Rome 2.08 A Necessary Fiction
The short version: I loved it. I cried. I went "OMG! Ewww!" at certain times.
The long version:
The loving:
I don't really care that they play fast and loose with the historical events, because where Rome shines to me is in conveying emotions and life. It makes you feel something about history and historical events and it forces you to care. I think my greatest love in regards to "Rome" is how it manages to be so human and so foreign all at the same time.(My second love would be mad, bad Titus Pullo in leather - because um..yes.Do I need to explain why?) And I felt this episode had this is spades. From manic Pullo covered in blood to Livia biting the head of birds the show is so good at using visual imagery to get you to emotionally connect.
Granted that my stance is that you cannot make a historical correct movie/series no matter how hard you try. Even films depicting events that happened 20 or 60 years ago will at some point be historically inaccurate and that's just the way things are. As L.P. Hartley said: "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there" and we cannot recreated it wholly. But what we can do is to remind ourselves that the people living then were human too. They were more than just names on a page or in marble, and "Rome" works for me as a wonderful reminder of that.
The crying:
I will admit that I cried twice - which is actually a little unusual. But when Eirene died and during the big Vorenii confrontation and Vorenus nearly strangling his daughter I got all teary. I will also admit to forgiving Pullo after he went all catatonic and grieving - in fact I might have forgiven him already on Eirene’s deathbed when he talked about her getting old and grey.
The rest - from OMG! Ewww - to analysis and talk of parallels
One of the things Rome has been very good at is playing with parallels. In this episode I would say there was a parallel between Maschius and Lepidus - both being the third f**king man. (And was it just me or did anyone else find Lepidus’s "It was probably Gauls!" extremely funny?)
There was also a very good parallel between Eirene’s funeral and Pullo’s proposal, with them both set in the country - but most importantly a parallel between Niobe’s funeral and Eirene’s.
I also liked the symbolism that Pullo now has buried "peace" aka Eirene’s name, and then goes absolutely insane in battle. Now the tongue biting was bad, but I wasn’t that shocked. For some reason it was the mad Pullo wielding an axe and looking psychotic that really scared me!
(I’ve probably read too many Viking sagas in school. There they bite of body parts all the time. Like in one of my favourite sagas: "Then Egil threw a way his shield and grabbed him and bit him in the throat until he was dead." I read that when I was 13 and have never gotten over it. )
But I would also claim that there is a connection, or perhaps the term circle would be more appropriate, - between this episode and the beginning of series one. Now Pullo is the one with a family to look after (not his biological family, but I doubt he takes that into consideration), and Vorenus is the lonely one without any connection besides the army.
In S1 it was of course the other way around, and I will admit I never thought it would shift like this.
I’m going to sound extremely geeky here, but then again I often do, and say that this was possibly my favourite episode title of the season. You see I have a special love for titles that both match and twists your view about an episode. This might hearken back to my love for paintings and how the title of a painting changes the way you view it, but at any rate: Yay for A Necessary Fiction. So why did I find it so very fitting? Because this episode was filled with people who lied - either to themselves or to others.
Octavian is a liar - he lies to himself all the time. For he clearly believes every word of his little moral speech - he thinks this is the way the world is, the way it should always be. So the pieces that do not fit his picture get cut away. This is a large part of what makes him dangerous. Now Caesar was someone who saw the world for what it was and used that as a basis for his manipulation, whereas Octavian is someone who views the world with an already formed image in his mind and gets cross when the pieces have minds and images of their own.
There is Vorena. She is a liar too - both to others when she pretends to her father that everything is alright. But also to herself with her box of animals. She wants to believe in her farm in the country - symbolised by all the little straw animals and people. She wants to believe that this person loves her, even if she knows that the person is connected to Memmio and a little shady.
One of the things I’ve been asking myself is why nobody tells Vorena the Elder the truth. That Niobe wasn’t killed, but killed herself, and that her father isn’t (such) a bad man. But after watching "A Necessary Fiction" I’m not sure it would have helped. Granted everything Vorena has seen indicates that her father is a horrible man and that he is the root of all evil.
But at the same time I think it is important not to overlook that for Vorena it is goodto be able to lay all the blame on her father. He is there, he is tangible - and so it’s much, much easier to hate him and blame him for everything - than to face what has happened to her and her family.
Then there is Agrippa. When confronted by Octavian he blurts out that yes, he has been having an affair and he is very sorry. At first I was rather cross at him, but then I started thinking -especially about his little speech in the kitchen. Octavia says they can elope and that she has some money - and he refuses and breaks it of with her.
As I said to alexandral I was disappointed at first, but I'm beginning to understand him a little. Not saying excusing him - but I see where he is coming from. Octavia's talk about escaping and running away is sweet, but not very practical. For love is sweet but it doesn't put bread on the table - and now I sound like the worlds worst anti-romantic and I'm not.(I’ve just been reading too much George R.R. Martin)But I think it’s important to remember that in this series Agrippa is a nobody as far as background is concerned. His grandfather was a slave, and his father has probably worked damn hard to rise above that - and Agrippa himself seems to have work damn hard.
So he knows what hard work and toil is - and Octavia does not. How long do you think she would last on the run in the east? What would they do when the money ran out (which it would), and they were being chased by a slightly psychotic Octavian (and he would chase them).
What would they do when the first rush of eloping has gone and hard reality sets in? Octavia doesn't know an occupation and she isn't very strong. I'd wager she would suffer terribly, and by breaking it of Agrippa has spared her of that. He has kept her safe, said all the blame is on him (remember he was very focused on telling Octavian it was all his fault). The result is Octavia is as safe and as well looked after as he can make her at the moment. Heartbroken yes, but safe.
Add to that is the fate of other characters who have run away to the east. It started with Pompey and ended with Cassius and Brutus, and it all ended with death. Now I’m not saying Agrippa is thinking a long quite so dramatic lines, but it must be whispering somewhere in the back of his mind that going east never solves anything. In fact it often reduces you to live on others mercy. The Egyptians killed Pompey to try to get Caesar’s favour. How many would try to kill him and capture Octavia to get Octavian’s favour? And he is (as yet) a nobody compared to Pompey - what measure of protection for Octavia could he muster?
The long version:
The loving:
I don't really care that they play fast and loose with the historical events, because where Rome shines to me is in conveying emotions and life. It makes you feel something about history and historical events and it forces you to care. I think my greatest love in regards to "Rome" is how it manages to be so human and so foreign all at the same time.(My second love would be mad, bad Titus Pullo in leather - because um..yes.Do I need to explain why?) And I felt this episode had this is spades. From manic Pullo covered in blood to Livia biting the head of birds the show is so good at using visual imagery to get you to emotionally connect.
Granted that my stance is that you cannot make a historical correct movie/series no matter how hard you try. Even films depicting events that happened 20 or 60 years ago will at some point be historically inaccurate and that's just the way things are. As L.P. Hartley said: "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there" and we cannot recreated it wholly. But what we can do is to remind ourselves that the people living then were human too. They were more than just names on a page or in marble, and "Rome" works for me as a wonderful reminder of that.
The crying:
I will admit that I cried twice - which is actually a little unusual. But when Eirene died and during the big Vorenii confrontation and Vorenus nearly strangling his daughter I got all teary. I will also admit to forgiving Pullo after he went all catatonic and grieving - in fact I might have forgiven him already on Eirene’s deathbed when he talked about her getting old and grey.
The rest - from OMG! Ewww - to analysis and talk of parallels
One of the things Rome has been very good at is playing with parallels. In this episode I would say there was a parallel between Maschius and Lepidus - both being the third f**king man. (And was it just me or did anyone else find Lepidus’s "It was probably Gauls!" extremely funny?)
There was also a very good parallel between Eirene’s funeral and Pullo’s proposal, with them both set in the country - but most importantly a parallel between Niobe’s funeral and Eirene’s.
I also liked the symbolism that Pullo now has buried "peace" aka Eirene’s name, and then goes absolutely insane in battle. Now the tongue biting was bad, but I wasn’t that shocked. For some reason it was the mad Pullo wielding an axe and looking psychotic that really scared me!
(I’ve probably read too many Viking sagas in school. There they bite of body parts all the time. Like in one of my favourite sagas: "Then Egil threw a way his shield and grabbed him and bit him in the throat until he was dead." I read that when I was 13 and have never gotten over it. )
But I would also claim that there is a connection, or perhaps the term circle would be more appropriate, - between this episode and the beginning of series one. Now Pullo is the one with a family to look after (not his biological family, but I doubt he takes that into consideration), and Vorenus is the lonely one without any connection besides the army.
In S1 it was of course the other way around, and I will admit I never thought it would shift like this.
I’m going to sound extremely geeky here, but then again I often do, and say that this was possibly my favourite episode title of the season. You see I have a special love for titles that both match and twists your view about an episode. This might hearken back to my love for paintings and how the title of a painting changes the way you view it, but at any rate: Yay for A Necessary Fiction. So why did I find it so very fitting? Because this episode was filled with people who lied - either to themselves or to others.
Octavian is a liar - he lies to himself all the time. For he clearly believes every word of his little moral speech - he thinks this is the way the world is, the way it should always be. So the pieces that do not fit his picture get cut away. This is a large part of what makes him dangerous. Now Caesar was someone who saw the world for what it was and used that as a basis for his manipulation, whereas Octavian is someone who views the world with an already formed image in his mind and gets cross when the pieces have minds and images of their own.
There is Vorena. She is a liar too - both to others when she pretends to her father that everything is alright. But also to herself with her box of animals. She wants to believe in her farm in the country - symbolised by all the little straw animals and people. She wants to believe that this person loves her, even if she knows that the person is connected to Memmio and a little shady.
One of the things I’ve been asking myself is why nobody tells Vorena the Elder the truth. That Niobe wasn’t killed, but killed herself, and that her father isn’t (such) a bad man. But after watching "A Necessary Fiction" I’m not sure it would have helped. Granted everything Vorena has seen indicates that her father is a horrible man and that he is the root of all evil.
But at the same time I think it is important not to overlook that for Vorena it is goodto be able to lay all the blame on her father. He is there, he is tangible - and so it’s much, much easier to hate him and blame him for everything - than to face what has happened to her and her family.
Then there is Agrippa. When confronted by Octavian he blurts out that yes, he has been having an affair and he is very sorry. At first I was rather cross at him, but then I started thinking -especially about his little speech in the kitchen. Octavia says they can elope and that she has some money - and he refuses and breaks it of with her.
As I said to alexandral I was disappointed at first, but I'm beginning to understand him a little. Not saying excusing him - but I see where he is coming from. Octavia's talk about escaping and running away is sweet, but not very practical. For love is sweet but it doesn't put bread on the table - and now I sound like the worlds worst anti-romantic and I'm not.(I’ve just been reading too much George R.R. Martin)But I think it’s important to remember that in this series Agrippa is a nobody as far as background is concerned. His grandfather was a slave, and his father has probably worked damn hard to rise above that - and Agrippa himself seems to have work damn hard.
So he knows what hard work and toil is - and Octavia does not. How long do you think she would last on the run in the east? What would they do when the money ran out (which it would), and they were being chased by a slightly psychotic Octavian (and he would chase them).
What would they do when the first rush of eloping has gone and hard reality sets in? Octavia doesn't know an occupation and she isn't very strong. I'd wager she would suffer terribly, and by breaking it of Agrippa has spared her of that. He has kept her safe, said all the blame is on him (remember he was very focused on telling Octavian it was all his fault). The result is Octavia is as safe and as well looked after as he can make her at the moment. Heartbroken yes, but safe.
Add to that is the fate of other characters who have run away to the east. It started with Pompey and ended with Cassius and Brutus, and it all ended with death. Now I’m not saying Agrippa is thinking a long quite so dramatic lines, but it must be whispering somewhere in the back of his mind that going east never solves anything. In fact it often reduces you to live on others mercy. The Egyptians killed Pompey to try to get Caesar’s favour. How many would try to kill him and capture Octavia to get Octavian’s favour? And he is (as yet) a nobody compared to Pompey - what measure of protection for Octavia could he muster?