Rome: Triumph

[vaznetti]

Wah! A rift! I don't want there to be a rift! Pullo and Vorenus are supposed to be best friends forever! with benefits! Wah!!!

OK, but note that even when Vorenus is chucking him out, Pullo doesn't tell him about Niobe's affair. He's such a gentlemen, except when he succumbs to sudden violent rages and beats someone's head in. You could kind of see that something was going to go wrong, but I didn't realize it would go that wrong. Poor Pullo. Poor Eirene and, of course, poor anonymous slave boyfriend.

At least we got to see Cassius. Yay, Cassius! And I rather like that Servilia wrote the pamphlets about Cato. And that Caesar mentioned his need to respond (he did write an "Anti-Cato" as a response to Cicero's laudatory pamphlet on Cato.) Brutus us still kind of a pain in the ass, but that's very much in character and (I believe) historically accurate.

I liked the triumph, and Vercingetorix. I would have liked to see the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. I loved the exchange between Caesar and Antony -- the way Caesar completely overrode Antony's mockery. No, it's not a game to Caesar.

There were other things I liked here, but I'll write about them later. Maybe. The senatorial politics are still confusing me.

ETA: And on a totally unrelated note, I turned on that "Category 7" disaster movie. And I realize that I may well get kicked out of the Krycek-fan club for this, but Nick Lea is looking kind of skanky these days.

Comments

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

I just was kind of aghast at how broken Pullo was at the end of this episode - where is our ebullient brutish fella who let everything roll of his back? I think he realizes what a horrible thing he's done (he knows that he is a murderer) and he WANTS Vorenus to beat him, to punish him physically (hence the taunts) and instead Vorenus does the worst possible thing from Pullo's perspective, which is to exile him from the happy family entirely... (Except from the previews, it's clear Vorenus still cares about Pullo).

I LOVED the triumph - I htink they were saving all the money on the battles to do that - and it was so beautifully filmed and so OTHER and alien that it worked perfectly. These were not people who were the same as us, but just wearing togas - these were people with a whole different view of the world and the way those scenes were filmed really conveyed that to me.

[vaznetti]

For some reason, Canadian TV doesn't show the trailers (but I don't think it's any surprise that Vorenus still cares -- their love is too strong to be erased by random fits of killing.) I think what was interesting here was how Pullo and Vorenus' situations have been reversed -- remember how when they first got back to Rome, Vorenus was completely at a loss, and Pullo had to advise him on working things out with Niobe? And yet now Pullo can be so incredibly blind about Eirene, and there's no one to pull him up out of the pit he's fallen into. I agree that he wants Vorenus to beat him -- but of course Vorenus' punishment is so much worse than that, and Pullo can't be angry because he knows he deserves it.

Poor Pullo!

I would have liked to see Jupiter O.M. because I wanted it to be clear that that's who Caesar is dressed as. I love that Caesar very nearly believes that he's divine.

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

Pullo had to advise him on working things out with Niobe?

But it's kind of even MORE than that: in a way, all the things that Vorenus has (and that Pullo so desperately wants to have) are kind of vouchsafed to him by Pullo - indirectly, because Vorenus ended up fighting on Caesar's side more or less without actually deciding to do so and hence has ended up as someone that Caesar has rewarded with magistracies and other things; and directly, because Vorenus's happiness with Niobe and his family is conditioned on the maintenance of the lie about the child. And Pullo - and Octavian - are the ones who made sure that lie would remain in place BECAUSE (in Pullo's case, tho' not in Octavian's) Pullo did not want his friend to suffer pain because of Niobe's infidelity. In fact, despite that brutality that Pullo demonstrated in this episode, I still respect that he kept his mouth shut about Niobe - the taunt he offers Vorenus is the far less personal one about his allegiance to Caesar, not the truly hurtful one about his wife's unfaithfulness.

[chriswife.livejournal.com]

I love that skanky look. ;)