Much more links, and more reviews
Firstly, behold the new icon. One of the greatest benefits of the talented saava having watched Babylon 5 is that she now creates stuff like this. Check out her newest masterpieces here!
Secondly, also for B5 fans: everyone who wanted a rant about Lyta Alexander will find one here. eye_of_a_cat says it all, and so I don't have to.
Speaking of rants, rozk beautifully demolishes Margaret Thatcher and her saviour-of-the-country myth.
Back to the ancient world: recently, Virgil had a kind of comeback on lj. Artaxastra gave us some great stories tackling the Aeneid in a historically plausible way, and thassalia made the great observation that if Farscape was like the Odyssey, the new Battlestar Galactica is like the Aeneid. A civilisation has collapsed through a brutal war, and the few survivors are trying to find a new home. If you want to brush up on the Aeneid, check out this post of vaznetti's. Which offers some wonderful observations on Romans versus Greeks as well, such as:
First of all, only a Roman would rush back into a burning city full of his enemies to rescue his wife. Seriously, no Greek hero would ever do this (except Odysseus, probably), and even if he did, there's basically a 100% chance that his wife would end up trying to kill him. A Greek hero would do this for his boyfriend, but never his wife. The second thing that's very Roman is that Creusa ends up holding the rear. Again, Greek heroes don't tend to give their wives positions of responsibility; considering the frequency with which their wives try to kill them, that's probably sensible. Romans are much more likely to leave their wives in charge, while they're off doing something important. "Bye, honey! Look after the house and land while I'm off conquering Asia, OK? Oh, and it might be a few years, so here's a preliminary list of men I won't mind you having an affair with, if you get lonely. Have fun!" Seriously. That's how marriage in the Late Republic works.
***
I forgot to mention that the third season of Six Feet Under has finished on German tv. (They showed the second and third in a row, but won't show the fourth for a while, so don't spoil me.) Well, if the second season was where Brenda messed up, the third was where Nate did. Granted, between his medical condition, the hasty marriage to Lisa and the uncertainty of her fate in the end, he really had it tough, but this was definitely when we saw him from his least likeable side, especially towards the end. (Yelling at Ruth for being selfish, etc.) If the death of his father brought out the best in him, losing his wife brought out the worst. (Figures that Brenda gets it together beautifully in the meantime.)
The one I felt most for was Claire. Between having a pretentious exploitative jerk like Olivier for a teacher, which ruined her joy in art, and having an abortion without anyone of her family noticing, she had a horrible time. Was I ever glad that Brenda was around to offer company and help on the later occasion at least.
The David/Keith issues start to feel repetitive; can't decide whether this is supposed to be intentional or not. This being said, I was a big softie for the David and Keith talk outside of the church in the season finale.
Ruth: what was that thing with Arthur about? George who looks like James Cromwell but is probably played by someone else is probably doomed to break up with her next season, but in the meantime, they appear to have fun, so, good for her. (And did I mention Nate was absolutely horrid towards her in this situation?)
I also watched some more Carnivale. Okay, the town Babylon was Stephen King like creepy to the nth degree. I figured out the townspeople were ghosts/zombies/revenants pretty soon, but not until John Hannah asked to be killed over the hill did I realize what this meant for poor Dora Mae. The last scene of Pick a Number sucker-punched me nonetheless. Being doomed to spent eternity gang-raped has to be the most horrible fate befalling a character since the Greeks came up with Tartarus.
Characterwise, I loved the bonding between Sophie and - is it Beth or Lizzie, I've heard her called both? - and the fleshing out of Sampson and his right-hand-man. Ben, however, fastly becomes uninteresting, especially when compared to Justin. Whose angst at least right now looks more interesting by far. More Justin (and Iris) per episode, please.
And why did management want them to go to Babylon?
Less rethorical: I didn't quite understand (because of the accent) just what Scudder (spelling taken from E.M Forster's Maurice, correct me if I'm wrong) had done - he killed all of the mining people, right?
Secondly, also for B5 fans: everyone who wanted a rant about Lyta Alexander will find one here. eye_of_a_cat says it all, and so I don't have to.
Speaking of rants, rozk beautifully demolishes Margaret Thatcher and her saviour-of-the-country myth.
Back to the ancient world: recently, Virgil had a kind of comeback on lj. Artaxastra gave us some great stories tackling the Aeneid in a historically plausible way, and thassalia made the great observation that if Farscape was like the Odyssey, the new Battlestar Galactica is like the Aeneid. A civilisation has collapsed through a brutal war, and the few survivors are trying to find a new home. If you want to brush up on the Aeneid, check out this post of vaznetti's. Which offers some wonderful observations on Romans versus Greeks as well, such as:
First of all, only a Roman would rush back into a burning city full of his enemies to rescue his wife. Seriously, no Greek hero would ever do this (except Odysseus, probably), and even if he did, there's basically a 100% chance that his wife would end up trying to kill him. A Greek hero would do this for his boyfriend, but never his wife. The second thing that's very Roman is that Creusa ends up holding the rear. Again, Greek heroes don't tend to give their wives positions of responsibility; considering the frequency with which their wives try to kill them, that's probably sensible. Romans are much more likely to leave their wives in charge, while they're off doing something important. "Bye, honey! Look after the house and land while I'm off conquering Asia, OK? Oh, and it might be a few years, so here's a preliminary list of men I won't mind you having an affair with, if you get lonely. Have fun!" Seriously. That's how marriage in the Late Republic works.
***
I forgot to mention that the third season of Six Feet Under has finished on German tv. (They showed the second and third in a row, but won't show the fourth for a while, so don't spoil me.) Well, if the second season was where Brenda messed up, the third was where Nate did. Granted, between his medical condition, the hasty marriage to Lisa and the uncertainty of her fate in the end, he really had it tough, but this was definitely when we saw him from his least likeable side, especially towards the end. (Yelling at Ruth for being selfish, etc.) If the death of his father brought out the best in him, losing his wife brought out the worst. (Figures that Brenda gets it together beautifully in the meantime.)
The one I felt most for was Claire. Between having a pretentious exploitative jerk like Olivier for a teacher, which ruined her joy in art, and having an abortion without anyone of her family noticing, she had a horrible time. Was I ever glad that Brenda was around to offer company and help on the later occasion at least.
The David/Keith issues start to feel repetitive; can't decide whether this is supposed to be intentional or not. This being said, I was a big softie for the David and Keith talk outside of the church in the season finale.
Ruth: what was that thing with Arthur about? George who looks like James Cromwell but is probably played by someone else is probably doomed to break up with her next season, but in the meantime, they appear to have fun, so, good for her. (And did I mention Nate was absolutely horrid towards her in this situation?)
I also watched some more Carnivale. Okay, the town Babylon was Stephen King like creepy to the nth degree. I figured out the townspeople were ghosts/zombies/revenants pretty soon, but not until John Hannah asked to be killed over the hill did I realize what this meant for poor Dora Mae. The last scene of Pick a Number sucker-punched me nonetheless. Being doomed to spent eternity gang-raped has to be the most horrible fate befalling a character since the Greeks came up with Tartarus.
Characterwise, I loved the bonding between Sophie and - is it Beth or Lizzie, I've heard her called both? - and the fleshing out of Sampson and his right-hand-man. Ben, however, fastly becomes uninteresting, especially when compared to Justin. Whose angst at least right now looks more interesting by far. More Justin (and Iris) per episode, please.
And why did management want them to go to Babylon?
Less rethorical: I didn't quite understand (because of the accent) just what Scudder (spelling taken from E.M Forster's Maurice, correct me if I'm wrong) had done - he killed all of the mining people, right?