Rome 2x02: Son of Hades

[vaznetti]

So I've gone from Supernatural to Rome to Rome today. Sorry for spamming, but I couldn't help posting about this episode.


So compared to my iffy reaction to last week's episode, this week I am full of unbelievable love for the show. I had so much fun watching this episode, to the extent that I kept saying "awesome!" and "so cool!" to my television.

There is only one thing that would have made the episode better, and that would be a scene of Octavian sucking up to Cicero to get him to start attacking Antony. Because he'd do a good job of it, and did, historically, do a good job of it. OK and the reference to "my friend Agrippa" at the end was kind of tacked on. But other than that one great missed opportunity (and I have hope that we will see such a scene in the future), there was so much to love in this episode.

I mean really, Antony was wonderful -- adding his own papers to Caesar's acta! -- and getting called on it by Cicero! And moaning about all the trouble involved in ruling Rome! and refusing to take Octavian seriously! And Cicero pointing out that Antony needs him too much to have him killed today! (Today, alas.)

And I loved his scenes with Cleopatra, because I know what's coming -- not the affair, but Antony's support for Caesarion. And I loved the negotiation between Posca and Cleopatra's woman, and Antony's complete inability to deal with Posca. And Cleopatra bringing the boy to Atia's party, and the doubling of Atia with Servilia and the queen, winning with one set of kisses and losing with the other.

There was just so much delicious foreshadowing in the political scenes. I am just speechless with glee. I even liked that little shit Octavian, making his gamble and sticking to it. "I have decided to enter politics," indeed. Eighteen-year-olds don't enter Roman politics. Unless they're named Pompey, of course. Or Octavian. And that brawl with Antony was crazy and over the top and totally satisfying, at least to me. Little snake -- and Antony nearly setting the house on fire, the thug.

And oh, Vorenus. Oh, Vorenus. Taking to his bed, and being dragged out of it by Antony ("I am your master, by sacred oath under the standards of the 13th." Awesome. And wow, I usually know too much to see the slash but I sure saw it there. Wow.) And then taking over the comitia, so that Antony will have the thugs he needs, because he's crazier than anyone else. I was hoping he'd beat someone to death with the statue of Concord (an odd goddess for a plebeian association, but whatever), but what he does is more than good enough. A son of Hades, and poor Pullo, loyal to the end, even though he knows what's coming. Because he's right -- Vorenus' children are alive, and the gods are going to fuck him up the ass. And Vorenus has no idea of what he's doing, or what's coming for him. No idea at all.

God, poor Pullo. What happens when Antony and Octavian come to blows, and Vorenus does what he must? Because loyalty is Pullo's strength, loyalty and faithfulness, and the gods have already turned their back on Rome, and on him as well.

I am just so full of love for everything about this episode, especially Antony -- Octavian's right about him, but he's fun to watch -- and the way Vorenus and Pullo are about to rip my heart out in the worst possible way. Marvelous, wonderful, I'm so happy.


Eeee! Romans!

Comments

[destina.livejournal.com]

There was just so much delicious foreshadowing in the political scenes. I am just speechless with glee. I even liked that little shit Octavian, making his gamble and sticking to it. "I have decided to enter politics," indeed.

Yes yes yes!! Octavian makes me so happy. *g* And the foreshadowing was fantastic, as was the way they laid the groundwork for the interpersonal dynamics.

("I am your master, by sacred oath under the standards of the 13th." Awesome. And wow, I usually know too much to see the slash but I sure saw it there. Wow.)

Man, it was really hard to miss. I mean, like, sort of like the sun crashing into the earth would be hard to miss. :D

[vaznetti]

Man, it was really hard to miss. I mean, like, sort of like the sun crashing into the earth would be hard to miss.

I mean, really. Antony might as well have just bent him over the table then and there. That was just... "hello Vorenus' ass! I own you, now." I guess because m/m sex in Rome is generally about dominance, it really worked for me there. And did I did I mention that it was hot?

[se-parsons.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this show is all kinds of wow. I could not love it more.

And Antony ruled in this one. In all kinds of ways.

And "ha" on the Octavian "I can provide that leadership" with his sister laughing.

Vorenus is giving me a bit of a pain, not that the magnitude of his stuff shouldn't make him suffer, but I seldom have paitence for people allowing their own pain to make them destructive to others. It makes good drama, though. Especially for Pullo.

[vaznetti]

This was totally Antony's episode. I really hope that the season turns out to be Antony's season -- if it ends in 30 it would make a neat parallel to Caesar's story in S1.

I guess I can tolerate Vorenus' excessive pain and anger because of how much he's suffering, and because of the implicit tragedy to come -- he really does believe that he destroyed his family, and has no idea that instead, he's in the act of destroying them.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Eeeee! ROMANS!

Very curious to see if anything else happens between Cleopatra and Pullo.

And no, I don't really remember my Roman history, so this is just like the most cracktastic canon ever in my head.

[vaznetti]

And no, I don't really remember my Roman history, so this is just like the most cracktastic canon ever in my head.

Ha! That's a very good way of watching the show, I think.

And as for Pullo and Cleopatra, you should see selenak's comment below. I half-wonder whether Cleopatra will try to have Pullo killed -- he's a huge threat to her, so long as he lives.

[the-grynne.livejournal.com]

I won't get to download the episode until tonight but EEEEE!!!

And I've just started reading Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", which I've never read before, and in Harold Bloom's introduction I read this:

Though Caesar's nephew, Octavius, is his adopted son and heir, there is a tradition that Brutus was Caesar's natural son, and many critics have noted the similarities that Shakespeare portrays between the two. I firmly reject Freud's identification of Hamlet with Oedipus; it is Brutus, and Macbeth after him, who manifest Oedipal ambivalences toward their fatherly figures.

...which just brings the Macbethian scene of Brutus with Servilia into my mind like a ton of bricks and I was so full of glee!

[vaznetti]

You've never read "Julius Caesar"? It's one of my favorites -- I love his Caesar, and his Brutus, and all the characters, really. But his Caesar is just... guh. ("...Of all the wonders I have ever seen/it seems to me most strange that men should fear/ seeing that death, a necessary end, willcome when it will come." And many other wonderful lines besides.)

And yes on the Oedipal thing -- I mean, Brutus clearly wasn't Caesar's son, but Caesar was his mother's lover for so long that he might as well have been.

[the-grynne.livejournal.com]

I've never read his Roman plays (except "Titus Andronicus") nor any of his histories, not sure why. But reading them, you see what several reviewers I've read have been pointing out, that Rome is as much based upon historical record as on "Julius Caesar". Like Jane Espenson (http://www.janeespenson.com/archives/00000281.php) said, "Shakespeare got there first" and he's so much a part of our culture's consciousness it's pointless to try to ignore it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

because I know what's coming -- not the affair, but Antony's support for Caesarion.

*reading this, because it will be at least a year until I see it*

You know, I was wondering why they characterized Cleopatra the way they did in season 1s Caesarion and why Pullo, but now something has occured to me: Octavian is going to order someone to murder that boy after defeating Antony & Cleopatra. What are the chances he'll order Pullo to do it?

[vaznetti]

Oh, wow. I hadn't made that connection, but you must be right. That's exactly how it will play out.

Iliked Cleopatra much more in this episode than in the earlier one. She was just much sharper all around, and "won" all her scenes, as Cleopatra ought.

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

Isn't Caesarion killed after Actium, though? I'm not certain about this, but I'm pretty sure the series ends at or even before Actium (although, you know, who knows, they might change around the order of how things happen a bit).

My own personal "fate worse than death" scenario is that Pullo and Vorenus are on opposite sides at Actium and *ack* kill each other. Because THAT would break my heart!!

I liked Cleopatra VERY much in this episode.

[vaznetti]

I'm not certain about this, but I'm pretty sure the series ends at or even before Actium (although, you know, who knows, they might change around the order of how things happen a bit).

Oh -- I didn't know that -- I just figured they'd go up to the death of Antony and Cleopatra (and Caesarion!), just for completeness, even if they made it all right after Actium, rather than a year later. How weird it would be if they end it before Actium, though! You'd think Octavian and Antony split the empire, or something, and everyone lived happily ever after.

My own personal "fate worse than death" scenario is that Pullo and Vorenus are on opposite sides at Actium and *ack* kill each other. Because THAT would break my heart!!

Oh no! Of course I do think they'll be on opposite sides, but it had never even occured to me that they'd kill each other! I refuse to even think about this possibility -- it's far too disturbing. No, they'll meet on the battlefield and reconcile and maybe one will save the other's life. And then they'll live happily ever after. Maybe. Except I wouldn't give odds on Vorenus surviving the season, at this point.