From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V3 #215 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Thursday, July 31 2003 Volume 03 : Number 215 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [chakram-refugees] DVDs in general [IfeRae@aol.com] Re: [chakram-refugees] Miss Amphipolis & Destiny [cr ] Re: [chakram-refugees] Miss Amphipolis & Destiny [cr ] Re: [chakram-refugees] DVDs in general [cr ] Re: [chakram-refugees] Xena DVD 2 [] Re: [chakram-refugees] Xena DVD 2 [IfeRae@aol.com] Re: [chakram-refugees] Miss Amphipolis & Destiny [IfeRae@aol.com] Re: [chakram-refugees] Re: FIN [Xwpacolyte@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 00:19:54 EDT From: IfeRae@aol.com Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] DVDs in general In a message dated 7/29/2003 6:19:09 PM Central Daylight Time, cande@sunlink.net writes: > In 1995 when Xena > first aired no one knew DVDs were going to so popular and I doubt if TPTB > even > thought much about a secondary market like VHS much less DVDs. Perhaps if > they had they would have dumped the 16mm film and used the 35mm. > > The directors on the bonus interview DVD give a lot of reasons for 16 mm besides cost. Apparently, RT wanted to immediately and visually distinguish XWP from Herc. He thought the graininess would give a darker, "grittier" feel that would contrast with the more pristine, "bright" look of Herc. More importantly, the directors say the lighter weight 6 mm cameras allowed them to be much more flexible and creative in shooting scenes -- particularly those almost frenetic and upclose shots that added to the sense of speed and "in your face" action. They sometimes attached the cameras to booms or dangled cameramen in ways they couldn't with heavier equipment. They credit the 16 mm with contributing to XWP's unique style and expressed concern when they found out 35 mm was going to be used in season 2. - -- Ife ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 19:45:04 +1200 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Miss Amphipolis & Destiny On Wednesday 30 July 2003 08:55, IfeRae@aol.com wrote: > << On Tuesday 29 July 2003 15:07, H.J.J. Hewitt wrote: > > >One > > >mystery why is young Callisto also played by the same actress with the > > > sky blue eyes - that is just so strange. I'm sure there are teen-age > > > actresses in NZ with brown eyes. > > Zillions of 'em. I think that was just a YAXI. > > > Heh. They'd used her before, so probably figured they'd get their money's > worth and could get away with that little detail. I can't believe > Xenastaff didn't notice the different eye colors. > > -- Ife They surely should have realised the fans would spot it? OK, so it was a Herc ep, maybe they figured no Xenafans would see it and Hercfans are less nitpicky ;) cr ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 19:43:38 +1200 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Miss Amphipolis & Destiny On Wednesday 30 July 2003 08:55, IfeRae@aol.com wrote: > Regarding Xena's comment in "Destiny" that "only the girl can save me," > > Cheryl and cr say: > > Xena however may be referring to M'Lilia since > > she tells Gabrielle to take her to Niklio the healer. She may also be > > talking about Callisto since she had vision of her at Cirra or even > > Gabrielle. Anyone have an opinion? > > IMO, the girl at the ambush, definitely. I think it just ended up as a > a loose end. >> > > I also think this reference was to M'Lila. While maybe there were other > intentions for that initially, I thought it made sense that a dazed Xena > might confuse the girl with M'Lila because of the medallion, that it would > send her memories back to the time when M'Lila saved her. Now that's good! The girl was wearing a M'Lila-like medallion, after all. I *like* that explanation, it offers a plausible reason for what was previously, not quite a YAXI, just an unexplained statement. > Cr sayeth: > > << Best thing about the ep - Xena and M'Lila. (That sounds as if I might be implying that the rest of the ep wasn't much good, btw. Not so! I think the whole ep is great, just that the Xena-M'Lila relationship was the best thing of all (IMO). > M'Lila's fierce loyalty and compassion gave Xena one model to follow, while > Caesar's self-centeredness and ruthlessness gave her another. I think > that's as much the choice Xena refers to when she tells M'Lila during near > death that, "I chose evil." We find out later that she continued to make > such a choice when Cyane, Lao Ma and Borias offered her a more positive > alternative. Herc seems to have been the first such person to get through > to her. Anyway, I think that's why it's so ironic that M'Lila's death > helped establish a pattern in Xena's choices to ignore so many > opportunities to change. > > -- Ife I found it very disconcerting that, with M'Lila's very positive influence on Xena, Xena ended up choosing the dark side. I guess, though, we can't blame M'Lila for that, if we blame anyone we have to blame Caesar, whose soldiers killed M'Lila. Of course, Herc had to have a major influence on Xena since she started out just as a supporting character in Herc's story. ;) cr ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 20:00:04 +1200 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] DVDs in general On Wednesday 30 July 2003 11:28, Cheryl Ande wrote: > I don't want to a ppear to be defending Xena DVDs or PD but I have to say > that I find the DVDs to be very eccentric. I have had X-Files DVD freeze > and had to clean off stray finger prints. One DVD I couldn't play at all > on my expensive Sony machine but it played fine on a cheaper one I have on > another TV. This weekend I lost the sound entirely on my Xena DVD only to > have it magically reappear after I started the DVD again. That was after I > tookupstairs to try it on the cheap DVD (worked fine) perhaps I embarrassed > the expensive one into working. > DVD's often seem to exhibit odd behaviour. I've found that one DVD I have (a Farscape one, not Xena) has an apparent 'glitch' in it - whenver my player gets to that point, it 'freezes' for a couple of seconds. It does this several times in the same scene, and it''s absolutely consistent (i.e. it doesn't get worse or better when played again). I'd put it down to a fault on the DVD. *However*, on my new cheap DVD player, that whole episode plays perfectly. It must be a logic thing. My Friend in Need DVD (Region 1 - NTSC), when I select 'PAL' output on the player, gets a sort of 'venetian-blind' effect for just one frame at a time on cuts between light and dark scenes. Mildly distracting but not too bad. It does it on both DVD players. Other Region 1 DVD's don't show this effect at all. Most odd, it must be something to do with the way the signal's encoded on the FIN DVD. I can't really call it a fault since the FIN DVD is marketed as Region 1. cr ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 08:19:21 -0400 (EDT) From: Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Xena DVD 2 On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 cande@sunlink.net wrote: > Just saw on MaryD's site ther will be commentary by Lucy and Renee on the > season 2 DVDs. Also I was on Best Buy site and on the small picture of the > box is says something about an excvlusive bonus DVD. Does anyone know > anything about that? Also Amazon price is now 52 and change with free > shipping. Best Buy is 59 and change with free shipping. What's especially odd is Best Buy still has the orig release date of 9/9, whereas Amazon says 9/2...hmmm. I didn't see anything on the box piccie, but tis hard to see...but I'm guessing they might do that like they did with Season 1, so even though Amazon is cheaper now I'd rather get it from Best Buy... I'm wondering if the Lucy and Renee commentary will be commentary tracks played with the episode(s) (like on most dvd's), an extra disc with interviews, like Anchor Bay did with Season 1 and the directors? Hmmm...and will it be for multiple episodes, and which? I can't wait!! :) I wish they'd done that for Season 1! (They got Kevin and Michael commentary for their recent Season 1 Herc dvd set...) Hmmm. -Sarah- ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 13:37:25 EDT From: IfeRae@aol.com Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Xena DVD 2 In a message dated 7/30/03 7:19:30 AM Central Daylight Time, abbagirl@cyberspace.org writes: << On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 cande@sunlink.net wrote: > Just saw on MaryD's site ther will be commentary by Lucy and Renee on the > season 2 DVDs. Also I was on Best Buy site and on the small picture of the > box is says something about an excvlusive bonus DVD. Does anyone know > anything about that? Also Amazon price is now 52 and change with free > shipping. Best Buy is 59 and change with free shipping. What's especially odd is Best Buy still has the orig release date of 9/9, whereas Amazon says 9/2...hmmm. I didn't see anything on the box piccie, but tis hard to see...but I'm guessing they might do that like they did with Season 1, so even though Amazon is cheaper now I'd rather get it from Best Buy... >> I didn't see anything about a bonus DVD on the Best Buy site either. Cheryl must have microscopic eyes -- or wishful thinking. - -- Ife ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 18:39:53 EDT From: IfeRae@aol.com Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Miss Amphipolis & Destiny In a message dated 7/30/03 3:09:26 AM Central Daylight Time, cr@orcon.net.nz writes: Ife wrote: > I also think this reference was to M'Lila. While maybe there were other > intentions for that initially, I thought it made sense that a dazed Xena > might confuse the girl with M'Lila because of the medallion, that it would > send her memories back to the time when M'Lila saved her. Now that's good! The girl was wearing a M'Lila-like medallion, after all. I *like* that explanation, it offers a plausible reason for what was previously, not quite a YAXI, just an unexplained statement. >> Glad that works for you. What threw me off initially was that Xena says "only the girl can save me" *before* we learn about M'Lila. It's kind of cool, because it's obvious Gabs is equally puzzled. When I saw the ep again, I focused more on what the girl was twisting in her hand, though it's not clear Xena saw the medallion before she sent the girl off. The way that scene is shot, it's almost like the girl is some reincarnation of M'Lila who knows who Xena is and even sounds like she's speaking in M'Lila's language. It's mysterious enough that I also think it supports the idea that they meant to do something else with that, which perhaps got changed after Lucy's accident and they had to leave Xena as a spirit. Whatever, I do believe it was definitely connected to M'Lila -- at the very least as a clue/connection to what was going on in Xena's brain-damaged head. > M'Lila's fierce loyalty and compassion gave Xena one model to follow, while > Caesar's self-centeredness and ruthlessness gave her another. I think > that's as much the choice Xena refers to when she tells M'Lila during near > death that, "I chose evil." We find out later that she continued to make > such a choice when Cyane, Lao Ma and Borias offered her a more positive > alternative. Herc seems to have been the first such person to get through > to her. Anyway, I think that's why it's so ironic that M'Lila's death > helped establish a pattern in Xena's choices to ignore so many > opportunities to change. > > -- Ife I found it very disconcerting that, with M'Lila's very positive influence on Xena, Xena ended up choosing the dark side. I guess, though, we can't blame M'Lila for that, if we blame anyone we have to blame Caesar, whose soldiers killed M'Lila. >> I have to disagree. I think it's clear (at least to reformed Xena) that she *chose* to pass up what seems to be her first chance at going in a different direction. M'Lila essentially gave her another chance at life. Xena's response (i.e., going on a world rampage) was way out of proportion to simply taking revenge on M'Lila's killers and the man who betrayed her. She used it as a license to take out on everyone else what had happened to her. Yes, Xena was young and still fairly inexperienced and naive, so I give her more slack than she gives herself. But Caesar cannot be blamed for the ambition that led Xena to fall for him or the arrogance that led her to believe that this even more ambitious and arrogant patrician would want to partner up with a cocky peasnt girl. She sought to use Caesar, just as she did Borias, Akemi, Alti, and eventually Lao Ma. If they sought to take advantage of her in turn, it was because of what was already inside her, which is why I think she took (rightfully in my mind) responsibility for acts that she did not solely cause. << Of course, Herc had to have a major influence on Xena since she started out just as a supporting character in Herc's story. ;) >> His was the one opportunity to change (in a long line of them) that Xena finally chose to accept. To me, the series tried to give backstory for Xena's development, but never to absolve her of a series of choices no one forced her to make. We see that she gleefully, whole-heartedly pounced on or pursued whatever she desired, often at others' expense. Lots of other folks had their villages attacked and maybe organized their kin to defend themselves. Something in Xena's nature weakened her to her destructive desires, yet was also her greatest strength in committing to her positive desires. This is why I argue so strongly against "poor Xena," in terms of blaming others for situations she was involved in. The credit we give her as a hero is the other side of the tremendous intellect, will, hard work, fearlessness, and *self*-confidence that made her such a formidable baddy. The situations, her priorities changed, but everything she needed and used to fight with is also what she needed to fight against -- herself. When we ignore that, we diminish the internal war she fought that made her such an intriguing *human* hero, as well as her achievement in being (for the most part) victorious. - -- Ife ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 22:38:35 EDT From: Xwpacolyte@aol.com Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Re: FIN In a message dated 7/29/03 11:20:38 PM Central Daylight Time, IfeRae@aol.com writes: << Akemi now has mor reason to fear Xena might abort the mission if she knows she has to stay dead, but Akemi also wants to keep Gabrielle from being hurt. >> Or maybe Akemi just wanted to keep Gabby alive so she could have Xena all to herself on the other side. XWPacolyte Cupid and Psyche... Antony and Cleopatra... Xena and Gabrielle. ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V3 #215 **************************************