The one where I actually talk about Kings
Don't get me wrong: I loved that pilot utterly beyond all reason. Even if the show goes on to plumb new depths of heretofore unseen suckiness, I will still burn that pilot to DVD and cherish it forever.
I am struggling with Kings right now. I mean, I have squeed and flailed all over everybody in ridiculous all-caps because it is brilliant and beautiful and perfect, and so now, naturally, I am rewatching and struggling with it.
1. Jack's character. That last scene of him in the car with William... look. There are things that have to happen in this story. David has to marry Michelle. Silas has to turn against David. And David and Jack must be loyal to each other. These things are non-optional. Right now, I don't have a bead on Jack's character at all- because he was so heartbreakingly sympathetic during that incredible, creepy, frightening, intense confrontation with Silas- but then to see him in the car with William? I do not understand. I don't believe that of him. I need to understand how he gets from here (from this contradiction of his character- his pary lifestyle and disregard for the respect and trappings of rank and yet his apparent desire to be king, enough to confront his father when his father seems to be sidelining him- what does he want, really?) to a place where he loves David, and how does that path go through scheming with William?
On this front, by the way, I am both encouraged and really not encouraged by the somewhat spoilery, somewhat adversarial afterelton interview.
I mean, if I TRUST the show to do this arc- where Jack changes so radically into the Jonathan we know, and David also changes so radically into the flawed and power-hungry and manipulative politician (or, rather, into someone who at least has the potential to become that politician in a few more years)- that would be extraordinary. But I... oh God, I'm so worried. What if that isn't the arc? What if they really are just naive-innocent-David and total-bastard-Jack?
(I will still kind of love total bastard Jack anyway)
2. I don't have Silas' voice. I won't, for a long time, or maybe ever. It's a wonderful voice, full of these strange leaps of register, from the scriptural and poetic and grandiose right back down to snide and gruff and careless, so that the choices of and leaps in tone convey nearly as much as the words themselves. I don't think I could ever write that. It's brilliant. Or it's just uneven, and Ian McShane is brilliant. That's more likely.
3. I really want there to be fic where Samuels is more than the mystic figure. I want fic about Samuels as political manipulator. I want to see how he put Silas on the throne and why he feels he can replace him. I am not calling his motivations or beliefs into question here- he could be, but does not necessarily have to be, cynical, but Samuel of the Bible is kind of a bastard and in any case, Samuels HAS power. I want to see that, I want to see where he feels that power comes from and how he has used it and how he feels he has the right to use it and what that actually ENTAILS, in this world. I can't write that.
4. And the main problem with writing anything here: Is it Kings fic or Bible fic? Especially a problem what with the character of Jona-Jack (yeah, I'm gonna keep doing that, I think). Silas is perfect- achingly, utterly perfect, brilliant and complicated and powerful and terrifying and human and I would never want to write about Saul rather than him- but for the rest... Is it Bible fic or Kings fic? Especially as I have more contact with this story than the strictly average American (who is astonishingly clueless, actually), but not nearly enough to be actually educated about it or have all the references at my fingertips- I can't do bible fic justice.
So if only I could figure out Jack, maybe I could do Kings fic, but I'm afraid of a bastard child right in the middle. For example: The thing with Jack giving Daniel a suit to wear for the banquet made me cry a little inside. Way to WASTE that, writers. But if I re-write that, if I make it something it isn't in the show- well. Hell, everything about the Jack character- if I jump the two of them straight over whatever arc gets Jack from point A to point Z (because he has a LONG way to go), does that mean I'm just ignoring the show? Or is getting Jossed the only risk? Or, for that matter, is the writing good enough that Jack's arc will actually be interesting to explore on its own merits, once we see more of it?
(Speaking of heavily symbolic clothing things that they WASTED- I MOURN that Samuel's coat didn't tear. They gave us coat-grabbing- would just a little more have been anvilicious?)
5. I almost forgot: David's big speech to the tanks. You guys. YOU GUYS. This was acted badly and written utterly over the top and I LOVED IT BEYOND ALL REASON.
And this is why: The first confrontation with Goliath is anti-climactic. It comes too early and is over too soon and the pacing seems weird- but that is because this, this here at the end, is the real Goliath confrontation. Not to downplay the very real emotion David feels over his brother, something has happened to him. David does not see himself as a hero for that first battle; he surrendered, he failed, he sees himself as, at least a little, a coward. More to the point, he sees himself as powerless before the tank. It was pure luck, not his own doing, that gave him that victory, and so he protests his heroic treatment because he sees himself as powerless.
Then Silas gives him power. Not real power, not real position- Silas gives him a very specific sort of power, one that David has never had before, has understood or tried to wield or even thought about. Silas, in trying to use David, taught David that he has the power to make people pay attention to him.
So this second battle with Goliath - it is awkward, and humble, and contrived and obvious and unpolished, but this is David claiming this new power of his. This is David fighting the battle again with this newly discovered weapon and finding himself not a coward and above all not powerless. This is David discovering that he can now conceive of himself as a hero, this is David taking what the king has done to him and thinking, "I can use this. I can do this. I want this."
That is hugely fucking important, and I LOVE THIS SCENE OMG SO MUCH.
I am struggling with Kings right now. I mean, I have squeed and flailed all over everybody in ridiculous all-caps because it is brilliant and beautiful and perfect, and so now, naturally, I am rewatching and struggling with it.
1. Jack's character. That last scene of him in the car with William... look. There are things that have to happen in this story. David has to marry Michelle. Silas has to turn against David. And David and Jack must be loyal to each other. These things are non-optional. Right now, I don't have a bead on Jack's character at all- because he was so heartbreakingly sympathetic during that incredible, creepy, frightening, intense confrontation with Silas- but then to see him in the car with William? I do not understand. I don't believe that of him. I need to understand how he gets from here (from this contradiction of his character- his pary lifestyle and disregard for the respect and trappings of rank and yet his apparent desire to be king, enough to confront his father when his father seems to be sidelining him- what does he want, really?) to a place where he loves David, and how does that path go through scheming with William?
On this front, by the way, I am both encouraged and really not encouraged by the somewhat spoilery, somewhat adversarial afterelton interview.
I mean, if I TRUST the show to do this arc- where Jack changes so radically into the Jonathan we know, and David also changes so radically into the flawed and power-hungry and manipulative politician (or, rather, into someone who at least has the potential to become that politician in a few more years)- that would be extraordinary. But I... oh God, I'm so worried. What if that isn't the arc? What if they really are just naive-innocent-David and total-bastard-Jack?
(I will still kind of love total bastard Jack anyway)
2. I don't have Silas' voice. I won't, for a long time, or maybe ever. It's a wonderful voice, full of these strange leaps of register, from the scriptural and poetic and grandiose right back down to snide and gruff and careless, so that the choices of and leaps in tone convey nearly as much as the words themselves. I don't think I could ever write that. It's brilliant. Or it's just uneven, and Ian McShane is brilliant. That's more likely.
3. I really want there to be fic where Samuels is more than the mystic figure. I want fic about Samuels as political manipulator. I want to see how he put Silas on the throne and why he feels he can replace him. I am not calling his motivations or beliefs into question here- he could be, but does not necessarily have to be, cynical, but Samuel of the Bible is kind of a bastard and in any case, Samuels HAS power. I want to see that, I want to see where he feels that power comes from and how he has used it and how he feels he has the right to use it and what that actually ENTAILS, in this world. I can't write that.
4. And the main problem with writing anything here: Is it Kings fic or Bible fic? Especially a problem what with the character of Jona-Jack (yeah, I'm gonna keep doing that, I think). Silas is perfect- achingly, utterly perfect, brilliant and complicated and powerful and terrifying and human and I would never want to write about Saul rather than him- but for the rest... Is it Bible fic or Kings fic? Especially as I have more contact with this story than the strictly average American (who is astonishingly clueless, actually), but not nearly enough to be actually educated about it or have all the references at my fingertips- I can't do bible fic justice.
So if only I could figure out Jack, maybe I could do Kings fic, but I'm afraid of a bastard child right in the middle. For example: The thing with Jack giving Daniel a suit to wear for the banquet made me cry a little inside. Way to WASTE that, writers. But if I re-write that, if I make it something it isn't in the show- well. Hell, everything about the Jack character- if I jump the two of them straight over whatever arc gets Jack from point A to point Z (because he has a LONG way to go), does that mean I'm just ignoring the show? Or is getting Jossed the only risk? Or, for that matter, is the writing good enough that Jack's arc will actually be interesting to explore on its own merits, once we see more of it?
(Speaking of heavily symbolic clothing things that they WASTED- I MOURN that Samuel's coat didn't tear. They gave us coat-grabbing- would just a little more have been anvilicious?)
5. I almost forgot: David's big speech to the tanks. You guys. YOU GUYS. This was acted badly and written utterly over the top and I LOVED IT BEYOND ALL REASON.
And this is why: The first confrontation with Goliath is anti-climactic. It comes too early and is over too soon and the pacing seems weird- but that is because this, this here at the end, is the real Goliath confrontation. Not to downplay the very real emotion David feels over his brother, something has happened to him. David does not see himself as a hero for that first battle; he surrendered, he failed, he sees himself as, at least a little, a coward. More to the point, he sees himself as powerless before the tank. It was pure luck, not his own doing, that gave him that victory, and so he protests his heroic treatment because he sees himself as powerless.
Then Silas gives him power. Not real power, not real position- Silas gives him a very specific sort of power, one that David has never had before, has understood or tried to wield or even thought about. Silas, in trying to use David, taught David that he has the power to make people pay attention to him.
So this second battle with Goliath - it is awkward, and humble, and contrived and obvious and unpolished, but this is David claiming this new power of his. This is David fighting the battle again with this newly discovered weapon and finding himself not a coward and above all not powerless. This is David discovering that he can now conceive of himself as a hero, this is David taking what the king has done to him and thinking, "I can use this. I can do this. I want this."
That is hugely fucking important, and I LOVE THIS SCENE OMG SO MUCH.