From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V8 #47 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 Saturday, October 17 2009 Volume 08 : Number 047 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] India and Herc and Endgame and Ides [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:42:30 +1300 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] India and Herc and Endgame and Ides Season 4, to me, is a season with a rocking double-ep to start and finish (Sin Trades and Endgame/Ides) and flat in the middle. The India episodes don't do anything for me, I'd just as soon the writers had avoided them. What arose from them was Eli (possibly the most annoying character in the course of the show, though of course he had some tough competition:), Gabrielle's pacifism (which made her a rival in the most-annoying-character stakes until she mercifully changed in Ides), and Xena actually praying to a god which was something I never wanted to see. It didn't do her any good though, the Hare Krishnas made sure of that, so she might as well have whacked the lot of them. Though I did kinda like Hanuman, he had a degree of dignity. The only bit of India I really liked was the fight at the end of Between the Lines, when Alti wiped the floor with Xena and Gabs till Naiyima rescued them, that was really gritty. And Xena's 'energy chakrams' looked way cool. Herc, meanwhile, was having his best season. Started with Faith and Descent (with Gina Torres as Nebula), taking over the Dahak theme from Xena. Oh, and killing Iolaus. One of the occupational hazards of sidekicks, getting killed regularly. Continued with the Irish eps Resurrection and Render Unto Caesar, which introduced Morrigan (Tamara Gorski) as Herc's new love interest (Nebula was Iolaus's girlfriend, not Herc's). A couple of quite good Norse episodes with Thor, Baldur and Odin, then another Dahak trilogy, with Nebula and Morrigan, Darkness Rising, Let There Be Light and Redemption, in the first of which Nebula was driven nearly mad by the ghost of Iolaus/Dahak - excellent role for Gina Torres. In between those was the clip show done as only Renpics could do them, 'For Those of You Just Joining Us' which Renee fans will recognise for her part as the Camp Wannachuck activities director. And Hudson smouldering away as Liz Friedman. Stranger and Stranger revisited the alternate world of 'Stranger in a Strange World', it was written to feature Lucy but Gina Torres was substituted at the last minute instead. It was also noteworthy for Ares killing Herc's evil alter ego the Sovereign (I never thought he'd manage to do that!) We'll Always Have Cyprus was mainly about the guest star, Simone Kessell, always a strong character, and her search for revenge after she was murdered; a romance between Herc and Morrigan took second place. (Simone Kessell appeared in many Herc eps, but is only known to Xena fans as Miss Messini). Once Upon a Future King was another one-off ep, also with Morrigan in it, a surprisingly good re-telling of the King Arthur legends (Arthur started out in this ep as an evil warlord, and ended up, as we all know, a Good Person). Credit to Neill Rea who played Arthur with enough strength of character (and a little deprecating sardonic humour) that we could see the potential even when he was being evil. (The observant may note that I tend to rate Herc episodes mainly by how good the female guest star of the week was. Okay, I'll plead guilty to that, remember Xena started off as a guest star on Herc, after all :) Meanwhile, on Xena, not a lot was going on. I do have a liking for Takes One to Know One, that has some nice comedic lines in it and it makes fun of all the usual suspects. My favourite exchange is between Discord and Minya - "I don't do animals" "That's not what I heard". Endgame. Started off well - Ephiny was always a strong character. Then they killed her. Well, I was sad to see her go (though apparently Danielle Cormack had other commitments so Ephiny would have faded out of the scene anyway) but I wasn't outraged as some fans were, Ephiny was a fighting Amazon so getting killed was an occupational risk. Of course this left ultra-pacifist Gabrielle (owner of the most absurd weapon in history, her powder-puff from The Convert) in charge of an ultra-warlike Amazon tribe. Part of the reason I took an instant liking to Amarice is that she voiced all the doubts I had about this situation. But then, Amarice was not about to be obsequious to anyone, not even Xena. (Xena: All right, we need to build a defense for this village. Amarice: Whatbs left of it.) Amarice did have some excellent lines, though 'In my tribe...' was not among them. Fortunately, Gabrielle was prepared to let Xena act as tactitian, for which I have to give her credit. Brutus was in no doubt about who was really in charge (Xena to Amarice: Gabrielle has pardoned you. Letbs go. Brutus: Xena doesnbt give many second chances, little girl. And, later, when Gabrielle proposes a peace treaty: You surprise me. I accept. Contingent on Caesarbs approval, of course. And Xena. On watching for the first few times, I couldn't grasp the strategy of having Brutus' army hit Pompey from the side, rather than trapping the Amazons between the two armies, but now I can. It was obviously preferable for Brutus (who had no quarrel with the Amazons) to take out Pompey while Pompey was busy fighting the Amazons. I did appreciate Pompey's ingenious argument to Xena, that he and Caesar blanced each other out, but I liked Xena's final reply after whacking him even better - "It isn't about balance any more". In other words, Xena just declared total war - on Caesar. Ides - a very promising start, with Callisto (a very different-looking Callisto) in Hell. Quite why dead Greek gods should end up in the Christian Hell was never explained, I didn't really care for that, but it set up a great episode. Callisto was a delight to watch as always. Some of her speeches of exposition would have been as dull as the tax regulations, but for Hudson's marvellous delivery. Just as we thought Gabrielle's pacifism was beginning to develop a few useful cracks (she saved Amarice in the first fight, by lassoing a villain's ankles and dropping him in the harbour, where he presumably obliged Gabs' pacifist conscience by managing not to drown), she ran across Eli and relapsed. Leaving Amarice once again to act as the voice of scepticism. Amarice was, in fact, a pretty handy character to have around. In the final fight, if you carefully count dead Romans, you end up with a ranking of Xena 1, Amarice 2, Gabinator 3. And while I regard Gabs' sudden deviation from the path of 'doing nothing' as a welcome development, she did suddenly sieze up halfway through the job. I couldn't help noticing that, when Xena promised to exchange information with Brutus, her comment about Caesar talking to assassins in Gaul was a complete fabrication, designed to set Brutus up. While it was taking advantage of the honourable Brutus, it was exactly the sort of thing Caesar would do, so I'll excuse it. The question lurking right through the episode was, of course, would Xena's vision come true. I was inclined to believe it would be avoided, but I was wrong. Should have known Rob's love for a cool image would prevail... 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: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:56:38 +1300 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Crusader Hi Cheryl Great to hear from you! I think Najara was certainly written to be cunning enough in the way she manipulated Xena and Gabrielle; just that, for me, Kathryn Morris didn't look capable of beating up Xena. I think a different casting might have worked better. cr On Tuesday 13 October 2009 16:36:08 Cheryl Ande wrote: > I agree with cr that Kathryn Morris didn't impress me as fighter and I > found it hard to believe that she could beat up Xena but what I did like > about her performance was her ability to push Xena's buttons. Najara was > able to play on everyone's insecurities - for Gabrielle she was Xena > without the darkness and for Xena she offered a way to avoid Xena's > greatest fear that she would be the cause of Gabrielle's death. I also > thought the psychology was pretty good - delusional people function really > well until the delusion is exposed then they lose control of reality. That > is what happens to Najara when Xena exposes her to Gabrielle as a murderer. > She can't bear the reality that she is not the hero she sees herself as so > she resorts to violence not to defend the innocent but simply to get what > she wants - Gabrielle. I did like the episode although I do think Gabby > should have known by now to be of strangers who spout platitudes about love > and peace and carry big swords. > CherylA ========================================================= 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 V8 #47 *************************************