawning realization that this destroys every shred of hope she could have of ever living a normal life. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7hqvl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7hqvl-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="1l2f7-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1l2f7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1l2f7-0-0"><span data-text="true">Henry, meanwhile, is doing surprisingly well for himself. After being featured very little in the previous two seasons, he comes back to a more prominent role this season as a computer whizkid, surprising both the audience and his parents. He serves mostly to show how little connection the Jennings' have with their children, and how far removed from normal life they are. His relationship with Stan Beeman of all people is incredibly endearing to boot, so Henry's renewed presence is welcome. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1l2f7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1l2f7-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="2fki6-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2fki6-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2fki6-0-0"><span data-text="true">Pastor Tim, on the other hand, is leaving the narrative. Paige is already so accomplished a liar that she pretends to be drawn to the church while she has severed her emotional ties. Pastor Tim is way too perceptive to be fooled completely, but his concerns over Paige serve as fuel for reflection for Paige and her parents both, and when the KGB manages to offer Pastor Tim a job in what's basically Liberation Theology, everyone sighs with relief as the sword of Damocles is removes from his head and he's gone for good. </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="3o2m1-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3o2m1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3o2m1-0-0"><span data-text="true">The most miserable person this season, as in every season, is Philipp. He is disgusted with the work is doing, has lost any fervor he ever might have had for the cause, and yet, like an addict, he returns to the work time and time again, becoming ever more miserable in the process. Despite liking American life, he dislikes the spy job much more, and so etches towards "retirement" in the US, despite the incredible damage this would do to Henry and Paige. Elizabeth is in complete denial; Philipp, meanwhile, just knows how bad it will be, but as with his job, he decides to ignore his inner voice and to do the wrong thing. He's consistent in that. The resolution of this dilemma, of course, will have to wait for the finale of season 6. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3o2m1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3o2m1-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="2uhgc-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2uhgc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2uhgc-0-0"><span data-text="true">Stan, meanwhile, has found a new colleague that's a much better fit than Amador from season 1 (good riddance). Aderholt is also an incredibly understated presence, softspoken and deliberate, and that fits the tone of the complete season to a "t". </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2uhgc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2uhgc-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="2mpa7-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2mpa7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2mpa7-0-0"><span data-text="true">It's incredible how "The Americans" manages to be such a slow and silent show. The actors work with half-smiles, smallest movements of facial muscles, a half-raised brow, a sideways glance. Even to call this a look or a frown would be to overstate things; it's incredible how this show manages to keep you glued to the screen with so little. The contrast is especially stark considering how frantic the pace of season 1 was; it's almost glacial now. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2mpa7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2mpa7-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="278ks" data-offset-key="6f4qe-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6f4qe-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6f4qe-0-0"><span data-text="true">This silence, this understatement, together with the fascinating amorality of its protagonists, the bad things they do, is the main draw of "The Americans". It's like nothing else. </span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-15062947471872095212022-06-14T20:08:00.003+02:002022-06-14T20:08:12.106+02:00Channingography, part 3: Step Up (2006)<p> </p><div class="sc-1sp3zau-0 EGcDX sc-1di2uql-0 eMifMc" data-tag="post-content"><p>After four movies that turned out way, way better than I expected, would Channing Tatum's filmography hold for the one that actually provided his breakthrough as a leading man and spawned a franchise that rivals the "Fast&Furious" series for longevity? Let's do the short version: no, the movie is shit. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>The long version starts with a synopsis. Tyler (Channing Tatum) is living as a foster child with a white trash family in some derelict part of the metropolis, spending his days dancing on cool backyard parties of the cool black criminals with his many black friends. When he and said black friends break into a private art school for the high society, Tyler gets arrested and sentenced to do communal service in said school to repair the damage. </p><p>There, he meets Nora (Jenna Dewan) who is working on her final choreography for her exams. Unfortunately, her dancing partner gets injured, and so she recruits hesitant Tyler to fill in. Through a series of largely artificial obstacles the plot randomly throws at them, they fall in love and perform to gigantic success on stage, earning her a job as dancer and him a scholarship in the school. </p><p>It's a dance movie, so there's not much to be expected in terms of story. This is a problem with the whole genre, which is as formulaic as it gets, but both "Magic Mike" movies showed how you could do it better: either do a real story, with characters and something to say like the first movie, or simply ditch the need for a story entirely and do a feel-good movie with some loosely connected, spectacular dance numbers. </p><p>"Step Up" chooses the well-trodden middle path, which is the one that leads to disaster, in this case. There are many reasons for this, so let's disect them one by one. </p><p>The least offensive one are the characters. They are all cutboard, but that doesn't need to be an obstacle if the rest of the movie works well enough. Tyler is a good guy (everyone says so, so it has to be true), his best friend Mac (Damaine Radcliffe) is the voice of the ghetto, Mac's little brother Skinny (De'Shawn Washington) gets reliably into trouble, Miles (Mario Barett) immediately connects with Tyler as the black guy at the fancy art school who didn't forget his roots, and so on and so forth. I'd call them one-beat, but that would be generous since most of these characters do not contain even a single beat to speak of. </p><p>Then there's the plot itself, which is an incredibly random paint-by-numbers affair. These two sound mutually exclusive, but the paint-by-numbers job is the structural elements (love scene, fight scene, reunion scene, etc.) in the usual order, whereas the randomness comes from the actual plot beats connecting them, or failing to, more often. The stuff that is happening happens because the plot demands it, and people just do whatever is necessary. Or forget to do; Tyler is selflessly rescuing Mac and taking the sentence for it, but that fact is never brought up again, which one might assume it would when Mac quits their friendship because Tyler doesn't show up in time for basketball. </p><p>This feeds into the problem of pacing. Nothing in this movie ever gets into a natural flow; the scene cuts are arbitrary and jump between several thin plot threads with no rhyme or reason, which is ironic given that we're watching a dance movie. </p><p>But again, none of this would be especially out of the ordinary for this genre, which is a showpiece for beautiful people showing off beautiful choreographies. Unfortunately, the latter is missing as well. Aside from the final performance there's a dearth of asthetically pleasing dance scenes. Like with the plot, we get elements of them, but never until the end the real thing. Generously I could call this building tension towards the finale, but if that was the intent, the failure is pretty obvious. </p><p>The most vexing thing about the movie, however, is the incredibly insulting social commentary. It starts with the fact that in a Hip-Hop dance movie, both main characters are white. This had to be an obvious problem for the film makers, because they try make up for it by boxing them in with a plethora of black best friends from all walks of life. The only other white characters of note are the antagonist (such as he is) and the principal of the school (female, because art school, and behaving like she was the social worker). </p><p>When Tyler first moves through the hallways of this expensive elite schools, there are so many black people that you couldn't cast the whole of black Ivy League students to fill all the roles. We are informed that the school has an extensive scholarship program (of course), because we wouldn't want to strain realism now, would we? </p><p>The underworld is also black dominated, of course. Tyler's best friends Mac and Skinny steal cars for sport and sell them to the guy who sponsors the best parties of the hood, and it's all treated as a natural pastime for them. The mother of Mac and Skinny is hard working, their father is absent, and if you think that this will lead to them getting caught up in an entirely random act of violence to pay lip service to this particular social ill, the movie has you covered! </p><p>Privileged white girl Nora effortlessly starts a relationship with white trash product Tyler, whose foster father literally does nothing but get handed (!) his beer bottles by the hard-working wife and else abuse the social security system (subverting stereotypes about only black people being undeserving of social security, you see!). </p><p>It goes on and on like that. Was this better in 2006 than it is now? I can hardly imagine. But this movie has the only saving grace of giving Channing Tatum a career. Else, it can go to the dustbin of history. <br /></p></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-2799849270491324192022-06-14T17:28:00.001+02:002022-06-14T17:28:28.991+02:00My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, Part 26<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Thursday is theory day. </b></div>
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This is the twenty-seventh article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm
asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You
can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of
Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question
about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit
for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any
theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in
an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless
rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to
shut up, because you are right.</div>
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<b>Prepare for part 27. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously. <a name='more'></a></b></div>
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<b> </b></div>
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<b>What's the deal with Bloodraven? </b></div>
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There are basically three questions to answer. At first, why and how did he team up with the Children of the Forest and decided to become a tree, second, how could he survive so long, and third, what does he want with Bran. First, Bloodraven was Lord Commander on the Wall after he lost the Handship. Ominously, we haven't heard anything about his tenure, but given how infamous Bloodraven was at his time, I take it that his tenure was rather uneventful. I mean especially that there weren't any scandals like him disappearing in a puff of white smoke; it seems rather he died a natural death, which means in battle (else his disappearance would have been hard to pull off). Let's assume that he somehow found out much about the Heart of Winter, the Children, warging and greenseeing. That seems reasonable, given that he uses his already strong powers frequently in his days as master schemer and hand, and that he only fully understood what he was using when he came to the Wall, where he met someone (Children, most like) and decided to leave the Watch. Engineering his demise shouldn't have proved difficult. Now, why did he live so long? Because he became a tree, and a weirwood besides that, and they tend to endure rather long. Plus, magic. I don't think there's much more importance to it than him being really old. He's only slightly older than Aemon, by the way, if at all. And third, what does he want with Bran? Obviously, he's aware of the danger that the Others pose, and aware of the Heart of Winter, or else he wouldn't have shown it to Bran. Since he can look into the future and Winterfell's hearttree is an especially potent window, he would have been able to see Bran warging in and out of Summer without any problem and realizing that a powerful greenseer was about to be born. So all he had to do was to wait, send him some dreams, send Jojen some dreams, and then do absolutely nothing to prevent all the bad stuff from happening so Bran would have an incentive to seek him out. The power that Bran represents - and make no mistake, he is powerful - should be of use in the battle to come, and Bloodraven is nothing if not a pragmatist in that respect. <br /><b><br />Who do you think is the woodswitch on high heart, as well as Quaithe?</b></div>
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<b></b></div>
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I think you refer to the little "witch" that always wants to hear the song of Jenny of Oldstones. It's interesting that we learn in "A Dance with Dragons" that she came to court and predicted all sort of stuff before vanishing in the wake of the Summerhall tragedy, isn't it? So, there are a lot of theories out there that point to the Ghost of High Heart as being a Child of the Forest, but while the description certainly fits (old, huddled, small), I don't understand why a Child would choose this life. I can shrug that off, of course, if there is some connection to Jenny of Oldstones, but the one fact I can't get over it is the hands of the Children. They are described to have only four fingers and claw-like nails, and I somehow sincerily doubt that this little detail went unnoticed at court and in the countless visits she received at High Heart. So, your guess is as good as mine. I don't have a clue who she is and what she does. We know too little about Jenny of Oldstones, and that's a veil that can only be lifted once we arrive at the very last Dunk&Egg-story. In so many words: we don't know. <br /><b> </b></div>
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<b>Is it possible that the child Cersei conceived of Robert and killed with the help of a woodswitch survived and is now Gendry? </b></div>
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Eh...yes...possible, of course. But likely? No. What interest should a random woodswitch sought out by Jaime to provide Moon Tea have in rescuing the bastard? Or, if we omit her, it's possible that Varys was involed some shenanigans, but clearly, letting an embryo survive that was aborted with Moon Tea is quite of a stretch for Westeros (they can't do this stuff today, pray), and Cersei never would have let the pregnancy go so far as to actually have the little thing in any state that makes survival possible. Plus, all of this suspension of disbelief would be for what, exactly? Gendry being the trueborn son of Robert and Cersei? No one has any use of having such a thing. Hiding such a child can be a useful thing only when you accept kindness as motive, rescuing his life. Because if you want to use him in his function as heir, you need him when Cersei and Robert are a married couple. That was clearly not the case. So, you can of course hide him until...what happens? Cersei's incest is discovered? Then the marriage is null and void, and the child no heir at all. So, either way, it doesn't make a lot of sense to take all that effort, risk and magic necessary involved of rescuing the child. </div>
<br />Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-57854736999485881272022-06-14T17:28:00.000+02:002022-06-14T17:28:06.878+02:00Review: George R. R. Martin - The Rogue Prince<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the newest anthology he edited, "Rogues", George R. R. Martin included the aptly named "The Rogue Prince". Like with his previous anthology, "Dangerous Women", which included "The Princess and the Queen", "The Rogue Prince" is a fragment of a much larger text about the Dance of the Dragons and its inception, the shattering Targaryen civil war that happened way over 150 before the events of the novel series proper. This (shorter) issue concerns itself with the history leading up to the death of Viserys I, where "The Princess and the Queen" began, a story that by a benign reader might be read as dominated by the titular Rogue Prince, Daemon Targaryen. Alas, I'm not benign.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9osc8d7BCKM/U3kARyIIwHI/AAAAAAAAAeo/pp98sgulxjc/s1600/rhaenyra__i_and_daemon_targaryen_by_lenore08-d75f129.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9osc8d7BCKM/U3kARyIIwHI/AAAAAAAAAeo/pp98sgulxjc/s1600/rhaenyra__i_and_daemon_targaryen_by_lenore08-d75f129.jpg" height="229" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The only picture of the Princess and the Rogue Prince I could find.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a name='more'></a>"The Princess and the Queen" already posed the question whether or not it was really a short story and whether or not it was concerning itself enough with the titular women to be in an anthology that explicitly had women as their main characters. To the not-so-benign reader, the question could only be "no", but I was and am not that much into the other stories and, as a proper fanboy, bought the volume only to read Martin's flick. It was full of new information and interesting pieces, and it gave <a href="http://thenerdstreamera.blogspot.de/2013/12/the-boiled-leather-audio-hour-24.html">food for thought and discussion</a>, but it wasn't really a story - just a piece of background information. To advertise it as a story was tantamount to fraud, but I didn't really care because OHMYGODWESTEROSANDDRAGONS.<br />
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This time, it's different. Not only is "The Rogue Prince" shorter, its severed existence is also much more feelable. Where "The Princess and the Queen" at least had a proper start and finish (the start of the war and its end), this story does neither start nor end. It just provides more information. You couldn't even call it a chapter because it just lacks any sense of closure. Every normal chapter from the books is more closed in itself than this supposed "short story". </div>
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Not that I wouldn't have enjoyed reading it, mind you. I always want more information if Westeros, more stuff Martin wrote in this setting, and the Targaryen days of old don't fail to fascinate. However, this thing here is just too much of nothing. It provides the story of Viserys' reign, who for all purposes is much more the central character than Daemon, who is, in the end, just a minor character. An important one, yes, but more like Robb Stark in the first three books. Always kind of there, but never really in the spotlight, neither. That's not enough for a story that's supposed to be about the guy, especially since three of his most defining moments are in the story that supposedly is about his wife. I'm usually not really quick of accusing Martin of "moneygrabbing", and I won't start it now, because I'm still glad we have these stories. But they're simply not what they promise to be, and I find that a little bit startling. </div>
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<br /></div>
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That all being said, what's it about? As I stated earlier, the reign of Viserys I plays an important role, and we see how Rhaenyra was made the heir but immediately challenged by the ambition of Alicent Hightower, the "Queen" in the title of the story. The conflict between the children is explored in greater detail, as is the conflict between Viserys and the Rogue Prince Damion. Viserys seems to have been a largely harmless fellow, while Daemon is very aggressive and not really likeable. He's killing and maiming people for no reason and waging war for sport, again with the Triarchy. It's interesting to see the connections between Essos and Westeros in the early Targaryen days; they were obviously much deeper than in contemporary Westeros. I guess the disappearance of the dragons plays a role here as well. </div>
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Else, we don't get that much, at least not that I really felt like it. And I guess that's the problem with the thing. It's just part of something bigger, and not an incredibly exhaustive part. Nice to read, yes, but it feels like someone ripped a page out of "The World of Ice and Fire" and tucked it into some anthology. And given the number of samples and excerpts of the upcoming compendium out there, one should rightly wonder whether it's worth the trouble. </div>
Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-22409591337935044752022-06-14T17:27:00.001+02:002022-06-14T17:27:35.411+02:00The problem with biopics<br />
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I recently watched "Darkest Hour", the biopic about Winston Churchill in May 1940. I'm usually not a fan of biopics, which are oscar-bait at best and boring distortions at worst. "Darkest Hour" begins really strong, but it falters in the last third, falling victim to the problems it shares with many other biopics. <br />
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Usually, the problem is the sheer timespan. Compressing a life in a single movie is a daunting proposition, and seldom are scripts able to pay it off, especially since real life tends not to neatly fall into narrative arcs that make for good storytelling. <br />
<br />
This, in turn, leads to overdramatization of certain moments on the life of the person, of cleaving throught the people dividing them in heroes and villains, and to boil it down in one final moment. This works in stories, but real life does not work out that way.
In fiction, this isn't a problem. You can go for leitmotifs there, for themes, for big emotions. You can even get away with this in historic situations by infusing fictional characters, which is what most movies opt to do. But whenever you start going into the territory of real persons, telling their "life story", those problems emerge quickly. <br />
<br />
This leads to such badly advised decisions as making Margret Thatchers life about discussions with the ghost of her husband (because why wouldn't a movie revolve around a man, amirite), Johnny Cash's life story ending rather anti-climactically and arbitrarily with the marriage proposal to June Carter, with the urgent need to invent "good Nazis" for "Downfall" to pose a foil to the bad Nazis Hitler surrounds himself with - or to Winston Churchill winning the war by riding the Underground. <br />
<br />
I know this isn't what "Darkest Hour" was going for. But given that we know how it will play out, they needed to insert some drama into this, and they needed to tie it to persons. This is where they positively smear Lord Halifax as a traitor who wants peace with the Nazis, or at best being an utter fool, to give Churchill a foil, and to introduce the English king as deus ex machina to give Churchill the idea to ride the subway and ask the people if he should give up after his war cabinet and the military propose doing so. <br />
<br />
This is problematic for two reasons. One, the idea that the elites are just too stupid to grasp the truth the common man and woman on the Underground are able to deduce just by their common sense is as stupid as it is dangerous. And second, Churchill gets the belicose statements of resistance by rhetorically manipulating first them and then the Commons into declaring for him, which is a feeling with a rather short life span under normal circumstances. <br />
<br />
Yet here, aided by a swelling score, it is the height of his triumph. Not his determination, good analysis, cool-headedness and the support of a great coalition of people doing their jobs well, but rather a whim and a random subway ride. He then holds his famous "fight them on the beaches"-speech, and that's how he won the war, and the closing credits inform us that the villains of Chamberlain and Halifax soon died and were send off overseas, respectively. <br />
<br />
Nothing of this is remotely true, and to make this point, imagine a movie in which Goebbels takes a subway ride through Berlin and is motivated by a swelling score and the common people of Berlin being sensible to declare Total War. It's absurd. And obviously, the rousing declaration alone doesn't win conflicts, be it wars or political strife (thank Aaron Sorkin for planting the notion that one speech resolves every conflict). <br />
<br />
But you wouldn't know that from "Darkest Hour". So please, instead watch "Dunkirk". It's the better of the two, and it manages without even getting a fabricated villain character in, which is more than you can say about the deplorable script of "Darkest Hour". Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-4633699190108425492022-05-20T21:09:00.001+02:002022-05-20T21:09:00.182+02:00Rewatching "The Americans", season 4<div data-contents="true"><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="87bdn-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="87bdn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="87bdn-0-0"><span data-text="true">Having finally moves past the worst of Covid, my pace in rewatching "The Americans" slowed down a bit. I was still on sick leave, so season 4 was done. Season 3 was the first legitimately great season of the show, where it finally found its own MO of a slow-moving tragedy and procedural. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="87bdn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="87bdn-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="5tj32-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5tj32-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5tj32-0-0"><span data-text="true">As all seasons, this one starts with a small time jump. These time jumps aren't necessarily covering much in terms of real-time events; we're still in the first half of the 1980s, firmly in "evil empire" territory. The thaw between Gorbachev and Reagan is still some time out. The time jumps are more relevant as a storytelling tool for us, the audience, since they force us to readjust to what has changed in our characters' lives. The show purposefully does not inform us of what happened, and by making the dialogue more realistic, characters don't tend to fill themselves in about their respective backstories. </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="9lplk-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9lplk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9lplk-0-0"><span data-text="true">That means that we have to deduce what has happened from what's on the screen. This trust in the viewer's ability to just go with the flow, to in turn trust the producers that answers will be forthcoming when needed and in time, marks the series and sets it apart not only from much of its competition but also from the much more basic first seasons. But let's dive into the plot a bit more. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9lplk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9lplk-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="1d2eu-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1d2eu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1d2eu-0-0"><span data-text="true">After the ending with the ill-adviced heart-to-heart talk to Paige in season 3, the Jennings' need to cope with the problem of a teenager knowing their secret. This plotline simmers throughout the season. While there is little danger of Paige becoming a murderer like her dark mirror in season 2, there is a danger that she might tell someone. The suspense doesn't come so much from the question of whether the Jennings' cover will be blown - of course it won't, there are two more seasons to go - but on who would suffer in that case. The show masterfully managed to pivot from pitying the two agents to pitying their victims. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1d2eu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1d2eu-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="2n2g3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2n2g3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2n2g3-0-0"><span data-text="true">The most likely victim in this case is Pastor Tim. Paige is still close to the preacher, and she can't really confide in her parents. Her relationship to them isn't exactly improved by their outing, since she feels like she doesn't really know who they are even more than before, and the weight of the secret, now with the added responsibility of keeping the secret secret, crushes her. So she confides in Pastor Tim. </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="dblj5-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dblj5-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dblj5-0-0"><span data-text="true">The preacher swears he'd keep the confidence of the confession, but he himself confessed to his wife. Gabriel, the Jennings' handler, devises plan after plan to kill Pastor Tim, and the Jennings' are on the edge of going along with it - while it remains unclear whether the Center will act on its own. When Pastor Tim goes missing in Ethopia, this plot line reaches its feverish climax after a buildup of a dozen episodes. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dblj5-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dblj5-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="97irn-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="97irn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="97irn-0-0"><span data-text="true">While we're at the subject of Gabriel, I'm a bit on the fence when it comes to the decision of exchanging him for Claudia. I don't exactly like either of them, neither as persons nor as characters, so for me, it's a wash. Scenes that involve either handler are just not clicking for me.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="97irn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="97irn-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="8jecd-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8jecd-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8jecd-0-0"><span data-text="true">But back to Paige. She doesn't even really know the danger in which she brought Pastor Tim, and telling her would destroy her even more. There are no good options, and the Jennings' lie and lie to her, ensnaring her and themselves into an ever so slowly tightening net of lies and responsibilities, responsibilities that are way too much for a teenager (speaking of teenagers, it's remarkable how the show writes Henry out for episodes on end; the actor doesn't seem up to their standards and gets hauled out only when necessary for cohesion). </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8jecd-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8jecd-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="aa9vq-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aa9vq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aa9vq-0-0"><span data-text="true">Things with Paige gets to a head when Elizabeth murders of of the muggers who try to maybe rape her and Paige. Instantly, the sheer horror on Paige's face shows that the old lie of "we're not killing anyone" doesn't cut it anymore. It draws her closer into the net, while pushing her emotionally away. She's becoming more and more like a hostage in her own home. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aa9vq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aa9vq-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="928qu-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="928qu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="928qu-0-0"><span data-text="true">There are other plotlines as well. The most prominent plot-plot involves the plague of glanders that is weaponized (or not) in a lab. With the help of another illegal, they obtain a sample so that the USSR also has it. The plot line is relevant for its ambiguity: it's utterly unclear if this is really used as a weapon and, worse, if the USSR will only use it for defense or is even able to keep it safe. But the Center's orders need to be followed, and the results are catastrophic for everyone involved. The business is dirty and doesn't lead to the clearly succesful outcomes of earlier seasons anymore. </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="bg91u-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bg91u-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bg91u-0-0"><span data-text="true">A B-storyline that comes to its head is the whole Martha situation. The FBI closes in on her after the bug is found, and she knows that "Clark" isn't who he says he is. The performances are remarkable all around as Martha's world crashes in on her, and as she finally decides to trust Clark one last time and let herself be evacuated to Moscow - which the Center, to its credit, actually does. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bg91u-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bg91u-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="dd8i3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dd8i3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dd8i3-0-0"><span data-text="true">Another B-plot finding its conclusion is the story of Nina, who works her way back into the confidence of the Center by ratting out her fellow prisoners, but her heart isn't in it. In a callback to season 2, she can't bring herself to betray the scientist that Philipp involuntarily repatriated, and she decides she'd rather die than live like this - which is exactly what she does, being unceremoniously shot in the head in a green prison floor. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dd8i3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dd8i3-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="9qu1v-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9qu1v-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9qu1v-0-0"><span data-text="true">Two other characters also leave the show: Agent Gaad and Rezident Arkady both find their ends. Gaad isn't surviving the Martha situation politically and gets replaced, only to be killed in a dumb and unnecessary attempt of turning him, and that murder gets Arkady kicked out of the country as persona non grata. The new boss for Stan Beeman will be much less interesting than Gaad, and the Rezidentura falls away as a plot location entirely as Oleg terminates his relationship with an up and coming agent to come back home to Moscow after the death of his brother in Afghanistan. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9qu1v-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9qu1v-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="bk745-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bk745-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bk745-0-0"><span data-text="true">The most devestating plot, however, revolves around the new character of Young-Hee, a Korean immigrant whose spouse lives the American dream into the prospering Reaganite middle class. For episodes on end, it's unclear as to what her role is and why Elizabeth befriends her, but it becomes clear that Elizabeth feels deeper for Young-Hee, much like Philipp had a real-ish relationship with Martha (a realization that leads to some tension in the marriage). </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bk745-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bk745-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="47ul0-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="47ul0-0-0"><span data-offset-key="47ul0-0-0"><span data-text="true">It's utterly devestating when the Center forces Elizabeth to destroy the marriage of Young-Hee and her friendship to her in order to gain access to the bioweapons - a mission that will not net any success and just destroy her heart and soul a bit more. It is a sacrifice that Elizabeth, ever the committed zealot, readily makes. </span></span></div></div><div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="72qvk" data-offset-key="5oni8-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5oni8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5oni8-0-0"><br data-text="true" /><br /></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-5614179688302284792022-05-08T11:57:00.007+02:002022-05-08T11:57:00.182+02:00Rewatching "The Americans": Season 3<p>B<span data-offset-key="9b925-0-0"><span data-text="true">ecause of my Covid-induced torpor, I was not able to do much but lay back on the couch and binge stuff. There was nothing of interest on, and I had toyed with the idea of rewatching "The Americans" anyhow, so off I went and watched three seasons in five days. Hooray for Covid. I want to talk about the experience, but it comes with a spoiler warning.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="cf3k3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cf3k3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cf3k3-0-0"><span data-text="true">And now, we're finally there. "The Americans" breaks into the pantheon of the greatest TV series of all time. How does it do that? By again reducing the pace of events, reducing their stakes, and by showing empathy less with the perpetrators but with the victims. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cf3k3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cf3k3-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="4rii7-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4rii7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4rii7-0-0"><span data-text="true">Taking it slow is key, though. Instead of giving exhilerating chases, countdown times and other things, we have methodical procedures, observations, taking time and letting it play out. No longer do we have cat-and-mouse games, in which we as the audience are kept on a hook as to whether or not the FBI or the Jennings will reach a given destination first. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4rii7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4rii7-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="d47fa-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d47fa-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d47fa-0-0"><span data-text="true">Instead, the question is oftentimes much more banal than that, and deadlier. If the FBI - or another adversary - becomes aware of the operation, this oftentimes means death for people, and said deaths are never pretty. The show also really lingers on the aftermath. Messy killings, and even messier clean-up operations. You think it's great that Philipp can take out a security guard and break their neck? Yeah, sure, great skill. Now you have to dispose of a body. And that's not good for your mental health.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d47fa-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d47fa-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="427dm-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="427dm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="427dm-0-0"><span data-text="true">Exhibit A for this new approach is the infamous suitcase scene. After Philipp's naive contact Annelise betrays herself to Yousaf, the Pakistani official, who panics and murders her. Philipp, not missing a heartbeat, uses the murder of his erstwhile lover to blackmail Yousaf. Then, together with Elizabeth, they methodically break Annelise's limbs to stuff her body into a suitcase. The dehumanization is palpable, the camera lingers, and the crack of every bone is mirrored on the faces of the characters. It's incredibly uncomfortable to watch, and purposefully so. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="427dm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="427dm-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="aul9u-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aul9u-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aul9u-0-0"><span data-text="true">"The Americans" revels in this feeling in season 3. In many scenes, uncomfortable, painful moments - physically and emotionally painful - are the centerpiece of any given scene. Elizabeth has a broken tooth, but she can't go to the dentist, because the FBI is covering those. For three episodes, she suffers tooth aches, very visibly, and we suffer with her - until Philipp performs an impromptu tooth operation with a pair of pliers that is at the same time incredibly cringy and sexy, however the showrunners managed to do that. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aul9u-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aul9u-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="bfqhl-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bfqhl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bfqhl-0-0"><span data-text="true">Building on the groundwork from season 2, we also have a very slow burning revelatory process for Paige, in which she not only grapples with her new-found faith, but also inches closer and closer to the real identity of her parents - who are nagged by the Center to recruit her, and rightly hesitant, given the events of past season. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bfqhl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bfqhl-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="4osmm-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4osmm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4osmm-0-0"><span data-text="true">It's not only Paige, though. Martha also finds out that Clark isn't who he's supposes to be, and the revelation in the finale is devestating to behold. Never was taking off a whig over the course of two minutes more painful to watch, and it's an absoute marvel what actress Alison Wright can do with her face to have the sheer devestation, panic and confusion on display at the same time. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4osmm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4osmm-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="edjh3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="edjh3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="edjh3-0-0"><span data-text="true">I could gush about the performances endlessly. Every one of these actors is able to use their face conveying such small emotional ripples, like an open book. Gone are the shouty dialogue scenes from the seasons of yore; by now, Philipp and Elizabeth just need to exchange a look to do the work of two pages of dialogue. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="edjh3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="edjh3-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="7ts5-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7ts5-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7ts5-0-0"><span data-text="true">The slowness of everything reverberates to the other plotlines as well. The investigation into Agent Gaad's bugged pen, for example, plays out over multiple episodes, drip by drip, and you can see the impacts coming closer. The question is less whether Agent Taft will find something incriminating, but rather whether Martha will hold up to the strain. The strain, in the event, is not only coming from, you know, bugging the office of your superior FBI officer and comitting a felony, but also because of the double-life her "husband" "Clark" is living and whether or not she can cope with it. The character developments are intricately woven into the plot, and the breathing space "The Americans" allows all of this to have gives it its own suspenseful quality. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7ts5-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7ts5-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="36qkc-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="36qkc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="36qkc-0-0"><span data-text="true">The defining moment of the season, however, surely is the bugging of the mail robot. When Elizabeth needs to murder the kindly old lady who happened to stumble across them, she has to recon with the morality of her actions for real for the first time. Not only us as the audience can see the parallels between the old lady and Elizabeth's situation herself, but her clear-eyed condemndation of "And this is what you do!", each word spat out as the accusation and verdict that it is, really hits home. Yes, this is what they do, and how hollow are all justifications Elizabeth can offer. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="36qkc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="36qkc-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="b1oiq-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="b1oiq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b1oiq-0-0"><span data-text="true">In case you didn't get the point, the operation is proving to be also completely pointless. The mail robot is not producing anything of value, only a bureaucratic nightmare threatening to clog up the Rezidentura's capabilities. Arkady, the ever-able bureaucrat, wants to shut it down, but Oleg stops him: much better to play the bureaucratic game and not take the fault for the foreseeable failure of the operation. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="b1oiq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b1oiq-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="cjmu1-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cjmu1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cjmu1-0-0"><span data-text="true">It's this kind of institutional storytelling "The Americans" also excels out, showing us how the incentives and characterstics of the respective agencies bleed into the job itself, hamstringing our protagonists and their adversaries, their allies and their sources. Everyone's snared up in this, to quote "Chernobyl", "circle of accountability". </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cjmu1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cjmu1-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="a3ma8" data-offset-key="69n7b-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="69n7b-0-0"><span data-offset-key="69n7b-0-0"><span data-text="true">Season 3 therefore manages to become the first really great "The Americans" season, finding the MO of what the show will be until the very end three more seasons down the road. I have Philipp's tortured face ingrained in my brain by now. </span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-23650244991651561442022-04-21T11:49:00.004+02:002022-04-21T11:49:00.183+02:00Rewatching "The Americans": Season 2<p><span data-offset-key="9b925-0-0"><span data-text="true">Because of my Covid-induced torpor, I was not able to do much but lay back on the couch and binge stuff. There was nothing of interest on, and I had toyed with the idea of rewatching "The Americans" anyhow, so off I went and watched three seasons in five days. Hooray for Covid. I want to talk about the experience, but it comes with a spoiler warning.</span></span></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="9nlub-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9nlub-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9nlub-0-0"><span data-text="true">There are some series that experience a marked uptick in quality in their later seasons. It does not happen in cases where the fundamentals are rotten, but when there is promise, it can happen. "Halt and Catch Fire" is my favorite example, but "The Americans" comes in a close second. The first season is a solidly "okay", entertaining spy thriller. It's in the second season where things improve, although we're not yet at the great stuff. My colleague Sean T. Collins made the comparison to "Breaking Bad" or "The Sopranos", which also arrived at their peak only in season 3, and I think it's apt. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9nlub-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9nlub-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="89l6l-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="89l6l-0-0"><span data-offset-key="89l6l-0-0"><span data-text="true">In season 2 of "The Americans", most of the issues of plot and pacing are resolved. Instead of the already tired "crisis of the week"-formula with its incredibly high stakes, where the fate of everything hang in the balance all the time - and therefore, none of the time -, this season spaces its plot out over most of the 13 episode running time. Said plot is also markedly lower stakes, while being more grounded in the characters than much of the stuff in season 1. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="89l6l-0-0"><span data-offset-key="89l6l-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="fptj7-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fptj7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fptj7-0-0"><span data-text="true">The series also profits from Ronin Costa, who plays Oleg Burov, the biggest addition to the cast. While his character is relatively one-note this season, Costa brings everything he has to it and makes him very memorable, a foundation on which the showrunners will be able to build later. His introduction also makes the Rezidentura sideplot more interesting, where Nina now has a frenemy to contend with. </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="do6rd-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="do6rd-0-0"><span data-offset-key="do6rd-0-0"><span data-text="true">Center stage is taken, however, by the overarching enemy of the season, Navy Seal Andrew Larrick, who is a formidable and unpredictably dangerous opponent to the couple. His explicit mission is to find and kill KGB illegals. At the same time, Paige gets into the spotlight and provides an emotional anchor to the Jennings that was sorely missing in season 1. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="do6rd-0-0"><span data-offset-key="do6rd-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="e7qhs-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e7qhs-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e7qhs-0-0"><span data-text="true">The ingenious construction of the season is the existence of a second couple of illegals with kids who get murdered - aside from their son. It seems like Larrick is responsible, making this into a cat-and-mouse game since the Center also wants Larrick developed further as a source. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e7qhs-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e7qhs-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="456dv-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="456dv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="456dv-0-0"><span data-text="true">However, as the tragic twist at the end of the season reveals, he didn't kill them after all. Rather, it was the surviving son, who wanted to become an agent in its own right and got it in his head that this was the way to go. Since the Center also wants the Jennings to develop Paige into an agent, this provides a real moral and ethical dilemma with a clear cautionary tale. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="456dv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="456dv-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="7gbms-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7gbms-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7gbms-0-0"><span data-text="true">However, not everything works quite as well. One main problem of the show largely remains, which is that it's still too much in love with its main characters and wants us to find them and their exploits enjoyable. While it excels in showing that our characters themselves find no joy in their work and are basically always miserable - something that will be made much more explicit in season 3 onwards -, what it shows is something different than it tells. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7gbms-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7gbms-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="cnc6n-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cnc6n-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cnc6n-0-0"><span data-text="true">As a case in point of the show trying to have its cake and eat it, too, take the forced repatriation of Anton Baklanov. While he sobs on the backseat and accuses Philipp of being a monster - an absolutely true statement if there ever was one - Oleg Burov is leading the FBI on a merry chase. The staging is thrilling, creating a huge suspense: will the FBI find Philipp and the defector? Of course they don't, and the scene is used to give Oleg Burov his first big, splashy win and a stand-off with Stan Beeman to boot, but this climax undercuts the whole mood of the suffering of Baklanov and Philipp. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cnc6n-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cnc6n-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="atd87-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="atd87-0-0"><span data-offset-key="atd87-0-0"><span data-text="true">Such "double takes" abound. Even when they finally take out Larrick, it's build up as a huge and unequivocal success. He was, after all, a ruthless killer, sadist and also a bit of a white supremacist, checking all villain boxes. It will be the last time "The Americans" will face such a bad guy and that the spy world will be black and white like this. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="atd87-0-0"><span data-offset-key="atd87-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="fmoo9" data-offset-key="1mrp3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1mrp3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1mrp3-0-0"><span data-text="true">So, in the end, season 2 manages to be a marked improvement in quality over season 1, but it's still not in "great" territory, held back by over-caution in order to pander to audiences and to make itself into a thrilling, enjoyable and suspenseful experience. One can do that, of course, and escapism like that is welcome, but then, you can't do the heavy, meaningful stuff. And that is what "The Americans" will do from this point on. </span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-7278483820572683272022-04-05T11:33:00.001+02:002022-06-14T17:24:08.794+02:00Rewatching "The Americans": Season 1<p><span data-offset-key="a97lt-0-0"><span data-text="true">Because of my Covid-induced torpor, I was not able to do much but lay back on the couch and binge stuff. There was nothing of interest on, and I had toyed with the idea of rewatching "The Americans" anyhow, so off I went and watched three seasons in five days. Hooray for Covid. I want to talk about the experience, but it comes with a spoiler warning. <span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="8ce7s-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8ce7s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8ce7s-0-0"><span data-text="true">So, season 1. In my memory, it was solidly "fine", and the pilot especially was a bit of an incoherent, if greatly acted and produced, mess. My memory serves. I want to deal with the pilot first, and I say this with the great affection I have for the show: it's not good. It survives by virtue of magnetic performances, impeccable filming and a snappy soundtrack, but the writing is...kinda bad. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8ce7s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8ce7s-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="4ah64-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4ah64-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4ah64-0-0"><span data-text="true">The most baffling decision made in the pilot for sure is to let Philipp instantly propose to defect to the US, which feels like it should be the culmination of a long character arc and not a plot-point in the mid of an episode, and not even the most important one. Even worse is how this is solved: Philipp learns that the defector he intends to run away with (conflict with his spouse! You can see why they went for this) raped Elizabeth during training. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4ah64-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4ah64-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="7f7uc-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7f7uc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7f7uc-0-0"><span data-text="true">This is a major problem because it creates a point of no return, raises the stakes from zero to maximum in the very first episode. As a matter of fact, the show does return from this point, but only by pretending it never happened, which is never a good sign. In this case, the quality of the rest of the show allows it to survive the rape-y misstep. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7f7uc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7f7uc-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="aci4u-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aci4u-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aci4u-0-0"><span data-text="true">While we're at the subject of rape anyway: in a minor misfire that is nevertheless indicative of the atrocious characterizations and plot lines that mercifully fall by the wayside after the pilot is a little subplot in which Philipp sniffs out a pedophile and beats him bloody like a discount Rorschach, a move obviously written into the pilot by comittee to ensure our sympathy lies with the Soviet spy instead of, you know, write a good character. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aci4u-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aci4u-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="6biai-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6biai-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6biai-0-0"><span data-text="true">Another equally baffling decision is to make Agent Beeman, the new neighbor, instantly suspicious of the couple. This too should be the content of a whole season of development and not one minor roadbump in the main plot! Here, too, the show simply chooses to ignore the actual event, which is made easier by the event itself being a ridiculous turn of character in the first place. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6biai-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6biai-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="19bmb-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="19bmb-0-0"><span data-offset-key="19bmb-0-0"><span data-text="true">But no, while the pilot does establish the necessary groundwork, it fails on many levels. It's only for the obvious capabilities of the cast, the writers and the whole art crew that you really want to keep watching, because there is the promise of more. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="19bmb-0-0"><span data-offset-key="19bmb-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="597kt-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="597kt-0-0"><span data-offset-key="597kt-0-0"><span data-text="true">Regarding season 1, the "more" here is a competently written high-stakes spy thriller. It never really moves beyond that, and its two novelties - the heroes are Soviets, and the no-nonsene badass is female - wear themselves out quickly. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="597kt-0-0"><span data-offset-key="597kt-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="cakp9-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cakp9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cakp9-0-0"><span data-text="true">A big problem is the pace of things. Every episode has another balls-to-the-wall-event, a make-or-break-moment for the Jennings, the Cold War, the whole world. Everything is always at danger, events moving with a breakneck pace, and each episode features its own "crisis of the week". This is WAY too fast, and if you remember the later seasons of the show, you'd be surprised to think you're watching something completely different. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cakp9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cakp9-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="8j9bl-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8j9bl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8j9bl-0-0"><span data-text="true">Again, all of this is competently executed, which is why you keep watching, but there is this feeling all the time that there is more to it than nailbiting tension always bordering the ludicrous. It's like a whole season of Tom-Clancy-climaxes. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8j9bl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8j9bl-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="cjrsb" data-offset-key="17ovj-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="17ovj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="17ovj-0-0"><span data-text="true">But that promise is always there. You can see it in the effects that the spywork has on the Jennings, who never really seem to enjoy themselves quite as much as they did in the pilot. You can see in the subtle nuances of Stan Beeman, whose acted with great skill by Noah Emmerich (did I mention everyone's bringing their A-Game?), which make the juxtaposition with a crude character like Agent Amador much more visceral. But the show lacks an emotional anchor, and it will take until season 2 to remedy that problem. It also lacks something to say, something to be about, and once it finds out what that is in season 3, it finds its way to greatness. In season 1, it only finds its way to escapist entertaintment. <br /></span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-3369927958147552622022-03-10T14:18:00.001+01:002022-03-10T14:18:00.204+01:00Yellowjackets is writing dubious narrative cheques<p>T<span data-offset-key="a2rgn-0-0"><span data-text="true">here was some mild buzz surrounding the Showtime series "Yellowjackets" that was sufficient for the network to immediately order a second season, expected to hit by the end of the year. The series, following the two timelines of a female soccer team crashing in the Canadian wilderness in 1996 and the survivors of same crash in 2021, received critical and audience acclaim for its mix of horror, mystery and survival thriller.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="6k4g2-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6k4g2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6k4g2-0-0"><span data-text="true">I enjoyed the series enough to be interested in the second season, but I'm very weary of it at the same time. My fear is that the first season wrote a lot of cheques it will not be able to cash in. The reason for this, ironically, is the same reason why the show is so succesful in the first place: it has a lot in common with "Lost", the phenomenon series of the aughts.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6k4g2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6k4g2-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="968lk-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="968lk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="968lk-0-0"><span data-text="true">To recap, "Lost" also features a plane crash in the wilderness (a tropical island, in this case), with the survivors struggling not only to survive but also to gain knowledge about some mysteries, a quest they share with the audience. "Lost" is infamous for piling mysteries atop each other, keeping the audience guessing what any of it means and how it connects from week to week (as it turned out, the answer was "not at all"). But the show also had strong character work, hard twists and diverging timelines (and even universes), and it glued the audience to the screen. So, can "Yellowjackets" repeat the "lightning in a bottle" that "Lost" was?</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="968lk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="968lk-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="es00k-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="es00k-0-0"><span data-offset-key="es00k-0-0"><span data-text="true">Given the six seasons that "Lost" ran, that remains to be seen, obviously. For now, there's a lot of content left to explore, since the plot so far covered roughly three to four of the nineteen months the soccer team will ultimately be stranded in the wilderness. The present day plot, obviously, can at least in theory be continued ad infinitum.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="es00k-0-0"><span data-offset-key="es00k-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="193am-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="193am-0-0"><span data-offset-key="193am-0-0"><span data-text="true">I want to try to avoid too many spoilers, so I'll give you just the barebones of what the mysteries in "Yellowjackets" are. In the 1996 storyline, one of the girls can apparently see into the future and interact with flora and fauna in some mystical way, without anyone knowing what's going on (it will, in classical horror movie trope, be deadly for the group sceptic, though). Nature or the specific place of the crash seems to be imbued by a will of their own, trying to prevent anyone from fleeing. A mysterious dead person was trapped before, a harbinger of the things to come. The girls, as shown in the initial scene of the pilot, will found a cult and engage in cannibalism, but the rest remains unknown as per the end of season 1.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="193am-0-0"><span data-offset-key="193am-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="ac5o3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ac5o3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ac5o3-0-0"><span data-text="true">In the 2021 storyline, someone is tracking the survivors and trying to blackmail them. This might or might not be the same person. One of the survivors dies of apparent suicide, but there remain strong doubts if said suicide wasn't helped along by a mysterious outside force.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ac5o3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ac5o3-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="77icq-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="77icq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="77icq-0-0"><span data-text="true">For me, these mysteries aren't the draw of the series, though, they're more something I put up with and that I have serious doubts on (my metaphorical "narrative cheques"). Before I return to them, I want to get into what I consider to be the actual strengths of the series, the ones that keep me watching. Let's start off with the 2021 timeline.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="77icq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="77icq-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="fq008-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fq008-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fq008-0-0"><span data-text="true">Especially in the first half of the season, the trauma suffered by the survivors is a major point in their character development. After 25 years, the women still have not completely coped with the experiences in the wilderness, and some have done so better than others (or, one could say, hide their trauma better than others). The central cast consists of four women, and you'd be forgiven to assume they're the only survivors of the crash, leading to some real anxiety for the 1996 storyline, where everyone without a matching storyline in 2021 is living on borrowed time, essentially.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fq008-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fq008-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="4sn67-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4sn67-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4sn67-0-0"><span data-text="true">This aspect of trauma and coping with it is embedded in some strong ideas about how the rest of the world reacts to the event, and how the survivors themselves chose to frame it. Essentially, they decided not to talk about it and to try to live normal lives, which works with varying degrees of success. Their minor celibrity status is therefore neutered. The show does a passable job with this, but the whole thing stumbles in the final episode, where the great highschool reunion veers into the unbelievable and downright tone-deaf area a bit too much, while other aspects of the plot rely on the conceit working well a bit too strongly. But on the whole, it's carried along by very strong performances of the older actresses that are recognizably similar but still matured and different from their youthful counterparts.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4sn67-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4sn67-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="ag0d4-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ag0d4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ag0d4-0-0"><span data-text="true">The 1996 performances are a bit more varied; not all of the younger actresses manage to bring the requisite sceen presence to bear to make their characters interesting enough. However, the plot itself is the main draw here, as we know how it will end - five survivors after nineteen months, with a cult and cannibalism in between - but not how they get there, and how the girls we see in 1996 will become the women of 2021.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ag0d4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ag0d4-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="565am-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="565am-0-0"><span data-offset-key="565am-0-0"><span data-text="true">I always felt a sense of dread watching these scenes, precisely because I knew the horror and mystery was coming and would supercede the surival aspects, and I simply care more for the latter than the former. I was a bit surprised how long the show took to draw this change out, starting to kill the first characters late in the season and remaining frugal on the death stuff. The horror, too, remains subdued in season 1, as is the mystery. This is a good decision.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="565am-0-0"><span data-offset-key="565am-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="698et-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="698et-0-0"><span data-offset-key="698et-0-0"><span data-text="true">But I have not talked about the main draw for the series as a whole to me yet: one might realize when watching the credits that the team - director, producer, camera, editing, etc. - is overwhelmingly female. Telling a story about a female soccer team crashing in the wilderness could easily have become a cliched, trope-y nothingburger, but the story is told with what I'd call the "female gaze".</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="698et-0-0"><span data-offset-key="698et-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="95l1b-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="95l1b-0-0"><span data-offset-key="95l1b-0-0"><span data-text="true">It took a while for me to realize this, but it's not only a story with female characters, but it's a story about women, told from a female point of view. You can see it in the lack of "male gaze" shots, you can see it in the way the relationships between the girls on the one hand and the women on the other hand are portrayed, with the attention to details such as period and other uniquely female life experiences that you usually don't get in the genre, and in the general authenticity of the interactions between the girls and the women. It just has this sense of being real that is sorely lacking in the genre, usually, and that bogged down the later seaons of "Lost", too, where the characters more and more became embodiments of an ever stranger plot.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="95l1b-0-0"><span data-offset-key="95l1b-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="47tgu-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="47tgu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="47tgu-0-0"><span data-text="true">The show has often been given the catchphrase of "female Lord of the Flies", but I think that should be taken about as seriously as the "Game of Thrones, but with X" moniker that is put on so many series nowadays. Yes, the initial idea might have been "female Lord of the Flies", but mericfully, this is exactly not what this is. The girls do not engage in dog eats dog behavior, but rather collaborate (not without friction, mind you; again, it stays largely believable).</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="47tgu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="47tgu-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="27n70-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="27n70-0-0"><span data-offset-key="27n70-0-0"><span data-text="true">And that leads us to the problems I see on the horizon. In an unfortunately common gamble, the show throws some cliffhangers and twists at the audience in its frenzied finale, and I do not have many hopes of them paying off in season 2 and beyond. I don't want to go too much into spoilers, but the 2021 storyline gets injected with a huge conspiracy, which is ALWAYS a red flag, and the 1996 storyline commits strongly to the horror and mystery aspect of the show.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="27n70-0-0"><span data-offset-key="27n70-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="6qgsm-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6qgsm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6qgsm-0-0"><span data-text="true">Now, that doesn't need to be a dealbreaker, obviously; if done well, and if the things that are actually good and not just serviceable about the show remain the foundational principles, this can all work. But I've seen this fall apart way too often, and the marketing and structure point towards the series being interested in mass appeal, which is always a problem when trying to produce art because it lends itself to the tempation of continuing the plotlines indefinitely. And plotlines continued indefinitely always mean that the characters recede more and more into the background, their actions becoming erratic and solely plot driven. Again, look no farther than "Lost".</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6qgsm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6qgsm-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="fnegv-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fnegv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fnegv-0-0"><span data-text="true">The first tears in the canvas are already apparent in season 1, because the show constantly keeps you guessing about who is involved in what, who is lying, who is telling the truth and how a situation will resolve. Who blackmails the women, for example? The show offers several candidates and keeps the mystery up quite some time, and unfortunately, this mystery, as others, has a milkman quality to it, as that truly anyone could be it. This leads to a certain arbitrariness that is hidden by the high quality of the writing, but it is there nonetheless and tempts the writers to rely on this crutch more and more. I've seen that happening.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fnegv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fnegv-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="2ve4f" data-offset-key="57r7h-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="57r7h-0-0"><span data-offset-key="57r7h-0-0"><span data-text="true">So, I'm interested to see where "Yellowjackets" is going, but I fear that the cheques it writes now will not be cashed in later.</span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-55015221685731613732022-03-01T14:10:00.001+01:002022-03-01T14:10:00.196+01:00Three hoorays for imperialism!<div data-contents="true"><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="d50ai-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d50ai-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d50ai-0-0"><span data-text="true">I watched "The King's Man" yesterday, the prequel to the Matthew Vaughn vehicles Kingsman and Kingsman 2. In it, an impeccable Ralph Fiennes plays Orlando Oxford, the founder of the British Kingsman secret service agency. It's a fucking mess and tonally the most inconsistent movie I've watched in quite a while. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d50ai-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d50ai-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="3a7h2-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3a7h2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3a7h2-0-0"><span data-text="true">Fair warning: I will spoil the whole thing, so if you want to watch it unspoiled, stop now. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3a7h2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3a7h2-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="7s95r-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7s95r-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7s95r-0-0"><span data-text="true">Imagine a movie starting in a Nazi concentration camp, visited by our hero, a high-ranking Nazi, his wife, his son and his Czech butler (because he's a progressive Nazi, he has a good relationship with the butler). Said camp is attacked by Jewish resistance fighters, accidently shooting the wife of our protagonist, who is shown to be the good guy because he brought food to the inmates. He could deliver said food because he's good friends with the commander of the camp. Luckily, the Jewish resistance fighters can be defeated by the Czech butler of our hero. Sounds absurd? It's the opening premise of this movie. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7s95r-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7s95r-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="c968r-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c968r-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c968r-0-0"><span data-text="true">Orlando Oxford is royalty, and he devoted his life to pacifism, trying to prevent war and alleviate suffering. After the tragic death of his wife (in a Boer concentration camp in 1902) he tries to do right be her and shield their son from another war, which, duh, will be World War I. To this end, he journeys to Sarajevo, to help protect Franz Ferdinand (because of course, British nobility would be who the Austrians turn to), but that goes badly. War breaks out, and a bitter Oxford tries to keep his son out of it, who wants nothing so much as to join up and serve. He was trained his whole life by his father, the butler (a South African black man, obviously) and a female sharpshooter. To what end isn't clear, because training as a superhero doesn't exactly cry out "pacifism", but buckle in, it gets weirder. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c968r-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c968r-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="e9hhg-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e9hhg-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e9hhg-0-0"><span data-text="true">Responsible for the war is a nefarious secret organization led by a guy whose only shown by the back of his head (but if you deduce which character with any screentime is unaccounted for, you'll get to his identity soon enough) and who uses the war to destroy his archenemy: Britain! To this end, aside from Gavrilo Princip, he employs Rasputin and Daniel Brühl as a generic German villain with a monocle. </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="6e5q7-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6e5q7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6e5q7-0-0"><span data-text="true">Faced with this nefarious conspiracy and the spectre of revolution hanging on the horizon (shocking!), Oxford finally plunges into action. He foregoes his vow never to kill again to kill Rasputin and save millions of lives by...keeping Russia in the war. After the succesful assassination, the nefarious organisation employs Lenin as their next secret weapon, leaving the USA as the only hope. Unfortunately, the nefarious organisation also managed to neutralize the US by trying to entice Mexico to attack (the infamous Zimmerman telegram) and thereby keeping them occupied. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6e5q7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6e5q7-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="af30d-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="af30d-0-0"><span data-offset-key="af30d-0-0"><span data-text="true">Oxford and his pals manage to do some spywork (not including killing people, which seems important to Oxford at this stage) and decipher the telegram, but the US quite sensibly do not believe the imperialist British, so the original must be found. In the meantime, Oxford's son finally got his wish and entered the frontlines, where he just so happens to find the original, but unfortunately also gets killed. </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="f4sc3-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="f4sc3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="f4sc3-0-0"><span data-text="true">The US still don't enter the war, because the nefarious organisation has an ace up their sleeve: a sex scandal! Wilson got himself a blowjob by an agent of the organization, and they keep the negative of a movie of said act they somehow shot outside the window of the Oval Office. If not for this negative, the US would enter the war and peace would be saved. Oxfort finally snaps out of his depression, induced by the death of his son, after a stern talking-to from King George, who awards his son the Victoria Cross posthumously. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="f4sc3-0-0"><span data-offset-key="f4sc3-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="dnauu-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dnauu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dnauu-0-0"><span data-text="true">The crack team of Oxford and his two servants then infiltrates the enemy lair, secures the negative, kills the head of the snake (whom Oxford murders in cold blood with the Victoria Cross of his son) and sends said negative to Wilson, who immediately declares war. This brings instant peace, and Oxford founds the Kingsman secret agency to be deliberately set above governments and utterly unaccountable. The end. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dnauu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dnauu-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="b4cbe-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="b4cbe-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b4cbe-0-0"><span data-text="true">In case you're scratching your head now, yes, this story is a mess. But that recap is nothing against the real thing. Half of the movie wants to be "1917" so badly you can almost see the camerapeople aching to do a one-shot, and the other half is an over-the-top prequel to the other Kingsman-movies, or else a movie that actually wants to have fun with all the bonkers stuff going on. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="b4cbe-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b4cbe-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="3nu8b-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3nu8b-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3nu8b-0-0"><span data-text="true">Unfortunately, once more World War I shows itself to be a poor period to set movies in that are not explictly about the horrors of World War I. This one is no exception. Vaughn seems to have been conscious of the weighty matter he had at his hands, in contrast to his previous two entries which are firmly set in an absurdist, James-Bond-of-the-70s-like alternate universe. But instead of either going all in and firmly creating an alternate timeline to have fun in, the movie tries to actually be about something (I'm not convinced that was wholly Vaughn's doing, so I keep it at the neutral "the movie"). </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="1ocli-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1ocli-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1ocli-0-0"><span data-text="true">You have a critique of the Boer war and the British concentration camps, monarchs leading their nations to ruin, imperialism eating itself, ruminations about the terror of war, false ideals of masculinity leading to young men signing off to a great adventure and die in the trenches...and then have the movie turn about and glorify each and every one of these things. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1ocli-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1ocli-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="ek2n2-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ek2n2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ek2n2-0-0"><span data-text="true">As I already mentioned, the commander of the concentration camp is a friend of Oxford's, Lord Kitchener (who will be responsible for the war effort later). Not once is this brought up again; Kitchener instead being shown as a real gentleman (because he does conscript only commoners and not Oxford's blue-blooded son) and vital for the British war effort (which is equated with peace). Concentration camps? Did we see them in the beginning? Why were they there? Does this have something to do with British imperialism? Nah. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ek2n2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ek2n2-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="egt5g-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="egt5g-0-0"><span data-offset-key="egt5g-0-0"><span data-text="true">The "progressive" side-cast is already parody-worthy at this point: a black guy and a woman, to show that our hero is really not a conservative stick, but rather a good guy! Very original. Oxford makes sure to reprimand his servant not to get too familiar in public; appearances and all that. But sure, very good guy, very progressive. Aside from this casting, there is no black person and no female role of note. Period-appropriate, sure, but you can't have your cake and eat it at the same moment. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="egt5g-0-0"><span data-offset-key="egt5g-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="aes52-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aes52-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aes52-0-0"><span data-text="true">Then we have the whole story about Oxford's son. It's very familiar: young hotshot wants to join to prove his manhood, disparages his wiser father as a coward, realizes that no, really, war is bad, and dies for his troubles. Fine, as far as it goes. Unfortunately, when they go on their secret mission to kill Rasputin (which is the one sequence really standing out in the movie; if the whole thing was like that, it would be much, much better) and succeed, Oxford is very sad because he broke his vow for a second before immediately and in the same fucking scene turning to his son, smile and tell him that he is now a real man. The cognitive dissonance of this is hard to convey into words. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aes52-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aes52-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="e0tl1-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e0tl1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e0tl1-0-0"><span data-text="true">It gets even worse after the death of said son, whose own conversion is so rapid and hastily constructed that it borders on parody. Oxford grows a beard and drinks a lot, the closest men in movies get to showing real human emotions, and then the king visits and tells him that Russia is in revolution now thanks to Lenin and that the bad situation may lead to the same thing in Britain - the end of the monarchy, which Oxford solemnly concurs would be the end of everything. When the king then awards the dead son the Victoria Cross, an honor Oxford himself half an hour earlier disparaged as empty and one he'd rather not have earned, he sobers up and decides to kill people for peace. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e0tl1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e0tl1-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="b165d-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="b165d-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b165d-0-0"><span data-text="true">While we're at the subject of monarchies, the movie also has the very unfortunate tendency to show the monarchs as being synonymous with their governments. Wilhelm was not the one with power over military strategy and foreign policy, his government was. George of Britain was a constitutional monarch. The only one who had actual power was Nicholas, and he is shown as the puppet of Rasputin. This trope comes at its most ridiculous when Wilson decides to take the US into war ("Get me the generals, we're going to war!" he shouts). Don't you want to, you now, ask Congress? </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="b165d-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b165d-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="83otp-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="83otp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="83otp-0-0"><span data-text="true">The movie has an impossible task, to be sure. Like with James Bond, you cannot make a movie in which the main character is pledged to defend the crown and at the same time ignore what this means - until of course, you put it in an alternate fantasy universe, like Kingsman and so many Bond movies do. But in the moment you have a British noble fighting for the continuation of a stratified aristocratic society, you can't pretend this isn't political. This movie does, though. And it falls apart from the very start. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="83otp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="83otp-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="8spgu" data-offset-key="as2bi-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="as2bi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="as2bi-0-0"><span data-text="true">There are ways out of this. It could have embraced its more serious tone and really challenged the idea of fighting for imperialism, essentially becoming a running commentary on Bond. Or it could have embraced the silliness of its premise and go all in on the bullshit, but without trying to be serious. In attempting to square the circle, if falls flat on its ass. </span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-87586538000601898572022-02-26T12:36:00.001+01:002022-02-26T12:36:00.183+01:00They don’t make them like that anymore<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">For the
first time ever, I watched “Born on the Fourth of July”, the 1989 feature by
Oliver Stone. Tom Cruise is playing Vietnam veteran Ronnie Kovic, who got
paralyzed after taking a wound in battle and was traumatized before by killing
civilians and a friendly-fire-incident. If you’re interested in my assessment on
the quality of the movie – it’s pretty good and still watchable, mostly thanks
to Cruise, who proves his dramatic qualities here (it’s so weird he turned to
action movies late in his career after starting out as a drama actor). So if
you’re interested in the subject matter and can cope with the somewhat unusual
structure (getting there), then by all means, give this classic a go. <span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But why did
I claim that “they don’t make them like that anymore” in the title? The movie
is an unabashed anti-war movie, alright, but it’s not like those wouldn’t be
made anymore. In an ironic twist, the Robert-Redford-vehicle “Of Lambs and
Lions” also features Tom Cruise, this time as a smarmy politician sending the
young people into a useless war for political gain that he played in “Born on
the Fourth of July”. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">No, the
unusual thing are the politics of this movie. Oliver Stone made a pretty lefty
movie here, but once again, it’s not like having left protest issues in movies
would be something consigned to the 1980s; we still have a lot of these movies
today. However, what we definitely don’t have anymore are big budget movies
that have a juxtaposition of storming the police line at the Republican
Convention and a big speech on the Democratic Convention as the climax of the
movie. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I mean,
seriously, the two emotional high points of this flick are the protesters at
the Republican Convention 1972 ATTACKING THE POLICE TO A ROUSING SCORE and then
Kovic getting the opportunity to speak on the floor of the Democratic
Convention. This obvious side-taking in terms of the political parties just doesn’t
happen anymore. Usually, “politicians” are nondescript in their party
affiliation, basically inhabiting the moderate No Man’s Land of West-Wing
times. Here, we have a guy who in the credits is literally billed as “Fat
Republican” shouting obscenities at our hero. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Before you
go into a “holy cow back then politics in movies were great!”, we have made a
change in style, not intensity, I feel. While Stone was much more partisan and
adopting the topics of politics of the day, he spares little thoughts on
questions like race and gender, which are the main focus today. The main
characters are white, their experiences are white, their lifestyles and
locations are white. Black characters only intersect where their lives overlap with
whites (tellingly, at the absolute low-point in a rundown hospital), and they’re
serving as antagonists to our hero, where the only decent person is the white
doctor. Also something they wouldn’t make like that today, I’m sure. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The gender
politics are similar. War movies always have the problem of writing in meaningful
female characters, but here, we have three of them: Kovic’s mother, who is zealously
religious and disowns him when he’s at his lowest; his old love interest, who
abandons him to fulfill her own desires; and a hooker in Mexico who’s, well, a
hooker. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">However,
the movie manages to avoid being aggressively ignorant here because of its
focus on Kovic’s life as a biopic, and a biopic of the good kind. And there are
practically no good biopics, they’re all shit. What “Born on the Fourth of July”
does is to give the feel of us really seeing a part of Kovic’s life. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The main
instrument in achieving this is the successful resistance of Stone in giving him
too clear a character arc. Sure, we have a progression towards the conclusion,
where he becomes a spokesperson for disabled veterans, but everything else is
incredibly episodic, with people dropping in and out of the narrative. The fate
of his former love interest is especially telling. When he comes to visit, she is
mostly interested in campus politics and tries to use him as an asset, and when
Kovic realizes that, he leaves – never to see her again. The same happens to
the veteran he meets in Mexico, who offers another (toxic and self-destructive)
way of coping, with whom he has a falling out and likewise never sees again. I
like this, because it mirrors accurately how real life works. We meet people,
we lose contact with people, we meet new people, but our lode star remains mostly
the social circle we had in the beginning. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p><span data-offset-key="2jkut-0-0"><span data-text="true"></span></span></p>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-8582218431761995702022-02-18T18:45:00.001+01:002022-02-18T18:45:00.475+01:00Book report: A Feast for Crows<p><span data-offset-key="4rpk4-0-0"><span data-text="true">In the reviews of the previous three books I repeatedly mentioned, that while they are intricately and expertly plotted, the literary quality of the series performs a leap with the next two books, which together form the "Feastdance". We can see this quite clearly with "A Feast for Crows", which, when it was released in 2005, created some consternation. After the flurry of endings and payoffs that was "A Storm of Swords", this book seemed like a letdown to many, not following up on the breathless quality of its predecessor. That is understandable, as it began its inception as a written-out version of the ill-fated five-year-gap.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="4rpk4-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="at3cs-0-0"><span data-offset-key="at3cs-0-0"><span data-text="true">However, payoffs, massacres and murders aren't everything the series is about, even though I enjoy them as much as the next reader. No, in "A Feast for Crows", Martin undertakes the daring exercise to slow down and to look at the fallout of big payoffs and resolutions, which is not something happening often in media. I don't want to belabor that point too much, as it's not intended as the focus of this book report. Instead, I want to shed a spotlight on mirrors, as in the literary device of mirroring themes and characters to heighten our understanding of them by going through the POVs as per usual.</span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="at3cs-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="at3cs-0-0"><span data-offset-key="at3cs-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="72mu7-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="72mu7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="72mu7-0-0"><span data-text="true">Let's start off in King's Landing. Here, we get Cersei as a new POV, and in the first third of the novel, we get her twin Jaime as a counterweight. There's not much as mirror-y as twins, and we can see that here. Whereas in the first three novels, both of them used to proclaim how the other was a mirror image of the other, how they're "two hearts that beat as one", here we see their relationship fracture in fast-forward-mode.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="72mu7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="72mu7-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="8oinc-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8oinc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8oinc-0-0"><span data-text="true">Cersei rages against the limitations of her environment, consciously trying to emulate Tywin. As so often when history repeats itself, it does it as a farce, and so with Cersei. Notwithstanding her manifold proclamations in her head that she's doing what Tywin would have done, this distorted mirror image inhabits all the bad traits of her father, without any of the redeeming features.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8oinc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8oinc-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="c1e32-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c1e32-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c1e32-0-0"><span data-text="true">Jaime, meanwhile, is distancing himself more and more from Cersei, but more because he sees unravelling what was always there and because he's become just a bit more introspective. He's the last restraint on Cersei, and by the point he leaves King's Landing, she's not only mirroring Tywin, but Aerys II. Jaime leaves with the queasy feeling of having helped the second incarnation of what he once murdered on the throne.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c1e32-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c1e32-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="79m5g-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="79m5g-0-0"><span data-offset-key="79m5g-0-0"><span data-text="true">However, he lacks the introspective to really analyze what he's doing, as becomes evident on his "peacemaker" tour through the Riverlands, where doesn't manage ever come to terms with the rotten regime he's serving or his own past, despite been given ample opportunity to do so. The narrative provides him with mirror after mirror in which he could recognize himself, from Kevan to Lancel to Devan to the Blackfish. Instead, he duels Ilyn Payne in the moonlight, whose pox scars seem so deep as to be craters in which he loses himself.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="79m5g-0-0"><span data-offset-key="79m5g-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="ceenq-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ceenq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ceenq-0-0"><span data-text="true">Arya, in the meantime, is over in Braavos, providing a perfect mirror image to her sister by learning to complete give up her identity and become an assassin, whereas Sansa, caught up in the Eyrie, learns to play a part while keeping to her identity and to wield the powers of courtly politics. It's a relationship seperated by hundreds of miles and completely differering objectives, and yet it's pointed to the same end: an existential victory in reclaiming their Stark identity, a repudiation of the toxic ideology they're being fed and an attempt at a better world.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ceenq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ceenq-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="f57qk-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="f57qk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="f57qk-0-0"><span data-text="true">The same is true of Brienne, who, as a woman, is uniquely suited to mirror the knightly ideals we've seen broken over and over in this series (even better than her ancestor, Duncan the Tall). Her quest is doomed from the start, since we know that Sansa is in the Eyrie and Arya in Braavos, but that's not what the quest is about. Instead, we get mirrorings of the knightly quest, we see the reflections and after-effects of the war and learn how to behave in the small where others failed in the big.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="f57qk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="f57qk-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="n3gs-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="n3gs-0-0"><span data-offset-key="n3gs-0-0"><span data-text="true">Meanwhile, the Iron Islands are a good place for reflection, too. From the unrealistic peace proposals Asha brings forward to Victarion's uninspired "more of the same" to Euron's "Make the Iron Islands Great Again", there's just nothing there to salvage from Balon's folly. The Kingsmoot especially is a masterpiece of storytelling, as the initial claimants all set up ideas that will be picked up later, such as the fantasy of deliverance by going big Farwynd exposes to the continuation of the war Edric Anvilhands proposes. In the end, all of it is hollow, as Aeron's attempts to hear the Drowned God in his visions, which are nothing than his own voice, superimposed on the sound of waves.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="n3gs-0-0"><span data-offset-key="n3gs-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="71i7o-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="71i7o-0-0"><span data-offset-key="71i7o-0-0"><span data-text="true">This storyline gets its mirror image in the Dornish plot, where there are also no good options out. The revenge the Martells crave leads them to all sorts of dangerous and unworkable plans with horrible side-effects, from the ill-conceived duel Oberyn engaged in in "A Storm of Swords" to Arianne's stupidty of a plan with Myrcella to the intricate plotting of Doran that can only lead to the burning of the Water Gardens and the death of children.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="71i7o-0-0"><span data-offset-key="71i7o-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="lee0" data-offset-key="eqenu-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="eqenu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="eqenu-0-0"><span data-text="true">The whole novel oozes with reflections like that, forcing the reader to think hard about what to make of all of it. Bereft of any clear protagonist after the demise of the Starks, we're as adrift as Westeros, shuffling through the Feast for Crows that has been the most enduring legacy of a war whose fruits even for the winning side are already spoiled halfway into the next novel. What then, asks Martin, is there for us? The peacemaking efforts of this book can't even be called that, the ones done in "A Dance with Dragons" will collapse on themselves. This doesn't mean peace is futile, but it's the pearl without price, hard to achieve and harder to hold, and most characters in this book don't even try or are running up against impossible odds.</span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-17053523334554579042022-02-08T17:34:00.002+01:002022-02-08T17:34:00.188+01:00Book report: A Storm of Swords<p><span data-offset-key="c9bnt-0-0"><span data-text="true">Continuing my reread, I've now finished "A Storm of Swords", and once again, I won't assume you need any kind of synopsis and quickly delve into the analysis. In the first book, my main theme was early installement weirdness, and in the second book, I focused on the expanding scope of the story and the developing of some themes. "A Storm of Swords" continues along these lines, but the two major aspects I want to discuss is the flurry of endings and what they're purpose is, namely setting up the five-year gap.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div data-contents="true"><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="c9bnt-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="76dme-0-0"><span data-offset-key="76dme-0-0"><span data-text="true">If you'd poll the readers of ASOIAF, you'd likely arrive at the wrong opinion that "A Storm of Swords" is the best book of the series. It's easy to see why: While being the longest of the books, it also has the quickest pace, with resolutions to plot lines arriving close together, giving the book a bit of a breathless nature.</span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="76dme-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="76dme-0-0"><span data-offset-key="76dme-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="fnii4-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fnii4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fnii4-0-0"><span data-text="true">This contrasts decidedly with the two following volumes, the "Feastdance", which will move at a much more deliberate pace, frustrating many readers, but leading to a much more satisfying experience in terms of depth and theme.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fnii4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fnii4-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="3rvlc-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3rvlc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3rvlc-0-0"><span data-text="true">But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Instead, let's first see who graces us as new POV. We have a net win of one, since we gain Jaime and Samwell and lose Theon. Theon's arc resolved nicely in "A Clash of Kings", so there's no need to revisit it here (and it did come as a shock when he came back in "A Dance with Dragons"!).</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3rvlc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3rvlc-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="6q67r-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6q67r-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6q67r-0-0"><span data-text="true">Speaking of shocks, Jaime's introduction as a POV was the major splash that "A Storm of Swords" made, at least until the Red Wedding rolled around. Jaime was the undisputed bad guy, and in "A Storm of Swords", he embarks on a character arc that has the fandom arguing ever since. Is it a redemption arc? Is it not?</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6q67r-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6q67r-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="97jsi-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="97jsi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="97jsi-0-0"><span data-text="true">The quick answer is "no". Jaime is definitely not the undisputed villain he was in the first two books anymore, because Martin does his usual, great trick of bringing him down to his lowest point, forcing us to accept his humanity, and making him understandble. See also Grejoy, Theon. Jaime is incredibly well written, and his chapters are a joy.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="97jsi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="97jsi-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="4espd-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4espd-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4espd-0-0"><span data-text="true">Our other new POV, Sam, usually doesn't garner the same enthusiasm. Too often the fandom judges him as too whiny (a ridiculous charge, but that's fandoms for you sometimes). But Sam, aside from his own character arc of becoming Sam the Slayer, Sam the Friend to Magic Stuff and finally Sam the Electioneer, is also a vital camera on the events north of the Wall (and in the end south of it). Ironically, his last chapters in "A Storm of Swords" also show why Martin had to ship him to Braavos and then Oldtown first thing "A Feast for Crows", because you really don't need to Night's Watch POVs at the Wall.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4espd-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4espd-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="2rsc-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2rsc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2rsc-0-0"><span data-text="true">That leaves Davos, who unexpectedly returns from the dead and emancipates himself from "the guy that shows us what Stannis is up to" to his own character arc of religious extremism (with his aborted terror attack on Melisandre) and the tenure as Hand to rescuing Edric Storm, because what's one boy against the fate of all humanity? Exactly, everything. Davos' chapters are engrossing, incredibly well written and on the whole a marked improvement over "A Clash of Kings".</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2rsc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2rsc-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="152ql-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="152ql-0-0"><span data-offset-key="152ql-0-0"><span data-text="true">Now, that leaves our existing case. I talked about a flurry of endings, and let's jump through them. Catelyn's arc ends rather tragically with the Red Wedding. I don't see the need to talk about how well it's done, because that's done to death. The Red Wedding leaves the Riverlands and the North in shambles, in an ideal position to gloss over five years and say "and then, our character comes and does X" in the following volume.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="152ql-0-0"><span data-offset-key="152ql-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="ce12v-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ce12v-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ce12v-0-0"><span data-text="true">The same is true, of course, of Bran Stark, who ends his adorable journey through the North with another magic mentor, the mysterious Coldhands, from which a jump of five years is easily executed. The same is true of the Stark sisters: Arya travels to Braavos to start her assassin training, and Sansa is in the Eyrie, well positioned for same flashback in the next book of what happened then.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ce12v-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ce12v-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="ckda4-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ckda4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ckda4-0-0"><span data-text="true">Jon is much more tricky. He's Lord Commander now and has to content with Stannis, who could conclude his northern campaign about four times in the next five years with a book's worth of plot to spare. Here, we see the Five-Year-Gap breaking apart already.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ckda4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ckda4-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="d8a5e-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d8a5e-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d8a5e-0-0"><span data-text="true">It's not as bad for the Lannisters, since Jaime settles into being Lord Commander, ideally suited for some bitter flashbacks on Cersei and the court. Unforunately, there's no world in which Cersei would just rule a bit and twiddle her thumbs for five years, so this can't work at all. It's better for Tyrion, who could conceivably be hid away at Illyrio's and only re-emerge five years later, but come on, this would not be interesting at all.</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d8a5e-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d8a5e-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="6617f-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6617f-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6617f-0-0"><span data-text="true">Aside from the Starklings, Dany's arc concludes the clearest with the gap in mind, because Meereen could have been dealt with in flashbacks then (which large parts of the fandom, being wrong, would have doubtlessly preferred).</span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6617f-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6617f-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="q183" data-offset-key="fhbi-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fhbi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fhbi-0-0"><span data-text="true">But none of that came to pass in the end. However, the need to wrap everything up for this time jump to come into effect forced Martin to use an ungodly pace for the plot in an already very thick book, which makes the pacing overall worse than in "A Clash of Kings" and "A Game of Thrones". "A Storm of Swords" is still the superior book, no question, but some things would have benefitted from a bit more breathing space.</span></span></div></div></div>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-32607151673340719832022-01-18T16:13:00.001+01:002022-01-18T16:13:00.175+01:00Book report: "A Clash of Kings"<div data-contents="true"><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="aflol-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aflol-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aflol-0-0"><span data-text="true">After I tackled "A Game of Thrones" in BLAP 58, concentrating on Early Installement Weirdness, I recently completed my reread of "A Clash of Kings", and so I want to give you my report here. Of course, you know the book, I knew the book, so I'm not reciting the plot and tell you it's a damn good book, but I'd rather make some stray observations.<span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="aflol-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aflol-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="4k3c2-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4k3c2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4k3c2-0-0"><span data-text="true">The first thing that comes to mind is that while the scope of the book expands a bit, it's still fairly narrowed, compared to the sprawling epic of the Feastdance. "A Game of Thrones" was tightly confined to the plot in King's Landing, with two storylines more or less self-contained (Jon and Dany), one giving us the walking camera on Winterfell (Bran) and one being physically remote yet intricately linked (Catelyn). </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4k3c2-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4k3c2-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="6b4rt-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6b4rt-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6b4rt-0-0"><span data-text="true">In "A Clash of Kings", we get two new perspectives: Davos, who serves as a walking camera on all things Stannis that Martin wants us to know, and Theon, who serves an integral function in the story and is the first big departure from Martin's original outline. Let's tackle these two newcomers first. </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="5535m-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5535m-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5535m-0-0"><span data-text="true">Davos, as many have remarked before, is mostly a camera on legs in this book. It's only in "A Storm of Swords" that he will get a real character arc of his own. This shouldn't be miscontrued as saying that Davos is a bad character or something; it's just apparent, especially in contrast to Theon, that his motivations are pretty bare-bone. He's loyal, he's truthful, and that's about it. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5535m-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5535m-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="bvve5-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bvve5-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bvve5-0-0"><span data-text="true">Davos gives us a view on a Stannis that is hard to square with the Mannis the fandom loves so much. He's very much the antagonist of the book, if not the outright villain (that spot is reserved for Joffrey), but we are supposed to feel the same uneasiness about the middle Baratheon that Catelyn feels. The book succeeds in that. It's never possible to unequivocally root for the Baratheon victory, try as we might. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bvve5-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bvve5-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="efspj-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="efspj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="efspj-0-0"><span data-text="true">This is further complicated by squaring off the two most likeable characters of each side in the Battle of the Blackwater. Tyrion for the Lannisters and Davos for Team Burning Heart gives us no clear side to root for, an effect that is certainly intended and that works masterfully. I don't want to waste any words on the quality of the Battle itself; others have done that to much greater effect. It's a favorite for a reason. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="efspj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="efspj-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="d4e5q-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d4e5q-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d4e5q-0-0"><span data-text="true">Stannis, once again, is at best a dark grey character in this books (ironic, given Melisandre's monologue about people being either black or white). We are with him because Davos, who is clearly coded as a good guy, is with him. But if Catelyn's perspective was the only look we had on Stannis, the only perspective, it would be pretty clear he'd be in the "bad guy" camp. It will need the catastrophe of the Blackwater to change him into something better, forcing Davos' question from the beginning of "A Storm of Swords" whether his sons' lives where just a lesson for a king. Were all these dead just ingredients for a character arc? It's a nagging question, and one is well adviced not to think in these terms in our reality. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d4e5q-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d4e5q-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="ef395-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ef395-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ef395-0-0"><span data-text="true">If you think your life is following a neat trajectory, you might just be Theon Greyjoy, who is the second new POV here. He's insufferable, and clearly written as such. His journey through humiliations down into the darkest abyss is incredibly compelling. There's no way we could ever root for him, and the capture of Winterfell, as Steven Attewell pointed out in great detail, required some heavy-handed authorly intervention. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ef395-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ef395-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="4c78-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4c78-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4c78-0-0"><span data-text="true">It's this weighing on the scales that Martin still needs to do that's making "A Clash of Kings" not as good as the middle part of the series, simply because such weighing is largely unnecessary in the Feastdance, where things happen more organically out of the choices of characters. But Winterfell NEEDS to burn, and Theon is just the person fate has chosen to make it happen. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4c78-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4c78-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="7a119-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7a119-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7a119-0-0"><span data-text="true">In the hands of a lesser writer, this would be a bolt out of nowhere, done mostly for shock (WHAT, THEON DID THAT?!). Here, Martin invites us to follow every step of the way, to emphasize with Theon (but never sympathize!) and understand where he's coming from. He has a giant chip on his shoulder, and it's not really his fault. His story is also a story of the failure of many people around him, although of course, his own character is still to blame the most. Jon Snow, the obvious comparison, took a very different route with a comparable starting position. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7a119-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7a119-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="27mvv-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="27mvv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="27mvv-0-0"><span data-text="true">The most obstruse part of "A Clash of Kings" is the Hornwood crisis and the character of Ramsay Snow aka Reek. Even knowing the story and having read it many times, it's easy to lose track of what's happening why, and this obfuscation is intended on Martin's part. It's essentially only in the aftermath of the Red Wedding that the reader is able to fully understand what the hell happened there. I'm a bit on the fence if this is a good decision, but that's the structure of that plot. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="27mvv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="27mvv-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="culdk-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="culdk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="culdk-0-0"><span data-text="true">Ramsay's function, on the other hand, is pretty clear. He's the devil. He lures Theon to the Dark Side, bit by bit, dropping venom in his ears and defeating all of the (stunted, admittedly) better angels of his nature and overcoming the angelic voice of Maester Luwin, almost ritually slaying him in the end. When Theon murders the miller's children to cover up his mistake, he's taken a dark road without return, and when the devil comes back to collect his due, he's doing so in style, in demonic attire and amidst a burning inferno. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="culdk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="culdk-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="2ossf-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2ossf-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2ossf-0-0"><span data-text="true">The rest of the book remains surprisingly tight. Winterfell, more or less checked in regularily in "A Game of Thrones", now has a more direct connection to the main plot and becomes a stage for it once again with Theon's plotline. Bran's awakening, the great introduction of the Reeds and the subsequent fall of the castle are woven together in a triumph of storytelling. "The North" therefore becomes a story location in its own right, a place that gets lost in the ultimate chapter of the book, with Bran wistfully looking back in a broken, but not dead Winterfell. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2ossf-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2ossf-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="5fmp-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5fmp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5fmp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Catelyn remains her function as a connecting tissue, first giving us a look into the war in the Riverlands and the politics of it, whereas later she provides the necessary viewpoint of Renly's death and Stannis' assencion before returning to the Riverlands in time to witness the Battle of the Fords and to free Jaime. Her plot is cleverly laid out so that she organically arrives at the right time in the right place, and on top of that, she has a personal arc driving her on a relentless downward slope that will only become worse in "A Storm of Swords". </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5fmp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5fmp-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="brj9p-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="brj9p-0-0"><span data-offset-key="brj9p-0-0"><span data-text="true">Here, we can already see the seeds of the later Nemesis that she will become in her role as "Lady Stoneheart", and this is another thing about "A Clash of Kings": unlike "A Game of Thrones", there are a lot of seeds and threads that clearly lead to future books. Martin has a much better grasp of where he wants his story to go, not in detail, of course, but in principle. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="brj9p-0-0"><span data-offset-key="brj9p-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="246fo-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="246fo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="246fo-0-0"><span data-text="true">Unfortunately, this is less the case with Arya's storyline, which is the weakest of the book. She simply has too many chapters which are too repetitive in the beginning. The part in Harrenhal makes up for it, of course, with the view on Roose Bolton, the Bloody Mummers and of course Arya's use of her "murder genie" (Attewell) Jaqen H'ghar. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="246fo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="246fo-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="c4mpo-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c4mpo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c4mpo-0-0"><span data-text="true">The last part of the big political plot happens in King's Landing, where Tyrion is at the height of his power and really enjoying it. And so do we readers. There's something immensely entertainting watching Tyrion do all the stuff he does, be clever and outmaneuver Cersei. However, as we rereaders know, he's already laying the ground for his own destruction. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="c4mpo-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c4mpo-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="804dl-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="804dl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="804dl-0-0"><span data-text="true">Much of what will come to haunt him in the trial of "A Storm of Swords" and lead to his political impotence and unlikeability on the following volume is already started here, and Martin continually gives us subtle hints about Tyrion's darker aspects, which will come to the fore in "A Dance with Dragons" and, presumably, "The Winds of Winter" on the one hand and the rottenness of the cause he serves on the other. It's easy to forget, read from Tyrion's perspective, just how rotten the whole Lannister regime is. Whatever Tyrion does, it's in the service of an utter psychopath. Never forget that. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="804dl-0-0"><span data-offset-key="804dl-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="467mq-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="467mq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="467mq-0-0"><span data-text="true">Jon and Dany, once again, remain apart, their stories now completely severed from the rest of the plot. Jon's adventures beyond the Wall mostly take the form of a thriller in the mold of John Le Carré or Tom Clancy, an agent in foreign territory, trying to achieve intelligence and navigating a dangerous space. As I argued </span></span><a class="_4X_-components-SimpleRichTextEditor-components-LinkSpan--linkSpan" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwigoMijtK7zAhVAhf0HHefCC2EQFnoECAUQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fnotacastasoiaf.podbean.com%2Fe%2Fepisode-133-a-clash-of-kings-jon-vii-the-hills-have-eyes-ft-stefan-sasse%2F&usg=AOvVaw1WLmz9vzuPx9rWADch2L_b" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-offset-key="467mq-1-0"><span data-text="true">in my guest appearance </span></span></a><span data-offset-key="467mq-2-0"><span data-text="true">on the NotACast, this passage also subverts ours (and Jon's) expectations about the wildlings, preparing the ground for the plot of "A Dance with Dragons" especially to follow. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="467mq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="467mq-2-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="ak1jj-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ak1jj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ak1jj-0-0"><span data-text="true">A general theme of this book report, to me, is that the plot is much more important for later books than it was in "A Game of Thrones". So many actions characters take, so many events begun, will not come to fruition until later books. This was different in the first volume, which was much more self-contained. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ak1jj-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ak1jj-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="dpv4i-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dpv4i-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dpv4i-0-0"><span data-text="true">On the other hand, the focus is still tightly set on King's Landing, the gravitational center of the political plot. Even if the characters are not there, it's the point where their aspirations are concentrated. Dorne is still mostly mentioned, Robb is off camera for long stretches of time, the Vale is practically mute, the Stormlands as well (aside from Storm's End), the Reach is present as an army but not as a region, and so on. </span></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dpv4i-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dpv4i-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="29k7c" data-offset-key="416ng-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="416ng-0-0"><span data-offset-key="416ng-0-0"><span data-text="true">The scope will widen a bit in "A Storm of Swords", but it will become truly epic only in the Feastance. Viewed from this perspective, "A Clash of Kings" is much more sophisticated than "A Game of Thrones", but it's a far cry from the abilities Martin will display in the middle part of the saga. It's impressive, really. </span></span></div></div></div><p> </p>Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1758815004886180861.post-51083965649049466512021-12-25T10:01:00.001+01:002021-12-25T10:01:07.904+01:00Season 8 Episode 6 “The Iron Throne” review – A Feast of Conclusions? <p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Valarr morghulis. Everything needs to come to
an end, and so does the greatest series of all time, the popcultural phenomenon
to end all popcultural phenomena. Unlike the preceding episodes, this one isn’t
exactly subtle or multi-layered about what characters are doing and why they’re
doing it; nor does it need to be. Everyone is stating their motivations
clearly. Every ambiguity left is deliberate. It’s always thus with endings. We
know that Samwise is happy in the Shire. We don’t know whether Frodo will be in
Valinor. And so we know that Samwell Tarly has the right job and becomes happy
in it. We don’t know whether Arya will ever succeed. And that’s just how it’s
meant to be. <span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But that, of course, says nothing about an
episode that has one job, and one job only: to wrap up the greatest fantasy
series of all time for good. This is it. The final episode. Nothing will come
after this. So, let’s assess whether or not the episode – and with it, the show
– succeeds. For this analysis, I want to split the episode into three distinct
parts that have, helpfully, been heavily edited in via fade-to-black in the
episode itself: the first third, in which the plot gets revolved, the second third,
in which the and gets set up, and then the last third, in which we get the
curtain calls. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Regarding the plot resolution, Tyrion has to
reckon with the fallout from his decision to betray bis best friend Varys and
stick with a queen who burned a whole city. While he walks the streets slowly,
taking in the carnage left in the wake of his bad call, finally finding
confirmation that is beloved brother and his hated sister are dead, that he is
the only Lannister left in the world, a decision is forming on his face. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He confronts his queen, resigns the handship
and then resigns himself to the fate of fiery execution shortly thereafter. And
sure enough, Daenerys obliges. However, Tyrion’s story is not yet done. In
prison, he gets a visit by Jon, and in a lengthy scene he shows why he is the
smartest guy in the room after all, as he dissects all the reasons why Jon
needs to stop Daenerys by any means necessary. You only need to look at Jon’s
face to see he’s right. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Daenerys herself is looking at the ashes she produced
quite differently. Embracing her Blood and Fire identity fully and staging her
victory speech with only her most loyal supporters, still drenched in blood and
ash (note the symbolism there), she harkens back to the vow Khal Drogo made way
back in episode six of season 1, and that she now regards as fulfilled. One
half expects her to loosen the Dothraki on the whole of Westeros, and in a way,
she does, but ultimately, Dany isn’t one for half-measures. Having conquered
the Seven Kingdoms and achieved her manifest destiny, she embraces the mission
creep and declares conquering the whole world her true objective. Grey Worm,
very much an Angel of Death at this moment, is named commanding officer of all
her armies, including the Northmen, with leaves Jon quite unhappy. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Speaking of Jon, he also needs to reckon with
what happened. He can’t hide behind his “she’s my queen” forever, and as Arya
and Tyrion both remind him, Dany knows his identity and will perceive him as a
threat if he’s not a hundred percent behind her - which he clearly isn’t. If he
needed further doubt, Grey Worm executing Lannister captives on her orders will
have planted that. However, it’s the session with Tyrion that really seals the
deal. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And so, it all comes to a head in the throne
room. Where else could it be? Mirroring Dany’s vision in the House of the
Undying from season 2, she walks towards the Iron Throne, pure joy on her face.
This is it. Her destiny. She can feel it. Then Jon enters, and giddy she
recounts to him a charming story of how she first heard about the Iron Throne.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Of course, he isn’t in the mood for charming
stories. In a heart wrenching scene, he tries to persuade her that the war is
over, that she needs to settle, that the burning of King’s Landing needs to be
a one-time thing. Dany herself, desperation increasingly creeping into her
enthusiasm, tries to win him over for her war of liberation. It all boils down
to the final exchange: “What if other people have other ideas of what’s good?”,
Jon asks. “They don’t get to choose”, Dany retorts. It’s the unbridgeable
divide. And so, when Jon, tearfully, embraces and kisses her one last time,
he’s accepting this as his destiny (“Love is the death of duty”) as much as she
accepts hers. He stabs her, and she dies, not understanding. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Drogon, however, understands. Shrieking with
rage and grief, he flies into the throne room, tries to wake up Dany like he’s
an oversized Bambi, identifying Jon as the culprit. Jon stands up to the
dragon, accepting his fate. Yet, Drogon transcends this. Like the otherworldly
creature he is, he identifies the true source of all the violence, all the
hatred, all the greed and misery and burns the titular Iron Throne into hot
slag. He then delicately picks up Dany and flies eastwards with her. It’s a final
goodbye. I’m the last of the dragons…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This concludes the plot, and it’s a good
conclusion. The themes are tied well together, the character motivations
leading to it feel natural and right. With that, we transition into the next
part with a fade-to-black, and one of the most jarring cuts the show has
delivered up to date. Seriously, it felt like a segment had been lopped out,
because next, all the lords and ladies of Westeros are gathered in the Dragon
Pit in a callback to the summit in season 7, and they are there to decide over
Tyrion’s fate. It’s weeks later, judging from the reconstruction efforts and
the facial hair Tyrion is sprouting. Grey Worm insists on carrying out his
queen’s last command and execute Tyrion as a traitor and Jon as the murderer,
but realpolitik is keeping him from it: Sansa threatens war, and the Unsullied
lack their former winged trump card. And so, Grey Worm gives Tyrion’s fate over
to the Westerosi. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There’s a problem, though. He can only be
judged by the King or Queen, and currently, there is none. And Grey Worm’s
facial expression makes clear that no one better mention Jon. With that, Tyrion
kind of ignores the man who wants to kill him and starts a debate that they
should pick a new one to decide matters. Grey Worm buys into it, and a short
discussion starts. Edmure tries to offer himself and is shut down by Sansa
(“Uncle, sit.”), and Sam proposes democracy as an alternative, only to be
laughed out of the room. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This segment doesn’t really work for a lot of
reasons. The first one is the jarring edit. I had no problem with the show
cutting Arya’s and Sansa’s reaction to Jon’s revelation in episode four,
because we knew the characters well enough to infer how they’d react and got a
lot of it in the aftermath to puzzle back in. But here? What the heck happened
in those weeks? How did Jon sell his murder? What throws me off is not so much
that there are so many questions, but rather the change in tone. </span></p>
<h3><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A fade-to-black alone
doesn’t really justify going into lightheartedness, with Tyrion for some reason
inventing a new Westerosi constitution on the fly while in chains and everyone
having a good laugh at Edmure and Sam. I have no problem with the individual be
Season 8 Episode 6 “The Iron Throne” review – A Feast of Conclusions? </span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ats. Sam arguing for a more inclusive
government, sure. Edmure trying for more power (“As one of the senior lords”),
Tyrion squaring that circle by proposing the Great Council and Bran Stark, and
everyone backing the idea – sure, all of it works, all of it makes sense. It’s
the combination and the peculiar editing choices that throw me off and leave
that segment feel somewhat empty. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">However, in the grand scheme of things, it
doesn’t really matter all that much. It’s just something that needs to get out
of the way before we can delve into the final third and go into the conclusions
there. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Dany’s out of the picture, so let’s start off
Grey Worm first. Disgusted with the Game of Thrones and its Westerosi players,
he fulfills his promise to Missandei and sets sail for Naath, ignoring the
offer to become lord of Highgarden. He and his men will, from now on, protect
the most peaceful people on Planetos – and who knows, maybe Grey Worm will find
peace, too, someday. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The other culprit is Jon. He is sentenced to
the Night’s Watch, and if not heartbroken, he’d appreciate the irony. Once and
Future Lord Commander, and all that. It’s not like Jon would miss King’s
Landing, but he’d miss many people. He’ll never really see them again, and so,
the goodbye has a finality to it, even if he and Tyrion try to convince each
other that it’s otherwise. In the North, Tormund already awaits him, as he said
he would two episodes ago. Even Ghost is there. The parting shot of the show
gives us Jon escorting – or even joining – the wildlings in self-imposed exile
in the untamed, but infinitely more safe wilds of the North. A single green
shoot is signaling the new beginning, breaking through the crust of snow. It’s
a fitting end, and Jon’s facial expression sells the bitter-sweet ambiguity of
it. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The other Starks get happier endings. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Arya finally leaves behind her dalliance with
death and sets sail on her own ship (I imagine it’s called the “Snowdancer” for
obvious reasons) to explore what’s west of Westeros. Will she succeed? Will she
explore new worlds? It’s a fitting new place that she carves for herself in a
world that has no need of her, a more world-savvy and outgoing Frodo. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Sansa, having finally achieved the independence
of the North by peaceful means, will now have to prove that this independence
is actually worth something. Crowned Queen in the North (a fanboy dream come
true), this is what she worked towards for at least two seasons now. It’s good
to see it come to fruition, and I wish her the very best. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bran, of course, is now king for as long as he
lives. His job is to serve as mankind’s conscience and memory, and to keep an
eye out for the big picture. Accordingly, his first task is to search for Drogon.
He has no interest in ruling, and in the logic of the show, that’s good. In
this case, that may be true, because Tyrion. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Speaking of whom, Tyrion gets sentenced to be
Bran’s Hand. It’s poetic justice in a way. As Bran frames it, he will have to
rebuild Westeros. That’s much better than just killing him, and in my
headcanon, this is the argument that swayed Grey Worm and mellowed him enough
to accept compromise and sail for Naath. We see Tyrion awkwardly trying out a
less confrontational, conciliatory approach with his new Small Council. It’s a
shaky start, but one that lends itself to hope. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Brienne becomes Lord Commander of the
Kingsguard, breaking through Westers’ highest remaining glass ceiling and
completing the story of Jaime Lannister. “He died protecting his queen” is a
rather fitting end, and I like that Brienne is the one to write it and to
provide a voice of reason in Council. Barristan Selmy could have learned a
thing or two there.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Davos and Bronn provide good sparring partners
in the Small Council for many years to come, sure, but Bronn’s inclusion here
still feels like a sore thumb. But it’s not a dealbreaker by any means. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Yara and Gendry will remain loyal lords to the
Iron Throne, as will Quentyn Martell, Edmure Tully and Robyn Arryn. They were
only props here anyway, and their story concluded already. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And with that, Game of Thrones ends. The legacy
of the show will be debated to some time to come, but this is not the place for
sweeping generalizations. I shed some tears, shared some smiles, felt some
stabs and had bittersweet feelings. In this, the episode did what it set out to
do. </span></p>
Stefan Sassehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03504751435668017553noreply@blogger.com4