Rome: For Brutus is an Honorable Man

[lesbiassparrow]

Rome: how I do love you. Except that you have made Cicero all squirrilly and that's rather sad.



Poor Brutus: no idea what he's getting into with Antony and trying to retain his honour, although he doesn't realise no one else has it. Antony was a right bastard he was, but he knew how to revenge friends. It might have been one of his redeeming qualities. The other was probably his willingness to be made fun of (according to Plutarch, at any rate).

I really like the way Octavian is so cold in this (it reminds me of Syme's portrayal of Augustus as an icy, efficient politician). I suspect he will end up killing Pullo as a liability because he's that sort of person. I wonder how they will handle the Antony-Octavia thing and how that will pan out.



And for a bit I have not been filled with glee, but I decided to focus on the positive and think about shiny happy things. Like the fact that I recently had a lovely lunch with someone I haven't seen for a while and she was a lot of fun and we bitched about my horrible colleagues and mad people in general. And on Saturday I went to hear Ray Wylie Hubbard twang his guitar in McCabe's and HE WAS AMAZING. It wasn't just the music - he told these hilarious stories about living in Poetry, TX and goats wandering in the yard and him thinking they were the devil and writing songs about it. This is not the sort of music I normally like and it was prefaced by a rather odd band who sang songs with horrid lyrics but he still made it all wonderful.

Also I just bought Season One of Veronica Mars on DVD. I have never seen it but everyone says it is great and so I look forward to it. Yay for things to watch!

Um. One last thing. I have recently gotten interested in Star Wars (the prequel) again. To the extent that I have actually rented 'The Phantom Menace' to see if it as bad as I recall. It can't honestly be, can it?

Comments

[luftballoons.livejournal.com]

Sadly, yes. Yes, it can be.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Sadly, you are no doubt right. After I've watched it and moaned, you can say I told you so.. :)

[meret.livejournal.com]

Except that you have made Cicero all squirrilly and that's rather sad.

I was going to ask you about that. I take it he was not the coward they're portraying him as?

I suspect he will end up killing Pullo as a liability because he's that sort of person.

Wow! I never even considered that. Hmmm, I can't see that happening. JMHO. He even told Pullo the truth about how Lucius found out about the baby, which surprised me. I thought he was going to blame gossip since her nighbors had to know the truth.

I wonder how they will handle the Antony-Octavia thing and how that will pan out.

I can see Octavia finding out that her mother had her husband killed, and doing it for revenge. Maybe Atia does something against Antony out of jealousy about Cleopatra that pisses him off enough to marry Octavia in revenge too? Just speculating.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I guess Cicero had suffered more from the consequences of his actions than the others up to that point (he'd ended up exiled and having his houses burnt, etc. because of the Catilinarians), so he was more cautious.

But he hated Antony and wanted him dead which did motivate him at the end. What I think they've got right is that Cicero isn't an aristocrat through and through and that is affecting the relationship with Brutus, but I seriously think that for all of his awful faults and weaknesses that he was the last man who actually believed in the Republic as an idea, rather than being an opportunist.

You are probably right about Pullo, but Octavian is such a cold bastard that I wonder if they'll have him perform some drastic betrayal at the end to solidify him as Augustus.

And I like your speculation about Octavia...

[meret.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information. I don't know that much about Cicero so I wasn't sure. :)

[meret.livejournal.com]

And for a bit I have not been filled with glee,

*hugs*

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I think I am a bit through it all now... :)

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I remain defiantly non-conformist: I quite liked TPM. I'm not even bugged by Jarjar; he strikes me as pretty much the same as Threepio in goofiness. And I really, really liked the way the good guys essentially fuck themselves over, with the best of intentions.

Plus, Qui-Gon is a delight.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Qui-Gon is quite smashing. I rewatched and kept thinking that if he had survived it would surely have turned out completely different with Anakin. Because Qui-Gon would have had some space for emotion which the rest of Jedi lack.

This just solidified my belief that the Jedi Council should be named 'Group of Moronic Wankers.' They should have it printed on their cards.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I think that is part of the point; the Jedi fall because they have ossified beyond any ability to deal with the unexpected. It's a different kind of decadence then wine and naked concubines, but it's still a decay.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I can buy that...but the only problem for me is that Yoda survives and he's among the worst of them. He's always muttering that things are a bad idea and then making them worse.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but do we end up viewing Yoda as entirely right in the end? Luke retains his compassion for his father against Yoda's advice, and that's what turns the tide; it's Vader that destroys the emperor, not Luke.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

That's true: I hadn't actually thought of that. Hmmm...but the wee bugger still gets to swan off into the sunset.

It is interesting how much Lucas took an axe to all of my beliefs about the Jedi and the characters in the prequels. The more I think about it, the bolder I think he was.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

That's exactly it; I'm not going to argue that the dialogue is not often stiff, and I'm not going to argue that Lucas an actor's director.. but there are moments as when Palpatine turns away after the vote and we see just the beginning of a smile, and you realize that the revered and dead heroes of "A New Hope" were the ones who fucked themselves and the Republic over... bits like that were pretty freaking brilliant.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I also like the snowball effect: if any one of these things had been different maybe the story wouldn't have turned out that way. Every single person nudges these things further along down the path to doom. And the good things that people do are unravelled by the actions of someone else - either maliciously or with the best of intentions.

And Palpatine is one of the best things about the series. I don't know how his acting survived Lucas' dead hand but the actor does an amazing job of being creepy and paternalistic.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Hmmm! I have a different worrisome scenario - Vorenus is sworn to Antony and Pullo to Octavian, so I think they will end up on opposing sides at Actium and I DREAD their killing each other there!

And I LOVED last night's episode because Antony was so great, Octavian was SO smart, and Pullo and Vorenus were so totally manly bonding and soldierly love and so on. FABULOUS!!!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I hope one of them survives, but as this is a HBO series that is probably a foolish hope. I put my money on Eirene killing Pullo. I don't know why, but I think she will.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Heh! Really? I think Eirene is pretty savvy about how to stay alive (poor girl, who can blame her?) and Titus Pullo seems awfully good at that :P (And also, narratively, I think that will make her too central to the storyline, whereas as far as I can see, the only point of having Pullo be Octavian's man while Vorenus is Antony's is to make sure they are on opposing sides eventually, IMO. I just hope they don't kill each other!)